Lessons from North Korea that we can apply to our Nation

The recent death of world’s greatest tyrant Kim Jong il gave more insights into the devastating nature of socialism and dictatorship in particular. Socialism is the real drama and dictators are indeed the actors. Dictators continue to scare you even when they are under the grave. People from the rest of the world were really confused by the tears of North Koreans over the death of their leader. This reminded me of the drama that was conducted over the recent meeting of dictator Isayas Afwerki and Eritreans in New York. It was a very well organized event to show the world that, unlike other dictators, ours is loved by his people. Following the New York meeting the dictator made an interview with VOA and  he mentioned that you only have to leave power if you steal money, abuse authority or if you are a thug. According to him, if you jail higher officials and journalists for no reason and put them in solitary confinement, you are not abusing authority. I forgot to mention that if you don’t sign a contract to run a country, you can still remain in power as long as you want.

In North Korea a leader who was well known for his worst economic policies, repressive human right record, corruption, extreme personality cult and so on was finally dead. Kim Jong Il  succeeded his dad to power after his death and the shocking scenario of the recent death is the transfer of the power to his son again and that is the beauty of socialism! What a paradox! Dictators expect their citizens to worship them even after their death. For North Koreans, their God is their leader and every thing. For some Eritreans, there is a group which says “We are all Isayas Afwerki” in facebook or in Tigrigna “Nihna Nisu Nisu Nihna”. This clearly indicates that dictatorship has clearly reached its climax in Eritrea as well.  We only have to wait and see what the reaction of the “We are all Isayas Afwerki group” after the downfall of the dictator. Will they be shedding tears for the tyrant who is ruining our nation and our dignity as a people? By the way I would like to congratulate this group for the achievement of their true leader as no.1 leading the worst dictator list after the death of Kim Jong Il in the recent Parade magazine publication.

According to one North Korean defector to South Korea, people in North Korea don’t have enough food and eat meat twice a year in special days like Kim Jong Il son’s birthday. That lady was jailed in North Korea because she was found listening to South Korean music. I can see lots of similarities between North Korea and Eritrea. The price of meat in Asmara is about 250 Nakfa a kilo and you can’t get it easily even at this record price. I can also imagine how hard it is to listen to Ethiopian music in Asmara except in Eri-TV. Bars in Asmara are scared to play Ethiopian music and are under constant surveillance.

People in North Korea are constantly told that people in South Korea are starving and eat from  garbage bins. This also looks familiar with the constant false propaganda we hear from Eri-TV about how people in US are starving in the streets while Eritrea is becoming a self-feeding country. North Koreans, even after they leave their country, want to remain anonymous for the sake of protection of their family. We Eritreans are also in fear of endangering our families back home. Most Eri-people are silent in opposing the regime which is the cause of their suffering. This gives more time to the regime and a way to manipulate the people back home. North Koreans do not have access to the internet and mobile phones are given only to the elite. This reminds us of the long process that we follow for getting a cell phone. In East African countries like Sudan and Kenya you got cell phones in a matter of minutes without having to go to administrative Zoba “Mimihidarat” and all the funny requirements.  In Eritrea the Internet is getting slower and slower for fear of the spreading uprisings in other countries, I believe. Last time the government of Eritrea even tried to hack some websites like Assenna and Awate using some Chinese hackers. These websites provide the Eritrean people hope for freedom and democracy. The list of similarities between North Korea and Eritrea goes on and on but the sad part is Eritrea is becoming more and more isolated and very strange country in the world.

Recently I was watching a video and it was a research based talk by Dr. Gerard Prunier on African North Korea “Eritrea”. He provided lots of interesting facts on the terrorizing acts of the Eritrean governments on its people and its influence on the region as a whole. I strongly recommend every one to watch this video as it provides useful facts for our situation. We might not fully agree with every thing but I believe we do for the most part. After all the beauty of democracy is that people should express what they feel in their own ways. We might have not democracy on the streets of our Eritrean cities for now but we do have democracy to express our views on different Internet websites.

Thanks to technology for helping in the downfall of dictatorship in many countries.

This year has been a very rough year for all dictators and we hope this new year will unfold more events towards the freedom and justice of oppressed people in the world and in particular for the Eritrean people. Merry Christmas and Happy New year every one!

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