Breaking News/Eritrea prisoners released (merged)

[jwhess]

Reuter's and USA News reports.

 

 

[Skye]

I checked the country report and the names, gender, DOB, date of imprisonment and prison term for the remaining 24 brothers and sisters is not there. Perhaps they're updating the table🤔.

 

Joy is a powerful emotion, it can make one do things that others may perceive to be weird, foolish, wrong, indecent...we have proof of that in the Bible: When the Ark was brought into the city, David, the KING, was so overjoyed that he threw all decorum aside and he "was dancing around before Jehovah with all his might". King David, a might warrior, was now on the streets shouting and "leaping and dancing around before Jehovah." Sadly, his wife Michal, who could at least have been happy for him, if not join him, "began to despise him in her heart." And when he came home, "She said: “How glorious (sarcasm!) the king of Israel made himself when he uncovered himself today before the eyes of the slave girls of his servants, just as an empty-headed man openly uncovers himself!”

 

While we hopefully do not go to the lengths that Michal did, we might be missing out on the joy of this momentous occasion by overly focusing on the way others express their joy over the same piece of good news. Some keep it to themselves. Some capture the moment electronically for posterity, some are content to just witness it with their own eyes. Some share proof of their joy without thinking too much about the consequences, some sing and dance, some ululate, some quietly pray to Jehovah with sincere heartfelt gratitude, some would've wished to throw a party if COVID wasn't an issue. To each their own. I am sure that any who shared the video now know that it wasn't a good idea and have made their peace with Jehovah. Let's move on and continue being joyful. Let's not lose sight of this momentous event we just lived to see.

 

 

[normadenardo]

1 hour ago, jwhess said:

Reuter's and USA News reports.

 

 

So news outlets are watching OUR site for news. Interesting. 

[Tortuga]

6 minutes ago, normaclutter said:

So news outlets are watching OUR site for news. Interesting. 

It's my understanding the Public Information Desk proactively shares newsworthy information, it's possible that the brothers sent the information to the media.

[M.J.]

15 hours ago, Chris7 said:

However, we have been asked to remove this video from our devices please.......

How do we even know this text message is real? I thought we weren't supposed to spread rumors...

 

Not allowed to film videos and share them outside the country? I tried to search for this and no mentiom of this came up.

[Omoyeme]

1 hour ago, M.J. said:

How do we even know this text message is real? I thought we weren't supposed to spread rumors...

 

Not allowed to film videos and share them outside the country? I tried to search for this and no mentiom of this came up.

 

Sis, you raise a very interesting point, so the question begs: Who is the original source of this text message?  Are they Jehovah's Witnesses?

 

Well, my suspicions here are similar as I recall the questionable email that was circulating about our dear Korean brothers and sisters back in August brandishing their concert as "fake."

 

Regarding the above text message, I googled that person's name along with the words "Eritrea" "facebook" and nothing has come up -- as of yet.  I admit a couple of red flags went up when I read the text.  This person speaks as if she personally knows the family. Secondly, she misspelled the first name of our brother who was shown in the video.  (Take note of his proper name spelling on jw.org.) She also "researched" a law regarding prohibitions of videos in Eritrea sent outside that country; and readers of this text should automatically take her at her word?  Her comments would have been plausible had there been online resource(s), especially about this, linked in her post. 

 

Is "Elim" a sister as the 2nd sentence states? or is "Elim" a brother as mentioned in the first sentence of the 3rd paragraph? Has anyone else noticed how the wording is a bit convoluted.

 

Unfortunately, this text message cannot be substantiated. 

 

More importantly, for the safety and concern of the brothers and sisters who remain imprisoned, I believe it prudent to remove the announcement of their release from the jw.org front page. 

 

Edited December 8, 2020 by Omoyeme

[Sepie93]

 

You raise an interesting point, so the question begs: Who is the original source of this text message?  Are they Jehovah's Witnesses?

 

Well, my suspicions here are similar as I recall the questionable email that was circulating about our dear Korean brothers and sisters back in August brandishing their concert ad "fake."

 

Regarding the above text message, I googled that person's name along with the words "Eritrea" "facebook" and nothing has come up--as of yet.  I admit a couple of red flags went up when I read the text.  This person speaks as if she personally knows the family. Secondly, she misspelled the first name of our brother who was shown in the video.  (Take note of his proper name spelling on jw.org.) She also "researched" a law regarding prohibitions of videos in Eritrea sent outside that country; and readers of this text should automatically take her at her word?  Her comments would have been plausible had there been online resource(s) especially about about this linked in her post. 

 

Is "Elim" a sister as the 2nd sentence states? or is "Elim" a brother as mentioned in the first sentence of the 3rd paragraph? Has anyone else noticed how the wording is a bit convoluted?  Unfortunately, this text message cannot be substantiated. 

 

TBH, for the safety of the brothers and sisters who remain imprisoned, I believe it as prudent to remove the announcement of their release from the jw.org front page.

Honestly, the points brought up seem to be valid points, but if this is really a Tigrinya speaking person, I do understand 100% the faults in writing.

 

Its very common to make these faults for semetic language speakers. Friends of mine all have the same last name in Arabic, but all of them transliterate it differently to the ABC.. Literally all of them have a different name in English/Dutch. Also the she/him/his/her thing is one of the most made faults.. So it could explain it.

 

But.. I have still deleted the video and picture after this message. Because it's a whole different subject actually. I think the real issue is:

 

"Do we, spiritually related, but fleshly strangers, have the right to have these pictures in our possession?"

 

I think the answer is simple.

 

No, we don't have this right.

 

So instead of doubting the origin of this message, maybe we have to realize which issue is really at stake here.

 

I was also very enthusiastic about this vid, but I do feel more comfortable deleting it.

 

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[Sepie93]

And about the breaking news:

Breaking News is breaking news when it just came out.

All the Breaking news on the jw.org front page disappears in 1-3 days. Because after it, it's not breaking anymore

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[Omoyeme]

22 minutes ago, Sepie93 said:

Honestly, the points brought up seem to be valid points, but if this is really a Tigrinya speaking person, I do understand 100% the faults in writing.

 

Duly noted brother, but we cannot deny that there are people who wish to spread rumours and falsehoods about JW's, especially on the internet.  This text message was uploaded in this thread and I took note of it, so the inevitable question - for me - was, where did it come from?  (If anyone here can show a Facebook link to this person, it would be helpful.)  Having said this, we cannot be certain if this "Rachel" person is Eritrean. I'm hoping that that is the case.

 

And FWIW, I say this solely out of concern based on what happened to our Korean brothers and sisters, if you recall.

 

Edited December 8, 2020 by Omoyeme

[Mykyl]

Hereis what the UK Government website says regarding Eritrea and photographs etc. Whether this applies in this situation I don't know. It would however seem to be a government building he was released from in the video. 

 

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/eritrea/local-laws-and-customs

 

Local laws and customs

Photographing government buildings and military installations is not allowed. If in doubt, ask first.

 

[Sepie93]

 
Duly noted brother, but we cannot deny that there are people who wish to spread rumours and falsehoods about JW's, especially on the internet.  This text message was uploaded in this thread and I took note of it, so the inevitable question - for me - was, where did it come from?  (If anyone here can show a Facebook link to this person, it would be helpful.)  Having said this, we cannot be certain if this "Rachel" person is Eritrean. I'm hoping that that is the case.
 
And FWIW, I say this solely out of concern based on what happened to our Korean brothers and sisters, if you recall.
 

I understand what you mean, and imo you're absolutely right. Ive noticed some people like to throw a jw-like message into the world and then enjoy how quick the "jw-world" shares it, supports it etc etc.. And that's a shame..

My point wasn't to attack your point of view And I didn't want to support the message. I just wanted to share that there is a more importing thing to think about when accepting and/or sharing the vid.

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[Tortuga]

Jehovah's people are known to be meek, humble and modest. We quickly comply with reasonable requests even if we don't fully understand the reason or circumstances. We prefer to humbly accept reasonable direction instead of fighting for our rights and questioning every motive. We continue to cultivate the soil of our heart so love can grow and our inclination is to be peacemakers.

[LoneWanderer]

11 hours ago, Sepie93 said:

Honestly, the points brought up seem to be valid points, but if this is really a Tigrinya speaking person, I do understand 100% the faults in writing.

 

Its very common to make these faults for semetic language speakers. Friends of mine all have the same last name in Arabic, but all of them transliterate it differently to the ABC.. Literally all of them have a different name in English/Dutch. Also the she/him/his/her thing is one of the most made faults.. So it could explain it.

I second this. This is getting to the semantics of the Semitics (ah-ah-ah), but I do feel this is an important mention.

 

It appears the same would hold true in other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and Arabic, but for Tigrinya and Amharic there is no one and universal way to transliterate the abugida characters. Hence same name can have all kinds of different ways to transliterate it. Of course my name is not a native Habesha name, but with the Ge’ez characters it could be written as yu-li-yu-s’, ju-l’-yu-s, yu-l’-yu-s’ or many other ways depending on the  person.

 

That’s why I wouldn’t pay too much attention if Negede is suddenly Ngede. I don’t know the exact characters but it could be one of these two, n’-ge-de or ne-ge-de (these languages don’t make a differentiation between capital and lowercase letters):

(Sorry for the crude writing/drawing, but I was doing this with my small phone screen.)

 

Likewise this dear brother’s father’s name (not surname) could be transliterated as Teklemariam, Teclemaryam, or if we abide strictly by the characters: T’-hr’-le-ma-r’-ya-m’.

Edited December 8, 2020 by LoneWanderer

[BenJepthah]

FYI: regarding this video. One of my coworkers who is from a Nigerian Family also in the Truth mentioned seeing this video to me last night. So it seems this video is now very very widespread. It will be very difficult to recall it now. My guess though, is that the family member who took the video originally did so at a bus station and not in front of a Government building. Why? They know that Government much better  than I do. 

[LoneWanderer]

1 hour ago, BenJepthah said:

FYI: regarding this video. One of my coworkers who is from a Nigerian Family also in the Truth mentioned seeing this video to me last night. So it seems this video is now very very widespread. It will be very difficult to recall it now. My guess though, is that the family member who took the video originally did so at a bus station and not in front of a Government building. Why? They know that Government much better  than I do. 

Yeah, it seems to be very widespread indeed. Before the video was even mentioned in this thread, I got it from a brother in an Arabic group back in Europe who has no seeming ties to Eritrea or Eritreans.

 

The place looked like a very typical East African apartment compound. Surrounded by walls on all sides, one metal gate where the brother is coming in from. People have a room or two each around the compound, and they share laundry facilities and sometimes toilet facilities in the courtyard.

[Tortuga]

On 12/7/2020 at 12:07 PM, Skye said:

I checked the country report and the names, gender, DOB, date of imprisonment and prison term for the remaining 24 brothers and sisters is not there. Perhaps they're updating the table🤔.

Here is the current list. The three brothers that were arrested in 1994 are not on the current list.

 

 

Edited December 9, 2020 by Tortuga

[Skye]

Map of Eritrea reminds me of pork/lamb chops. Almost midnight and I’m hungry again 😖.

[LoneWanderer]

On 12/9/2020 at 2:41 PM, Skye said:

Map of Eritrea reminds me of pork/lamb chops. Almost midnight and I’m hungry again 😖.

Since you are making me hungry, too... 🧐

 

Pieces of lamb eaten with the traditional injera (injera is like a sour pancake and is probably 95% of all food eaten in Ethiopia/Eritrea...) is one of my absoluuuute favorites when it comes to Ethiopian/Eritrean dishes 

 

Lamb tibs (begie tibs/ye’beg tibs) in this picture I found with Google picture search:

Edited December 11, 2020 by LoneWanderer

[humble bumble bee]

BREAKING NEWS | Eritrean Authorities Release Another One of Jehovah’s Witnesses From Prison

On January 29, 2021, one of our brothers was released after being imprisoned for his faith for over 12 years. This follows the release of 28 other Witnesses on December 4, 2020. We rejoice over this positive development. We continue praying for the 23 brothers and sisters who remain imprisoned in Eritrea.—Hebrews 13:3.

[Sofia]

Source: jw.org

BREAKING NEWS | Eritrean Authorities Release Three More Jehovah’s Witnesses Imprisoned for Their Faith

 

On February 1, 2021, Eritrean authorities released one brother and two sisters from prison. They had been imprisoned for their faith for between four and nine years. We continue to pray for the 20 remaining brothers and sisters still in prison as they maintain their integrity to Jehovah.—2 Corinthians 1:11.

 

  

[Skye]

1 Corinthians 12:26 “If one member suffers, all the other members suffer with it; or if a member is glorified, all the other members rejoice with it.” 
 

We share in their shouts of joy and gratitude to Jehovah.

Edited February 1, 2021 by Skye

[New World Explorer]

On 12/9/2020 at 2:06 AM, Tortuga said:

Jehovah's people are known to be meek, humble and modest. We quickly comply with reasonable requests even if we don't fully understand the reason or circumstances. We prefer to humbly accept reasonable direction instead of fighting for our rights and questioning every motive. We continue to cultivate the soil of our heart so love can grow and our inclination is to be peacemakers.

What a beautiful expression!