Kruse's Keys: Read "Gratitude in Low Voices" to Experience a Refugee's Journey (Eritrea)

Equal parts memoir, history and adventure novel, Dawit Habte’s “Gratitude in Low Voices” is the story of not only his country’s 91 year struggle for independence but also his own incredible journey from a countryside village in Eritrea to the offices of Bloomberg as a software engineer. As with many refugee stories that have come out of Africa, the western reader will be floored by the tenacity, resilience and grit that the author displays at such a young age as he smuggles himself out of Ethiopia, and finally gets refugee status to start his life over continue his life in the United States. One thing that struck me was Habte’s commentary on the dehumanizing nature of seeking asylum--where you are assumed to be starting anew on a better life despite having a family, people, and country that you call home half a world away.

In my own quest to read a novel from every country in Africa this checks the Eritrea box even though it isn’t a work of fiction. I’ve counted it though because it reads like fiction and because Habte’s is such an important voice in offering a counter-narrative to the often louder Ethiopian one with regard to the past violent conflict between the two nations. (To understand any conflict it’s important to research and listen to the competing narratives, particularly on the personal level since wars and struggles are all too often white-washed in sterile casualty figures--”Gratitude” puts a face to those numbers).

Habte does a good job making the complicated history of Eritrea readable and easy to digest. He notes early on that his country is the only one that had to fight for its independence from both European colonizers and an African one (i.e., Ethiopia). Having recently read a very comprehensive history of the Italian struggle against Italy (see my review of Prevail here), it was useful to see how the Eritreans viewed it since Eritreans felt largely sold out by the partners in the south.

The recent denouement between Ethiopia and Eritrea is a testament to Abiy’s political capabilities but this book highlights how large the obstacles are that remain.

*One of my Reading Around the Continent books--the full list is here.
**See our 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 Reading Lists.

Other recommended books by the author (you can follow him on twitter here):


My Brief Notes on Biopolitics, Militarism and Development in Eritrea
DLI Background on Eritrea

Key Quotes:

• 33 “Most mothers are instinctive philosophers” -Harriet Beecher Stowe
• 58 “Dry the sea to kill the fish” unofficial motto of Ethiopia as they sought to destroy any hope of Eritrean independence.
• 82 “I also do not think there is anything so finely perceived and so finely felt by children as a gesture of goodwill.”
• 144 “A refugee is always a pawn to be used.”
• 238 “Nostalgia is the suffering caused by an unappeased yearning to return.”

Key Takeaways:

• 7    naming convention--you get your own first name but the rest of your names are those of your father and his father and this father etc.
• 14 background history--post WWII, Eritrea placed under British military administration. Then in 1950, UN federated Eritrea with Ethiopia. 12 years later, Ethiopia dissolved the federation and annexed Eritrea as a province.
• 16 history of Christianity: Christianity introduced to the area by Syrian Monk named Freminatos during the early 4th century. Later came the 9 saints who preached the gospel for many years making it the dominant religion. (more history on page 2 of this document: https://www.africanidea.org/Ethiopian_Orthodox_Tewahedo.pdf
• 32 apprenticeship a long-standing tradition for children transition from village to city life.
• 54 Battle of Dogali, great Ethiopian general Ras Alula beats Italy. Good history/biography of him here: https://www.africanidea.org/Abanega.pdf They also wrote a poem of praise regarding his victory:
• “Although the Italian sat foot at Sehati, Alula roasted him by his metal oven (metaphoric); Italians, You better listen to our advise! You may dig trenches but that may very well be your graveyard. This country Ethiopia, the land of Bezbiz [Emperor Yohannes], is just like a tiger defending its children without compromise whatsoever.”
• 55 1890 Borders drawn between Italy, Britain, France and Abyssinian king Menelik II. These are the borders, more or less, as we know them today.
• 55 Nakura island--was the Eritrean alcatraz where community leaders were jailed.
• 56 “Breaker of Nakura” was Ali Mohammed Osman Buri who led the escape and overthrow of the island jail.
• 57 Menlik’s folly was when he accepted Italy recognizing his rule in Ethiopia in return for his recognizing Eritrea as an Italian colony. This would come back to bite Italy obviously
• 58 unique Eritrean experience as they were the only country denied independence after Europe left its colonies
• 131 dehumanizing to seek asylum
• 145 Ethiopian atrocities in 70’s under the Derg were numerous
• 148 made in USA bombs used in February 1990 Ethiopian bombing of Massawa with napalm. Here’s a good reference on that. https://www.hrw.org/reports/1990/WR90/AFRICA.BOU-02.htm
• 168 1991 Eritrean independence
• 170 91 year struggle for independence since they broke out of Nakura prison.
• 238 Nostalgia

Key References (For further study):

• https://www.gratitudeinlowvoices.com/
• 64 Who is Prester John? Legendary Christian and king who fought against Islamic expansion. Eritrea/Northern Ethiopia thought this was the land from which he fought back in the 1100s
• https://www.britannica.com/topic/Prester-John-legendary-rulerhttps://www.historytoday.com/miscellanies/search-prester-john
• 78 “Oromai” book that detailed Red Star Campaign. Also spelled Oromay. Translates to “it is pointless” or “the end”
• http://baalugirmafoundation.org/commentary%20files/Simon.pdf
• https://www.zehabesha.com/key-kokeb-and-oromay-by-major-dawit-woldegiorgis/
• 84 “Voices of the Masses” radio show

Twitter as the New Nuke and the Convergence with Technology

BONUS LINK:  My entire (so far) grad school notes collection can be found here. 

Twitter as the New Nuke and the Convergence with Technology

         Constructivists eschew the realist notion of the absolute importance of security and material power.  Instead they argue that it is ideas and beliefs that drive the forces within the world.  To better understand the value of constructivist theory it is useful to examine the relationship between these ideas and different technological breakthroughs.

           Two divergent technological advances to investigate are the employment of nuclear weapons and mobile smart phones.  Tannewald cogently reasons that a “nuclear taboo” developed due to the wellspring of ideas within the general public that influenced both institutions and states in such a way that effectively prevented their use after WWII.  The power of these ideas served as a necessary check valve against realist and liberal tendencies toward use/non-use of nuclear weapons.    In a parallel way, the Arab spring was realized not because of mobile smart phone technology itself, but because the technology serves as a nearly infinite amplifier of the wellspring of ideas.  Furthermore, this technology breaks down traditional identity barriers of state, socioeconomic class and ethnicity.  It is the dissolution of these impediments that allows a global transparency that has never been possible.  This transparency itself becomes an idea—realized communicatively through the idea of social justice. 

Questions for discussion:

1.  Is Twitter the new nuke, inverted?  Instead of an all-destructive nuclear weapon that no one will ever use, Twitter (and I’m using Twitter as a symbol for all social media conducted through mobile phones) is a non-violent weapon that everyone uses.  How powerful is a weapon that will never be used in comparison?   

2.  As new emerging powers develop nuclear weapons, will the current global “nuclear taboo” actually be proved to be global?  In other words, would a nation whose public has never had to grapple with the idea of the employment of nuclear weapons develop the same taboo? 

3.  What do liberals, realists and constructivists have to say about political/scientific assassination (aka the Israeli method)?  I know this one has nothing to do with what I wrote; I just wanted to have it here to examine at a later date.  

On the Dangers of Half-Hearted IR Policy Implementation

BONUS LINK:  My entire (so far) grad school notes collection can be found here. 

On the Dangers of Half-Hearted IR Policy Implementation- A Historical Example    

   The post-WWI isolationist Congress’ handcuffing of Wilson’s idealism/liberalism and aspirations for a “community of power,” illustrates well the dangers of half-heartedly attempting to implement any sole international relations theory.  From the onset, the absence of crucial members sapped the power of the League of Nations; this weakness was further amplified by the lack of any concrete means to enforce its charter.  Finally, the League’s impotence was fully realized in the flawed policy of appeasement that grew from it.  The most obvious counterfactual to first explore then is: How effective would the League have been with the membership and the U.S., Germany and Japan?  

      Even the full-blown implementation of Wilson’s plan, however, likely would have met defeat (at some level) because liberalism (and realism) assume too much about the nature of man (and require every state to buy into the same interpretation).  Liberalism assumes a common value system shared by every person and state, when in reality many states have very different value systems; and it also assumes (and continues to assume) democracy as the best answer.  It was these different value systems that made the effects of appeasement so egregious in the time period leading up to WWII.  In appeasing Germany the aggressor state, the allies ignored the associated territorial and human losses.  While appeasement can be an effective diplomatic tool,[1] its effects can be devastating when the appeased operate on a different value system from the appeasers.  Had the allies operated under the realist assumption of the selfish, dominant nature of man (and by extension state), they never would have trusted the promises of Hitler.  Unfortunately, Hitler demonstrated the power of an unbridled realist, one who forged public opinion to his foreign policy desires, and not the other way around, as was the case with Wilson. 

Questions for further discussion include:

1.  How has the U. S. presidential election cycle (and the equivalent cycle in other democratic states) correlated to significant foreign policy decisions throughout history?

In other words, is decision-making about conflicts arising closer to an election ‘season’ influenced more by public opinion?  To that end, is the influence of public opinion less pronounced on newly elected leaders?

2.  How has the assumption of democracy as a ‘value system’ shaped and continue to shape foreign policy?  Does this assumption affect both realism and liberalism equally?  How does monarchy fit into state-state interactions today?

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[1] Nye, Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History (New York, Pearson Longman, 2009), 111.

Six-year project to tweet the Second World War

Check out this article and the twitter feed.  This guy is retweeting WWII over the course of 6 years.  Fascinating!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/8877167/Six-year-project-to-tweet-the-Second-World-War.html