Just a few observations

By: Abeba Isahac It most probably had to do from having seen the horrific face of hunger from Ethiopia, that the agriculture department of the American federal government in their report about hunger in America, decided to henceforth change the title from ‘hunger in America’ to ‘food insecurity’ which they perhaps thought would be more befitting for the richest and most powerful nation in the world’s hungry. I guess ‘food insecurity’ means that, one day you might have something to eat, while it is not guaranteed that you would have anything to eat the next day. Does changing the name change the gravity of a real existing situation where, according to US senator Edward Kennedy, 36 million Americans, out of whom 12 million are children, go to bed hungry every night in the great United States of America? This is something that news paper columnists such as Nicholas D Kristof of the New York Times would not dare investigate but would rather go to Eritrea to report to the world of having seen a poor woman with painted toe nails, which most probably was just ‘henna’ a dye plant which is customarily used in that part of the world for different reasons. This is a journalist who has won two Pulitzer prizes, one of them in 2006, for commentary. He has also won other prizes including the George Polk Award, the Overseas Press Club award, the Michael Kelly award, the Online News Association award, and the American Society of Newspaper Editors award. America, under the watch of president George Bush, has made so many enemies that, whenever anything drastic which affects them directly or indirectly takes place somewhere in the world, they don’t any more know in which direction to point their fingers, as the whole world looks like the culprit to them. Anyone who does not agree with their policies is either dubbed a dictator, or a terrorist with Al Qaeda connection, and therefore an enemy. And so far, this administration has single handedly managed to create chaos and civil wars in places and regions where a few years ago it would have been considered inconceivable. In these United States, there is nothing that brings the fear of God into people then the thought of being sued. The courts are the heart beat of America as trains are to the people of India. So, this fleeting thought comes to mind; why not sue the administration of those nations who are defaming the Eritrean name and endangering its stand in the horn of Africa by spreading false rumors and making dangerous predictions, without producing any tangible or visible evidence whatsoever to prove their allegations. And if they have any proof, as Jendayi Frazer, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs, has indicated to reporters, we hope it would not be like the fiasco that Colin Powel had presented to the United Nations as proof that Saddam Hussein possessed WMDs. So much for US intelligence! Therefore more then just talk, talk, talk, we will be requiring more believable and tangible evidence. Surely there must be a place where Eritrea can take legal steps to press charges against those reckless and arrogant lying entities, such as the BBC and the US State Department and other parrots, with the international court of justices. When their deep pockets are involved they might be able to learn a lesson or two about ignoring and insulting the integrity of small sovereign nations. Why don’t we just do it instead of having to tell them time and again ad nauseam that Eritrea does not have 2000 military men in Somalia and that she is not supplying the Islamists neither with finances, nor with ammunition, and also that Eritrea does not intend to use Somalia as proxy ground to fight the woyane, as the USA is doing in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Eritrea has vehemently denied it all but they still keep repeating it. So they will perhaps shut their big mouths when the international court orders them to do so. And if nothing else, they should at least be forced to pay all our legal fees, and therefore, under the circumstance, we should be able to hire the best attorneys available for such cases. This is the only language they will understand. It is so heartening to read that Somalis are now returning from their respective diasporas to their homeland after having fled the indiscriminate rule of the warlords, who surprisingly are the same group who have now been formed and recognized as an interim government by the United Nations and being supported as legitimate by the woyane and the United States despite the fact that they ironically are the same group who were responsible for the debacle and mess USA army faced in 1993. Somalis under the rule of the Islamists, despite the rumors of a looming war, are now feeling more secure, and those who had fled are returning. Should this not be enough to demonstrate that the Islamists have been accepted by the people? If the Somalis themselves are not bothered about the system of rigid Islamic laws in exchange for safety and security, why then should it bother the USA and the woyane, or all of the western world for that matter? Democracy should mean a government approved by the people, not one formed in exile to appease outsiders. The other day, listening to the radio while recuperating from a surgery, and feeling extra thankful to my God for his protection of me, I was surprised to hear the host of wnyc radio station, Brian Lehrer, himself Jewish, end his session by wishing us all his listeners a ‘Happy Hanukah’ I was surprised because, for some time now, for reasons that it seemed to have offended non Christians, ‘Merry Christmas’ has practically been abolished, at least in public forums, and that it had been replaced by ‘Happy Holidays’ and office Christmas parties are now being called only as ‘office parties’ while even the White House hosts Hanukah parties. Even Eritrean websites seem more sensitive toward Ramadan and are sure to say Allah after the word God, as though both words did not mean the same thing but in different languages. It is not difficult to understand the reasons behind the ‘desert storm war’ when the USA went to the rescue of the Kuwaitis, from the invasion of Saddam Hussein, but the real reason behind NATO’s attack on Yugoslavia on behalf of the people of Kosovo must have been because of its geographic proximity to western Europe and to which they wanted to avoid a spillover or a chain reaction, or a repeat of the ethnic cleansing of world war II. What reason then would they have to intervene in the case of the Darfur people in the Sudan, to help those persecuted non- Arab African Christians, or for that matter the ethnic cleansing which took place in Rwanda, so far away, especially when their pigmentation is black? The reaction to a statement made by the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with regards to the holocaust which seems to have brought, the media in particular, and the world in general, up in arms, while depiction of Jesus in many different blasphemous ways by film makers, against the belief of the Christian faith, seems to be brushed aside as free speech, is a shame on Christians for letting this happen and for not standing up for their faith, as all others seem to be doing! This is what passivity creates. Merry Christmas To All! December 21, 2006