A Zoo with many exotic and not-very exotic animals. A Dove is in one corner and an Eagle on the other. No Bats and no other Birds; let�s look the other part of the Zoo.

Imagine your rich grandfather dies. A lawyer is reading the will; it is a will and a legacy from which you discover you are left out! Imagine your girl or boy friend writing you a letter. You open it and� surprise; it reads:� I am breaking up with you�. A letter makes and breaks? Poor chaps are weeping. A letter� life is a Banana-Peel if not a sick Cat!

Throw Seashells instead; and read the formation; you might get an idea about the future. Or else, eat five pounds of Peanuts and sleep like Rip Van Winkle. You might miss all the actions in life, but hey, it is better than living with a seizure and an imminent heart attack called G13. Well, first they were considered a heart attack or attacks, and then they christened them G13. Not only did they choose the unlucky number, 13; it is possible that met on the 13^th floor of a building on street number 13. As if that was not enough, they also committed a crime! They wrote a letter. A letter to President I-S-A-I-A-S. Write a letter to the president! How dare you? A cardinal sin, big trouble--they are all going to hell. Some people are carrying wood to make the fires in hell even hotter. Hey, it is worse than microwave, save it; your wood is of no use. It cannot get any hotter.

Fine, respectful and brave people. And not fine, not brave people acting like a kid who just lost his toy. Screaming and shouting passionately. Their pride was hurt�oh my God, a letter to the President? To the government� the beloved government. Crape; this was before the neighbors� dog lost its puppies. Now, floodlight, it seems many people have the same views about the GoE� we are nearing consensus. At least we agree that we have abducted people waiting for lady-luck to come wrapped with justice. We have children who grew up in fighting in grave-like trenches and mothers waiting � depressing, depressing indeed. The cause of such depression should be identified and the G13 endorsed the old diagnosis. Now the medicine�the President says we have 3.5 million parties; I say we have 3.5 million Eritreans sick to their stomach. They have been suffocating in the claustrophobic regiments that our people have found themselves in.

But wait a minute, how would one live in peace when the Clan-culture is dominating? A letter makes them blow up that many whistles. Don�t they get it? Soon we might have Multi-party democracy and we need to learn how to tolerate dissent, otherwise, we will have a Multi-party system with no parties--imagine a party without partygoers! Then, Multi-Party Democracy, Press Freedom and other disturbing terminology of governance and freedoms! The Crowd? It is scary, if they had guns they would ignite a civil war�violent crowd, violent indeed!

During the last Thirty months, Eritrean, especially those in North America, those who live under a blessed democracy, sent thousands of letters to President Clinton and many other dignitaries. They even sent a petition to a chief of an Indian reservation to intervene on behalf of Eritrea. Now, scores of �patriots� are mad because one letter, one single letter was sent to their own president! Clan culture. They are acting as a tribe whose chief passed away!

Then you have other Eritreans, those who live �on welfare� and those who toil to sleep to wake up and toil again. They cried, and their tears dried up in the process. They were �traitors�, they were �weyane�; now those insults lost the glamour and no creative insult was created to replace them. In the middle of it all I caught a brilliant expression on TV: if you were selling water in the desert and suddenly it rained, you have to live with it. Your product will lose its appeal. Everyone has his own water�God, bless us with more rain! And it is raining in almost all Eritrean forums to the extent that one feels like retiring. It is raining in the Internet; it is raining in the Intercoffeshop and it is raining in the Inter-HushuKshuK. Reconciliation is the way out-- just embrace the idea and see for yourself�how reconciling!

Did I tell you�wait a second, I don�t need to tell you because I am sure you know how some people are going haywire because of the letter that was sent to President Isaias. Many fuses are blowing in the Diaspora; many are crying ey, ey ,ey, ey. Left out of grandpa�s will? Did someone bury their rich grandfather, and the only thing they inherited is his old limping dog? Not really!

As usual, they are discussing how to defame and destroy the credibility of the authors, the G13, because they can not refute what come in the letter. In fact, the issues discussed in the letter are not new .. they are recycled. They have been discussed for a long time when people were fond of stuffing cotton in their ears. Surprised? Not really, not many people at least. Then, what makes the G13 letter that worthy? It is the prominent authors and their endorsement. They are long time supporters of the EPLF and respected people among their communities. They have been very close with the powerhouse in Asmara. When they speak out in such a language, people should understand that the situation back home is not as rosy as some would like to portray it.

Personally, I respect the authors and admire them for coming up with such a courageous and responsible letter. I believe they chose to bring their concern in the open to advance the cause of Eritrea at the expense of partisan benefits. For that, they must be admired and encouraged. I know some of them closely. Among them, is my friend Dawit who is being accused by some zealots as the being the dynamo behind the letter. Few even went to the extent of suggesting that Dawit dictated his view on all the other 12. Now, Dawit is a dynamo and it is no secret but it is an insult to the 12 people.

Dawit is an intelligent person. In my opinion, he probably has higher IQ than the IQs of all those who insulted him combined. He is civil and loves his country in the true sense. He is brave and a principled man. Yet, he is the youngest among the 12. Even with all those qualities, who in his right mind would be convinced that Dawit would hoodwink all the prominent Academics and professionals. You see, the 12 combined have a total of about 600 years of life experience. A dozen or so Ph.D. and tens of other achievements and years of long struggle. They have contributed to the EPLF immensely and Eritrea is grateful for what they did. Now, someone who is only good at protecting individuals and parties at the expense of a country does not deserve respect. And

How could one think that it was Dawit who thought for them? Easy, it is the culture of thinking by proxy�if one depends on others to think for him, he will certainly think that everybody else thinks by proxy� no independent mental exercise of his own. In a mob culture, one thinks and the rest reacts. In the world of the free, all thoughts are formulated in the individual�s brain, no proxy! Happy proxy decade for you� only in the decade is flipped

Again, there is the poet. How would a poet who is supposed to be the voice of consciousness be silent when he has to do what he has to do? That would be betraying his artistic being�and that is not possible for a popular poet. Then you have big and bigger persons� if they kept silent indefinitely, the credentials they carry would not be worth the papers on which they are printed. But no, they did what they had to do.

Look at how the Monarchists cling to the dead-era of Janhoi and you will have an idea how some are acting as a clan that lost its dominance! What is this noise all about? Don�t we agree that the President is a public property and that the Presidency is a public domain? Who has the right to address the president and who has no right? Who decides the tone and content of any letter to anyone? Again, someone commented that the G13 betrayed a favorite Eritrean bounce-list discussion forum, �they should have discussed the issues in the list�, he claimed. Haven�t we seen how mature we are when discussing behind screens in different Eritrean forums? In fact, awate.com is having a second thought about opening the discussion forum for fear of coward Internet-thugs whose favorite wise words are four-letter words. Haven�t we witnessed how tolerant we are? I say, Bravo to those who wrote the letter. If it was me who authored the letter, I would have added a paragraph: Dear Mr. President, in light of the above, please step down. The natural conclusion. Let us see now all hell break loose. And if someone wants to collect wood to make it hotter, go ahead!

If the President goes on air to tell us that we have three million parties, what is the problem with 13 individuals, I mean 13 parties, writing him a letter? Aren�t they 13 parties according to the President? Can�t they have a coalition that lasts until the letter is written? I believe that their intention was to pinpoint the weaknesses as they saw it. No one can deny them that right. You see, someone wrote: �wey goooood, nab president? Could someone post the letter please?� There�an emotional response without even reading the letter! But think of: it is good that this is year 2000. Imagine if they wrote the letter in 1998 or 1999? Do you think the letter surprises me... or do I consider it strong? No. I think it is more of a love-letter as far as I am concerned.

Silly actions and sillier campaigns. Many are angry because they were not invited. Haven�t you seen some people who stop talking to someone because they were not included in his or her invitation list? It is not �baAale mariam� for God�s sake. People meet and they meet with persons of their choice and in places of their choice and for purposes of their choice. They are not answerable to any one but only their consciousness!

To the G13, I would say this: many are happy with your actions and respectfully support what you have done. Don�t worry of the few loud noises; they seem many because they are only echoing each other�s voices and they can do that extremely well� they are noisy. They have lost credibility when they clearly displayed double and many times triple standards. Keep on caring for Eritrea and your people, the voiceless people and not the noisy, will be proud of you. Shake and wake up the dead conscience that have been sleeping for long now. Now I have to go back to the cage--look now, we began with Doves and Eagles and we ended up with Bats and many other Birds in the same cage!