What a Shame! visit to my home of origin, Eritrea

What a Shame!
Mana Hiruy-Los Angeles (Outlook)

After three decades of absence, I recently visited my home of origin, Eritrea, and spent two months travelling to every corner of the country and talked to people from all walks of life. I had, to be honest, apprehension about the state of affairs in Eritrea before my visit because my mind was
 stained by the barrage of sustained negative propaganda directed at Eritrea by the big media establishments. Contrary to my apprehension and to my exhilaration, I found out that the people and the Government of Eritrea have great sense of purpose and are totally engaged in the process of nation building. In spite of the slingshots and unprecedented pressure directed at this new nation, Eritrea means business, and in defiance of distorted believes of the West, is more than ever determined to forward its agenda of developing all social, economic and political needs of its people.

When I first emigrated to the United States during the Dergue era, I left the war ravaged country with its economy at shambles, electrification limited to the city of Asmara, with very few schools and almost non existing medical facilities. The very few asphalt roads that were built by the Italians were totally out of use by patch holes chiseled out by tank belts. Farmers depended on erratic rain patterns for their livelihood and suffered with crop failures because of cycles of draught. Excessive abuses of rapes by enemy troops were rampant. The most tragic of all, the occupational special forces, known as Afagn, brutally choked to death thousands of Eritreans utilizing a mechanical wire apparatus and threw their corpses on the streets of Asmara.

In spite of the brutal treatment the Eritrean people shouldered for decades, and the silence of the international community, Eritrea defeated one of black Africans strongest Army and gained its independence. During the thirty years of armed struggle, the suffering of the Eritrean people was met with deaf ears from the Western and Eastern powers. In fact, adding pain to injury, the then two great powers, intermittently, aided the enemy in a very high profile manner.

All those Human Right Organizations that have systematically unleashed their attacks towards Eritrea recently, never uttered a word in defense of the Eritrean people when HaileSelassie's and the Dergues forces murdered innocent civilians, pillaged and burned villages at a very wide scale. The same goes for the African Union which was established at about the same time the Eritrean Armed Struggle was formed. One would expect an African Organization to entertain a high profile African problem, but in practice, the name Eritrea was a taboo word in the Head Quarter of the African Union. Today, this organization, as a conduit and instrument of certain powers, blames Eritrea on every issue so as to veil its shameful impotence.

After Independence, the Government and the people of Eritrea embarked on the hard work of building a nation from scratch. The worn out roads were repaired and widened. Thousands of kilo meters of asphalted and weather roads were built. The success in the nationwide electrification project is unbelievable. Hospitals, health centers, clinics and schools have mushroomed as if by a magical whim ever since. Food security is a prioritized policy of Eritrea and as a result dams and micro dams have become common scenarios both in the rural and urban areas. It is astonishing to see farmers obsessed with the idea of preserving every drop of water that falls from the sky. The overwhelming majority of these projects were realized by internal resources. Something that you don't hear in other parts of Africa, this is a genuine do-it-yourself society.

At my birth place, almost the whole village turned out to welcome me. Every soul in that village discussed developmental projects and the indispensability of food security as a sacred national plan. A new micro dam that had recently been built in the vicinity of my village had started to produce vegetables, enough for local consumption and sales, which I had never dreamt of during my childhood days in those places. To my astonishment, a close relative with a peasant background and with no formal education, lectured me on how sustained food aid programs paralyze the economy and how it entangles society in a dilemma of vicious circle. Others were adding points to the theme with elaborate anecdotes and tales. These farmers went on to discuss Zeymengistawuyan Wudbat (Non-governmental organizations) and that is when I got stunned by the level of sophistication of their analysis. They were very appreciative of the NGOs that geared their projects towards the national goal, and adamantly opposed to those NGOs who want to run irrelevant projects that do not align with the National Plan. People across the board strongly oppose the huge overhead costs of NGOs and they say that they don't want to fatten the pockets of individuals with funds collected in the name of Eritrea. I have read about such subjects from here and there and I possessed fragmented and vague knowledge. But after my visit, thanks to the Eritrean people, I think I have concrete knowledge of what is going on.

After two months of emotional reunion with my people and much more concrete knowledge of Eritrea, I was saddened by the systematic and distorted propaganda campaign that these industrious people have to endure. Eritrea is a shining star. Now I know, beyond any reasonable doubt, that the western media is engaged in a calculated and systematic media campaign to stain Eritreans image in the world. All allegations are totally unfounded, deceitful and full of fabrications. What a shame!