Coming to America

“Coming to America” is a 1988 comedy film in which an African Prince comes to Queens, New York in hopes to find a woman he can marry.  Akeem, the Prince says “What better place to find a Queen than the city of Queens”.  After some twists and turns in the story the Prince did find the woman of his heart, but that woman refuses to marry him because he did not tell her honestly who he really was.  Akeem leaves Queens with a broken heart and embarks on marrying the woman that his father the King made ready for him.  At the final scene's wedding procession, Akeem waits dejectedly at the altar as his bride-to-be makes her way down the aisle. But when he lifts the veil to kiss her, he finds Lisa, the woman he fell in love with in Queens instead of his arranged bride.  And he lived happily ever after.

New York is indeed a strange place and if the UN headquarters were in Queens, the Eritrean President’s story of “Coming to America” would have had a happy ending like Akeem. Like Akeem the Eritrean President did indeed come to the Big Apple seeking for something miraculous to happen that will  pull himself out from the mounting pressures that are being put on him by neighboring countries and the United Nations Security Council.  He has been in a terminal state of denial and isolation from the international community for almost a decade, and probably came to New York for vindication.  He has recently been trying to tell the world that he is not as bad as the world media portrays him to be. So, the first series of self redeeming measures he took recently was to come out of his cocoon to talk to some East African countries’ heads of states followed by a  journey to New York to attend the 66th plenary assembly of the United Nations. But his “Coming to America” adventure ended in disappointment because nobody paid any attention to him and he did not find his Lisa as Akeem the Prince did.  And he has no one to blame except himself for this.  

As a first order of   business in New York he started by calling the United Nations an institution that has become totally irrelevant during his official address to the UN plenary Assembly.  In his characteristic bluntness, he said “As we ponder the future and take stock of the sweeping changes that are underway, we cannot fail but underscore that the United Nations has already become hopelessly outdated and risks becoming totally irrelevant. We all profess agreement on the need to transform the institutions and procedures of the United Nations but we remain paralyzed, with no prospects for early progress.”

What he said is not something new because since day one of his ascension to power in Eritrea, he has always been accusing the UN and the powerful Western governments as the conniving architects of a scheme that enabled Ethiopia to annex Eritrea and by extension responsible for all the pain and suffering that the Eritrean people had to endure to wrestle their national independence out of the colonial grip of Ethiopia during the 30-year bitter war for independence.   And this internalized contempt of the world bodies has been the hall mark of Eritrea’s foreign policy since the nation gained its independence in the 1993 referendum.    
 
To hear the above words coming from the mouth of the Kim Jong-il of Africa is not only hilarious but also beyond belief. If truth is to have its day, what is “hopelessly outdated” is not the UN but  the dictatorial political machinery that he has put in place in Eritrea for the last twenty years  to: (a) suppress his own people beyond redemption,(b) witch-hunt and decimate  journalists, dissidents, worship leaders and  the Eritrean youth, (c)  create a pariah state that has lost all credibility in the international community, (c) become a destabilizing factor in the Horn of Africa,  (d) become a cause for the imposition of  UN sanctions on Eritrea,  (d) punish dissidents calling for democratic rule extra judiciously and (e) become an intractable barrier to a smooth transition to democratic rule..  It is amazing to hear one of the worst dictators in the world and one that has become a nightmare to his own people talking about the “need to transform the UN.”   

To many observers the latest moves of the President at first looked like a gesture of goodwill   or a change of heart for reform and   a sincere attempt on his part to shake off the tag labeled on him by the international community as  the Kim Jong-il of Africa which by extension has also made Eritrea, as a nation, to be known as the North Korea of Africa under his rule. Many Eritreans hoped that his recent overtures were intended to resuscitate his grim image and relax his neck hold on the Eritrean people.  Unfortunately, however, the President did not carry the day as all peace loving Eritrean people would have wanted him to. At the end of the day it   became very obvious to all that he was only trying to avert the threat of a second UNSC sanction on the country.  It did not come as surprise that his “Coming to America” did not have a good ending because he never intended it to end that way.

Mr. Isayas’ remains entrenched and adamant in his perverted dictatorial legacies.  His regime has evolved into a specter of backsliding and socio-economic degeneration. The country has become the “biggest open air prison” in the world. There is nothing that suggests that things will change for good for the Eritrean people as long as Mr. Isayas is in power. He remains to be the same old tyrant that he has always been. And as far as the oppressed masses are concerned there is no light to see at the end of the tunnel.   What the Eritrean people have on their hands is, therefore, a tyrant that has to be removed from power by all means necessary.

And as if to add insult to injury, his foot soldiers made an extensive campaign to collect and commute Mr. Isayas’s trusting herd to New York to make it look like he has a strong public support.  However, we all know that those who took the trouble to travel all the way to New York to greet and cheer the Kim Jong-il of Africa must be ones who have traded their Eritrean souls for loyalty to a dictator. They are with blurred vision and indoctrinated and white washed brains that have lost the ability to see and feel that the King is Naked.  These people belong to the category of traitors that have chosen to look the other way while their brothers and sisters are condemned to slave labor in Eritrea under the guise of national service, while many precious Eritrean lives are perishing in the oceans and deserts when attempting to flee from the regime’s grip hold and while there are thousands of Eritreans who are languishing in jail without due process of law.

The good news is, however, that there is a glimmer of hope for the possible initiation of  an “Arab Spring” styled revolution in Eritrea as was demonstrated by the courageous youth, who in spite of all risks, gathered the courage and determination to confront the dictator at his door steps. The protestors who were calling for Isayas’ ouster in New York on the 25th and 26th of September, while the loyal herd were ushered into the stalls of the hall,  truly represent the voices of the suffering Eritrean masses.  These selfless and courageous youth are the “Light at the End of the Tunnel for Mother Eritrea”.

We should also acclaim these courageous youth with honor for adding a humorous flavor to the otherwise grim Eritrean reality by the “Monkey Chase” they made in the heart of Manhattan.  Rumor has it that asked to comment on his embarrassing encounter by some Eritrean youth in a Manhattan restaurant, Yemane Monkey, the Presidential advisor and the brain behind the machinations of the ruling PFDJ party is reported as saying that “this is a risk that a monkey takes when it decides to eat pizza and drink beer instead of living off bananas and belles as its ancestors have always done”. The witch hunt of the dictator and his entourage has just started and that will definitely be the order of the day as and when they set their feet in the United States, Europe and elsewhere to fool the people.
Finally, the lesson that has been learned is that “We can do it”.  We can rid our country of dictatorship if we encourage, support and join hands with the youth that are showing us the way. The Libyans, The Tunisians and the Egyptians did it.  And there is no reason why we cannot do it.. The era of dictators is coming to an end everywhere.  We Eritreans need to create a momentum for a revolution.  We will be victorious.

Long live the Eritrean people.  

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