Folks from the Red Sea zone of Eritrea are known for their great sense of humor.

This was evident when two middle-aged men, walking down a narrow alley in Massawa , stumbled upon a street brawl that just started between two kids. One of the men wanted to break the fight and asked his friend to help. His friend, though, was a bit reluctant.

�mi hazeka-tom� he said � imbal wilad sharamit gabo�o.� (leave them alone, they are probably the prostitutes� children)

�Well�, said the man who wanted to break the fight, adding, � If they are indeed wilad sharamit, as you say, they might very well be our children.�

�I guess you are right,� concurred the reluctant friend, tapping his forehead with his palm, and off they ran to break the fight.

This is not to ridicule or make a mockery of the misery of disadvantaged women, who had to sell their bodies just to stay alive. It is, however, to stress the point that no matter how detached we seem to be from the sad events that are going on in Eritrea, it is indeed our problem, and it is our moral obligation to help resolve it.

If one looks a bit deeper, there is definitely a little sad story behind every case of prostitution. Injustices of society, rapes of young women, abuse, torture, you name it.  But cases of prostitution are social ills that a nation can easily cure itself off, by creating social, economic & political institutions that cater to the welfare & well being of the people. Unfortunately, in the little miserable world of the PFDJ, it is forbidden to even dream about such institutions, let alone to demand for them.

We all remember how Isaias Afwerki went berserk, when an eloquent and a very intelligent young Eritrean lady hit a nerve by challenging him to address these very same social ills; he spilled all his beans. He showed his true nature, his utter contempt and hate of Eritrean Muslims in general & Eritrean Jeberties in particular.

Isaias Afwerki�s PFDJ regime did absolutely nothing to rid Eritrea of those social ills, and, if anything, it exacerbated the situation by incubating & producing a new breed of prostitutes, albeit of different sorts; political prostitutes of the highest calibre, to be exact. Whoever came up with the term �Political Prostitution�, definitely had in mind the likes of PFDJ thugs that are terrorizing & victimizing Eritrea at will.

ALAMIN MOHAMMED SAID

Consider Alamin Mohammed Said, for example, and his latest vulgar outbursts at a public meeting in Saudi Arabia. Here is a piece of nothing, and I mean virtually a piece of nothing, telling a gathering of well wishing citizens, not a hostile mob, not an unruly audience not even a dissenting group � just ordinary folks assembled to hear and be heard at a meeting with a �so called� leader � telling them that they have no place in Eritrea, as though the country belongs to his PFDJ thugs.

Can you imagine, a low life by profession, Alamin Mohammed Said, is telling a gathering of Eritrean citizens, that they did not bring up their children the way they should have, that they made the wrong curriculum choices for their education, that they taught them in Arabic, and thus they are misfits & they don�t belong with the rest of the Eritrean Society. In this day & age, no one can make such an abhorrent claim, not even if the whole nation belonged to his grandmother. And yet here is a thug spitting on the faces of un-armed ordinary folks, and challenging them to wipe it off if they dared. Conformity with PFDJ�s despicable culture of hate, ignorance & submission is the only yardstick by which Alamin Mohammed Said measures who qualifies to live in Eritrea.

This erratic and demeaning behavior is the common characteristic of all PFDJ thugs, and it doesn�t come as a shock or surprise to any body who has followed their actions over the years. The immoral outbursts by individual PFDJ thugs is nothing but an appeasement process by which they re-affirm their allegiance to Isaias Afwerki, a process they have to do every now and then in order not to be disposed off.

So it is important that we see this behavior in its broader context of a cynical agenda by Isaias Afwerki, his life long dream of riding in the backs of his ethnic Tigrigna supporters, to subjugate, expropriate & ostracize the vast majority of the Eritrean people, and rule a nation of zombies for as long as he can live.

The likes of Alamin Mohammed Said and the rest of the PFDJ thugs are simply the disposable tools used by Isaias Afwerki to send his messages across and to implement his cynical agenda. They cannot be credited or discredited for the policies of the regime, simply because they have no say in formulating it. This, however, does not exonerate them from the crimes they have committed against the Eritrean people, for being accessories & executors of Isaias Afwerki�s rule of terror, for being the foul mouth through which Isaias Afwerki speaks, for being the tools through which he tortures & dehumanizes people, for being political prostitutes who would sell their souls without any shame.

Political prostitution may be a very old phenomenon, perhaps even as old as the oldest profession itself. In its simplest form it involves the forsaking of high moral grounds, values & acceptable standards of ethics for material gains. The only thing bewildering about PFDJ�s political prostitutes, though, is how little they are gaining to sell their souls.

Four Traits of A Political Prostitute

In PFDJ�s little miserable world you need certain qualities in order to be able to serve as a political prostitute. It is not an easy job, and it is not for every one.

First & foremost you have to be  vulgar � master the art of offending and bad mouthing people. After all, your boss is the most vulgar person by all accounts, and who else are you to emulate but him.

Second, you have to be obedient � a slave of the system, follow the un-written rules, don�t ask any questions, and don�t give any speeches (vulgar speeches, that is) unless you are instructed to do so.

Third, you have to be a drunkard. You see, moments of truth could hit anyone; dictators refer to them as moments of weakness. One thing Isaias Afwerki dreads most is for you to have conscience shocks, where you start to question the misery, which your people are being subjected to. If you are an absolute hopeless drunkard, you couldn�t care less about wetting your pants, let alone worrying about the well being of your people.

And fourth, your conscience has to be DEAD. You should be able to disavow & double-cross any body that the regime wants you to. It doesn�t matter if they were your trench colleagues, people you share battlefield memories with, it doesn�t matter if they were handicapped war vets on wheelchairs, it doesn�t matter if they were grandmothers on canes, you should have a dead conscience and be able to tell them all with unwavering impunity to �go to hell�.

With qualities like these, and stripped of your soul, your human values & intellect, you would definitely qualify as PFDJ�s political prostitute of the highest calibre. Isaias Afwerki & his innermost circle would refer to you as a �bekli�  (tigrigna for a mule) .

The Mule

A crossbreed between a donkey and a horse, with a brain size slightly bigger than that of a donkey & a muscle power equal to a quarter of a horse�s, the  �bekli� is an uncharacteristically obedient animal. It may be abhorrent & morally repugnant to refer to human beings as though they are animals, but in PFDJ�s world such sentiments have no place. There are no moral boundaries, period. But who is to blame though?

Let us look at these few scenarios �

�       You call yourself a government official, a high ranking party member, perhaps even a party chief & yet you are reduced to using profane  & filthy language in a public forum, just to appease your dictator boss, would you be offended then, if they refer to you as a �bekli�?

�       You call yourself an administrator of a region, somebody who calls the shots, claims the credit and takes the blame, yet you know it is a farce; every time you look in the mirror you say �what a loser!� � you can�t even inquire on the whereabouts of your wife, your friend or your relative which the PFDJ kidnapped. Would you be offended then if they call you a �bekli�?

 �       You call yourself a top cop; someone commissioned to duty by the need for public security � someone responsible for law & order.  But every night before you go to bed you realize that PFDJ thugs are prowling the neighborhoods, jumping over walls and fences, terrorizing, raping, torturing,  & kidnapping helpless citizens under your nose and you know that there isn�t a hoot you can do about it. You know that Isaias Afwerki has his own security apparatus and that you are just a sham. You have to look the other way & you have to keep your mouth shut, in return; you get to keep your post, ironically for not doing your job. You get to kiss your kids goodnight, when a lot of other kids are traumatized for life after seeing their fathers and their brothers brutally dragged away by PFDJ thugs in the middle of the night. When you know this is a shameful trade-off and you do nothing about it, would you be offended then, if they call you a �bekli�?

 �       You call yourself as someone in charge of Justice � a burden that can break any living soul if it is not delivered. Your dictator boss makes a fool of you by taunting the entire nation, that Justice is one of his delusional mockeries, and that he will deliver it at his leisure � �ab kah zbelena� (that is a tigrigna for �when hell freezes over.�). Will you be offended then, if they call you a �bekli�? 

�       You call yourself the country�s representative to the world body, but you know all too well that nothing you do or say comes from your heart. Your parents gave you one of the most revered names in Islam, & yet to the horror of the majority of your countrymen, you told the whole world that all those asking for basic human rights in your country are Islamic terrorists. It is no secret that your dictator boss & his innermost circle shove words in your mouth, but for the mercy of god, you live halfway across the world & if you tell the truth like your predecessors told it, no one is going to bite you. If you are so hell bent on serving a despicable despot with all your heart, to the detriment of your people, would you be offended then, if they call you a �bekli�?

It Doesn�t Have To Be This Way

PFDJ thugs used the euphoria of independence as a carte blanche to destroy the country piece by piece. Just look at us, we don�t even have the most basic form of security � the sanctity of our home. PFDJ thugs could break in any time they want, brutalize & terrorize anybody they want.

Democracy, justice, rule of law, accountability � they all seem to be distant dreams.

But it doesn�t have to be this way, not if we don�t want it to. That we are a trusting people, & it is in our nature to give the benefit of the doubt, should not be taken for granted.

We should continue to boycott their meetings, functions or fundraisers � they have nothing new to offer. We should always confront them and never let them talk down to us. We should encourage our people to assert their rights even if this means defying & disobeying the regime. This will lead to organized civil disobedience and eventual popular uprising.

We have seen our neighbors turn the tables on their quasi-democratic governments, for the most basic of things � even if it had to do with the increase in the price of a bread by as little as a nickel.  We, in turn, have been subjected to the most atrocious abuses that nobody can endure, and yet all we do is accept it as fate, & just hope that someday it will go away.  There is nothing more degrading by anybody�s account, than when your child comes to you crying & wailing that she had been raped, and you do nothing about it except sit down & cry.

It is true that there are some people among us who through decades of colonialism & subjugation had been programmed into believing that they are naturally born to be subservient. If we want to dismantle the PFDJ regime, bring democracy to Eritrea, and warn any future regimes from taking the course of the PFDJ, then it is our duty to help these people assert their basic human rights. It is our duty to convince them that our collective well being depends on our strength as �one people� ready to rise against any regime that disrespects us in whole or in part.

If when an Afar is complaining & we don�t lend an ear, if when a Jeberti is sad and we don�t share his grief, if when a Kunama is aching and we don�t feel his pain, if when a Muslim feels robbed and we don�t feel his loss, if when a Christian feels used and we don�t feel his predicament � then as a people, we are doomed.

We may think that warlordism is all too foreign to our culture and that somehow we are immune to its bloody effects, but sadly enough, it may very well be our destiny. The choice is ours.

Wa-allah-ul Muafik