Cry my beloved country

Responding to the Scenario of ICG, is it ever possible to start, “a reconciliation with non-reconcilable devil”? The International Crises Group(ICG) is telling us that it is probable. But how credible, one might ask them! Let us see the scenario that our friends at the ICG are trying to draw to save the naked Emperor. See “Africa Report N°200, 28 March 2013, Eritrea: Scenarios for Future Transition”

‘Events in the last twelve months indicate growing discontent inside Eritrea’s tightly controlled regime, as well as deepening political and social divisions. While the mounting number of incidents suggests that President Isaias Afwerki’s regime is vulnerable, with increasing concerns over its ability to stay in power, the country would face numerous institutional, socio-economic and geopolitical obstacles during and after any transition.“ A careful assessment of these, as well as the role neighbors and the wider international community could play, is urgently needed to help avoid a violent power struggle that could prove dangerous for the Horn of Africa and potentially – as Eritrea is a littoral state – for the Red Sea region.”

For those of you who attended the University of Asmera, formerly known to those Asmarinos as The Santa Famillia University in the 70ties,  is to be recalled, what happened after some of the saints of International Crises Group were there as a president and lecturer in law. Soon after 1991 people were struggling to find assistance fund for the university from outside Eritrea. It was refreshing when nationals came from afar to work as volunteers to the mother country with a noble force to remold the youth in modern education. Some of you may also remember the difficulties when king Haile Sellassie was blocking any meager fund destined for the Santa Famillia Italian University in Asmera. Even the DERG was not friendly to the staff members, especially the Eritrean nuns who were teaching there.

Things seemed to be getting better when many locals were allowed to join the colleges, especially the arts section. Some even graduated with a law degree for the first time. I remember when some of my friends were studying there; I was wondering how long the holy Santa Familia College would survive without funds. Even the much loved, and  only University of Addis Ababa was struggling with its annual budget of 16 million Ethiopian Birr  at the same period , with its 3 colleges, 2 in Addis Ababa and the 3rd in Hararghe, the  Allemaya college.

Why am I recalling these comparisons?

In different periods of its history, Asmera University has seen a lot of authoritarian decisions by the different governments in Ethiopia & Eritrea until its final closure, thanks to those who already had the benefit of Higher education including at the Uppsala-Universitet, and Ph.D. Candidate, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

The article below from The International Crises Group is a contradiction to what was happening in Eritrea 15 years ago. Those who were collaborators in the destruction of the Eritrean education in Eritrea are now trying to educate the entire Horn of Africa region, and beyond that the Red Sea basin countries. Their methodical analysis of  reconciliation in Eritrea would be better served first by saving the neck of the tyrants and drawing a scenario of avoiding an uprising against the Eritrean dictator.

Alas, time is a little too late for the dictator and his men to seek reconciliation after what happened in Forto Baldiseira on 21 January 2013.

We should be aware of the deteriorating livelihood of our people during the last 21 years by the same person in power and his friends with whom ICG is asking us to reconcile. It is like putting an effort to reconcile with non-reconcilable devil.

In this Holly month of Easter holidays off course, I would like to bring some of the old spiritual quotations, because the spirit of Easter is in essence about reconciliation with our God and men. “Reconciliation  somehow served to justify the breach. Yet the government’s perceived lack of concern for the misery of the displaced We need to change methods fast not talk about reconciliation with the evils in power.”

There is also a quotation from an unknown author in www.google.nl:
“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ …”

…and in a seminar, somebody was quoted saying: We shall prepare the coffee of reconciliation through the filter of justice. Through reconciliation, streams of tears will come to our eyes.

The Gold Diggers

Imagine someone who has been in the Congo (formerly Zaire) in the late ninties and authorized to oversee the digging the diamonds and who puts 158 POWS and detainees in those holes and finally asks his boss: what shall he do with these wretched prisoners? And the boss tells him to “discard them.” He does what his boss wanted. On the contrary I expect  those two to reconcile with the Eritrean people and then proceed with the amount of  the diamonds dug to compensate the families of the victims. Let’s assume the families of the victims forgave them and said, “we all live together in peace and friendship.” That is really a reconciliation. Who knows what is happening with the blood diamonds in Antwerp (Anvers) Belgium, that was shipped from the Congo!

Reconciliation  somehow served to justify the breach.
Yet the government’s perceived lack of concern for the misery of the displaced
We need to change methods fast not talk about reconciliation with the evils of power.

May the Alimighty bless you all !

Notes:
1.Read more at http://quotes.dictionary.com/search/reconciliation?page=1#4tpyy4MZBVZhJsCy.99
2.Read more at http://quotes.dictionary.com/search/reconciliation?page=1#4tpyy4MZBVZhJsCy.99
3. Eritrea: Scenarios for Future Transition” , International Crisis Group- Working to prevent conflict worldwide.