(Short Story)
BY ALEM HAILU G/KRISTOS
A ringing phone nudged me from my after-lunch nap. It was from Noah a contributing columnist and a PR who wanted to join the print media and took exam to join one.
“Hello. How are you doing? I am good,” he said,
“I’m fine,” I replied.
“I just called you to inform you that I’m shortlisted for an interview.”
“I was sure you could make it to the top given your experience in writing fortified through quality reading.”
“I was wondering what could they possibly ask me?”
“Current affairs global and local, your experience and whether you are capable of meeting deadlines and working under pressure. Given the article you wrote in the written exam I’m sure they will reserve a place for you. Ado also you must expect your life story in the reverse order.”
“Producing news out of a press release with a striking lead you told me last time did help me a lot in emerging with flying colors. I value your advice.”
“Thank you,” I laughed.
“Have you read the article I wrote? I shot to you an e-mail. You see I had the draft on a rough paper before I jotted it down after self-editing.”
After Aron shut down the phone something impelled me to pursue his article.
****
/Sustaining the breath of fresh air achieved through heavy sacrifices/
For over half a century now, People of Tigray have been sweltering under the tyrannical yoke of the terrorist TPLF. During these years, aside from being a battleground, Tigray has witnessed throes of famishment. Openly divested of their rights including the human one, Tigrayans have been leading a life succumbing to turning a private asset of the terrorist party.
Moreover, from its very inception apart from dishing out destruction- charged narratives that could be traced back to ethnic parochialism, the terrorist group has been putting in place suppressive political structures down to the grassroots and exercising clandestine detaining mechanisms. In so doing, it had tied down people of Tigray from determining their own fate.
In its armed-struggle against the Derg regime under the banner of freedom rallying people of Tigray behind it, Terrorist TPLF had subjected tens of thousands Tigrayans to death and hundreds of thousands to mayhem. But topsy-turvy to what it prophesied, after it grabbed power, tightening the noose, it had enslaved such subjects who, in the meantime, lost a genuine touch of life.
In its struggle as a combatant in the wild lands bordering on deserts, the terrorist group’s image was tarnished with soot greased history of tormenting, chasing and slaughtering Tigrayans who had relatively better and reality-based visions for Tigray. The party was also known for sending hit men to assassin marked politicians. Families of dissenters that could not buy the terrorist group’s fantasies were also objects of the latter’s bashing by way of threatening Tigrayans out of their sought-for political roadmap and alternative mentality.
The struggle that culminated with success in deposing the Derg regime after a huge sacrifice ended up in a soup as power clustered around finger-counted family members, who tacitly eliminated the inquisitive even combatants seen iconic in the struggle.
The method this group opted to pursue was focusing on ways of ensuring its grip of power. As such it used people of Tigray as a hostage.
It has been laboring to pollute the minds of Tigrayans that have a time -old history of upholding Ethiopia with the demeaning ethnic-parochialism that creates a petri dish for a killing spree.
From the very morning it was deposed of power by popular uprising, Terrorist-TPLF was cannon foddering Tigrayans using the social, political and secretive structural arrangements it introduced earlier so as to achieve longevity if not another chance to ensconce on the pedestal of power.
It seemed Tigrayan youths were being born to be soft targets of meaningless wars the belligerent terrorist group never fails to invoke infusing and hypnotizing the youth with outmoded ethnic-polarized narratives.
There could be no others witness than the Tigrayan mothers who could bear witness to the destruction and lacerating pain the misdeeds wrought forth specially during the past couple of years when they reached on the crescendo. It has let Tigrayan’s dream of turning around their fate utilizing the change drive go up in smoke.
Obsessed with its enunciated catch phrase of “WE shall go even to hell to wreck down Ethiopia,” it exposed people of Tigray to multifaceted challenges and messes. It was diverting the food aid to a diametrically opposite end. The terrorist group indulged in a political gamble with humanitarian aid while many were scouring the sky with empty stomach.
But now Ethiopians including Tigrayans have closed ranks to root out the terrorist group. The weeding task of such ruthless vampires under the cloak of the impish group is picking pace by the day. The time for heralding the full liberation of Tigrayans —body and soul— resulting from the demise of the bogeyman TPLF is drawing nigh. In some liberated towns the felicitation has proceeded apace.
Standing in unison with ENDF, Tigrayans are expected to sustain the breath of fresh air achieved through heavy sacrifices so as to chalk out their own destiny.
****
No sooner I finished reading the paper he called back and said
“Must I dress to kill—put on three pieces?”
“Yes it could tip the balance in your favor. Also try to be punctual as that count most in journalism. By the way I picked a new word from your article petri dish—a dish in which cells of bacteria are cultured.”
“Yes,” he laughed.
“I use a hotbed for negative connation and a springboard for the positive ones,” I added.
The Ethiopian Herald October 27/2022
