vol 21. no. 87 saturday, 27th of december 2014 pages 8...

Vol 21. No. 87 Saturday, 27th of December 2014 Pages 8, Price 1.50 NFA

The ministry of Labor and Human Welfare’s branch in Gash-barka region indicated that encouraging outcome has been registered in endeavors to promote

eritrean community members in Demam and Khober, Saudi-Arabia, have asserted readiness to enhance role in development endeavors and mounting staunch resistance against external conspiracies on the basis of higher organizational capacity.

They made the pledge at

The eritrean Ambassador to the United Arab emirates, mr. Osman mohammed-Omar, held a meeting with Sheik Suad bin Sekir Al-Qasmi, member of the UAe parliament and the Administrator of ras Al-Kheiman emirate, on enhancing partnership in economic investment.

In the course of the meeting on the 22nd of December 2014, the Ambassador conveyed President Isaias’ greetings and conducted discussion on bilateral relations

members of the PFDJ branch in north Germany have asserted readiness to enhance role in the nation-building process on the basis of keeping intact values of the Front and enhanced organization. They made the commitment at the 2nd phase of the annual meeting of the branch conducted recently in Hamburg city.

mr. Yohnnes Woldu, charge d’Affaires of the eritrean embassy in Germany, gave briefings to the meeting participants focusing on the objective situation in the Homeland, as well as persistent diplomatic endeavors towards portraying eritrea’s correct image, in addition to the efforts

eritrean cyclist mekseb Debesai, member of German bike Aid club, has been named African champion for 2014.

South African cyclist mentjos Luis ranked second while fellow

a seminar conducted by mr. mohammed-Omar mahmud, the eritrean Ambassador to Saudi-Arabia, during which he gave briefings regarding the objective situation in the Homeland and the pace of development drive.

The Ambassador also pointed out

that anti-eritrea agendas designed to sap the development programs have ended up in utter failure thanks to the steadfastness and dedication demonstrated by the eritrean people. He further stressed the need for enhanced awareness to this end.

EritrEan community mEmbErs in DEmmam anD Khobar assErt rEaDinEss to EnhancE rolE in DEvElopmEnt EnDEavors

ambassaDor osman holDs mEEting with aDministrator of ras al-KhEima EmiratE

and possible initiatives regarding economic investment and other issues of mutual interest between the two countries in general and that of Al-Kheiman emirate in particular.

expressing the readiness of the emirate to foster relations with eritrea, Sheik Suad wished peace and prosperity to eritrea and its people. He further invited President Isaias Afwerki to pay a visit.

Al-Kheima is one of the 7 emirates that constitute the United Arab emirates (UAe).

pfDJ mEmbErs branch in north gErmany assErt rEaDinEss to EnhancE rolE in statE affairs

being exerted to provide effective consular service.

Likewise, mr. Kahsai Tewolde, in charge of public and communal affairs at the eritrean embassy, presented a report regarding work accomplishments of the branch, besides underscoring that the PFDJ branch members should demonstrate exemplary participation, awareness and organizational capacity vis-à-vis the challenges encountered.

Briefings were presented regarding the objective and mission of the YPFDJ and its accomplishments over the past 10 years.

The participants on their part conducted discussion on various

issues and expressed readiness to live up to expectations.

EritrEan cyclist mEKsEb DEbEsai namED african champion for 2014

eritrean cyclist Natnael berhane ranked third.

According to reports, mekseb participated in 60 different competitions covering a total of 8085 Km-long distance.

social security this year. It made the disclosure at an assessment meeting pertaining to the activities of the ministry.

Speaking at the meeting, mr.

eyob Kidane, Director of the branch office, explained that satisfactory achievements were registered in reinforcing tripartite labor relations, promoting wellbeing of the labor force and ensuring social security, among others.

In remarks he made on the occasion, mr. Kahsai Gebrehiwet, ministry of Labor and Human Welfare, pointed out that priority attention is being paid to the task of promoting social justice, in addition to enabling needy citizens become self-supporting.

gash-barKa rEgion: ministry of labor anD human wElfarE branch ExErting EnDEavors to promotE social sEcurity

2Eritrea Profile, Saturday 27th of December, 2014

Published Every Saturday & Wednesday

Managing Director Azzazi Zeremariam

Acting EditorAmanuel Mesfun

[email protected]

P.O.Box: 247Tel: 11-41-14Fax: 12-77-49

E-mail:profile@ zena.gov.er

Advertisement: 12-50-13Layout

azieb habtemariamawet haile

Kesete Ghebrehiwet

In 2009, just before five years, the ministry of education in collaboration with different development partners mapped out a program called rapid result Initiative (rrI) which was aimed at constructing sixty seven schools within one hundred days in the six regions of the country. In an assessment meeting held in October of that very year, the program was found to be very successful. The rrI program was to establish 10 schools in the Northern red Sea region, 13 in Anseba, 19 in Gash barka, 18 in Debub, 4 in Southern red Sea, and 3 in the central regions. Hence, based on the experience gained back then, the ministry has set out to construct over 500 schools in four regions of eritrea namely Gash-barka, Anseba, and Northern as well as Southern red Sea regions.

It is to be recalled that the rrI program became successful due to full participation and cooperation of communities of all regions of the country. It is the readiness of nationals in all development endeavors that has continued to be the very reason of any success story that has been registered in the country and particularly any progress registered in the education sector.

The plan to construct 67 schools within one hundred days in all regions of eritrea seemed very ambitious at the beginning, but its successful implementation on the ground reaffirmed that no matter how vast and extensive the work plan is, it is the active participation of communities that plays a

It Is An Ambitious Plan To Construct Over 500 Schools Between 2015 And 2016?

decisive role in the success of any program.

eritrean communities are well known for their constructive engagement in every development program as workforce or as benefactors to what they believe could contribute towards a better tomorrow. It is this die hard sprit of all nationals which contributed for realization of the program within the setout time frame.

The experiences gained from a similar project have become a motivation force for the construction of huge number of schools in four regions of the country. What has been achieved back in 2009 has proven that no matter how huge a program is it is very doable in eritrea.

What is to be reiterated is that parents who have been very eager to send their children to schools have been continuing their support for any program that is directed towards the construction of new schools. Leaving aside any personal priority, parents and generally communities have made what seemed an ambitious project an implemented fact.

Thus, believing in the active participation and involvement of communities, the ministry of education has planned a project for the construction schools in the time frame between 2015 and 2016 in collaboration with Global Partnership for education (GPe).

Thus, the workshop that has been underway starting from the morning hours of 26 December 2014 and that would continue until 28 December would highlight former experiences as leaping stone for upcoming success.

In the workshop opened yesterday at Imperial Hotel here in Asmara, Semere rusom, minister of education said that the ministry has carried out various successful development projects in collaboration with World bank, european Union, African Development bank and other partners.

According to minister Semere, representative of different development partners have witnessed and reported and documented the exemplary achievements registered in the projects carried out phase by phase under eritrean School Development Program (eSDP).

The endeavors exerted towards extending network of educational infrastructure has greatly impacted for balanced distribution of schools which there by gave a broader access to education for thousands of

nationals in all parts of the country. The number of students who joined different institutions of education has been growing substantially and that is why a constriction of other new schools through rrI program becomes a necessity.

The rrI was assessed to be workable and timely approach introduced to give broader access to education in the remote parts of the country and it has proven to be a milestone for the implementation of such programs in the future. Would the new program for the construction of over 500 schools in four regions of the country succeed? eritrean communities would never fail to implement a project that is aimed at bringing a difference for their own good. They would definitely redouble their contribution in the realization of set out goal.

representative of different regions of eritrea, who are participating in the workshop which would continue until December 28, are expected to make discussions as regards design, site selection, financial issues, construction and construction materials among others. They are also expected to develop a 100 days’ work plan that is related to the construction of over 500 schools between 2015 and 2016. The same as its preceding one, the new project seems very ambitious. Time will tell whether it would succeed or not. Depending on previous experiences, there is no doubt that the project would succeed as long as there is an active contribution of eritrean communities residing in all sites of construction.


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 - [email protected] Solomon Mengsteab [email protected]

Sport possesses personal, social, economic and political significance in the contemporary modern so-ciety. Today’s ‘On the Table’ shall look into the personal and social significance of sport.

Sport

Daniel Semere

The benefit of sport can be seen from different point of view. Sport as mass ac-tivity can become a platform for dialogue and discussion. This can be taken as politi-cal or social benefit of sport. Sport’s con-tribution in physical and mental health can also be mentioned. Healthy citizen in turn is a pre-requisite for any national plans and objectives. Sport can also be seen as an edu-cational activity. It is taught in the curricu-lum of many countries and there are in fact tertiary levels of education specializing on sports. Yet sport can also become a source of income employing many people. Profes-sional athletes make their living out of sport and their by raising and supporting their family.

Nowadays sport has become a multi-bil-lion dollar activity. In some countries it con-stitutes a sizable part of their overall eco-nomic activity and income. Such countries benefit from the sector in a much organized way, meaning the sector not only generates income by itself but also supports other eco-nomic sectors and activities indirectly. We can for instance mention tourism as one of the major sector benefiting from sport. Dif-ferent companies and institutions also use sport to promote their product. Such sectors use the popularity of sport and its capacity to mobilize people and befit from it. They

Sport for Economic Developmenttarget not only domestic consumers but also international ones as well. Thanks to tech-nology the outreach of sport to its audience has become global.

On the other hand however, there are countries that have not yet developed their sport sector to the level where it can play a major role in their economy. Some of these countries are even well known for their renowned athletes around the world. Of course many of these countries don’t have a well developed economy and hence it might be difficult to make the sport sector play as much a role as it does in countries with strong economy. Nonetheless, there is always a room to develop the sport sector by promoting and increase its relevance in a society.

So I say sport can have a big economic implication in our society. And there are a lot of room for improvement that have not yet been addressed. One big part of the task we can do in this respect is promoting it through our policies, media and education institutions. There should also be invest-ment strategically allocated to the sector. Developing the different channel through which we can interact with the rest of the world in myriad of sport activities and com-petitions could also attract positive attention and awareness. In the end it is sport’s ability to attract people’s attention that is ultimate-ly translated to tangible economic activity. What do you say?

Solomon Mengsteab

After he became the heavyweight champion clay, the world famous three times heavyweight boxing champion, gave up his name which he said was given to his ancestors by the slave mas-ter. clay also converted his religion to Islam and, therefore, he legally took the name muhammad Ali. In the middle of the civil rights era in the United State, during the presidency of Lyndon b. Johnson, muhammad Ali became interested and began pursuing political causes in his refusal to be drafted for the Vietnam War.

Ali declined the military service during that war claiming that it goes against the teachings of the Holy Qur’an. moreover, he stated that the war had nothing to do with him or no African American for that matter. He said, “I ain’t got no quarrel with those Vietcong...no Vietcong ever called me nigger.” Through his political activ-ism, not only did his name come to be referred with iconic figures of the civil rights move-ments, such as malcolmX, but muhammad Ali also became an icon of the anti-Vietnam-War movement.

Predictably his protest and refusal to serve the army were not without consequences. Ali was eventually convicted of draft-evasion and was sentenced to be fined 10,000 $ along with five years prison time. Moreover, Ali was stripped of his championship and he never le-gally claimed it back until 1970. Ali was just another African American who fought for the rights of their people during the civil rights era; it was only his significance in sports that gave his voice weight in the political world.

A lot of people think that sport and politics got nothing in common; sport presumed to be the innocent, peaceful and lawful competition and politics the nasty unscrupulous world of trickery and deception, the two can hardly have common ground is the common perception on a the surface. Indeed, it is often said that sport and politics are two aspects of our society that have nothing in common and that sport hardly have any political significance whatsoever. However, looking deeper into the issue, more carefully, one can find out that sport actually possesses considerable pertinence in the political world.

The Power of Cheering TogetherSport is important social activity that plays

an instrumental role in undertaking political agendas. The fact that people don’t often associ-ate it politics gives it its most pertinent potential to play significant role in politics. Over the his-tory of humanity sports have been used both as means to easing the hostility or strained relations between countries, communities, tribes, ethnici-ties, regions, etc. and, all the while, also as an excuse to instigate aggression. “The history of the Olympic movement has provided several ex-amples of how sport and politics influence one another, directly or indirectly. There can be no doubt that sporting contests, and the Olympic Games in particular, are a reflection of the real world, a microcosm of international relations. even at the tensest periods of the cold War, they acted as an indicator of international detente.”

The significance of sports in political world is, however, not just mere symbolized horn lock aggravating aggression or an informal diplo-matic detente among nations. It is neither just the participation of a few sport figures in the po-litical world. Sport has a lot more significance in the political life of the people of any given nation in many more relevant aspects.

You would surely remember how the whole nation got behind Zeresenay in the Olympic Games, cheering him through television win-dows. Indeed, sport got this amazing power of getting people together, uniting the population of a nation. And it is this very power that makes it significance in the political arena. Moreo-ver, sports also lay a favourable foundation for healthy interaction among the population of a nation, particularly the youth, providing the plat-form for national harmony and unity. It would be unwise for any politician to disregard the power of cheering together. What do you say?

4Eritrea Profile, Saturday 27th of December, 2014 ADS


red Sea bottlers Sh.co.(coca-cola)

Happy New Year & marry christmas to the Peo-ple and government of eritrea

red Sea bottles Sh.co (coca-cola)

VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENTbisha mining Share company is inviting applicants for the following positions for its bisha Site Project.

SYSTemS AccOUNTANT (01)1.

Position Overview and Key Responsibilities:-ensure that the reporting framework (comprising General Ledger chart of Accounts (GLcoA), Key Accounts Schedules, cognosXcelerator Database, Sub-Ledgers for Inventory, Accounts Payable and Fixed Assets) used in reporting the monthly financial and other regular reports are functioning and the established control totals reconcile between the NAVision system and reports being used and sub-ledgers.responsible for the regular update of the cognosXcelerator database and the integrity of the data uploaded into the cognos database (monthly actuals, budgets and forecasts totals).maintains the integrity between the GLcoA and Key Accounts Schedules so that the reports used by Finance and end user HoDs are accurate.maintains the integrity between the GLcoA and Key Accounts Schedules and the cognos Dimensions hierarchy so that the alternative costing. analysis (Variable, Project and Fixed costs) reports used by Finance and end user HoDs are accurate and up to date.Implements the design changes in the reporting framework and ensures completeness.Implements the structural changes in GLcoA, Departments and maintenance Assets and the associated reports.Prepares the monthly reconciliation reports between GL, sub-ledgers and the cognos Database.Assist in development of additional reports as they are required by end user HoDs and Finance Team.Assists in evaluation of new systems and development and. implementation of new reporting requirements.

Profile: Qualifications and ExperienceFormal Education, Certifications or Equivalents

equivalent Degree or Diploma in Accounting •or Finance(minimum SmAP Diploma in Accounting)•

Working Experience – Nature & Length

At least 3 years working experience with 1 year •in a role in Finance or Accounting Department

Leadership Experience – Nature & length of time

Ability to meet with and manage relationships •with peers and or HoDs and 2Ics of other Departments

Other skills and abilities experience in Finance and erP systems and •reporting systems.

AccOUNTING cONTrOLLer (01)2.

Position Overview and Key Responsibilitiesensure that the reporting framework (comprising General Ledger chart of Accounts (GLcoA), Key Accounts Schedules, cognosXcelerator Database, Sub-Ledgers for Inventory, Accounts Payable and Fixed Assets) used in reporting the monthly financial and other regular reports are functioning and the established control totals reconcile between the NAVision system and reports being used and sub-ledgers.responsible for the regular update of the cognosXcelerator database and the integrity of the

data uploaded into the cognos database (monthly actuals, budgets and forecasts totals)maintains the integrity between the GLcoA and Key Accounts Schedules so that the reports used by Finance and end user HoDs are accurate.maintains the integrity between the GLcoA and Key Accounts Schedules and the cognos Dimensions hierarchy so that the alternative costing analysis (Variable, Project and Fixed costs) reports used by Finance and end user HoDs are accurate and up to date.Implements the design changes in the reporting framework and ensures completenessImplements the structural changes in GLcoA, Departments and maintenance Assets and the associated reportsPrepares the monthly reconciliation reports between GL, sub-ledgers and the cognos Database.Assist in development of additional reports as they are required by end user HoDs and Finance TeamAssists in evaluation of new systems and development and implementation of new reporting requirements.

Profile: Qualifications and Experience

Formal education, Certifications or Equivalents

equivalent Degree or Diploma in Accounting or •Finance(minimum SmAP Diploma in Accounting)•

Working experience – Nature & Length

At least 3 years working experience with 1 year in •a role in Finance or Accounting Department

Leadership experience – Nature & length of time

Ability to meet with and manage relationships •with peers and or HoDs and 2Ics of other Departments

Other skills and abilities experience in Finance and erP systems and •reporting systems.

General Information and other requirements:Place of Work : bisha.Type of contract: Indefinite period Salary: As per company salary scale.Additional requirement for Nationals: Having fulfilled his/her National Service obligation and provide evidence of release paper from the ministry of Defense. Present clearance paper from current/last employer.Testimonial documents to be attached (cV, work experience credentials, a copy of your National Identity 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 toAliens Employment Permit Affairs, P. O. Box 7940 Asmara, Eritrea

ADS


Teklehaimanot Yemane

‘Managing vision and con-sciousness can make you mature at early age. In part two of this series, six points that help us reconsider the way we think re-garding our consciousness were mentioned. Let us see a few more points on managing vision and consciousness suggested by the author in this last part of the se-ries.’

7. Managing vision and consciousness enables you to pass through thick and thin, in good times and bad times in order to increase one’s confidence. It says yes to face ups and downs in the beginning to excel wealth of tol-erance and perseverance. It helps you enjoy ordinary self in order to find extra ordinary ideas of your-self.

8. Managing vision and consciousness has horizontal as well as latitudinal foundation to mostly define the quality of un-questionable integrity. From the beginning, if you manage your vision and consciousness, it helps you manage confidence to develop maturity. Once you pay the price of integrity and win the private victory over self, your confidence allows you to be simultaneously courageous, kind, and educa-tionally enlightened. On top of all, it is a greater compliment to be trusted than to be rich. For, if you are managing your vision and consciousness, you are rich in ad-vance. You don’t need to get hard time to get rich and you already know where to go and what to find. I am sure that you know there are a lot of people who get confused when they are rich. Managing vision and consciousness is sym-biosis communication and con-tribution in sending deep thought by awareness of new meaning within, a new inspiration, a new being, a new path, a new spirit and innovation to keep your origi-nality and statuesque. Managing vision and consciousness does not encompass masses of intellectuals but masses of educated citizens.

9. As you look for new one, it doesn’t mean you quit to refer to historical deeds. To ‘know’ means converting unified intellect, feel-ing and action into moral ideas to empower to refresh your energy

to go and learn to unlearn those you don’t like as well as how to forget those you don’t want to go with you. Managing vision and consciousness is freedom to single out what is good from what is not in the beginning. Having under-stood this point, I am sure you will sum up managing vision and consciousness is about visualiza-tion. It is about visual ideas. It is about encouraging people to visu-

alize beautiful places to live. Once you visualize, it is simple to go and find it. It is fuelling the spirit to go to be part and parcel of the society who is living in plushest places to enjoy. Because managing vision and consciousness is not learnt without visible spontaneity, of joy in learning, of pleasure in creat-ing, sense of self and appreciating one’s field of studies. It is educa-tion to be inspirer of dreams. It is not education to be angry men and women. But it is to provide secure guidance with clear cut education to make them open, cheerful, de-cent, intelligent, and caring citi-zens and eventually to be brighter and responsible to lead and build one’s home.

10. Managing vision and consciousness recognizes that you are not susceptible to mysterious disorders arising from the differ-ences between what exists and with what you perceive. This direction requires bright perception to win over unquestioning and unrealis-tic dark perception that makes you ignore or cripple to admit respon-sibility and feel hard to notice the improvements that do occur. Yes it

is known that hard option never makes you succeed. Managing vi-sion and consciousness clicks you with all success ministries to work in teams so as to make guidance and counselling strategies unifier as well as productive.

As Michael Harrington has it, if the poor are invisible, the rich are not. If you don’t know what makes you poor and it is very hard to know what makes you rich. The

most important idea that makes you poor is you give way to believe that you live by bread alone. The end of your managing vision and consciousness is not to eat. When you see beautiful children play-ing here and there, it is food by itself. It is peace of mind if you live around cheerful kids. One of the most dynamic intellectual as-pects of the contemporary science is the persuasion of the kids and the youth. If you have the power to persuade the young, you will be rich. That is what managing vision and consciousness is all about. If you are unable to know wealth is with the kids, you will be short lived person. You will have less skilled to capitalize and en-rich your existing knowledge. You will have lack of cognition. Sim-ply, you will stop action.

11. From the beginning, managing vision and conscious-ness is constant confidence, in-tegrity, development, and main-tenance of human soul with close coordination between business, universities and the government, and close coordination, too be-tween the universities and the

profession (medicine, law, engi-neering, teaching, architecture, journalism and social works ei-ther directly or indirectly) to deep-ly involved in the life of the society and contribute much to the efforts to solve its problems from social medicine to the problems of the inner soul. Managing vision and consciousness is being educator to stand up to express about one’s view. For, you can’t see things when it is hidden. If something is hidden, it is easy to see when you stand and view the top and the uniqueness. That is the test that tells you qualified or not. If you don’t have the power to express your view, then who is going to talk about what your vision and consciousness is all about? Many fail in business and relationships because they never express their inside. If you don’t tell me who you are, how can I trust you to go with you?

12. Managing vision and consciousness is about owner-ship, recognition, partnership and mutual consensus to schemata. As long as you are managing your vision and consciousness, you will have a lot of offices to work and implement what you dream of. For, it brightens your spatial awareness.

13. Managing vision and consciousness is, just from the beginning, about self-evaluation

Managing Vision And Consciousness Part III & Final

and of self-renewal. From this time, managing vision and con-sciousness will help you realize that you will have 500 to 700 dif-ferent professions that free you out of self-imprisonment. You can also help your nose to smell more than 10,000 different and beauti-ful fragrance of life. The point is that are you ready to smell the vi-sion and consciousness. It gives you sound mind and body. Are you skilful to make your nose choose what to smell?

Thus, if you manage your vi-sion and consciousness not to in-dulge yourself in to temporary de-cisions, you are capable of many professional opportunities aside of your consciousness thought of, and you are very fit to find count-less opportunities to redefine your scope of outlooks of life. You nev-er mean it.

Therefore, let me wind up with the Winston Churchill’s saying. He said, “At first, man defines his infrastructure. Then the infra-structure defines the man.’ Simi-larly, if you manage your vision and consciousness, your vision and consciousness will manage you. Once you manage your vi-sion and consciousness to respect yourself, surely, your managing vision and consciousness will re-spect you.

By: Futsum Amaha

Are you Mentally Strong Person?

1- Do you feel sorry for yourself?2- Do you give away power so that you let others control your behav-

iour?3- Do you try to avoid change?4- Do you waste much time on aspects out of your control?5- Do you try to please everyone all the time?6- Are you afraid of calculated risks?7- Do you occasionally dwell on the past?8- Do you make the same mistakes twice? 9- Do you feel jealous of the success of others?10- Do you normally quit after one failure in your trial to succeed?11- Do you feel afraid on times of your loneliness? 13- Do you expect immediate results for your effort?If your answer to all these questions is NO, you are definitely A Men-

tally Strong Person. People who have healthy habits are typically men-tally strong. They are able to effectively manage their emotions, behav-

iour, and thoughts to achieve success in life.


Solomon Mengsteab

Roots of procrastination I remember when I was in

college there were a few occasions where the exam days or due days of papers were at hand before I was even close to being ready. In a few of those misfortunes, I had one or another reasonable precedences to explain my predicament; although there is a chance that even those explanations could have been considered as excuses by some people especially my professors. but others, on the other hand, were nothing more than the by-products of my very own slothful conduct. The indolence, however, was never the consequence of ignorance. It was never that I didn’t know better or forgot that I had to study or begin writing my papers when I squandered my days in sheer languor, it is just that I would convince myself that I had more than enough time to utilize my business. Indeed, I did know better which is why I used to make plans for my studies and assignments.

Oh, yes, I did make plans, splendid ones at that! but then, I also procrastinated, a lot, sometimes even to the last minute. Without a doubt, nevertheless, even while I repeatedly lined up excuses, one after the other, not to read or write and postpone my tasks and responsibilities as a student, for some other time, with no particularly plausible reason, I knew, or at least was able to fairly guess, what the consequence of my actions would be. Of course, no matter how much I tried to elude the pangs ringing the bells alarming me of the dread of the ominous corollary of my slothfulness, it hardly is deniable that I used to have a very good idea of them. For it was not rocket science, even one, with not necessarily with so much of the brightest mind, could have predicted that unprepared for exams meant bad grades. but, as I breathe and live, sometimes knowing all this all the while, I couldn’t get myself to do what I was supposed to do, at least not when I was supposed to do them.

There are several reasons for why people procrastinate. The impulsive or reflective disposition to avert and evade unpleasant things, tasks situations, etc. or as experts put it the “pleasure principle” is one of the reasons why people procrastinate in more than a few occasions. There is

“If Not Now Then When?”Part II

an inherent quality of mind and character that makes people to be favourably disposed toward or willing to do the things that they have known to be pleasant. And, at the same time, people are also have a tendency to avert the things that they understand to be not particularly pleasant or favoured in their own idiosyncratic preference. The fact that whether the judgment that resulted in categorizing things as pleasant or disagreeable might have come from personal experience or experience of others is less consequential to their effect. For, mostly, the results are similar; people avert the disagreeable and desire the pleasant. The principle applies all the same regarding procrastination; in their attempt to avert the unpleasant tasks people procrastinate them as far as they can afford to. These unpleasant things on people’s to-do-list might be of the highest importance and there might not be any way of avoiding them: they have to be done sooner or later. Yet still, people put them off for later, as they seek immediate pleasure disregarding the future.

Another reason for procrastination is the belief that one works best under pressure when deadlines are pressing. I was interviewing a well known writer, whose name I shall not mention, here in Asmara, as I was gathering information for my paper on the ‘short story’ course when I was a third year student. Despite my weariness at the beginning I found this writer to be impressively friendly and accommodative, a man with such a wonderful personality. And so, the interview eventually turned into a casual conversation and off the record the writer told me that the reason that he haven’t written as much as he would have loved to is that he cannot produce when he is relaxed. He said that, he could only produce when he is under a pressure of one kind or another. In fact, he admittedly said that most of his best works had been written under an enormous pressure of an imminent deadline. Indeed, a lot of people think that they produce more and better when they are under pressure and so the procrastinate their errands and tasks until the eleventh hour.

Sometimes, be it of sheer negligence or short of experience and/or wits, people underestimate the time required to accomplish the tasks on their to-do-list; they make “fallacy planning”. According to

psychologists, planning fallacy is another major origin for the procrastinating mindset. A few years ago I had a chance to be part of a rather interesting project. The project had appealing subject matter for most of the group members involved and so we began our tasks with a lot of enthusiasm. The project, however, had one major limitation, management. It had loose coordination, without any means of control mechanisms to measure the productivity of the involved individuals systematically. Plans were made and remade; deadlines were set and reset but only to be postponed over and over again. every once in a while, however, our employer, a very busy man, would press on the issue and demands to see the progress and the future plan on the project. When that happens, every single member of our little group would make a fuss and fetch whatever one could manage as soon as possible just to dodge the bullet of being implicated and singled out. The coordinator would, at the same time, present a blurred report and an impressive plan listing out things to be done within a very short period of time, and it would seem that the project would be over within a month or two. but soon, the boss would be detached from the project once again and there would, surely, be found a reason or another, not big but just enough to make a little impact on the plan, and with that pretext the whole plan falls apart. And that would serve as an excellent excuser for the procrastination of the due objectives infinitely.

Over the years psychologists have been trying to find out the relationship between procrastination and human psychology. The most pertinent cause of procrastination that is associated with psychology is the concept of impulsiveness. Acting or doing without forethought or standing by or evading what has been thoroughly thought out and planed is what, many psychologists say, characterises procrastination. Impulsiveness, in this context, refers to the irrational postponement of tasks, sometimes, to the last minute. For, when putting off and delaying is an intended and calculated act of reason then such deferring could hardly be considered as procrastination. According to psychologists, to be deemed as procrastination, an

action of postponement should be characterised by “poor, inadequate, or inefficient planning” and/or even the failure to carry out adequate plans, within the timeframe specified, with no relevant reason, thus reflecting irrationality. The argument makes perfect sense even to a lay man though. When the later the better is the case, meaning when an outcome of a given endeavour or task has better chances of being more superior the longer time they take and the later they are carried out, then the postponement is simply a calculated plan for better outcome. Why should one rush to get a beer first when one knows that the coldest beers are at the bottom of the refrigerator?

Neurobiologists who study the relationship of human psychology and behavior with the brain physiology also have done some studies on the issue. After all, if the brain is in charge of and responsible for the thoughts and actions of people, then there ought to be some part of the brain that should also be, somehow, responsible for procrastination and thus in charge of altering this particular psychological and/or behavioral pattern. There is this spot on the human brain known as “prefrontal cortex” which is responsible for “executive brain functions such as planning, impulse control, and attention, and acts as a filter by decreasing distracting stimuli from other brain regions.” And most of the studies intended to determine the “physiological roots” of procrastination has had this ‘prefrontal cortex’ as their center of attention. And taking the function of this part of the brain into account, such a focus would substantiate on the insistence of psychologists in relating procrastination with impulsiveness. Studies have indicated that “damage or low activation in this area can reduce an individual’s ability to filter out distracting stimuli, ultimately resulting in poorer organization, a loss of attention and increased procrastination.”

Speaking of physiological roots for procrastination, one can’t help but to wonder whether this psychological or behavioral feature is a trait inheritable as a genetically determining characteristic or not. can a lazy procrastinating father pass of his habit of irrational differing to his children? Well, according to a study, concerning procrastination and impulsiveness,

conducted in the U.S. in 2014 “both traits were found to be ‘moderately heritable’”. The two genetically determining characteristic were not separable at the genetic level. This is to mean that wherever the trait of procrastination was found, there also was the trait of impulsivity. based on these findings, therefore, the idea that holds that procrastination is connected to impulsiveness rather than reason has been corroborated by these scientists who conducted the study.

continued from page 8

We’ve got our. . .U.S. Intelligence Community,

Westview, boulder, 2008; and Philippe rivière, “How the United States spies on us all”, Le Monde diplomatique, english edition, January 1999.

(4) See barton Gellman and Laura Poitras, “codename PrISm”, The Washington Post, 6 June 2013; Jason Leopold, “exclusive: emails reveal close Google relationship with NSA”, Al Jazeera America, 6 may 2014; and Andrew clement, “NSA Surveillance: exploring the Geographies of Internet Interception” (PDF), Presentation at iconference 2014, School of Library and Information Science, Humboldt University, berlin, 6 march 2014.

(5) Ashton b carter, “Telecommunications Policy and U.S. National Security”, in robert W crandall and Kenneth Flamm (eds), Changing the Rules, brookings Institution Press. Washington Dc, 1989.

(6) David e Sanger, op cit.(7) evgeny morozov, “How

much for your data?”, Le Monde diplomatique, english edition, August 2014; Julian Assange, Cypherpunks: Freedom and the Future of the Internet, Or books, New York, 2012.

(8) Steve Lohr, “Privacy matters In Tech Trade-Off”, The New York Times, 16 June 2014.

(9) Executive Office of the President, “big Data: Seizing Opportunities, Preserving Values” (PDF), The White House, Washington Dc, may 2014.

(10) Dan Schiller, Digital Depression: Information Technology and Economic Crisis, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 2014.


Context: http://www.profile.gov.er Daniel Semre - [email protected] Solomon Mengsteab [email protected]

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 information 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.

Dear readers, should you have any opinion on the column ‘Context’ and suggestions of articles you think should be printed here please do not hesitate to contact us. We shall welcome, value and entertain them.

Dan Schiller

revelations on US National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programmes based on edward Snowden’s cache of its data files caused “fundamental, irreversible changes in many countries,” wrote journalist Glen Greenwald, who brokered many of the disclosures (1). In 2013 chancellor Angela merkel of Germany and President Dilma rousseff of brazil took public stands against US privacy invasions — they had personally been victims — and the UN General Assembly voted unanimously to affirm online privacy as a human right. In June 2014, responding to the eU, the US Justice Department promised to send legislation to congress that would grant european citizens many of the (inadequate) privacy protections accorded to US citizens.

but to grasp fully the importance of the Snowden affair, we must broaden our focus beyond the transgressions of an overbearing superstate and examine the impact of his revelations on the forces shaping the global political economy, structured around the US.

The NSA’s spying functions are an integral part of the apparatus of US military power. Since 2010 the director of the NSA has shaped US offensive operations through his concurrent appointment as head of the US military’s cyber command: both agencies are housed in the US Department of Defense. Admiral michael S rogers, the newly appointed head of both the NSA and the cyber Command, confirmed the position when he explained to a New York Times reporter “how the United States might use cyberweapons ... as part of ordinary military operations, like cruise missiles and drones” (2).

This military apparatus operates within the more far-reaching context of US strategic alliances. Since 1948 the core of the US’s global signals intelligence programmes has been the UKUSA (United Kingdom-United States of America Agreement), in which the US is designated the “first party” and the NSA specifically “is recognised as the dominant party”. The UK, canada, Australia and New Zealand are “second parties”. each of these nations, besides assuming primary responsibility for signals intelligence collection in a region, and bolting itself to the US through joint facilities and joint operations, is granted access to pools of collected intelligence on terms set by the US (3).

These UKUSA countries — the “Five eyes” nations — worked together for decades to wage a global cold war. The prime adversary was the old Soviet Union, but the growing success of anti-colonial, anti-imperialist and even anti-capitalist movements throughout Asia, Africa and Latin America inspired the US to develop a worldwide intelligence-gathering capability. The alliances that anchored this system went far beyond the “Five eyes”. On the Soviet Union’s eastern and western flanks, Japan and Germany were among the treaty’s “third parties”. After the Snowden revelations, Angela merkel requested that the US begin to share intelligence with Germany on terms comparable to those enjoyed by “second parties”; the Obama administration rebuffed her request.

Intelligence relationship with ChinaThe number and identities

of “third party” signatories has fluctuated, though all are accorded a lower level of access to intelligence. Iran, well placed

to observe the Soviet Union’s southern territories, served until its 1979 revolution. The US then sought, and found, an alternative: Henry Kissinger’s secret April 1970 visit to the People’s republic of china began a US intelligence relationship with china which became institutionalised. Xinjiang Province was convenient for eavesdropping on the USSr, and Deng Xiaoping, who masterminded the opening-up of china’s economy, permitted the cIA to construct two monitoring stations there, as long as they were run by chinese technicians. These sites, operational by 1981, functioned at least into the mid-1990s.

The fact that no country beside the US possesses a pervasive, global spying system proves that the argument that “all countries do it” is specious. From satellites in the late 1950s to the Internet infrastructure today, this unparalleled US global surveillance complex has been continuously modernised. but since the fall of socialism in the early 1990s, it also has been repurposed. Its function is still to combat challengers, and would-be challengers, to a global political economy that is built around US interests. Today, however, the threats come from non-state actors, from less-developed countries intent on profit opportunities or on pursuing alternative developmental paths, and, crucially, from developed capitalist rivals.

To clarify this strategic shift we must also highlight an economic aspect of the US intelligence system that is linked to wider digital capitalism. An unaccountable industry of cyber-war and signals collection and processing has been built up over recent decades, and it includes Snowden’s former employer, booz Allen Hamilton. concerted and sustained privatisation has routinised “intelligence outsourcing”, transforming a long-

time governmental function into an expansive joint effort by the state and corporate capital. As Snowden demonstrated, the US surveillance complex now penetrates to the heart of the US Internet industry.

There is good reason to think that Silicon Valley companies participated systematically, and mostly fraternally, in at least part of the top-secret NSA “enduring Security Framework” (4). An expert on military communications applauded the “close ties of American companies ... to the US national security establishment” for facilitating “access to international traffic by the National Security Agency” in 1989 (5). This structural relationship remains. Though we may not assume that the corporate interests of most of the leading US Internet companies are fused, let alone identical, with those of the US government, there is little question that most of them have been indispensable collaborators. more than a year after Snowden’s disclosures began, the NSA director conceded “that the majority of corporations that had long given the agency its technological edge and global reach were still working with it” (6).

Distancing themselves from the spooks

After Snowden, however, Google, Facebook and others scrambled to distance themselves by professing outrage. Their protestations had little to do with political principle: US Internet corporations have built their businesses around mass spying for commercial purposes, on their own account and for their patrons, big advertisers and marketers.

Large-scale corporate data collection is not a natural or intrinsic net feature. It had to be enabled, by reworking the early Internet’s technical design. During the 1990s, when the World Wide Web was first being woven into social and cultural life,

Internet companies and corporate advertisers overpowered public interest groups in lobbying the clinton administration to minimise privacy restrictions, so that they could re-engineer the Web to enable commercial surveillance of users. Social networks, search engines, service providers and advertisers repulse even modest efforts at data protection, and continue to press for commercial surveillance to be pervasively integrated online, hence their promotion of cloud computing services. In this way a few thousand giant corporations have become able to capture information about the world’s population every hour of the day. As evgeny morozov explained, these companies’ profit strategies are utterly reliant on user data — it is that simple. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says they constitute “surveillance engines” (7).

These profit strategies are the basis of digital capitalism’s continuing development. The impulse to capture personal life electronically is strengthened by economic and political pressures. but mass surveillance also faces a dual vulnerability, which Snowden’s disclosures highlighted.

Dan Schiller, Le Monde diplomatique,

November 2014, No 1411

(1) Glenn Greenwald, No Place To Hide, metropolitan books, New York, 2014.

(2) David e Sanger, “New N.S.A. chief calls Damage from Snowden Leaks manageable”, The New York Times, 30 June 2014.

(3) See Jeffrey T richelson and Desmond ball, The Ties That Bind: Intelligence Cooperation Between the UKUSA Countries, Allen & Unwin, boston and London, 1985; Jeffrey T richelson, The

US wantS to control, and own, the world online

We’ve got our eye on you

Dan Schiller is the author of • Digital Depression: Information Technology and Economic Crisis, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, 2014

Edward Snowden not only told the world about US state surveillance of national and personal secrets, he reminded us that almost all the companies surveying us for commercial gain are American.

continued on page 7

vol 21. no. 87 saturday, 27th of december 2014 pages 8...

Documents