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The Evils of Dictatorship

What kind of personality do these dictators have in common? According to the Colorado psychologists, Coolidge and colleague Daniel Singer, who developed a personality test for dictators came up with the following conclusion on dictators.  This was done  after studying Kim Jong-Il, Sadaam Hussein and Hitler. They agreed dictators have personality disorders and they called these disorders the “Big Six”:  Namely, sadistic, paranoid, antisocial, narcissistic, schizoid and schizotypal.  Coolidge and Singer also wrote, “all three dictators also showed evidence of psychotic thought processes.”

At last they met: A tale of two shoe pairs

After staying on with their owner for four years, the pair of shoes was finally taken to Asmara’s Edaga Haraj for a sale at a much lower price. A hot September 2012 Saturday it was when they were brought to Haraj. Worn out, faded and the heels downsized. Who would believe that these were the raven, 220 USD Calvin Klein shoes that Lily desirously bought at the Dubai Mall for Yoni, her fiancé, who lives in Asmara.

PM Meles Zenawi and EPRDF: Founding fathers of Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

Meles has left a massive cultural legacy of peace and development which represents a challenge to the people and Government of Ethiopia.  It is also a challenge to Eritreans to express willingness for peaceful co-existence and mutual prosperity.  .

When I see what Ethiopia is in today I feel the objective of those revolutionaries of the 60s and beyond who sacrificed their life has been vindicated. My analysis is based on the memory I have when I was part of the Haile Sellasie Student Movement and a veteran of EPLF. I had good working relationships with many members of the Ethiopian Liberation fronts and university students.

A most ominous question among Eritreans: ‘What do you do’?

It looks like we have become victims of our upbringing. In Eritrea, we grow up made to dream to be a doctor, a pilot or an engineer. Not more, not less. A kid would be forgiven to dream to be one of these, but sticking to this even at an adult age is impractical at least and inane at most. It is true that these are coveted jobs, universally so. Who hasn’t dreamt of being a surgeon, or an astronomer, a president, or a Pelé (Lionel Messi, for the new generation)? Similarly, who, amongst those of us who grew in Asmara or the other Eritrean cities, has not grown up belittling road sweepers (asfatsini) (they are now called Street Orderlies, by the way), cactus fruit pick-seller (sheqati beles), cart pusher (defa’i ‘arebya), gatekeepers (guardia, or wardia as we used to call it), and masons (manuale, or minewale as we used to call it)? The streets of Asmara witnessed many a joke, and many a derision too, based on these and other lowly professions.

The Animal Farm/GOE

Shame on those people in the Diaspora, who enjoy the democratic rights of many countries in the world, and yet who knowingly ignore the plight of Eritreans inside the country.  It is selfish and self serving not to want your own people in Eritrea also enjoy the same democratic rights that you enjoy daily.   You have sold your people for 30 vacation days.  You have intentionally  volunteered to be used by the government for a very short term personal gains.  You have completely forgotten the legacy of those who sacrificed their lives in the struggle for the sake of freedom for all.  I urge you to side with your people who are waiting to hear from you.

The Arab Revolt and its Consequences on African Migrants: Focus on Eritrean refugees

The North African revolt had serious ramification on African migrants in particular on Eritreans who were leaving their homeland to the tune of 1500 to 2000 a month. Unable to stay still in their place of refugee, that is, in the refugee camps located in the Sudan and Ethiopia, they usually undertake an adventurous journey to end up in an imaginable situation painful to describe. Relatively speaking the Libyan route was safer and by far cheaper when compared to the one that the Eritrean reverted to after the tightening of the Libyan route and subsequent popular uprising. In their desperate attempt to leave Africa for Israel they have to pass through numerous hurdles including the sale of their soul, their organs and most of all their dignity. No doubt, had the road to the dream destination, Europe was relatively safe and open as has been the case up to 2008, the number of Eritrean refugees in Israel  would have been a fraction of what it is now, 36,000.

Flouting International Law in Israel

Drawing on ethnographic research I conducted in conjunction with Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-IL), I focus here on two forms of violation frequently committed on the Israeli side: detention without charge and refoulement, or illegal deportation in violation of international law. Policies like these are designed – again, in contravention of international law – to deter asylum seekers from coming to Israel. Those who do arrive are often in desperate need of medical treatment after perilous journeys involving torture, starvation, and sexual abuse.

Meles the Pragmatist

When PIA and EPLF walked into Asmara on May 24th 1991 and PMMZ and TPLF/EPRDF walked into Addis Ababa a week later, PIA was supposed to have easier time leading a smaller nation than PMMZ with a nation with nearly twenty times the population and infinitely more complex issues.  Twenty years later, it is PMMZ who has managed to lead his nation with skill and pragmatism.  In contrast, PIA is now arming every Eritrean with a weapon as if NOT a nation being invaded but as if local thieves are going to break into every Eritrean house.

As PMMZ was a pragmatic leader, PIA remains arguably an idealist leader with a temper and ego that makes for a volatile combination that has destroyed Eritrea.  PIA is Eritrea’s Robespierre of the French Revolution – except the French removed Robespierre quickly.

Time to be Magnanimous

Ethiopian and Eritrean tradition dictate that bereavement should be shared even during time of austerity and hostility.  It is widely known that death is earnestly acknowledged within the mutually shared traditions of both countries.  Certainly, post-liberation squabbles brought about animosity that has unceremoniously divided Eritreans and Ethiopians.  Unfortunately, the bitter rivalry between the late Prime Minister and the President of Eritrea marshaled in ways that eroded the well-mannered traditions both peoples used to revere.  That needs to be rectified.

The Prisoner

I wrote this small poem just to remember all those who are in Eritrean prisons for expressing their views and venting their feelings.  The Eritrean government will go down in history as one of the cruelest governments, who punishes to hurt and who tortures to kill.  They use tools that torture people and imprison in containers not fit for humans, and illegal by Human Rights Watch standard.  Many have gone insane because of hot and cold variations of their spaces, and many have become legally blind because of abrupt movements from very dark to very sunny or bright areas.  ...

Boycotting 2% tax, a step towards change

To come to my point of the 2% tax, be it paid willingly or unwillingly, consciously or unconsciously, it is landing on wrong hands. Regardless of how and why we pay one thing remains the same that we are endorsing the regime’s internal and external policies, actions and atrocities against our own people who are under its control. The worst thing is that we have already developed and are still cultivating a culture which fosters undemocratic system and that has a far-reaching negative impact to the present and future generations. Being submissive to the current government or ignoring our problems while we can challenge it will take us and our country to nowhere but worsen our misery and ultimately to destruction.  Unless we address our problems and challenge them collectively, they will pile up and take us beyond a stage of no recovery.

RIP the African Renaissance

If PMMZ’s rather untimely (unexpected) departure doesn’t serve as a much needed pause for all those interested, involved and engaged in matters Horn of African then we would have missed a massive opportunity to take stoke of our situation and more worryingly an opportunity to right a few wrongs and align ourselves a bit better with what may bear results in heralding the change we all say we seek.

A lot can be said about the life and work of the late Prime Minister; both positive and negative. Perhaps the shiniest jewel in his accolade is the economic strides that Ethiopia made in his tenure. I was born and grew up in Ethiopia during one of Ethiopia’s darkest hours when Mengistu Hailemariam was experimenting with his improvisation of Marxist Leninist ideology. There was no hope…