What is so special about Eritrea?

'Letter to the Editor;

The following was written for a well known journalist friend of mine who I
have been trying to get to go to Eritrea to see the Oasis of Africa first
hand. He asked me to explain "What is so special about Eritrea?"

By Thomas C. Mountain

The first thing one notices upon landing in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea,
is that the streets are clean. The people are friendly, dressed very smartly
and there is no evidence of homelessness or beggars. This in a country of an
annual per capita income of about $350.
The streets of Asmara are safe to walk, even more so for "tilliano´s" or
"sa´ada", white people, anywhere, anytime of day or night. Serious crime is
rare, to the point of being non existent for most Eritreans.
When you leave Asmara the first thing you notice is the reforestation and
soil conservation efforts of Eritrea´s student summer national service
program, along with the peacetime military.
Imagine the highlands of the North African Rift mountains, 8,000 foot
altitude, driving down towards the lowlands for hours, through some very
rugged terrain, and every cliffside and mountain is LAYERED WITH WALLS, and
where possible, young trees. Many thousands of miles of walls and millions
of trees, all done since independence in 1991.
When you visit Eritrea´s primary schools, the first thing you SHOULD notice
is that the children are being taught in their mother tongue. We are talking
about 9 tribes, each an ethnic group with its own language, in one of the
worlds smallest, poorest country´s, 3.5 million people, actually beginning
to educate all their children to literacy, grade 6, in their mother tongue.
Eritrea is the only country in the world to actually implement such a
program.
A little time and patience will uncover a lot of pretty amazing things about
Eritrea and Eritreans. Like how the women fought and died side by side with
their men in their 30 year liberation war, making up 35 percent of the
fighters. This in a country where arranged marriages are still common, at
least in the villages, still the backbone of the country.
The whole story of the Eritrean armed struggle for independence reads like
an epic novel. Thomas Keneally, author of what became "Shindlers List"
actually wrote such, entitled "To Asmara".
The important thing is to remember to place Eritrea in the context of
neocolonialist Africa as well as being only 12 years independent. Try
starting with Eritrea being half christian and half muslim. Anywhere else in
Africa they would be at each others throats. Sudan, Nigeria, Cote
d´Ivoire...Christian vs. Muslim and tens of thousands slaughtered. No such
problem in Eritrea.
From the Maranantha Christian movement to Osama Bin Laden, religious
fundamentalists have been attacking Eritrea, some for over 30 years. Eritrea
is not about to allow outside religious, economic or political interests to
come in and stir up trouble.
Eritrea kicked out all the foreign NGO´s in 1993 and proceeded to build the
fastest growing economy in Africa. This in a country whose people survived
the genocidal "Ethiopian Famine" in the mid 1980´s, with independence
finding 80% of all Eritreans dependent on foreign food to survive. By the
time of the resumption of Ethiopian aggression in 1998, Eritrea was 80% self
sufficient in food production.
It´s amazing how 30 years of fighting, and dying, together in the trenches
and caves of the Sahel can change a society. When the ex-fighters returned
home to their families after liberation there was no going back. In some
ways, yes, for ones parents still have their traditions. Was the child born
in the field baptized? Ex-fighter parents, long since atheist, did the
church thing to keep the peace.
And peace is what all Eritreans most desperately desire. The invasion by the
Ethiopians in 2000 saw the worst sort of pillage, murder, rape and wanton
destruction imaginable. This is no exaggeration, for the Ethiopians actually
dug up cemeteries and scattered the bones, something even the Nazi never
thought to do to Jewish cemeteries.
3 years ago, almost half the population of Eritrea was "displaced",
refugee´s, by the Ethiopian invasion, some 1.5 million people. Under the
Ethiopian scorched earth policy, 75% of all agricultural production in the
country was destroyed.
In the past five years, over 80,000 ethnic Eritreans, many whom were
Ethiopian citizens, have faced property confiscation and summary deportation
from Ethiopia to Eritrea. Stories abound of children left abandoned,
returning home from school one day to find their parents having
"disappeared", picked up by the Ethiopian Gestapo, to be driven to the
Eritrean border and dumped in the middle of a mine field. Their homes and
businesses often ending up in the hands of Ethiopian government officials
Eritrea is having to integrate another 100,000 Eritreans from Sudanese
refugee camps, some of them there since the 1970´s and 80´s .
Al Queda continues to add to its long list of atrocities against Eritrea and
her guests, sneaking across the border from Sudan with murder and mayhem in
mind.
Now another disaster, the worst drought in memory, with the harvest failing
for the first time ever in the whole country. Over 2 million face famine,
with only the government and the Eritrean people in the diaspora coming to
their aid.
All this going on as a large, well armed, belligerent Ethiopian army
continues to occupy large areas of indisputably Eritrean territory.
The West calls for "democracy", issuing condemnations of Eritrea for
allegedly not holding elections. Yet Eritrea just completed local followed
by regional elections in the entire country, the beginnings of which I
witnessed almost 2 years ago. Left with only the national elections, Eritrea
is not going to be hurried, not with so many challenges facing the country.
Through out all this the Eritrean people have been amazing, both inside and
outside the country. The diaspora may fuss and squabble during good times,
but when the going gets tough, the Eritreans start giving, to the tune of
$100´s and even $1,000´s of dollars per person. At least $400 million last
year alone from some one million Eritreans abroad, just for the government.
To send money home to ones families is expected for any emigrant, yet to
send large amounts to the GOVERNMENT of ones land of origin? Voluntarily? I
find this completely unique to Eritrea and another amazing thing to add to
Eritrea´s list.
I grow weary of repeating to people all these amazing things, for most
people are so cynical about the societies they live in and the governments
that rule their lives that they have a hard time even imagining the sort of
society that exists in Eritrea. I guess there is two kinds of democracy. One
is the kind where George Bush spends over $100 million running for president
and is "elected" (or should I say "appointed"?) even though he got less
votes than his opponent.
The other is the sort of grassroots, community based democracy that is
practiced in Eritrea. Where the society practices what it preaches. Where
the Eritrean people say "we are the government and the government is us" and
actually mean it.

So don't believe me, go to Eritrea and see for your selves. Just don't think
that you know much about the country, really, after only spending a week or
two there. I´ve read to many hit and run journalists spewing ignorance and
bile after a short visit. Remember, if you don't speak the language and
barely know anyone you can really trust, you don't really know what is going
on.
Eritrea is hard to accept for westerners, for they are a proud people. A lot
of white folk think Eritreans are "arrogant" for such "a bunch of poor
niggers, really" (an actual quote). I mean how "amazing" can a country be
when most folks sleep four or five to a room, carry water to the toilet and
have never experienced the wonders of a long, hot shower?
Tell you what, amazing enough for me to want to move there. Asmara is like
Oakland in the Bay Area on a cool, sunny summer day. Drive for an hour
toward the Red Sea and you hit Ginda, moist and cloudy, reminding me of my
home in Hawaii. Another hour and you hit the Red Sea and the last 1000
kilometers of pristine tropical coastline in the world, Eritrea´s Red Sea
coast. During the winter it gets down to the low 80´s and the islands and
reefs surrounding the ruins of what used to be known as Adulis, in the land
of Punt, later the Persopilus of the Erythrean Sea, can only be described
as... "amazing".
This is some of what makes Eritrea "special". Even the execrable Peter Biles
of the BBC Africa desk had to use the word after watching the President of
Eritrea, Issias Aferworki, walk the length of Liberation Avenue in Asmara
during the recently completed 12th Independence Day Celebrations. In what
other country in the world does the chief executive of the country feel safe
to freely walk the streets, two miles through the center of his capital
city, all the while surrounded by tens of thousands of his celebrating
countrymen and women?
Eritreans may be poor, materially, hungry even, still suffering from the
drought. But they are special, and they know it. Their unity and strength is
amazing. I have observed it and joined in the experience, time and time
again. So I guess that makes me a messenger, doing what I can to spread the
word about Eritrea, and what makes Eritrea so special.
But don't take my word for it. Go there and see for yourself. These days you
can take a direct flight on Eritrea´s brand new national airline, an
"amazing" 98% on time in its first month of service.