Bankrupting the merchants of fear

Bankrupting the merchants of fear

…Kainotophobia Is an extreme fear of change. Almost everybody in this world has some level of this phobia or fear of change... the problem for us though, is the fact that change is precisely what we are advocating for… then again since change is something that happens anyway, we are not merely advocating ANY change but a certain and specific kind of change… an Eritrea that looks so different not just from yesterday’s Eritrea but even from today’s Eritrea.

If people are generally afraid of change (change is risky) people will be even more afraid of a vision for a radical change… therefore we should actually be in the business of alleviating that fear so people can imagine and hope for a better future (i.e. radical change)… inspiring people to be guided by hope rather than by the fear that seems to surround the change that we are advocating for…

Fear of change is possibly as old as humanity and it has probably persisted due to the fact that not all change is good change… therefore a movement for change is a movement that alleviates the fear of change and failing in that task guarantees no change… Hence pfdj invests heavily in ensuring that our people remain ever so fearful of change… shorthands here include: Somalisation, Ethiopian reoccupation, Ethnic and religious wars…. Being ruled by a weak and divided opposition…becoming a puppet of the West… if pfdj play their game right, none of these scenarios would ever be put to the test because they are intended to just go and sit right above the natural tendency to fear change and heighten the anxiety mega decibels resulting  in maintaining the regime as is… leaving those of us fighting for change on yet another lurch…

…it is only possible for people to join our quest for change  if their fear of that change is less than the sum total of their need for change plus their understanding of the vision for the change  being advocated for and finally the processes we are using….

Need for change (NC) + vision of change (VC) + processes used to get to the change (PC) > fear of change (FC)

NC+VC+PC > FC

As Eritrean activists we don’t have that big a problem in making the case for change…. The plight of our youth in Lampedusa and Sinai, the prison cells of EraEro and countless other dungeons… the refugee camps of Ethiopia and Sudan… the listless eyes of hungry children even in cities and the desperation and despondence etched into the expression of our parents narrates the yearn for change … where we seem to be failing is in articulating our vision of change as well as establishing convincing processes for getting to that change… and until we get the latter two components right we will continue to be victims of that old adage: kab zeytifelTo melaK… tifelto sheyTan…. This articulates the popular wisdom cautioning generations of Eritreans from getting involved where there is no clarity of vision or processes.

Change in Eritrea is not just possible… it is actually inevitable… but birthing the kind of change envisioned by a nation deserving of justice comes from the commitment of the visionaries to make that vision be birthed in the hearts of all justice loving people. In other words unless we begin to fearlessly live, breath and walk the essence of the changed Eritrea we are advocating for (hence embodying the vision), we will not be able to inspire others to come and build that vision and we will also make it easy for the detractors of the vision to use the fault lines and sell their bogey stories to widen the gulf.

Actually  it is not just pfdj that capitalises on the fear of change… it is also all those who want to hog the political space on their own too… fear of others in the Resistance movement is a technique that has also been perfected as a weapon of choice by many…[ I won’t say more on this because… (and I hope you have all noticed how totally uncontroversial I have been for a whole month now so uncontroversial I am on the verge of my first eve writer’s block)… they took me to the equivalent of Alcoholics anonymous and made a reformed (read: boring) character out of me…]

History proves that human beings can never fully conquer fear itself… fear is infact our friend… it makes us prepare and clarify our processes, it distils our commitment to the change we are advocating for… it compels us to make alliances and finally it sharpens our resolve and determination… managing our own fear and living in the faith of a brighter future frees others enabling them to trust us and our vision.

We live in the: post Berlin wall, post eradication of apartheid, post Arab spring and dare I say post Forto world… the art of the possible has been expanded; there really is little that can’t be achieved with clear vision and watertight processes for getting there…

The mess we are in requires ALL of us involved to sort out … no single event… no single organisation and certainly no single initiative can afford to think they can deliver change on their own...

selam