Eritrean Arabic author Fathi Osman believes that Eritrea's struggle for independence resulted in a military dictatorship because the revolution lacked intellectual guidance and advisory contributions to educate the Eritrean people about the hidden agendas of the leadership. This could have helped to enlighten the people, making them aware of the leadership's self-serving interests. Most of us may be aware of the events that took place in Eritrea in the past and the adverse effects they have had on our society and nation. In light of this, I am writing this article to caution the Eritrean youth residing abroad about the misguided notions of their overly ambitious new leaders and their misguided endeavors in the international geopolitical landscape. | Analysis and Opinion Article by Dr, Tadios Tesfu, Frankfurt/Germany.
Throughout any project, whether it's an entrepreneurial venture, community work, or a political movement, three species of people are involved: the thinkers, the leaders, and the foot soldiers (doers). Each of these species possesses different properties such as cognitive and methodological approaches, technical know-how, and physical capabilities to complete the task assigned to them. The variations between these species can be seen in their charisma, persuasiveness, manner, class, physical status, cognitive approaches, and more. However, it's important to note that there are exceptions to these rules.
In brief, in classical terms, a thinker presents their ideas or solutions to address the challenges faced by society. A leader plans, organizes, convinces, and leads their followers to accomplish the assigned task. A foot soldier elaborates on the plan and approach of the leader at a given time and place. This is how many challenging projects in our world have achieved success. However, in recent movements for freedom, democracy, and justice in Eritrea, the opposite of this fact is occurring. In our case, the upside-down positioning of the three species as mentioned earlier of our society is the main issue for our defeat in our struggle for freedom, democracy, and prosperous peaceful life.
As Richard David Precht, a renowned German journalist, author, and philosopher, once explained, the emergence of social media has enabled those with foolish opinions to easily reach a wide audience and promote their misguided views. This has given them a powerful megaphone on their hands to spread their distorted version of reality to the masses. Unfortunately, many educated individuals in society have remained silent and inactive, allowing the ignorant and misguided to dominate the conversation and shape public opinion. It seems that our society is currently facing a serious issue. We have abandoned our values, virtues, and culture, which has resulted in widespread ignorance. We have already witnessed the consequences of this negligence during our struggle for independence, where uneducated individuals were in positions of power over the highly literate. (Tsogar danga lili Muhur-tubeless).
Social media has become increasingly accessible and democratized, but unfortunately, some individuals are exploiting the original purpose of these apps. For example, Facebook was created by Mark Zuckerberg and his team 20 years ago to connect people from anywhere at any time, as well as feature advertisements of other company's products. Similarly, TikTok was developed in China to encourage and facilitate entrepreneurship, science, and emerging technology, and to increase social and political awareness among young Chinese people. However, due to government media control, TikTok is typically used for these purposes only by the Chinese youth.
During the Arabian Jasmine Revolution, social media played a significant role in enabling young people in the Middle East and North Africa to organize protests against the dictators in their countries. As a result, the demonstrations ultimately led to the overthrow of the oppressive rulers.
Conversely, our youth is using social media for prostitution, sexual harassment of fellow men, and defamation of personality of our history to engulf to deviated cultural value. The latest international studies conducted by renowned research institutes have shown that the use of social media has resulted in a psychological catastrophe for many young people. On the other hand, to my regret, some poorly educated Eritreans are using social media to lure young people, involve them in fraudulent deals of multi-level-businesses and indoctrinate them into an unprecedented resurrection of strange liturgies of section faith communities in the name of Jesus. It is shameful to see that many of our people today change their spouses, friends, political opinion, and their religion as often as they change their underwear.
In today's world, we are facing a lack of exemplary political leadership, which has led to an inability to peacefully resolve political crises. Instead, we have many selfish and complacent leaders who have gained their knowledge and wisdom from unreliable sources like Wikipedia and TIK-TOK. Many of them have bought or faked their academic qualifications, such as a doctorate, and talk like experts without having any real knowledge or experience. They rely on street smarts instead of being well-informed to lead the world. As a result, they often manipulate and deceive the public, acting like fraudsters. This type of leadership is full of ignorance and negligence, and they don't take responsibility for their mistakes, which can have negative effects on the population.
A derailing world-order
I want to express my gratitude to the German people for providing me with a high-quality education and a generous social system, as I grew up as a refugee boy in Germany. The German constitution highlights that every individual's "human dignity is inviolable" in a democratic system that offers equal opportunities for everyone to unleash their potential. However, despite these noble words, people with migration backgrounds, particularly German people of color, face many hardships such as traditional racist barriers, inherent pecking order in society, and disadvantages of origin. Therefore, in 2014, I wrote an appeal to the government of Angela Merkel and the Bundestag, urging them to initiate affirmative action such as a "legal quota" for educated German people of color in high political and economic positions in Germany.
Today, Germany is facing challenges due to poorly thought-out political decisions made by our former leaders. They believed that the world would wait for them, but now they have realized that their position as the fourth largest economy and political power is diminishing. Many countries in the world are repositioning themselves geopolitically, even if it conflicts with the West. According to German documentary filmmaker and Sinologist Frank Sieren, if the West does not maintain its previous technological and economic superiority, its political importance will decline, and the whole world will stop paying attention to the West. Therefore, the West needs to adopt a new approach to geopolitics.
As US Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld once joked “the old Europe”: the old Europe is drowning due to demography, shortage of skilled workers, and eco-sociopolitical challenges. For years, industrial productivity and wages in Germany have been declining. The energy transformation of the country from fossil to renewable energy seems to be more difficult than it was estimated or planned. The author Ulrike Herrmann has discussed the end of capitalism in her new book. She was unable to detect any economic growth of the green energy transition in Germany. She said that German economic growth would return to the level of 1979 due to the astronomical rise in green electricity prices and the lack of necessary natural resources.
The latest medical news in Germany has revealed that some supporters of the ideology of the Hitler regime met in Potsdam to create a plan for the deportation of approximately 23 million German residents with a migration background. Many democratic political parties and organic Germans have demonstrated against the racist deportation plans of Nazis and clearly expressed their solidarity with migrants.
We all remember that Germany was rebuilt after the surrender of the Nazi regime with the help of the Marshall Plan and foreign guest workers. As previously mentioned, Germany is facing significant challenges that need to be addressed. However, the contributions of migrants are crucial for the country's success. Even without an 11% increase in intellectual property (patents) resulting from the efforts of people with migration backgrounds like myself, Germany's international standing will decline to that of a third-world country.
For example, BioNTech, a company headquartered in Mainz, Germany, founded by Turkish-German Dr. Ugur Sahin and his wife, has made significant contributions to the world. They have developed an mRNA-based Corona vaccine that has saved millions of lives worldwide. In 2021, the sales income of this vaccine was approximately 10 billion Euros. The income tax generated from this revenue has transformed the deeply indebted city of Mainz into a prosperous one, equivalent to the international city of banks, Frankfurt/Germany. The small businesses started by immigrants around the BioNTech innovation have also generated billions of Euros.
The healthcare system in Germany heavily relies on the hard work of highly skilled migrant medical doctors and nurses. Without them, the system could collapse within hours. If these experts are not present, many hospitals may shut down due to a lack of medical professionals. The construction industry and the German automotive industry, which generate 70% of their sales from exports, would also face significant challenges without the contributions of migrant workers.
I wonder whether it is a blessing or a curse to live in a directionless but rapidly changing world with no pivot to maintain the status quo.
Meanwhile, we have an older generation in the world that is losing ground beneath their feet due to rapidly evolving disruptive technology and relentless environmental damage in a world without clearly defined political ideologies or sustainable plans. The elite is also experiencing a decline in social status, morality, and culture. If only the strongest or richest can survive through violence, the law of the jungle will prevail. This kind of situation can lead to political unrest, a lack of mutual respect and help, and ultimately wars. These are some of the causes behind the wars in Ukraine, Yemen, Palestine, Sudan, Ethiopia, and other parts of the world.
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius is currently taking steps to prepare Germany's small and underequipped armed forces for a possible attack by Putin-led Russia. The goal is to build a strong and agile military unit over the next five years to be able to respond effectively to any aggression. This plan is particularly important because it could encourage the German defense minister to recruit young former soldiers and refugees from countries such as Eritrea, Afghanistan, and Syria for German military service and to attract valuable experienced soldiers for their possible combat.
The agitation of our youth-Brigade-Nhamedu in Giessen.
We have been holding peaceful demonstrations every year since 2012 to educate the German public about the misleading agenda of the PFDJ propaganda festival in Giessen and the situation in Eritrea. Our friend and supporter, Mr. Klaus-Dieter Grothe, has always been by our side.
In the summer of 2022, there were physical confrontations between the youth from Brigade-Nhamedu and the participants of the PFDJ festival in Giessen. As a result, some of the demonstration organizers contacted me to assist in explaining the incident to the German authorities and media. Since then, Giessen, a small university town, has gained significant attention from both national and international media. The police were uncertain about the cause and nature of the incident. The incident had a profound impact on the population of Germany. Numerous Nazis exploited the situation and used it as an opportunity to spread their harmful propaganda against refugees. They also put pressure on the government to revise its refugee policy. The general public was quick to react and demanded Interior Minister, Mrs. Nancy Faeser, and the Hessian police director take action to restore law and order. The media played an important role in bringing attention to the issue and ensuring that those in charge were held accountable.
However, the PFDJ propaganda festival's organizers and participants have now taken to social media to criminalize and demonize our Brigade-Nhamedu youth. They are insulting them by calling them Woyane, TPLF, and Junta-Agame (people from Tigray).
Our friend and supporter of our peaceful freedom struggle, the Green MP in Germany Mr. Klaus-Dieter Grothe, became a victim of his political opponents and the organizers and participants of the PFDJ festival. "They made a loud demand for his political mandate to be withdrawn from the Giessen city parliament." "It was tough to see the insults and personal attacks that he and his family had to face. But I have to admit that Mr. Grothe, a professional psychologist, is a friend to all Eritrean young refugees who have been traumatized by the war and PFDJ. He is one of the greatest Germans I have ever met.
To address the previous situation, we formed an ad hoc committee consisting of former justice-seekers, some participants of the demonstration, and members of Brigade Nhamedu in Germany. We decided to split the ad hoc committee into three task forces, each of which would focus on a specific area - politics and diplomacy, economics, and legal issues. I was tasked with working in the politics and diplomacy task force. Soon after, I started writing letters to the German government, the Ministry of the Interior, the directors of the Police, the City Parliament as well as the Lord Mayor of Giessen, and the media, among others, to explain the situation. I made calls to my German friends who hold high positions, to seek their support in educating the German public about the background and connections of the clashes with the activities of the dictatorial regime in Eritrea. We aimed to raise awareness about how this regime is trying to undermine our youth in the diaspora. The demonstration was supposed to be peaceful, but unfortunately, everything went wrong due to the provocative insults and slander from the organizers of the PFDJ festival. Additionally, the Pfdj propagandist Awel Seed had been spreading sustained propaganda against the people of Tigray and our youth in the diaspora.
The media explained to the public in Germany the exact wording and terminology that I have used over the past 12 years in my open letters against this festival and the activities of the military dictatorship to suppress the Eritrean opposition in Germany and elsewhere. This enabled us to resolve the situation and stop further legal persecution of our youth by the German police authorities.
Our heroic youth Brigade Nhamedu protested against the PFDJ festival in Giessen, which led to similar demonstrations all over the world. This brought the Eritrean question to the attention of the world. After this, I felt that we no longer needed to draw attention to the regime's atrocities. The voice of the voiceless in Eritrea has been heard and my mission is accomplished. I am now confident that our struggle for freedom in Eritrea has been passed on to our youth brigade Nhamedu. They will continue to fight for our cause in the best possible way and as quickly as possible.
I've always used to say that as Eritreans, regardless of where we live or what we have accomplished, we can only experience a life of dignity and peace both abroad and in Eritrea when the political and economic conditions in our country have improved.
Incompetence and immoral offers
Unfortunately, after the youth protests in Giessen in August 2022, the fight for democracy and freedom took an unexpected turn. The political and social grievances that caused many Eritrean political activists and organizations to fail were difficult to assess and correct, even for experienced fighters. A new group called the "Tigray Prevail Group" emerged following the clashes, led by Woyane supporters and social media influencers from the Tigray Defense Force (TDF), which split the Eritrean opposition into three different camps. This situation created confusion and disunity within the Eritrean diaspora, affecting the political dynamics and fighting culture.
On social media, some Tigray influencers took sides with Woyane (TDF), while others returned to the regime that helped revive the dictatorial regime in Eritrea. However, most Eritrean people and political organizations support our Brigade-Nhamedu youth movement.
Many of the influencers who directly or indirectly took part in the demonstration in Giessen have started to call the Brigade Nhamedu youth movement their own. The Tigray Supremacy Group has attempted to link our youth movement to the TDF efforts in Tigray and accuse the Eritrean Army of genocide and robbery, which is a very strange comparison/legal action for many of us. Members of the Eritrean army from western Eritrea were reportedly accused by this group of being the brutal sadists involved in the mass rape of very young girls from Tigray. Some other influencers and music artists went insane by the reaction of the Tigray supremacy group and started to embrace the dictatorial regime, which complicated the situation. Many politically homeless and anti-social packs began to take advantage of the situation to emerge as leaders of a new young generation and to dissolve the national unity and integrity of our society into provincial, tribal religious, and regional units.
The short-sighted provincialism of alpha males and social media tigers with elementary school knowledge who brazenly call themselves teachers, opinion makers, ideologues, philosophers, diplomats, and politicians and have the horizon just centimeters in front of their noses will never get us to our goals. For this reason, I fear that the future of the Eritrean people is unlikely to be bright.
I suggest that young refugees in the Western world read my articles on their situation and the challenges they face in the diaspora. Specifically, my 2016 article "The Silent Spring and the Eritrean People's Choice between Cholera and Plague" can be helpful in this regard. For the majority of Eritreans who are unsure of their political stance, my articles from 2014 and 2016 could be useful. These articles, "The Prelude of Quantum Leap in Eritrean Politics and Adoring My Enemies," discuss the agenda and downfall-prophecy of the Woyane and PFDJ Regime, who are the main enemies of the Eritrean people. In addition, I discussed the unknown leaders landing by parachutes in our political arena to seize power as we have witnessed in the history of our country.
The authoritarian government in Eritrea has been brain-dead since the Forto-uprising in 2013 led by Colonel Wedi-Ali who was martyred. We succeeded in defeating Isayas Afewerki and his supporters. However, we were unable to overcome the ignorance of the silent majority. This is evident in the increased participation in the PFDJ festival in the last two years, which has contributed to the survival of our oppressor Isayas Afewerki. This is Machiavellian behavior: someone attempting to gain favor or leniency by ingratiating themselves with their ruler or tormentor (Stockholm syndrome).
Conclusion
The leading Israeli intellectual historian Professor Yuval Noah Harari has changed his mind following the recent war in his country. He said we live in a perilous and unpredictable world/times. In his previous books, he said that we are hackable animals, and preached that we live in a beautiful, innovative, and peaceful world. He believed that we are more likely to die from obesity than from terrorism or war.
In my opinion, this was a completely wrong prediction by a leading intellectual. We also have leading intellectuals in our community who have made their intellectual contributions to the recent war between Eritrea and Tigray and the agitation of our Youth Brigade Nhamedu at the pfdj festivals: namely Ambassador Dr. Andebrhan W. Giorgis and Professor Awet T. Weldemichael. We simply ignore counting their inherent vices here because we know that these people are pseudo-opposition or mostly critical supporters of the regime who are waiting for an opportunity. There was also another intellectual input, an insane temptation to lure our young generation into bringing about regime change through peaceful petitions.
Now I would like to read and hear the intellectual contributions of our lowland Eritreans living in Australia, the Middle East, and Sudan. It could make a difference to the social media madness we have had to endure in the last few years.
After all, Eritrea belongs to all of us, and the situation of our people is more critical and dangerous than ever before. The geopolitical situation of our country could be the trigger for a third world war. Therefore, an immediate solution to our urgent challenges is critical. So let us use our common sense and support our youth in their fight for freedom and democracy by accompanying them with intellectual contributions to control our destiny.
The world's leading Zambian economist Dambisa Moyo has been the game changer for economic, and socio-political improvements and good governance in many African countries especially in Rwanda, bringing her intellectual contributions that have now catapulted Rwanda into the Silicon Valley of Africa. Paul Kagame legally banned Rwandan citizens from using different tribal names and forced them to call themselves only Rwandans after the genocide of 1994.
I am confident that with the contribution of our many kind-hearted intellectuals and our heroic youth, we will overcome our unfortunate situation.
There is no reason to argue about our future yet as we are experienced and have a very knowledgeable and law-obedient population. This means after uprooting the PFDJ regime: We will soon denazify, rehabilitate, and reconcile the current pfdj followers with the rest of our population to build a democratic nation with equal opportunities for all citizens ruled by law based on a democratic constitution.
In case of transition time after the fall of the dictatorial regime, for the beginning of the democratic electoral process the Eritrean National Council for democratic change (ENCDC aka Baito) in addition to some living members of the national parliament in Eritrea will do great work to run the nation.
I believe that for the first elections in Eritrea, it might be advisable to rely on the two major popular historical revolutionary parties, the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) and the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF). Otherwise, it could soon become confusing when so many different political, tribal, religious, gender, and place groups of affiliation or interests are represented to run into the first election.
In the transition phase, the Eritrean Army will safeguard the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the country in collaboration with the new ad hoc transitional Parliament and youth leaders of the army.
Inshallah/so God will. God bless Eritrea and we will prevail.
