Eritrea Profile_24122014

Vol. 21 No. 86
Wednesday,24th of december, 2014
Pages 8, Price 1.50 NFA
Ambassador Ali holds meeting
with Qatari Prime Minister on
enhancing bilateral relations
Eritrean national Associations in southern USA assert
readiness to enhance role in preserving national values
Eritrean national Associations
in southern USA have asserted
readiness to enhance role in keeping intact national values, and
thereby bequeath such assets to
the young generation. They made
the pledge at a workshop organized on December 13 and 14
under the theme “Harmony in Vision Vanguard for Action”.
Speaking at the workshop representing the Eritrean Embassy in
the US, Mr. Dawit Haile and Ms.
Hadnet Keleta, briefed the participants on the objective political
and economic situation, as well
as development endeavors in the
Homeland. They also stated that
the Eritrean people face a promising future thanks to the joint ef-
Ambassador Fasil conducts seminar for
Eritrean community members in Cairo
The Eritrean Ambassador to
Egypt, Mr. Fasil Gebreselasie,
conducted a seminar for Eritrean
community members in Cairo regarding the objective situation in
the Homeland and the contribution
of citizens in development endeavors.
In the course of the seminar, the
Ambassador gave briefings focusing on accomplishments being
registered in the economic, social
and political domains, in addition
to the diplomatic sphere. He also
explained that anti-Eritrea agendas have ended up in utter failure
thanks to the steadfastness and
dedication demonstrated by the Eritrean people at home and abroad.
The participants noted the significance of enhanced awareness
towards the realization of development goals, and called for organizing similar seminars in the future.
They further expressed readiness
to mount staunch resistance against
external conspiracies on the basis
of higher organizational capacity.
Development programs in Ghinda sub-zone
successful thanks to popular participation
At an annual assessment meeting in which the administrator of
the sub-zone, area administrators,
heads of different associations
and others took part, it has been
expressed that the 2014 development programs in Ghinda subzone have been successful thanks
to the popular participation of the
residents.
In a speech he delivered at the
occasion, Mr. Adm Idris, Chairman of Ghinda town council, said
that the duty of the Town Council
is to report concerns and demands
of the residents to concerned institutions and conduct follow up,
and that the development pro-
grams conducted by the Ghinda
town residents and civil servants
have been very successful.
In a report he provided the
Chairman also indicated that the
revenue of the town in 2014 has
been 14 million.
Mr. Omar Yahia, Administrator
of the sub-zone on his part commended the efforts conducted by
the town council to solve the demands and problems of the residents of the sub-zone.
The participants conducted extensive discussion on the report
presented, and called for concerted efforts to reduce the prevalence
of malaria in their sub-zone.
forts exerted to this end.
The participants of the workshop from the cities of Dallas/
Fort Worth, Austin, New-Orleans
and Houston conducted discussion focusing on retaining and
promoting Eritrean culture and
identity, raising societal awareness and nurturing a dynamic citizenry, among others.
The workshop is part of similar
activities take in place in other
areas of the US with a view to
ensuring the organizational capacity of National Associations
and enhancing the contribution
of citizens in the nation-building
process.
Mr. Ali Ibrahim Ahmed, Eritrean
Ambassador to Qatar, held meeting
with Sheik Abdala Bin Nassir Bin
Khelifa Al-Thani, Prime Minister
and Minister of Internal Affairs, on
enhancing bilateral relations on the
22nd of December 2014.
The two sides conducted discussion focusing on the growing
relations of partnership between
Eritrea and Qatar in different domains, as well as possible initiatives to further reinforce ties and
other issues of mutual interest to
both countries.
Ambassador Ali lauded the support being extended by the Qatari
Ministry of Internal Affairs to the
Eritrean nationals residing in the
country.
Agriculture Ministry secures 10 tons of pesticides
and two 4WD pick up vehicles for control of Desert
Locust in donation from the Saudi Government
The Ministry of Agriculture has
secured 10 tons of pesticides and
two 4WD pick up vehicles for the
control of Desert Locust in donation
from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Present on the handing over ceremony on the Eritrean side were
Mr. Huruy Asghedom, Director
General of Agricultural Extension
in the Ministry of Agriculture, and
Mr. Mohammed Bin Isa Alhamid,
Charge d’Affairs of the Saudi Embassy in Eritrea, on the side of the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr.
Mohammed Bin Isa Al-Hamid ex-
plained that the support attests to
the growing relations of cooperation
between the two countries, and expressed conviction that similar initiative would continue in the future
in other domains.
Mr. Huruy expressed appreciation
for the donation
Eritrea Profile, Wednesday 24th of december, 2014
2
“Cooperation necessarily doesn’t need
to underline inner-national interest”
Mr. Andre Vitcher,Czech Republi-
can Investigative Journalist
Billion Temesgen
Previously in last week’s edition
we presented you the first part of
the discussion we had with an
inspiring investigative journalist
Mr. Andre Vitcher and disclosed
issues about freedom and freedom
linked to the abuse of media. Second and final part follows today.
-How would you put in words a
comparative assessment between
Eritrea and other countries that
are refusing the intervention of the
West?
First of all just because I spent
many years in Latin America I feel
very much at home here. I think
that there some great similarities
between your process and our process over there. As you might or
might not know in Venezuela the
revolution is not called “revolution”; we rather choose to call it
“the process”. There is still somewhere that we want to get to. And I
think that’s exactly what it’s going
on here in Eritrea. In this past eight
days I’ve been here and encountered many people of different
age: what we have in common is
the fact that both of us absolutely
know that our countries are not
perfect but at the same time we
are well aware of the fact that certain producers are inevitable; like
something we don’t choose but we
must have.
Corruption can be there and
there might be some other problems, but the majority hopes for
the best and believe in its government. The priority in both of our
courtiers is to improve the quality
of life, economical situation of the
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Azieb Habtemariam
people, political stability and so
many other things without having
the west toying with the countries’
human or natural resources. You
know… I spent about four years in
Kenya and Congo making a film,
there you know that many wake up
in the morning thinking on ways
to rob their country and people for
their own personal benefit. Latin
America was a lot luckier than you,
because when George Bush was
busy and enjoying bombing everywhere in the whole world ---while
using Latin America as his backyard--- we silently used the opportunity to reunite our strength.
Because history may be my witness: before we hated each other
due to the penetration of the West
and when finally the West shifted
its attention on bombing the world
we at last had the chance to show
our true intentions: we are anti
America. You have a different history, different cultural fabric and
all… but yes we are similar as
we want to stand tall and proud
on our own in our own ways, we
have a great longing for independence and sovereignty. Your only
bad luck is that not so many people
know about you as much as they
do about Cuba, plus the few that
know about you have shadowed
information. Furthermore for worst
luck: your country is positioned in
the far most complicated and unstable part of the world; you are the
only ones standing in your region.
You know South Africa is far from
you… we are far away from you…
So you’re standing in the middle
of this horrible mess that the west
created: from Somalia to Ethiopia,
to Yemen, not to forget South Sudan; parts of the world in which
the Western policies have been
well delivered and have reached
their aim. So practically you are
some kind of a threatening dangerous existence to the west: since
you are people of your own nation.
---This is exactly what they don’t
want---. Therefore you are similar
to us but with much more difficult
situations right now.
Few years ago Bolivia which is
now a socialist country, was almost
dived apart but that’s when Brazil
intervened and it saved it…. So
you see in South America things
are different: countries are rich and
powerful, they have autonomous
and independent governments but
they also have one thing in common: they are socialist. In case of
urgency they help each other out
against a common enemy, which is
the west, which is capitalism and
everything bad that comes with
it. *(2) And this is what you don’t
have here. You are surrounded by
what I hate to call but they are:
vultures. You don’t have Brazil,
you don’t have countries that refuse to give up and for that reason
you are victimized because of your
neighbors. They make it easier for
the west to abuse you and harder
for you to stand as much as you
can.
- Cooperation between regionally neighboring countries, what is
it to you?
First of all cooperation between
regionally neighboring countries
doesn’t need to denote eliminating
the essence of being autonomous.
Cooperation necessarily doesn’t
need to underline inner-national interest. If two countries or more are
cooperating there comes regional
interest and benefit on regard to
regional stability and serenity.
How you benefit your nation is up
to your inner policies. Take Russia and China for example: both
super powers standing against the
west. Russia and China have different political views, different
organizations and totally different
cultures; but they are built on mutual respect. Russia will not go to
China hopping to make Chinese
people drink only and exclusively
vodka neither is China going to
Russia to force on every one the
reading of Chinese characters.
My problem is that the west will
never give up without a fight, but
their fights are cowardly. They
bomb helpless societies, kill innocent people, they don’t fight their
fight like men, they don’t even fly
their planes anymore: what they
do is cause a way through which
countries can fight one another and
when the clash is over; they come
in pretending to bring peace and
stability. They prevent Iran from
making nuclear arsenals, they irritate China from Japan they do
all sort of things… indirectly! So
countries of the same region have
to unite and refuse to let their region to be of a functional ground
to the messiness of the west. In
addition to that the west loves imposing… that is wrong! You cannot set a Chinese modeled society
in Latin America neither can you
impose a Latin American society
in Africa. Every each of us has cultures and histories that need to be
respected and on somewhat to base
our present and future on-goings.
Subsidizing, converting, imposing… it is disgustingly impolite
and cannot be in our world. And
since colonialism and imperialism
is based on such things that is why
we need to fight.
- Any last comment
Here I met real people, every
day people… proud people. I feel
comfortable here mainly because I
feel you have the passion that we
have. We didn’t sell out. We prefer
not to die but we are ready to if it
is needed, in order to have our sovereignty. I came here to look for
another piece of mosaic on how
imperialism can be fought, and I
did… I very definitely found it in
Eritrea, amongst your people. I
will be leaving with the desire of
coming back and discover more. I
admire your country, it is not perfect but neither is my country or
Russia or China or anywhere else
where we’re refusing neocolonialism. After working all over Africa
and experiencing all sorts of disasters I see better ways in your country. What you are doing is tremendously inspiring and definitely the
right way through which you can
prevent disasters that other African
countries have. Thank you so much
for letting me part of this amazing
journey.
continued on page 4
Eritrea Profile, Wednesday 24th of december, 2014
Aron Hidru
Today’s article is taken from a
book entitled Father Your Son:
How to Become the Father You
always Wanted to Be (Stephan B.
Poulter, 2004). As its title indicates
it is about becoming a good father
Making Adjustments: How
to Add Compassion and
Mentoring to Your Style
As you read the description of
each style, you probably immediately recognized your own
dominant approach or the manner in which your father raised
you. It may be that you and your
father—and your grandfather, for
that matter—all have different
styles. Your dad may have been
the time bomb type, for instance,
but his rages turned you into a
passive type—you found he was
less likely to explode if you were
quiescent. You carried that passive
approach into your own parenting
and bent over backwards to avoid
raising your voice to your son, and
in the process, you sacrificed any
real emotional connection with
him. Although you may have discovered certain pattern similarities between you, your father, and
your grandfather, you also may
find that your styles are different.
The key is recognizing your own
style and making adjustments in
the direction of compassion and
mentoring. To help you make
these adjustments, I have provided some tips and techniques
under each of the four styles.
Don’t expect them to produce
changes overnight. Again, the key
is awareness and a willingness to
change for the sake of your son.
As you will discover, though,
even small dollops of compassion
and mentoring can have an extraordinarily positive influence on
your father-son relationship and
your son’s attitudes and actions.
Superachiever
• Keep a “criticism” journal for a
week in which you enter any remarks you make that are directly
critical of your son. It can include
entries as simple as, “You need
to do better than that in math”
to a more detailed description of
your criticisms. At the end of the
week, total the number of critical
comments. The following week,
be conscious of your criticisms,
and try to reduce this number by
at least one. Keep a journal for
this second week to see if you can
achieve this goal. If you do, try
to reduce the number by at least
one for the third week. Keep at it
until you reduce the criticisms by
50 percent from the original total.
• Practice complimenting your
son. By practicing, I mean thinking about specific things your
son says or does that merit your
approval and support. If he is a
young child, you might compliment him on his ability to build
blocks. If he is a teenager, it might
be a subject that he does well at,
whether it’s in school or an outside interest. The rehearsal will
help you to overcome your natural inclination to criticize. Concentrate on what it is that he cares
about, that he tries hard to do well
at, or that he shows promise at
when engaged in an activity. Resolve to tell him that he did a good
job or that you appreciate his hard
work. It doesn’t have to be an eloquent speech, and you shouldn’t
tell him he’s good at something
that he clearly isn’t good at.
You also shouldn’t lay it on too
thick or shower him with compliments. You’ll find that a little
sugar goes a long way, so practice
what you want to say to him, and
then say it.
T i m e B o m b
Videotape yourself exploding
when no one else is around. Set
Fathering with Style
3
Part III and Final
up a videotape camera and record
yourself reproducing a recent tirade against your son. Make sure
that he is not around, and then
attempt to come as close as possible to what you said and did
when you exploded on your child.
Don’t hold back. Try to mirror the
words, tone of voice, and physical gestures or expressions that
you used. Once you’re done,
watch the video and put yourself
in your son’s place. Imagine being on the receiving end of your
tirade. Think about what he must
be feeling as he’s listening to your
angry words and seeing your reddened face. Ask yourself if this is
the main memory of you that you
want him to carry into adulthood.
Create a substitute action for
your physical or verbal assaults
on your son. In other words,
think of an alternative way to
vent your anger when you feel
it starting to boil over. It may
be something as simple as getting into your car or some other
isolated environment and letting
loose a scream. It may involve
going outside and shooting baskets or running around the block.
By having this alternative action
firmly planted in your mind, you’ve
given yourself an escape route
from the spanking or shaking that
is your reflex to anger at your son.
Passive
• Test your emotional exchange
capacity. Review the following
list of common ways fathers create
emotional bonds with their sons,
and place a checkmark next to the
ones that you regularly employ:
- Hugging
him
- Allowing him to see you cry
- Laughing together
- Communicating to him
through words and gestures
when you are disappointed about
something that happened to you
- Venting healthy anger—anger without hostility—against everyone from your boss to a disappointing sports team in his presence
- Telling him how you feel
when someone close to you dies
- Allowing him to accompany you to funerals, weddings, family reunions, and other emotionally charged events
- Encouraging him to tell
you how he feels and not judging his emotion or trying to tell
him he shouldn’t feel this way
• Use this list as a guide for establishing an emotional connection with your son, trying
to engage in at least a few of
these activities with him weekly.
• Start with small emotional expressions when interacting with
your son, and build on them.
For instance, you may find it uncomfortable to hug your son initially. Therefore, start by patting
him on the back or even shaking
his hand. These small physical
connections will provide both
you and your son with positive
feedback and will allow each of
you to warm up to each other.
It also might be difficult for you
to tell him you love him at first.
Try to be more specific with what
you love about him. For instance,
“I love the way you hit the ball” or
“I really enjoy the way you sing,
‘Old MacDonald Had a Farm.’ ”
Absent
Increase the amount of time you
spend with you son in increments.
In a worst-case scenario, if you
haven’t seen your son in weeks or
months, start with as little as an
hour weekly. If you’ve simply been
spending long hours in the office,
try coming home an hour early
one day a week when you know
your son will be home. Increase
the time you’re together slowly
so that it feels like a natural progression both to you and to him.
Increase the quality time you
spend with your son. Although
quality time has become a bit of
a cliché, it is a valid concept, especially for fathers who often put
in token appearances. Try to get
your son involved in something
that interests you; your natural
enthusiasm for the endeavor will
be felt by your son, and he will
want to please you by trying to
like the activity, especially if he’s
not yet an adolescent. At the same
time, figure out what interests
him, and make an effort to be a
participant in that interest. This
can be difficult for some fathers,
especially if they have adolescent
sons whose primary interest is
heavy metal music that they find
irritating. Nonetheless, it doesn’t
take much effort for you to look
up a heavy metal group on the
Web, listen to their music, and
talk to your son about why he likes
them. This often leads to a real,
meaningful exchange between father and son rather than the customary empty inquiries such as
“How was school today?” or
“What did you do last night?”
No matter which of these four
fathering styles you employ, these
activities will move you a little
closer to the compassionate/mentoring style. Don’t expect to make
an immediate and complete transition to this style just by doing
these activities. A major obstacle
most men face is feeling like a
“lost son,” a feeling that keeps
them mired in their current style.
Let’s look at how you can jettison
this lost son perspective.
ads
Eritrea Profile, Wednesday 24th of december, 2014
STATE OF ERITREA
MINISTRY OF aGRICULTURE
EUROPEAN
DEVELOPMENT
FUND
The Appealing..
continued from page 5
Procurement - Notice
Contract Title: Supply and Installation of Drip Irrigation Schemes Powered by
Publication Reference: EuropeAid/135572/IH/SUP/ER
Photovoltaic in Eritrea
The Government of the State of Eritrea represented by the Ministry of National Development, as the National
Authorising Officer, intends to award a supply contract for supply, delivery, installation, and commissioning
of 25 drip and sprinkler irrigation schemes powered by photovoltaic in 3 regions of Eritrea, namely Debub,
Maekel, and Anseba regions with financial assistance from the 10th EDF programme of the European Union.
The tender dossier is available from:
Ministry of Agriculture,
Planning and Statistics Division,
Sawa Street,
P.O.Box- 1048,
Asmara, Eritrea.
Tel.: +291-1-181042; Fax: +291-1-181759;
Email: [email protected]
and will also be published on the EuropeAid website:
https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/europeaid/onlineservices/index.cfm?do=publi.welcome.
The deadline for submission of tenders is on April 14th, 2015, at 17:00 hrs 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
and Local News Paper “Eritrea Profile and Haddas Eritrea”.
active participation in the economic transactions of the City for it is
on Saturdays is Asmara busy to accommodate large number of buyers
and sellers. Therefore, those who
were on the bus hadn’t any time to
share about other issues that talking about their businesses. Indeed,
reports show that Asmara’s Market
is one of the largest Eritrea’s markets where the rate of transactions
is so speedy, diversity is moderately maintained and facilitations
for having a sophisticated market
is yet the challenge that is waiting
to be resolved.
Amid this, by the time we were
about to approach Adi Abeito, one
person mobile made a disturbing
call ringtone. Some one might think
that it was ‘the Lady Rosary’s Cathedral Agent.’ Ya, this Asmara’s
Cathedral is styled in Florentine architectural design and is known for
its large bells and vociferous sound
of the bells when they chimed, since
its construction in 1922. Over that,
I was engulfed with the way the
man was responding the call; loud
voice was dispersing every angles
of his communicational messages.
4
Then was I remembered an authentication once given by scholar
Abebe Kifleyesus from Adi Keih’s
Art and Social Sciences College.
“Yet, we are not very frail people
who always run to hide this and
that in our communicating skills.
But this is really challenging for it
has a full capacity to expose us into
unnecessary exploitation when we
join others lifestyle.”
Number 4
This line is one of the busily
tasked Asmara’s lines. And on this
line, there are various important
business homes, widely distributed
residences area and other notable
institutions. I got onto one of the
buses were assigned there in Nakfa
House, a seven storey palace which
is incepted after post independent
Eritrea. This building, even though
tactically it has a fair coherence so
to be artistically designed, however, as it stands on the main confluence of Semaetat and Tegadelti
Avenues, this large palace limited
the view of Asmara. Over that, the
magnificence building of the ‘Fiat
Tagliero’s’ aesthetics dwarfed because of Nakfa House unparalleled
building.
“Cooperation necessarily doesn’t ...
continued from page 2
-Thank you so much!
Reconciliation between Lebanese..
continued from page 8
State is imposing a reign of terror.
Twenty tents have been pitched
in the crushing heat of one of driest regions of Lebanon. Despite
the conditions, a crowd of children jump and laugh as they play
volleyball with Nour and other
Lebanese teenagers, who visit the
camp once a week. “The first time
I came,” says Nour, “the children
were smiling. That touched me.”
Nour says the Lebanese have a low
opinion of Syrians because they
don’t take the time to get to know
them. “They haven’t seen them in
real life, as I see them here.”
Many at Better Together hope
that presenting their creations to
their communities will encourage
sceptics to change their minds:
young Syrians and Lebanese on
the same stage will show that
working together is possible and
fruitful, while works created by
Syrians will prove there is more
to them than violence and poverty.
Jihad wants to be an actor. He has
been in theatre for many years and
has appeared at the Babel, in Beirut’s Hamra district. “Everyone
came to see me after the play, to
congratulate me. Syrians, Lebanese, theatre people and members
of the public, everyone hugged
me. That’s the kind of image we
need to project.”
The young Lebanese could have
a positive influence on their communities, because “they have not
experienced war the way their parents have,” says Emily Jacquard,
director of Search For Common
Ground. The young people have
not suffered 30 years of occupation by the armed forces of the Assad regime, and its secret service.
Many older Lebanese still see
Syrians as the occupiers, responsible for many disappearances and
deaths in Syrian jails, from the
1970s to 1990. “Talk of peaceful
coexistence with young Lebanese
is realistic, but with their parents,
who played an active part in the
war and were in the militias, it’s
much more difficult.”
Amélie Zaccour,
Le Monde diplomatique,
October 2014, No 1410
*(2) Source: Wikipedia. During
the Cold War era, the United States
feared the spread of communism
and, in some cases, overthrew
democratically elected governments perceived at the time as becoming left-wing or unfriendly to
U.S. interests.[1] Examples include
the 1954 Guatemalan coup d’état,
the 1964 Brazilian coup d’état, the
1973 Chilean coup d’état and the
support of the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. The 1970s and 1980s saw
a shift of power towards corporations, and a polarization of the political election systems of many of
the Latin American nations.
As of late, several left-wing parties have gained power through
elections, and Venezuela under
the late Hugo Chávez and his successor Nicolás Maduro has been
particularly critical of U.S. foreign
policy; Nicaragua, Bolivia, and Ecuador currently have governments
sometimes seen as aligned with
Venezuela, while Cuba and the
U.S. continue to have non-existent
relations. Left-wing governments
in nations such as Brazil, Peru,
Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay
are considerably more centrist and
neutral; in 1998, Argentina was
designated as major non-NATO
ally, yet it is one of the most antiU.S. nations in the world, having
long since suspended its automatic
alignment policy and distanced itself from the U.S., and is still embroiled in the Falkland/Malvinas
Islands dispute with the U.K., the
USA’s closest ally.
The right-wing governments
in Mexico, Panama, and Colombia have closer relations with
the U.S., with Mexico being the
U.S.’s largest economic partner in
Latin America and its third largest
overall trade partner after Canada
and China. Thanks to the North
American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA) signed with Canada and
Mexico in 1994, the United States
enjoys virtual duty-free trade with
Mexico. Since 1994, the United
States has signed other notable
free-trade agreements with Chile
in 2004, Peru in 2007, and most
recently Colombia and Panama in
2011. Americans of Hispanic or
Latin American ancestry comprise
more than 15% of the total population of the United States or more
than 50 million people, the vast
majority of which are of Mexican
ancestry.
Eritrea Profile, Wednesday 24th of december, 2014
5
The Appealing Episodes
of Asmara’s City Buses
Except the rarefied, soft blue
painted buses that arrived here in
Asmara in the year of 2012, the
rest buses are colored with bolded
red which then brought a charming color onto the buses status.
The buses are of those Mercedes
in relation with familial and communal events so profoundly. Of
course, they are our local Wi-Fi
and Bluetooth that connects families bonds or kinships, news and
conversational images in regard to
marriages and other social events.
number was, and is, on use by
them, our mothers. And during that
my 10 minutes, I heard them sharing about various issues that was
then followed by comments, silent
remarks and unrestricted analyses.
Number 2
I got onboard on one of the three
buses that were assigned in that
line at the bus station that is avail
in front of Cinema Roma. Near this
bus station, in the vast and open
balustrade of the Eritrean Government Palace, there is a circled stage
which was serving as a podium for
one of the oldies Eritrean Musical
troupes. Memihir Asres Tesema
chronicled widely about this in his
instigating book, ‘Teamot.’ Meanwhile, the 2 numbered Daewoo bus
arrived at the bus station. Workers
of the Central Region Buses Service Providers nicknamed it as
areas: May Temenay, Paradizo,
Senita, Barka secondary school
from Brazil, Daewoo of South Korea’s and currently from king Long
Company. And actively distributed
to give routine services for 21 lines
at this current time, of course, those
buses are a really movable theater
houses.
The first round of those buses
turns their services at 6 am in the
morning hours. And at this time,
except from April to June, Asmara’s
climate in the morning hours is so a
chilly cold. No matter of this, those
who have to travel to far areas depart from their homes as possible
as early thereby to capture the first
round of the buses. But other residents are yet in their cozy sleeping
time. Of course, majority Asmara’s
residents are not well favored with
the practice of awakening in the
early times. And as a frequented
client, one day I have decided to
get myself onboard of the randomly selected buses.
Number 1
Until you do not get the buses that
are assigned in this line by coincidence, for assured reasons, waiting
the buses is time-consuming. This
line starts with the bus station that
is positioned near Biet-Giorgis,
an impoverished zoo which needs
quick efforts of revitalization. And
on their way, these buses have to
cross the main road that takes you
onto the Common Wealth Cemetery and the Crematorium. Then
you have a widely spaced garage of
Asmara’s Bus Company, the first
ever provider of City’s transport
services here in Asmara.
When I got onto the bus, I easily noticed that women were most
dominant, and as it is crystal, Asmara’s women haven’t any border
or any reason that restricts them
from opening a deeply crafted chat
As one comical writer attested,
our Social Network which doesn’t
costs passwords and a security
‘Gual Asmera.’ Of course, the bus
covers a long distance and passes
through major Asmara’s residence
area, Semaetat and Haenet Avenues, Bahti Meskerem Square,
Mai Chihot, Geza Banda and Ziban
Sinkey, are the generally classified
areas which are depended on this
line for getting an efficient transport which couldn’t to be achieved
yet. And when I was onboard, I did
hear various chats among students
whom majority of them were from
Keih Bahri and Barka Senior Secondary School. Two teens were
sharing about a newly produced
song. Even in 1940, Asmara’s areas, especially of the ex-Babylon
Square, were highly overwhelmed
by Sudanese and rarely voiced Somali songs. And again, the 1960s
and the followed decades stages
were also dominated by Amharic
music.
After the an 18 hours music FM
station band launched by the Ministry of Information on Radio Zara
and moderately on Radio Numa,
however, the impact on the young
generations is almost deteriorated.
And as a result, new released song
is easily accessible on the teen
mobiles and other devices. Amid
this, one watchdog got on the bus
and soon started monitoring if everyone had his tickets on his hand.
For I couldn’t go further over this,
therefore, I got downed near a bus
station that is marked near Asmara’s Stadium.
Number 22
This bus travels from Edaga Hamus of Asmara to Beleza, one of
the renowned Asmara’s peripheral
areas. It is one of the lately opened
lines. And as in others, this bus
was also exaggeratedly crowded
with travelers. Because majority of
the travelers are from one village,
however, each other has a good
acquaintances and then, mesmerizing to me, they were chatting unreservedly even about their private
secrets profoundly.
And for it was on Saturday, major
Asmara’s peripheral areas residents
arrive in Asmara for taking their
continued on page 4
Eritrea Profile, Wednesday 24th of december, 2014
Daniel Semere
Does your purpose make sense
in the long term?
Many decisions seem fairly intelligent in the moment, but when
you imagine how they’ll play out
over the next 10, 20, or 50 years,
their weaknesses become apparent. When choosing a life purpose, it should not only fuel you
with passion in the present moment — it should look even better
across a variety of time frames.
Consider your job, for example.
Where will it lead you in the long
run? Think about where it will
take you between now and the
end of your life. Imagine you’ve
reached your final day on earth,
and you look back upon your career. How do you feel about it?
If you’ve made the correct decision about what to do with your
life, then you should feel that
overall, this was the best possible choice you could have made
without the benefit of specific
hindsight. You will see some
mistakes you made along the
way, but you’ll also see that given
what you knew at the time, they
were largely unavoidable. When
you look back over your life, your
dominant thought will be, “I did
my best. I may not have lived a
perfect life, but I did the best I
could. And for that reason, I have
no major regrets. If my life must
now end, then so be it.”
If, on the other hand, this scenario scares you, then you’ve got
some work to do. It means your
current direction isn’t sound. It
will not pass the test of time, and
at some point you’ll have to face
reality. It’s better to do it now
than to wait, since the longer you
put it off, the more catastrophic
the results will be.
What do you see when you project your current momentum years,
even decades, into the future? Are
you building a house of cards that
will eventually collapse? Are you
hiding from the truth?
It can be very hard to face the
truth today when the consequences may be years away. But eventually you will have to face that
truth at some point. In fact, it’s
Knowing What
to Do With Life
6
Part II
with you right now. When you
clog your consciousness with the
burden of falsehood, you lower
your awareness. By refusing to
face what you perceive to be the
unfaceable, you begin living a lie.
And then instead of living honestly, your energies are consumed by
the perpetuation of that lie.
If you don’t feel you can be honest with the rest of the world just
yet, at least begin by being honest
with yourself. You needn’t experience a crash if you can learn to
raise your consciousness instead
of lowering it. This is the gentlest
path out of falsehood and towards
truth.
If your relationship is dead, at
least admit that truth to yourself
even if you can’t admit it to anyone else. Journal about it privately and explore your honest feelings. If your career is unfulfilling
and you work just to make ends
meet, admit that to yourself, and
also admit that you want something better. It’s OK to be weak
and helpless. It’s not OK to lie
to yourself. Being weak will not
lower your consciousness, but being false will.
Your decision about how to live
needs to make sense from ALL
time perspectives, including now,
yesterday, today, tomorrow, next
year, 10 years from now, in the
end. It also has to make sense
from the perspective of different
scenarios, including: you might
not be there tomorrow, a year
from now or 50 years; you live
forever, you get married, you stay
single, you have children, you
remain childless, all your possessions are destroyed, etc.
While there will be implemen-
tation issues that depend on the
specifics of your current situation, your high-level decision
about what to do with your life
shouldn’t be based on elements
outside your control. It should be
flexible enough that you can adapt
it to changing circumstances, even
when the changes are massive or
brutal.
Your choice of living might be
to grow and to help others grow
has a terrific outlook across all
time perspectives and scenarios.
In order for you to be unable to
continue pursuing it, either all of
us would have to achieve perfection, or your consciousness would
have to become frozen or damaged in some way such that further growth would be impossible.
And in those situations, any other
decision would be corrupted as
well. So you genuinely feel this
is the best I can do.
This feeling also leaves you
at peace with the possibility that
you could die unexpectedly at
any time. You don’t know when
your time here on earth will come
to an end, but you are OK with
that because your decision about
how to live isn’t time-bound. It
works for you in the present moment while also helping you devise a long-term plan for what to
do over the next 50 years, should
you live that long.
The one question we should ask
is, “How would I feel about my
life if it were to end this very minute?” If you don’t like my answer,
it’s time to make some changes.
Eritrea Profile, Wednesday 24th of december, 2014
Meron Abraha
Tomorrow is Christmas day, one
of the most revered holidays of the
year whose warmth and joy brings
everyone closer to each other. Merry Christmas!
Christmas Day (December 25) is
usually referred to as ‘Lidet Ferenji
(Foreigners’ Christmas), owing to
the fact that Eritreans traditionally
celebrate Christmas on January
7. Nevertheless, it is still a public
holiday and is in fact celebrated
widely by Asmarinos.
I think the holiday season for
Asmara officially starts with the
Christmas concert held every year
at the St. Cecily Theatre Hall, in
the premises of the Asmara Cathedral. On top of the cold weather,
the blissful music emanating from
the Cathedral and the well decorated windows of the various shops,
which all make up the season’s
trademark, the concert truly evokes
the jovial mood of Christmas.
This year’s concert, which was
held last Saturday and attended
(as always) by a large audience,
featured a repertoire of prominent
carols and hymns in Tigrigna, Italian and English by the choirs of the
Catholic and Evangelical churches
of Asmara.
The word carol represents a fes-
tive song mostly associated with
the festival of Christmas. No joyful event can be complete without
music and the same holds true for
Christmas as well. People sing
carols and hymns to create the perfect atmosphere for celebrating the
Saviour’s birth.
Traditions and customs are the
special flavor of any festivity and
that too equally goes for Christmas.
These traditions define the spirit of
joyousness and celebratory atmosphere of Christmas.
One of the Christmas traditions dictates that Mass be held
on Christmas Eve. Accordingly,
every year the Catholic Cathedral
welcomes hundreds of faithful for
a colorful Christmas program, including a Mass service in English,
Tigrigna and Italian in addition to
plays and carols heralding the Holy
Night.
When thinking of Christmas
celebrations, the image of a beautifully decorated Christmas tree
is most probably the first thing
that comes to our minds. A strong
symbol of the holiday, it is in
fact the center of most Christmas
ceremonies all over the world.
In our home, putting up the
Christmas tree has been, for as
long as I can remember, an exciting event. I remember when grow-
The Essence of
Christmas…
ing up as children, my sister and
I would not let our mom rest for
a single minute before she would
put it up. And even as we grew
older, despite her repeated attempts to leave us with the task,
we still feel her touch is essential.
The tradition of putting up Christmas trees for the holiday in Eritrea
probably came about with the advent of Italian colonization as did
most other western traditions. My
late grandmother used to tell us that
back during the Italian colonization, some of the families who had
large houses, mostly Italians, used
to decorate a tree in their garden
with candies and colored paper.
There are different versions
to the story of how Christmas
trees began in the first place.
One story goes telling that ancient
Christians often had holy groves
and trees where they made their
sacrifices. The trees, which were
most often oak, symbolized a connection between heaven and earth.
Another tells of 15th and 16th
century Germans who used to hold
parties where a tree was placed inside their homes. More particularly
Martin Luther, German theologian
and reformer, was the first to adorn
the tree with light by putting candles
7
on the leaves as symbols of the stars
twinkling among the forest’s trees.
The latter, and my favorite of the
lot, holds that while coming home
one December evening, Martin
was inspired by the beauty of the
stars shining through the branches
of a fir to recreate the effect by
placing candles on the branches
of a small fir tree inside his home.
The tradition of Christmas trees
in living rooms was thus embraced
in Europe and apparently made its
way to the United States, increasing in popularity over the years.
Decades later, it also became popular in the rest part of the world.
Nowadays, although it varies
from country to country, readymade artificial trees and all the
decorations that go along have
filled the market making putting
up Christmas trees more practical even in places where fresh cut
trees can’t be easily accessible.
There are many Christmas traditions that are practiced by a number of countries all over the world
during the holiday season. These
traditions can be as diverse as the
culture and religious practices
of every country in the world but
share one common thing: the presence of a happy family all together.
The Italians had put it plain and
simple: “Natale con i tuoi, Pasqua
dove ti trovi,” roughly translated as
“Christmas with your loved ones
and Easter where you are,” implying the spirit of Christmas as a time
for coming together as a family.
With all its fuss, Christmas does
bring joy, love and friendship.
That’s probably why it was said:
“if only some of the Christmas
spirit could be put in jars, then a
jar would be opened every month.”
Once again Merry Christmas and
the very best of the Season’s greetings!
Eritrea Profile, Wednesday 24th of december, 2014
8
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.
Reconciliation Between Lebanese And Syrians In The Camps
The media and politicians often accuse the young of consumerism and selfishness. But on the
ground, one sees that many of
them feel a great sense of solidarity (see Our young people
care). That is the case even for
Syrian refugees in Lebanese
camps (see article below) or
among struggling students in
France (see University students
in need). Young people are frequently misunderstood (see Social models do not fit).
Huda, Talal, Jana, Firas, Jihad
and Heba (1) come from different
social and cultural backgrounds in
Syria and Lebanon, but they are
all learning that prejudice towards
people from other countries can be
overcome. With 100 other young
people, they are spending six days
at the Better Together summer
camp in the mountains near Jezzine, in southern Lebanon. In this
peaceful resort, where only the
wind and shepherds’ bells break
the silence, they are taking part in
drawing, music, video and theatre
workshops designed to help them
learn how to manage conflict. During the activities, they are encouraged to ask themselves “What image do I have of others?”, “What
image of myself do I project?” and
“What do I want to talk about?”
“As soon as I open my eyes
in the morning, I think of all the
dead people I’ve seen,” says Jihad,
22, from Damascus, in the video
workshop. “I need to talk about
that in my film.”His family has a
house in the Palestinian refugee
camp at Sbeineh, and he was there
when the Syrian army bombed the
camp in 2011. “I’ve had enough of
talking about the war,” says Heba,
the Lebanese girl with whom he
is making a short film. “People
only ever talk about the problems,
never about solutions.” They can’t
agree, so workshop leader Wael
Kadlo decides they will each write
their own screenplay, then look for
common ground and merge them
into one.
That is the goal of Search For
Common Ground, which runs the
Better Together camp in collaboration with the Development Na-
ture and People Association. The
NGOs aim to bring together people
aged 15-25, from different social
backgrounds, from two countries
that have always had complex, if
not hostile, relations. The situation
has deteriorated since 2011, with
the arrival of 1.2 million Syrian
refugees in Lebanon. Syrians now
make up more than a quarter of
Lebanon’s population, which was
already politically and socially
fragmented by 15 years of civil
war (2). “When you tell your story, talk about your memories and
sufferings, others recognise it as
their own,”says Lina Issa, who is
leading the video workshop with
Kadlo.
Aboudi Jatal, leader of the theatre
workshop, asks the participants to
play hostages. “Get down on your
knees, put your hands behind your
backs, bow your heads!” he shouts
at the young people, who obey.
Their eyes are shut, but they can
hear his footsteps. He makes the
shape of a gun with his hand and
puts its to their temples. He shouts
again, threatens to kill them, picking on the young women in particular, “to get the boys angry and
make them want to protect them”,
though several participants later
say they feel powerless in this situation. Rafi Feghali, who is leading
the workshop with Jatal, wants to
create a space between reality and
imagination. The atmosphere in
this “third dimension” will help
the students build a common story.
“At the end of the camp, the young
people who have been in the workshop will be close; they will know
each other’s habits and tastes.”
Firas, a Syrian, tells his Lebanese
friend Jana that he was taken hostage before leaving his country. As
he tells his story, Jana feels as if
she was there. Later, she tells me
the experience has shaken her.
In the drawing workshop, Huda,
a Syrian Palestinian, is supposed to
tell a love story. She draws a woman being run over by a tank; her
sweetheart suffers the same fate
while trying to save her. “I needed
to put that in, because I have seen
it, rather than drawing hearts,” she
says. Huda is from the Yarmouk
camp, which was besieged, and its
occupants starved, by the Syrian
army.
Jana thinks talking about the war
can make the Lebanese understand
what the Syrians are going through,
and bring them closer; though most
of Lebanon is relatively peaceful,
the country is in a state of war. The
Syrian conflict has been imported,
and the presence of Hizbullah, the
Israeli threat and the situation in
the Middle East mean the Lebanese are aware of what the Syrians
are going through. Paul, 20, from
Tyre, disagrees: “We have seen
young people here build bridges,
but I doubt that most Lebanese
really understand what is going
on [in Syria]. When the Israelis
shelled my street in 2006, we ran
away to the north. We found safety
without having to leave the country. And anyway, we knew the war
wouldn’t last forever. That’s very
different from what is going on in
Syria now.”
Heba doesn’t want to talk about
the war in the film she is making
with Jihad. She wants to tell a story
that focuses on solidarity, in which
“people help their neighbours”;
she believes a small good deed can
inspire many people. Having failed
to agree, Jihad and Heba decide to
make a film about their disagreement. “They don’t agree, but they
each respect the other’s opinion.
That’s a way of finding common
ground, too,” says Kadlo.
The Better Together camp is the
first stage of a long-term project.
The participants will continue
to take part in workshops twice
a month, and will present their
creations to their communities in
mini-festivals of plays, exhibitions,
concerts and film shows. The goal
is to share what they have created
together, and bring more Lebanese
and Syrians together in the context
of artistic creation and exhibition
of talent.
Social cohesion is the overlooked casualty of humanitarian
crises; housing, food and healthcare are the first priorities. Yet
the Syrian refugees have difficult
relationships with their Lebanese
host communities, with repeated
crises, including the importation
of the Syrian conflict into Lebanon, and the involvement of Hizbullah. Talal, 18, lost a close friend
in Syria, under circumstances he is
reluctant to describe, though everything suggests he went there to
fight alongside Hizbullah, which
has been helping the government
forces. Since then, Talal has hated
Syrians. When he met Huda, he
said: “I don’t know how I can even
be next to you Syrians, when you
killed my friend.” Huda replied:
“The people in Yarmouk didn’t
want the war. We didn’t even know
the people with the guns” (the Free
Syrian Army, FSA, which was
fighting pro-Assad forces in Yarmouk). “Your friend died in Syria;
that was his fate. I managed to get
away, but I could have been killed,
too.” Eventually Talal apologised
and they have now built a very
strong friendship: Talal has invited
Huda to lunch with his family, and
from time to time Huda takes his
hand, something rare among unmarried practising Muslims.
Jana comes from a pro-Hizbullah area of southern Lebanon.
Seven young men from her village have been killed in Syria by
rebel forces, and she cannot feel
any sympathy for those forces.
Hearing others’ experiences has
modified Huda’s views: “I support
neither the regime, nor the opposition, but I’ll never forget it was the
FSA that helped me to get away
when Yarmouk was bombed.”
Huda talks of a “buried reflex”, a
tendency defying all logic to appreciate those who help us and
hate those who kill our friends
and relatives. When Jana wants to
friend Firas on Facebook, he says:
“You won’t like what you see on
my wall.” Firas supports the AlNusra Front, the Syrian branch of
Al-Qaida, which is fighting the regime. He tells her his best friend
was killed at Yabroud, in Qalamoun, an area on the Lebanese
border that the Syrian regime has
recaptured with help from Hizbullah. Jana suddenly wonders if the
seven boys from her village might
have killed Firas’s friend. She normally wears a hard expression on
her face, but now she can’t hold
back the tears.
The presence of the Al-Nusra
Front and Islamic State fighters in
Lebanon has reinforced negative
perceptions of Syrian refugees.
Over the past year, there have been
regular bombings in the Hermel
region of northeast Lebanon and
the southern suburbs of Beirut (a
stronghold of the Party of God),
and a car bomb that exploded in
front of the Iranian embassy. At
Arsal, there have been clashes
between the Lebanese army and
the jihadists, which have caused
resentment among the Lebanese.
Hassan al-Ozeir works for the
municipal council at Shmustar,
a pro-Hizbullah town of 25,000,
with 3,500 Syrian refugees, in the
Bekaa valley. He says half are affiliated to or sympathise with jihadist groups: “I know they will be
a problem some day, but I go on
helping them out of humanity.”
Syrians, who are paid half what
the Lebanese get, have been working on building sites in Lebanon
for years. The image of the Syrian
labourer is often associated with a
low level of education. More and
more Syrian women with babies
can be seen begging at the roadside, all the way to Beirut. Huda
says a taxi driver once told her:
“You Syrians are ignorant.” She
decided not to respond. “We are
scared, because we feel we are the
weakest link, economically and
socially.” Mahmud, 16, a Syrian
in the theatre workshop, wants
to tackle racism in the future. He
believes theatre has the power to
make people face reality: “You
can do something bad and not realise it. But if you are watching a
play that deals with your wrongdoing, you can become aware of it
and avoid it in future.”
Nour, 17, is Lebanese and volunteers in the refugee camp at
Bednayel, in the Bekaa, run jointly
by the Lebanese Organisation for
Studies and Training (Lost), and
the UN Children’s Fund (Unicef).
Most of the occupants have fled
from Raqqa, where the Islamic
continued on page 4
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.
Context: http://www.profile.gov.er Daniel Semre - [email protected] Solomon Mengsteab [email protected]