[AI] Asmarino Independent

The Language of Shabait.com: The Incompetence of the Ministry of Information

In the normal world, when reporters use the phrase “senior government official” without a name attached to it, it is because he/she is not supposed to provide the public with that information and the reporters feel obligated to hide his/her identity. But for the clowns at the Ministry of Information, it looked normal to identify their source as “a senior government official”, even though such anonymity is entirely unnecessary in this context. They are suggesting that Eritrea is a normal nation with a normal government, where unauthorized information leaked by government officials could be published without any retribution whatsoever to whoever is reporting it. They totally forgot that it is the government itself that is doing the reporting! What a tragedy for a nation to be lead by such Neanderthals!

Isaias Regime’s Hysteria Concerning Stiffening Sanctions

In his latest interview in Al-Ahram, President Isaias Afwerki claims that the sanctions are military and not economic. He clearly knows that it would be his end if the sanctions are extended to include economic sanctions. What the above Shabait.com hysteria shows us is the fear of the regime in this regard; its mention of the Eritrean Airlines and the Bisha project in particular tells us that economic sanctions would be its worst nightmare. And that is exactly what the opposition should focus at: at sanctioning Eritrea at its two main income sources – the mining companies and the diaspora population.

Ministry of Information: Egypt Failed Because, Unlike Eritrea, It Violated Basic Human Rights

When it comes to “political openness”, here is how Eritrea's MOI admonishes all those who violate basic human rights:

“It thus became obvious that Sadat’s resort to ‘political openness’ was not to his advantage taking into account the growing internal and external opposition.  Although he allowed nominal political pluralism and freedom of expression, he was not at all willing to tolerate any opposition as regards the Camp David accord. Hence, it is not surprising to witness that he not only applied force but also prevented the exercise of basic human rights in a bid to suppress the mounting opposition.”

The Minstry of Truth: Egypt Failed Because It Lacked Ethnic Harmony and Self-Reliant Economy Eritrea Has

Now we have come to the icing in the cake: nations like Libya, Tunisia and Egypt are falling like a house of cards because, unlike the glorious Eritrean economy that is the envy not only of our jealous neighbors but also of the entire world, their economies were never self-reliant! There you have it: the truth, nothing but whole the truth! Here is how the notoriously truthful Shabait.com puts it:

“Under this global scenario, it demands the requisite political will and strong courage to pursue political and economic path free from dependency. … In this regard, resorting to the principle of self-reliance is imperative. Viewed within this framework, the nations that resolutely pursued an independent path are the ones that emerged victorious, while those which compromised their independent choice are being exposed to all-round failure.”

His Excellency Isaias Afwerki Forecasted the Middle East Unrest Long Ago

The second installment on the Ministry of Information's deep analysis on the Mideast unrest has just arrived. And, guys, you won't be disappointed. This time Truth has been really served: not only does the PFDJ applaud the Libyan and Egyptian uprisings as just revolutions against the global forces of hegemony and all forms of dictatorship, it also claims that the All Wise and Farsighted Supreme Leader Isaias Afwerki had prophesied about it long ago. In His immense farsightedness, His Excellency did forecast - to the minute details - that this would happen soon. In the memorable words of Shabait.com, here is how it goes:

Ministry of Information Serving the Truth

In the end, the Isaias regime had to say something about the unrest in Middle East, but this shouldn’t be any normal reporting. It has to make up for all the lost time of the past month or so. It has to be a thorough analysis that includes, “gathering all facts and intricate details”, “viewing the matter in wider context”, “exploring all historical dimensions”, “providing the bigger picture”, “patiently analyzing the real picture” … and compiling the most thorough and all-encompassing questions regarding anything and everything that matters to the Middle East. No wonder the overworked Ministry of Information took it more than a moth to come up with this most thorough of all studies – let’s, in fact, call it the Mother of All Studies!

The Orwellian Word: “Martyrdom”

This word-corrupting practice has another damaging effect too. Like all totalitarian and millenarian type of movements, our domestic types have also cunningly used this old word to confer some nobleness for all the innocents who died harnessed to their successive wars. After having kept the death of the tens of the thousands of fighters, ghedli finally decided to make it public: couched in the name of martyrdom. The disingenuous use of this term minimized the magnitude of the slaughter and, consequently, the grief of the public. Contemptuous of the public, the regime that deemed the Badme war “stupid” does not hesitate to call the canon fodders: martyrs. But the bigger tragedy is the wide acceptance and diffusion of the word martyrdom by the public.

Eritrea’s Isaias Afewerki: Trying to be the Hugo Chavez of Africa

As early as 2004, Eritrea had a hard line stand against anything that was Islamist or Arabist, most of all Al Qaeda and Iraq. Here is how Girma Asmerom, the Eritrean Ambassador to EU, put it in his speech regarding Eritrea’s total support of US in its fight against terrorism and Iraq: "… it [Eritrea]  stands ready to assist the United States in any way it can. It has offered among other things its resources including the use of its facilities along its 1,200 kilometer strategic Red Sea coastline, two major deep-water ports in Assab and Massawa and the new airport near the port of Massawa that can accommodate any size airplane, blanket flyover rights and the sharing of intelligence."

Ambassador Asmerom didn’t stop there; he went on to brag that Eritrea was "the first African country to join the coalition of the willing'."

Notice

It is a public secret among Eritreans that the PFDJ, the ruling party of Eritrea, has been using its supporters in Diaspora to illegally transfer money from outside to its coffers in Eritrea. It never uses legal means to transfer the much-needed hard currency. Itself being an illegal government, with no mandate from the people and no accountability at all, this comes as no surprise. What is surprising is that this has been going on for such a long time and out there in the open that it reflects more on the opposition’s weakness than the ability of the PFDJ’s’s clandestine network to evade legal authorities to survive this long. 

The PFDJ, formerly known as EPLF, was adept at this practice from its early years as a liberation front, Then as now, it used to collect huge amounts of money from the Diaspora community to benefit a few at the top. And what is more ghastly, then as now, it used the money to imprison, “disappear” and execute many, in the process of consolidating power in the hands of a few. The import of this illegal money flow is more relevant now than ever because, as a party running a nation, the PFDJ entirely depends on Diaspora money to conduct its daily activities throughout its governing structure.

Not anymore! We will never let this illegally procured, mostly through coercion, and illegally transferred money to be used to stretch the life of this fascist regime. A list of all the individual names of those PFDJ supporters involved in this illegal money transaction will be made public soon.

Alert: Fear of Deportation of the Eritrean Football Team!

“I am an Eritrean citizen who is closely following the case of the Eritrean foot ball national team players who defected to Kenya on seek of refuge on the date of December 13, 2009. These players are now …… [It] is not safe for the foot ball players for they are being hunted by the Kenyan police in cooperation with the Eritrean embassy in Nairobi Kenya. As Eritreans, we are asking for the UNHCR to do something about this and consider the safety of these players. If not at this historic moment in time it will be very difficult and disgraceful for the innocent football players to be victims of the hunting Kenyan police and the government of Eritrea.”

This is a call to Eritreans all over the world to make the loudest noise possible to make sure that the disaster that happened to refugees in Egypt and Libya should never happen again: (a) Lets inundate Kenyan embassies all over the world with our messages of protest. (b) Let’s also make sure that the Nairobi hears from us from wherever we are. (c) Let’s call the nearest UNHCR office from our area of residence. (d) Let’s also agitate as many humanitarian groups as we can. For too long a time, we have let our brothers and sisters down at their hour of need. Never again!

Asmarino Arabic Pages Starting Next Week

We are glad to inform our Arabic-speaking audience that, finally, Asmarino.com is ready to start its Arabic Pages section no later than next week.
 
As you might have noticed the sign “Arabic Pages – Coming Soon” has been in Asmarino.com’s front page for quite some time. We understand that “coming soon” has not been soon enough. Hopefully, you will forgive us for holding you in suspense for such a long time.
 
Given that our staff works on voluntary basis, it is only understandable that it took some time to find dedicated and competent individuals who will soon be entirely at your service.

Happy 12th Year Anniversary, Asmarino!

But the war, and the crisis in its aftermath, radically altered this three-pronged approach. First, the community-oriented feature of the website, although not totally abandoned, came to suffer as a result of the deep fracture within the Eritrean community that took place after the war. Second, Eritrea itself became off limits; and the dream of joining the Eritrean people in building the nation was indefinitely deferred. And third, as a result of the poisoned climate that came to prevail after the war, the idea of a greater community in the Horn and East Africa was abandoned. Instead, as is the case with most Eritreans, the political, humanitarian and existential crisis in Eritrea came to dominate the dialog in Asmarino – a debate that is still raging on.