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Eritrea Quotes

Browse 14 quotes about Eritrea.

Eritrea Quotes

“Do you really suppose history will remember him, this foot soldier? Not really. Yes, battles will be chronicled, and from that history will be written. It will be in the news, on television and even in books. People will talk about it in bars and coffeehouses. However, the focus will be on the progress of the war, the strategy and tactics, with maybe a mention or two of the commanding officer and how bravely, courageously and strategically he coordinated his troops to wage the battle. But when it comes to the regular people, the foot soldiers, it is a different story. For them, history is unforgiving and merciless. Who do you think will even care to know who Captain Gasha was? His acomplishments on the battlefield, his aches and pains? No-one will caer, history does not bother about minor details. Captain Gasha is only too aware that he is a fleeting speck in the annals of history, his name remembered by no-one.”

WarHistoryEthiopiaEritrea
Book:Oromay
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“So I close this long reflection on what I hope is a not-too-quaveringly semi-Semitic note. When I am at home, I will only enter a synagogue for the bar or bat mitzvah of a friend's child, or in order to have a debate with the faithful. (When I was to be wed, I chose a rabbi named Robert Goldburg, an Einsteinian and a Shakespearean and a Spinozist, who had married Arthur Miller to Marilyn Monroe and had a copy of Marilyn’s conversion certificate. He conducted the ceremony in Victor and Annie Navasky's front room, with David Rieff and Steve Wasserman as my best of men.) I wanted to do something to acknowledge, and to knit up, the broken continuity between me and my German-Polish forebears. When I am traveling, I will stop at the shul if it is in a country where Jews are under threat, or dying out, or were once persecuted. This has taken me down queer and sad little side streets in Morocco and Tunisia and Eritrea and India, and in Damascus and Budapest and Prague and Istanbul, more than once to temples that have recently been desecrated by the new breed of racist Islamic gangster. (I have also had quite serious discussions, with Iraqi Kurdish friends, about the possibility of Jews genuinely returning in friendship to the places in northern Iraq from which they were once expelled.) I hate the idea that the dispossession of one people should be held hostage to the victimhood of another, as it is in the Middle East and as it was in Eastern Europe. But I find myself somehow assuming that Jewishness and 'normality' are in some profound way noncompatible. The most gracious thing said to me when I discovered my family secret was by Martin, who after a long evening of ironic reflection said quite simply: 'Hitch, I find that I am a little envious of you.' I choose to think that this proved, once again, his appreciation for the nuances of risk, uncertainty, ambivalence, and ambiguity. These happen to be the very things that 'security' and 'normality,' rather like the fantasy of salvation, cannot purchase.”

ReligionAtheismSecurityIndiaSalvationIslamIraqDebateGermanyTemplesMiddle EastShakespearePolandNormalityAncestorsJewsEastern EuropeIstanbulEinsteinAntisemitismMoroccoSpinozaTunisiaPragueMarilyn MonroeBudapestJewishnessEritreaArthur MillerKurdish PeopleSynagoguesDesecrationDamascusJewish QuestionMartin AmisRabbisReligious ConversionDavid RieffAnnie NavaskyBar And Bat MitzvahBest ManRobert GoldburgSteve WassermanVictor Saul Navasky
Book:Hitch 22: A Memoir
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“My mom is American, so I was raised in her household in my formative years. But as I got older, my pops tried to keep me involved with the culture by telling me the stories of the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea, how he came to America, and about our family back home, because all that side of my family, my aunties, grandparents, is in Africa.”

YearsStoriesHomeAmericaCultureSidesMomInvolvedConflictMy FamilyRaisedMy MomPopsOur FamilyHouseholdGrandparentBack HomeEthiopiaFormative YearsEritrea
Author:Nipsey Hussle
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“Some of the colonizers do understand and quickly retreat, while some, because they are stupid, continue colonizing others, increasing the suffering, deaths, injuries, defeat and humiliation. The people colonized by Abyssinia will be free. Eritrea will be free, and they cannot refuse to let them be free. Western Somalia will be free, and they cannot refuse to grant it freedom. The numerous Abo will be free because this is history, and no one can prevent the sunshine from reaching us.”

PeopleSufferingStupidWesternDefeatRefuseInjuryReachingSunshineGrantsRetreatHumiliationSomaliaEritrea
Author:Siad Barre
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“It is clear that several countries, in the Balkans for example, need to be considered countries of safe origin. But others like, in my opinion, Eritrea, undoubtedly need to be considered a country of origin with a valid claim to asylum. And with a third group of states, like Nigeria for example, each individual case needs to be evaluated. Then there are also very controversial cases like Afghanistan. In any case, united European action is needed. This argument for Europeanization may sound utopian, but there is no alternative.”

NeedsMayCountryStatesActionIndividualSoundUnitedOpinionCasesClearGroupsExampleNeededSafeArgumentThirdsClaimsAlternativesAfghanistanControversialNigeriaUtopianAsylumsBalkansEritrea
Author:Paolo Gentiloni
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“I enjoy Chicago as one of the great American cities. When I come here and take a taxi from the airport, I meet a young man from Somalia. I meet a young man from Eritrea who engages with this nation with a sense of hope and a sense of desire. But we also we know that there are other elements of this nation that are toxic.”

KnowsMenYoungDesireNationsEnjoyCitiesElementsYoung ManChicagoToxicAirportsTaxiGreat AmericanAmerican CitiesSomaliaEritrea
Author:Kehinde Wiley
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“In many Muslim countries, witchcraft is not only on the books as a crime, but is commonly prosecuted. In 2009, for example, Saudi Arabia convicted a man for carrying a phone booklet with characters in an alphabet from his native Eritrea, which the police interpreted as occult symbols. He was lashed three hundred times and imprisoned for more than three years.”

MenYearsBookCountryCharacterReligionThreeCrimeExampleHundredPolicePhonesSymbolsNativeThree YearsWitchcraftOccultArabiaSaudi ArabiaSaudisAlphabetEritrea
Author:Steven Pinker
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