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From: Tesfahannes Beyene (araele@gawab.com)
Date: Sun May 22 2011 - 18:18:07 EDT
ERITREA: ITS HIDDEN BEAUTY & DETERMINATION - CAN IT SUCCED WHERE OTHERS
HAVE FAILED?
Eritrea is middle sized nation with a population approaching 5 million. Its
frontiers resembling that of a triangle or an axe with a long handle at its
tip. Eritrea also occupies a strategic long coast along the Red Sea
stretching about 1200 kilometres, and that is why colonizers like the
Italians and Ethiopians have always been interested to occupy her. Since
its independence Eritrea has been on a vigil at every step of its life in
order to protect itself from the vultures of new colonialism and their
supporters. The final objective of the occupiers was simply to introduce
politics of intrigue in order to disrupt, or delay Eritreans independence
using different tactics of mistrust, by creating divisions in order to
occupy her for decades. Their ultimate goal has been to strangle the nation
at birth economically and politically resulting in dependency by others.
Those who plotted Eritrea's cycle of occupation and dependency by big
powers and their collaborators have been foiled.
Eritrea with its unique shape is beautifully placed along the Red Sea
coast, surrounded by friendly neighbours, however its relations with
Ethiopia are still strained since the border dispute started in 1998. If
there were to be a beauty contest among nations worldwide, Eritrea would
definitely be selected to stand for its beauty probably among the top
three. To the people of Eritrea, the Axe shaped nation with its colourful
culture and geography, resembles, a beautifully crafted guitar from the
shining marbles of Eritrea. It is a tropical desert Island that offers
courage and hope. It is simply a land of excitement and contrasts, where
you can find, desert plains, unpolluted beautiful beaches, historic
charming towns, and wonderful welcoming people. Eritrea is a land of two
seasons in one year, with its capital Asmara commonly called (Mezzo Roma)
or the other half of Rome. In present Eritrea there are no thieves or
burglars, it is one of the safest countries in the world. Even if you walk
in the streets of Asmara in the middle of the night, you will have no fear
of being mugged or harassed. This nation has many thrills and huge
surprises to offer to its people, friends and visitors.
Eritrea fought its colonizers, black and white tooth and nail, while its
sharp blade has fallen on its enemy’s right, left and centre dispersing
them in different directions. Eritrea is now firmly back in the hands to
its rightful owners, the people of Eritrea, so that it’s strategic
interests can be protected at all costs - in the long term and short term.
What needs to be realized here is that, in the past big powers, and their
collaborators have tried very hard to keep Eritrea as a hostage for decades
but they lost the plot. The stooges and mercenaries have tried to colonize,
annex Eritrea using different arguments, such as, Eritrea cannot survive
economically, that Eritrea is a small nation therefore, needs to be bonded
with the mother of all nations in Africa- Ethiopia; that Ethiopia is a big
country requiring access to the Sea, therefore the two countries need to
work closely for their natural development; or it is not in the strategic
interest of the United States for Eritrea to be an independent nation.
However all of these arguments have been used in preventing Eritrea’s
prosperity and thus enabling its long term occupation. These fraudulent
arguments were simply the biggest fraud of the century, used by deceptive
politicians to deny Eritrea’s right to self-determination. All of these
wicked arguments were tactically oppressive; they were bogus, naïve and
short sighted, to say the least. All of these points were not meant to
promote the strategic interest of Eritrea and they have all failed in
despair, simply because of the unbelievable determination of the Eritrean
people inside the country, as well as Eritrean diaspora. The people of
Eritrea are now the free holders of their great nation of heroes and legend
as the country has now secured its right place in history taking off for a
better future at its own pace, in line with Eritrea’s resources and
desires.
How did all this happen? This happened because of the unwavering
commitment of its people who care for one another, collectively to achieve
their goals using their own initiative and creativity to advance their
cause. It was also the relentless courage of the leadership themselves to
rally the Eritrean people to fight occupation on the one hand and on the
other educate their people to achieve one goal Eritrea’s independence. It
was also the commitment and sleepless solidarity of the young Eritrean
women fighters who played an equal role, like their male counterparts to
free their nation from Ethiopian occupation. In short, it was the wonderful
collection of men and women in displaying their Spartan capacity and
courageous tenacity to sustain a protracted war to defeat the enemy. It was
also the strong human spirit of the Eritrean people, young old, healthy,
sick, strong, weak, all of them as one people, pulled together and kept the
spirit alive. They worked as a team, in Europe, America & Middle East all
for one cause, and one for all, united by genuinely shared beliefs of
determination, understanding and happiness. Moreover Eritrean artists and
songwriters have also played a decisive role in rallying the Eritrean
people to support for the common cause.
The overwhelming backing of their people solidly behind them, the Eritrean
People’s Liberation Front (EPLF) scored its significant victory against the
Ethiopian Army on 11th February 1991. The military unit that led to the
significant victory to freedom was spearheaded by a military unit called
Operation Fenkil. It was this unit that completely demolished about 20.000
Ethiopian troops in the Port city of Massawa. The decisive victory of
Operation Fenkil over the enemy sent shock waves through ought the rest of
the Ethiopian troops. As a result many of them lay down their arms without
a fight. Within few weeks of their surrender, all pockets of resistance
against Operation Fenkel in the whole of Eritrea were destroyed. In other
words the mighty Ethiopian army all over Eritrea accepted defeat. That is
why Operation Fenkel is celebrated every year on 11th February each year in
Massawa. It is also honoured as Eritrea’s Remembrance Day for the fallen
heroes of Operation Fenkel and other fighters who paid with their lives to
save Eritrea. The day Operation Fenkel set foot in Massawa, the whole of
Eritrea was declared free from any occupation. Eritreans all over the
world do celebrate this glorious day with happiness and funfair, with clear
vision and hope to make the country a peaceful and prosperous nation that
would prepare the country to a better future.
By the way did we know that 11th February is a historic date
internationally, in the world calendar? For instance, Nelson Mandela was
released from Robin Island in 11February 1990, after serving 32 years in
prison. This date is also feared in the Arab world for overthrowing Arab
dictators. Because, the Shah of Iran was overthrown by Ayatollah Khomeini
in 11February 1979, and he was abandoned like an old dog by the Americans
and had to die in exile somewhere in Egypt. Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak was over
thrown by young pro-democracy activists from the epicentre of the Egyptian
Revolution called Tahrir Square on 11th February 2011. He is now in prison
with his sons, dying of stroke without being able to see the $ 80 billion
that he is alleged to have stolen from his people. A different note, not
associated with this historic date is that of Sarah Palin, the former
Governor of Alaska or a right wing politician, who is a gung-ho, loves to
shot bears in the mountains of Alaska (or perhaps potential presidential
candidate for the United States president for 20012) is born in 11th
February 1964.
As far as Eritrea is concerned the historic date of 11th February lifted
the fear of enemy atrocities all over the country. The blue skies over the
nation were opened, the bright stars in the sky shined without any
interruption from the clouds. Even Eritrean species that were hiding for
years in caves, mountains due to war and disruption began to come into the
open without any fear. They reclaimed their free natural habitat as a part
of the Eritrean family, celebrating their joyful participation of the
rebirth of their nation.
Once the guns of Operation Fenkel fell silent, a new nation was born. Even
the beautiful birds of Eritrea began singing their wonderful morning songs,
coming out in droves to sing the national anthem of freedom and peace.
One surprising thing about some of the Eritrean species was that the
Ostriches who occupy the coastal area around the Port of Assab came out to
the open and seem to have even learned how to welcome dignitaries, whenever
they come to visit Eritrea. It can be remembered when Libyan leader
Colonel Gadhafi and his wife came to visit Eritrea via the port of Assab to
Asmara, about a dozen of these wonderful species ran after his motorcade
and made a very strong impression on the visitor. I hope the wonderful
scenery these creatures live is preserved professionally in order to give
them sanctuary. Also In September 2010 an additional flavour of
satisfaction was added to the wonderful people of Eritrea by pure
coincidence. That religious festivals of Islam (Eid Alfeter) and
Christianity (Kudus Yohannes) fell on the same day for the first time in
Eritrea’s history. This is perhaps a very good indication that even
Allah/God is now on Eritrea’s side to help the people move forward to
overcome any problems.
One thing that needs to be clear here is that, if Eritrean independence,
happiness and self-sufficiency is to continue uninterrupted, the nation
will not be sitting down holding its hands together waiting for support
from other donor countries. As we all know, independence brings happiness,
but happiness need to be accompanied by hard work and creative ideas.
Eritrea is doing all it can to help its people without the involvement of
big powers. This is because once the big powers are in your house; it
becomes very difficult to govern yourself. They can dictate what you need
to eat, they can dictate you, what policies you need to follow - ultimately
they will bring you under their influence using food aid, loans and other
means to trap a country into the cycle of poverty. Their harsh polices can
sometimes lead a nation into the role of subservience to others or
bankruptcy.
To avoid being trapped into this cycle of poverty, the Eritrean government
is coming with its own blueprint for the future of Eritrea. A vision that
will protect Eritrea’s interest first, by improving the agricultural
sector, providing tools, and equipment’s to its people, interest free loans
to help poor farmers and small businesses industries. This can eventually
help the country to create employment food and education to its people.
Eritrea is now a self-reliant nation on a road to self-confidence, trying
to do something for herself without having to depend on others. Remember
the old saying goes - Allah only helps those who help themselves. Eritrea
is precisely doing that for a better future. Otherwise to depend on others
for food aid, or hand outs from others, can make you lazy and
unenthusiastic to take any initiative to improve your lives. It could
simply corrupt any nation. Food aid can be a poison, in the long run could
cause a nation to develop terminal cancer from which the country may never
recover, leading it into a lifetime of debt.
As it is commonly said life is a choice, you can live in a better life if
you do work hard, or you can vegetate waiting for food hand outs from
others. Eritrea has made a strategic choice to develop using its own
resources in order to feed itself. It has now about 300 hundred reservoirs
built in the last two years. It has clean water, can grow vegetables twice
or three times a year, The outcome from last year’s harvest has been very
promising. As a result, food and other commodities have been reduced in
price. This may be the starting point, but commodity prices perhaps need to
come down further so average Eritrean can afford to buy them. To bring down
prices further the government has planned in advance by preparing the water
reservoirs in the hope that we have good rain. This was precisely what
happened in 2010. Further preparations for 2011 are already in their place
awaiting rain. The government has now constructed more than enough
reservoirs to collect enough water to take us through without any shortage
of water at least for this year. But then for those who do not want to see
Eritrea progressing, for those who want to see Eritreans starving, for
those who were praying to see disaster and destruction, for those who want
to see chaos - are now so disappointed, they have nothing else to say,
than to bite their finger nails in shame.
The awe-inspiring view in Eritrea at present is we have overcome the hard
times; the sun is shining 24 hours a day, the tides are moving gently, the
ships are sailing peacefully, in the right direction. Eritrea has now
become a beacon of hope in the horn of Africa. That she has survived, all
forms of destruction and annihilation in the past, and will survive any
obstacles that are placed in front of her in the future. The message from
majority of the people of Eritrea is keep on learning, keep on running,
keep on working, look to your right, look to your left. Look to the north,
your goldmines are shining, look to your south, stay vigil as your people
are all behind you. No matter what your enemies say, your people will
support you, they will defend you. The commitment of the Eritrean
population can be expressed in a simple emotional song that, was sang for
the love of the nation in last year’s independence, (May 20010) and the
song is so powerful, it is still sung all over the country and abroad by
Eritreans. The name of the song is Meghedi Addina, Sedena Sedena (country
Road take us home, take us home) sang by a young Eritrean artist called
Temesghen Yared, and the song goes like this - first in Tigrinya followed
by English translation:
Meghedi adina sedan, sedan,
Meghedi adina sedena sedena
Keelm zeihalefo, birie zeitenkefo,
biidna kintzehfo, biidna Kintzehfo.
Adeye Adeye Adey Bimilita,
Miirir zibelet Welela Welela, Welella Wella.
Adeye Adeye Adey Midre Bahra
Mirir zibelet welella welella (repeat 3 times)
Miirir zibelet welella ye welella.
Hagherey welella.
Translated in English it goes like this,
Country road, country road, take us home, take us home
Country road country road take us home take us home
Our pens and inks have not touched your history
We will write them ourselves because you are free
My country my country, my country in your entirety
You are sweeter and sweeter than Manuka honey
My country my country you have the land and the Sea
Very soon you will harvest your gold and plenty honey bee
You are sweeter and sweeter than Manuka honey (3times)
And that is how the future is going to be.
The lyrics of the song simply expresses the love of a nation and people, at
the same time the artist is urging and encourage for those who can write to
write about their country, for those who can sing to sing, for those who
cannot sing or write the message is simple-be a part in rebuilding or
contributing to the nation, be it large or small. In short the artist’s
message is very clear; we need to write our history ourselves. The writer
(myself) is doing precisely that.
But one thing that we need to be careful in here is that, Eritrea should
not be compared with Egypt, an anchor state (spokes nation for the
strategic interest of the USA) in the Arab World. Nigeria is another
anchor state for the USA in West Africa and Ethiopia and Djibouti big and
small anchor states in the horn of Africa. Eritrean should not be compared
with these nations. All of them have been independent for 50 to 100 years;
Eritrea is only 18 years old since recognized by the International
Community and 20 years since declaring its independence. Despite the
problems of the 30 year war of independence, despite the border dispute
with Ethiopia, I am very optimistic that Eritrea will succeed where other
African states have miserably failed for the following specific reasons:
Reason number one: Eritrea is on a clear path to development. Its
development programmes are guided by practical reality, vision, at its own
pace and resources. So far the infrastructures that have been laid down in
the last two years are so impressive that roads, bridges, schools,
hospitals and most important, water reservoirs are now available to the
majority of Eritreans. In addition electricity lights, solar energy has now
been introduced slowly from main cities to town., The objective of the
government is that no Eritrean should be starving, no Eritrean should stay
in the dark, and above all every Eritrean must, have clean drinking water,
peace in his or her daily life that would enable him / her to do their work
uninterrupted for lack of peace or security. Therefore Eritrea s future is
bright because its people would guarantee its progress and development.
Reason number two: Eritrea has the confidence of its own people and as can
be seen on Eritrean Television day and night, men women and children
working digging repairing roads to improve the life style of their people
with confidence. Good example of this is that I saw Eritrean women who wake
up early in the morning at about 5 AM, to sweep or clean the streets of
Asmara. When asked why they wake up early the morning, the answer they
gave was breath-taking, These woman said “look this is our country we are
very proud of our nation, we want to bring dignity and respect to our
country so that our visitors, dignitaries can appreciate the love and
hospitality that the Eritrean people can offer to anyone who can come to
visit the nation” The job these women are doing is quite outstanding,
dignified and humbling to start to work so early to help tidy up the city
of Asmara. These women deserve an Eritrean medal for the outstanding work
they are contributing to the nation. It has to be understood here that
these, women and others like them are not paid to work from 5 AM in the
morning, but they are doing it for the love of a nation, and we have to pay
our admiration to them.
Reason number three: Corruption is worse than cancer. In Eritrea I can say
that there is very little corruption, almost negligible in. Of course there
could be few people, who may be involved in it. This may not be to make
them rich, but to cover their daily expenses. Once their salary is
increased, I am sure they will cease to do it and the Eritrean government
is doing its level best to classify corruption as crime. It has taken steps
in the past and is taking steps at present to combat even the smallest
available corruption in the country, provided the authorities are aware of
it. In addition the leadership in Eritrea are also not interested in
corruption or embezzlement of public money, they are not interested to
buying houses in New York, London, or Paris instead, they are working day
and night to rebuild their nation. Note also Eritrean culture forbids any
corruption from whatever direction it may come. To demonstrate there is no
corruption in Eritrea, the cabinet ministers, live more or less on a simple
life connecting themselves on everyday activity with their people. In
addition the salary of the entire Eritrean cabinet, including the President
amounts or is equivalent to, one member of an Egyptian General, or any one
member of the Military Council because they own industries in Egypt, or to
two members of Parliament in Kenya, or to one member of the Nigerian
Cabinet Ministries. Eritrean Ministers do not have houses in New York,
London, or Paris. Eritreans should be very proud of their country, their
cabinet ministers, and their people. It is still unique in Africa, and hope
even the few pockets of corruption can be eliminated as Eritrean economy
seems to be growing steadily for better development.
Reason number four: Some Eritreans are with the view, that the Eritrean
government is refusing food aid and is depriving its people from receiving
Food Aid from the west. In my own personal view, what needs to be
understood fundamentally, is that - Eritrea is not refusing food aid, what
Eritrea is refusing is conditional food aid, because conditional food aid
is worse than cancer. Once you are infected with the diseases of food aid,
the consequence for the recipient is irreparable damage to society on the
whole. That it hinders people’s initiative from helping themselves and
erodes confidence in civil society. Food Aid is always conditional as well,
that there are always some strings attached to it. People must take into
account that no one in this world would give any food for free, those who
are giving food aid for free are not our distant relatives, they are not
our distant cousins, and they are not the lost brothers of the 19th
century. They give food aid in order to receive a kick back from the
recipient. What people need to do is, ask themselves the simple
question-.why are children all over the world dying of hunger,
malnutrition, luck of education, when the rich world can feed the whole
world more than 100 times over and over again?. Look at the amount of money
that America and its allies are spending to fight wars in Iraq,
Afghanistan, trillions of dollars. The simple answer is that they are not
interested to alleviating the poor the sick, and the elderly. They will
give free food aid, if they can take something in return from the host
country. Therefore the Eritrean government policy seems to me, sensible
that to receive conditional food can damage one’s health, it can at the
same time kill peoples spirit. However unconditional food aid is very
welcome for the people of Eritrea.
Reason number five Loans, Loans, loans - this is money that you borrow
from any one on the condition that you pay it back at the agreed terms
conditions laid down by the creditors. If you do not pay in time, the
penalties are high and can lead a nation to bankruptcy. As we all know
there are Financial Institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Or the World Bank –who lend money to poor third world countries. This is
because the rich countries have billions and billions sitting in New York,
London, or Geneva. They don’t know what to do with it frankly. Therefore
what they do instead is, encourage third world countries to borrow money.
There are a lot African/Latin American countries leaders who borrowed money
from these Financial Institutions. When it comes to paying it back, they
fail to do so on the terms and conditions agreed. Then the debtor country
finds itself in dire consequence, unable to pay back. The failure to pay
back places, many countries at the mercy of the lender that, the lender can
apply any trick available in the universe, to extend the loan for other
decades, so that a country would be forced to pay extended high interest
until it collapses.
Thus many African leaders have failed to grasp the gravity of borrowing
money, taking their nation into the Ghettos of banana republics. Eritrea
will not fall into this trap as she will not take loans, that she is not
able to pay back. She will not build its country on intoxicated debt as it
will burn her forever. Eritrea will not invest any money that she has not
earned. For this reason Eritrean government approach for any loan is with
great caution. In the long term Eritrea will not take any money that will
cause her terminal damage. The concept, not borrow money that you cannot
pay back, instead working hard to be self-sufficient, and to achieve
concrete results using your own resources/skills for the benefit of the
many is -- priceless.
Finally the reason why Eritrea will succeed where others have failed would
be the following, do we remember that shortly after independence the
Railway system in Eritrea was completely destroyed by decades of Ethiopian
occupation. So what the government did was to contract it out to any
company that could restore it effectively for good price. The railway
system is very crucial to the development of Eritrea. The government asked
private companies (European Companies) as well as locals to bid, and
provide reasonable proposals to rebuild the destroyed railway track, that
goes from the port of Massawa, all the way to city of Asmara. What was
quite shocking was that, the European Loan Sharks demanded about $500
million, to build the track from scratch. Then the government studied all
the proposals that were submitted. Eventually they decided to drop the
European companies outright and managed to do it by themselves with a mere
fraction of money, for less than $50 million. This is what I call financial
prudence. If the government had gone with the European Companies, Eritrea
would, have been on a road to nowhere, leading its people/country into the
cycle of poverty beggary and dependency on others. For the above mentioned
reasons I am confident that Eritrea will succeed and avoid joining the club
of banana republics and it will work very hard to feed its people.
What about the experience of other nations? Ethiopia, Nigeria, Somalia,
Djibouti, who have been independent for many years. These countries cannot
even feed their people, at the present. Therefore they are leading their
countries not into self- sufficiency but into self - destruction. For
instance Nigeria has celebrated its 50th anniversary this year, yet the
country is still suffering from mismanagement and corruption. Ethiopia
herself has been an independent country for more than one hundred years,
but it was only the mountains, the lakes, and the trees that were free.
Ethiopia is still struggling to find a solution for its hungry people who
rely mainly on food aid from the international community. Ethiopia's image
is still associated with famine hunger due the charity events like Live
Aid. Despite these events, Ethiopia's children are still suffering from
malnutrition and disease. Somalia a failed state, because western powers
have deliberately failed to find peaceful solution for the country using
certain tactics that the country is now ungovernable and has become a haven
for chaos. To be honest if (former Somali president) Said Barry can be dug
out of his grave now he would have run Somalia better than the clans who
seem to be interested in themselves than united Somalia. Djibouti
sandwiched between Eritrea, Somalia, Ethiopia has now joined the league
table of failed banana republics, where the two big powers the US and
France maintain a strangle hold on that country while the president is
given Acres of land in Ethiopia for his own benefit rather than of his
people. Therefore Eritrean strategy is pure and simple that it will support
itself, it will feed itself and it will not borrow money that will stop its
growth. For the above mentioned reasons Eritrea will succeed in flying
colours when others have failed. What Eritrea wants from the outside world
is technical support, encouragement and non-interference into her internal
affairs. Then who can stop Eritrea from taking off and becoming a success
story.
Happy 20th anniversary Eritrea
Note I work with Refugees and asylum seekers, between the ages of 13-18, in
the UK, and am solely responsible for the article written above. If there
are any factual errors or misquotations concerning the above, I stand to be
corrected.
Tesfahannes Beyene
Bsc- in International Relations
Msc- in Public Sector Management UK
MAY 2011.
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