The following is brought to you from the Awate Forum where it was posted by “Gogo” a few hours earlier. We brought it to the frontpage because we believe it gives an insight regarding the promise of salary increase that the Eritrean government gave but didn’t honor.” – Awatestaff
That which has been is that which is. And that which is, is that which might be. Our Lord Hades is bitter and greedy, he will continue to favor anyone and anything which causes agony and death; he will continue to court and welcome the Furies to his underground palace; he will continue to play with his pitchfork to send tremors to every Eritrean household; he will invite the gullible and the naïve among us and the foreign Muzungus who occasionally pay him a visit to sit on the Chair of Forgetfulness; he won’t take pity on us and we will continue to roll the damn boulder uphill. So goes our story.
Long before the news about the salary raise was announced on Facebook and picked by madote and company. the fact that this ministry or that government institution was asked by a circular from the president’s office to restructure its payroll accordingly was widely circulated through the grapevine.
After a Facebooker who goes by a monicker ‘Hagerawi Dhnet’ posted it, every Dr. Pangloss rejoiced and announced the rain of manna. So far, except for those who are newly recruited to the civil service, the manna is yet to rain. Normally, when one enters the government payroll for the first time, as a regular employee or as a national service, one has to wait almost four months before receiving the first installment. So, the delay is not the normal period that takes the civil service administration and the ministry of finance to process new payments or raises. But, one has to be very clear here. With raise or without a raise, life will not essentially change for those who have been at the receiving end of the brutal and degrading rule of the PFDJ. Let me provide some examples:
In the last few days, the government announced through public notices, sub-regional administration and the PFDJ branch offices, and through seminars conducted by high ranking delegates of the ministry of Defense, that the government has granted a few days of amnesty (“መንግስቲ ምሕረት ኣዊጁ ኣሎ”) to all new and veteran military service dodgers and asked them to report to their units immediately.
This was accompanied by occasional round-ups in different parts of Asmara. So, pay or no pay, the primary driver for the exodus of our people will still be there.
Since the ban on contraband trade was announced, the shortage of basic consumer goods has been very acute. To calm worries, government officials have been telling the people that the GOVERNMENT will import basic commodities and distribute them at cheaper prices. So far, nothing has been done and people are seriously suffering.
To make matters worse, severe restrictions are imposed on money transactions and people are forced to explain every transfer of every penny. I am told that the new workloads have proved too burdensome for the banks and they are actively sabotaging the process. (This might be responsible for the heart-stroke that recently visited Mr. Kebreab, the Governor of the Bank of Eritrea, who is abroad for medical treatment).
The new call to duty of new and veteran military dodgers, coupled with the increasing economic hardship made worse by the recent change in the currency and banning of the black market economy, might be a fertile ground for some new dynamics. The recent acts of the government have been too bold and have antagonized some powerful interest groups in the army and elsewhere that it might provoke some strong reactions.
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