Hello Reddit, My name is Shannon-Ogbnai Abeda and I am an alpine skier representing Eritrea. I competed in the last winter games in 2018 and I am now on route to 2022. I am excited to go again but more or less I am nervous this go around. After a brief hiatus and some reflection, I decided to come back as I did not feel I ended my career on the right note. My Olympic event will be the last of my career as an alpine skier and I will be transitioning into a full-time career.
I currently train out of Invermere, BC, CANADA and spend part of my time between Calgary, Lethbridge and now Toronto. I am in my last year of my undergraduate studies completing two degrees in Computer Science and General Business Management. I do contract software and video/photography work over the summer & fall to pay for my training fees.
If you like, you can follow my journey on instagram shannonabeda_
Proof: Here's my proof!
Edit: I see that there's a typo in the title.. my bad!
Edit 2; Hey everyone! Thank you for your questions.. I did not expect this many so hang tight I will respond to you as soon as I can. Just eating food right now! I also want to thank those that are also asking difficult and challenging questions. It is allowing me time to reflect and really think about it. Again thank you all for your support
Edit 3: Hey everyone, I am back! Will be answering questions for the rest of the evening!
Edit 4: I guess there's a few really good questions.. so I stick around for a bit
Edit 5: Signing off for tonight.. will answer some question tomorrow morning! Thank you guys.. this has been very fun and you all have some great questions!
Edit 6: Alright I am back! I will answer some questions throughout the day as Iβm on the road for a bit. I did notice there were a few political questions that were left last night and I have to set record straight. I am very well aware of the sensitivity light about these games and Eritrea, but as an athlete my primary focus is to compete. I am not a prop nor do I have government affiliation of any kind. I am not knowledge enough nor am I in the position to make a comment. Some of you have ask respectfully however there has been quite few aggressive comments and my inbox was also spammed with some threatening message which I do not appreciate. Unfortunately I cannot comment on these questions and you have the understand position that most people going to the games are in.
Final edit: Hello all..
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The party that rules Eritrea from what Iβve seen claims to be socialist/anti-capitalist. Iβve heard some appalling things, but I admittedly know very little about the country and donβt want to fall for Western propaganda, so I figured Iβd see if some comrades here more educated than myself might be willing to clear up whether Eritrea is actually left-wing/worthy of significant amounts of support.
After World War II, the Superpowers made a stupid decision and gave Ethiopia the Italian colony of Eritrea in another timeline make an even more stupid decision to give Ethiopia Italian Somalia.
I just watched a very cringey american documentary on TV that claims Eritrea is a "totalitarian military dictatorship". It follows the standard CIA propaganda playbook: Sketchy unverifiable and/or meaningless smartphone videos with scary music and unrelated scary commentary on it, random satellite images that mean nothing and sketchy defectors that live in the USA and tell horrible unverifiable stories. Its like they arent even original at this point LOL
For anyone not in the know, this is related to the Tigray War, where right now nationalist terrorists are fighting the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments. This terrorist group, the Tigray Peoples Revolutionary Front (TPLF), is basically the same party that governed Ethiopia from 1991, when it violently overthrew the Marxist-Leninist Peoples Democratic Republic of Ethiopia with full US support, to 2018, when they were overthrown by popular protests and elections. This party, that during its rule imposed neoliberal policies, let Ethiopia be freely imperialized by the West, rigged elections, exploited ethnonationalism and had full US support, was named Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), and renamed itself TPLF after losing power in 2018.
Now the TPLF has lost power to the popular Prosperity Party, which while being a bourgeois nationalist liberal party, is antiimperialist and wants to stop the ruthless pillaging of Ethiopia by the West and establish trade relations with China through the Belt and Road Initiative. For this reason the US has most likely funded the TPLF, which recruits people by exploting ethnic conflicts and started in November 2020 a terrorist campaign aimed at overthrowing the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments.
Their campaign isnt working that well, so now the US propaganda media and its puppets are claiming that Ethiopia and Eritrea are committing a genocide against tigrayans in Tigray (the region of Ethiopia where the insurrection started and also the stronghold of the TPLF). As always, there is 0 evidence of this happening yet the usual consent manufacturers (Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, etc) claim this is happening. I really hope this isnt a preparation for another NATO "humanitarian intervention".
As a final note, i want to explain to you comrades why i think we should support Ethiopia and Eritrea in their struggle against US imperialism. While Ethiopia isnt socialist at all, it does have a liberal but also antiimperialist government. Meanwhile E
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Hi there, dear Ethiopians. As a non-Ethiopian who just started following news about East Africa 4-5 months ago, I have a question that won't leave my mind: Why exactly are Eritreans and Tigrayans bitter enemies despite belonging to the same group? And when did this split start? With the Italians or is it more recent? I'm sure some jerk already asked this before, but it would be nice if you could tell me. Also, what is the general position of the Oromo on the government? Are they apolitical, supportive or against Abiy? Best wishes and I hope you can end this war soon.
TPLF needs to be prosecuted and let new blood lead tigray.
All I want is a democratic Eritrea that has many parties like the United States or other countries in the world. I also want peace with tigray, and I hope they can forgive us for what our government and troops did to them.
Does anyone remember the claims of TPLFites and OLA that 30 000 soldiers from Eritrea was fighting in Oromia? To this day no proof has been given. Same for EDF in Afar and Amhara.
Seems like every time OLA and TPLF are defeated on the battlefield they like to blame Eritrea to lessen the humiliation of being failures.
Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Somalia, Comoros, Mayotte, ReΓΊnion, Djibouti and Eritrea have all officially entered the new year 2022!!!!
If anyone said that in one breathe, they would be thought of crazy.... but if you say it in portions, and allude to the rest over an extended period of time, say a couple of years, it's possible that people will take you seriously.
