From: Tesfay Sebahtu (tesfayseb@sbcglobal.net)
Date: Sun Jan 04 2009 - 20:36:52 EST
Amare
What on earth are you ranting about?
Regards,
Tesfay S
Oakland CA
From: owner-dehai@dehai.org [mailto:owner-dehai@dehai.org] On Behalf Of
Amare T
Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2009 4:53 PM
To: dehai@dehai.org
Subject: [DEHAI] SLIGHTED: EVEN IN DEATH
Dear friends,
A week or so ago two death announcements were posted here in Dehai and
other websites. Prof. Tekie Fessahatzion eulogized Prof. Jordan Gebre-Medhin
and an obituary of the other decedent, Mr.Musie Mehari, was sent by a
community
organization. Both deaths were in Boston.
What prompted me to write this note is an announcement I read in one of the
Eritrean websites indicating that a previously scheduled New Year's Eve
celebration in Boston has been cancelled out of respect for Mr. Mehari and
his family. I was totally and completely taken aback. Was it an honest
oversight
or a horrendous, deliberate and politically motivated omission? Both
individuals
passed away within a span of one week. Why was one decedent and his family
recognized and the other shown pointedly disrespectful and indifferent
treatment?
It is no secret that the Eritrean community in Boston, more so than other
places, has
for to long wallowed in a tumultuous and mutually destructive internecine
turmoil.
But the practice of slighting, even in death, a member of the Eritrean
community, and
an ardent nationalist to boot, is an infantile behaviour that is not worthy
of anyone
calling themselves Eritrean. This is an unprecedented low for Diaspora
Eritreans. I
believe the community organization in question has a responsibility to
elaborate why
and what drove them to commit such an insensitive and glaring blunder.
Regards,
Amare