In other words, this is a retrospective of the Horn of Africa. Mostly. Very subjective of course: 130 things. Warning: it is so long (you are welcome), it had to be divided into two halves: 1-65 and 66-130. By the time you are done reading both halves, we will need a new one for 2019.
When we started the year, Eritrea and Ethiopia were frozen in some time capsule, with their governments–Weyane and hgdef–having a vanity contest: I am badder than you, mine is bigger and I can pee further. They had a “what are you prepared to give up to win” contest and Eritrea won! It was willing to give up the most: one out of every eight of its citizens exiled, and a country littered with prisons housing all sorts of dangers to society including underaged children. Meanwhile, the Weyane who (a) had Ethiopia by the throat for 27 long years as they pretended some thingy called EPRDF was in charge but (b) were not willing to shoot their way to stay on top (pussies!) surrendered power. Yay! Victory! We are Number 1 in Africa!
But we are getting ahead of ourselves, going too fast to June.
1.Eritea’s New Low: Underage Prisoners: It all started terribly enough, as it has forever and a day. A private school principal, Haji Musa, spoke; Haji Musa was arrested; Haji Musa died in prison; Haji Musa was buried. And throughout, young admirers of Haji Musa, some as young as 13, were arrested. AND ARE STILL ARRESTED. This will be useful to remember when we forward to June and July and August and you guys are getting all giddy and orgasmic about the goddamn peace treaty: in Eritrea, peace and the peace dividend hasn’t gotten through to the jailers.
2.AFCTA: But Africa is more than Eritrea and in March Africa signed the Kigali Declaration. Da Boss of the AU was ecstatic: “44 out of 55 member states signed the #AfCFTA, 43 signed the Kigali Declaration and 27 signed the Protocol on Free Movement of Persons,Right to Residence and Right to Establishment, sealing the deal of continental economic integration!” Good for you Moussa Faki Mahamat!
Of course, Eritrea was not one of the 44 nations. Eritrea was mad at the world and it just didn’t feel like signing no stinking agreement because the last #FinalandBinding Agreement it signed was ignored by the world. The world, in this case, being the US and Khedemti of the US, which means Weyane.
3. Just IGAD Paid: Business as usual as the European Union and Australia gave IGAD €42 million for… I forget. Stop sending us refugees? Eritrea was still huffing and puffing about IGAD for its mealy-mouthed response to Ethiopia when Ethiopia, invited by the official government of Somalia, invaded Somalia. Somalilanders would never have done that, which makes them superior to Somalis and I can say that because I am not in Minnesota.
4. Saudis Still Bombing Yemen: Meanwhile, I know when your grandchildren ask you, “hey grandpa/ma, what where you doing when the savage Saudis were bombing Yemen?” you are going to pretend you weren’t paying attention, but you can’t now, because I did this:
Saudi air attacks in Yemen: One-third of attacks hit non-military sites, 212 of air raids targeted schools; 57 factories, 44 historical buildings and 44 mosques destroyed https://t.co/bQMcTZfZm7— Harun Maruf (@HarunMaruf) March 22, 2018
(Hint: I will be doing that often here, and we are only in March.)
5. Female Half-Marathon Record Broken: You are not one of those boring all-politics-all-the-time humans, are you? You are? Well then you won’t appreciate that the phenom Netsanet Kebede of #Ethiopia became the world half marathon champion and broke the world record. Take it easy: FEMALE half marathon record! #Eritrea’s Zeresenay Tadesse is still the world record holder! Until October, anyway but we are still in March, so slow the hell down. We are still in March when Ethiopia was STILL arresting journalist Eskinder Negga because, according to their stupid Anti-Terrorist Proclamation (ATP), he was a terrorist.
6. Booya! President Paul Biya Won’t Say Byea-Byea: This writer is fond of saying that his demands are not a lot: he would be happy enough if #Eritrea could just manage to be a typical African basket case instead of this freakish thing it has become. This annoys both Eritrean idealists and Pan-Africanist who don’t even understand what I mean. Well:
DAKAR (Reuters) – Cameroon’s octogenarian President Paul Biya, who has ruled the central African country with an iron grip for decades, held his first cabinet meeting since 2015 on Thursday, using it to urge better economic policy and touting successes against insurgents. Biya very rarely convenes his cabinet, and past meetings have resembled lectures more than discussions. It was not clear if anyone else spoke on Thursday.
7. Sudan Closes Its Borders With Eritrea: Oh man, we are still in March? So what crazy thing happened in March. Sudan closed its borders to Eritrea because the latter allegedly deployed Egyptian troops in Sawa to attack it, then Sudan got three Mig jet aircrafts from Qatar (two Qatari and 1 Ethiopian pilot) and I know what you are thinking. Qatar has pilots? Shame on you. Qatar was allegedly going to help Sudan defend itself against Eritrea/UAE, then Sudan got the “radical Islamic cleric Mohammed Jumma” to establish a base and then, and then, and then, they formed the “Joint Sudanese-Ethiopian Defense Unit” and…wait. Who is this “radical” Islamic cleric Mohammed Jumma that the UAE considers the most “influential” Eritrean and you are saying, “if he is so influential, how come I have never heard of him?”
8. JEM-Dabajo Military In Eritrea: Also back in March, if you are still paying attention, the Political Secretary of JEM-Dabajo (that is the Dabajo-led offshoot of Darfur’s Justice & Equality Movement) said that the organization has a military camp in Eritrea, led by a certain Abdallah Ogas. So, if you are still counting, there were 4 Ethiopian armed groups hosted by Eritrea–OLF, ONLF, Arbegnoch, TPDM–who have all returned home and 1 Sudanese armed group and 1 Djibouti armed group. The last 2, JEM-Dabajo and FRUD are still waiting for #Gameover Djibouti and Sudan edition.
9. Did You Know “Allahu Akber” Is Sectarian and Inflammatory?: The UN appointed yet another Rapporteur on Eritrea, this time on Freedom of Religion or Belief. The Rapporteur was asking why did you arrest Eritreans who were escorting the body of Haji Musa to his resting place. The Government of Eritrea (that famed guardian of tolerance, religious harmony, co-existence etc, etc) replied, well, “after the prayers, the unruly group, who were chanting sectarian and inflammatory slogans all the way, proceeded to Liberation Avenue and the Ministry of Education.” The children were chanting “Allahu Akber, Allahu Akber” which is sectarian and inflammatory in, say, Coeur d’Alin, Idaho. But not in a city where it is shouted in microphones 5 times a day. A 12-year old was one of those guilty of “chanting sectarian and inflammatory slogans all the way…”
Of course, not everyone who is arrested is 12 years old. That would be an exaggeration. Some are 13, some 14, and some 15 years old:
10. One Man Election Yields One Man Rule: Over at Rwanda, Paul Kagame, who, to his shock and horror, found out that his fans (without his knowledge or direction) had modified the constitution to allow him yet another term after the next three terms, had to endure the indignity of competing for the office of the presidency. Diane Rwigara was going to compete with him and then the totally independent Rwanda Revenue Authority found out that she owes millions in taxes, in arrears, and she was hauled to jail. Because he is a law-and-order kind of president.
11. An Ethiopian journalist sneaks out a letter from jail which reads as follows:
Our condition in prison is inhuman, to say the least. Better to call it jam-packed than imprisoned. About 200 of us are packed in a 5 by 8 meter room divided in three sections. Unable to sit or lay down comfortably, and with limited access to a toilet. Not a single human being deserves this, regardless of the crime, let alone us who were detained unjustly. The global community should be aware of such a case and use every possible means to bring an end to our suffering.
–Eskinder Negga/March 29
Everybody in the world, but most touchingly, the PFDJ was outraged by this. Except that the UN’s Commission of Inquiry has reported the PFDJ is guilty of similar and much worse human right violation of Eritreans and, every year, the journalism advocacy groups say Eritrea has the most journalists in prisons in sub Saharan Africa.
12. Ain’t Too Proud To Vogue: In a move that foreshadowed what would happen in Ethiopia in a month, Nigerians created a #NotTooYoungToRun movement to replace the tired old men (always men) of Nigerian politics. This is before Nigeria created the conspiracy that its president died in London and a look-alike from Sudan is standing in for him now. But we are getting way ahead of ourselves.
13…. Made Glorious Spring By The Son of Ahmed
14: Ethiopian Reforms Part 1: Zone 9 Bloggers Freed.
15. Paging Nusrat Fateh Ali khan: On April 12, Mogadishu hosted the “7th International Sufi Conference.” So what, you say. So what? Have you ever seen a Sufi Muslim do anything remotely crazy that is harmful to others? This was revolutionary in the dark version of Islam the Wahabi/Selefi sects of Al Shabab and Al Ajuz (all friends of Isaias Afwerki) brought to Somalia.
16. Africa is like the NBA: the West Always Bests the East, Except When It Doesn’t (See the East Africa Economic Outlook 2018): In the more advanced part of Africa (sorry East Africans), Ghana won the Seedstars Global Prize (that’s $500,000 prize) at the Seeds Stars Summit, a global start-up competition. The award was given to “AgroCenta” which created a system for food access across Ghana. Stop crying, Kenya’s Solar Freeze was the winner of the Africa Energy Prize and took home $50,000.
And I don’t want to beat up on our lame portion of Africa but Nigerian Achebe’s classic “Things Fall Apart” was named by Encyclopedia Brittanica as one of 12 novels which are “the greatest books ever written.”
17. East Africa: Please Stop Arresting People For No Reason: Related to the above. Over here, Somaliland. No, here. Listen up: sure, you are better than anything we got in the Horn of Africa but I can’t advocate for your independence and tell anyone who will listen how great you are if you keep jailing poets like Naima Abawaan Qorane for “anti-national activity.” Please stop!
18. Eritrea Says “Yes” To Same Stuff It Said “No” To 9 Years Ago: (A Series): On April 25, 2018 the Government of Eritrea accepted the same terms it had turned down, since 2009: a visit by US Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Donald Yamamoto. You will recall that it had very loudly rejected a phone call from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for TEN DAYS and a visit by Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Johnnie Carson. Why wasn’t Isaias Afwerki taking a phone call from Hillary Clinton before Eritrea was sanctioned? The US Ambassador to Eritrea had this report:
At a dinner July 1, the ambassador got Justice Minister Fawzia Hashim and Tourism Minister Askalu Menkerios to share warm reminisces about the visit. Askalu recalled planting a tree in the grounds of a rural clinic, and Fawzia said the luncheon with Eritrean women leaders was very special. When the ambassador mentioned that we have been trying for ten days to get a call through from the Secretary to President Isaias, both ministers stopped smiling and looked down at their plates. “Well, he has been traveling a lot lately,” one of the ministers lamely offered. They appeared to be surprised and uncomfortable with the news of their president´s obstreperousness.
Wikileaks, 02.07.2009: ISAIAS SPURNS QADHAFI´S AU INVITATION
19 Another 80-yr old African Discovers Immortality: Alpha Conde, the president of Guinea, said that he has to get rid of term of limits because they get in the way of politicians making fine, strategic, long-term plans for their beloved countries. He is 80 years old and he has been Guinea’s president for only 10 years. In completely unrelated news, Guinea is ranked 183 (dead bottom is 188) in UNDP human development index.
20. Ethiopian Reforms – Part 2: Journalist Eskinder Negga is free and re-reunited with his wife and child.
21: What Was That Thing You Said About West Africa? There is one business in Ethiopia that thrives whether the government is Haile Selasse, Derg, Weyane or…whatever the name of Abiy Ahmed’s coalition is. You can’t see this and not imagine a soundtrack, preferably Asennai’s Ahlen Wo Sahlen
22: East Africa: Please Stop Displacing Your People! Over at Burundi (sorry, East Africa again), there are still over half a million Burundians (total population: 10 million) internally displaced because one guy says that God wants him to be president, or something.
23: An Afar Eritrean Woman Invented Writing, Amirite? One of the many sad mutations of the EPLF is Alamin Mohammed Said. He is trotted out every time the Eritrean government has done sometime monstrous and needs what our Ethiopian neighbors call ፈንጅ ረጋጭ (a human mine-sweeper.) So, what about the government arresting Eritrean Muslim underage kids because they were “chanting sectarian” stuff?
Four hundred years ago, we were writing. Before the Europeans can write! [Sure, Alamin.] Also, the first human was an Afar woman. [sure, there was no language nor ethnicity with first humans, but whatever.]
We are a civilized people. We are a cultured people. We are a secular country: I am at the offices of the People’s Front (it is actually PFDJ), there can’t be a cross and a picture of St Mary hanging in the office. Just like I can’t go to a priest or a sheikh and tell him what to preach on Sunday or Friday. We are a secular country. And we can’t have religion in the government or our schools. Sure, we may teach religion as a subject. But we can’t use religion as a basis to admit or to deny admission. Otherwise, we will be like all these countries in the region whose people are at each other’s throats. Arrest? Yes, we will arrest people if they endanger our unity. Human rights? There are countries who claim to be democratic with human rights where people go to bed hungry and are homeless. We have human rights here and nowhere else in the world. Healthcare, clean water, food: that’s human rights. And we have it here. I can travel anywhere, get on a bus, with nobody asking me where or why.
24. Palestinians Ask Ethiopia and AU to Help: Ah, Palestine. Remember Palestine? You should: they started their armed struggle in 1961. Aaaaaanyway. When the Trump Administration pretty much gave up any US pretense of neutrality in the Israel-Palestine conflict, the Palestinian authority invited Ethiopia and the African Union to replace the US in the mediation. Eritrea Digest has a secret recording of Addis Ababa’s response: cricket, cricket, cricket.
25. President Isaias & The Eritrean People: You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet: The definitive relationship between President Isaias Afwerki and the People and State of Eritrea was explained in this May 2018 cartoon shared by the indefatigable Aida Kidane:
26: Ethiopian Reforms Part 3: The Oromo Democratic Front issues a statement saying it will participate in the reform moment.
27. If You Want To Know What Is Wrong With Eritrea (A Series): This is Semhar Habtezion. Her dad is Habtezion Hadgu, Commander of Eritrean Airforce, disappeared since 2003. That is 15 f*&king long years. She is wearing his shirt because at one point it used to smell like him. So when you frigging PFDJites and you Militia Taff and you langa langa accuse us that it is all personal with us, you bet your cowardly little ass it is. Thank you. By the way, the above is all my message. Semhar is too classy, too subtle, too dignified to say what I just said.
28: May 24, Eritrean Victory Day. You call it Independence Day. Anyway, your president was interviewed by his State Media. And he said (remember this is before Abiy Ahmed’s unconditional acceptance of the Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Claim decision):
ሓያላን ዓለም ዝባሃሉን ናይ ዞባና ጎብለላት ኢና ባሃልትን: ሓንከርትን: መጋበርያታቶምን: በብዝመስሎም ኣጃንዳታትን ጸወታትን ኣብዝሓለፈ ልዕሊ 75 ዓመታት ዝፈጠሩልና ብድሆታት ኣብ ዝኽርታትና ስለዘሎ: ናይ መጻኢ ሲናርዮታት ዝትፋላለዮ ድብልቕ ወይ ምጽንባር ኣጀንዳታት; ብጥንቃቐ ተገንዚብና; ናይ ጉዕዞና መርሓ ጎደናታት ክንቅይስ ጉቡእ እዩ፥፥ ኣብ ኩሉ ተኽእሎታት ግን ኣእዳውና ኣጣሚርና ክንዕዘብ ዘይኮነ ብዘይ ዘውጊ ብንጥፈት ክንዋሳእ ድሉውነትና ምሕያል ኣብ ቦትኡ ክህሉ እዩ::
Because the challenges created by the agendas and whims of the purported super powers, the self-proclaimed dominant destabilizers, and their hirelings over the past 75 years are in our memories, we will carefully observe future scenarios and hybridized or alloyed agendas and it is a must for us to plot our journey’s roadmap. But within all our capabilities, its not for us to fold our arms and wait, but strengthening our readiness to participate actively and without bias will be in its place.
29. Ethiopian Reform Part 4: G-7 and Arbegnoch (It has a long name) leader, Andargachew, picked up from Yemen, accused of being a terrorist and given a death sentence, is released from jail. And takes a pic with PM. Abiy Ahmed.
30: Eritrean Absence Of Reform (A Series): I know you don’t want to be reminded of this. You want to believe that Eritrea has turned a new page; peace and prosperity are around the corner and we are all reconciled and those who are not reconciled are not Eritreans anyway, screw them. Right? Here’s 20 something year old Vanessa putting you to shame reminding you of her uncle:Seyoum Tsehaye. …And here are the children of Petros Solomon (arrested since 2001) and Aster Yohannes (arrested since 2003) reminding you of your obligations as Eritrean citizens to speak up, fearlessly, unambiguously, about their parents. Oh, does that make you uncomfortable? Does it remind you what a weasel you have been? Tough.
31. Ethiopian Reform Part 5: The “Whaaa??” Edition Ethiopia accepts the EEBC ruling without preconditions.
32. Ethiopian Reform: Part 6 – Reconciliation. Exiled OLF honchos Abebe Geresu and Yonatan Dubisa abandon their base in Eritrea and return home.(This was when Isaias was still AWOL and hadn’t responded to Abiy’s peace pipe. That is Abiy telling Isaias: the Ethiopian soldiers in Eritrea will come with or without your blessing so how about you pretend to be a peace broker?)
33. Why People Called Eritrea-Ethiopia “Two Bald Men Fighting Over A Comb”: everybody has a border dispute but we are the only ones who killed and maimed close to a quarter million over it. Back then, it was Ethiopia’s turn to win the “what are you willing to give up” pissing contest.
34. Why Is Quality of Education So Poor In Ethiopia? PM Abiy went to Somalia but not to laminate the past. (Take it easy, I like the guy.) But this is a reflection of the very poor education system in Ethiopia, where a university graduate with post grad degree can’t differentiate between “lament” and “laminate”, which I think is the Derg’s fault:
35. A Modest Citizen’s Offer For Peace: Before the PFDJ flock were given permission by their cult leader to love Abiy Ahmed, an Eritrean citizen made a modest offer. There is a street in Asmara called “Abo.” Just change the “o” to “i.”
36. The Flock Are Given A Catchphrase: On June 20, the psychotic man in charge of Eritrea gave an address on the occasion of the day he unilaterally decided was Martyr’s Day. This is when he gave the true believers a phrase they would use for the next six months (#GameOver), praised Donald Trump, and told us he is sending delegates to Ethiopia for a fact-finding mission. In other words, this was the Tipping Point. We didn’t know the point past tipping was full tilt.
37. When Confused, Best Thing To Do Is Not Ask Questions: Why are we going to Ethiopia after saying, for 14 years, we wouldn’t until they withdraw from our land? This obviously confused some of the cult members of the PFDJ. It was time for one of the self-appointed cadres, Elias Amare, to tell them to shut the hell up and await revolutionary instruction from the revolutionary leaders: “We’ve entered a critical time when revolutionary iron discipline is crucial,” he wrote, “And there is no place for second-guessing the leadership. Silence & hightened vigilance is golden.” He signed it, ironically, with his favorite borrowed phrase, A Luta Continua: the struggle continues.
38. What Is Wrong With Eritrea: Drunk Ambassadors: Eritrea’s Ambassador to Japan, Estifanos Bruno. When he is not getting drunk and watching Japanese television, he is getting drunk and tweeting. Below is a translation of what he tweeted in Tigrinya. Again, this guy is an AMBASSADOR representing a State. Sadder still, this is not the REAL him. This is the person he had to create to pass as a PFDJite. Again, this is an ambassador representing the State of Eritrea.
“Where you from?
Dekemhare-le-le
What has le-le got to do with Dekemhare?
Ah, that was the era we were born.
*le-le is supposed to be what Tigrayans add to words that Eritreans never would. In this case, a Tigrayan pretending to be from Dekemhare, Eritrea busted by an Italian official via use of his peculiar Tigrayan Tigrinya
39. Side Effects Include Imagining An Ethiopian Flag: One random day in June 2018, the Government of Eritrea hang the Ethiopian flag on the flagpole of the Municipality of Asmara. This has great symbolism for Eritreans (the flag pole has seen Eritrean flag of the federation, Ethiopian flag after dissolution of federation, post-independence dual flags of Eritrea and EPLF, and then post referendum official flag.) Then, one day in June, the Ethiopian flag was flying with ZERO explanation and this was the reaction in Asmara:
40. There Will Be Pillars And The UN Will Pay For Them: Remember what the Final & Binding was supposed to do? Install pillars! Border! A wall! That America will pay for, after it got Mexico to pay for it. Whatever. So all that was forgotten but now we have a FIVE PILLAR JOINT DECLARATION OF PEACE & FRIENDSHIP. What does that mean? Who cares: the word Pillar is in it so we won!
41: Being Right vs Serving The Powerful: One of the many reasons I am proud to be part of the opposition, whether it is weak, fragmented or ineffective: it is much better to be on the right side than on the winning side.
42: Shide Just Got Real, Mayn! It’s July 11. Hey Orwell, we need to quote you again, is it ok? Cool. “The past was alterable. The past never had been altered. Oceania was at war with Eastasia. Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia.” It was always, always in a state of permanent peace with Eurasia. Bring it home Ahmed Shide, spokesperson of Abiy Ahmed: “The Eritrean and Ethiopian people have for centuries lived in harmony.”
Meanwhile, for 70 years, we Eritreans (with the EPLF playing the vanguard for the last 40 years of it) said we are distinct from Ethiopia. Then, one July 13, it all changed: From now on, anyone who says Eritreans and Ethiopians are peoples of two countries is the one that doesn’t know history. We should have known. Last year, in his New Year Address, he told us: “ተስፋ ምቑራጽ ስለ ዘየሎ ኣብዚ ሃገር እምበሪ: ፈጺሙ ተስፋ ዝህብ ኣይኮነን:” (Had it not been for the unacceptability of hopelessness, there is nothing to be hopeful about in this country. )
43: When Your UnElected President Gives The Job You Didn’t Give Him To Someone Else: Oh, you Eritreans are offended? What a bunch of crybabies. Let me pound it harder so it can penetrate your thick colonialized minds: Addressing Abiy Ahmed directly, he said that effective immediately he is to lead us. In case, later on, people would say, “ah, he is just being a gracious guest”, he clarified, “no, no, no, I am not just saying this for the sake of saying it.”
44. “Economic Migrants From Africa”, aka, Eritrean Refugees: Meanwhile in the real world, outside the delusional world Isaias Afwerki and his flunkies live in, there are hundreds of thousands of Eritreans, including underage Eritreans, in refugee camps who just want to go home:
45. We May Not Know How To Govern Ourselves But We Can Sure Run: Ethiopia’s Almaz Samuel takes the gold in the women’s 1500m. Take that Kenya! “the Kenyan dominance is broken”, shouts the announcer on the men’s race also dominated by Ethiopia.
46. The Gaslighting of, and Contempt for, the Eritrean People Continues:
47 Gender Equality, Eritrean Edition: Meanwhile, for all the big talk about gender equality in Eritrea, this is the typical role of men and women politicians in Eritrea, demonstrated dramatically by Dr. Almaz Zerai: women present flowers, dance and make coffee and men discuss weighty issues.
48. The Peace Dividend – Ethiopian Edition: Ethiopia will use Massawa and Asab (details not specified) and it will have a Navy. Film at 11 past the day after next decade.
49. Knock, knock: Is This Thing On? Is My Mic On? June 26, 2018: As the Arabs says “BaEd Kherab MalTa” (after the disaster of Malta): Mesfin Hagos shares information that would have been very, very, very useful to Eritreans–the Ethiopianist tendencies of President Isaias Afwerki–28 years after the fact. And even this information had to be dragged out by SBS interviewer Beyene, like hair from dough.
50. With Frenemies Like These: Meanwhile, my frenemy Bronwyn Bruton who is usually ahead of the curve of the PFDJ narrative, was uncharacteristically behind it: here she is making the quaint call for Ethiopia to pull its troops out of Badme. It would take a few more months for the new directive of Isaias Afwerki to be clear: talking about Badme and demanding Ethiopian withdrawal from it is to be an obstacle to peace.
51. It Wasn’t About What Is In The Agreement But Who Signs The Agreement:
A brief history of PFDJ’s Eritrea (2006-2018):
(a) It rejected Ethiopia’s Five Point Peace Plan which requested talks prior to implementation of the EEBC agreement;
(b) It got itself involved in Somalia on the opposite side of the entire AU and its peacekeepers;
(c) Consequently it got Eritrea sanctioned;
(d) It ignored the terms for getting itself off sanctions and got sanctioned again;
(e) Then slowly over a long period, it started complying with the terms–accepting the AU/international community recognized Somali government, disassociating itself from Al-Shabab (at least on the surface)
(e) It groomed four Ethiopian armed groups, supporting them from its meager resources;
(f) Change came to Ethiopia for purely Ethiopian dynamics (the un-sustainabilty of a party representing 6% of the population ruling for 27 years with an iron fist): it was largely driven by civil disobedience of Oromo youth.
(g) It signed a peace treaty with Ethiopia and exchanged diplomacy while Ethiopia occupies Badme: i.e. exactly the Five Point Peace Plan it rejected in 2014.
52. “Bulls Eye Drawn After The Dart Is Thrown”:
After exiling 12% of Eritrean population to accept the terms it could have accepted 14 years ago, it is saying, this is exactly what we had wanted all along and we lost nothing. I wonder how one describes this? I know, @Asennai did: “bulls eye drawn after the dart is thrown.” You just throw a dart and wherever it lands you draw a target and says, “exactly where I wanted it to land.”
53: “Patriotism” as Defined by Pro-Government Eritreans:
A. Do not say a word about the thousands of Eritreans languishing in the hundreds of Eritrean prisons. When confronted about the obvious injustice of prisoners, including underage prisoners, by all means feel free to deny, deny, deny or failing that give your government very wide latitude for the unspeakable crimes.
B. Do not show any sympathy or ever mention the hundreds of thousands of Eritrean refugees in Sudanese, Ethiopian, Israeli camps:
C. Repeatedly use the words “Eritrean people” when you claim to speak on their behalf because once people go to jail or are exiled they are no longer Eritreans. Bonus: bleed for everybody else, from Ethiopian victims of TPLF to Sudanese victims of Omar Al Bashir, to Guantanemo prisoners. But never, ever, ever for Eritreans.
54. Ethiopian Reform Part Too Many To Count: Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed helps to unite the two synods of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The synods had been feuding with each other for 27 years.
The next day, he paid a surprise visit to the Bader Society (Ethiopian Muslims in the United States) which was having its annual convention in the Washington, DC area.
55. Maybe PM Abiy Should Make Hailemariam Desalegn His Ambassador To Japan Where He Can Spend Time With Our Stupid Ambassador: Remember that time (summer 2018) when it looked like everybody was just trolling us and trying to see how long it would take ordinary, normal, country-loving, justice-demanding, self-rule dreaming Eritreans to have a collective nervous breakdown? He actually posed with Mengistu Hailemariam AND posted it on his tweeter account.
56. Ritz Carlton, Karma Suite: the Spokesperson For Saudi Arabia military who was bragging about Saudi success in its air raids on innocent Yemenis is now imprisoned or hacked to death.
57. We Stopped Being Surprised By Isaias’s Indignity Back In June So This Was Shrugged: but just in case you need a reminder, the Eritrean regime issued a statement (on August 9) supporting Saudi Arabia in its crazy feud with Canada.
58: Priorities, Priorities, Priorities: In 2000, Haile (“DeruE) Woldetensae (disappeared since 2001) addressed University of Asmara students. A university whose chancellor, Isaias Afwerki, never attended a single graduation ceremony in over two decades. But in 2018, there he was, the Chancellor of University of Asmara, ገየጽየጽing at the Bahir Dar graduation ceremony.
Any questions?
59. We Lost Nothing. And by “we” I mean “I”.“ኣይኸሰርናን: ኣይጠፍኣናን: ንብረትና ብምሉኡ መሊስና! We lost nothing; nothing is missing: we have recovered all our property.” So declared Isaias Afwerki about a country he presides over, a country which exiled 12% of its population
60. Gardner Addressed The Eritrean Desert (PFDJ Brain) In what is likely to be his last visa to Eritrea, Tom Gardner, a journalist from The Economist wrote a piece entitled “Inside Eritrea: Reporting from a country that feels like prison”:
But to criticise the government is not the same as criticising the country. Nobody doubts the Eritrean people have suffered a lot throughout history, and that over the decades they have been screwed by both the West and by their neighbours (especially Ethiopia). But in the past 20 years it has been their government that has screwed them most. It has turned the country it liberated into a prison. One of the saddest sights was on my return flight back to Ethiopia: the passengers on board were mostly Ethiopians, and a smattering of elderly Eritrean women. Why? Because they are basically the only ones who are ever allowed to leave.
Tom Gardner|The Economist|August 14, 2018
61. How unfree are Eritreans? Freedom House reports: You are not as bad as Syria or South Sudan, but you are worse than everybody else.
62. Ethiopian Reform, Part Something:
“Addis Ababa August 17/2018 Eritrea based rebel group, Amhara Democratic Forces Movement (ADFM) has agreed to return and continue a peaceful political struggle at home. Representatives of the Amhara Regional State and ADFM signed a reconciliation agreement in Asmara on Thursday.”
63. What Is Wrong With Eritrea – Part 2: Remember him? Dejen AndeHishel. A pilot, literally a product of Eritrean revolution (mom and dad are combatants and he was born in the battlefield), he spent FIFTEEN (15) YEARS in prison (1999-2014) for reasons that (a) he was not given and (b) made to feel guilty that, by asking, he was implying the government would imprison people without reason. He escaped from prison. So, ever wonder how he is doing? “Even when I speak to you from outside the country, I see myself as if I am still in prison, because all of my colleagues are still there.” – Dejen Andehishel in interview with Salem Solomon|VOA|August 16, 2018
64. More Crimes, More Impunity, More Champagne: When you see the following picture (Isaias and Salva Kiir toasting champaign), remember these two dates: May 19, 2017. And June 8, 2016. Those are the dates when Salva Kiir and Isaias Afwerki were accused of committing crimes against humanity–against their own people. In August they were pictured (under framed pictures of themselves) toasting themselves. Presumably, “Here’s to impunity!”
65:Wonder What The Anthem/Flag of Our Confederation Is: This website described what has been going on between the Government of Eritrea (Isaias Afwerki, really) and the Government of Ethiopia (Team Lemma, really) as path towards confederation. Some people confused this with federation (it might be, but no evidence for that, YET) and some people forgot that the objection was NOT having a confederation but that “we didn’t vote on it.”
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