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BIRDS OF THE SAME FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER Dr. Tesfa
G. Gebremedhin West Virginia University We, as Eritreans, need to network
with each other because no Eritrean is an island; every Eritrean is
a piece of the other and a part of the community. A real song writer
has already written a wonderful song. The words say - No
man is an island; no man stands alone. Each mans joy is joy to me;
each mans grief is my own. It is an old song for sure, but the
song carries this universal important message and the message is timeless.
It tells us to get in tune with our own crowd and flock together. We
cannot separate ourselves from our own crowd by pretending to be somebody
else because we can only be Eritreans of the same feather. Whatever
we do professionally and wherever we live in Diasporas, we cannot afford
to live in isolation, away from our own Eritrean communities. For any
kind of situation (ill or well), we have to stick to our own crowd because
a rose will grow into a rose
even if it is in the middle of a field of tulips. An Eritrean will
remain to be an Eritrean, nothing more and nothing less, even if s/he
changes his/her place of residence, or alters his/her own appearance. I heard a story once about an eagle's
egg that had got lost and was found by chickens. When the eagle hatched,
it was loved and cared for by the chickens, brought up to act and behave
as if it was a chicken. It knew nothing else than being a chicken. Until
one day, the eagle was with his chicken brothers and sisters pecking
some grains at the ground, like a chicken, when something made him look
up to the sky. High above in the sky he saw a majestic sight, a beautiful
bird flying and soaring gracefully. Something was stirred inside him,
a recognition of home, a remembrance of natural habitat, and realizing
own identity. He was disturbed and could not have peace of mind without
knowing why he was different from the chickens he grew up with, but
similar to the flying eagle. To find the truth, he asked the chickens,
"What is that beautiful bird
up there?" The chickens looked up. "Oh that," they said, "That is an eagle, king of the birds. But forget
about him, you are one of us, you are a chicken. The eagle did
not stop there because deep inside him he knew that he can never be
a chicken. His natural characteristics forced him to try to fly like
an eagle. He flew far away and joined his own crowd. It is not a case
of an eagle being superior to a chicken; it is just honoring and respecting
own identity. The same story has been told about
a duck's egg that was abandoned by its mother and found by chickens
at the bank of a lake. When the duck hatched, it was nurtured by the
chickens and brought up like a chicken. One day the duck arrived at
the nearby great lake and wondered when he saw many ducks that looked
like him there swimming while he was acting and behaving like a chicken.
Just like the eagle, he asked the chickens, What
are those birds swimming in the lake? The chickens looked at the
lake and said, They are just ducks. But forget about them,
you are one of us, you are a chicken. He immediately realized that
he can never be a chicken; he can only be a duck like those swimming
in the lake. He did not take time to think, he just jumped into the
lake and start swimming because it was natural for him to swim like
a duck. Finally, he was forced to leave his chicken family behind on
the shore and swum away to join his own crowd and secure his own identity.
The moral lesson of both stories
is that wherever we live and whatever we do, we have our own corners,
called comfort zone, based on our own natural identity. Our goal is
to find out who we are as Eritreans. The most effective way to find
out who we are as Eritreans is to get connected to each other and get
into our world our own community, cherish our own ethnic identity,
and nurture the legacy of our own cultural heritage. Thus, we need to
expand the diversity of our corners of the world as Eritreans. We need
everyone of us connected in our community network because we need each
other for who we are as Eritreans. Our perceptions of each other get
better and wider as we try to reach out for our own people and become
close to each other and as we see our typical personality and recognize
our unique qualities and differences of each one of us. Our communities
should be composed of Eritrean people working together to accomplish
common goals, embracing the concept of collective wisdom and collective
action, connecting with each other with many resourceful differences,
and genuinely bonding in a nurturing and caring nature. Getting in tune with our own ethnic
identity and cultural heritage is the song that we want to hear. We
might be brought up in different households, but we came from the same
small piece of land. We are not put in this planet for ourselves, but
we are placed in this world for each other because we are all dependent
on one another. It is in the shelter of each other in our own community
that we all can live as Eritreans. We need to remember that we are not
self-made men and women with a diversity of professions, personality,
or wealth. We cannot forget our parents and those before them who have
sacrificed a lot of things in their lives for us to make everyone of
us know who we are and to get in place wherever we are today. Thus,
personal relationships with our fellow Eritreans are the fertile soil
from which all sense of belonging and self-identity in real life of
our community grows. It is through peaceful cooperation and mutual trust,
rather than animosity and hostility, that our problems in our communities
and religious institutions can be resolved, and that our greatest success
can be achieved. |