The Massawa-Mekele-Addis-Ababa Railway
Back in the day, aboy Tewelde had a masonry stone hauling truck. To this day, no car company has built a truck like it. It was slow, therefore it doesn’t need brakes, it’ didn’t have lights because it moved only during the day; it didn’t have hoot because aboy Tewelde would take his head out through the glassless window or door and alert the people. If they didn’t move quickly, he got agitated and screamed at them: maledetto, alges…
Every morning as I walked to school, I saw the famous aboy Tewelde from Keren-Laalay at the Agip gas station as he prepared his truck for the day—he placed a cloth dumped with kerosene, put it on top of the engine, stroked a matchstick, and woosh, he set it on fire.
I wondered why it didn’t burn until I discovered everything in the truck was made of metal pipes, and no plastic—it seems. The fires heated the engine to help it start, cold engines need heating. Then he rolled a rope on a circular wheel– Uno, Due, Tre, and with the help of a few others, violently pulled it until the engine was fired up. At that time, the exhaust pump spit out dark smoke of burned diesel oil, trumm, trummm, trummm, and the engine was on. He climbed on the cabin, sat behind the wheel, and headed to the outskirts of town, to the quarries, where he loaded enough basalt rocks and hauled it to the construction sites—I think he hauled at least three loads for every house or fence wall that was built in Keren at that time. So, when I tell you how colorful Keren is (was?), it’s not for the physical things it was endowed with, but for its more colorful residents.
The PFDJ propaganda machine copied aboy Tewelde’s trick; every now and then they warm up their followers with single doses of energy. Then they run their mouth with lies, deceits, and preposterously baseless claims. Then they calm down until they get another dose for the following cycle of arrogance.
When there is nothing to boast about, they become as cold as aboy Tewelde’s old truck and it’s time to burn some kerosene to warm them up. That’s their life, an empty cycle of tasteless theatrics.
Two Telly Savalas look alike!
My subject for today is a model journalist whose honesty radiates through the screen as he speaks with authority. Please put your sunglasses on to protect your eyes from the screen radiation.
A few days ago, a friend sent me a clip in which the man announced some serious PFDJ feel-good news, on social media. My friend asked me, ‘Do you know this guy, Who is he?’ I didn’t recognize him at first, but he looked familiar. And since I am very curious, I decided to find out who he was by looking at his innocent face and closed my eyes to concentrate. I was not going to sleep without remembering where I saw him. Finally, I did. Ah, I saw him once interviewing the late Alamin Mohammed Saeed in 2018. Throughout that interview, he was dealing soft ball questions to Alamin with with a big smile sculpted on his face; he shook his head repeatedly to show his admiration for the responses, or he couldn’t help but be nice. What a respectful journalist he was for treating authority in such a timid way. Today my admiration of him increased. As for you, it depends on your perspective. However, I discovered I have mistaken one propagandist for another—and both, Yared and Tedros, resemble Telly Savalas. They look alike—not too off-mark. It’s a negligible yet embarrassing mistake; consider it “Wax and Gold” play. That was the wax (sem), now let’s go for the gold (werqi).
The Gold, not the wax
How do I know he is close to the PFDJ? His language says, so, even before the PFDJ announces its intentions, he does it with so much confidence, a typical Seber-zena delivery.
Also, today I am in a good mood, and I will carefully share my impression of him. Honestly, though, I don’t know if he is as important within the PFDJ as he seems to be judging from his overly confident posture. But regardless, he has brought good news and you must be happy; he said that: (the song BE Happy).
The character for Negarit 282 has come loaded with seven bombshell news items, insulting our intelligence with each of his make-believe news items, just like the rest of the propagandists. Here they are:
- agreement worth $4 million was signed between Eritrea and USA—
He didn’t mention what the money was for or who signed the agreement on behalf of the two governments, but he knows that, You just listen and be Happy. - Eritrea has drilled gas, a kilometer away from Massawa—If it is in the north of the city, Isola Verde, they better stop polluting the green island. If southeast, Grar may come on the way, if it is in the west, the entry and exit to the port may be disrupted. However, I am all for drilling I hope they just drill in.There is an urban legend, and I will share it with you: once, a man used to come to town carrying a can filled with kerosene or the like. He sold it and left to his home. His life has improved. Rumors started in the town that an old well gushed out on the outskirts, and he was filling a can every night and selling it in town. The authorities heard about it and he was questioned and led them to his well. They removed the sand and found out a large storage tank buried underground. The rumors continued, with a slight change: it was claimed the Italians buried the tank during World War II. It was forgotten until the poor man found it. The rumor that oil gushes from the shores close to Massawa never stopped and has become an urban legend. This doesn’t mean there is not oil underneath Massawa, every spot in the world has, The issue is whether drilling is economically feasible. I am not sure if we have it, how deep it is, or what will cost to drill it. And the PFDJ is not telling us.
- ShoAan, a South Korean company, agreed to build three five-star hotels in Massawa, very modern hotels.
Who owns ShoAan company? Who is the contractor or operator? Who owns the hotels? He forgot to tell us—and I couldn’t find the name of the company on the internet, I asked a Korean and he said I must have heard it wrong. I wish t journalist would send me the correct spelling of AhoAan in Korean script if that’s not much to ask. I and many others will help spread the good news.
- All necessary preparations were made to build 750 modern villas in Gurgusum, near the airport.
Again, the owner, the building start date, or the name of contractor were not disclosed—he may tell us in due time.
- (This is big.) an Italian company agreed to build a modern railway from Massawa, to Asmara, and on to Addis Ababa.
Here also, he didn’t say the Italians agreed with whom, the cost, etc. He repeated modern in every sentence, sometimes he emphasized “very modern”. I am glad they are not building an eighteenth-century railway in 2024—it must be modern. I also wish to suggest that the railway be extended to reach Kampala in Uganda and Kigale in Rwanda–what’s a few hundred kilometers more!
- A new Asmara will be built in Adia Halo, near it, in a place called Asha golgol, a new Asmara, near addi-Halo, like Dubai, new. The old Asmara, since it’s designated a protected city by UNESCO, it will be limited to tourism. But the new Asmarino, asmarino new, will be created now.
This is confusing: UNESCO had also designated Massawa a protected port about two decades ago. Plans need to be revised. They can’t build anything on a UNESCO city! It has to become a tourist city like Asmara; they better build a new Massawa, if they can find Asha-gologol.“Now the Eritrean government has started to work, that means towards development. Therefore, what I have always called for, development, peace and development—this is its result. Eritrea still has many mines, many-many mines. Deaar, e’ee’eee’ eah eee.ye esssae. Stone, precious stones is available in 75% of the Eritrean territory. There is benzene, there is gas, there is gold, all of that, now, it’s the end, President Isaias is focusing on these…” Tedros
This is the propaganda onslaught that I have warned you about many times. It’s been waged vigorously since they launched the current phase. Meanwhile, the Eritrean pro-justice camp is atomized, carrying embarrassing stains, and several of the media outlets that we had as allies have changed directions, and you know the tragedy of asmarino.com; the few remaining are out-resourced and outgunned. What are we going to do about it? Maybe start wearing t-shirts with slogans like these, “Lomi shaebya, tsbaH shaebiya” and invite more religious clowns to empower us or infuriate us—why do I say that? You don’t know, and we have a new king of Eritrea named Yosief, appointed in Addis Ababa! If that is not enough, maybe we can all go to Asmara with drums and sing, Wesede, ayay beAal sre.
NB: This is a rough translation of the content delivered on my YouTube channel, @negarit.
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