Eritrea: Summer 2007 Part IV
Eremias Woldemikael
November 08, 2007
A personal account of a Trip to Eritrea
Summer 2007
Note: Last week, I had said that I was going to write an Epilogue. I will have the Epilogue soon. For now, here is the conclusion in Part IV. You can read the rest of my previous articles by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page.
3. Conclusion
The ministry of Information’s website (Shabait.com), PFDJ’s website (Shaebia.com), and Sophia Tesfamariam would like you to believe that the country is just doing fine. Luckily, I went and saw it for myself. If I have to summarize my trip to Eritrea, unlike Sophia Tesfamariam and other supporters of the regime who equate the Forced Workers of Eritrean national service program with the well-paid and all-volunteer US Army Corps of Engineers; I can hardly say anything good about the country. That may be because I remembered and lived the good times in Eritrea and have interacted with ordinary people that are living in it during the bad times.
I am told that Ms. Tesfamariam is an “Amche” [a Tigrinya slang for an Eritrean that grew up in non-Tigrinya speaking parts of Ethiopia] and has never lived inside Eritrea. Unlike her, I can compare and contrast how life was and is now in Eritrea, although it is not hard to recognize bad things when one sees them. Perhaps the way she was received and treated by government agents and the way she traveled clouded her vision and her mind. Perhaps the vendetta and resentment she developed after the way she was apparently kicked out of Ethiopia made her to be a blind supporter of Isaias Afewerki and Shaebia so as to not give a satisfaction to Meles Zenawi-led TPLF/EPRDF in Ethiopia.
Whatever the reason might be, it is clear that she has never given accurate description of the political, social, and economic conditions in Eritrea. Again, what is most telling about Sophia and other supporters of the regime in the Diaspora is that when she was kicked out of Ethiopia, she did not choose to live in Eritrea. If they ever do choose to live in Eritrea, they make sure that they first secure a foreign residency or Citizenship for themselves and their children in Western countries.
Such people lack consistency and honesty in their arguments not to mention a Moral compass. They are willing to condemn, ask, and promote others to what they are not willing to let themselves or their children endure. They wish and impose upon others the misery of Eritrea. Whatever happened to the great moral concept of the Golden Rule, Wish upon others as you would want them to wish upon you? I do not expect anyone to endure the misery of Eritrea, and I expect other to have the moral and argumental consistency not to ask other to endure it, too. I do not wish the misery of Eritrea on anyone, and I certainly am not willing to let myself or my children endure it.
Moreover, unlike the blind supporters of the regime, I did not go to Eritrea as a guest of the government to observe its mini-dam projects or road projects that are being built with slave labor. There are beautiful subways in Moscow, too, but everyone abhors the way Stalin built them. I did not travel by Toyota Land cruisers with government officials; I rode the old Fiat buses ordinary people ride. I did not interact with those who are designing the good-sounding bankrupt policies of “self-reliance” and National Service Programs. Instead, I interacted with the ordinary families who had to shop for 5 loaves of bread at 3:00 A.M. in the morning because the rations of those programs were not enough to feed their members. I was also interacting with those young men who are on the receiving- end of the national service programs.
In general, I was not an honored guest of the fattened officials who do not seem to be bothered by the suffering of the people due to their cruel policies; I was interacting with the poor enslaved youth and families that were on the receiving end of the cruelties. I did not spend my time with those who asked others to endure hardships; I was with those who were enduring them.
Eritrea has become a cruel, stagnant, terrorizing, and suffocating country for its own citizens. It is so bad that they are starting to question why it was created in the first place. Was it worth paying with more than 65,000 young men and women to bring it and with 20,000 young men and women to “defend it”? That is the question people are asking. Reading and experiencing the above stories, it is logical to ask such questions, because the Eritrean people did not have to pay for such a life dearly. It was being provided to them by the Derg regime for free. Life may have been even better under the Derg. The way the country is going, it is headed to an internal implosion. No one has to push or explode the country from the outside; it simply is going to collapse from an implosion from within. The older people and the youth of the country are at their most dispirited and demoralized state.
The saddest part is the regime seems to be begging to be bombed from outside. Instead of aligning its interest with the interests of the big powers of the world such as the USA, the narcissist and rottenly arrogant Isaias seems delusional about his powers in thinking that he is strong enough to exchange insults and pick fights with them. As my high school friend [now teacher] summarized the feeling of the Eritrean people, I am sick of him, too. In fact, I am ashamed of him, and ashamed to have him as an Eritrean, even more as the leader of it.
I had seen some members of the terrorist-linked Somali movement gathered in the lobby of Hamassen or Imperial hotel one day in Asmara. If Isaias’ misadventure with such groups turns out to be his demise, I say may it be hastened. However, as the people in Asmara say Aylekmena de’a, Yikdenena, meaning [may he not take us down with him, God shield us], I, too share those sentiments of anxiety and uncertainty for my people.
May the people of Eritrea be saved and their oppressors wiped.
P.S: I do not know why many Eritrean Organizations have Arabic- sounding names such as Shaebia, Shabait, Jebha, etc. Perhaps, it has something to do with the way the Eritrean quest for independence started.
Please visit my articles page.
Summer 2007
Note: Last week, I had said that I was going to write an Epilogue. I will have the Epilogue soon. For now, here is the conclusion in Part IV. You can read the rest of my previous articles by clicking on the link at the bottom of this page.
3. Conclusion
The ministry of Information’s website (Shabait.com), PFDJ’s website (Shaebia.com), and Sophia Tesfamariam would like you to believe that the country is just doing fine. Luckily, I went and saw it for myself. If I have to summarize my trip to Eritrea, unlike Sophia Tesfamariam and other supporters of the regime who equate the Forced Workers of Eritrean national service program with the well-paid and all-volunteer US Army Corps of Engineers; I can hardly say anything good about the country. That may be because I remembered and lived the good times in Eritrea and have interacted with ordinary people that are living in it during the bad times.
I am told that Ms. Tesfamariam is an “Amche” [a Tigrinya slang for an Eritrean that grew up in non-Tigrinya speaking parts of Ethiopia] and has never lived inside Eritrea. Unlike her, I can compare and contrast how life was and is now in Eritrea, although it is not hard to recognize bad things when one sees them. Perhaps the way she was received and treated by government agents and the way she traveled clouded her vision and her mind. Perhaps the vendetta and resentment she developed after the way she was apparently kicked out of Ethiopia made her to be a blind supporter of Isaias Afewerki and Shaebia so as to not give a satisfaction to Meles Zenawi-led TPLF/EPRDF in Ethiopia.
Whatever the reason might be, it is clear that she has never given accurate description of the political, social, and economic conditions in Eritrea. Again, what is most telling about Sophia and other supporters of the regime in the Diaspora is that when she was kicked out of Ethiopia, she did not choose to live in Eritrea. If they ever do choose to live in Eritrea, they make sure that they first secure a foreign residency or Citizenship for themselves and their children in Western countries.
Such people lack consistency and honesty in their arguments not to mention a Moral compass. They are willing to condemn, ask, and promote others to what they are not willing to let themselves or their children endure. They wish and impose upon others the misery of Eritrea. Whatever happened to the great moral concept of the Golden Rule, Wish upon others as you would want them to wish upon you? I do not expect anyone to endure the misery of Eritrea, and I expect other to have the moral and argumental consistency not to ask other to endure it, too. I do not wish the misery of Eritrea on anyone, and I certainly am not willing to let myself or my children endure it.
Moreover, unlike the blind supporters of the regime, I did not go to Eritrea as a guest of the government to observe its mini-dam projects or road projects that are being built with slave labor. There are beautiful subways in Moscow, too, but everyone abhors the way Stalin built them. I did not travel by Toyota Land cruisers with government officials; I rode the old Fiat buses ordinary people ride. I did not interact with those who are designing the good-sounding bankrupt policies of “self-reliance” and National Service Programs. Instead, I interacted with the ordinary families who had to shop for 5 loaves of bread at 3:00 A.M. in the morning because the rations of those programs were not enough to feed their members. I was also interacting with those young men who are on the receiving- end of the national service programs.
In general, I was not an honored guest of the fattened officials who do not seem to be bothered by the suffering of the people due to their cruel policies; I was interacting with the poor enslaved youth and families that were on the receiving end of the cruelties. I did not spend my time with those who asked others to endure hardships; I was with those who were enduring them.
Eritrea has become a cruel, stagnant, terrorizing, and suffocating country for its own citizens. It is so bad that they are starting to question why it was created in the first place. Was it worth paying with more than 65,000 young men and women to bring it and with 20,000 young men and women to “defend it”? That is the question people are asking. Reading and experiencing the above stories, it is logical to ask such questions, because the Eritrean people did not have to pay for such a life dearly. It was being provided to them by the Derg regime for free. Life may have been even better under the Derg. The way the country is going, it is headed to an internal implosion. No one has to push or explode the country from the outside; it simply is going to collapse from an implosion from within. The older people and the youth of the country are at their most dispirited and demoralized state.
The saddest part is the regime seems to be begging to be bombed from outside. Instead of aligning its interest with the interests of the big powers of the world such as the USA, the narcissist and rottenly arrogant Isaias seems delusional about his powers in thinking that he is strong enough to exchange insults and pick fights with them. As my high school friend [now teacher] summarized the feeling of the Eritrean people, I am sick of him, too. In fact, I am ashamed of him, and ashamed to have him as an Eritrean, even more as the leader of it.
I had seen some members of the terrorist-linked Somali movement gathered in the lobby of Hamassen or Imperial hotel one day in Asmara. If Isaias’ misadventure with such groups turns out to be his demise, I say may it be hastened. However, as the people in Asmara say Aylekmena de’a, Yikdenena, meaning [may he not take us down with him, God shield us], I, too share those sentiments of anxiety and uncertainty for my people.
May the people of Eritrea be saved and their oppressors wiped.
P.S: I do not know why many Eritrean Organizations have Arabic- sounding names such as Shaebia, Shabait, Jebha, etc. Perhaps, it has something to do with the way the Eritrean quest for independence started.
Please visit my articles page.
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