I almost forgot it was Eritrea's Independence Day today!

I almost forgot it was Eritrea's Independence Day today!

Paulos M. Natnael

It is a shame but true.  I almost forgot it was Eritrea’s independence day today, May 24.  Only when I was signing papers at work did I recognize the date. And this is not the first time.  It has been awhile since I began forgetting the day.  The day that gave us Eritreans so much joy when it first occurred.  No one believed the day would come and when it did in 1991, the euphoria lasted, not just days, but a few years.  Then, reality set in. The new government was not what many of us expected.  In fact, when I visited Eritrea in 1994, many civilians who had never been outside the country, and thus could compare and contrast, told me the new Eritrean government (Provisional, at the time, it still is I suppose), compared to the Dergue regime,  was even worse. I was utterly shocked.  Worse than the Derg! I was told this only three years after the euphoria of May 24, 1991. But those who early on recognized the true colors of the government, were of course absolutely correct as we have seen the last 20 years.  The Provisional Government of Eritrea (PGE) is still provisional, no one gave it the power (i.e., it’s illegitimate), has imprisoned thousands of Eritreans without any due process of law for years and years on end; kept the youth in trenches endlessly (instead of only the eighteen months it proclaimed and promised at beginning), thousands of the youth leave the country every year and end up in the Sinai victims of Egyptian Bedouin criminals who have learned, with the help of Eritreans in the Sudan and Eritrea proper, to extract and extort from their victims’ families tens of thousands of hard earned dollars or Euros. And the PGE still does not care and talks about bringing in Indians and other foreigners to replace teachers and other skilled Eritreans who might have left the country. This still provisional government, this illegitimate government, fought an unnecessary war and managed to lose thousands of soldiers and the border -- which was the pretext, the alleged reason of the war -- still is not demarcated, or has it?  

I almost forgot it was Eritrea’s independence day because, to many Eritreans it has lost long ago, if not its meaning, but certainly its luster, its shine, its brilliance. Instead it has been replaced by apathy and spiritlessness.  Sadness, misery and even depression have displaced the joy and euphoria of May 24, 1991. Anyone old enough to remember that day witnessed pure joy in the faces of Eritreans; unbridled, completely unrestrained joyfulness as they greeted themselves and hugged and kissed each other.  I remember when I went to Sixth and L (the Eritrean community center in down town Washington D.C.) the place was chocking with Eritreans.  The crowd spilled outside into the sidewalk.  That scene continued for days.  Pure joy and happiness.

Twenty-two years is a long time. The world has changed in many ways including politically, technologically, and economically.  No more Marxist regimes left in Europe.  Apple Computer, which languished behind Micro Soft for many years before, is one of the biggest/richest companies in the world.  China is the second the biggest economy after the US, if not the biggest.  Who would have thought such thing was possible twenty years ago?

Eritrea is still  languishing at the bottom, losing not only its youthful population but the most educated portion of its society that would have been in the spearhead of building the economy of the country. I can only hope to see, again, the joyfulness of all, not only the few Eritreans soon.  We cannot give up. We have strive to bring the bouyancy and optimism of that day again.

Happy Independence day!

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