The Government of Eritrea should get off Its Dirty Hands From The North   

                                     America Eritrean soccer Tournament

                                           By Woldeselassie Tesfai Omer

When somebody talks from the pedestal of experience, we ought to listen and listen attentively and especially when it is about the experience of the Eritrean sport Federation of North America (Fed). The person who has been a permanent fixture from the late eighties as a player and from 1995 - 2003 as member of the Fed is Yassin Abrahim. And Yassin is talking through his latest articles titled, “ The Eritrean Sport Federation in North America is the verge of been hijacked: by PFDJ.” He articulates a brief and concise summation of the power struggle with in the Fed and its corrupt political past, as well as its gross mismanagement of its affair prior to 1995 Miami tournament. He also vividly illustrated how PFDJ’s dirty hands have historically manipulated and exploited the sport.

PFDJ and free institution (whether religion based or community based institutions): do not mix, they antagonize, cannot co-exist, it is one or the other. In PFDJ’s worldview, free institutions are nothing more than obstacles to be dealt with, controlled, conquered, and ultimately destroyed. This is a clear example of the undemocratic and contradictory worldview of the Eritrean government under PFDJ hegemony. It has been the undertaking of PFDJ to go after Eritrean institutions by dismantling them to the point of breakdown. The government of Eritrea dismantled its own creation, “ hafash wodibat” (civic societies) for fear those poor  “ hafash wodibat”, who were only designed to siphon money from people, one day might be threat to PFDJ’s absolute power.

We have also witnessed the unfathomable abuse of the giant Orthodox Church. The government arrogantly sacked the sitting patriarch and canonized one of its agents. As a consequence, the church is divided into two “sects”. One that supports the government and one that does not. Now they cannot worship together, they are two separate entities. These are blasphemous actions and are disgrace to the church. What a shame to see a historic church that weathered and survived so many adversities, only to be attacked by Issays and his ilk.

Clearly, no institution is immune from the vicious policies of PFDJ and the Eritrean Sport Federation of North America is no exception. From the onset Eritrean government agents have infiltrated the association. The Fed has been used and abused and ultimately blackmailed to relinquish big sum of money to the Eritrean Government under the pretext of national defense, and also it has been coaxed to foot the bill for the Eritrean ambassador to attend the closing ceremonies just to give his ‘excellence’ the opportunity to brag about the achievement of the Eritrean youth, while the government he represent is enslaving and robbing the future of Eritrean youth at home by sending them into a senseless wars to kill and be killed. PFDJ and his cohort have to be restrained from spoiling the party. They have to be checked not to push their dirty fingers, if not this football association will go the way the other institution went: to the state of oblivion.

Now that I have touched on the antagonistic relation of PFDJ and the Eritrean institution in general let me focus to the annual Eritrean football tournament which is going to be held on the first week of July, 2006, in Seattle. First and foremost, for many Eritrean youth the annual football tournament is no more than a vehicle to show their passion to the sport they love. Second, it is a good reason to escape the daily grind of life and be around your friends and family. Third, the tournament gravitates a sizable number of Eritreans from far away places to come together and stay in close proximity to laugh and to reminiscence. Who wouldn’t enjoy that? However, there is a zone of lethality in the midst of the innocent gathering of our youth, and obviously who could be composing that zone other than PFDJ and its poisonous tentacles ever lurking to intoxicate and discharge venomous potion to kill free sprit of the occasion, only to satisfy its insatiable hanger for money.

The PFDJ worships money and could are less about the Eritrean youth. This is the government who fine fifty thousand Nacfa to a parent whose child didn’t show up for the free labor camp or simply for a child who got sick and tired and left the country. Once they pocket that money the government cares less about the youth. You see, that fifty thousand is more important than anything else. But wait a minute; the word is people are so sick by the luck of rule of law and arbitrary arrest, they are protesting. Yes, they are defiant. They are telling PFDJ, “ We don’t have money to give you, arrest us as long as you wish.” You see, if those elderly, sick, and fragile people who live at the mercy of PFDJ have the nerve to say no, shouldn’t be it come natural to the participant of the football tournament in Seattle to tell PFDJ, at a point blank, “ you are crooks you deserve no penny.”

You know, no body in the right mind is against the sport. I wish everybody had the endurance and stamina soccer sport demands; it is a wonderful sport. I would be the first in line to mix it with anybody. However, I would be cautions and conscious participant. When I mean cautious, I mean, I would strive to stay in one piece (without breaking a bone). When I mean conscious, I mean, I ought to look deeper into the socio-economic impact of the sport I participate and ask hard questions. Is the dictatorial government using the sport as PR to counter balance its ugly image? Is the dictatorial government getting financial benefits?  Is the government running the show? If the answers to those questions are affirmative. We have to be firm and reclaim the sport for its own good and for the good of our community.

Finally, I would like to thank Yassin Abrahim for enlightening us on the subject of Eritrean Football association of North America and challenging us to be active spectators.  Sure enough, according to any sport when a foul is committed a whistle has to be blown, for it is against the letter and spirit of the sport to spoil. Therefore, I would like to invite all players, Fed members, and participant in general to uphold and protect the charter of the Eritrean Football Association and let it stay a neutral sport entity, as it should be.