Despite being among the most accomplished leaders in the world today,
President Isaias Afwerki is also one of the most demonized politicians in
Africa. When you challenge superpowers, as Isaias has been doing since the
mid-1960s, this should be expected.
But Isaias isn’t your ordinary president. He fought for a quarter of a
century as a freedom fighter and lead his people to victory. Since then, he
has transformed the country for the better, too. Eritrea has arguably
accomplished more in 22 years than any developing country in Africa. Some
of these accomplishments include:
- Eritrea is 1 of 4 African countries on track to achieve 6 out the 8 UN
Millennium Development Goals
- Eritrea’s life expectancy has doubled since independence and leads
mainland sub Saharan-Africa.
- The economy has been one of the fastest-growing economies in East
Africa for nearly half a decade.
- Eritrea’s literacy rates have nearly doubled from 43% in 1991 to 80%
today.
- The government provides free health care, education and subsidized
foods to its citizens (real human rights).
*Think as nine but act as one – Eritrean motto *
Isaias also helped forge a culture revolution among the different ethnic
groups in Eritrea. For many developing countries, having nine ethnic groups
divided along two of the world’s major religions is considered a challenge.
But Isaias celebrated these differences and created an environment in which
Eritreans celebrated their similarities and respected their differences.
Even with the ongoing demonization campaign against him, Isaias still
enjoys popular support among his people. In fact, he’s the only world
leader that can be seen walking around the capital without any security
detail. When American Major General Mastin M. Robeson met Isaias walking
alone in Asmara, he was impressed and knew he was dealing with a confident
man who was cut from a different cloth. So it’s no surprise when he
returned home to the states, he would defend Isaias from journalists
looking to criticize him.
“Isaias doesn’t need bodyguards,” he told me. “He goes around alone. He
lives in a normal house. He governs an African capital that is crime-free,
without slums, even though there are relatively few police. There’s no
terrorist threat in Eritrea. More than any other country in my AOR [area of
responsibility], it has a secular Western sense of patriotism. Isn’t that
what we claim we want?”
This isn’t to say Isaias is perfect. He’s human and does make mistakes. But
the demonization of him in the media is a disturbing trend that is becoming
more extreme and outrageous by the day. By shaping a distorted and
extremely negative perception of him in the press, the U.S. administration
is hoping this will turn the diaspora against him. Unfortunately for them,
it’s a difficult task trying to convince people with a thousand words or
less that a man who has spent nearly 25 years risking his life for the
greater good of his people and country is somehow against their interest
when their administration is at odds with him.
http://adalvoice.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/real-human-rights-in-eritrea/
Received on Tue Jun 11 2013 - 15:46:05 EDT