Eritreans are rebuilding pre-World War II Italian locomotives under their own financial steam,
                                        evidence of a people determined to stand on their own on a continent awash in corruption and
                                        Western handouts. They even pay their taxes and spurn foreign aid.

                                                                                   NO BEGGARS, NO CRIME

                                        And there are virtually no beggars or crimes. In much of Africa or the Middle East, observers
                                        often find themselves searching for something positive, something - anything - to relieve the
                                        gloom. It is the opposite in Eritrea. "I scratch my fingers in the dirt," said a Western
                                        ambassador, but I've worn them to the bone and found nothing."
 
                                                                                      What is Eritrea's secret?

                                        "Doing it ourselves" - as the railway chief said - sums it up: self-reliance, ingrained, passionate,
                                        stubborn, at times to the point of masochism, lies at the heart of the "ethics of the bush." Other
                                        virtues they learned in those heroic years were self-denial, solidarity, patience, a high sense of
                                        national purpose that nonetheless accommodated pragmatism and adaptability. Eritreans remain
                                        deeply anchored in themselves and their own experience. So it's almost a fetish of their
                                        leadership that, while open to the world, it doesn't accept "models" or formulas of any kind. If
                                        anything, in fact, post-colonial Africa has served as a model of how not to proceed with the
                                        construction of its own latecomer state.

                                        "They sometimes study things to excess here," said a Western banker, "but it pays off. President
                                        Afewerki rightly says that Eritrea is like the tortoise that gets there in the end."

                                                                                 OPEN PRESIDENCY

                                        "Most African leaders are emperors," said a Sudanese opposition leader, marveling at the
                                        modesty of Eritrea's ruling class. For example, a government minister makes an appointment to
                                        see someone in the simplest of lean-to coffee shops outside his ministry. There are no perks, no
                                        official cars and, even in new buildings, no elevator to a fourth-floor minister's office. People can
                                        walk virtually unchecked into the presidency itself or chance upon the incumbent in any bar or
                                        restaurant, where he insists on paying the bill himself.

                                        Another African, Martyn Ngwenya, head of the U.N. Development Program in Asmara, bears
                                        lyrical witness to the "corruption-free development environment" which Eritrea has achieved.
                                        "Here," he said, "they fight corruption better even than Canada or the U.S. The convergence
                                        between what they say and what they actually do is almost complete.".