A Torrential Rain of Wrath

By: Abeba Isahac

It could not be just a coincidence that, as soon as the incident of USAID was made public, western foot soldiers in the form of journalists and anonymous diplomats have started to rain their wrath on Eritrea, some in the form of writing books or a spate of articles, and still others by fabricating stories and then deceptively doctoring or altering pictures to go with it as evidence to a murderous killing which never took place, and which was very unlikely to have happened, by any stretch of the imagination, which, except for arch enemies of Eritrea, no intelligent justice respecting person would be quick to believe, let alone to spread around.

By the Grace of God, Eritrea must be doing very well on her own, to have acquired all those enemies who are spewing fire in anger, and turning green with envy. What else can then be said, when out of no where, entities such as Michela Wrong, Tom Downey, or the diplomat who doctored pictures to look like murder and then sent it to his country for publication? What can we then say is triggering all this hateful behavior? What then can we say about all the lies and cruel statements that they are putting out in the open? And what, pray tell, we ask, is their gain? It would indeed have been very amusing, if it were not so sad.

If these people cared so much about the changes that have taken place in Eritrea since her independence and since the promising signs of success she had then shown, they should try to find out why, instead of fabricating stories, and that, of course is, incase they had been asleep or brain dead, from 1998 up to 2000 when a devastating war, which, let alone on a nascent nation, would have destroyed, even a well established one. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure it out, as we keep witnessing what unexpected catastrophes do to people and country, and what drastic changes it brings from their previous lives. Nevertheless, despite the human and material losses, Eritrea did survive it, and her independence stays in tact today. But, understandably, this harsh punishing war which had lasted three years, provoked by her much larger southern neighbor, with the help of those very nations who are now pointing fingers at her, has naturally put Eritrea behind from where she had started to show progress before the war. And as internal enemies and traitors were discovered, national security was naturally tightened, because Eritrea was not going to be found flat footed, ever again. Still, after all this, imposters like Tom Downey are asking: what happened?

It is not incumbent upon us Eritreans to tell Tom Downey, or anyone else, for that matter, what happened. If he wants to write about it, he has to get out and do his homework and some honest research, instead of sitting in coffee shops long enough to have his bill picked up by some poor Eritrean, while in the meantime listening to the whispers of gossipers, or of those who have specifically been planted by the opposition to whisper lies to lazy gossip mongers and advantage takers tike himself, and like those cheap novices who are trying to make it into the literary world at the expense of Eritrea.

One thing those mean spirited, shameless and belligerent gossipers should know, is that, no matter what and how much they write or say, it will never stick. The whole world was aware, and can attest to the aspirations of our leaders and our people as soon as independence and liberty was attained. It is all documented and no one can deny it. The whole wide world also knows what happened to Eritrea from 1998 to 2000 and thereafter. Besides all that, even if the world betrays us, we Eritreans know who we are and where we are going, and we do not need anyone else to tell us otherwise. In both instances, these beginners and novices of the literary world are nothing but failures and losers, because they have based and planted their careers on lies, fabrications and conspiracies to do harm to a nation and her people which had never harmed them, but rather was very hospitable and generous to them with the little that they had.

And if these people think they are touching an Eritrean nerve, every time they write negative things about our beloved country, they are mistaken. We do not respond because we are troubled, but only because we feel it to be necessary and our duty to always keep the record of our beautiful nation, straight, and along the way to hopefully expose the lies of the losers, in case some innocent, vulnerable and impressionable readers happen to stumble on them.

With truth as her only weapon, Eritrea will survive and prevail with flying colours.

September 18, 2005