Negarit 228: The Shameless and Insolent

Some ex-Eritrean elements (according to their own declaration) think the Eritrean society is on a deathbed and on its last breath; they are it’ll nurse its wounds and rise up . When it does, it will frustrate their dreams of a puritan racist state on the rubble of the hard-earned Eritrean statehood. That’s why they wish to give it a serpent’s kiss with no delay. However, other Eritreans have been struggling day and night, for years, to reclaim their true independence, the sanity of their people and the wellbeing of their nation. Alas, as the famous Tigrinya saying goes, kebdi ’des gura-mura (a mother’s womb carries siblings with different characters) it’s confirmed that the saying is very true.

I do not like to engage with racists, supremacists, chauvinists, and bigots. Also, I didn’t get involved in this seemingly endless human struggle because I find the lifestyle of an activist enjoyable. But it’s a destiny that I couldn’t escape; it’s an obligation, a call of duty that I embrace wholeheartedly for the sake of humanity. I wish all good, conscious, and caring citizens will take it as a duty. That is why I am in this struggle. What Eritreans have been dealing with in the past few years is the most annoying, foolish, primitive, and savage discourse that Eritreans ever encountered.

Explaining it all is boring and I don’t want to repeat what I said before; if you wish to see the background to today’s episode, please check the links below in the description.

Recently Erisat treated us to three-part marathon interviews that run a total of about 4 hours and half. It included some outright bigotry, some foolish, and others with a clear fascistic, and isolationist agenda. If not for the beam of light that the honorable Memhir Beyene Kelete sprinkled in the interviews. I just nodded knowing well that some may find it a total disaster and counterproductive because it promotes bigotry to the mainstream. What the justice camp advocates for is damages what they promote. But I don’t mind it because hiccups are a ritual of life and that is only my relative, and subjective view. However, it doesn’t change the fact that it was a megaphone spewing hate speech wrapped and presented as a benign general interview that disappointed me so much, I decided to respond to it.

First, allow me to clear a few misconceived notions that are prevalent among Eritreans.

Insults are not idea’s

I often hear the rhetoric, “you confront ideas with ideas” with bewilderment. Bigotry  piggybacked in “freedom of speech, the usual defense doesn’t cut it. I am all for freedom of speech and my record proves it. And the defense would be valid, provided the topic is beneficial, educational, and presented with basic fairness, and basic knowledge about the issues.

It’s true that ideas can be fought with ideas, preferably, but since when are insults considered ideas? Since when was bigotry, racism, and hate-speech promoted to the level of benign ideas?

There is a classic basic common sense that fresh students of journalism are taught: “shouting FIRE in a crowded hall when there is no fire causes a stampede. That may cause harm to the people and maybe lives would be lost. That is why the action becomes a crime.” We cannot dignify brigandage by considering it freedom of speech, it’s a premeditated crime.”

I also wish those who tirelessly preach the virtues of Hgi Endabba and pretend to respect traditions would come to their senses and realize the contradictions they live in. How do the traditional laws, (and traditions in general), and its councils rule on cases of vilification, defamation, and outright insults? Do they know the penalty for that? Traditionally, for instance,  calling someone a slave, or questioning their race is a serious offence. What would such people decide if they sat on a village council? What is the view of the Eritrean traditions on indecent discourse, something considered NEWRI? What would a court of law in any civilized nation decide on a case of hate-speech? How would a self-respecting court in any country under the rule of law decide?

Unfortunately, some of those who criticize the unjust rule of the PFDJ have taken the same vulgarity to a new level  and adopted it as a guiding principle; in some circles it has become acceptable, nbur koynu!

Swindling the Welfare system Illegal, even in Germany

Also, what would a German court say on swindling the social welfare department? What would the courts say for example, if you stay in school for over a dozen years when you can finish in 3-4 years, just for the purpose of swindling the welfare system? Imagine someone staying in school and delaying graduation because they think it’s smart to keep milking the government—to avoid being told to go out and work  when they can earn without working? Is there a worse case of milking the welfare system meant for the unable people? It’s preposterous to claim moral superiority and preach of virtues while your statements, deeds, and agitations prove you have no virtues at all!

You see, those who live in glass houses should not pelt other people with stones. There! Those of you who feel you were defamed and insulted by the statements of the foul-mouthed. Here is your tool for whatever it’s worth. Importantly, it might help the culprit to learn the virtues of honesty and the importance of rule of law in a society.

Such people know Eritreans are a wronged society, and they have to resist and claim their freedom; others think it’s a dying society and they strive to hasten its death. Promoting such a discourse and helping it become a mainstream topic is a disservice to the nation and to the causes that many peace-loving people are struggling to achieve.

Let me briefly address a few issues, with apologies because this might drag on stretching today’s episode longer than I wish. If so, I will supplement it with one or two more episodes. But hey, I think an over four-hours of pollution requires that much fumigation.

 Lying with a straight face

The culprit says that if you ask a Tigre person (he means a Tigrayit speaker) about his identity, he will reply “Ana Tigre tu” (He is Tigre, in the second person! That is a lie on two (maybe three) counts.

Firstly, he doesn’t know Tigrayit though he pretends he does and boasts about it, but he doesn’t.

He made a basic mistake thrice; if it was once I would have ignored it. But he repeated the same mistake thrice, and I concluded one who speaks the language cannot make such an obvious mistake. Clarification: if you ask an American person, “Are you American?”, he will certainly say, “I am an American”. But he will never say, “He is American”, in the third person, when referring to himself.

Secondly, in the time in question, no one said they are Tigre when asked about their identity, unless he met a rare ideologue (that identity was popularized by a PFDJ as an identity after 1991). Until recently, people identified themselves as Maryay, BeniAmeray, Betjukay, Mensaay, Ad Teklesay, etc. That is a blatant lie because I lived in that era and area, born and raised there not in camps on a sabbatical leave.

“The dismembered Tigray”

The guy refuses to consider himself Eritrean because he says the name was given to the country by foreigners and strangers and says he doesn’t want to be identified as an Eritrean. Fair. But since he has willingly renounced his citizenship, it is appropriate to consider him an alien.

He says they (but from the context and content of his many speeches, he means the Eritrean freedom fighters), divided the “Tigrayans of Eritrea ” and Tigray proper, metatiromma is the Tigrinya word he used. He is bent on dismantling Eritrea and aspires to establish a Puritan Tewahdo Christian country of Tigrinya speakers. Justification? He says that was so in ancient times and mythology attest to that.

For a fleeting second, I worried the Greeks might get the idea and wish to establish a country ruled by a conglomerate of greater and lesser gods. But this Ethiopian mythologist ( a closet ancestral worshipper) doesn’t have qualms about tearing Eritrea to pieces; he works for that end day and night by spreading his poison.

This block (literally) is obsessed with etymology, he thinks root words are enough to know about politics, economics, history, and all knowledge. You have a problem, take refuge in Etymology, the magic root0words teach you everything. He tries to convince people to turn the wheel of history over a thousand years back and that is how the world (meaning his perceived small, claustrophobic world) should live. I wish someone would convince him to elevate his arguments to Epistemology.

But concern is that he uses big words, mostly terminologies related to linguistics and the innocent young are mesmerized by the difficult words that the learned man spews! He uses irrelevant terminologies meant for specialized people. If one uses so much industry or discipline specific terminologies excessively when talking to common listeners, their aim is to waw and mesmerize you. But that is only the sugar coat of the poisoned pills that he wants to make you swallow.

Look, the ontology of the epistemology and the cerebral half of the neurons, that Hemsi is of kemit, and thus the magma and ultrasonic nerve system of the cosmos in metaphysics means the Tahgaryan, is the best….

Did you understand anything?

Of course, not. I just said some meaningless garble of empty words. But I am afraid there are some mailable youth who listen with gaped mouths “He is well educated; he knows a lot of big words.” True, he uses illegal potion to intoxicate his innocent listeners. He is fake. He discourages the young from seeking Western education “strangers” and tells them to resort to our ancient knowledge. Yes, he stayed in German universities for decades learning Geez, the local church language of his birthplace. Here is the true encouragement from ancient times, “seek education even from China, which was the end of the world in ancient times. I encourage the youth to seek knowledge even from a green alien if they get hold of one.

Finally, I would like to end with my favorite saying: “Oh God, protect me from my friends; I know how to deal with my enemies.”

No one can protect you from such manipulative people but yourself, don’t be manipulated and never swallow anything you hear if it is not rationally convincing.

May God protect me from our friends, for I know how to deal with our enemies. Eritrea will prevail.