by Teodros Kiros (Ph.D)
As I steadily move towards death, as all of us humans do, my heart is vibrating with joy, as I sense the end of an era and the beginning of a new one. Old age signifies the end, and youth signifies the new era. The two eras are united by hope and understanding. Old age is understanding, and youth is hope. These principles of life apply to the tigrean condition most poignantly now. Let us nurse and cultivate them anew. Let us prepare ourselves to forgive without forgetting, to love by nursing hate and overcome it in time patiently and wisely. Let us also be strategic and engage our enemies by surprising them now with wars but understanding, not hostility but flexibility, not resentment but empathy, not shutting dialogue but opening it wisely.
The elders of TPLF should encourage youth to take over their leaderships and not imprison them.
I hail the historic role of the leaders of TPLF in dismantling the Ethiopian derg and the monumental achievements of EPRDF under the leadership of Meles Zenawi , a world class leader. That is now history and the aging leaders of TPLF must now heed to the Tigrean youth to lead the way. They should not stand on the way but pave the way for Tigrean youth who died in millions to open new horizons of leadership by using a blend of new blood and untested imaginary by forging alliances with Eritrean youth and Ethiopian youth and construct a new landscape of peace, love and empathy, the cardinal virtues of engaging human beings to work out the traumas of war and the hate and distrust which is pervading our souls in East Africa.
The time has come as another war is looming in Ethiopia with regional expansion in East Africa, for Tigrean youth to play an original role of forging alliance with Eritrean youth and fight for peace, before and after the war breaks out.
The time is now for Tigrean and Eritrean youth not to take sides but move to the streets and ask for peace.
Yes to peace and no to war, should be our new slogan.