So far, the government has taken only one notable step worth mentioning to avert this looming disaster: it has bought 300 million Nakfa worth of food from "its own" coffers. Given the various exchange rates - the one used in the black markets (i.e., the one that really reflects the market) and the official one (i.e., the unrealistic one) -, the total cost of the food in US dollars would be somewhere between 12 and 20 million. If we compare this amount with the amount the GoE is spending on the Eritrean Airlines ($200 to $300 million) and to the overall amount actually needed to avert the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the drought ($163 million), we could clearly see where the GoE's priority actually lies. As in our example, it seems that this government can only afford to buy food for its starving population only after it has set aside money (and other resources, the most notable of which is the ongoing Warsai-Yikealo project) for its golden pot (actually, golden pots, for there are many of these useless pet projects, some of which are: the Massawa international airport, the Asmara-Massawa railway, the Massawa-Assab road, the Intercontinental Hotel and, now, the Eritrean Airlines).

Let's now revisit the airlines' CEO's infamous statement: "Even for the drought, you have to have a means of transport [for food], so it is part of the solution to the problem." How? By transporting tons of ghost sacks of grain with the luggage of passengers? Look how twice-distanced from realty this rhetorical question is. First, there hasn't been enough food donated that has strained available transportation. And, even if such amount of food is made somehow magically available, the two aircrafts are the last vehicles one would depend on to haul this food. Given the huge task - i.e., transporting 476,796 metric tons! -, it is obvious that even if the airline would to be willing to do its best, its share of the task would remain totally peripheral. And, more importantly, I don't see how it could do that without driving itself to bankruptcy in the very process of doing so, unless it is planning to charge exuberant price, thus ending up channeling a huge chunk of the donor's money to the GoE's coffers (something that GoE have been envying the Woyanies for successfully doing) - of course, as usual, all at the expense of the people.

No wonder then that Mebrahtu's remark sounds as stupid or as insincere (or both) as the man's remarks in the example provided at the start of this posting, a remark that was meant to exculpate himself for buying the golden pot by pointing to the inconsequential role it could possibly play as a cooking utensil. It is this total loss of sense of proportion in prioritizing one's necessities that has become stark clear in the example. Similarly, our CEO, in order to exculpate the GoE from the suicidal project that it has undertaken, points to the most inconsequential role the airlines could possibly play in feeding the hungry masses - i.e., in transporting food that is no where to be found. Here again, it is the misplaced priorities of the GoE that leaves us dumbfounded. The role that the Eritrean airlines could possibly play in delivering the Eritrean masses from the clutches of the famine is as much as the role that the golden pot could possibly play in alleviating the hunger of the man's family: as a black hole that sucks in all the resources that could have been effectively used to fight the famine.

The looney division of labor:

Then why is the GoE doing what it is doing? The main reason as to why the GoE has embarked on this destructive road, recklessly spending large amounts of money and great resources in extravagant and meaningless projects, while being extremely "frugal" when it comes to giving a helping hand to its own people - and in this case, with little precious time left - is the same reason that made our man in the example reluctant to appropriately and timely react to avert disaster in his family: the misguided belief that the neighbors would eventually come to their senses and soon come to his family's aid.

Up to this moment, the GoE is waiting, with its hands folded, for the donor nations and organizations to stop "politicizing" this humanitarian problem and eventually come to Eritrea's rescue. If we are to go by the offended tone the GoE officials have been responding, one might even suspect that all along they have had this looney and unwarranted division of labor in their minds: while the responsibility of the world community lies on the "humanitarian" side - a task that requires feeding Eritrea's hungry -, the Goe's responsibility lies on the "developmental" side - that is to embark on whatever fancy projects that they deem to be necessary. No wonder these half-demented officials look genuinely surprised when the world community "doesn't live up to its share of the overall task"! After all, they keep reassuring themselves, they have been scrupulously doing their share! Indeed, these poor souls look genuinely perplexed when the world shows them the "sell your golden pot"-attitude. They don't seem to realize that the few crumbs that these nations and NGOs are throwing at the Eritrean people are not done because of what the GoE is doing, but in spite of it; it is simply done on the rationale that the population shouldn't pay the price for the crime and stupidity of its leaders.

If there is anything that could be described as being an inverse of what a double whammy is, then the launching of the Eritrean Airline would definitely fit that description. Not only is it being launched at a worst possible time, thereby lethally siphoning off all the money that could have been constructively utilized to feed the hungry, it is also a project that doesn't make any economic sense at all - i.e., even if there was no famine at all. It would be, indeed, foolish to imagine that an airlines run by a small and poor nation like Eritrea would have a fair chance of survival in the current cut-throat environment of the airline industry, where even seasoned airlines like United, American and US Airways are fiercely fighting for their very existence. But this is a subject matter for my next posting...

The subversive image of a sanitized Eritrea:

There is no doubt that there are some dimwits who are so exited that they can hardly wait to see the Eritrean Airlines taking off to the skies, totally oblivious of the fact that this "thrilling" flight is coming at the expense of the hungry masses in Eritrea. Here is what one exited guy has to euphorically say:

"The moment I heard about the two important developments [the launching of the Eritrean Airlines and the reconstruction of the Eritrean railways], my first thought was, wow if Eritrea can do this in a time of war and the situation that was affected by war, what will be that this tiny nation can do in a complete peace period? Or, that is to say, when Eritrea starts to go on with full speed." ("Above The Sky Through The Mountains" - by Gebre Fessehazion, at Biddho.com)

To such people, it is enough to see the Eritrean flag provocatively pasted on the tails of the planes to burst with pride and patriotism. What makes this possible is that it is not the real Eritrea that they have in mind, but an Eritrea that exists above and over the lives of the individual inhabitants that make it up. If one erases the citizens from the image of Eritrea that one has come to concoct, one also erases any problems associated with those citizens. It is this "sanitized" Eritrea, cleansed of its political malaise, its humanitarian disasters and economic mess, that has taken roots in their heads. Of course, this sanitized Eritrea is self-concocted for their own consumption; their ego wouldn't have it any other way.

One would imagine that this image of a sanitized Eritrea, even though of a delusional mold, would somehow have its own coherence. Not at all. These delusional creatures have kept this image alive not by drawing a fantastic world full of interesting details - that would, at least, have required a richness of imagination, however fictional that might be; something that they totally lack. Instead, what emerges is this deprived and gerrymandered world that is sparsely populated by emaciated elements that they consider as essential, floating in their scattered brains in various odd and idiosyncratic ways. Among these disparate and looney images, the "must-have" ones are: clean and paved streets of Asmara, white and expansive beaches of Massawa (which is all that they mean by the "Red Sea"), the nine ethnic groups (of which they are extremely proud, but only if their existence is confined to poster cards or to festivals), a favorite patriotic singer (Wedi Tukul would do), the indispensable PIA, the equally indispensable map of Eritrea and now the famous (or, infamous) Badme (it doesn't matter to them where it is located; for all they care it could be equidistantly located between Tio and Beylul). Give or take, you might want to add a few other elements, depending on the inclination of the individual: a camel, Nakfa (or Sahel - the symbolic one, not the real one), arkobkobay, and some few catchy slogans ("Awet N'Hafash" being the most popular). Imagine now, what their joy would turn out to be with this rare windfall of a treasure, in fact, a trophy - the Eritrean Airlines! - to add to their impoverished inventory of what their image of "Eritrea" amounts to!

To underscore the surrealism involved in all this, take, for instance, one of these spooky must-have images: the shape of the map of Eritrea, something that often takes a life of its own. I have met some people who have literally fallen in love with that shape! It seems to me that these people were furious at the Woyanies, more than anything else, for daring to alter this beloved shape that they have been conditioned to cherish, without a proper understanding of what would that alteration roughly amount to if translated into the realities on the ground!

Even now, as they are celebrating the awarding of Badme, it is not the real Badme that they have in mind; that would be a too dreary an image for them to love, but the Badme that exonerates the GoE or implicates the Woyanies. It is the Badme sheared off all its realities, totally reduced to symbolism and politically inflated to serve as a tool of condemnation or vindication, of praise or vilification and, of course, of much bravado - all food to their egos - that matters to them most.

This image of sanitized Eritrea is not something that is confined to the GoE foot soldiers; it goes all the way to the top. It is precisely because the leadership have this image that they keep fantasizing about Singapore and the likes, and keep pouring money and resources on grandiose projects that have no tangible results at all; results that could be translated into the improvement of the lives of the ordinary people: Housing projects that cater to the very rich only (most of whom live outside the country), the Intercontinental Hotel that keeps charging more than a thousand Nakfa for a single meal (more than a monthly salary for most of the people); the Massawa airport that serves ghost tourists; the antiquated Massawa-Asmara railroad that has no commercial or any other practical value worth considering ; the Massawa-Assab road that passes through the most desolate part of Eritrea; and, now, a brand new Eritrean Airlines funded by snatching the last meals from the mouths of the starving masses. Hundreds of millions of US dollars have been spent on these projects; yet, hard as you try, you won't find anything in them that could be of any use to the common man - not even indirectly.

We are now left with this sociological riddle: why do the Eritrean movements, that have had decades of close contacts with the peasants and nomads, end up being so detached from the realities of the hardships of the common man (the peasant, the nomad, the daily laborer, the teacher, etc.) - so much so, that one of of them ends up letting the people starve and the other happily keeps mining and maiming them? How were the PFDJ leadership able to sustain this subversive dream of a nation embellished with surreal images that only an infatuated teenager who have seen too many Indian movies could entertain? How is it that that after decades of revolution, the only thing that they were able to tenaciously hold onto is their Italian-wanna-be characteristics long ago acquired in the streets of Asmara? Had it not been for its grave consequences, this ought to have been a stuff for comedy. But it hurts; so we could only conclude by saying: how is it possible to be so close and yet remain so far?

Yosief Ghebrehiwet
04/08/03