From: Ogbazgy A.Asmerom (ogbazgy@gmail.com)
Date: Wed Feb 03 2010 - 12:57:14 EST
Eritrean Culture of Hospitality Must be Respected
By Ogbazgy Abbay Asmerom
The BBC [British Broadcasting Corporation] is known for its worldwide radio
program services, newsgathering, reporting, and disseminating.
Unfortunately, some of the journalists it hires or sends abroad are not well
qualified to reflect the needs, aspirations, and cultural dynamics of the
people they write about, and attempt to tell their stories. Some reporters
have different kinds of negative perceptions, biases, and attitudes about
the people they tend to file dispatches. They have a narrow understanding of
the history and culture of other societies. They tend to look at the “other
people” from darker lenses that are full of pseudo-scientific approaches and
condescending attitudes. Thus, they cannot be “real and genuine”
journalists. The following article is about one of those reporters.
.
Peter Martell’s article, Eritrea: Steely Facade (BBC Focus on Africa
Magazine, October-December 2009), showed sheer arrogance, bias, lack of
knowledge, and full of insensitivity about Eritrean culture and history. It
is very sad that he produced his last venom after enjoying Eritrean
hospitality for two years.
Martell chose to write his last piece on Eritrea in the 3rd quarter of 2009,
when in fact he left Eritrea in the middle of 2008. In addition to quoting
two biased individuals: Michaela Wrong and Kjetil Tronvoll, he deliberately
chose to dwell on some sensational aspects of interviewing phantom sources,
and writing unsubstantiated stories using unidentified individuals, who are
believed to give him “some juice” that could help him write and then incite
the people, and create division within the society and the government.
Unfortunately, people tend to talk anything you wanted them talk, especially
when you give them a cover of deniability and lack of accountability. It is
also true that some societies have some “turncoats’ and renegades who let
their own homes, stores and properties get stolen, burned, and destroyed by
outside enemies! Hence, self-destruction is the result of lack of
self-respect. Reporters, like cultural anthropologists, must be keen
observers and participants in the truth and must tell the stories without
adding, subtracting or omitting.
Tronvoll has chosen to make his living by bad-mouthing the Eritrean
government and its people. From his PhD dissertation 15 years ago, to his
many biased articles about Eritrea, and to his latest report, he is known to
be a biased individual who stands to claim “white is black, and black is
white.” Moreover, Wrong had chosen to castigate Eritrea and the Eritrean
government in order to sell her book. The two are in the business of selling
their books! Unfortunately, Mr. Martell has paraded them in front of us as
experts! He did not write or tell us anything about the economic
transformation that is taking place or the various projects being carried
out in Eritrea. When it comes to Eritrean history, culture, and issues,
Tronvoll and Wrong cannot be experts than the Eritreans themselves!
What Eritrea is doing is trying to protect its national sovereignty as all
other states do, such as England and Norway, where Wrong and Tronvoll hail
from. Eritrean national and security interests are not less in value than
the values attached to any other country in the world. Eritreans know how to
maintain and defend their unity. They believe in themselves and their own
ingenuity. They know how to keep and maintain their dignity and respect.
They believe in self-reliance, and have already shown the world that
self-reliance pays off! For the Eritreans, it does not make any sense to be
dependent on any handouts that come from unreliable and unfriendly sources.
They know that depending on others takes away the personal motivation and
incentive to be productive and innovative. Eritreans have an attitude of “we
can do it by ourselves.” They also know how to do it! They know what blood,
sweat, and tears have brought upon them. They do not need to have so-called
journalists like Martell, and so-called experts like Wrong and Tronvoll, and
many others who do not have any vested stake in the outcome of the future of
Eritrean development programs to come to them and tell them what to do.
They know what needs to be done, and are making steady progress!
It was against all odds, after 30 years of national struggle, that they
liberated their country! When most of the “world community” chose to ignore
them and forgot about their existence and national struggle, they did not
lose sight of their main goal. Without any outside help, they defeated
sub-Saharan Africa’s largest army, the Ethiopian army. Eritreans chose
freedom rather than slavery! Now, they are trying to rebuild their
devastated country. They have a lot to catch up! Eritreans want to be
captains of their own ship and masters of their own destiny. They are trying
to invest in their future! This is being done through the exemplary help,
dedication, commitment, and sacrifices of the young people. What is wrong
with instituting a national service program in Eritrea? The Belgians,
Norwegians, and Swiss, to mention some European countries, are still doing
it. This is not unique to Eritrea! If some young people desert from the
army, it is not new. It happens in many countries. Nevertheless, many young
and dedicated Eritreans are doing exemplary work inside Eritrea to make
fundamental changes in the rural and urban areas. Truly, within 19 years,
fundamental change is taking place in Eritrea. The Eritreans do not want to
have or see any stumbling blocks or obstacles thrown on their way. Very
soon, they will usher an African oasis proving the naysayers wrong. What the
Eritreans need is to be left alone, mind their own business, tend their own
shop, and to chart their own destiny. Is that too much to ask? Thus, some
so-called “good journalists and so-called learned experts” should not be
allowed to paint negative pictures about the Eritreans, their history and
culture. It must be understood that the Eritreans have the same aspirations
as those who live in Europe and the Americas! Hence, they are not different
from what Martell, Wrong, and Tronvoll aspire to have in England and Norway.
Finally, it is very important for the BBC and Focus on Africa Magazine to
hire reporters and journalists who are matured, sensitive, knowledgeable,
and unbiased. If that happens, there will be some mutual respect and
balanced reporting of the stories that people need to know or care to read.
Therefore, the main goal of a genuine journalist should be to inform and not
to incite; to educate and not to confuse; to respect and not to debase the
social and cultural values of other societies.
Unfortunately, Peter Martell’s journalism is of the latter category. He
tried to create the heat that burns, not the light that shows the way.
Hence, any foreign reporter who plans to visit Eritrea must respect the
hospitality, culture, and history of the Eritreans. Anything being reported
outside of these noble cultural norms and contexts is not reporting, but
yellow journalism. May Eritrea be protected from “carnivorous” journalists!
May it also be protected from its “own children” who try to sell it to the
highest foreign bidder!
*Note:
*An edited version of this article has been sent to the BBC Focus on Africa,
and the editors have been advised to publish it in the next edition of the
magazine.
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