The Trade Of Defiance!

Thanks a lot to every good friend who took the time to throw in a few but very valuable words in the comments section of my previous article. All of the comments, I must admit, are on spot and none have said anything that I do not fully agree with and accept to follow word for word (as soon as a new president is elected in Eritrea and depending on circumstances). I don’t want to waste your time commenting on comments so I will just take them as words of wisdom from people who love me so much that they would die to invite me for a cool sitting of dummu-dummu and a picture with paparazzi only if I would say “Yes”. And I say “No” because when the name first came up for competition my suggestion was gobye-gobye and I insist.

If I have your permission, though, I will touch on some that I thought might be of immediate importance. First let’s check on those friends who suggested that I start with personal disclosures. I can understand their concerns from previous experience. What they mean is: better do it now and of your own initiative before some paparazzi eventually either spoil the party or twist our arms to force us to take a ride on their bandwagon. Brother SY makes an argument that I cannot skip. He notes that: just like the pilot’s “blah … blah … blah” messages in Alinsky’s example, you will only really start to communicate when you tell people about something that they can associate to – something “like the Grand Canyon is over there”. In this case “the Grand Canyon” is a picture of me with the paparazzi. I picked SY’s words only because they featured a more specific (and my #1) reference but I think it summarizes everyone’s suggestions. SY & Emma, my friends and dear brothers, I don’t mean to be difficult and I feel bad turning down a prudent suggestion from you two. You know what! The heck with it! I will take care of the “Grand Canyon” – guess when – on Election Day and right when the new president will be looking for me to mobilize his own neo-Nazis and land-grabbers!!

This is for those who shared the concern with terminology: I strongly advise you to get used to these concepts (memorize them, understand their dynamics, make sure you can spot them from a distance with one eye closed and extremely importantly their spelling) because unless the new (any new) Eritrean president turns out to be a Kunama or Nara from Gash (and ask yourself if you would ever vote for such a thing): every single one will eventually be paraded by his own army of neo-Nazis and land-grabbers and will rewrite the PFDJ’s history word for word. I don’t think I need to remind you who the current president is and who the escorting neo-Nazis and land-grabbers are and hence my focus area for now (Hey – I am a current guy!).

You know how I manage to immunize myself against amnesia or any chances of Alzheimer’s specifically to the part of my brain where the dictionary of the Set-Theory of “these guys” is stored? I reconstructed my own Snellen Chart by replacing “those terms” in different sizes and forms, produced five copies of the chart (one for each side of the walls and one for the ceiling). My vision is a lot better now. You think I am a fear-monger? Read my previous article and follow the instruction: “zoom-in on Dr. Yusuf Berhanu” (your next president) and watch the grooming and mobilization of the next iteration of neo-Nazis and land-grabbers under “the Salvation Front” and “Al-Nahda – the political organization”.

What was I saying? Yes – paparazzi! The underlying assumption of me “hiding” is true but their guess of the villain and reason is off mark. I am actually “hiding” from my “X” for refusing to pay child-support because we never had a child in the first place. My friend SG thinks I have caused him a headache with “Tom & Jerry”. I am not rushing! Wait until a three-hundred-pound pile of raw meat (Ms “X”) shows up at his door-steps asking for directions and I guarantee you he will be ready to negotiate an exchange for 10 “Toms” and 20 “Jerrys”. I will leave it up to him to decide if he has been to the gym enough times to for a Jig-Dance (Disclaimer: she gets real crazy sometimes). In case the inevitable does happen, however, I advise my dear SG to contact a seasoned expert called Hamid Tedros (can be reached in Gedarif, Sudan – usually at a police station) for ways of squeezing yourself out of tight corners.

Please, let us focus back on the content of our debates unless there is someone who is having difficulty reading the stuff without attaching the writer’s picture in a frame on the side. We all read a million little pieces everyday and I have never heard of comprehension problems being associated with the reader’s inability to meet and greet the writer. And here, I don’t think any of us is writing for entertainment: we have a mission to accomplish and like I said in the previous article we will bulldoze our way to a different world. There is one key principle that each of us “activists” has to understand and apply as strictly as possible from midnight to midnight every single day: the first thing that you should do before even thinking about standing up for any other human being on this planet is to stand up for yourself. If you feel like not doing anything: just don’t do it. If you feel like doing it, don’t let Miss Wiswas get into your head. Check it for yourself: Do you live in the fifth floor? Do you have a balcony or can you at least squeeze through the window? Do you “believe you can fly”? Don’t do it!

I think this particular thing is of special importance to us Eritreans (all Eritreans) and maybe we need some suggestions here too especially for our youngsters so that they don’t turn into screw-ups like us.

Here is my suggestion: I want you to go to YouTube and look for a video by Russell Peters (an Indian-Canadian comedian) for a show where he shares his childhood adventures with a friend (a white kid). Everything was well and fine until Russell complained to the white kid that he was being bullied by his Indian daddy after witnessing his hero (the white kid) stand up to his mom. The mom ordered the kid to clean his room (or something like that). The kid turned to the mom and showing an angry face returned a loud “F-U” and gave her a finger supported by the other hand on the elbow. Surprised, Russell asks the kid “You can actually do that to your parents?” The kid says “why not” and teaches Russell all the tricks of the trade of defiance. Russell goes home and there sits his old man in a turban and a bunch of table-clothes (just guessing) who turns to his beloved son to start the usual routine of a commander on Ground Zero on a little Warsay. I will let you guess what happened but it did not go too well for Russell. Do you want to give it a try? OK! Is that your dad occupying your own PC in the middle of the night? What is he doing here in the living-room abandoning mommy alone and miserable in the bedroom? Is he supposed to do this? How come he keeps telling you to go to bed at seven!? Hell with him! What is he reading? Dhnet!? The “Salvation” thing? The wrong thing at this time of the night!? You know what? Go for it! NOW! And phone me back next week if you are still alive.

I hate Ajewjew and I keep falling back to it. Please, forgive me if I have offended anyone on any word. I needed to talk to someone and it is only you in front of me. Many thanks to John, Kokhob, Tesfai, Abraham, Sele Haqi, Teweldeberhan, Gudam, Gobian, Amin, Mogos, b’Alti W’qatto, Himam and all others. I fully understand your inputs. I am sorry that I had to go all around and lose sight of what I should have said today. What the old-guard in our politics are unable to grasp, I believe, is that a key difference between the real world and the virtual world of the cyber-space is that the latter by its very nature is “anonymous”. It is a world based on trust. You have no way of knowing who the writer, speaker or singer in an online forum is and all you have to do is take their word and trust that we live in a much better world than those of the old-days. We will skip this kind of talk from now and forever. This time, I went into it only because it came from people that I have absolute respect and trust on.

I had issues prepared for today but I think I lost my balance a little bit and I will postpone the stuff for next time. But please help me finish my quota of word-count for a posting. If you have already read the Alinsky book, feel free to skip to another article. If you haven’t, checkout what summarizes the essence of the book (in my opinion). In a booklet (or lectures) titled “Barack Obama’s Rules for Revolution: the Alinsky Model”, David Horowitz (p. 16) represents his interpretation of what he refers to as “the Alinsky Model” (for radicals). He quotes the following from the “dedication” page of the book that SY was referring to in his comments (I found “Rules for Radicals” on Google but had too many pages missing):

“Lest we forget, an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history … the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom – Lucifer.”

Horowitz continues to explain his interpretation (which I thought was exactly the way Alinsky himself must have had in mind): “He [the radical] is not a reformer of the system but its would-be destroyer. In his own mind the radical is building his own kingdom, which to him is a kingdom of heaven on earth.”  Horowitz’s brilliant underlying argument is that: the process of a radical in action involves two dynamically intertwined functions. The first is that of destroying the corrupt real world that we live in. The second is that of constructing the virtual “promised land” – heaven on earth. But since mortal humans will under no circumstances ever be able to construct heaven, the only feasible function of “the radical” is that of destroying the [bad] world at hand. I think it is with this paradox in mind that Alinsky dedicates arguably the most important book he ever wrote to none other than Lucifer.

Don’t get me into being “the Lucifer guy” now. I am just using the analogy. The key point here is that the two functions mentioned above (destroying the actual and constructing the virtual) are two faces of a single coin and none should exist without the other for the effective radical. The reason you need an image of “the promised land” [a false one] that you will never be able to construct in the real world is because you need manpower to accomplish your primary function [the book was written as a manual for “community organizers” – that’s you]: that of destroying the [bad] world at hand. Not a single guy or girl will ever come close to you, unless you convince him/her that if he/she offers to join you in destroying what is at hand he/she would be seated in the first row in “the promised land”.

My point is that: it is absolutely necessary to know the deal in advance so that you do not get duped into what might later turn out to be “not exactly the thing that I had in mind”. That exactly is what happened to every tegadalay that lost “everything” hoping he/she would eventually get back “everything plus interest” and ended up getting “nothing plus a finger”. As an “activist” in today’s Eritrea you should know that it is the same grindstone all over again: so go ahead and sell your bonds – get “everything” – promise “everything plus interest” – when the maturity date comes – “no worries” – give them the real thing. If you worry too much about what post-PFDJ Eritrea should look like, an Eritrea you would never be able to construct to specification any way, forget about hoping to destroy the PFDJ. For now, feel free to promise heaven and hope that unforeseen accidents will help your dreams come true: just sing “My Wish for you” and everything will be OK.

The greatest blunder that has persisted throughout history across the human race and is exponentially amplified in our case in Eritrea is the misconception that someone or some gang of self-proclaimed “intellectuals” or “revolutionaries” can actually sit down and produce a master-plan of the future for a nation. The future whether you like it or not belongs to the one and only one God. And you don’t look like Him.

The words should be enough. Go now practice some of the tricks I shared above before daddy goes to bed or it becomes too dark to try the window. Good luck and if you ever run into Ms “X”, you have never heard of me and never mention my name under torture!