Vol.23 No.27 Saturday, June 4, 2016 Pages 8, Price 2.00 NFA

The Governor of the Central region, Maj. Gen. Romodan Osman Awleyay, held talks on 30th

May with senior delegation from Kassala region, Republic of Sudan, headed by the administrator of the region, Mr. Adem Jema’e.

During the meeting, the two officals exchanged views on the previaling strong relations between the two regions and on ways and means of further strengthening mutual cooperation.

Highlighting the existing historic and people to people relations between Eritrea and Sudan, the Governors discussed issues of interest to both sides.

Thanks to the substantial investment made in the education sector during the past 25 years of independence, 93% of inhabitants of the Southern region have become beneficiaries of education, stated Mr. Habtzghi Kidane, head of the Education Ministry’s branch in the region.

As regards the distribution of educational institutions, Mr. Habtzghi said that the region used to have only 101 schools in the pre-independence period and that with the strong efforts made after liberation to provide all

Eritreans in different parts of the world have celebrated the Jubilee Independence Day anniversary with enthusiasm and patriotic zeal.

The celebrations conducted at the AU Headquarters, North America, African countries, Australia and Europe highlighted varied programs depicting the culture and societal values of the Eritrean people.

Speaking at the celebration conducted at the AU Headquarters in which diplomats of African countries took part, the Eritrean Ambassador to the African Union and the Economic Commission of Africa,

17 war-disabled veteran fighters in the Southern region have received 17 carts worth 1.5 million Nakfa from the branch offices of NAEWDVF branch.

Speaking during the handing over ceremony in which executive members of the Associations from Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and Norway were present, the head of the Association’s branch in the Southern region, Mr. Tesfalidet Mengistu, said that the carts will make significant impact in improving the livelihood of the war-disabled veteran fighters.

In another report, the Chairman of the Association, Mr. Gebrebrhan Eyasu gave briefings on the role and contribution of the general public in assisting war-disabled fighters.

The inhabitants of Berekentya, Hamelmalo sub-zone, have become beneficiaries of potable water supply. The 3 million Nakfa project became operational this

Mr. Araya Desta, underscored that Eritrea has registered commendable achievements as regards ensuring peace and stability as well as social justice by foiling multi-faceted conspiracies.

Celebrations in connection with the Jubilee Independence Day Anniversary were also observed in Nairobi, Kenya, Johannesburg, South Africa, and Kampala, Uganda, as well as in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Doha city, Qatar.

Similar Independence Day celebrations also featured in the cities of Melbourne and Sydney,

Australia; Toronto and Saskatoon, Canada. The Anniversary was also observed in different cities of Germany, Italy, Switzerland, the UK, the Netherlands and France.

During the celebrations, Eritrean nationals there asserted that the Silver Jubilee Independence Day celebrations have special meaning for they took place at a time when the people and Government of Eritrea are registering commendable all-round development.

They also expressed readiness to reinforce participation for the success of the national development programs.

The celebrations highlighted cultural shows, sports competitions and other activities.

EritrEans rEsiding in thE diaspora CElEbratE indEpEndEnCE day with ZEal

govErnor holds talks with dElEgation from kassala rEgion

watEr supply projECt in bErEkEntya, hamElmaloweek.

According to Mr. Yakob Idris, Administrator of the Sub-zone, explained that the local inhabitants

used to travel long distance to fetch water.

The project involved the putting in place of 4km-long water pipe lines, construction of 3 water distribution centers, a water reservoir and solar powered water pump.

The facilities materialized in the wake of the regrouping of villages.

Also in remarks he made Mr. Ali Mahmud, Governor of Anseba region, said that the Government has been giving priority to the task of putting in place social service provision institutions in remote areas nationwide.

citizens with equitable access to social services the number of schools has now increased to 494.

He further explained that concerted efforts have been exerted regarding adult education program and that commendable outcome has been registered.

Currently, there exist 128 kindergartens, 247 Primary, 91 Junior and 28 Secondary schools in addition one Technical school and 2 Colleges of Higher Education in the region.

southErn rEgion: broadEr aCCEss to EduCation

17 mEmbErs of naEwdvf obtain support

The delegation also conveyed message of congratulations to the people and Government of Eritrea in connection with the Silver Jubilee Independence Day Anniversary.

Mr. Yusuf Sayik, Secretary of the PFDJ in the Central region, and other officials were present on the occassion.

2Vol.23 No.27Eritrea Profile, Saturday, June 4, 2016

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Sara Alem

Eritrea has called on UN Human Rights Council (HRC) to stop the “Commission of Inquiry” (COI) from preventing a fair hearing on the human rights situation in Eritrea by preemptively releasing its report to the public.

In a letter it sent to the President and members of the HRC on May 30, Eritrea has asked the Council to” recognize and respect Eritrea’s right to properly defend itself.” It thus urged the Council to “suspend deliberations on the report until Eritrea has been provided with a meaningful opportunity to study and respond to the allegations.”

Eritrea has further urged the Council to “prevent the setting of a dangerous precedent that allows for the flagrant violation of the HRC’s own “Commission of Inquiry Manual”, the total disregard for the basic principles of fundamental rules of procedure and established norms of fair play, makes a mockery of human rights and undermines the credibility of the HRC.”

The COI has announced that it will release its “findings” to the media on June 8, before submitting its report to the HRC and while Eritrea is on the dark

PRESS RELEASEon the contents of the report.

Following on last year’s pattern, the COI is then expected to launch a sensational media blitz asserting that Eritrea had already been found guilty of the accusations, arrogating to itself the roles of investigator, prosecutor and judge. In this orchestrated campaign, the COI will be joined by “human rights organizations” and assorted “experts” and “victims” that will seek to lend it credence and corroborate Eritrea’s guilt.

Eritrea’s letter to the HRC stresses that “in effect this is trial by media and is intended to preempt and prevent serious scrutiny and sober discussion of the “report.” It is intended to create a charged and biased atmosphere that will render a fair hearing virtually impossible.”

Eritrea and a number of member states and organizations have repeatedly shown that the COI lacks the rudiments of fairness, impartiality, professionalism and integrity. Its methodology has been flawed, its sources suspect and one-sided, its “evidence” flimsy. It has abused and overstepped

its mandate. It has become an activist going to the extent of lobbying governments not to engage with Eritrea, including on matters that advance human rights like education.

The COI willfully decided to base its accusations solely on “testimonies and accounts from Eritrean refugees, asylum-seekers, migrants and other members of the Diaspora.” These selected informants remain nameless and faceless as the COI has not revealed their identity. A substantial number of them were chosen by Ethiopian security officers and interviewed in camps in Ethiopia, a country currently in conflict with Eritrea. There is iron-clad evidence that many are in fact Ethiopians.

Conversely, the COI has studiously refused to listen to the “testimonies and accounts” of the overwhelming majority of Eritreans in the Diaspora. Last year, it simply said it “had no time to meet them.” This year it completely ignored the request by hundreds of Eritreans who wanted to appear in person in Geneva to present their testimonies after promising that it would give them a hearing in

April.

The COI completely ignores any assessment of the status of social, economic, cultural rights in Eritrea. This is in contravention of the United Nation’s Declaration on Human Rights, which accords equal importance to all rights. It also makes the COI report one-sided, biased and incomplete. It is not difficult to gather that the COI decided to ignore a whole category of human rights precisely because Eritrea’s record is impressive and reporting them would not tally with the picture the COI wants to paint.

The COI has likewise ignored Eritrea’s significant achievements in political and civic rights as well as the peace, stability and harmony that the country enjoys in a region that is rife with extremism, terrorism and violence.

It has refused to acknowledge Eritrea’s serious engagement with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights as well as Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Process at the HRC and its acceptance of 92 recommendations, which it is

already implementing.

The COI dismisses offhand all positive changes taking place in Eritrea domestically as well as in its regional and international engagement.

The COI also deliberately ignores fundamental realities which have a profound bearing on the state of the country, including the illegal occupation of Eritrean territory which constitutes a flagrant violation of human rights, repeated armed aggression, sanctions and mistaken policies that consider almost all Eritreans asylum-seekers.

This unfair, unjustified and illegal treatment of Eritrea is only a continuation of the double-standards that developing nations and those who wish to chart an independent path have been subjected to. This recurring recourse to politically-motivated, selective and country-specific measures and pressures needs to come to an end.

Ministry of Foreign AffairsAsmara

02 June 2016

tell right away, is one of the policy. From what I understand Eritrea has the policy of an evenly balanced development; I have seen how many things are being outside of the main cities. Therefore, instead of having the few cities extremely advanced while totally forgetting of the rural area, in Eritrea; growth is well distributed, which is rare in other African countries.

Eritrea just came about from celebrating its Independence Silver Jubilee, can you tell me how did you find the celebrations?

It was magical; I loved how the streets were filled with people of all ages in the evenings, I loved how the roads were closed and different shows going on the way, I loved how the streets were decorated and I enjoyed the carnival.

The atmosphere … It was a mixture, of Eritreans being happy and reminiscing of the fact that Eritrea has been independent for less time than the length of time they had to be in war for its independence. I realised that nobody is forgetting any of it.

The exhibition depicting Eritrean history at the Expo Hall and it was incredibly powerful. I loved the history and remembrance, you all have got it so serious and heavyhearted because several thousands died for your independence.

So combining such opposite feelings; commemoration with joy, at the same time is truly overwhelming and powerful. I sensed sensitive balance in the Eritrean society.

Tips for young Eritrean journalists in order to correct

“No restrictions in terms of who...the negative phantasmagorias imagery of Eritrea surfing on social networks

I started off 20 years ago as a journalist in BBC and BBC has been extremely helpful to me in having a certain value to what I do.

I know BBC heavily criticized Eritrea but it is your job to promote the fair and real image of you. So be accurate and never forget to do attributes, you always have to say x said x about x. This helps to make sure to protect yourself, because you can’t avoid confrontations. Secondly, be balanced and give us as many views as possible and defend yourself and your thoughts, be humane.

Not overly emotional or irrational, but thoughtful and fair towards other even though we

Continued from page 8 have to keep our distance. And finally be interesting! If you base your journalism on such principles you should be able to do your work without fear or favor.

And I think that this is the

best way for the story of Eritrea to be told on its most original form… for young journalist to tell their country’s stories. Sort of in a crafted way, I don’t mean to be misunderstood when I say crafted we’re not talking of inventing, rather making your stories interesting and winning the attention and responsiveness of the global community.

Eritrea has a serious image problem, but if you work in the best of your abilities, beyond your humble and modest tradition of not bragging on your own, you will definitely be able to portray factual and progressive images of you.

Ra’ei Tesfai

One of my unpaid tasks took me to a week-long voyage to the

Southern Red Sea region from the 14th up to the 21st of May 2016. Along with my colleagues from the National Association of Eritrean Voluntary Blood Donors, we were sent to Assab to establish the regional branch of the organization.

The other five zones have established their own zonal association to work as branches of the parent association officially

500Km-Long Summer, the Trio and Seven Stars!founded in 2013. Due to its distance, the Southern Red Sea region, however, was the last to form a regional association. Albeit

it does have an unofficially founded but highly efficient voluntary blood donating community which simply borne out of necessity due to the difficulty for hospitals in providing blood from the central blood bank to the region.

So by the time we arrived in Assab, our job was almost half done as what was needed from us was simply formalizing and legalizing the existing association

and nominally approving its already operating and functioning structures. Thanks to the admirable commitment of the branch of the Ministry of Health in the Southern Red Sea region and the voluntary donors we were able to save ample time for touristic diversion both on our way to, and, from Assab.

In an average interval of five years this was my third trip to the region since 2006. My first one happened while I was an undergraduate student when I went to Rahaita to do research on my B.A thesis. Back then, though, I was too concentrated on my research to have any room for curiosity of the surroundings.

My second trip happened exactly five years ago when I went to Assab as part of a training team organized by the National Union of Eritrean Youth and Students (NUEYS). As if by accident my two trips were on a dry season, a misleading time to go to one of the hottest places on earth. As it could be expected, my opinion about the region from these two trips was predictably “deserty”.

My last trip, however, changed this view very radically. This time

my voyage, accidently and luckily, coincided with the last part of the region’s rainy season. And to my amazement I was graced with endless grasslands straddling the near to five hundreds kilometers of seashore that make the seaside of “Dankalia” as is the region historically and locally called.

Out of my own ignorance and perhaps lack of imagination about deserts I had almost took it for

granted that deserts actually could never have a normal ecosystem so similar to the one found in other climatic zones. It is probably the reason why it took me little effort

to be taken in surprise when I came face to face with dozens of herds of camels in the plains between Erafile and Marsa Fatma.

I have always assumed that, the Danakil plains with no big trees and few shrubs are the last place for herding camels. By nature, camels require relatively big trees to graze on. But, here they were on a seasonal pastoral migration from the adjacent mountains to a

flat plain apparently, a Savanna grassland of its own size and magnitude.

“Procrastination is the thief of time,” wrote the English poet Edward Young (1683-1765). But the fact remains that for many of us procrastination is part of our everyday lives. This article explores the situations and instances where procrastination is a common place occurrence. Identifying and eradicating procrastination is essential to maintaining and improving interpersonal relationships within a wide range of domains (e.g. the workplace, casual or business relationships, individual or cooperative endeavors, etc.).

The term procrastination comes from the Latin word pro-+crastinus which means to defer or delay until tomorrow. Originally the term was applied in neutral sense, utilized to refer to the act of postponing an event or activity until a later time or date. In the modern sense, however, it often has a negative connotation;

Let’s Be Free From the Taint of Procrastination!generally, it is commonly used to describe the unnecessary delay in doing things that we are supposed to do because either we are reluctant or unwilling to do them. People may avoid urgent or necessary tasks to avoid accountability or under the pretext that they are busy with something even more urgent or necessary. Seemingly, one of the best ways to avoid a necessary or urgent task is to appear to be busily engaged in things that are trivial.

Speaking of procrastination, Nikki Giovanni (1943) an American writer said, “The minute you institutionalize a problem, you don’t intend to solve it.” Amongst the worst manifestations of procrastination is when it becomes embedded within an organized system or society. It leads to an unnecessary waste of time or opportunities as people keep delaying activities, events and other tasks. Nowadays, procrastination

has increasingly and gradually consolidated itself into our society, encroaching upon the norms and values of our society.

Signs of procrastination can manifest themselves within various sectors of our society. They can, for example, be apparent in micro-level relationships, such as those between friends, partners, and colleagues. Environments where people frequently procrastinate include office or business settings, educational institutions, as well as within the domestic sphere. At work, signs of procrastination can appear between the boss and subordinates, while in educational institutions, procrastination may manifest itself in both teachers and students. Teachers may procrastinate in correcting and grading students’ assignments and tests because they are lazy (or “bogged down by other work”). Similarly, students may

procrastinate in completing their assignments, simply due to the fact that they “are not in the mood.” Regardless of particular context or situation, the consequences of procrastination are that it leads to unnecessary delays, waste, and inefficiencies.

Importantly, procrastination also extends to the macro-level, as various institutions, organizations, and government bodies systems all procrastinate. These organizations, particularly government bodies, may use procrastination to achieve other goals or outcomes. For example, governments may promise to undertake certain activities or initiatives, and instead keep delaying, often under false pretexts. Ultimately, the original promise turns out to be an empty promise.

Overall, the preceding discussion suggests that procrastination is

everywhere and that it touches almost every aspect of our lives. The sad reality is that many of us procrastinate in one way or the other.

Ways to minimize signs of procrastination:

Don’t postpone a task, deal, an activity, or any event for a later time or date unless you have a justifiable reason, because unnecessary delay is a sign of gross denial and disrespect. Advising on how to minimize procrastination, Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) famously said, “Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today.” So let’s not delay things that we can do today until tomorrow!

Issa AdemEritrean Languages and

Literature, CASS

Disclamer: articles published in this column do not reflect the stance or opinion of Eritrea Profile

Eritrea Profile, Saturday, June 4, 2016 Vol.23 No.27 3

Continued on page 5

Natnael Yebio W.

I once had a friend who was a pathological liar. The type who looks you straight in the eye while lying. For a moment, it makes you feel like you are the one who is lying. The more I knew her, the more I got curious about the inner workings of her mind. According to her way of thinking, there is no truth or falsehood in this world, but only opportunities and the skills to use them to one’s best advantage.

Strangely enough, it was when she told the truth that the problem began, because she told it with shifting references enough to make you eventually lose your mind. At the end of the day, you begin to lose contact with reality, and that was the time you decide to leave her and take refuge with the sane and the sound of mind.

I brought the above example simply to show how for some people the world is simply different from the one we have come to know and to trust. Of course this has nothing to do with the higher truths, but it is in such people that we can see a glimpse of the warped world most of us are forced to live in.

What is truth? This question has been asked by many thinkers in the past, in vain; for no one was able to come forward with the right answer. For some, truth is relative, while for others it is absolute.

At this point, it can be said that there are higher truths which are unreachable except through faith, and lower truths that are within reach of man’s finite mind. But suppose there is such thing as absolute truth, says the skeptic, what is it exactly? Can the human mind grasp it? The idealist replies by saying that God is absolute truth. But according to most religions, God being infinite, remains unknowable or unsearchable. So how can the finite human mind ever expect to understand an infinite mind? And if truth is relative, it means we have shifting standard by which to distinguish truth from error.

This may put some of us in a dilemma. But not politicians, who seems to rejoice in the fact

Eritrea Profile, Saturday, June 4, 2016 Vol.23 No.27 4

Speak the whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth……..!that considering there is no clear demarcation between truth and falsehood, especially when one has the might or the talent to twist the two beyond recognition, they can do whatever they like with impunity.

Let’s for the time leave the higher truth to the philosophers or religious men and concentrate on the lower truths which can be understood but are not necessarily practiced by the layman and which are used in all facets of mankind’s social and political intercourse as well as in the carrying out of mankind’s daily life. This is the truth in the absence.

Man has all the time been either

burying or failing that, distorting the truth wherever and whenever he found it. Truth is sweet to the just but a bitter pill to swallow for the insincere and the wayward.

Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, saw the world upside down and inside out, and in his warped mind, truth was something so precious that it had to be used sparingly. For the liar, truth is like unto venom, and it should be processed in a lab before being administered to those who are bitten by the bug of truth.

According to Goebbels’ philosophy, in order to attain one’s goal, a pinch of truth should be sufficient to be sprinkled into ton of lies. The recipe for deceit was thus formulated by this man

for posterity. The effect was more powerful than an atomic blast.

Beria, head of the Soviet Secret police, was Goebbels reincarnation who spread deceit to the far corners of Soviet Russia until he was finally arrested and executed following the death of Stalin. A liar becomes the first victim of those with whom he surrounds himself in the first place through his lying and deceit.

There is a proverb in Eritrea, which goes to that effect if you burry truth upside down, it will definitely spring right side up. Another one goes like this: unheeded truth may get thinner and more fragile with the passage

of time, but it will never shrivel or break.

The problem here is that, it happens sometimes that what is considered truth on the side of my fence may be the embodiment of untruth on the other side of the fence. But, unless a person with sound mind and body wants to deceive himself, it is not that much difficult to be able to distinguish between truth and falsehood. One may cheat others for some time, but it is difficult to cheat oneself even for a split of a second.

Again, problem seems to be that some people lie so often and so skillfully that eventually they end up believing it by themselves. This is the station where someone starts to see a black stone as a white stone or a glowing charcoal

as an ice cube and, what’s more, he touches the glowing charcoal with his fingers and it doesn’t burn his fingers. Pathological liars can even work miracles.

Now, if we consider lying as darkness and truth as light, it has been the lot of this world that whenever the light of truth shone in the darkness of falsehood, the latter continued to swallow it. It is said that when the universe came into being, there was more antimatter than matter. More darkness than light.

The world is now filled with the darkness of lying and deceit, so much so that for some people or organizations, lying has become a

virtue to be acquired if one wanted to succeed or maintain his power.

After having canonized greed as one of the cardinal virtues to be practiced in the pursuit of wealth, fame, and power, mainly in the west, it is little wonder that lying has now become an asset cherished by those who lust after power and domination.

For instance, Eritrea’s independence might have been achieved through might and truth, but greed and falsehood have been out with full force to distort its image. Unjustified war against Eritrea was not enough to destroy it, so why not resolve to a different kind of scheme, alter the reality and associate it with terrorism and destabilization of the region, sanction is order of the day.

“Ethiopia is no enough, let’s involve Djibouti into it?” says the frustrated power hungry Tyrant.

Another sanction is needed; result though is opposite of what the tyrant had in mind, its people defiantly stand by the side of their country. Mission Failed!

“Let’s exhaust every option!” would add the now fragile Tyrant.

“Human Rights?” brings an idea, the Tyrant’s little assistant.

It has been said above that truth

may get thinner and more fragile with passing of time, and that it will never break. The problem is however that sometimes it may be that truth continues to exist as a fragile and frayed entity for much longer time than would be humanly acceptable. This is where darkness interferes with its full force to veil truth almost forever.

In brief, the perpetual swallowing of truth by falsehood is capable of creating a situation where truth becomes simply a shadow of its former self. And the process may go on for eternity, long enough for the human mind to forget the truth altogether.

Fortunately, nature is made in such a way that in the final analysis and in the scheme of things, everything is accounted for, and the balance sheet shows complete accuracy and no one is unfairly treated, say the idealists.

This means that the unheeded truth which is buried upside down and which is expected to spring from the ground right side up may perhaps sprout in another century or in another world or even in another dimension. This may serve as consolation for some, but the way truth is kept from being swallowed by falsehood in our time, such bizarre-looking statement seems to make sense.

As long as the gales of deceit and lying keep buffeting against time-honored social values and rules of law, which have in the past kept humanity intact, it would be wise to hold the small lamp of truth inside a glass glob, that perchance the storm may subside and truth illumine the dark recesses of the mind once again.

Daniel Semere

Of all the bad and disgraceful experiences the world has ever seen, those that have an effect on a specific or targeted group as a whole have secured a dark point in history. There were colonialism, apartheid, caste system, ethnic cleansing, etc. The seriousness of these is that, the effect is holistic influencing the whole member of a specific group. This means, when it deprives a chance it does so to the whole, hence it makes the cost much heavier. One such experience that has a global manifestation or which is pervasive everywhere is gender inequality. It is a sad fact that women share equal role and burden in raising a society but are seen and treated as less. They have been subjected to various forms of suppression by the same society they nurture in their lives, are severely constrained by cultures that limited them to the role of “keeper of the family.” This is often justified by the female capacity to give birth to children. What makes this even worse is that the cost transcends this particular group and affects the whole society as it cripples half of the potential resources and achievements that could be harvested.

Indispensable Necessity to DevelopmentSocieties’ marginalizing half of

their member in such carelessness for so long perhaps starts from the moment of birth, which then is solidified and endorsed vigorously. In many societies there is severe discrimination on the basis of gender which starts even from the birth of the child. While the birth of a boy is celebrated with gunfire and distributing sweets and food, the birth of girl is usually considered as an unlucky incident if not as shame. They are also subjected to many harmful cultural practices like genital mutilation and others.

The girls then are forced to stay in houses and are rarely sent for education. Girls are married off without their will through exchange marriages and/or selling the girls into marriage. The result of this is that, it forms identity by which young people accept ascribed roles and limit them within that framework. The fact that reproductive work, childcare and household chores are seen as the natural responsibility of women, which poses a major obstacle women have to confront in order to achieve equal opportunities. In effect, this attribution of roles determines an unequal access and control of resources and opportunities, which negatively

affects women’s self-esteem, self-confidence, and eventually lowers their social and labor performance.

In our country, Eritrea, equality of women was demonstrated a while ago, through their active participation in the armed struggle, where they’ve shown outstanding qualities that they could be reliable partners in any and every task provided. In this respect many things might have been achieved in our country especially when compared with our counterparts in the developing world. However, in ensuring their equality in each and every opportunity, there is still a lot of work to be done. To these end, government bodies and particularly the National Union of Eritrean Women and the society as a whole have been working relentlessly and as a result a lot of improvement have been achieved.

There are also many government bodies and unions that have been working on gender empowerment as their main program areas, targeting the youth and students in particular. Some try to empower young women by increasing awareness of gender-based violence and rights of women, by providing capacity building trainings, and by also trying to improve access to and equality of health services

and education. Such task aspires to produce gender sensitive and well balanced Eritrean youth and also endeavors to improve the participation of females in higher positions in the society. Doing so can help protect the fundamental human rights of women and also help to sensitize and enhance the awareness of the society on the decisive role of women for the socio-economic, political and cultural transformation of the country.

Such effort should be geared toward ensuring that young women and men are aware of the damage caused by the above sad facts. It should also endeavor towards raising the awareness of teenagers and the community at large on their consequences. And at last it should try to empower and cultivate gender leadership qualities at all levels.

Although this task is huge and much has to be done, the greatest challenge still remains to be difficulty in convincing people to stop such deep-rooted practices. And this requires a long term commitment with tenacity and steadfastness, a steady investment in education, and also further research. In this respect collaboration of all partners is

by all means crucial and hence initiatives should be taken.

The fact remains that it will be to no avail to talk about any sort of development while marginalizing half our invaluable resources. When we come to think of it, there is no part of any developmental scheme where women directly or indirectly could not be involved. It, therefore, should be pointed out that their critical role in the overall task of the nation should be galvanized by providing them with equal opportunities, acknowledging their natural rights, and hence empowering them for greater accomplishment that would be in the interest of the whole society and indeed to the world.

Finally, it should once again be unequivocally stated that building a healthy society has the female at its center; and so any disadvantage of them has direct relation with the kind of society that is going to be raised. What’s more, as females almost everywhere constitute more than half of the society their relegation to a small corner lowering their qualification, no doubt reduces our potential by half. And that’s why empowering them is and should be one of the number one task of any development aspiring nation and responsible society.

Some of them were grazing from their sleep probably after getting worn out of grazing down on the ground instead of up from trees which is the customary practice for camels. Strolling on a line of shining humps on the roadside, they were a moving testimony to a fulfilling summer.

Anyone who has been to arid and desert parts of Eritrea is definitely familiar with the little arid goats on top of acacia shrubs skillfully making their way up and down as if it was only created for grazing on top of trees. And that is the sight I remember from all my trips to the dry lands of Eritrea including my two previous visits to Dankalia.

On our way to Edi where we did a stopover for the night, we came across countless herds of goats strewn like white pebbles on green sand; it was an incredible vista! On the outskirts of Edi, for the first time, I realized the absence

of shepherds. But it wasn’t long before we spotted a couple of them hiding beneath the short, green and leafy shrubs. One of them suddenly hauled stones at us after his herds were thrown in to scatters by the sudden appearance of our car.

As is the case in all deserts where space is not a big issue, in Edi we were welcomed in to an open-air hotel where everyone sleeps on well-prepared beds covered in spotless sheets, in the open street. After having a dinner of “Asa Tendour” (fish baked on a ground oven peculiar to the lowlands of Eritrea), on the open air, we went to bed with a little fatigue from the bumpy ride we have had as our driver had to make his way through the damaged ravines and roads because of the heavy summer rain.

As I climbed into my bed in the open space, shared with hundreds of other travelers whose bus stopped there, the night sight took me back

to the memories of childhood. Looking up into the sky, I started watching for my favorite stars; the trio and the seven stars! When we were children our parents used to tell us stories about the three stars whom they said represent a goat running, a leopard chasing and a shepherd trying to save it. While the seven stars were thought to represent three judges and four priests who are watching us out, kids, for any misbehavior.

I don’t remember when I stopped the journey to my childhood but I clearly remember the terrifying engine and the noisy horn of the DAF manufactured public bus that shared the open hotel with us at 3:00 AM. After a 14 hours ride in a bumpy gravel road on a public bus from the 1970s, anyone would sleep like a dead body.

Knowing so, the driver has to shock the passengers out of their deadly sleep. Cynical but the only option!

Going back to sleep wasn’t easy after. So I waited on the famous sea dawn to witness the beautiful sunrise. And, indeed, it came as expected and with more surprises. As we drove toward Tio and in to the plains of Beilul and Bar’asole, I witnessed another unusual manifestation of the summer. On the roadside, we saw countless white backed vultures hovering toward the sea as attentive as any predator ready to attack may be.

As is the case a good summer means enough food at sea shores where all the small fishes gather to reproduce and feed their young ones. I never thought any other fishers other than human beings were aware of this reality, least of all wild vultures. But, here I came to experience one of the prudent hunting moments in my life. The traffic poles on the roadside were apparently the highest peaks close to the shore. And the wild fishers were sitting on the sharp edges

very calmly although I suspect not comfortably, posed to lift any fish that risks exposing his tail or fins.

As we approached Beilul, we came across a herd of cows grazing on a marsh of flood created by the water trapped on two sides of the highway. The left one was see water turned back by the road while the one to the right side was rainfall water blocked from entering the sea by the same road. As we arrived to the marsh out of a hairpin drive along the road, coming face to face with a herd of cows grazing knee deep on green shrubs swamped in water, seemed like the switch of worlds in a science fiction movie.

As we drove south to Assab we gave up on surprise. And by the time we came back a week after, we almost forgot that we actually have seen the most familiar image of the Danakil plains; volcanic rocks and impressive extension of the rainy season this year in Dankalia.

Continued from page 3

500Km. Long Summer, the Trio...

Eritrea Profile, Saturday, June 4, 2016 Vol.23 No.27 5

Eritrea Profile, Saturday, June 4, 2016 Vol.23 No.27 6

VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENTBisha Mining Share Company is inviting applicants for the following positions for its Bisha Site Project. 1, Light Vehicle (LV) Mechanic (01)

Major Duties and responsibilities1.

Planning

1.1 Follows the daily work reports/job cards.

2. Implementation of the Plan

2.1 Identify the highest priority for each day and focus on completing relevant tasks.

2.2 Ensures good housekeeping.2.3 Carries out actual maintenance and repairs of LIGHT VEHICLE in an efficient and effective way in order to minimise downtime.

2.4 Performs regular inspections in order to detect potential problems before they cause breakdowns.

2.5 Minimises downtime by ensuring the best techniques are being used to repair breakdowns.

2.6Ensure safety requirements are fulfilled at the work place, including leading Field Level Risk Assessment (FLRA) and proper use of the appropriate PPE. Report any safety issues/incidents.

2.7Comply with mine’s cardinal rules and other safety, environmental or other rules and standards as directed. Identifies any hazards in the work place.

2.8Conducts preventative maintenance on the LIGHT VEHICLE by checking engines; motors; pneumatics; hydraulic systems by following diagrams, sketches, operation manuals, manufacturer’s instructions and engineering specifications. Troubleshooting malfunctions.

2.9 Carries out “Fault finding” by using precision measuring and testing instruments.

2.10Removes defective parts by using hoists, cranes and hand and power tools. Examines form and texture of parts to determine causes of failure.

2.11Determines changes in dimensional requirements of parts by using rulers; callipers; micrometres; and other measuring instruments.

2.12 Understands and is familiar with basic hydraulic systems.

2.13 Attends technical and other training as required by supervisor.

2.14 Basic Auto electrical knowledge

3. Reporting

3.1 Compile daily; progress reports as requested (completing Job Cards).

Knowledge and SkillsQualifications:Grade 12 for locals ( Technical School)Technical Certificate (Mechanical)Knowledge and Experience: 3 - 5 years relevant experience Technical Skills Behavioural SkillsComputer Literacy (MS Office – Intermediate, ) Communication (English)Attention to detail Self-motivationAnalytical skill Prioritizing skills & multi-skillingMechanical & Electrical experience Ability to work towards strict deadlinesProblem solving skill High level of accuracy

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

7Eritrea Profile, Saturday, June 4, 2016 Vol.23 No.27

The State of Eritrea National Authorising Officer European Development FundMinistry of National Development

PROJECT: Capacity Building for the Public Administration of Eritrea

Contract Title: Supply of Furniture and Fixtures for ERCOE

Publication Reference: EuropeAid/138-130/ID/SUP/ER

The Government of the State of Eritrea represented by the National Authorising Officer intends to award a supply contract for furniture and Fixtures ERCOE/Eritrea with financial assistance from European Development Fund. The tender dossier is available from:

Eritrean Centre for Organisational Excellence (ERCOE) Asmara office Hday Street 748-1 Dembe Sembel –Green Building Block A first floor, Asmara, EritreaEmail: nanta121@yahoo.com and sewitkd@yahoo.com Tel. +291-1-154047/154048/154152Fax. +291-1-154050

and will also be published on the EuropeAid website: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/europeaid/online-services/index.cfm?do=publi.welcome. The deadline for submission of tenders is July 11, 2016 at 18:00 local time. Possible additional information or clarifications/questions shall be published on the EuropeAid website: https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/europeaid/online-services/index.cfm?do=publi.welcome.

Eritrea Profile, Saturday, June 4, 2016 Vol.23 No.27 8

I am quite certain that at times you came across not so pretty answers.

Yes. There was a mixture, and I believe I had honest answers from different point of views. To most people, we did introduce ourselves and told them that we are from the BBC, and we politely asked them to talk to us. And these were people that had no idea that we were coming here, clueless of what we were doing and nobody knew our plans as we had nobody accompanying us, it was just me and my cameraman. We didn’t have any official coming with us and as such people, almost in every place we went, they agreed to speak to us and mostly gave a positive image of Eritrea while at the same time indicating some of the challenges the country faces, particularly with regards to economic aspects.

So it has been a range of views but I noticed that people are very positive and highly proud of Eritrea.

Opt for interviewees?

No, absolutely not. I suppose in the way I do my journalism, I avoid starting with prewritten stories so I prefer to speak as many people as possible from all age groups; men, women and children even if they want to talk to me. And many

“No restrictions in terms of who, when and where to speak to”Billion Temesghen

The long standing not so pleasant narratives of Eritrea in mainstream media are often revived by visiting journalists, however, around this time, there seems to be signs of more nuanced reporting and among the few is our guest today, who’s being reporting and documenting from Eritrea for the past two weeks.

We give you Mary Harper from London, Africa Editor for BBC World News.

children in fact wanted to talk to me during the celebrations.

I interviewed a great range of people; I spoke to the youth and people from the diaspora that came back for the holidays of Independence celebrations, and a number of diaspora that came back to Eritrea for good to stay, live and work here. I spoke almost with everyone, from ordinary people, to ministers and seniors in government posts.

Many foreign journalists that pay a visit to Eritrea insist that they have a ‘government minder’ overseeing them. Did you have similar thoughts or experiences?

If that is the only way a journalist can work, and I had the same experience one time in Sudan, you have to say it straight out… if there is someone from the government minding you in many ways I prefer not to work under such circumstances.

On the other hand here, I have been very encouraged and relieved not to have anybody with me in this trip or the trip before. I have been able to organize my day how I wanted to. Normally when you go to a country to report, you’d have a local journalist called a ‘fixer’ helping you around, whereas here it has been just me and the camera man. I had to be the fixer and

arrange everything by my own… luckily I was here before. So generally I have been very free.

Most of the time, my cameraman and I were on our own, we would go around and collect information randomly without a prearranged tour guide. It was difficult but full of surprises, and I think that is what we call honest journalism.

So you did go outside of Asmara?

I actually went to different places such as Keren, Bisha and small villages and towns.

I noticed that housing is encouraged in the country as I saw new building blocks in Massawa for example and even in rural areas. Furthermore, I saw the huge investment in farming and agriculture and many attempts to encourage farmers. I admire that rural communities are not abandoned; I saw many schools, and even in the smallest community there must be at least one school.

All in all, I get the feeling that in Eritrea despite many difficulties there is a sense of eliminating partiality when it comes to growth. As a matter of fact the gap between the rich and the poor here is so little, so unnoticeable. While let alone in Africa but even in Europe that is a problem that I don’t see much of here. For example in Angola, there is plenty of resources but the wealth is in the hands of few billionaires, and it’s upsetting.

Your country’s ideal is admirable.

What is the general idea that you have now of this specific trip?

That is a difficult question to answer. But of course Eritrea like every other country is very complex. This is only my second visit, so I am a new comer here even though I am an experienced journalist in terms of reporting on Africa.

However, Eritrea is a totally unique experience for me; it is

distinctive for the reason that it is the only country of which, what is told of on social networks, is much different from its reality.

As a matter of fact, before my first visit in March, I read reports in addition to everything I could find about Eritrea. Most of which were reports by human right groups, COI along with other UN reports coupled with some media reports, and they were all overwhelmingly talking harsh of Eritrea.

According to those reports Eritrea is a place empty of its youth, were its people are tortured and are all in prison. All the more so, there was a report on people being forbidden to think let alone to speak. So when I came here I realized that of course Eritrea has its own problems but it has many more stories that could be told outside all of the negativity.

Moreover, I have not been restricted in terms of who, when and where to speak to; I have been both in rural and urban areas, and I would say that even though Eritrea is being accused of many bad things, in a way, I would say that Eritrea has its own way of doing things in determination and resilience.

And I do find it strange that some in the international community have chosen Eritrea, sort of picked it out, as an easy target. Lots and lots of other African countries in which human rights abuses are far worst, they really are not focused on in the same way. And I am confused, very confused about

it. I can’t understand why Eritrea and its one very repetitive story of abuses.

Is there a story that you would tell right away of Eritrea based on your experience?

I suppose that a story would be of how before I came here most of the reports that I saw or read, talked about people not wanting to speak to journalists, but I was surprised as almost every single one was willing to talk to us. I was even more surprised because we were filming too, and filming is aggressive and intimidating, but people agreed either ways and were happy to talk, and that was definitely unexpected.

Another story is that, if you compare Asmara to the other capitals of Africa, the ones I know anyway, Asmara is incredibly clean and very safe day or night. My cameraman was astonished when we saw children and women out for their walks in the evenings at 11 or 12 walking home without no fear and that is very unusual!

What astonished me is Asmara’s incredible architecture. Other African capitals has skyscrapers going up everywhere and of course places have to move on but there must be a sustainable way. Hence, I find Asmara astonishing and unique, I hope it keeps this unique trait protected, and be a touristic revenue in the future.

And one final story that I would

Continued on page 2Mary Harper with young Eritrean World Champion athlete, Ghirmay

Ghebreselassie during her stay in Eritrea, May 2016.