Life is a journey from point to point, although no one can guarantee the destination. We try something expecting to achieve something else within a specified time frame. Whether we accomplish the vision or not, we are conditioned to evaluate the journey in view of time. You work hard for your personal vision or stay idle on it, and move on privately assessing your performance one way or another hoping to do better in the future. When one exclusively deals with personal issues, one reports cumulative performance report to the self for evaluation. People have different time limitations (on weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly basis) for self evaluation and react accordingly on whatever the issue may be. Some of us adjust the causes of shaky consequences contrary to our projections and some stick to their working methods. Those who are not satisfied with their self examination of something in the expiring year may make New Year resolutions to do better and move on.

In my situation, 2017 was a testing year in terms of material objectives. In whatever way my personal life was experienced last year, I cannot help privately evaluating it depending on its consequences, my situation and desires. Why did I get into this to begin with and what were my expectations and their purpose? What did I gain and lose? What should I do this year about it? What are the lessons I learned from the experience and what may be the exit strategy? And most of all, what is my priority at this last chapter of my life? These were very important questions I could not avoid asking myself at the end of last year.

I owe no one to tell my personal experience in 2017 except to myself but I ventured in bad business because of object oriented consciousness and I didn’t like my life condition in 2017 as a result. I suffered for something more than I need for survival and ended up failing to accomplish my material vision. I lost money but I learned important lessens in the process. I know I have the power to change it, stop it or accept it as I project to end it soon based on my current primary objectives of life, which are freedom from the material world and serenity from within my inner self. My experience in 2017 has taught me a lot about life to better live it forward in terms of what I consider important to humanity as a minute element of the universe.

For what I came to understand, it is all about giving without receiving, doing without expecting, acceptance instead of rejection, unconditional interaction with maximum concern and flexibility, humility instead of arrogance, the spirit instead of ego and society instead of the self. It is about knowledge rather than achievement, serving humanity with positive intention than accumulation, loving instead of fearing, compassion to human suffering and doing the best to alleviate the goodies wherever applicable through the power of gratitude. It is about accepting the impermanent nature of life and achieving as much in terms of spirituality, and peacefully facing mortality upon its arrival in its own terms. My self evaluation says that I suffered material shrinkage because of ordinary consciousness but gained stronger spiritual muscle through higher consciousness. The suffering allowed me to clearly identify the purpose of my life. My loss opened the door to the infinite cosmos for me to invest the rest of it for universal wellbeing out of the selfish entrapment of I-NESS. My life is very peaceful now, folks! because I have substantially arrested my ego from navigating my consciousness and stealing the moment.

When a pacifist group organizes in terms of belief or ethnicity, it delivers activity report to the respective communities it assumes to represent. But when a group politicizes its vision by struggling for freedom and democracy, it becomes the people’s property that must report its activities to the owners of the information. As time dies out for another to replace, almost all groups, organizations and institutions conventionally assess their positive and negative performances at the end of each year and face the new year accordingly.

Reality asserts, nevertheless, that the Eritrean society is composed of millions of individuals and tens of civic and political groups. Whatever the individuals privately do with their report may be non of the societies’ business but those of us that claim to be working for the people in organized format must necessarily tell our last year’s stories to the people because they own the disclosure by legitimate right and rational default. What did we do to the people and what have we achieved so far? What went wrong, why and what may we have to do to change? What went well and how can we accomplish more in that regard? How should we deal with the common problem with all the scattered groups in the struggle and encourage others to achieve more; how can we fix the meaningless division and help out? Did the “my way or no way” attitude work and how can we transform it to “our way no matter what” otherwise? How can we unconditionally open the closed door to dialog and together hit the mark in 2018 to achieve our common goal? What can we let go for the sake of the people and unite with our differences in place? And most of all, what is that we as a group fundamentally trying to achieve? These are few questions we need to ask within our groups and deliver comprehensive activity report to the people.

Apparently, a report can be silent, static, progressive or regressive depending on what has been accomplished in 2017. A silent report implies total stillness and taking the people for granted without anything to share with. A static report reflects stagnation and lack of creativity, and only concentrates on condemning the regime for its failures that everyone of us knows by now. The progressive implies incremental achievement while the regressive, failure or getting worse in time.

As the dream for unified struggle kept on shrinking since 2014 after the departure of brother Tewolde Vaccaro in favor of silence, anarchy, increasing number of groups in the podium, it is obvious that Eritreans in civic and political groups must frankly confront their outlooks because something is wrong and something has to change!  What ever they do with their assessment within the group immaterial, all civic, humanitarian and political groups including GI owe the people regressive or progressive report of their last year’s respective performance as honest and soon as possible. I think the report should include something as the follows at minimum;

1.  Efforts made to educate the public pertaining political strategy, methods of accomplishing them and relevant successes and challenges.
2. Education learned from 2017 and amendments proposed for better performance ahead.
3. Degree of public attractions relevant to concrete efforts on the ground.
4. Global suggestion as to what may be done to change the immobile situation in view of the entire civic society and political groups from individual and collective aspects of the struggle for democracy.
5. Ideas about how the civic society can minimize differences, what it should do as a unit to, at least agree on a common strategy for democratic change in Eritrea.

In the mean time, I thank the Eritrean Global Solidarity (EGS) for inviting me to its upcoming Symposium on Friday March 9, 2018 in Washington DC. The message reads as “This year the symposium theme will be Exploring the future: The Role of Eritrean Diaspora Civic Society in the Initiation, Implementation and Consolidation of Eritrean Democratic Transition.” It sounds very promising like its March 8, 2014 Symposium in Virginia on “Exploring Possible Scenarios for Eritrean Transition to Democracy” that was attended by about 10 Eritrean PhDs and Professors overall.

It sounds like the same subject matter will dominate the Symposium four years after the first Symposium was conducted without any follow up information to that effect. I am not sure if there will be progress report about the first Symposium but it seems like EGS is still on exploring mode four years after its actuality. The fact remains, however, that we could have achieved a lot by now based on that initiative. I believe we would have accomplished a common strategy to global leadership and even developed the final strategy of transition to Democracy that I prefer to call the SENED by now. Better late than never, however, and I welcome this Symposium with maximum optimism expecting it to go to the practical stage of the matter through continuous inclusive ambiance with guaranteed progressive life cycle with all concerned citizens of the country. I hope it will open the door for unconditional dialogue learning from the past experience of opacity so we can together expedite the democratic journey of our people that our rigidity held hostage for such a long time, at minimum. It is with this expectation that the distinguished members of GI will participate in the sacred occasion, although I will regretfully miss it because of unavoidable conflicting pre-planed schedule. I wish the best to all participants of the Symposium and hope to hear something new soon.

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