HERE AND THERE
Dedicated to President Afwerki’s said grandma Medhin
By Fetsum Abraham

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• REMINDER
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• It so seems like people are reading the articles and responding as well but the way we are communicating does not make sense for the most part. This forum should help uniting us by being tolerant to other ideas and it should not separate us at all. People differ in opinions and they must be respected for it. We can not reject ideas and abuse people because we do not agree with them. That is what we are trying to change in Eritrea. Our success in having freedom at home depends on how tolerant we are with each other. We need to check out our ego and humbly accommodate all ideas if we can. That is the concept of democracy and we should apply it if we genuinely fight for it.
• The issue boils down to why we want change in Eritrea? The answer may be to democratize the country and to be governed by law. To have a neutral justice system and a Constitution. If this is our political philosophy, we must practically live the philosophy.
• At minimum, democracy means tolerance of opinions; to respectfully challenge ideas with ideas. In my observation from the responses to my articles, some of us have the tendency to read something between the lines and conclusively attack someone by assumption. We need to stop doing this because it does not help our goal. Try to take the words as they come and stop picking negative stuff out of them to assault others based on how you interpret them. This is the president’s style of communication. Mr Afwerki has in few occasions personalized questions in publicized interviews. He, for instance once accused the Aljazira Journalist of serving the interest of the west when she asked him questions related to democratic election, prisoners, and the refugee crisis in our country. She was just doing her job professionally but he called her a messenger of the CIA and abused her in public. This practice is against the concept of democracy and we should stop following it in favor of standing for our rights to express our individual opinions on anything. We can not have our thoughts respected while disrespecting other views for this is like having a cake and eating it too: asking for justice from the international community while killing it at home! I bet this sound familiar!
Further, you can not fight for the cause of democracy if you dwell on HAIMANOT and AWRAJAWINET. You are actually serving the dictator if you do so. That is what Afwerkism wants you to do by deliberate national policy. Please refrain from this destructive energy that does not help the progressive mission in the ground at all. There is one concept of Eritreaness: to be part of that society by blood or by concept. When one bleeds of injustice in any Eritrean region, all Eritrens from all ethnic groups should feel it as a family. The only reason Eritreans achieved their independence is because they challenged the problem together as a family. Our diversity is the strength of our united nationhood. We can not achieve anything good in Eritrea fractured with religious and ethnicity oriented mentality. Remember that you are heading on to a democratic society and you shall get ready for it practically: let us promote democratic values by communicating in a democratic fashion! Ignore those who infiltrate to provoke division based on religion, ethnicity, etc.: please do not miss the focus, which is a UNITED FRONT that comprises different ethnic backgrounds, outlooks and beliefs.

• Another disappointing interaction in the forum aims at preaching the notion that the president was a non-Eritrean who was grand-mothered by a woman called MEDHIN BERAD. I found this extremely uncivilized and annoying folks! because it takes a lot of positive energy out of the real issue on the ground; a reckless effort against the democratic cry of the Eritrean people that gives Afwerkism another day of life. We have to be civilized if we say we were fighting for a civilized government. Accept Afwerki as an Eritrean because he is one. Where is the beef otherwise? Do not waste time and energy on this garbage because you can not change that; nor can you convince people that he was not, needless to say that it does not matter at all. The question is not his identity but his unacceptable leadership. Attack the problem directly without diverting the issue. This should be the case in dealing with all the people in his political circle in my opinion. I do not know about you but to me, the Kishas, the Monkeies and all other individuals in the government are Eritreans by historical and circumstantial objectivity. Please try to focus on the Eritrean quest for freedom and constitutional rights in order to expedite the answer.

• Further, Afwerki’s grandma has nothing to do with what her grand son chose to be as a person. She is after all an innocent sufferer of the pain induced by Italian and Ethiopian colonialism respectively in terms of Racial and Ethnic Apartheid like all Eritreans in her generation: a sufferer of Afwerkism, an equally destructive socio-political philosophy that denied her people the freedom of peaceful survival in the mother land like the colonizers vis-a-vis her generation.

Folks; the tragic downfall of Afwerki should have caught his family by a melancholic surprise. They should really be disappointed by how he turned out to be more than the ordinary Eritreans. The brothers and sisters in the family must be metaphysically disturbed about his situation, at least in my opinion. I feel sorry for them from heart for losing the opportunity of enjoying their brother’s anticipated progressive leadership with maximum respect and love from the people forever. Unfortunately, life does not go according to the plan; the president sadly cut it short for them and of course for all of us. Afwerki disgraced his siblings and they deserve sympathy and love rather than abuse. They are Eritrean victims of the system like all of us in the family, ladies and gentlemen! Please be careful with your words my fellow Eritreans! you do not want to hurt a broken hurt. Stop insulting them through the terrible expression for the sake of compassion and fairness.

• There I see another disaster in this style of addressing an individual. By calling the dictator “WEDI BERRAD” you are undermining your intelligence and insulting our poor people who make a living through the profession of KUMIRINA. KUMIRINA is a job that poor East Africans are circumstantially conditioned to do to support their families. There is nothing wrong with this folks! and you should stop this negative attitude towards our people specially the hard working mothers. They did not chose to be KOMARO for heavens sake! they were forced to be by unfortunate causes and effects of survival. REMEMBER that you are trying to change the economic situation of our people through this resistance and you can not contradict the mission by rejecting our people based on economic class. Grandma Medhin, assuming she is real is our mother like any other Eritrean mothers. She deserves love and respect from all of us.
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In the mean time, I feel sorry for the innocent grandma abused left and right by some irresponsible Eritreans. I feel sorry about the unprovoked assault of the users of the expression against the poor woman who has nothing to do with Afwerki’s spiritual decadence. I feel sorry for Afwerki’s brothers and sisters who share her for a grandma to be in this terrible situation because of their brother. You can not pretend fighting against poverty in your country and contradict yourself by doing the opposite; nor can you challenge it by humiliating its victims. You need to live your outlook practically if you want to make a difference in the society; with all respect to you my dear Eritreans! You are exposing your grandmas for abuse by abusing somebody’s grandma. In light of my humble appeal for respect to humanity; grandma Medehin has become my symbol of compassion to abused people without provocation like Dawit Issacc has been the icon of my resistance against Afwerkism. It is with this vision in mind that I decided to dedicate this little input to our innocent mother Medhin.