Vol 21. No. 69 Saturday, 25th of October , 2014 Pages 8, Price 1.50 NFA

The PFDJ Secretary, Mr. Al-Amin Mohammed Seid, who is currently in Sudan on working visit said that Eritrean-Sudanese relations is based on strategic partnership and mutual cooperation.

He made the statement during talks on the 22nd of October, with the country’s Assistant President, Prof. Ibrahim Gendur, on development of bilateral ties and future prospects.

In the course of the meeting, Mr. Al-Amin noted that the strengthen-ing of Eritrean-Sudanese relations would enhance the geo-political significance and importance of the two neighboring countries in the Red Sea and the Horn region as a whole. In this connection, the PFDJ official underlined the need for rein-

The Eritrean Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Mr.Osman Mohammed-Omar, held talks with the country’s Minister of Energy, Mr. Suhel Al-Mezruie, on bilateral relations and co-operation of part-nership.

In the course of the talks Ambas-sador Osman gave briefings to the UAE official on Eritrea’s pace in the development drive and the on-going economic development process in Eritrea and the region as a whole.

Noting Eritrea’s promising fu-ture, the UAE Minister expressed his country’s readiness to enhance

The Eritrean Ambassador to the European Union, Mr. Negasi Kassa, has presented his credentials to the Presidents of the Union, Mr. Her-man Van Rumpoy, and of the Euro-pean Commission, Mr. Jose Manuel Barroso.

During the presentation cer-emony, the Ambassador conveyed President Isaias Afwerki’s message

The Eritrean Ambassador to Egypt, Mr. Fasil Gebreslasie, has held meeting with the Egyptian Minister of Agriculture and Land Resources, Dr. Adel Al-Bltaj, on strengthening bilateral relations. The two officials conducted dis-cussions on enhancing relations, exchanging experience and skilled manpower.

Ambassador Fasil also gave

The 6th festival of grass roots sports in the Central region organized by the Sports Commission that have been conducted from 9 July 5 Oc-tober under the theme “Sustainabil-ity of Sports would be Realized by Children” concluded on 18 October.

At the closing ceremony in which Maj. Gen. Romodan Aweliai, Ad-ministrator of the Central region, and other government officials took part, Mr. Endrias Asmerom, Head of the Central region Commission Sports, explained on the significance of de-veloping community based sports activities, and that the Central region is exerting efforts towards that end. He also indicated that 4 thousand children are taking training in 67 sports centers.

The parents who have been pres-ent at the ceremony expressed that

EritrEan-SudanESE rElationS baSEd on StratEgic partnErShip and mutual coopEration: pFdJ SEcrEtary

forcing such historical and people-based relations.

Prof. Ibrahim Gendur on his part asserted his country’s readiness to work together with Eritrea in vari-ous issues and forums.

Also in similar news from the Su-dan, PFDJ Secretary, Mr. Al-Amin Mohamed Seid, is taking part in the 4th General Congress of the ruling Sudanese Congress Party at the in-vitation of the party.

In a solidarity message he con-veyed at the opening session of the Congress on behalf of President Isa-ias Afwerki, Chairman of the Peo-ple’s Front for Democracy and Jus-tice (PFDJ) and the Eritrean people pointed out that Eritrea and Sudan constitute a geo-political unit in the

Red Sea region as well as the Horn of Africa and Nile River region. He further explained that the geograph-ical proximity of the two countries has enabled them to work in part-nership in different domains for the benefit of both peoples, which fac-tor has also an influential impact.

The PFDJ official went on to state that the unity and prosperity of Su-dan makes due impact on neighbor-ing countries, and that the Eritrean people and their leadership attach vital significance to fostering en-hanced partnership between the two nations.

It is to be recalled that Mr. Al-Amin yesterday held talks with Prof. Ibrahim Gendur, Assistant President of the Republic of Sudan, on the development of bilateral ties and future prospects.

According to reports, the PFDJ Secretary would hold talks with a number of Sudanese government and Party officials during his stay.

the grass roots sports activities are registering encouraging results, and called for its sustainability.

The trainees on their part ex-pressed appreciation for getting the training opportunity, and that it would motivate them pursue sports

activities and become competitive in their endeavors.

At the ceremony Berik sub-zone and other winners in different sports competitions received awards with trophies and medals as well as finan-cial assistance.

6th FEStival oF graSS root SportS in thE cEntral rEgion concludES

briefings as regards Eritrea’s en-deavors towards strengthening the Agriculture sector and boosting output. He further noted the sig-nificance of Egypt’s experience in the sector, especially in agricul-tural research.

The Egyptian Official expressed Egypt’s readiness to exchange ex-perience and collaborate with Eri-trea in the domain.

ambaSSador FaSil holdS mEEt-ing with Egyptian miniStEr

of goodwill, and expressed Eritrea’s readiness to foster bilateral relations and on partnership of co-operation with the Union in various sectors.

Ambassador Negasi further ex-plained the pace of development drive in the Homeland, and ex-pressed the Eritrean government’s readiness to continue its contribu-tion towards ensuring peace and se-

curity in the region.The Presidents of the EU and the

European Commission on their part commended the Eritrean govern-ment’s goodwill and voiced readi-ness to enhance bilateral relations. They also urged Eritrea’s continued constructive engagement towards promoting peace and stability in the Horn of Africa.

EritrEan ambaSSador to EuropEan union prESEntS crEdEntialS

ambaSSador oSman holdS talkS with uaE miniStEr oF EnErgy

bilateral co-operation of partnership with Eritrea.

Meanwhile, Ambassador Os-man conducted discussion with Dr. Anwar Al-Gargash from the UAE Foreign Ministry on enhancing bi-lateral relations and developments in the Horn region and the Red Sea region.

Stating that relations between Er-itrea and the UAE is long-standing, Dr. Anwar expressed his country’s readiness to enhance collaboration in diverse fields, and in the do-main of economic and development spheres in particular.

2Eritrea Profile, Saturday 25th of October , 2014

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By: Yishak Yared

Going to the outskirts of Mend-efera early in the morning around 6:30, on the way to Adi-Quala, it is common to observe many students on their way to school to Mende-fera High School, formerly known as San Giorgio, carrying with their bicycles two jericans of five liters. I have been there for several times but I have never noticed that. The very fact that we happened to be there and observe the students rid-ing their bicycles carrying jericans has been part of the program of the Switzerland Support Group for Eritrea (SUKE) and Eritrea Hilf-swerk in Deutschland (EHD) dur-ing their friendship and solidarity visit to Eritrea.

We came to understand that the students have been carrying fresh milk from their families’ dairy farms to deliver it to the milk pro-cessing plant located nearby their school. They do that every day. The dairy farms might be very small but

still they have enormous impact on the lives of those families who are engaged in the activity.

The coordinator of the visit pro-gram was Mr. Tesfalidet Mengistu (aka Gola), the Chair person of the Eritrean National War Disabled Veterans Association (ENWDVA)

in the Southern region. He ex-plained that what we have been observing has been part of the as-sociation’s small scale projects in the region. They call it “Bicycle

Project”. And is part of the associ-ation’s programs to rehabilitate the Eritrean war disabled veterans.

In Mendefera and its surround-ings there are many members of the ENWDVA who are engaged in small scale dairy farming. Every day their children carry the milk from their cows to the milk pro-cessing plant owned by the Dairy Farmers Association of the South-ern region. And in addition to its

intervention to assist the war dis-abled veterans in developing their dairy farms it initiated the bicycle project in cooperation with partner organizations. They provide every family with a bicycle and their children deliver the milk to the milk processing plant on their way to school. They don’t have to spend money for transporting their prod-ucts. That might be a small project, and it is, but has strong impact on the lives of the families.

The ENWDVA in the Southern region has about 3500 of its mem-bers who have been benefiting from projects designed by the associa-tion. And one of the effective proj-ects is the micro-credit program. Many have benefited through the micro-credit by engaging in differ-ent activities including bee farms, vegetable farms and small scale trade. The association provides its members with financial loans and training in the field they pursue to engage themselves. Many, ac-cording to the chairman, have paid their debt and are leading a better life with their families.

Mr. Fesehaie is a member of the ENWDVA residing in Adi-Kesem-ti. He started his bee farm with the

initial assistance of two beehives from the association. He took some training on bee farm organized by the war veterans association and currently owns more than ten bee-hives and is leading a better life

with his family. He is well known in the area and he doesn’t need to carry his product to the market for sale. He has many customers who come to his place to buy honey. His wife and children are also familiar with the job and are engaged in the development of the project. Mr. Fesehaie alongside his bee farm is also a farmer and owns several livestock.

Ms. Mehret Tsegai has been one of the micro-credit beneficiaries the group visited in Adi-Quala. She is a mother of five children and is engaged in supplying the market with handicrafts mostly for coffee making and other artifacts. She said that she initially loaned small amount of money from the association and has already cleared her loan and is standing by her own leading a better life with her five children.

Tesfom Negash owns a small shop at the Adi-Quala main mar-ket place. He is also member of the war veterans association. The shop looks small but we observed it holding variety of items and busy with buyers.

SUKE and EHD Friendship and Solidarity Groups visit to Eritrea

Part IIReportage

There are also many members of the war veterans association in the Southern region engaged with making traditional cloths with the micro-credit scheme of the asso-ciation and partner organizations. All, as we observed first hand and from the information we received from the beneficiaries the micro-credit scheme initiated by the Eri-trean National War Disabled Veter-ans Association is registering good results in improving the livelihood of its members in the region. With that everyone could expect that many members of the association from all over the country are being beneficiaries from the micro-credit scheme.

The next visit of the combined SUKE and EHD group has been to the Anseba region region to ob-serve the development programs in the region and especially the Begu water supply project. The project is run by the regional office in co-operation with other partners.

The Begu water supply project is aimed at providing practical solu-

tion for arid and semi-arid regions and similar projects are expected in other areas of the country. The project is designed to catch the winter time floods flowing from the upper parts of Keren through Tinkuluhas. There are about nine sand storage and recharging check dams. Around 10,000 residents in the area are beneficiaries from the dams.

The sand storage and recharg-ing dams feed several water wells constructed as far as three kilome-ters from the dams. According to the residents, before the construc-tion of the check dams they used to travel long distance in search of water for themselves and their animals. Today the water wells in their areas are recharged from the check dams and they have water availability in their backyards all year long.

The group during its visit to the Southern and Anseba region also visited historical areas and art-deco buildings and enjoyed the greenery and the stunning landscapes of the country side.

3Eritrea Profile, Saturday 25th of October , 2014

Dear readers ‘On the Table’ always welcomes your outlooks on any of the issues raised on this column. Please mail us your comments opinions and views; we will entertain them.

On the Table: http://www.profile.gov.er Daniel Semre - danisemere@gmail.com Solomon Mengsteab sollion8555@gmail.com

It is always a point of debate whether it is better to love or to be loved, whenever the issue of love is raised. Today’s “On the Table” shall glance upon this issue briefly.

Loving and Being Loved

Solomon Mengsteab

Psychologists agree that our well being is directly related to how good we feel about ourselves, circumstances, things and peo-

ple around us. One of the most significant secrets of feeling good is love. Love is a natural stimulator of equilibrium, peace-ful state of mind, and happiness in people’s lives. Human life is a frequent and persistent quest for the magic lamp and/or genie that shall grant the key to open the door for inner peace happiness and general feel-good. No matter how deep we dig, how high we fly, and how far we sail, there is barely a thing that we can find that could help us feel better and happier in our lives than love.

Love is the magical imaginative ship that we sail on to the heavenly world of happi-ness and tranquil. One of the two major ex-tensions of love is being loved. The feeling of being loved accepted and appreciated by another person is among the finest feelings in life. One of Most prominent writers of the classical literature our world have had, Victor Hugo, in Les Misérables, arguably his masterpiece, said, “The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves—say rather, loved in spite of ourselves.” What an eloquent and righteous expression it is indeed!

The major and most significant advantag-es of being loved are psychological. Being loved can improve one’s self-confidence and equips one with more self-assurance. Being accepted appreciated and loved boosts one’s feelings of self-worth and that is imminently reflected up on the way one handles and takes care of oneself. Even in times of hardship the feeling of being loved has significantly uplifting influence on people. Such a feeling can help to reduce one’s chances of suffer-ing badly when one is under stress or when

things go wrong. The feeling of being loved can calm one down and help to make one less irritable and less impatient. In general it fortifies people against all the negative im-pulse and provides the fuel that runs the pos-

itive feelings such as hope, c o n fi d e n c e and cheerful-ness. Without a doubt, being loved helps to vaccinate one against stress and anxiety and distress, and helps one to combat emo-tional fragility and vulnerabil-ity to depres-sion.

Moreover, the feeling of being loved al-lows one to accept another person’s influ-ence and assistance. It sparks the enthusiasm of corporation and reliance on one another. It allows people to minimize the pressure and burden of being the lone in-charge and decision-making individual and therefore, reduces the stress by sharing the load. And this in consequence, according to relation-ships expert and researcher John Gottman, is among the most pertinent determiners of success in relationships and marriage.

Furthermore, the sense of being loved has actual significance in keeping physical well-being of a person. It has a scientifically prov-en significance in keeping the body healthy. The feeling of being loved increases the sup-ply of essential food and oxygen to one’s skin cells by increasing the blood flow to one’s skin. It also boosts the output of adrenalin and sex hormones such as testosterone and estrogen. The body even produces its own natural form of amphetamine. The feeling of being loved has an influence on almost ev-ery part of human body, from the mere glow of skin to combating major diseases such as asthma, arthritis, nasal congestion, headache indigestion, other stress-related stomach dis-orders and even heart attack.

We might not feel the significance of be-ing loved until we experience it or had it and lost it, yet still it is among the most beautiful and important feeling in human life “When my mother died and left me all alone,” said J. Matthew Nespoli, “I began to realize that some things, like being loved, were more important than one’s image, money, and ac-complishments.” What do you say?

“The Supreme Happiness of Life Is the Conviction That We Are Loved”

Daniel Semere

It’s totally normal to look at the world through rose-colored glasses in the early stages of a relationship. But for some peo-ple, those rose-colored glasses turn into blinders that keep them from seeing that a relationship isn’t as healthy as it should be. They feel they haven’t gotten the right response for the love they given. That’s of-ten when the issue whether it is better to love someone than to be loved occupies the center stage of conversation these people have.

To love someone has that assurance of feeling that comes with it. It is absolute and often clear. It is also the hallmark of people who are good, considerate, and often con-fident. Love is the source of all good will in the world and the core of the energy that binds it. To love someone therefore is to become the owner of a piece of this force. It is even say you can never be truly human if you don’t know how to love. Hence, it stood testimony to our humanity. As such it is something to be value and cherished.

On the other hand, what does it mean to be loved? Basically it means you are the

reason for this great emotion someone has inside of him or her. It is really a privilege to be the cause of such magnificent thing. To come and think of it there could be but few things that can solicit the feeling when you are missed by someone and that some-one just craves your presence.

There is a saying that goes like “to the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world.” This is what you want for your life. You want to mean the world to your husband or wife. If you don’t feel that you do, then your marriage is lacking something. You deserve to be loved unconditionally by someone, and if you aren’t, you can’t be fulfilled. If some-one doesn’t love you that much, and they leave you, you will grieve. Therefore to be loved is also for your own sake. You de-serve to be loved. No one can really have a meaningful existence if that person is not loved.

So I say to be loved is one of the few things that can lift you to the highest and can give you a meaning to live. What do you say?

To Be Loved

4Eritrea Profile, Saturday 25th of October , 2014 ADSVACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT

Bisha Mining Share Company PLC is inviting interested applicants for the positions of;

Supply Trainer (01)1. Type of contract: Definite period

Major Duties and responsibilities:-Responsible for the development and implementation of a functional specific •training program for the supply department at bisha mining.Ensure supply staffs are provided with high quality, cost effective training. The •trainer is to ensure training materials are designed to address individual learning needs. This is take into account individual learning style and provide dynamic, innovation blended learning program.To provide high quality information, advice and guidance for staff to ensure •learning aims are met.Provide leadership to the supply tea, to ensure KPI’s and other department and •company targets are met and to assist staff in achieving their full potential by gaining new skills through effective training and mentoring. Training program will developed to optimize the management of the supply chain •department functions.Work in accordance with the bisha core values at all times.•Promote a safety culture within the department and company encouraging the use •of risk mitigation methods and tools when developing operational and training plans.Actively participate in and provide leadership in safe meeting and discussion.•Training modules should be implemented using variety of classroom and practical •teaching techniques.Conduct high quality internal supply staff training covering all areas of warehousing, •cataloguing, inventory control, procurement and general logistics.Lead the development of training system, conducting training needs analysis, •research topics as required and develop training materials.Liaise with equipment and product OEM’s sure that specialized supply related •training is provided by experts where available.Assist in control the use of common standardized polices, processes and procedures •to ensure that all potential synergies are leveraged.Design supply procedures for the department including manuals, tutorials and both •written and practical assessments.Champion supply related services within the company; ensuring that feedback is •used to identify area which influence the shape of future training modules.To act alongside the supply manger as the subject matter expert on all supply •training related matters.Advising the supply manger on all products, systems and services that need to be •updated to reflect industry trends and aligns to current legislation.Develop, implement, maintain and audit systems to provide quality service at all •operational departments to provide an efficient and effective service.To work with colleagues in the training team to consistently improve internal •practices, procedures and procedures to provide an efficient and effective service.Assist in auditing policies and procedures to ensure compliance with bisha •requirements in all supply related area.Monitor compliance of supply polices, process and procedures.•Maintain training records and prepare regular reports and assessments.•Daily and month end report to the supply superintendent and supply manger.•

Profile: Qualifications and Experience

Formal Education, Certifications or Equivalents

Appropriate tertiary qualification and / or •industry experience.

Working Experience – Nature & Length

Minimum of 10 years in international •supply chain roles.Experience in a mining environment is •essential.

Leadership Experience – Nature & length of time

High level of interpersonal skills.•

Other skills and abilities

Supervisor presentation and •communication skillsConfident in presenting and talking in front •of large groups.Strong organizational skills.•Demonstrated skills in planning, analysis •and problem solving.Good interpersonal skills together with •effective communication skills.Excellent skills in the use of computing •software and ERP system Exceptional systems knowledge.•Strong influencing skills.•Hold employees accountable•Must have experience in training •employees in a remote mine site environment.

Bus/ Mini-Bus Driver (02)2. Duration of Contract:-Definite Period

Major Duties and responsibilities:-Ensure safety requirements are met and safety devices are used properly•Ensure roadworthy of the vehicle before running by performing all necessary •check upEnsure that both company and national road traffic rules and regulations are •respectedEnsure passengers are guided properly during loading and offloading•Ensure fuel tank of vehicle is full with petrol before and after trips•Ensure pre start log sheet is filled properly and neatly•Ensure accident and other defect are reported to supervisor honestly and on time•Ensure services are delivered as planed as per drivers SOP•Other related job as assigned by the transportation supervisor •

Profile: Other skills and abilitiesFormal Education, Certifications or Equivalents

Ability to write and read English

Working Experience – Nature & Length

Above three years bus/ Mini bus driving experience

Leadership Experience – Nature & length of time N/A

Other skills and abilities

Excellent interpersonal relationshipGood communication skill local languages and English as working languageValid grade 4 or higher driver’s license

Receptionist (01)3. Duration of Contract:-Indefinite Period

Major Duties and responsibilities:-Receive telephone calls message and fax messages.•Pick up and deliver the mail open the date stamping general correspondence.•Maintain the general filling and file all correspondence.•Respond to public inquiries.•Providing secretarial support.•Greet assist and direct visitors and newly hired staffs•Co-ordinate the repair and maintenance of office equipment•Perform other related duties as required. •

Profile: Qualifications and Experience

Formal Education, Certifications or Equivalents

Diploma in secretarial science or •any related.

Working Experience – Nature & Length Two years•

Leadership Experience – Nature & length of time No•

Other skills and abilitiesComputer literacy.•

General Information and other requirements:Place of Work• : Bisha.Salary: • As per Company salary scale.Additional requirement for Nationals: •Having fulfilled his/her National Service obligation and provide evidence of release •paper from theMinistry of Defense. Present clearance paper from current/last employer.•Testimonial documents to be attached (CV, work experience credentials, a copy of your •NationalIdentity Card etc.).Only shortlisted applicants would be considered as potential candidates for an •interview.Application documents will not be returned to sender.•All applications should be sent through the post office.•Deadline for application: 10 days from the day of publication in the Newspaper.•

Address: Please mail your applications to; Bisha Mining Share Company P. O. Box 4276 Asmara, Eritrea

Note to Eritrean applicants: Please send a copy of your application to Aliens Employment Permit Affairs, P. O. Box 7940 Asmara, Eritrea

5Eritrea Profile, Saturday 25th of October , 2014

Solomon Mengsteab

Of Battles in Life and LosingCountless battles have been

fought over the thousands of years of human history. Civilizations flourished, civilizations got shattered, kingdoms were built, kingdoms were crushed, empires rise, empires fall, states were formed, states were disintegrated, etc. Throughout the chronicles of the ups and downs of civilization conflict and war have always been of major consequence. At the end of any given war there are usually winners at one side and there are losers on the other. It is not every war however, that ends with the complete annihilation, surrender and capture of a side by another. Sometimes, one the parties involved in the armed or other form of conflict would realize its inability to emerge victorious and therefore, gets compelled to make a truce. Such was the case of the U.S.S.R. at the end of the cold war.

Moreover, many other times, both sides engaged in a given conflict recognize that, despite whoever shall emerge victor from it in the end, the war or conflict would destroy their entity and threaten their welfare or even very existence afterwards. Therefore they both become compelled to make truce. The end of the Cuban crises of 1973, again, shall the cold war be considered as a historical reference, was the consequence of such mutual recognition of ominous danger. Leaving all the decorative declarations of both countries aside, basically the conclusion of the crises was the result of the recognition of both parties that there was a bona fide possibility of the eruption of nuclear war, which would annihilate both countries.

Whichever way they should end however, be it in annihilation of one party, or compelled truce on the part of either or both sides, wars and conflicts normally have a winner and a looser. The triumph of a given victor might not always be material flaunt of spoils of conquest, nor might not the loss always be physical annihilation. Nevertheless, in one way or another, one party gains more or at least keep all of whatever it had at the beginning of the conflict, in the end. This triumph might be anything ranging from of riches and territories to of principle and moral prevalence. At the same time one party loses or at least fails to conquer whatever it had intended to at the beginning of the war or conflict. Yet still, should any pattern be noticed and recognized from the way conflicts and wars are concluded, it is the fact that no one or no party wins always neither does another loose eternally.

“History repeats itself” they say. Indeed, when regarded and observed closely history is not merely the

record of the past, but also without a doubt a reflection of the future. Which is why, intellectuals argue, for all intents and purposes validly, that history is not pastime engagement but a lesson to be experienced without actually experiencing it. All the while, everything in our world is intricately interlinked. “Energy” physicists say, “Is neither created nor destroyed”. And as philosophy has it, knowledge of one field of study can be adapted and used in another. Thus the analysis of wars and conflicts in history not only has a lot to contribute in guiding people on how to handle them in the future, it also can be used as a reference in the ups and downs of life that people confront and fight with in their daily lives. For, should I assert it yet once again “life is war.”

Indeed life is war and in war people win and even so much often they lose. Loosing is part of life. It doesn’t matter who, when, where and doing what, e v e r y b o d y loses in the i n e s c a p a b l e battles of life. And that is the first and foremost thing that everyone is ought to know about losing. We begin failing as early as our days of childhood. Every child stumbles and fails before he/she learns to walk for the first time. And that experience lives on with all of us until the day our soul departs our body. Thus, the key to all the fuss to success is not to avoid failure or losing altogether but to minimize its frequency, magnitude and most importantly the endurance its weight on our lives.

Normally, losing is neither liked nor recommended by no one. However, in the context of making lemonade out of the lemons that life dumped upon one as one looks for oranges, loosing might not always be the worst thing that could happen to a person in life. In fact sometimes it could be on the contrary; one can gain more (in the near or far future) from loosing than from winning. For, the experience that we get from one loss could change one’s life for the better. Still to make lemonade out of lemon one should first know how to make lemonade. Indeed, to make the best out of a losing or failing experience one should know what and how to learn from it.

Learning from one’s or others failures might not seem so difficult since its just merely about synthesizing what we did wrong and avoid repeating them afterwards. However, if that is so, how come we repeat the same mistakes or fail at doing one thing in our lives over and over again? It is simply because

learning from mistakes is not as plane as it seems on the surface and we are not as systematic as we think we are in our analysis of the issue. Sometimes even worse, our feelings cloud our rationality. The demoralization, accompanied by disappointment, frustration, and, not to mention the occasional mortification, bitterness, and despondence added to the tending of an aching ego makes it difficult for people to analyze losing reasonably. Which precisely is why, one always need to accept losing as natural phenomenon and focus on what could be obtained out of it, while moving on with one’s life.

There are a lot of things to consider and a lot of ways to analyze an incident of loosing. Yet still, yet still the reevaluation of the plans, the preparations to execute them and the actual process of the execution are the major ones. Not a few times failure

is preceded by lack of

anticipation or impediments and/or problems which might pop up on the way to achieve a desired goal, in the planning process. And more often so, even when there is a good thorough plan, failure could be consequence of lack of preparations that are necessary to execute the desired goal. It could result due to short of placing all the variables and pieces that are likely to boost success in all the right places and removing those who increase the chances of setbacks. Moreover, at times failure could result from incompetent execution of plans, even while there is good plan and preparation preceding action. Therefore, good analysis of failure must include the scrutiny of all these variables.

Of course, many a time failure can make us feel passive and helpless and lead us to believe that we’ll never succeed no matter what we do or try. However, no matter how compelling such feelings are, they are no more than perceptual distortions, tricks our minds play on us after experiencing failure. The truth is, we always have more control over things than we realize. As long as one knows where and how to look, failure can indeed be

a great teacher. When one carefully analyzes the planning, preparation and execution of one’s plans after failure, one is bound to find valuable lessons that will help one succeed in the future. A phase of losing is necessary in learning how to win. They say, “We learn more from our losses than our victories.” Though Lindsay Davenport lost early in the 2000 warmup tournament in Sydney to Amelie Mauresmo, she won the Australian a couple of weeks later. She reflected, “That loss to Mauresmo helped me to win the Australian Open. It made me focus on what I wasn’t doing right”. Indeed if we analyze and learn from it calmly losing is nothing more than a simple bump on the road to success. Which is why, it is important to remember battles are not always won; “You win some and you lose some, but you live to fight another day.”

and to figuring out how you would handle them if they did

Reevaluate your planning: How much time did you spend . planning the best way to achieve your goal or task before you started? How much thought did you give to anticipating hurdles or problems that might arise

and to figuring out how you would

handle them if they did? The vast majority

of us spend little if any time on this kind of planning, despite the

likelihood of our running into obstacles and unexpected

circumstances. In the future, make sure

to plan your general strategy, consider

potential setbacks, and figure out how to overcome them, before

you begin.2. Reevaluate your

preparation: Here again is a step too many of us skip despite it being a rather crucial one. For example, consider someone whose goal is to get healthy by joining a gym and going three times a week. Her plan can easily get derailed if the babysitter cancels and she has no alternate childcare arrangements. Preparing backup childcare ahead of time would allow her to get to the gym more consistently and to get into the habit more easily, which in turn will increase her chances of persisting toward her goal.

As another example, consider how often we begin diets without stocking the house with healthy foods and getting rid of unhealthy ones. In the future, make sure to prepare by putting elements in place that increase your likelihood of success and minimize the likelihood of setbacks.

3. Reevaluate your execution: Was your effort consistent, or did you experience

lags in your work ethic, motivation, or your general mindset? Go back and assess when and why any drops in effort occurred. Identifying when you got demoralized or demotivated, and which external circumstances derailed your efforts, will allow you to anticipate such events and plan how you to address them in the future (for example, by building in special incentives at critical junctures and brainstorming ways to manage external disruptions).

4. Focus on variables in your control:

We could take a workshop to beef up our sales skills or a seminar to improve our presentations. We could become more knowledgeable about our clients, spend more time cultivating relationships with potential customers, improve our networks, cultivate stronger relationships with management within our company, or figure out other ways in which we could take initiative and prove our worth, all of which are in our control.

As it is for winning Loosing is part of life It doesn’t matter who you are, you will lose. Everybody loses. If you don’t lose, you’re doing something wrong (perhaps playing down too much). One reason some pros make it and others don’t is because of attitude, not necessarily talent. Those who tapped out didn’t deal with the glitch in their thinking called discouragement. Here are a couple of observations about losing.

.) There are times in tennis development when you will take more losses than at others. This is true even when trying 100%. If the heart is there, these are usually temporary patches (don’t tell th

Nobody likes to loose The path to success is littered

with losses, failure the back door to success, experimentation before getting it right. The pros are more successful because they’ve failed more than you have. They’re been in more arenas, practiced longer hours and missed a million more shots. By the time they’re on TV, they’ve got some things down. The success you’re seeing has a long history behind it. As a teen Roger Federer’s is backhand was said to have been very suspect, spraying balls everywhere. But he felt the pain of losing enough to change.

How to handle loosing What should not be taken from

loosing You can actually gain from loosing

half full glass caseThe advantages of loosing One secret in learning how to win is

realizing the pressure is off. This can only happen by losing. After you’ve learned how to lose, (primarily by not thinking of yourself as a loser), you don’t fear it as much. You hate it to be sure, but knowing you’ve handled the worst about it and stood,

Win Some Lose Some Part II and Final

continued on page 7

6Eritrea Profile, Saturday 25th of October , 2014

Rivers of Consciousness Social: http://www.facebook.com/riversofconsciousness | Contact Address: teklehaimanotye@eit.edu.er SMS Message to: +2917261231

Teklehaimanot Yemane

No pleasure is pleasant unless it satisfies our thirst of pleasure. Up and away, I tried to climb across the ladder of pleasure. But what I was doing was a consequential hunt for pleasures. When I climbed high, I looked her back from atop the roof. She appeared as a tiny, unnotice-able and almost negligiblespot. To be frank she did not impress me. I compared her with the comfort I gained. Truly, she seemed val-ueless. She was only a point in the vastness of my heart. But the feeling of hers has never dropped to zero. She always twinges and I feel the pangs she emits – pangs of nothingness toward my feeling.

Whenever I feel pleased by the pleasures I hunt, she would laugh at me with a fading laughter. When I realize that the pleasure I was once delighted with was not a lasting pleasure, she would look me with her series eyes. The way she looks stings me. Whenever she notices I have an endless regret over my ac-tions, she would cry to her insides. I lately realized she was patiently waiting me until I reach the apex of my pleasures. In her thoughts she would say, “Let him taste the taste of his threshold.” And when I reached my threshold, which was at the end of everything, I saw nothing. Everything I knew and had whitened out. She was the only spot visible. By then I knew I have never lived my life. What I used to live was an illusion – illusion of everything except me.Both of us remained as a point and a hollow. She was the point and I was the hollow. But all the way through, I used to think like I was the point.

Thinking it from the hollow side, I made it clear that I was not in-tentionally betraying her. It was the feeling of my point who directed me all the way through. I have nev-er wished to leave her alone - for lonely is never good. But when I was leaving her, I was thinking like I would return to her as a rolling star and fit her dark hole perfectly. Ihad never realized she was the point that sources my existence. By missing that point, I missed myself. Attempting to bestow, I lost my framework to receive. I have grown to nothing. Unlike me, however, she has an endless pa-tience. She waited for me till the infinity of my ladder of pleasures. She knew from the outset that I was growing to nothing; she also

equally knew that that way was the best way to truly teach me my way was never a true way. At the verge of my nothingness I cried with frustration and she laughed with true courage of aliveness and I saw it was my threshold. That moment was my tipping point – I switched from a pretending point to a real hollow. That was the truth. Look-ing it through the truest eyes, that moment became the verge of all verges – a threshold of all thresh-olds.

When our will to receive is satis-fied, we experience it as pleasure. When we cannot satisfy our de-sires we feel empty, frustrated, and even begin to suffer. Because of that, our happiness depends on the presence or absence of fulfillment of our desires. Any act we may perform, from the simplest to the most complex, is done to achieve but one thing—intensification of pleasure or diminution of pain. In fact, these are two sides of the same coin. From my own effort diminution of my pain was never possible and intensification of my pleasure seemed hopeless. Then I surrendered. I gave up and looked back for her mercy. She welcomed me. She is kind, in fact. We are connected again – a point and a hollow.

Today, almost all souls are too materialistic and egoistic to under-stand the true meaning of life and living. They need special tools to bring them back into the correct zone. A supportive environment, an enlightening teacher, and books with correct knowledge can give a spiritual enlightenment to these frustrated souls. We live within cluttered souls. And my soul was never different from such souls. Now she has left as a tiny dark spot and desires to dwell in me – the hollow. Her hope is that we can grow pure afresh. By removing all my frustrations, she hopes that she will lead me right and true. In fact, I am now truly motivated. Now I know I was misled by the illusions of others. She wishes to dwell at the core of me and desires to lead me across the paradise of true life. When she assured that I remained blank and hollow, she slipped inside and made her permanent apartment from where she would direct our growth in innocence.A point fit into a hollow – that was the beginning of the new life in a new world. I be-

came the new world she deserves to live within.I can see now she is happy, extremely delighted and she is ready to make her new instance. “There is no other threshold,” that was what we agreed at last. And since our engagement, we became ready in this arrangement.

Soon it was our wedding day. The long awaited day. It was the wedding of a point and a hollow (hole). Since our engagement pe-riod took very long, people were waiting our wedding day eagerly. They have already heard about our purity. They learned that we have whitened out our infinity of desires and we have already started a new life in a new world. After all they wanted to hear a reflection of our experiences – about a life with a corrected soul.

“Threshold is the end of every-thing and the beginning of a new thing,” she started to share our experience to the mass. My soul is open and likes to talk in public. She always insists to share our ex-perience with others. If we had a bad day, she would immediately tell someone about what happened to us. She says, “I don’t want to see others repeating the same bad expe-rience. We should tell them before it is too late.” I am not that much open though I used to believe I was open. My soul argues, “Openness is not only telling someone about your successful moments. It is also telling the mass about your bad co-incidences in relation to their life. Believing the same experience would face other, we should tell them so that they would be ready

for that. Why do we become cruel in observing everyone reaching the threshold their pain? Couldn’t we have shortened their threshold at least?”At last but not least my soul told to the souls of the mass one type of threshold. “Let me tell you how badly a number of soul cases are crying loud and helpless: disparate and frustrated, the souls are buried under immature com-mandments of the flesh. The flesh desires immeasurable amount of pleasure. The soul hates it. The distance between the soul and the flesh increases. And the bearer suf-fers.” And my soul continues, “I have brought back my case out of such an abyss. I know this is the suffering of almost all my sisters.”

Our wedding became a remark-able event. An event that reflects transformation of cluttered souls into harmonious unification of oneness. At the end my soul con-cluded, “A hunt for pleasure boosts individualism and on the other hand unification of souls boosts peace and harmony. However, at the core of selfishness of an indi-vidual dwells sharing, but this is only realized when the threshold of selfishness is reached. When selfishness is not satisfying, there is undeniable surrender to a willing reception – but at the threshold.”

Threshold Part II and FINAL

Constant perseverance and appli-cation of wisdom decorates our life a diversified beauty. With primar-ily focus it will led us to successful improvement of vendor knowledge from the inner self to the outer one. It ensures accuracy of training for the quality of mind. It certifies integrity of mind’s records, including identifi-cation and development of the whole body improvement. It increases its

flawless beauty in multiple ways. It will make our spirit to have a sweet communion and delight. It has an exceptional name. It can influence because it is so emotive.

The name will create a sound of reverberation. It is a circulation of successful flavor from the inside to the outside world. It will not be swallowed. It will not be ignored. Picturesque is there. It is very bright.

FLAWLESS BEAUTYComing soon on Rivers of Consciousness

By:Ghede AsratIt can be seen from very distant. It is like instructive star. It can act as a guiding light for our way. It is iden-tified through its finger print. This can be written. It seems a voice of vibration between two deep hills. Its essence steams like Oasis Desert Water found from the hard rock fis-sures. It is vivacious. Inside the fis-sure of the rock, the echo will have also its’ own treasure value.

7Eritrea Profile, Saturday 25th of October , 2014

continued from page 5

I wouldn’t be exaggerating, would I, if I were to say that in life one couldn’t live without some defi-nite values and principles.

Every one of us has some guiding standards, or shall I say philosophies or rules of life, by which we choose to abide. These principles act as our North Star and give us a sense of di-rection, a meaning to our existence.

Once, Abigail, a friend of mine, brought up the issue of having too many life principles and how some of them proved to be contradictory at times, causing confusion and un-happiness as opposed to leading a well-adjusted and happy life.

She had me pondering on how different sets of principles each and every one of us really had, and how we used each principle, despite the differences in kind and priority, to achieve the ultimate goal: to lead a successful life.

What I am implying by a success-ful life is a life full of satisfaction (being healthy, happy and fulfilled in your existence.)

I am sure most of us would like to lead such a life; and all we really need to achieve that would be our philosophies or ways of thinking, and the principles we follow, plus of course our attitude toward things.

When I asked another friend of mine if he had any specific princi-ples he adhered to in life, his prompt response was a simple one: simplic-ity. He claimed that he always chose to live by simple rules, saying life “is already complicated as it is.” I didn’t agree. Life is complicated only because we make it.

Anyways, I opted to stick to one of my all-time favorite quotes: “Choose Better. Do Better. Be Bet-ter” – sublime words of well-known Australian motivational speaker, Craig Harper.

In his book “One Hundred Prin-ciples for Life,” Craig has provided readers with pointers on how to im-prove your life. Although I am not a great fan of ‘how to’ books, I must say that I was really impressed by the advices presented in this one.

Reading these principles, one does realize that it takes all the fun out of making excuses and not taking re-sponsibility… Yet, it also teaches the readers a lesson: we need to make choices and take decisions to take our lives in the direction we want.

Everything we do in life is a choice, and I think most of us real-ize that. But what most people don’t seem to realize is that everything we don’t do in life is also a choice. Ev-ery day we choose to do some things and to not do other things.

We all know that we can change our life whenever we want to. But

just wanting to change is not enough. We must make the choice to change. Many of us choose to do nothing but wish things would change. Conse-quently, nothing ever changes.

While choosing not to do some-thing is sometimes the wisest choice, there is however a huge difference between choosing not to do some-thing and choosing to do nothing.

If our life is shaped by the choic-es we make, then we need to real-ize that the secret of making wise choices is based on our values and principles.

In an attempt to identifying my guiding principles, I sat down and began writing the qualities that I believe reflect my morals and prin-ciples I hold myself true to. I didn’t know where to start so I put them all down, not necessarily in the same order.

Self-esteem, confidence, health, meaningful relationships, honesty, loyalty, self-discipline, compassion, accepting others as they are… the list went on and on. They were all qualities of purposive action that can never be obtained as an object but that can be put into action from time to time. They were also standards of good behavior that the society ex-pected of me… or a perfect citizen.

One of the concerns of my friend Abigail when she came up with the subject was, if I am not mistaken, the inconsistent principles that we have to face every now and then. In other words, there are circumstances when principles can conflict with each other.

“Leading a stress free life” for instance may interfere with rela-tionship values. Let’s say one has to risk rejection to have a relationship involving love and affection, or one has to tolerate distressing imperfec-tions in others to have genuine and close friendships.

Such occurrences could result in a state of confusion but one should re-member that we could always con-trol our reactions. We are in com-plete control of our responses and decide what value any event has in our lives. It all starts with a choice.

Let me illustrate with a hypotheti-cal example.

Let’s assume your life is lacking joy and happiness. What can you do? You might start by counting your blessings, the things you are truly grateful for. True happiness comes from being grateful for what we have.

Happiness also comes from giv-ing. Whether it’s a smile to someone who made eye contact with you or an encouragement to someone who is feeling discouraged, you are giv-ing and at the same time becoming a

source of happiness for others. After all, a very reliable source once told us that “there is happiness in giv-ing.”

The point is therefore ‘make a choice!’ Once you do, you can al-ways follow it through. The quality of our lives depends on the quality of choices we make, and for that we need to refine our principles.

Let me part my way with the fol-lowing seven simple principles for living the good life as suggested by Stephen Mills in his website the Rat Race Trap. He chose them from many because they are simple and easy to understand.

Keep it Simple and Quick: Don’t complicate things.

Reduce Your Choices: the more choices you have the more unhap-pier you get. Called at times “the paradox of choice,” the fact remains that many possibilities leaves us stressed out—and less satisfied with whatever we do decide. Having too many choices keeps us wondering about all the opportunities missed. So reduce your choices and stop wasting time making the simple complicated.

Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff: I believe this to be one of the most important attitude changes you can make. When you don’t sweat the small stuff, you allow your mental energy to be available for the big stuff. Identify the

Essential and Eliminate the Rest: This is simple in concept, but takes a lot of commitment to implement. You need to sit down and specifi-cally identify what in your life is essential and then eliminate every-thing else. You will tend to think everything you do is essential and nothing can be eliminated. Don’t get caught in that trap. What if you only

had one month to live? Would all that trivia be essential then?

Eliminate the Drain People: For many of us, being overly manipu-lated by people is something that is overlooked and taken as a given, but it doesn’t have to be that way. The debaters, the complainers, the vic-tims, the angry, the rude, the needy, and those who think you are obli-gated to live your life for them … in brief the people who drain your resources should be eliminated.

If you think you can’t eliminate them, at least limit your interaction with them and set yourself free from manipulative relationships.

Living in the Present Moment: So much has been written on this that I won’t spend a lot of words on it.

Be Fit and Healthy: Some of you may believe that being fit and healthy is not that simple, but it is actually quite straightforward. It may require intense commitment to habit change in order to implement, but it is most assuredly not compli-cated. Do short, intense, and interval type exercises. Eat a lot of raw fruits and vegetables for enzymes. Eat a variety of seeds and nuts. (Beef, fish, chicken are of course included).

Therefore, draw up your list of guiding principles and make the choice to have the life you want. Make the choice to get started today and make sure you choose to do bet-ter to be better.

Abenon A.

Principles in Life: Choosing Better to Live Better

you’re freed up to win and likely to perform better. Pressure increases the fear, shame and travesty of loss so much that you end up more prone to it like a self fulfilling prophecy. Like the pink elephant in the room you know is there but trying to avoid, you become tight at the fear of losing. As Job put it, “what I have feared has come upon me.”

Mental toughness occurs after getting beat up somewhere, not in sustaining a perfect record. Losing will eventually add richness and layers of mental toughness, all of which can be called upon depending on what’s needed at the moment. There are times the pain of losing is so deep, the fear of going back there is perpetual motivation to win. Other times the fear has been replaced with a freedom to go after the victory, living with nothing to lose. And still

other times, the thought of losing just passes through the mind without getting stuck as a nagging doubt.

The pain of loss is death. And essentially one dies either in practice or in a tournament. The smart players do it more in practice, getting it out of their system, and taking the residual anger out on opponents in tournaments. An old Chinese proverb says: “the more you sweat in peacetime the less you bleed in war.“ The practice court is the real cemetary for the pros, where losses aren’t as public. When a tournament comes around, the outcome of the contest is not as uncertain because the slaying of the self already occurred. Michael Jordan once said, “I practice so hard that the game feels like a vacation”. Death is part of the daily lifestyle of an athlete so there is not as much fear of the big one in a match. He who holds on to victory as the ultimate goal of life will lose it. But he who pursues the process of honor, courage, and sacrifice as the highest virtues will eventually win as a by-product..

Win Some...

8Eritrea Profile, Saturday 25th of October , 2014

Many a time important events in the global arena are not presented in their entirety in mainstream media as there is lack of context in most of the in-formation they cover. In response, this column sets out to question this trend by presenting diverse perspectives from as many sources as possible with the underlying aim of bringing to fore context that is culturally, historically, politically and economically relevant to any given topic.

Tariq Ali: Today we are going to discuss medicine and what is go-ing on in Africa but not just there, in other parts of the world too, and how privatized medicine is now dominating the field except in a few oasis there are still left Cuba, Venezuela, etc. With me is Profes-sor Allyson Pollock, one of the best known public health scientists and experts in her field anywhere. Ebo-la. What are its origins and how did it spread so quickly in these three African countries and is now caus-ing panic elsewhere?

Allyson Pollock: Well Ebola is a virus, nobody quite knows what the origins are, some think it might be from the bat, and it is spread through bodily fluids, so that is an important mechanism. In most nor-mal situations it should be very eas-ily contained by quarantine and by isolation but the big problem in the countries where it is most prevalent, which is Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, is that these are very, very poor countries, where the infrastruc-ture has increasingly been ripped out, especially in terms of health systems and the, um, virus is now in urban areas where there is close human contact, so it makes it very difficult to control and contain espe-cially when it is happening in areas where there is a lot of overcrowding and poverty and poor sanitation.

Tariq Ali: And the Western health community, so to speak, the World Health Organization, was slow to react, I felt, in terms of what could have been done at an early stage of this disease.

Allyson Pollock: Well I sup-pose the WHO was hoping, as in the previous large outbreak in the 1970s, that it would be fairly easily contained. Perhaps what happened that they hadn’t reckoned with the fact that these countries where it is emerging are actually among the very poorest countries? Liberia and Sierra Leon have been through their own long periods of civil war, conflict with displaced refugees where the gross domestic product and the economy has very badly suffered and what we have seen in all these countries is a real hollow-ing out of all sorts of public services but especially health systems. So it is very, very difficult to contain it and we have got real issues of pov-erty. So, I suppose the first hope was that these would be fairly, err, the disease would be fairly easily

contained but actually of course it is a virus that has a very high case fatality rate, they say about 55% chance of dying if you contract the virus. So this is very serious but one of the big problems is that the Western world, especially the US government is coming back with solutions of guns and magic bul-lets so we’ve been here before; the announcement by Obama that he is going to send in 3,000 troops and the parallel announcement that they are going to focus on rapid vaccine production. And this is a complete removal from the social and struc-tural determinance of public health because the origins of all public health are in very simple and basic solutions. It’s about clean water, sanitation, good nutrition – so the evils of poverty. And, on top of that you need very good health systems with proper doctors and nurses and facilities that you can isolate people and you can also do what’s called ‘contact tracing’ so you need to go back into the community to find out who the affected individuals have been in contact with so that you can then quarantine and isolate those individuals to make sure that they actually then don’t get the disease and then pass it on during the incu-bation period. And all of that has been stripped out.

This is what these countries are looking at, they’ve had total erosion and collapse of their public health care systems and this is the tragedy. So the population has very, very few doctors and nurses. They sim-ply cannot cope and of course the public facilities that are there are overcrowded, they are in terrible conditions and they are completely and utterly understaffed. So this problem of an epidemic was going to hit them, it could have been Eb-ola, it could be something else – it could be cholera or whatever. This was actually going to come home to hit these countries very hard indeed. This was entirely predictable and it’s been predictable for more than 20 years and it is what the public health lobby and the public advo-cates have been talking about. The solution to these epidemics is not the magic bullets of vaccines and it is not sending in the troops. It’s structural, it’s social, it’s economic, it’s environmental and it is putting in all the public health measures.

Tariq Ali: But the entire world capitalist system as it functions is

basically not in favour of public health services, they are in favour of privatized solutions, privatized facilities which means that in most countries increasingly you have a two or three tier system; you have very good quality hospitals for the rich and people who can afford them, you have a second tier for more middle class people who also have to pay but not so much and their facilities aren’t so good and then you have public hospitals, not just in Africa but in countries like India and Pakistan and Sri Lanka, which are a total complete disgrace and nothing is done about it on a global level at all because this is not a priority. I mean it is just outra-geous. Do you think, I mean, given that this is how the health system functions from what you said, the obvious solution, medium-term and long-term, is to create a strong social infrastructure in these coun-tries but that is what the Interna-tional Monetary Fund asked them not to spend money on, the last four decades so what do you think they can do?

Allyson Pollock: Well I think you are raising important issues; what is the role of the IMF, the World Bank, the African Develop-ment Bank because again if we look at Liberia and Sierra Leone and Guinea, which actually have a lot of natural resources, what is happen-ing to these countries, in terms of their economics is that increasingly the lands are being privatised and being occupied by foreign inves-tors who are coming in and they are simply stripping out the resource and the assets. Liberia has a GDP, gross domestic product, of a couple of billion dollars, and a population of five or six million, so how are they meant to rebuild when actually you’ve got foreign directors coming in and public private partnerships and great flows of money going out and you don’t have any mechanism for redistribution because redistri-bution means you are trying to build a fairer society and you are trying to put the resources back in.

So it starts with the economy, it starts with what’s happening to the land, it starts with the fact that palm oil and cocoa and rubber are important cash crops and there’s land, and these ownership, has been transferred and I mean this is very well documented by important or-

ganizations like Global Witness but also the Oakland Foundation in the US, who have actually chartered what is happening to the land and remember, many of the farmers, for instance in Liberia, 70% of the pop-ulation, live in rural areas. They will be subsistence farmers so this is an issue and when you have the popu-lation spending 80% of the money on food and then you have all these cordons around them, then of course you have got a real problem be-cause the poverty is actually going to be accelerated in these countries because of the Ebola virus, because the borders are closing and because you don’t even have economic flow any more. So I think we need to start with the economics because that is the cause of the structural problems and then we’ve got the World Health Organization, which is the international global author-ity on health. It has the law making powers but systematically over 20 years it has been completely starved of funds and such funding as it gets are tied to all sorts of conditions and those conditions are being set by large, global NGOs such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which have no democratic base, no accountability and which in turn are doing untold harm through their ver-tical disease programmes because they are not rooted in public health and the public health systems. And a good example of a vertical disease programme is when you take Ebola and then you bring in your opera-tion to tackle Ebola and you ignore all the other causes of disease, such as TB or malaria, or poverty, mal-nutrition and at the same time when you focus all the efforts of the in-dustry on vaccine development.

But actually vaccines are not what these countries need. It’s proper redistribution and public health measures and we learn noth-ing from history; that is what is shocking. All the great reforms, all the great collapse of infectious

disease epidemics was actually not down to drugs and vaccines, it was to redistributive measures, which included sanitation, nutrition, good housing and actually above all a real democratization. And with it came education and all the other measures that we need. Now I’m not saying we don’t need vaccines, but one of the big problems is that that vaccine developments itself is now in the hands of these large very powerful foundations NGOs, like GAVI – the Global Alliance for Vac-cine Initiative, who in conjunction with big companies like GSK and Merck, are out to seek patents and the reason why they like vaccines is … because vaccines mean mass immunization, it means numbers and numbers mean money. And of course is being paid for by the West and Western governments when this money could much more easily flow into the governments themselves to re-build their health systems be-cause we are talking about re-build-ing public health infrastructure and that includes putting in community primary health care, community health systems, infection control units at community level, putting in hospitals and training nurses and doctors. And the big, other big problem in all of these countries is not just a brain-drain, because a few doctors and nurses are there, they want to leave and that is happen-ing also in Nigeria, or they want to work in the private sector or they want to work for these NGOs be-cause the money is much better and so the whole public health system is completely hollowed out. And this is a real problem because the Gates Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates, do not believe in the public sector, they do not believe in a democratic, publically owned, publically ac-countable.

TARIQ ALI and ALLYSOPOL-LOCK

COUNTERPUNCH, WEEKEND EDITION OCTOBER 10-12, 2014

The Origins of the Ebola CrisisIs Microsoft Medicine The Solution For Ebola?

Part I