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When one thinks about the current situation of our Eritrean communities, there is a parable of two insects that comes to mind. Honey bees (nihbi) and houseflies (hamema) are both insects that belong to the same fly species. However, they have fundamental differences in terms of their lifestyle, social behaviors, and institutional formation. It is essential to illustrate the moral and social order of the tale of these two insects as related to the social behaviors and norms of our Eritrean communities in Diaspora. We hope that we can learn an important lesson from the analogy of the parables of these two insects.

Honey bees belong to the third largest insect order. They have been acclaimed for their wisdom since ancient times. They display memory, learning, and the ability to correct mistakes. Honey bees have formidable communities because they live in harmonious colonies with a caste system. They share the same physical setting called the bee-hive. They share common community activities by having institutional functions with discernible communication linkages. They share communal social concerns by protecting their hives from intruders. They keep honey in their mouths for friends and sting in their tails for enemies. Honey bees are highly social insects and communicate with each other by relaying direction and distance of food sources. Like rational and normal human societies, the honey bee colonies have their own expertise in maintaining economic sustenance. They furnish food for the colonies in the form of honey. They practice the most sophisticated division of labor. Some of them guard the hive entrance and others help to keep the hive cool by fanning their wings. Many of them pollinate flowering plants and collect nectar and pollen to make honey and wax comb. The honey bee colony, through overlapping generations, can persist to live on stored honey for many years. Honey bees are highly honored and emulated by human beings for their social order, discipline, and work ethics.

Houseflies, on the other hand, do not live in colonies with a caste system. They do not have organized communities characterized by a common physical setting with shared geographic location, social concerns, economic interest, and community activities. Houseflies do not embrace family values because they do not have common social concerns. They do not practice division of labor because they do not share common economic interests. They do not have common communication networks that relay guidance to provide social order. Houseflies do not have a common place or a home to live in like a hive for the bees. They live in mobs without distinct physical setting, communal economic sustenance, and institutions for social order and community functions. Individually, houseflies collect and eat food from garbage cans or any other source of germy food. They are scavengers because they feed on decaying waste matter such as sewage and fecal matter, rotting flesh of dead animals and plants. Houseflies are worthless, annoying and have filthy habits of eating and spreading diseases. They are regarded as distasteful insects by human beings. It is hard to advocate that houseflies are a necessary part of the world around us and God forgot to tell us why he made houseflies.
Which character of the two flying insects reflects the organizational skills and social order of the Eritrean communities? It is impossible to find a single Eritrean community in North America that is remotely related to the honey bee colony in terms of institutional formation and organizational functions. If we think that our Eritrean communities are formidable and viable as the honey bee colonies, we are really evading the objective realities of our communities and we are living in hallucination and delusion. It is commonly observed that Eritreans in Diaspora generally live like the disrespected, disintegrated and dysfunctional houseflies when it comes to establishing and maintaining communities with appropriate institutions and proper social order. We, Eritreans in Diaspora, more than ever, are polarized across so many different political lines, contaminated by the illusion of regionalism, and infested by wicked religious campaigns in which community members are reticent and reluctant to talk openly about them. We need to have broad popular participation in all social affairs of our communities that can bring us together to celebrate, share and sustain the vitality of our ethnic cultural heritage and to pass over the cultural legacy to our children and grandchildren.

The first duty of every Eritrean in Diaspora, as a rational human being, is to establish and assume the right functional relationship with our Eritrean community. A healthy social life and mutual understanding is found in a viable community only, when in the mirror of each member of the community finds his or her true reflection, and when in the whole community the virtue and vigor of each member is living and sustaining. For an Eritrean community to be healthy and viable, it must be based on its members' love and concern for each other and sustain a heart full of grace for unity and integrity. Without a sense of love and caring, there can be no sense of community. A community needs a soul if it is to become a true home for its members and a refuge for its children and the participants must soon get that soul. A community cannot survive for a long time on few constituent interest groups and political entity; it can only germinate and flourish with the coming and joining of all concerned Eritrean brothers and sisters.

Under the current situation of our Eritrean communities, what should the young Eritreans do with their lives today? Obviously, they should do many things that enrich their lives. But the most daring and important thing in their lives is to completely eradicate the current illusions and delusions of their parents and to take over and establish stable and viable Eritrean communities that reflect their basic interest, cherish their cultural heritage, and honor their ethnic identity. Their active participation in the march for demarcation of the Eritrean-Ethiopian border is the reflection of their readiness for taking a leadership role in their Eritrean communities. Thus, the Eritrean scholars and concerned parents should play an important role in helping the young Eritreans to build their own communities, develop shared vision, identify common goals, mobilize their resources, and implement strategies for reaching the goals and vision they collectively have set. If we, as parents, fail not to do our part now, our children and grandchildren will always remember not because we did evil to them, but because we kept our silence and we did nothing to strengthen their ethnic identity and cherish their cultural heritage. Let's remember that there will never be a generation of good children and grandchildren until there has been a generation of good parents surrounded by supportive communities.
Forward your comments to: tgebrem@wvu.edu. Thank you and God bless us all!


	THE PARABLES OF TWO FLYING INSECTS Dr. Tesfa G. Gebremedhin West Virginia University 16/02/2006 16:19:39

	When one thinks about the current situation of our Eritrean communities, there is a parable of two insects that comes to mind. Honey bees (nihbi) and houseflies (hamema) are both insects that belong to the same fly species. However, they have fundamental differences in terms of their lifestyle, social behaviors, and institutional formation. It is essential to illustrate the moral and social order of the tale of these two insects as related to the social behaviors and norms of our Eritrean communities in Diaspora. We hope that we can learn an important lesson from the analogy of the parables of these two insects. Honey bees belong to the third largest insect order. They have been acclaimed for their wisdom since ancient times. They display memory, learning, and the ability to correct mistakes. Honey bees have formidable communities because they live in harmonious colonies with a caste system. They share the same physical setting called the bee-hive. They share common community activities by having institutional functions with discernible communication linkages. They share communal social concerns by protecting their hives from intruders. They keep honey in their mouths for friends and sting in their tails for enemies. Honey bees are highly social insects and communicate with each other by relaying direction and distance of food sources. Like rational and normal human societies, the honey bee colonies have their own expertise in maintaining economic sustenance. They furnish food for the colonies in the form of honey. They practice the most sophisticated division of labor. Some of them guard the hive entrance and others help to keep the hive cool by fanning their wings. Many of them pollinate flowering plants and collect nectar and pollen to make honey and wax comb. The honey bee colony, through overlapping generations, can persist to live on stored honey for many years. Honey bees are highly honored and emulated by human beings for their social order, discipline, and work ethics. Houseflies, on the other hand, do not live in colonies with a caste system. They do not have organized communities characterized by a common physical setting with shared geographic location, social concerns, economic interest, and community activities. Houseflies do not embrace family values because they do not have common social concerns. They do not practice division of labor because they do not share common economic interests. They do not have common communication networks that relay guidance to provide social order. Houseflies do not have a common place or a home to live in like a hive for the bees. They live in mobs without distinct physical setting, communal economic sustenance, and institutions for social order and community functions. Individually, houseflies collect and eat food from garbage cans or any other source of germy food. They are scavengers because they feed on decaying waste matter such as sewage and fecal matter, rotting flesh of dead animals and plants. Houseflies are worthless, annoying and have filthy habits of eating and spreading diseases. They are regarded as distasteful insects by human beings. It is hard to advocate that houseflies are a necessary part of the world around us and God forgot to tell us why he made houseflies. Which character of the two flying insects reflects the organizational skills and social order of the Eritrean communities? It is impossible to find a single Eritrean community in North America that is remotely related to the honey bee colony in terms of institutional formation and organizational functions. If we think that our Eritrean communities are formidable and viable as the honey bee colonies, we are really evading the objective realities of our communities and we are living in hallucination and delusion. It is commonly observed that Eritreans in Diaspora generally live like the disrespected, disintegrated and dysfunctional houseflies when it comes to establishing and maintaining communities with appropriate institutions and proper social order. We, Eritreans in Diaspora, more than ever, are polarized across so many different political lines, contaminated by the illusion of regionalism, and infested by wicked religious campaigns in which community members are reticent and reluctant to talk openly about them. We need to have broad popular participation in all social affairs of our communities that can bring us together to celebrate, share and sustain the vitality of our ethnic cultural heritage and to pass over the cultural legacy to our children and grandchildren. The first duty of every Eritrean in Diaspora, as a rational human being, is to establish and assume the right functional relationship with our Eritrean community. A healthy social life and mutual understanding is found in a viable community only, when in the mirror of each member of the community finds his or her true reflection, and when in the whole community the virtue and vigor of each member is living and sustaining. For an Eritrean community to be healthy and viable, it must be based on its members' love and concern for each other and sustain a heart full of grace for unity and integrity. Without a sense of love and caring, there can be no sense of community. A community needs a soul if it is to become a true home for its members and a refuge for its children and the participants must soon get that soul. A community cannot survive for a long time on few constituent interest groups and political entity; it can only germinate and flourish with the coming and joining of all concerned Eritrean brothers and sisters. Under the current situation of our Eritrean communities, what should the young Eritreans do with their lives today? Obviously, they should do many things that enrich their lives. But the most daring and important thing in their lives is to completely eradicate the current illusions and delusions of their parents and to take over and establish stable and viable Eritrean communities that reflect their basic interest, cherish their cultural heritage, and honor their ethnic identity. Their active participation in the march for demarcation of the Eritrean-Ethiopian border is the reflection of their readiness for taking a leadership role in their Eritrean communities. Thus, the Eritrean scholars and concerned parents should play an important role in helping the young Eritreans to build their own communities, develop shared vision, identify common goals, mobilize their resources, and implement strategies for reaching the goals and vision they collectively have set. If we, as parents, fail not to do our part now, our children and grandchildren will always remember not because we did evil to them, but because we kept our silence and we did nothing to strengthen their ethnic identity and cherish their cultural heritage. Let's remember that there will never be a generation of good children and grandchildren until there has been a generation of good parents surrounded by supportive communities. Forward your comments to: tgebrem@wvu.edu. Thank you and God bless us all!