Welcome to Asmarino Independent.

E- For empty – Something’s Got to Give

You can sweet talk and play for time in politics. But when it comes to national economics, ultimately, the accounting ledger dictates the reality on the ground. The world is now witnessing the applicability of this cardinal economic principle unfolding in Eritrea. Cleverness and street-smart flippant remarks cannot undo the results of the half-hazarded economic management by unaccountable secretive Eritrean political clique. After 21 years of rudderless economical experimentation the economy of the State of Eritrea is running on Empty. The creeping crisis has now matured to a full-blown intractable economic disaster. The inevitable has now become a forceful reality demanding resolution.

UK MUST INSIST REFUGEES ARE PROTECTED AS IT ASSISTS EGYPT QUELL SINAI MILITANTS

The UK government must ensure that the ongoing kidnapping, torture and killing of refugees in Sinai is ended once and for all as it supports Egyptian efforts to stabilise the peninsula.

At any given time, hundreds of refugees and asylum-seekers are held for ransom and tortured by local Bedouin tribes in Sinai as they try to reach the border with Israel. When refugees attempt to cross the border, the Egyptian forces use excessive force and shoot-to-kill policies against them.

The story of the Three Oxen

What this small story highlights is, if you can divide and weaken then conquering is basically effortless.  As you will see a few examples below, Eritreans have  been weakened in every sect of the society and has made the government of  Eritrea to control the people effortlessly.  Now, the government can even hand out guns to every citizen in the country and they are confident that there is no organized group to use it against them.  There are not organized groups to challenge the atrocities. If you want to know how they achieved this please read my previous article on this website, titled, “The Evils of Dictatorship”.  When the late PM Meles Zenawi saw all the atrocities that was happening to Eritreans, he was appaled by the passiveness of the people and he asked, “whatever happened to the stamina and determination of Eritreans?”

The Boiling Frog

... He said that if you throw a frog into a pot of boiling water, it will jump out. But if you place it into a pot of cold water and slowly turn up the heat, it will boil to death. It was a sort of eureka moment for me. It said it all for me. ...  Why does slowly boiling water kill the frog? Because the frog keeps along with its surroundings and tries to adjust with it. I found the frog story to be a pithy expression for what I had always wanted to say about what Eritreans have been going through. ...

It takes one whiff to start cigarette addiction and one shot to be an alcoholic or a drug addict. The water that would roast and kill the dancing frog started to heat slowly with incidents such as the tegadelti strike. The boiling is still continuing twenty-one years after May 1991 and many are still on the ‘Eritrean Liberty’ hangover to accept what is happening in front of their eyes. Are you? The powers that be were and still continue to be smart at tightening the cuff.

Letter to Djibouti Government on the Status of Eritrean Refugees and Prisoners of War

As we have done in the past, my organization is ready to assist in any manner. We have transferred refugees from neighboring countries to Ethiopia, whose government has generously set up refugee camps for them. Since the pressure such a large number of refugees bring to the local resources is considerable, we would appreciate it if your Government would consider accepting the request of any Eritrean refugees that may wish to be transferred to Ethiopia with the Government’s permission. In Ethiopia, the Eritrean refugees will be able to find assistance amongst their kin who are already in the camps and as many of the refugees are coming from the highlands of Eritrea, they share cultural and religious ties with the population around the refugee camps set up in Ethiopia.

…Signs of our time…

Boy goes to his uncles and asks them to go ask girl’s family for her hand in marriage…as you do…so the uncles took to enquiring girl’s credentials and all was well… very well actually… pretty, young, accomplished, nice family… all good… as the day of the tibxahkum approached and being the diligent uncles they are they sat boy down and asked him for his credos too… they wanted to know his level of education… his profession… if he owns …a car… a house…a business or any other accomplishments… he went through all his achievements and couldn’t impress uncles… they kept asking him… you work nights… you share a room with two others… what do you do the rest of the time…’Ahhh’ he said… ‘I am a famous administrator I have a huge room and hundreds of people gather in it’ uncles perked up…

(I) The Circular Journey in Search of Eritrea: Journey Identity

Think of a traveler who set out for a long and difficult journey with a “noble goal” in mind. But along the journey, he realizes that the goal is elusive or that it doesn’t even exist. Having invested too much on the journey, he is reluctant to render it fruitless. Instead, he tries to draw all the fruits that he expected from the goal, from the journey itself. Minus the awareness, that has been the story of the ghedli generation that embarked on a long and difficult journey without having a clue as to what they were searching for. Having failed to find the “Eritrea” (the place-holder) they were searching for, they settled for “ghedli” – or rather, for the journey – to attach their identity with. This has been so despite the fact that the discordant match between the true identity they wanted to discard and the alien identities they wanted to adopt has been the reason for much of their sufferings.

Human Trafficking in the Sinai: Refugees between Life and Death.

As reported in the interviews torture is carried out routinely and includes severe beating, electrocution, water-drowning, burning, hanging, hanging by hair, and amputation of limbs – and is often a combination of these. Children, even the smallest of babies, are reported to have been beaten. Women are subjected to cruel rape or gang rape on daily basis, in view of the other hostages. Women are also tortured in the company of their children, and the children are tortured in the company of their mothers. Women are tortured while pregnant – and their pregnancies are often the result of rapes they suffer. If they find themselves pregnant, women hostages are told that the ransom will double once their baby is born. Many hostages succumb to the torture. This torture can be functional as it takes place to extort the ransom from relatives, but it also can be gratuitous.