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Temesghen Beraki's Home
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I was born and raised upp in Asmara,
Eritrea.
I am a student of Electrical
Engineering at the depatment of Radio
Communication Systems, The
Royal Institute of Technology,Stockholm,
Sweden


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![]() WARSAY ABA SHMEL ![]() ![]() ![]() The Washington Times October 15, 1998, Thursday, Final Edition 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. 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." "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." "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.". ![]() Eritrean Trains, more & more about the Eritrean Trains |
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beraki@e.kth.se
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