The Eritrean people have witnessed and experienced so much wrong doing that any wrong-doing is becoming "business as usual." The people who spoke with a voice of moral righteousness are not here anymore. As people we seem to be losing our moral anchorage. We've surrendered the power of moral judgment and have blindly and unconsciously embraced indiscriminate intolerance and indiscriminate condemnation. But, as people, our identity rests solely on what we extol and on what we condemn. We cannot be morally neutral and we cannot afford to be reluctant spectators of one wrong doing after another. Where is our moral indignation? 

Today marks the 533^rd days since some of Eritrea's most prominent war-of-independence heroes were thrown in jail and held incommunicado without any due process of law or its remotest semblance. The regime displayed utter disregard to international legal and ethical norms and made a mockery of the very values it once pretended to promote. Although, I was never particularly enamored with "higdef", the event of September 18 has heightened my moral indignation. I could not fathom, till this day, why the land of the brave "tegadalay" has become the backwater of moral decadence and absolute tyranny. I thought that our moral fiber, the composition of our ethics and aspirations were made by the blood of our patriots. I truly believed that the blood of our fallen heroes has fertilized the fields of freedom in Eritrea and that the futility of tyranny was self-evident. We have paid dearly to achieve our independence and let's not put a price tag on our freedom. The only and true way of ennobling the sacrifices of our martyrs is not by building national parks but by living their dreams of freedom and enjoying the benefits of liberty. Because of the sacrifices that were made, Eritreans are entitled to enjoy the virtues of freedom and democracy. To safeguard our bitter sweet freedom, however, we need courage and constant vigilance and that is why I ask, "Where is our indignation?"    

September 18 and the subsequent arrest of the journalists, elders and many countless others, has completely changed my views on Eritrea and the Eritrean people at home and in the diasporas.  I thought the event would evoke our peoples' moral outrage, but to my surprise, it is even celebrated in some corners. We've sunk in so low that we could not even distinguish between right and wrong anymore. The politics of divisiveness waged by mediocre politicians has desensitized our people to their own suffering. In this gloom and doom of present-day Eritrea, justice, fairness and basic human decency have become the first casualties of this vicious war.  

The Isaias regime, unlike its predecessors, has penetrated the hearts and soul of the Eritrean people. The doors to the homes of Eritrean families were off limits to the outsiders and because of that, the foundation of our Eritrean society remained intact. Eritrea was a land of great family values. Women in their unsurpassing modesty were the bastions of morality. Kids grew up learning to appreciate time-honored traditions of respecting elders, parents, authorities and above all fearing and loving God.  The regime is attacking Eritrea's most cherished resource: family values. The regime has, de facto, declared war on the family. A tree is known by the fruit it bears and it is no coincidence that prostitution, divorce, rape, promiscuity, alcoholism, gambling and the number of children out of wedlock has dramatically increased since "higdef" has embarked on this self-destructive road of reign of terror. Without a strong family, there would not be a vibrant and thriving society. There is a direct correlation between the health of a family and the health of society. What is good for the family is good for society. If you want to destroy a society, you attack the family and if you want to advance the interests of a society, you promote the interests of the family. It is this realization that prompted our learned elders to insert in the Preamble of the 1997 Constitution "the love of the family."  

The Eritrean people must claim back their moral rudder by claiming back their families. Let fathers be fathers who would rather die than send their daughters to rape camps, and let mothers be mothers who would defy anything to know the whereabouts of their loved ones. Let villages be villages, which would rise up against injustices with the first sound of "negarit." It is time that each and every one of us looks deep down and discovers what is really important to us as people. We have a choice and with choice comes responsibility. We cannot idly watch when our ship is sinking. 

 For starters, let us make our homes off limits to "higdef". The strategy has served us well in the past and "if it isn't broke, don't fix it," now.