Why the bad News?

One of the things I do when I wind down in the evenings and weekends is follow the news, particularly about Eritrea and Africa. Update myself about the situations in the horn of Africa and the world in general. A friend once said to me, as soon as he wakes up in the morning the first thing he does is put his Radio-on just to make sure he is not the only one alive and also to find out if there were any developments that might have happened in the world while he was asleep; in case aliens invaded the world. I personally think that is too much of a paranoia, but I don’t blame my friend for being paranoid.
 

As most of us know, media has become one way of controlling the public. Control through manipulation, by instilling paranoia and fear. Using the power of propaganda and counting on the gullibility of the masses, fear and hate are injected into the minds of the population towards a scapegoat to divert attention from the facts and having total control over the destinies of ordinary people. The world population is bogged down in dealing with all the hustle and bustle of daily living and as a result become passive.

If we look at the situation in the Middle East for instance, weapons of mass-destruction were echoing on radios, televisions and newspapers. Saddam Hussein, the one time very good ally of the American administration during the tragic Iraq and Iran war, suddenly became the prime enemy. Situations changed and the tragedy of 9-11 occurred and a scapegoat had to be found and then followed the hate propaganda. “Weapons of mass destruction that can put the world in danger were being invented in Iraq”. This was one way of injecting fear and paranoia. Now we know there were no weapons of mass destruction, the media diverts the world population from the realty. Questions have not been answered, to the contrary more lame reasons are fed through the media to cause more fear.
 

There was an English lady I use to work with and one day we were talking about the situations in Middle East. My lady colleague was passionately talking about how cruel and dangerous Saddam was and how the Iraqi people are suffering. I took my time and heard what she had to say and asked her why she thought Saddam was a cruel man and she evasively replied by asking me, “didn’t you see the news last night? I mean our boys are there to free the Iraqi people from that monster,” I asked why she believed everything she saw in the news? She said, “Well there is a correspondent there and you could see Iraqis talk about all the suffering they went through under Saddam.” I asked if she knew where Iraq was and she said, “somewhere near Saudi Arabia or somewhere in Asia”. This lady hated Saddam without knowing much about what he did. I quietly asked, if she knew that more Iraqis are dying after the country was invaded by US and UK? There was a pause and grim stare. I looked away and carried on with what I was doing. She still kept on looking at me and asked, “So where did you get that from?” and I replied by asking which TV channel she watched the news about Iraq? By then she was angry that she was looking at me unhappily. “I don’t know, I think BBC”

The Iraq issues are the least of my colleague’s priority. She does not care about what happens in Iraq. For this reason she has no interest in verifying the facts from different sources. She has become totally passive. I sometimes hear her talking very excitingly about television soap film ‘Bookside’ when Anthony kills Imelda Clough. She even encouraged me to watch. Watching Brookside or any other TV soap film is not bad at all, but it can completely detach one from the reality.
 

Unfortunately The Media has become above the law. It is able to disadvantage or discredit anyone with no evidence. It can and does alter the course of history and directly affects our futures. All the atrocities and crimes in the horn of Africa are barely mentioned. When suddenly Norwegian ship is hijacked, or when a journalist throws his shoes at the out going American president George W Bush, then suddenly it becomes a headline. It’s all about interest.
 

When we come to the Eritrean affairs, it's a very unique situation. Presently in Africa, we have a terrorist regime in Ethiopia. This minority regime used more than 120,000 Ethiopian soldiers as cannon fodder and invaded Eritrea, but was defeated legally and militarily by Eritrea and the Eritrean freedom was preserved and Eritrea maintained her peaceful intentions by signing the Algiers agreement in front of guarantors. The minority Ethiopian servant regime had to sign, as there was no other option left, but is still being spoon fed by western countries specially the US administration and occupies Eritrean territories like Badme and also invaded another sovereign country Somalia.
 

The media barely mentions these crimes, because the owners have to serve their interests as well. Westerners own most of the media outlets and their business is generated mainly from the western countries and they won’t broadcast the tremendous developments of Eritrea or others who are fighting for the truth.

Serving the TRUTH
 

Child slave labour has been going on here in Britain for years and the British Newspaper industry has got away with it for years. Children who are paid a pittance are up at 4am in the morning, whilst the media executives who earn a lot of money are still in bed sleeping off a bottle of whiskey.
 

The Media industry pretends to offer balanced reportage and information in order for the viewers, listeners or readers to make up their own mind, but in-fact they are directing the viewers’, listeners’ or readers’ attention to what the media want them to know. What the public needs to know and those alternatives that are chosen to project the truth are censored and the media restricts independent thought; manipulating the minds of people who soon become zombies. With no self-restraint, any legal and moral code, the media controls people through the manipulation of stereotypes and prejudice, which endangers all minorities. Bad news has become the norm, the daily news. Systems are being orchestrated to cause violence, black on black shooting, stabbing, drug abuse etc. By inciting victimisation, which it can then reported as ‘news’, it turns different cultures and beliefs to each other in order to increase its influence and its wealth.
 

By forming the illusion of debates media out lets like BBC seem to be offering choice but the ability for the viewer or reader to respond on equal terms at the pace of his or her own intellect is denied and they are pacified into not challenging. TV and the Media at large, actually construct the character and morality of their viewers to serve their own purposes and in a most insidious, continual way they control and manipulate society itself, creating desires, images and emotions within an individual on a mass scale.
 

Internet
 

My 16 years old niece has her own website and she enjoys showing off her drawing and design skills there. She has mastered the use of internet and also uses it for her educational purposes, but she is only allowed one hour on it and a program which monitors her surfing activities is installed on her PC by her parents.

A website is a collection of pages images, videos or other digital assets that are accessible via the Internet. Nowadays acquiring information has become so easy that, a lot have become dependent on the Internet. Some would literally spend days and even nights in front of their PC. It is as cheap as £20 a year to own a website, depending on how much digital information you upload and how many pages you have. A website usually is used to spread News and information. The racist far right group, the British National Party (BNP) posts hate and racist messages on their website, but their evil, medieval and unenlightened ideology is completely ignored and blocked by the modern and forward thinking majority that they lose hope from day to day.
 

There are some Eritrean websites equivalent to the racist group BNP (British National Party). Some Eritrean individuals with similar or even worst ideology than the racist group own them. The ‘Braking News’ written on these websites are mostly fabricated and the aim is to cause division and chaos. I sometimes visit these sites to amuse myself. And they are really beyond a joke. They would write any trash to cause confusion and division. Their wishful fantasy goes beyond limit. Any bad news is good news for them and they become monsters of their own making. They would go extra mile to cause havoc, paranoia and fear amongst Eritreans. They are getting paid to serve those who are looking to dominate. They take themselves so seriously that they believe their own lies. They would try to discredit the facts and would write anything to destabilize and divide.
 

Panic and fear benefits those who have agenda of domination. Media was responsible for the hellish ethnic cleansing in Rwanda. One million Rwandans died and the media instigated the disaster, but the majority of the world populations were oblivious to this. Help never got there on time, but later it was a ’News broadcast' as “Africans killing each other”. The real reason was never told.
 

The process of nation building building does ask a vision and perseverance. Eritrea learns and Eritrea delivers. Eritrean unity brought and preserved freedom and good News is what Eritrea is used to. The corrupted media will never destabilize this sacred nation. Let’s stay vigilant and expose the servants with medieval and unenlightened backward ideologies and block them from our united society.
 

Glory to The Eritrean Martyrs 

Success to Warsay Ykalo

Awet N’Hafash.

Samson Negassi

Remembering February 1990

Massawa

Whenever I think of ‘Operation Fenkil’, the first person who comes to my mind is my classmate Mokonen Yhdego. He is tall with dark complexions and usually quiet and very intelligent. Mekonen and I usually talked about news on the EPLF radio ‘Dimtsi Hafash’ and I heard the good news from this childhood friend of mine. The news that brought happiness I will never forget. It felt like the news of freedom and liberation. Then I knew the end of the barbaric foreign occupation forces in Eritrea was very near.

I was in my mid teens then and Thursday February 8th, 1990 was like any other day for me and my school friends. Our walk to school that morning was, as usual full of banter and laughter. Little did we know that, the day was going to be engraved in the history books and that Eritrea was announcing her absolute existence to the world. Asmarinos were going about their business and students with their brown, green, cream, blue coloured uniforms were filling the streets of Asmara, but many of us did not realize what was happening a few kilometers away.

Things started to look different once we were in classroom. The unusual upbeat behavior and happy faces of some students gave away the excitement in the air. My classmate Mokonen who is usually quiet was unusually chatty. As soon as we walked into the class room, students gathered in groups and were whispering to each other.

When the world least expected it, the courageous Eritrean freedom fighters broke the spine of the Ethiopian occupation forces. Envisaging 21 years ahead in 1990 was not in everyone’s mind but, every Eritrean had different visions and dreams. The freedom fighters who were in the thick of the bitter war were only envisaging the next task of liberating the pearl of the Red Sea-Massawa. Neither Eritreans nor the world did expect the lightening speed of EPLF. The Ethiopian colonizers were waiting for an attack around the Keren front, but to theirs and to the surprise of the world, on Thursday 8th of February 1990, Eritrean People’s Liberation Front began an offensive and cut the critical supply route between Asmara and Massawa. This lightening attack was indeed a big loss to Ethiopians, but an announcement to the world. The end of colonialism and beginning of free Eritrea became a reality.

Still the memory of 1977 was in the minds of many Eritreans and almost everyone took the good news with skepticism. What if Ethiopians use napalm bomb again? What about the difficult climate and intolerable heat? Many questions were arising. Having liberated half of Massawa in 1977, Eritrea lost so many golden Eritreans as they were engulfed by the enemy’s napalm bombs, therefore these doubts were expected and also the world never thought the strong Ethiopian navy that was armed to the teeth by the Russians would be dismantled by tiny boats of EPLF navy. With a very little naval experience and by modifying very few fishing boats then turning them to war boats, EPLF completely defeated the Ethiopian navy that had more than 30 years of experience. Out of everything Ethiopians never expected the coordinated and lightening offensive from the sea. Eritrean freedom fighters with no hesitation gave their sacred lives so that colonialism will never come back in Eritrea. Perhaps telling this miraculous tale would sound like an action movie.

Radio Dimitsi Hafash kept on transmitting the miracles and by the following day the EPLF fighters were in the suburbs of Massawa. Asmara then became chaotic. Chaotic because the lightening attack stunned Ethiopians and was sending this miraculous shiver inside the spine of Eritreans. Stocking up food was the prime target of many Asmarinos. The colonial forces were busy building trenches in front of their ‘governmental & military buildings’. Transportation was halted, cars became redundant, electricity was restricted to only 4 hours a day and Asmara turned to a military zone as Ethiopian soldiers were stationed at every corner. Fear was visible in their eyes. After all they have lost the war and were about to be chased away once and for all.

On the third day of the offensive, Saturday 10th February, 1990, EPLF captured the Ethiopian naval base near the city and most of Massawa was under the hands of the owners. Some portion of the city and the islands were left to be cleared. For me the freedom of Eritrea was announced on that day. And it was announced when no one expected it. The world was admiring the intelligence and courage of Eritreans and media outlets recognized EPLF as “the best guerilla fighters the world has ever seen.” The courage and determination of the freedom fighters in defeating the brutal and well equipped colonial forces was simply unique. The once dismissive international community believed in Eritrea. History writers sharpened their pencils.

Those who gave their ultimate gift for freedom had no fear in passing through the narrow bridge of ‘Segalet’ that was surrounded by sea on both sides. Crossing that bridge was, simply martyring one’s life to fully liberate Massawa. But the heroic fighters did not hesitate for one second in volunteering to sacrifice their lives. When the enemy lost Massawa, it continued aerial bombardment of the city with napalm and cluster bombs. The targets were not EPLF bases, but civilian population. Ethiopian warplanes carried out bombardments up to nine times a day. The documentary film titled ‘Kibtset’ tells the horrific stories of the bombardments.

During that bitter hardship Eritrean fighters passed on leaving us with an opportunity of owning our future destiny. One thing we owe to them is to everyday renew our promise of nurturing our identity and values. Let’s respect our culture, languages and our unity. Celebrating 21st anniversary of the Fenkil Operation is a reminder to every Eritrean inside and in Diaspora that, we ought to always remember how fortunate we are to be able to be given this opportunity that is envied by many countries in Africa and the world. Eritrea is standing on a very strong foundation while many nations are wobbling and nearly falling as they lack stable foundations. Freedom was announced 21 years ago, but the struggle changed it’s direction. Eritrea became free physically, but mental freedom was something that had to be achieved. It is with this in mind that, the older generation has a big responsibility in molding the present generation and pass on a very stable foundation. What was sow 60 years ago is being reaped now.

Continuation of this sacred mission is a responsibility of every single Eritrean and contributing every little help will make a mountainous positive difference.

God/Allah bless the Eritrean Martyrs.

More wisdom to the Eritrean Leadership.

Samson Negassi, samson_negassi@yahoo.co.uk

What is Reality?

Now, between you and I, is it really real out there? Do objects, you, me, and the cat really exist outside our minds? Are objects, or even our thoughts an illusion?

We are sometimes deceived, therefore we could always be deceived!

Have you ever thought you heard something, but there was nothing there? Have you ever thought you saw someone in the corner of your eye, and when you looked there was no person there? Have you ever looked at an illusion and been deceived that one line was longer than the other, but really it wasn't? When you look down from a high building on people, do they appear small like ants? Aren't there thousands of occasions when we do mis-perceive? If we are wrong on some occasions, for example, from a height people look the size of ants, is it not possible that we are always deceived? Logical necessity requires the answer: Yes, to this question. It is possible that things as we perceive them are not that way at all!

So what?

If we are concerned with:

• The purpose of life.
• What we should be doing on Earth.
• The meaning of  life and death.

then the issue of reality and the true nature of our existence is crucial. If things are different from how they are presented to us conventionally, then this is very basic to our quest.

What does science have to say?

Let's say they do, and let's be scientific. How do you know something is really out there?
Now ...
 We know things are there because

1. Light hits the retina of the eye.
2. And this changes the chemical composition of the eye. Right?
3. And this makes electricity travel along a nerve, the Optic Nerve.
4. And this goes to a part of the brain.
5. And then something happens and we see the thing.

That's what happens according to science.

According to science: "We do not respond to the thing, but to electrical and chemical events in the brain."

So, do we really respond to a thing?  Don't we respond' only the electrical and chemical events that occur in the brain and nerves, and not to the alleged real object? Therefore, it is not things we are experiencing but chemical and electrical reactions. We don't see things directly. We see via chemical and electrical reactions in eyes, nerves and bits of brain. This appears to be true because:

Without eyes, we don't see.
Without Optic Nerves we don't see.
Without certain bits of the brain, we don't see.
So we never directly see what is out there, according to science.

How do we know that what we see is real?

Suppose someone were to put electrodes in our brains and stimulate the visual part of our brains mimicking the impulses we normally receive. Would we see? Definitely we would. But we wouldn't be seeing what is there outside. We wouldn't be seeing what is real. We'd be seeing because some electricity was put in our brain, and it would look the same as our real objects!
How do we know the science is true? Of course we can observe, but science tells us that we don't directly experience objects .. and just as we could be deceived by a wicked scientist putting electrodes in our brains, we could be deceived, in the same way, into thinking that science was 'real.

Is science self contradictory?

Therefore, isn't it true that if we accept this scientific account then we cannot be certain that anything exists out there because we can never directly perceive it. Strangely, if this scientific theory is true we cannot prove it, because we can never perceive anything directly, so we do not know how and from where the experience came into our minds. Even our knowledge of eyes, nerves, bits of brain, is not direct but via electrical and chemical events in our brain!

How much is in the mind?

In the olden days, we thought that there were objects, material things, such as bricks, trees, mountains and goats, which were themselves real and constant in a way independent of our looking and otherwise perceiving them. These were things that had primary qualities which did not change and other qualities, sometimes called secondary qualities, which   were our reaction to the primary object, and which did change depending on. These secondary qualities were colour, shape, etc. No thinker suggested that the actual object had these qualities. They were qualities we gave to objects. For example, a rose might look red to us, but if no one was looking at it, we couldn't really say it was red. We might have said it had the power to elicit the colour red in our minds, but this primary quality of being able to elicit the red sensation was not 'red.' The colour was our reaction to the object. So we assume there was something out there, say next door's cat, which was a real object. However our experience of it, blackness, meowing, shape, etc, were largely our reaction to the real object and not the real object itself.

Have you ever been in a shop to buy something, say curtains, where the colour is very important? Have you heard these stories of people getting home only to find the colour looked different? The curtains were the same curtains in the shop. Their primary qualities hadn't changed, but our experience of them, the secondary qualities, changed when we viewed them under different lighting conditions. Because the length and weight, for example, remain the same, we may be tempted to think these are the primary qualities, and colour is just subjective.

What does a thing look like when no one is looking at it?

Science rushed off to discover these primary qualities and developed concepts like mass which were supposed to describe the real object. However, pretty soon, we realised that the so called primary qualities were just as much secondary as colour and the rest! Although we can specify conditions and measuring instruments which largely give us consistent results, it is a human being who is perceiving the measuring instruments and their reaction on him or her. We cannot know the real object apart from our perception of it. A question like, 'What does something look like when no one is looking at it?' is clearly nonsense, and unanswerable.