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(I) Discontent at the Top: Mismatching Disjointed Eritrea

If a band made up of a mute and a cripple advertizes a show that involves singing and dancing, it would be easy for a prospective audience to picture how that division of labor would go. Even though it would be easy to imagine either of the duo or both playing musical instruments, the only way to imagine them in the act of singing and dancing would be for the cripple to sing (for he has no legs to dance with) and for the mute to dance (for he has no voice to sing with). But if, on the real stage, it is actually the mute who tries to sing and the cripple who tries to dance, one can claim that the audience has been a victim of its “normalized” imagination. ... So is it with the Eritrean opposition in diaspora: only by normalizing the abnormal state of Eritrea would they keep on mismatching agents of change and the roles they are supposed to play in the division of labor they imagine that turns every contemplated action to usher regime change into a not-doable one. And given the numerous possible agents of change in regard to Eritrea, the mismatch could turn out to be quite dizzying and intangibly bizarre. ...

Va Pensiero: the Forto Song

Verdi's opera Nabucco has a unique resonance with people’s struggle for justice.  It was first performed in Italy in 1842, and today is still best known for its ‘Va Pensiero’ chorus. At the time of its first performances, the Italian people immediately identified with the chorus, and sang it as the freedom song of the day.  To this day, this world-renowned chorus is associated with, by many, the plight of prisoners who are unjustly incarcerated ('der Gefangenenchor').

The English rendition of the chorus starts like this ...

Va' pensiero sull'ali dorate ...
(Fly, thoughts, on the wings of gold)
Cross the mountains and fly
Over the oceans.
Reach the land find the place
Where [Eritrean] children go to dreamland
Every night after singing this lullaby.

Moral Crusade: that has changed the political landscape of Eritrea

The demands for the implementation of the constitution and the release of all prisoners of conscience, is the demands of the oppressed Eritrean people who are silenced because they are denied the right to express themselves.   The Forto mutineers made the demands visible for all to see, the Eritreans in particular and the international community in general.  Although they have not achieved their mission, their bold initiative and selfless sacrifice has become a moral crusade that opened the gates of hope for the people of Eritrea.   Wedi Ali will be remembered in the Eritrean history as the first martyr in action in an attempt to deliver the people of Eritrea from PFDJ serfdom. ...

The event has reinforced the conventional truth/wisdom that, more often than not, change comes from the inside.  It has ushered in a fundamental change of views in the thinking of those who expect change to come from the outside believing that the people of Eritrea are incapable of bringing change by themselves. ....

Newsmakers of 2012

This article was being prepared when the events of January 21, 2013 invigorated our souls and spirits. Forto 2013 reinforced what we all wanted to believe but had denied all along – that despite the outward absence of any sign of opposition within Eritrea that it is in fact bubbling just beneath the surface.

Diaspora opposition has taken cue and anted up its campaign against the regime. Some question how effective these actions are but judging by the confused reactions from the regime and its idol worshippers, indeed it is has been very effective. After all, the regime is busy “jamming” Al Jazeera for covering Eritrean opposition; putting itself on a head-on collision with its main benefactor – Qatar. The agitated minds of regime supporters are now pulling out all stops to slow down the momentum gained from Forto 2013.

THE ERITREAN REFUGEES AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING

The moment the hostages arrive in Sinai they are distributed among the five major families located few miles from the Israel-Egyptian border.  Reminiscent of the bygone era, hostages are chained and placed in makeshift rooms dominated by the big house occupied by the patriarchal chief, his relatives and wives. Soon after their arrival torture begins and calls are made to relatives in the middle of the torture session. Thereafter, the torture continues until the hostage comes up with the money requested by the criminals. Few fortunate ones avoid the prolonged torture by paying the ransom immediately but for many it continues for months. The majority who has no means to pay or have no extended family living in the US/Europe, Africa or the Gulf states die a miserable death. There are also candidates for organ harvesting in particular those individuals appearing healthy and with admirable physical attributes. ....

International Women's Day, March 8

It is compulsory for Eritrean women to serve in the national service where they are not treated as equals with the male soldiers, who themselves are there against their wishes and maltreated, but  used as sex objects by the military officers and made to work as housemaids-cum-slaves. Women are subjected to abuses and sexual harassment by officers in the training/concentration camps, prisons and the army. Refusal to meet the demands of the officers usually results in torture and reassignment to places with extremely hostile living and working conditions.

In most Eritrean ethnic groups recruitment of women into the military is traditionally not accepted. Women thus recruited are therefore shunned as suitable wives and mothers. They are maltreated by the army and ostracised by the rest of Eritrean society. Paradoxically, childbirth provides the only release from national service into a socially and economically rejecting society.

Propaganda and Sycophancy Masked As Book Review!

A dozen years ago in 2001 when Dr. Bereket spoke against the dictatorial regime in Eritrea, or even earlier when he joined the G-13 in sending Isaias Afewrki a letter, many of the regime's blind supporters began attacking his reputation, suggesting that he was power hungry, etc. But to his great credit, unlike many other well-educated Eritreans, he didn't fold, but stood firm and continued to speak up against the evil regime. ...

Therefore, not only Dr. Bereket was hoping the EPLF would do the right thing, but he wrote about it almost a year (June 1990) before the independence of Eritrea (May 1991) believing what Isaias Afewrki and his organization, the EPLF, were promising at the time. That of course was the problem: Isaias Afwerki’s game of deception.  It is obvious now that Isaias Afwerki never meant what he said then in 1990 or in subsequent years about the future of the EPLF and the governance of Eritrea after independence.  It was all part of Isaias’ grand deception scheme.

Ruthless Kidnapping Rings Reach From Desert Sands to U.S. Cities

Just how many Eritreans have been kidnapped isn't known, in part because the global nature of the extortion has limited the ability of any law enforcement authority to track it. But according to a joint study by the Physicians for Human Rights and the Hotline for Migrant Workers, two Israeli nonprofits that run clinics treating victims, an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 Eritrean refugees who arrived in that country in the past three years had been tortured. Another 4,000 Eritreans have disappeared and many are presumed dead, according to testimony for the European Union. ...

But according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, some 250,000 Eriteans have fled the country, about half in the past 10 years, which places the country ninth in the top 10 source countries of refugees. "The country is hemorrhaging human capital," said Tricia Hepner, a specialist on the Horn of Africa at the University of Tennessee. " The scale of displacement is comparable to what you'd see in famine or civil war."

(Photo: Semhar Zeratsion praying in Cairo church)