From: awetnayu@hotmail.com
Date: Wed Apr 01 2009 - 23:25:13 EST
Tesfaldet Mharena: What have you done for me lately?
Amanuel Biedemariam
In today’s world, the cornerstone of any organization, individuals, groups, a public personality, nations, leaders, logos, industries, private and public enterprise is IMAGE! As the saying goes “Image is every thing.” How someone or an entity is perceived could potentially define who you are in the eyes of those who-may want to partner with you. That is the reality of sound-bite and instant news society of today’s fast paced on your face world. In other words image can make or break you. For that reason, image is a big enterprise taught in advanced colleges and universities as a field. Tremendous amount of resources are spent to sell, preserve and protect an image. It is difficult to change image once it is seared and framed. That is why we see political ads by competing parties in the US trying to frame issues and images against each other like boxing by punch-and-counter-punch.
In 1984, the world saw a primitive and horrendous event take place in Ethiopia. It was a drought that sent shock waves around the globe arousing emotional outburst to support the poor and bloated-bellied starved kids of Ethiopia in the hands of desperate mothers.
That image is seared in the minds of the world. It was a disastrous moment that many Ethiopians to this day have a hard time dealing with. I have known many Ethiopians who denied their nationality and identified themselves as Jamaican, Caribbean etc… just to avoid the association. To this day, Ethiopians are fighting to clean the image. It was debilitating because it was the image that introduced Ethiopia to the rest of the world at a crucial international-transitional-moment. Would Ethiopians like to have that moment back and reverse the image? Yes! But can they? No. That is the hard reality!
Truly, sincerely, and without exaggeration; Eritrea is a family! When we sell Eritrea we are selling our family be it in a positive or otherwise. However, lately, whenever I visit the web site run by Tesfaldet Mharena my stomach turns because I see him selling pictures of kids (presumably Eritrean) in a negative light. He is trying to liken or associate that image to Eritrean kids however he can. This was not a one time event; this is part of a consistent campaign by him and his friends to demonize Eritrea, consistently.
However, the pictures in his website (a website that claims to be Eritrean) meant to expose Eritrea fail to make any point. First, expose what? Is there any secret that the world, let alone Eritreans fail to recognize about Eritrea’s economy? Does it talk about Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and where Eritrea is in relation to that? Does it put it in relative terms? Does it compare living conditions of kids in any of the neighboring countries? Does it talk about progress in education, health and human services? Does it talk about homelessness and why? Does it provide any data? Does it offer any suggestions? Does it offer help or is there a history of that? And most importantly, how do we know the pictures are from Eritrea?
No one will ever deny Eritrea’s economic hardship; but to use kids and try to destroy an image of a country unrealistically speaks volume about the desperate state of mind! It shows that he feels invincible and confident that he can say and do any thing.
The motto is everything goes. In the name of democracy he can say and do any thing?
However, this has nothing to do with promoting democracy or the cause of Eritrean families. It is a ploy to use the pictures to gain political traction as expressed in this email posted in Dehai by Sophia Tesfamariam on March 30, 2009, Desperation of the Eritrean Opposition. The letter by Mehret Ghebreyesus clearly articulated why this aggressive campaign against Eritrea that spares no expense is raging. Here is a quote:
“We are getting a lot of support from the media and NGO’s in Europe. The US State Department has also protested to the EU Secretariat that the money should not be given to Eritrea. If we manage to stop this, it is a signal to the government and others that there is a united and strong opposition to its rule. Added altogether, it will be a show of force!!”
Nice dream, but that is all it is, a dream. As usual, you failed, exposing your dirt and your true intentions. The EU failed to heed your advice and campaign. Because they know, you are a farce and not representatives of the brave people of Eritrea. They know you exist on handouts from NGO’s, Religious-Cartels and crumbs from Meles led minority regime in Ethiopia. They also know the Eritrean people are not beggars. To sum it, any one who works with foreign interest against Eritrea is a treasonous criminal!
Every time I see the pictures my stomach turns for many reasons: first, how dare you? Whose kid’s picture are you exploiting? Would you like to see the pictures of your kids anywhere in order to sell anything with out your knowledge and approval? Have you paid the kids for exploiting their pictures? I don’t think so. It is intolerable to see foreigners or the UN pedophiles do it. But an Eritrean, parading kids, presumably Eritrean kids is unconscionable. That is a new low even for you.
But, fortunately, Eritrean kids are hard to sell in a bad light because they are beautiful. They are bright, fun, witty, funny and very smart. Their future is glowing unlike the image Tesfaldet Mharena likes to portray. They live in a country that believes their future is the future of the country. They are in Eritrea the land of the heroes and heroines who single handedly and without begging liberated Eritrea. They are not the sons and daughters of beggars as Tesfaldet Mharena the treason laden lost soul try to portray them to be!!
ERITREA MUST FAIL: That is what Tesfaldet Mharena and his buddies who parade as the new revolutionaries and opposition groups want. For them to succeed, Eritrea must fail. They prostitute and pimp at the same time. He/they will sell anything, do anything and say anything to try to come to power. He/they will demonize Eritrea however they can in order to be kings. He/they will dance with those who danced on the graves of our martyrs. Their vulgar is boundless.
The truth however, charity begins at home! I was talking to a friend who recently returned from Asmara about the pictures in the web site owned by Tesfaldet Mharena. First, she laughed that I even mentioned his name but an hour later she called back with the same rage and told me a story, a story about a young woman. She said, “When I was walking in the streets of Asmara with my sister, I was approached by a young woman who asked me for one Nakfa aggressively. I gave her one Nakfa but she insisted for a second one and I gave her again. As we walked away, my sister asked me, do you know who that woman is. I said no. She said she is Tesfaldet Mharena’s sister.” Really? “That is the truth and why I laughed when you first brought his name up.” My friend said a lot but I will leave it there.
The fact is we know each other very well. Eritrea is one family. There is always a bad apple in a family. However, when the apple is plagued and wants to bring you down, we have to call it out for the plague that it is. Eritrea should not be a cause for those who found the end of life causes, regionalists, religious zealots, pedophiles and the like. These Bagamindos can not last even a single day if they find Eritrea under their control by some miracle. They will choke each other in a second and sell Eritrea to the highest bidder instantly before they can set foot!
Wetru Awet N-Hafash
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