Difference between shrouded in sanity and freebirth
- DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SHROUDED IN SANITY AND FREEBIRTH SOFTWARE
- DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SHROUDED IN SANITY AND FREEBIRTH CRACK
Isaias talking about Eritreans is a lot like Jim comforting the disappointed black sheriff in “Blazing Saddles” Jim doesn’t hate his people, in fact, he risks his life for them, but it doesn’t change his view of them as common clay of the earth, whom he calls, “you know, morons.” Someone who has no self-awareness somebody who is distracted by something else.
There is an absence of grace or purpose in “handef handef,” which is how one defines a movement of a people that are just stunned, in a shock, or grief, or naiveté. “ Izi hzbi”, he says in this interview, “ nQdmit handef handef inabele zkeyd iyu.” The closest translation I can find for “handef handef” is to ramble, to meander or to shuffle along. Oh, sure, Isaias Afwerki is a politician and he will flatter the subjects when necessary (see also: when he needs money.) But for the most part, the subjects are, in his eyes, weaklings who have to be protected- protected from a dangerous world, from enemies outside and within who want to prey on them. Obama thinks people stick to tradition and religion because they have been betrayed by their government (“people have been beaten down so long, they feel so betrayed by government, so its not surprising that they get bitter and cling to guns or religion or antipathy towards people who aren’t like them”) and Isaias also feels that the reason there is religious revival is because people gave up on the secular world. Obama embraces hard-core leftist ideology but pretends he is post partisan Isaias embraces a clearly definable Stalinist philosophy but then dismisses ideology as too rigid, too restrictive, the way a body rejects a foreign object. One is (or claims to be) post racial, post partisan and the other one is (or claims to be) post regional, post ideology. Isaias Afwerki has the same aloofness from his subjects that Obama has-the ordinariness of the circle of life is too tedious for them.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SHROUDED IN SANITY AND FREEBIRTH SOFTWARE
So, like a traveling consultant who has an outsider-looking-in vocabulary (this company, these employees), Isaias has the same estrangement (this country, these people)….with the same hilarious “insight” that consultants have about the companies they visit I am betting that his favorite software application is that old standby of every consultant: PowerPoint. abzi hager bHtawi kfal kblu ygermeni iyu (it is amazing to me when people talk about the private sector) and then mocked the meager capital of Eritrea’s capitalists. And it is a habit with him: when it comes to Eritrea, Isaias talks like a consultant, as this column observed years ago when Isaias expressed amazement about people who speak of the private sector. In fact, in the entire 6-hour interview, you will never find these words escape his lips: “Eritrea”, “Eritreans,” “Eritrean people.” It is always, “ izi hager” (this country), “ izi hzbi” (these people.) Go ahead, check it, if you got 6 hours to kill. But he shows no admiration or respect for Eritreans.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SHROUDED IN SANITY AND FREEBIRTH CRACK
He will sing hymns to the exceptionalism of Somalis (“ Hayal hzbi iyu”) his voice will crack in agony regarding the ethnic federation arrangement of Mama Ethiopia (the way Gigi’s does over her Man’net Melekiya One Ethiopia ) he will shed tears for the fate of Native Americans (whom he cringingly calls Red Indians) and to all the marginalized and po’ folk who overcrowd the planet. I am often struck by how dispassionate Isaias Afwerki is when talking about Eritreans. Besides, the Eritrean people are too exhausted to groan. This part will focus on the reaction of the Eritrean people. I was going to suggest Isaias Shrugged: And The Eritrean People Groaned but a troublemaker suggested “sighed” and I am making peace with her.
The media in Eritrea, which is owned by the State (which is to say, Isaias) –nods its head in agreement to whatever sound passes his lips ( And The State Media Nodded Its Head) the international community (let’s pretend there is one) just rolls its eyes the way we all do at the crazy uncle ( And The World Rolled Its Eyes). This is Al Nahda’s final installment on the various reactions to Isaias Afwerki shrugging.