By Aesop
06/01/2022
Many lamented the genocide has turned Tigrai back to the stone age. They say its enemies have destroyed everything cumulated over the past three decades and beyond. Well, the question is: “have they really? Could it be the other way around?!” Critical thinking helps! Its worth asking this: “Was it the buildings or its builders that perished?!” The answer to this question determines one’s perspective. By the way, when speaking about a builder, I am not talking about, some great architect/engineer or a political leader, I am speaking about the culture around the Axum stelae. Is that sense of creating marvel dead?! I don’t think it can or will, for that matter. Every Tigrean growing facing Axum and pre-Axum civilization will always strive to emulate, if not excel, her/his ancestors. And not talking about the structure enemies destroyed but the glorious history that no one, sorry Tigrai’s enemies, can change.
Throughout this ordeal, Tigrai has paid a huge price to escape what Plato calls the “cave” in his “allegory”. Tigrai has seen, for yet another time, the true colors of this floating rock in space called: ‘the world’ and everything in that dust. Tigrai has paid a huge sacrifice of lives (in hundreds of thousands), limbs (in hundreds of thousands), psyche (in many millions), and destructions (infinite) to acquire this elevated consciousness. The question that remains is, therefore, has this elevated level of consciousness placed Tigreans back to the stone age or beyond? This rests on the following quote from a movie “King’s speech” I’ll post “modified” beneath for Tigrai is a movie in the making:
“All men [and women] are born to die, we know it, we carry it with us always
If your day be today, so be it; mine will be tomorrow
Or mine today and yours tomorrow, it matters not
What matters is that today in your hearts that today you are that…[entity] united
You are…[Tigrai] united; you are…[Tigrai!]
Each and every one of you;…[Tigrai] is you!
And it is the space between you; fight now for yourselves
Fight for that space, fill that space
Make it tissue, make it mass, make it impenetrable, make it yours, make it…[Tigrai!!]”
A united Tigrai, one that embraces every Tigrean, one that transforms the space between each, i.e., differences in gender, in religion, and locality into impregnable tissue will become indomitable not just to current enemies but to anyone now and tomorrow (usually, enemies that hatch after two or three decades)! A united Tigrai is indomitable Tigrai!! Back to the stone age analogy…
Those who think in terms of matter, i.e., the demolished structures, argue Tigrai is pushed back into the stone age where life is in a state of nature that Hobbes portrayed as: “nasty, brutish, and short!”. By contrast, those who think in terms of mind think otherwise. They look at what Tigreans, the sapiens (the wise beings) who can think and analyze, and observed the academic/philosophical entanglements their youth had would conclude the Tigrean psyche has evolved today, albeit the huge cost (shall we call it tuition fee?!) incurred.
I’d argue the pain triggered by the genocide has carved the Tigrean mindset and sharpened it to cut through complexity. Tigreans no longer think in terms of Ethiopia (while others do) but the region (HoA, Red Sea, and the Gulf), plus the global context (middle and super powers). They no longer think about military strength (infantry and artillery) but technological (cyber, drone, social media), economic (global trade, infrastructure, and currency), and cultural (religion, language, art, music, poetry), political, and historical dimensions. Tigreans have acquired multidimensional outlook post this genocide. This genocide has also taught Tigreans to think not about one but a combination of adversaries. Going forward, Tigrai’s security strategists will stage a scenario where an attack is launched not by one but multiple adversaries. The genocide has taught Tigreans the indispensability of not only self-reliance but that of excellence in every endeavor. After all, Tigrai was heard when its military proved excellent. This painful, nonetheless, evolution, of mindset is not, by no means, a retrogression to the stone age, but an upright propulsion to the moon.
Socrates, after all, said: “it’s better to suffer pain than inflict it” for a reason. Those who inflict it lose their conscience- as we saw the murderers and rapist prisoners of war (POWs) from Eritrea- talking about their life- how they used it. The big question here is this: can a rapist and a murderer build a nation? Can a cheat and a robber expect to build a great country others look up to, perhaps seek shelter in? The answer is a resounding: NO,!! The only exception? Unless they sincerely admit their wrongs they inflicted on Tigrai in front of the world- just like Nazi’s and Japanese did following the Second World War! But survivors of genocidaires do rise from the ashes, like the Pheonix, as witnessed in Western Europe, East Europe, and South East Asia, and, of course, the Jews in Israel.
Before delving deeper, to some degree, into this, however, it is good to address some attempts to throw shades on Tigrai’s existing leaders. Tigrai’s enemies have thrown a lot of “garbage” (in words and letters) against Tigreans and their elected leadership since the beginning. But nobody bothers to approach a stinking garbage deliberately, unless, of course, one is a scientist, a laboratory technician, or some scavenger whose primary occupation revolves around leftovers. Anyone throwing shades on Tigrai’s leader as an individual, i.e., attacking her/his background or personality, is a traitor! ባንዳ！
I think Tigreans should know that when non-Tigreans see Tigrai, they zoom in, for better or worse, at the T.P.L.F– this fifty years old political institution that Tigreans built by sacrificing their best and brightest (Abay Tsehaye, Seyoum Mesfin, Meles Zenawi, and many more), spilling millions of bloods, countless broken limbs, and the many iron cuffs (all the precious Tigreans languishing in enemy prisons). They, Tigrai’s enemies, know quite well, from their own experience, people lacking leadership, no matter how brave, can easily be subdued. Tigrai’s history attest to this fact! Hence, that is precisely why Tigrai’s enemies, both near and far, want to destroy the T.P.L.F!! So, Tigreans might become leaderless.
Tigrai’s leadership, i.e., the current T.P.L.F leadership, has saved Tigrai from absolute extermination. They killed five or six percent of Tigrai’s population but, considering their ultimate plan (the political laundry project Isaias launched), it could have been much worse. I am not talking about the ex-high-ranking military leaders in the Ethiopian military and the Tigrean army they trained- dubbed the TDF or Tigrai army here (kindly, spare me the foolish controversy over nomenclature!). Instead, I am talking about the unpretentious, yet core, political leadership in Tigrai today. Do we have Meles’s caliber among them? Probably not yet, but we are getting there. But, were there real leaders, i.e., a bunch that sacrificed or were willing/ready to sacrifice their only lives to emancipate the people? 100 percent!! Tigrai is blessed to have geniune political leaders!
We often hear these leaders giving due credit to the masses. But, rest assured, these leaders, even if they won’t admit it, were instrumental in resurrecting Tigrai from the grave. Imagine this: what if they surrendered? What if they fled? Mengistu fled and Derg 2.0’s leader was about to, right? Yes! If we agree that Tigreans are the owners of this resistance, we must admit that its leaders are too. Are these leaders perfect? Nope! Nor do they claim to be- unlike Derg 2.0’s preachers. We constantly hear Tigrai’s leaders admitting to their mistakes, expressing willingness to rectify them, even to be tried if need be. Tigrai is blessed to have raised a humble leadership.
Why do I say humble? Well, have we seen the Eritrean tyrant consulting his people, ordinary illiterate people, on what should be done? Have we seen the Amhara terrorist groups discussing next plans with farmers? Have we ever witnessed the 7th king consulting the 100 plus million people he claims to run? No! Nada! Zilch!! Even leaders of advanced nations bragging democracy never consult the people. Have you seen Bush, Obama, Trump, or Biden discuss military issues with Americans? Forget European, Latin American, Russian, and Asian leaders? I’m sure the Tigrean diaspora can attest that no leadership worldwide consults with ordinary people as intimately as the current leadership of Tigrai. And, this genuinely democratic culture will take Tigrai a long way, towards technological transformation, in the long haul.
It is amidst this UNIQUE DEMOCRATIC CULTURE, only found in Tigrai, that Tigrai’s enemies are claiming they have repatriated Tigrai decades back. That is what makes it funny. Now, let us ask whether Tigrai’s enemies have succeeded in pulling back to the stone age, as some claim. Well, Japan was the only country that was hit with the atomic bomb, correct? France, Germany, and Britain, not to mention Russia, were reduced to a rubble following the Second World War, isn’t that right? Prior to that, Japan “raped” China, true? How many of us know that the Japanese massacred South Koreans, Singaporeans, and others in that corner? We also know what happened in Rwanda, don’t we? So, let’s ask are these countries in the stone age today? And, what about Israel whose people were subjected to a genocide comparable to what’s transpiring in Tigrai today? Well, the short answer is this: all of these countries are faring much better than most countries that did not suffer as much. It all boils down to Nietzsche’s (nowadays, Kanye West’s) dictum: “What does not kill you, can only make you stronger!”
Tigrai’s enemies have forced Tigreans to be strong enough to not just resist them but also defeat them and see beyond them. From here onwards, Tigrean leaders, its future strategists, will take not just the thugs threatening to kill Tigreans but their sponsors’ capabilities as well. Tigrai’s enemies have imposed on Tigreans to redraft their security calculus that considers not one adversary, but a combination.
Tigrai’s future security architecture and strategy will inevitably be based on not one but an alliance of multiple actors, near and far. The Tigrean genocide will inevitably create Tigrean strategists that will make ensure Tigrai can withstand an adversary composed of not one but five or six, even more adversaries. When one says “withstand” one is, obviously, not talking about military confrontation, but technological, governance, economic, and cultural realms as well-inter alia.
In short, the plan of Tigrai’s enemies to take it back to the stone age has backfired. It has propelled the Tigrean mindset towards the future, two or three decades ahead into the future. Tigreans have awakened, rather rudely, to the ebbs and flows of politics, the necessity of breaking that vicious cycle popping up every two or three decades for good. One can watch how some of our elites in Tigrai are talking about the 4th industrial revolution. The Eritrean tyrant should wonder, for his own safety, how hungry people could fathom such length. Sorry, Mr. 31-year long tyrant, your 19th Century political machine could never wash off Tigrai’s political brilliance. Perhaps, you should have considered washing off your own garbage first- that antediluvian order you’re trying to sustain!! Today, every Tigrean thinks globally while acting locally; yesterday Tigreans were curbed within Ethiopia- just like the Eritrean tyranny, albeit parasitic/not developmental, today. This evolution of mindset, in my view, is not a return to the stone age but a flight to the moon.