“Our lives begin to end the day we
become silent about things that matter” -- MLK
I remember the face of
one compassionate Italian mayor - full of sadness for people she didn’t know -
clearly showing her deeper humanity. This was last October when the world
mourned the Lampadusa tragedy where over 360 Eritreans perished in the Mediterranean
Sea. Predictably, Eritrea’s regime known for gross inhumanity against its own
citizens, showed no such compassion. Knowing full well these were people who
fled its forced labor programs, the regime first tried to disown them as
“illegal African immigrants”. It later attempted to shift the blame to
imaginary enemies and finally refused to allow burials to take place in Eritrea
denying much needed closure to grieving families.
One thing is certain.
The longer this regime stays in power, the more destruction and destitution
Eritreans can expect. The question is: do we have what it takes to
free ourselves from this burden, sooner than later, and to face the challenges
of the-day-after before things go the way of South Sudan and Somalia?
Although the sense of
urgency is not quite there yet, there is definitely room for optimism we can do
this. The growing calls for justice and freedom around the world, Dr. Tewelde’s
(wedi vacaro) refreshingly clear and direct campaigns, the growing support for
wedi Ali’s family, the massive demonstrations in Israel (albeit for a different
but related reason), and continued defections away from the regime are good
indicators things have crossed the point of no return. Bravely taking
responsibility for one’s actions and publicly apologizing for past mistakes, as
Dr. Tewelde did is also admirable and will, hopefully, become a new trend for
others to emulate. As more people take such honorable steps, maybe good
societal values that were so mercilessly trashed by the regime for decades, can
be restored as well.
To add to the
optimism, credible rumors are floating about that Haile Menkorios maybe in the
opposition camp. If true, this is indeed good news because he has great
connections that can be put to good use. Hopefully, he and his group will also
take advantage of hind sight to think differently this time and start building
a broader coalition that appeals to greater number of Eritreans than before.
Perhaps then, people like Mr. Herman Cohen can also free themselves from the
bondage of only seeing the rotten regime as their only potential partner and
stop giving it legitimacy it does not deserve. Wouldn’t it also be nice if
Haile’s group took public and concrete steps to approach Dr. Tewelde and others
to show Eritreans can really work together after all?
I have nothing
but respect for what Dr. Tewelde is doing. But since no one is perfect, those
close to him should advise him not to alienate anyone. This is the time we
celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King’s life in the U.S. So, if we must judge, it
should be based on nothing but “the content of their character”.
We need to accept that everyone, deqi “ArbEa” or otherwise,
are equally Eritrean. Period! The sooner we internalize this, the
better chances Eritrea will have to heal its deep self-inflicted wounds.
Only through full and
unreserved inclusiveness, will we be able to channel everyone’s skills and
experience to take on the hard work ahead. Meles had a simple and
beautiful vision to see the day when every Ethiopian has
three meals a day. He identified poverty as public enemy number
one and millions of Ethiopians are committed to that worthy goal now.
By contrast, Eritrea
has no such vision, showing the poverty is really in our heads. In spite of
1000 Km of coastline, there is hardly any fish in town and malnutrition is
widespread. With two deteriorating ports and unaccounted for gold revenues,
Eritrea is poorer than ever before -- where life is sustained through
remittances and people are unable to support themselves on honest local
earnings. Eritrea could have been a middle income country by now if it were not
managed so badly.
To reverse this, the
younger generation from which future leaders will necessarily have to emerge,
must shift the conversation away from the fruitless polemics of the past and
re-focus it towards a more productive and hopeful future. As the saying goes, since
the future cannot be predicted, you might as well invent it. So, if we
can accept the simple fact that a working economy is a good pre-condition for a
better future, then our conversation will have to change to what needs to be
done now to get there. Much less weight should be given
to ‘who did what to who during the ghedli years’ (less than 5%
maybe), and much more to what environment we must create to attract the right
technologies and people (local and global) to partner with to build a lasting
economy.
Since productivity and
efficiency are key drivers for a growing economy, we will then be forced to
think about how we can keep our society healthy and come up with an equitable
and efficient public health policy (sick or malnourished people can’t be fully
productive even if the will is there). Education is another key contributor to
economic health. And commitment to good education will, in turn, force us to
shift our thinking to how we can free education from the grips of propaganda
and re-focus its purpose to seek knowledge and truth -- as it is meant to be.
The necessary planning for all these need to take place now before
the-day-after arrives. Otherwise, simply waiting for the-day-after, as we seem
to have done so far, will only increase the chances the vacuum it will surely
bring along with it will be mismanaged too – leaving avoidable suffering for
future generations.
If we manage to change
the conversation with a strong bias towards the future, however, better choices
will emerge -- brightening the future bit by bit. Some choices will be of the
standard variety and some from way out in the fringes but no less exciting. Here
is a good example from India (http://www.ted.com/talks/bunker_roy.html). Did you miss the part about starting democracy early and the
12 year old Prime Minister? Go back!
