The Era of Flashy Pastors
Parents miss their children. Aunt Lemlem had two sons, Saleh and Arabi, who left for Egypt for education, leaving the parents alone in the house. Arabi died soon, but Saleh occasionally wrote them letters addressed to our postbox #39, which I delivered to them.
Aboy Berhe was the postmaster; his assistant, Tekheste, received the letter-bag from the Asmara bus driver and put them inside the pigeonholes. Amm Mahmoud, the postman, knew the few who received foreign letters in town and hand-delivered them. There were a few who used our box address, and I used to deliver them until I felt guilty for denying Amm Mahmoud, the little income he got for his service. I passed all the letters to him for delivery.
I frequently visited Aunt Lemlem to see the chicks that Amoy Lemlem gave me; she always made me sit in the Mejlis, a clean room reserved for select guests.
On the wall were a few framed pictures of her children, and she would reminisce and talk about them almost in tears. There was a picture prominently displayed on the wall: Saleh and his Egyptian fiancée. The neighborhood women would visit to see the Egyptian fiancée, as if she were a religious icon, and exclaimed, Misrawit kmerO eyyeu! He will marry an Egyptian!
But the marriage never happened because Saleh left Egypt for Italy; Aunt Lemlem stopped talking about Egypt and switched to Italy. She did the same when he left for Libya, then to Matahara, Ethiopia, and back to Libya. She died many years ago, and Saleh migrated to the USA, where he died a few years ago.
How many mothers do you know who miss their children, and are left with only their pictures? How many parents are living in agony because they cannot see their exiled children? The exodus of Eritreans continues unabated. Why do Eritreans breed children only to lose them in puberty?
For years, Eritrea has been bleeding, losing its people to exile or to war.
What’s after graduation?
The graduation season is almost over. We watched so many jubilations; the graduates may already be planning to leave the country to seek opportunities elsewhere. Eritrea produced doctors, lawyers, artists, and a bunch of others, but they left because of the bleak hopes. Yet, every now and then, propagandists claim the economy is as hot as a furnace and can absorb all.
The housing shortage, construction bans, shortage of electricity and water supply, poor healthcare—these are great challenges that no dictatorship can solve. Even the Sudan where most Eritreans sought treatment is Sudan, but it’s not safe anymore—one would be lucky to find over-the-counter medicine in Sudan, let alone treatment for serious illness. What kind of countries are those that don’t change for decades but get worse?
The government paints a flowery picture of the country, but propaganda doesn’t change reality. It just covers it up. Eritrea is good only for the diaspora who can afford to spend like “drunk sailors.”
Ethiopia is not much better, but at least it is hosting family reunions, and serving as a stopover for Eritreans on their way to nearby and faraway places. And it remains the most provocative of all of Eritrea’s neighbors. Even the pastors are annoying.
In 2018, Abiy Ahmed brought along with him a pastor to Eritrea. The pastor screamed, “Asmara will be shaken and overwhelmed by the gospel!”
One can easily mistake him for Freminatos, the man who introduced the Gospel to Abyssinia seventeen centuries ago. But another pastor I watched lately is bolder, and more provocative. Presumably the pastor received a call from god and thus appointed a king for Eritrea: King Yosief! The pastor called his name and searched among the congregation. “Yosief, where are you? Yosief! Are you Yosief?” A skinny guy in tight pants sprung up from among the crowd and ran to the stage, all excited and jumping. Then the pastor anointed him king of Eritrea.
Now, how do you deal with such extremism?bCan you think of any time since independence when hate, real and media war, or preparation for war, did not preoccupy Eritreans? The country is always mobilizing for war or waging it.
For decades, the diaspora has never taken a break from Mekhete, the defense campaign. They perpetually remind each other about the many enemies out there ready to get Eritrea. Have you heard the PFDJ or their supporters blame the incompetence or undiplomatic character of their own?
The well-established warrior character and combative mentality are deeply ingrained in the Eritrean psyche. Military behavior has influenced many people, and they debate using military logic. They are always alert for the next fight at the cost of great human, emotional, and material costs. Thus, Eritrea has become a factory of soldiers, with only a few exceptions. Why?
Financial Crisis and poverty
During the reign of Haile Selassie, Addis Ababa was famous for its Majrat mechi gangs—they hit people on the back of the neck and empty their pockets. The “Erri bekentu” neighborhood in Addis Ababa was named for that: Cry for help but don’t expect rescue,’ until the Derg regime arrived with its own political violence. For the common Ethiopian, however, political gangs changed hands; violence and poverty remained the same.
The EPRDF focused on fighting poverty and registered considerable achievements, albeit with high lingering loans and deepened ethnic division that became institutionalized. Now, financial difficulties have become so acute, and the trends show a bleak future. Ethiopia is entering a new and difficult economic era.
Latest Observations
- On July 9, Abiy made a surprise trip to Port Sudan and met Al Burhan. Isaias became suspicious; they were cooking something against him. And as a reaction…
- On July 24, 2024, the PFDJ government expelled Khaled Abbas, the Sudanese charge de affair, and gave him 72 hours to leave.
- In a few hours, Al Burhan contacted Isaias and assured him nothing against him, ya abu suss, Aleya Telaq ma fi sh’ee didek ya Isias. And to stop the rumors and speculations, they agreed of the Eritrean navy visit.
- Before the end of the day, the Eritrean government issued a statement stopping Ethiopian Airlines from servicing the Asmara route effective September 30, 2024. The statement cited passenger abuse, corruption, and segregation against Eritrean passengers who are frequently mistreated and whose luggage is either stolen or lost altogether.
- On July 26, 2024, Eritrean naval boats visited a Sudanese port, and Sudanese commanders received them.
- On July 28, the Ethiopian government floated the Birr to balance exchange rate gap between the formal economy and the parallel black-market economy.
- Last Wednesday, the commercial bank announced its exchange rates, at EB 81 to $1 (there are other rates by different banks).
- Experts forecast the birr will keep dropping further before it settles down.
The devaluation has further weakened the purchasing power of the birr; and if the US dollar keeps appreciating, the birr will be in free fall, similar to the trajectory of the Egyptian pound.
Awate Forum