“Time Traps History in a Lie”

[this article was first published in Feb 24, 2021]

Dear Awate Nation.

I have been AWOL from my Awate for long time. I know I have absconded my responsibility and I apologize. The following is my homecoming gift.

This is also in the Memory of my Beloved Comrade Adhanom who chastised me every time we had telephone chat concerning why I stopped writing articles. The last time we had a chat was on early January 0f 2021. May the Almighty God rest my friend’s soul and Bless his living family.

Time Is The Balm For Our Despondency
Lord, History is weary
Of her unspeakable liaison with Time,
For Time and History
Have never seen eye to eye:
Time laughs at History
And Time and time and time again

Time traps History in a lie by James Baldwin

Time hates Lies. Time hates Evil. Time loves Truth. Time loves Justice. Time loves Peace.
Are we Eritreans doomed, doomed with no hope for recovery? Darkness with no hope for Light? Do we still have faith, faith even the size of a mustard seed? A mustard seed that grows beyond expectations considering its size!! When one sees the mustard plant who would have thought about that insignificant seed? Will this seed be our model of survival? Can we grow and bloom like this miraculous seed?

YET!

What is faith without Hope? Or hope without Faith? Don’t they go together? Aren’t they inseparable twins? Twin pillars that hold steady the good Life? Paul the Apostle wrote “Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen.” Didn’t I write in my article titled “22 questions” the tyrant is constantly working to demolish these two: our faith and hopes, the last vestiges of our existence? For the tyrant knows without these two foundations and fundamentals of life, Eritrean life becomes an open field for evil experimentation; a laboratory for evil research; a field for testing malicious and sick ideas? And all these lead to our DOOM, road to extinction: NON EXISTENCE!

In 1882 Dostoyevsky illuminated this phenomenon in his book “The house of the dead” when he wrote:

“…….I don’t know how it is today, but in the not-too-distant past, there were distinguished people to whom abusing and denigrating victims afforded feeling similar to those of the Marquis de Sade and the marquise de Brinsvilliers. I think that there is something in these sensations that, in these people, make their heart explodes in agonizing delight. There are people like tigers who long for a taste of blood. Anyone who has once experienced this power, this unlimited control over the body, blood and spirit of a man like himself, a fellow creature, his brother in Christ-anyone who has experienced the power to inflict supreme humiliation upon other beings, created like himself in the image of God, is bound to be ruled by his emotions. Tyranny is a habit; it grows upon us and, in the long run, turns into a disease.

Say that most decent man in the world can, through habit, become as brutish and coarse as a wild beast. But then, the bestial side does not develop equally in all men. If the beast in a man overpowers all his other sides, he becomes horrible, monstrous. Blood and power intoxicate; callousness and vise develop; the most abnormal things become first acceptable, then sweet to the mind and heart.

The human being, the member of society, is drowned forever in the tyrant, and it is practically impossible for him to regain human dignity, repentance, and regeneration. One such instance-the realization that such arbitrary power can be exercised-can infect all society; such power is seductive. A society which can watch this happen with equanimity must itself be basically infected.

Thus, the power given to one man or a group of men to inflict bodily and spiritual punishment upon others is a social sore; it is perhaps the surest way of nipping the civic spirit in the bud. It will inevitably lead to the disintegration of society.”

By now, without an iota of doubt, we know our tyrant has an incurable defect: obsessive self- idolatry. Self-idolatry is a perverted will thus anti -life; anti- existence and anti-being. In his being there is no light only shadows and darkness. It is void of life as we know it. He is a self-destructing machine. How can we expect a self-destructing machine to preserve existence to others? Its self-destruction is first exhibited in destroying others because it is through others around him that he becomes aware of his void and miserable existence. Because he is self-idolater he takes everyone outside of him either an enemy or entity of exploitation that facilitates his perverted will. He is also a coward because he is obsessively afraid of his own death. He is a loner and is always on-the-run. His plan and choice is to die the last if it could not be avoided. Look what happened to his past comrades and also watch what will happen to his present comrades. If the Yemanes and others who are close to the evil master think they will be spared they are nuts. If PFDJ operatives inside and outside believe they will be spared they are crazy! As a matter of fact he does not even want to die before his son Abraham or his comrade Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia!

By now I know (I don’t know about you), the tyrant is in reality a non- existent entity – NOTHINGNESS! It sounds contradictory isn’t it? In fact it is not. People are often mistaken of their understanding of the person versus his will. First differentiate the person and his deeds; his character; his values. The tyrant was created Good as everyone else but he chose evil by his own volition. You can describe a person by his or her deeds. Once evil is accepted with volition it defines and judges the person. Evil then becomes the perverted will, motto and action of the person. Then it becomes a true description of the person.

Evil doesn’t have independent existence. It is a shadow and not a substance. It depends on good to exist and corrupt, like shadow needs light and ignorance needs knowledge. Light exists but shadow depends on light to exist. And if the corruption of the good in a creature is completed then evil ceases to exist. It can’t stand on its own because evil is not a created entity. The reason for this is, evil does not divide-and-rule. Its mission is to corrupt the whole (bjimla). The whole is its prize not the partial. It does not want to spare anybody in its wake including itself!! That’s why at the end it ceases to exist. Look what it did and is doing to our people.

In our case it took long… long… time. It takes time to devour the whole. Once I read a pacifist philosophical instruction on how to defeat domestic evil. It says it is better to ignore it and to let evil run its course and not to obstruct it with opposition for confrontation rejuvenates its energy. If you let it do its will then it will run out of its course and will head to oblivion where it came from. By this I understood the goodness and wisdom of Eritrean people. With all the incessant and continual evil they faced they humbly and quietly (to my dismay for a long time but now I hesitantly try to understand the pacifism of our people) bore its burden and now we see the result. The evil could not find nourishment (resistance) in its house and was heading home (called void) but found a new life in the neighboring country called Ethiopia. The evil deeds we hear in Tigray are the evil’s extension of what it did in Eritrea. Evil is extremely vicious when it approaches its end.

Woe!! Woe!! Woe!! To the people of Ethiopia!!

But the good news is if the evil does not succeed in its present endeavour its END has come indeed. And take my word: he is finished. What remains to be done will be to clean the toxic waste that was piled up by the evil. And this will require a massive endeavor. I pray God to furnish us with The PATIENCE of Moses; The PURITY of Samuel; The COURAGE of Daniel; The INTEGRITY of Job; The WISDOM of King Solomon; The JUSTICE of King David; The DEDICATION of Ezra. Then REBUILDING the destroyed Eritrea will be easy.

Is Time running away from us? Is Time conspiring against us? Is Time laughing at us? Or do we still have ample time to act if we have sufficient WILL?

YES! No time is short; no time is empty; no time is useless. If you use it even a millisecond can bring change. What stupendously amazing is The Creation, the big bang! Just in a tiny fraction of a second Bang! And the universe and we are created. Including Time itself!!

One thing to make sure about Time is that none of us own it. It is independent and hates servitude. It does not matter to Time if you use it wisely or foolishly. If you do the former you are prudent but if you do the later you are either lazy or wicked. But Time shouts to us to understand it and recognize it.

It is difficult to understand Time because of our clouded perception. If you see yourself in the mirror you automatically perceive and judge yourself sometimes positively (I am young; I am handsome; I am fulfilled…), sometimes harshly (I am ugly; I am aging; I am useless…). And Time becomes the scapegoat. We become weary and angry with Time. But Time never judges. It is always Present. It sees you at Present. It doesn’t not see you at the Past. It doesn’t see you at the future. Time wants to you to be Present now. Time wants you to See now. Time wants you to Hear now. Time wants you to Bloom now. Time wants you to Act now. Time wants you to Stand Up now. Time wants you to Stop now. Time wants you to Start now. Time wants you to Change now. Time wants you to Repent now. Time wants you to Regenerate now. Time is our friend and our ally. If you change your perception of Time you will be Born Again New and Now.
Every time you encounter Time, Time whispers to you: You are a Baby. You are Young. You are full of Energy. You are Blessed. You are Blooming. You matter. You are Starting. You are Productive. You are Promising. You are Free. You are Graced with Free Will!!

It is not in the nature of Time to “see” the Negative in You!!! The negative in “you” is your own perception.
Once you know and believe this then, you will have new energy; new direction; new enthusiasm which all lead to Victory. And Victory is what all we wish. Victory over evil. Victory over radical evils. Victory over banal evils. Time is the best weapon for EXISTENCE! Time is Good. Time is created Good. Because Time is Good it is the enemy of Lie. That’s why Time is pleading with you:

To Live in Truth;
To Believe in Truth;
To follow Truth;
To defend Truth
To protect Truth and
To Die for Truth.
Didn’t The Good woman taught us “ haki tezareb’mo ab mengedi babur dekis”

If you are like me I had many regrets. Sometimes I liked immersing into “what ifs” but always I hit a Wall- The Wall Of Truth. I end up more miserable than when I started. It took me long to realize that regrets are anti-time. And anything anti-time is a waste. It is also contrary to Grace. Grace is the balm that assuages time. To be grateful is to be Human. To be grateful is to live Life. To be grateful is to live in Truth. To be grateful is to Love your people as you Love yourself. To be grateful is to serve your people as you like to be served. To be grateful means even to Love Your Enemy!!!

The reason why humans delve into regrets is they wanted to erase Pains in their life and substitute it with comfort. But life in this earth without Pain is tasteless and meaningless. The seed has to die; to decay to become fruitful and multiply. Many times it is the Pain we suffer that strengthens our characters, our behaviors, our perseverance and eventually our faiths and hopes. No one suffered like the Eritrean people. Their suffering is a complete not partial suffering. We can’t even compare it to North Korea! But our people through their pain and suffering will emerge anew and invigorated like the mustard seed. They are people of Faith and Hope. Faithfull and hopeful people are optimistic and full of positive energy.

They will not stager, defeated or be resigned to not BEGIN AGAIN!!!

As you all know, God endowed us with free will, meaning unabated freedom to choose and to act what we choose. This free gift furnished to us was meant to choose Good. To choose Love. To choose Peace. To choose Cooperation. To choose Humanity. This gift is given to all humanity without any discrimination. This means free will is not restricted to some. It is the birth right of everyone birthed. If you think only tyrants have free will you are wrong. If you believe only the wealthy have free will you are wrong. If you believe only tyrants or people with power win you are fundamentally WRONG. The difference between them and us is they work hard with determination to further their interest at the exclusion of humanity while the majority opt not to use it.

We are weeping and moaning because of the perverted free will choices of our tyrant and his cabal associates who live and act with no moral frame work or belief in absolute morality. But the big question is don’t we the majority have also equally divine gift of free will choices to live and act in morality and goodness? Why be afraid of evil? Or is it death that we are afraid? If so let’s follow Baldwin’s advice “if you are scared to death, walk towards it”.

But how?

The answer again comes from Baldwin and it is : BEGIN AGAIN!

NOW! NOW! NOW!

In his idea of “begin again” Baldwin followed Revelation 2:5 “Consider how far you have fallen!! Repent, and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” James Baldwin further elaborated this by saying ““When I speak of doing one’s first works over I am referring to the movement of the human soul, in crisis which, then, is forced to re-examine the depths from which it comes in order to strike water from the rock of its inheritance” and he added “To do your first works over means to re-examine everything. Go back to where you started, or as far back as you can, examine all of it, travel your road again and tell the truth about it. Sing or shout or testify or keep it to yourself: but know whence you come.”

To this I will add a marvelous quote by Samuel Beckett: “try again, fail again. Fail better”
That is what brother Sal did in his latest article and for that I praise him.
My heart goes with the people of Tigray in their time of Pain and Suffering.

With Love and Respect
Aklilu Zere