[By Bereket Kiros]
“If you shut up truth and bury it under the ground, it will but grow up and gather to itself such explosive power that the day it bursts through, it will blow up everything in its way.” Emile Zola
In this article, I highlight the shady works of evil people who work in darkness, abusing our innocence and ignorance to promote their selfish goals. To achieve such selfish goals, they use Awraja, religion, nepotism, et cetera. I want Tigrai to be a positive and moral country whose hallmarks are compassion, honesty, righteousness, and hard work.* I borrowed the phrase speaking truth to power as the central part of the title for my article because it is profoundly empowering. We all owe it to the peace-loving, courageous Quakers for such a wonderfully rich expression that has become the standard defensive phrase that both charlatans and the wise use. The phrase speaking truth to power‘ goes back to 1955, when the American Friends Service Committee (Quakers) published Speak Truth to Power, a pamphlet that proposed a new approach to the Cold War.
I see a great future if we all pull together and are not used by TPLF leaders with myopic visions and become tools of disintegration into poor and pathetic. Why should people suffer the insecurity and indignity of a 2nd-class citizenship when one can have a decent and dignified life? Tigrai is a vast nation with great potential. There is enough room and resources for all of us. It is with good reason and justice in mind that one can criticise anyone.
A few years back, I advocated fighting insult with insult, even though it is a paradox. I am using here such previous writings of mine that did not seem to have traction with most readers. Fighting “insult with insult” is an approach that will preserve us and help us weed out the poisonous seeds of tremendous moral decay, blunt our expectations that are far beyond our means, and remove enclaves of exploitative cheap political dependency. This is the paradox of the heap of sand.
Losers usually deploy themselves to destructive ploys by generating desperate acts. They used a vast spectrum of lies and deliberately infused them into the public to become the fathers of all lies. Under any standard of stability and security, a country that harbours so many groups, some of which are either engaged in character assassination or leaning in that direction, does not endear confidence in anybody. It suffices for us to see that we need to take our conflict with a degree of practicality and equity. We should be ready to see problems holistically and not just pursue one-sided interests driven by hate and greed.
At any rate, out of respect, I hope my suggestions or criticism will be constructive and dignified. The dictators of Tigrai now have enough agents serving and defending them in the most critical part of the world. The purpose of installing these agents of all sorts in foreign lands is to suppress people of Tigrai descent who are the voices of the voiceless suffering in jail, killed, and disappeared. The agents have gained support from those who can control and silence the voices of democracy, exhausting social media and using means and systems of unimaginable sophistication.
First, him/HTM, you should have the courage to remain true to yourself. Many of us display our names proudly, hiding behind cyber walls and spitting insults towards Eng. Corfu, a person I have known for over twenty-seven years, calls him “a person who has done squat for Tigray as far as I know.” You don’t know him; his contribution to literature, generosity, and advocacy is among the few Tegaru. I am sure he is laughing at your sheer idiocy. As an angry man leaving the targeted message, you spill filthy reasons to the reader. Few individuals are faced with character assassinations and fabrications and are labelled by foot soldiers of the regime for many reasons that counter the interests of the Tigrai people. Probably blinded and misguided to know the good friend Eng’s suggestions in depth. Gorfu’s comment was to commence a dialogue.
Thus, we need to get rid of all ideation or political and economic programs based on greed and private acquisition that our leaders and surrogates are shovelling down our starving throats. In short, we have to start from zero and take appropriate baby steps for some distance, not giant strides that collapse with their corruption in a few steps. Enough is enough, so let’s work together for the common good and open a dialogue on things that matter the most for Tigrai.