Sanctions: PFDJ’s Excuse for Incompetence (Part II and Final)

Sanctions: PFDJ’s Excuse for Incompetence (Part II)

Bana Fithi from Asmara

3.    Housing: There is acute shortage of housing in the towns of Eritrea and particularly in the capital Asmara. The party to blame? The PFDJ’s failed policies on land and housing. The mother of ironies? The president banned construction for the last six years. Where on earth have people been banned from building their houses in their own country? He is a president, municipal governor, legislator, law enforcer, law breaker, everything. And in so doing of course he is the author of corruption and mess! The housing shortage has resulted in skyrocketing rental prices and intractable disputes among property-owners and tenants. More and more of the residents are moving out of the city and joining the ranks of the rural and semi-rural inhabitants. Does this fulfill General Sebhat Ephraim’s ominous remark of 1993 when he was Asmara’s mayor in which he said something to the effect that Asmara is for the rich and all other people should go to their villages of origin? When the rest of the world goes on urbanizing its citizens, here in Eritrea the way forward is ruralizing more people for the benefit of a few.

A strange experience in PFDJ’s Asmara is more houses have been owned by people outside the country than by the actual inhabitants. Land for housing in Asmara was handed out to Eritreans in the Diaspora (even though in exchange for their bond dollars). Many of these houses remain unoccupied. The Government has shown beyond any doubt that its major constituency is not the people inside the country, but those in the Diaspora. If we take a look at the monthly rental prices for residential houses in Asmara and one other major town, we find the following grim realities.

To buy a house in Asmara (because it is totally forbidden to build one), here are the price ranges:

Well, for a civil servant and other ordinary citizens, let alone to buy a house, even to rent a one bedroom has become a steep mountain to climb. The rental house rates, much like the rates of other commodities, have gone through the roof. No amount of salary can catch up with the rocketing rental prices. Only structural economic changes can. The Nakfa notes have simply become souvenirs in the hands of wage earners.

Once again, the above figures do not include electric and water bills, transport costs, education and health expenses. Without adding other most essential commodities, they are enough to explain the impoverished state of affairs in the towns of Eritrea. Needless to say, village inhabitants do not earn government wages. They depend on the vagaries and mercy of the rainy season to produce harvest both for food and for income. Besides, they lack modern agriculture and manpower (as their children continue to languish in slave camps in the army). In the events of harvest failures, there are no safety net programs by the government or food aid to sustain the rural communities until the next food harvest arrives.

Who then can cope with the cut-throat rate of living expenses prevalent in the rural and urban areas of Eritrea?

•    First the ruling clique, which has usurped the public resources, governs unaudited and enjoys kickbacks at whim; the same clique that is reportedly engaged in human trafficking and rampant contraband trade.
•    Also, the ordinary contraband traders and hoarders who can sell items at whimsical prices and have benefited hugely from the chaotic and coldblooded atmosphere in spite of PFDJ’s bravado of being against ruthless merchants.
•    Another group that can fare quite well in the dire living conditions of today’s Eritrea is the Eritreans who periodically visit the country from the Diaspora and also their extended families who live in Eritrea. The image of outside support has given rise to another consequence. It drives young and old people alike to go into exile in the hope of forging better lives for families left behind.

•    Yet a new group better placed to deal with the staggering living costs inside Eritrea is those Eritreans sharing in the windfalls of Angola and Juba (South Sudan). They manage to provide for their families in Eritrea, but through their generous spending happen to contribute to the dramatic price surges. They are particularly in a rush to buy houses in urban centers and their demands on the scarce housing market have caused house prices to spiral out of control. They are not to blame for the price hikes. The guilty party is the PFDJ system who has abysmally failed to fix problems, both small and big.

The system, if at all functions, exists more for those Eritreans who have their homes outside the country than for the masses in the throes of life’s hardships. It has failed to deliver to the people right inside the country even in the wake of revenues from gold mining. One simple indicator: The one loaf of bread per person per day ration in the capital city (other towns and villages do not enjoy this ‘PFDJ privilege’) has not been improved yet. Is the gold revenue insufficient even to provide for the barest need of the people (as one loaf of bread per capita per day is clearly well below the barest daily need)? In Eritrea, there are no fundamental rights to celebrate. There are no civil liberties to enjoy, no democratic rights to be upheld, nor are there economic rights to live by. In spite of PFDJ’s ear-splitting propaganda in the name of abolishing inequality of all forms, the inequality between a small affluent class and the masses of have-nots in Eritrea is a scary reality. The PFDJ system after more than two decades in power has proven incapable of narrowing the yawning gap of inequality. The system has only spawned more gruesome inequalities. In Eritrea it is only a matter of time before either the absence of civil liberties or the socioeconomic inequality results in a storm that will engulf the power addicts. As the PFDJ system points its fingers at the social inequalities in the US and other western spots, it has forgotten to be sitting on a hotbed of seething social and economic discontent that is about to wipe it out. This same system is now trying to weave the latest UN Security Council resolution into its chronic failure of tackling the problems in the country. Unlike what the PFDJ would have us believe, we have to heighten our consciousness that we deserve a much more dignified life and as circumstances permit we have to hold the system to account. We have to bear in mind that we cannot continue to pay for all the incompetence and belligerence inherent in the system. With present realities, even the economic woes in Greek and the plight of the revolting Arab societies are not any match to ours.

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