From: Amare T (amaret@ymail.com)
Date: Sat Jan 03 2009 - 19:52:31 EST
Dear friends,
A week or so ago two death announcements were posted here in Dehai and
other websites. Prof. Tekie Fessahatzion eulogized Prof. Jordan Gebre-Medhin
and an obituary of the other decedent, Mr.Musie Mehari, was sent by a community
organization. Both deaths were in Boston.
What prompted me to write this note is an announcement I read in one of the
Eritrean websites indicating that a previously scheduled New Year's Eve
celebration in Boston has been cancelled out of respect for Mr. Mehari and
his family. I was totally and completely taken aback. Was it an honest oversight
or a horrendous, deliberate and politically motivated omission? Both individuals
passed away within a span of one week. Why was one decedent and his family
recognized and the other shown pointedly disrespectful and indifferent treatment?
It is no secret that the Eritrean community in Boston, more so than other places, has
for to long wallowed in a tumultuous and mutually destructive internecine turmoil.
But the practice of slighting, even in death, a member of the Eritrean community, and
an ardent nationalist to boot, is an infantile behaviour that is not worthy of anyone
calling themselves Eritrean. This is an unprecedented low for Diaspora Eritreans. I
believe the community organization in question has a responsibility to elaborate why
and what drove them to commit such an insensitive and glaring blunder.
Regards,
Amare