Mereja Forum

[sarcasm]

Here's a comment by Haile TG ( at Awate.com) who lived under the Derg and PFDJ. If you think about it, war isn't the only way that a society is destroyed. For example, post independence Eritrean society is destroyed under peaceful administration. I know many disagree with this but life was much better for Eritreans under the Derg than PFDJ. Let's compare key indicators:

Education

Derg: Eritreans had free education up to university undergraduate level. They had an accredited Universities to choose from in Eritrea or throughout Ethiopia.

PFDJ: Eritreans are conscripted at grade 11. Only those with 3.2 or above in Matriculation would be able to go to collages that are not recognized. Upon completion, no diploma or certificate is issued to prevent them leaving the country.

Employment

Derg: Eritreans can be hired for salaried or wage employment. They were subsidized to contribute for old age pension.

PFDJ: No formal employment except in rare cases. Slavery wages of 900 Nakfa per month. No benefits for retainment.

Immigration:

Derg: except in areas of active combat, Eritreans never intended to leave in mass. Many also applied for VISA, scholarships and went aboard Ethiopian Airlines.

PFDJ: Half a million Eritreans escaped the country in short time, with unbelievable tragedies, huge refugee camps, nobody would want to stay in the hell on earth called Eritrea. No Visa or any means of formal travel except for select few.

Social welfare:

Derg: low income Eritreans received subsidized basic necessities efficiently through a qebele shops system. These went on right until the Derg left.

PFDJ: If it was not for diaspora remittance, Eritreans would starve in far worse scale than the great Ethiopian famine. Retawi shops only offer 2 pieces of bread per person at a cost.

So, over all, life post independence (due to PDJ) was devastated and it would be an insult to Col. Mengistu to be compared with the savage Isaias Afeworki.




Life in Asmara Bella


1- bikes and horse carts are main transport

2- traffic lights are a thing of the past

3- no internet connection for most part, except select places and some days

4- if you're a baker, your flour supply is weighed at 09 when you get them and then the breads you make have to be weighed before put the sale. 30 cents profit is allowed on one bread that cost 3nakfa.

5 - people suspected by regime are simply picked up and their shops locked and cars taken away.

6- cars are filled up in back streets from containers on contraband for about 24nakfa/lt (2019)

7- sheep sellers are confiscated if they sell outside the sheep market compound. The confiscated sheep are taken for slaughter for sawa graduation. Meat is only served on graduation day in sawa.

8- Sadly, due to difficult economic hardship many women are pushed to prostitution

9- virtually 100 percent of young people ask for ways to leave the country

10- It is illegal to paint or fix your property. People do so between 6am-9am and 12pm-2pm when the municipal controller are not at work. Also, you have to pay bribes.

How Col. Mengistu increased the population of Asmara while fighting heavy war.

Just for the record:

Asmara population:

1989 ---- 343, 000

1990 ----- 358, 000

Population growth ---- +4.37%

The refugees were the ones uprooted by the war, which IA later refused to resettle them.

Today, no one knows the population count because no census has been taken in 24 years. Possible reason being to hide the depopulation that is going on.

From your data:

145, 000 refugees in Wed-Sheriffe at the hight of civil war

200,000+ in Ethiopia seeking refugee status in 2021 under no war. And 500, 000 refugees escaped 2010 - 2015 - second highest in the world next to Syria at the time.

Thanks for showing how Col. Mengistu increased the population of Asmara while fighting heavy war.

Source http://awate.com/government-exile-eritr ... 5386203990