Vol. 21 No. 60 Wednesday,24th of september , 2014 Pages 8, Price 1.50 NFA

The Ministry of Land, Water and Environment has conducted a sem-inar regarding Ozone layer in con-nection with the recently marked International Ozone Day.

speaking at the seminar attended by heads of various departments

The Administrator of the Cen-tral region, Maj. General Ramadan Awliyai, has conducted an inspec-tion tour of crop plantations and condition of dams in Berikh sub-zone on september 19.

During the tour, the Administra-tor was accompanied by the Man-aging Director of the region and Director General of Land and Ag-riculture there, as well as Adminis-trator of the sub-zone and agricul-

Mr. Fisehatsion Petros, who has been appointed Eritrea’s Am-bassador to Italy, presented his credentials to President Giorgio Napolitano.

During the presentation cer-emony, the Ambassador con-veyed President Isaias’ message of greetings and goodwill to the Italian leader, and stated that the existing historic relations be-tween the two countries provides solid ground for fostering mutual understanding and cooperation. He further expressed readiness to

The newly appointed Eritrean Ambassador to Yemen, Moham-med-sheik Abdul-Jelil, has pre-sented his credentials to President Abdurobo Mansur Hadi.

During the presentation cer-emony, the Ambassador conveyed President Isaias’ greetings to the Yemeni President, and asserted that he would exert endeavors to strengthen the historic and broth-erly relations of the people of the two countries.

President Abdurobo expressed his nation’s readiness to foster bi-lateral relations with Eritrea for the benefit of both peoples, and wished good health to President Isaias, as well as peace and prosperity to the Eritrean people.

In other related news, at a meet-ing he conducted with members of the National Union of Eritrean Women (NUEW) Yemen branch, Ambassador Mohammed-sheik Abduljelil, called for reinforce-

AmbAssAdor FisehAtsion pres-ents credentiAls to president

GiorGio nApolitAno oF itAly

ministry oF lAnd, WAter And environment conducts semi-

nAr As reGArds ozone lAyerand invited guests, Mr. Tefai Ge-breselasie, Minister of Land, Water and Environment, explained that the Vienna and Montréal Declara-tions have been adopted so as to attain the set goals.

Mr. Kibrom Asmerom, Coordina-

tor of Ozone layer at the Ministry, on his part gave briefings focusing on Eritrea’s initiative towards the prevention of Ozone depletion and the dire consequences thereof. He also indicated that seminars would be conducted with a view to raising human capacity in this regard.

Ozone Day was marked for the 27th time at the international level and for the 10th at national level.

work closely with Italian Govern-ment officials and organizations towards enhancing relations of partnership.

Noting that Italy attaches spe-cial importance to the historic relations between his country and Eritrea, President Giorgio Napolitano looks forward to Eri-trea playing greater role in the region and the world at large. He also wished peace and prosperity to the Eritrean people, as well as all-round support to Ambassador Fisehatsion in fulfilling his duty.

centrAl reGion: AdministrAtor conducts inspection tour oF crop plAntAtions And

development proGrAms in berikh sub-zoneture experts.

The regional Administrator exchanged views with Area ad-ministrators focusing on soil and water conservation activities and endeavors made to ensuring water resources for the development of agricultural schemes. Maj. General Ramadan also observed crop plan-tations reaching the stage reaping, in addition to dams.

Ms. Leul Asrat, Administrator of

the sub-zone, pointed out that the crop plantation is in good condition thanks to the organized endeavors exerted by the farmers, and called on the farmers to exert the neces-sary follow-up until harvest.

Likewise, Mr. Major Mengisteab, head of the Agriculture Ministry’s branch in sub-zone, disclosed that crop plantation in about 7 hectares is in good condition compared with that of last year.

AmbAssAdor mohAmmed-sheik presents credentiAls

to yemeni leAder

ment of organization and step up participation in the national devel-opment programs.

He gave extensive briefings on the objective situation and the progress of multi-faceted develop-ment activities in the Homeland, and called on citizens to reinforce efforts to excel the proud history of the past with strong economic de-velopment.

The Ambassador further ex-plained on the historic feat that has been conducted by the Eritrean women in the history of Eritrea, and called on the youth to under-stand the proud history of their fathers and mothers and live up to expectations. He also expressed resolve that the Embassy would stand alongside the union in all its future endeavors.

The participants on their part ar-ticulated readiness to reinforce or-ganization and back up the national development programs.

2Eritrea Profile, Wednesday 24th of september 2014

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7th NUEW congress and sympo-sium was conducted on 17 septem-ber 2014. We present a brief inter-view conducted with the president of the union Ms. Luul Gebraab.

-How far does the history of Eri-trean women‘s struggle goes back?

It flourished amidst of occupa-tion of the Ethiopian regime. As our society was traditionally con-servative, women though they were contributing in many other ways they had a rather narrow possibility in directly being involved in differ-ent activities. With the integration

of the E.P.L. F as well as with the then nourished and strongly firmed belief of letting the revolution to be an inclusive movement in which ev-ery citizen has an equal say in dif-ferent issues. When the participation of women in the struggle grew by figure and worthiness, requirement of women grew to 30% of the over-all number of the armed forces. Ul-timately it was certain that women would prove absolutely functional to the eventual achievement of our independence. Eritrea’s three de-

cades long struggle was far more meaningful than just any political emancipation; it hunted to conduct an entire and radical transformation of society. Eritrean women served respectably alongside men personi-fying the notion of equality through struggle once and for all.

-What was the union’s aim after independence?

strengthening the integrity of NUEW, NUEYs and NCEW was one of the most crafted policies of the E.PL.F. The NUEW was offi-cially assembled in 1979. After in-dependence, the union had gained enough experience, support and in-ternational followers. In 1992, soon

after the independence, the union held a congress in which it reassured that the potency it gained in the past 20 years of war was to grow more firmly than ever. And till now it cer-tainly did.

-How did the union implement the decisions made back then?

The notion noted during the

struggle was and still is what the union practiced the most: Eritrean women need to be key contributors in the pursuit of national develop-ment and economical advancement. The Union of Eritrean Women since then carefully supervised a wide ar-rangement of gender-equality alert-ness amongst the social order and a gender-equalized legal shield for women. It also worked firmly in nourishing opportunities for Eritrean women to fulfill their potential.

-How would you put in word the progress made by Eritrean women since then?

It’s totally undeniable fact that women are greatly contributing to the national development. Believing that awareness is an input to growth, the NUEW has collaborated with the ministry of education as well as with many other governmental and non-governmental organizations and corporations to ensure that women are educationally qualified. Today, Eritrean women are contributing in all areas of activities and in many di-verse and important sectors securing a crucial position in the country’s socio-economical advancement.

-What about the participation of women in education?

Taking into account that we are a people negatively affected by co-lonialism for a long time, it is to be highlighted the deficiency of educa-tional grounds during those days was a setback. However, now-a-days the Government has made education one of the most prioritized practices to work on. Constructing infra-structures of diverse kind including

school in the most remote areas of the country could be seen as one of the many major progresses obtained by the people and government of Eritrea. In fact we have seen big and notable changes over the years. It has been one of the main focuses of the union to expand the access and the opportunities for female stu-dents, and it resulted in a significant improvement of gender disparity in school enrollment and literacy. stat-ics conducted by NUEW and the ministry of Education show that the enrolling number of women to edu-cational grounds has been growing each day. It has now reached up to 50% in the elementary school, up to 40% in junior and high school and up to 30% in colleges. Though we acknowledge the progress, we still are relentlessly working to enhance the growth so as to see even more satisfying outcomes.

-What about the medical under-standing amongst women?

Ensuring the well-being of women means ensuring the well being of the society as a whole and thus having women cognizant enough to ensure their own health followed by their children and family’s is what creates a healthy and strong society. Know-ing so, the NUEW has been and is still working with several organiza-tions and continues to exert efforts towards the realization of women’s well being. Even though we still want to achieve more and provide much more, we can proudly say that we now have an improved access to adequate health care, paid maternity leave, and modest basic child care services. The abolition of harmful traditional practices that jeopardize women’s health and well-being has been a major leap towards achieving the above stated progresses. A hum-ble example could be the recently organized training course on child and maternal wellbeing in Berikh sub-zone while significant activities were also conducted nationwide as regards to promote the community’s health.

-Is there assistance of any kind aimed at ensuring economically stable women with in the society?

Certainly! Mothers in particular are gifted when it comes in spend-ing the family’s income effectively. Having economically stable and in-dependent mothers ensures the eco-nomical stability of families. That is why the union has been set in run-ning equal access to education and employment opportunities, equal pay for equal work and equal rights to skills development and promotion at the work site. Eritrean National Labor and Land Reform Procla-mations secure legal protection for women in employment, guaran-teeing women equal opportunities and maternal-protection benefits by ensuring that women are able to ac-quire, utilize and inherit properties of different kind without discrimina-tion.

-what could tell us about NUEW’s position as compared to other inter-national women’s organizations?

In history women have been fac-ing so many forms of discrimination. We can still notice much inequity in diverse civilizations, particularly amongst African communities. And that is where we stand proudly as Eritrean women in tackling all gen-der challenges women may face.

-Few words on the 7th congress of the NUEW.

Just like the past six ones, this 7th congress is aimed to be a stage of exhibition to what the union has achieved so far; it will also be an arena of promotion as well as a stage to exert a pull on new strate-gies. On top of that a bazaar show is underway at the hall of the National Union of Eritrean Women in con-nection with the 7th Congress of the Union. At the bazaar we are trying display works of pottery, weaving and paintings, among others hand-craft by members of the Union.

-Anything you would like to say at the end?

The NUEW seeks to ensure that all Eritrean women boldly stand for their rights and equally participate in the social, economical, political, and cultural grounds of the country by concurrently sharing the benefits. I truly give my thanks to every-and-each contributor.

‘Eritrean Women Are Contributing In All Areas Of Activities Securing A Crucial Position In The

Country’s Socio-Economical Advancement’

3Eritrea Profile, Wednesday 24th of september 2014

Aron Hidru

Today’s article is taken from Dr. stephen R. Covey’ inspiring book, which is entitled ‘The seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Power-ful Lessons in Personal Change’. The article is a continuation of what was last Wednesday’s issue. From my experience, the book is a consid-erably inspiring one and I hope you will enjoy this extract which focuses on comparing the life of a proactive person with that of a reactive one.

Circle of Concern and Circle of Influence

Another excellent way to become more self-aware regarding our own degree of proactivity is to look at where we focus our time and en-ergy. We each have a wide range of concerns -- our health, our children, problems at work, the national debt, nuclear war. We could separate those from things in which we have no particular mental or emotional involvement by creating a “Circle of Concern.

As we look at those things within our Circle of Concern, it becomes apparent that there are some things over which we have no real control and others that we can do some-thing about. We could identify those concerns in the latter group by cir-cumscribing them within a smaller Circle of Influence.

By determining which of these two circles is the focus of most of our time and energy, we can dis-cover much about the degree of our proactivity. Proactive people focus their efforts in the Circle of Influ-ence. They work on the things they can do something about. The nature of their energy is positive, enlarging and magnifying, causing their Circle of Influence to increase.

Reactive people, on the other hand, focus their efforts in the Cir-cle of Concern. They focus on the weakness of other people, the prob-lems in the environment, and cir-cumstances over which they have no control. Their focus results in blam-ing and accusing attitudes, reactive language, and increased feelings of victimization. The negative energy generated by that focus, combined with neglect in areas they could do something about, causes their Circle of Influence to shrink.

As long as we are working in our Circle of Concern, we empower the things within it to control us. We aren’t taking the proactive initiative necessary to effect positive change.

Let me share with you the story of my son who was having serious problems in school. sandra (the author’s wife) and I were deeply concerned about his apparent weak-nesses and about the way other peo-ple were treating him.

But those things were in our Circle of Concern. As long as we focused our efforts on those things, we accomplished nothing, except to increase our own feelings of inad-equacy and helplessness and to re-inforce our son’s dependence.

It was only when we went to work in our Circle of Influence, when we focused on our own paradigms, that we began to create a positive energy that changed ourselves and eventu-ally influenced our son as well. By working on ourselves instead of worrying about conditions, we were able to influence the conditions.

Because of position, wealth, role, or relationships, there are some circumstances in which a person’s Circle of Influence is larger than his or her Circle of Concern. This situation reflects on a self-inflicted emotional myopia -- another reac-tive selfish life-style focused in the Circle of Concern.

Though they may have to priori-tize the use of their influence, proac-tive people have a Circle of Concern that is at least as big as their Circle of Influence, accepting the respon-sibility to use their influence effec-tively.

Direct, Indirect, and No ControlThe problems we face fall in one

of three areas: direct control (prob-lems involving our own behavior); indirect control (problems involving other people’s behavior); or no con-trol (problems we can do nothing about, such as our past or situational realities).

The proactive approach puts the first step in the solution of all three kinds of problems within our pres-ent Circle of Influence.

Direct control problems are solved by working on our habits. They are obviously within our Circle of Influ-ence.

Indirect control problems are solved by changing our methods of influence.

I have personally identified over 30 separate methods of human in-fluence -- as separate as empathy is from confrontation, as separate as example is from persuasion.

Most people have only three or four of these methods in their rep-ertoire, starting usually with rea-soning, and, if that doesn’t work, moving to flight or fight. How lib-erating it is to accept the idea that I can learn new methods of human influence instead of constantly try-ing to use old ineffective methods to “shape up” someone else!

No control problems involve tak-ing the responsibility to change the line on the bottom on our face -- to smile, to genuinely and peacefully accept these problems and learn

to live with them, even though we don’t like them. In this way, we do not empower these problems to con-trol us. We share in the spirit embod-ied in the Alcoholics Anonymous prayer, “Lord, give me the courage to change the things which can and ought to be changed, the serenity to accept the things which cannot be changed, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Whether a problem is direct, in-direct, or no control, we have in our hands the first step to the solution. Changing our habits, changing our methods of influence and chang-ing the way we see our no control problems are all within our Circle of Influence.

Expanding the Circle of Influ-ence

It is inspiring to realize that in choosing our response to circum-stance, we powerfully affect our circumstance. When we change one part of the chemical formula, we change the nature of the results.

I worked with one organization for several years that was headed by a very dynamic person. He could read trends. He was creative, tal-ented, capable, and brilliant -- and everyone knew it. But he had a very dictatorial style of management. He tended to treat people like “gofers,” as if they didn’t have any judgment. His manner of speaking to those who worked in the organization was, “Go for this; go for that; now do this; now do that -- I’ll make the decisions.

The net effect was that he alienat-ed almost the entire executive team surrounding him. They would gath-er in the corridors and complain to each other about him. Their discus-sion was all very sophisticated, very articulate, as if they were trying to help the situation. But they did it endlessly, absolving themselves of responsibility in the name of the president’s weaknesses.

“You can’t imagine what’s hap-pened this time,” someone would say. “The other day he went into my department. I had everything all laid out. But he came in and gave totally different signals.

Everything I’d done for months was shot, just like that. I don’t know how I’m supposed to keep working for him. How long will it be until he retires?”

“He’s only fifty-nine,” some-one else would respond. “Do you think you can survive for six more years?”

“I don’t know. He’s the kind of person they probably won’t retire anyway.”

But one of the executives was proactive. He was driven by values,

not feelings. He took initiative -- he anticipated, he empathized, he read the situation. He was not blind to the president’s weaknesses; but instead of criticizing them, he would com-pensate for them.

Where the president was weak in his style, he’d try to buffer his own people and make such weaknesses irrelevant. And he’d work with the president’s strengths -- his vision, talent, creativity.

This man focused on his Circle of Influence. He was treated like a go-fer, also. But he would do more than what was expected. He anticipated the president’s need. He read with empathy the president’s underlying concern, so when he presented in-formation, he also gave his analysis and his recommendations based on that analysis.

As I sat one day with the president in an advisory capacity, he said, “ste-phen, I just can’t believe what this man has done. He’s not only given me the information I requested, but he’s provided additional informa-tion that’s exactly what we needed. He even gave me his analysis of it in terms of my deepest concerns, and a list of his recommendations.

“The recommendations are con-sistent with the analysis, and the analysis is consistent with the data.

He’s remarkable! What a relief not to have to worry about this part of the business.”

At the next meeting, it was “go for this” and “go for that” to all the executives but one. To this man, it was “What’s your opinion?” His Circle of Influence had grown

This caused quite a stir in the or-ganization. The reactive minds in the executive corridors began shoot-ing their vindictive ammunition at this proactive man.

It’s the nature of reactive people to absolve themselves of responsibility. It’s so much safer to say, “I am not responsible.” If I say “I am respon-sible,” I might have to say, “I am ir-responsible.” It would be very hard for me to say that I have the power to choose my response and that the response I have chosen has resulted

in my involvement in a negative, collusive environment, especially if for years I have absolved myself of responsibility for results in the name of someone else’s weaknesses.

so these executives focused on finding more information, more am-munition, more evidence as to why they weren’t responsible. But this man was proactive toward them, too. Little by little, his Circle of In-fluence toward them grew also. It continued to expand to the extent that eventually no one made any sig-nificant moves in the organization without that man’s involvement and approval, including the president.

But the president did not feel threatened because this man’s strength complemented his strength and compensated for his weakness-es. so he had the strength of two people, a complementary team.

This man’s success was not de-pendent on his circumstances. Many others were in the same situ-ation. It was his chosen response to those circumstances, his focus on his Circle of Influence, that made the difference.

There are some people who in-terpret “proactive” to mean pushy, aggressive, or insensitive; but that isn’t the case at all. Proactive people aren’t pushy. They’re smart, they’re value driven, they read reality, and they know what’s needed.

Look at Gandhi. While his accus-ers were in the legislative chambers criticizing him because he wouldn’t join in their Circle of Concern rhetoric condemning the British Empire for their subjugation of the Indian people, Gandhi was out in the rice paddies, quietly, slowly, imperceptibly expanding his Circle of Influence with the field labor-ers. A ground swell of support, of trust, of confidence followed him through the countryside. Though he held no office or political position, through compassion, courage, fast-ing, and moral persuasion he even-tually brought England to its knees, breaking political domination of 300 million people with the power

Taking Initiative And Being Proactive

Part II & Final

continued on page 7

4Eritrea Profile, Wednesday 24th of september 2014 ADs

fect. Harsh sanctions are likely off the table anyway; western Europe-an countries, especially Germany, have resisted imposing them for fear that Russia might retaliate and cause serious economic damage within the EU. But even if the United states could convince its al-lies to enact tough measures, Putin would probably not alter his deci-sion-making. History shows that countries will absorb enormous amounts of punishment in order to protect their core strategic interests. There is no reason to think Russia represents an exception to this rule. Western leaders have also clung to the provocative policies that pre-cipitated the crisis in the first place. In April, U.s. Vice President Jo-seph Biden met with Ukrainian legislators and told them, “This is a second opportunity to make good on the original promise made by the Orange Revolution.” John Brennan, the director of the CIA, did not help things when, that same month, he visited Kiev on a trip the White House said was aimed at improving security cooperation with the Ukrainian government. The EU, meanwhile, has contin-ued to push its Eastern Partnership. In March, José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Com-mission, summarized EU thinking on Ukraine, saying, “We have a debt, a duty of solidarity with that country, and we will work to have them as close as possible to us.” And sure enough, on June 27, the EU and Ukraine signed the eco-nomic agreement that Yanukovych had fatefully rejected seven months earlier. Also in June, at a meeting of NATO members’ foreign minis-ters, it was agreed that the alliance would remain open to new mem-bers, although the foreign ministers refrained from mentioning Ukraine by name. “No third country has a veto over NATO enlargement,” an-nounced Anders Fogh Rasmussen, NATO’s secretary-general. The foreign ministers also agreed to support various measures to im-prove Ukraine’s military capabili-ties in such areas as command and control, logistics, and cyberde-fense. Russian leaders have natu-rally recoiled at these actions; the West’s response to the crisis will only make a bad situation worse. There is a solution to the crisis in Ukraine, however -- although it would require the West to think about the country in a fundamen-tally new way. The United states and its allies should abandon their plan to westernize Ukraine and in-stead aim to make it a neutral buf-fer between NATO and Russia, akin to Austria’s position during the Cold War. Western leaders should acknowledge that Ukraine

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matters so much to Putin that they cannot support an anti-Russian re-gime there. This would not mean that a future Ukrainian government would have to be pro-Russian or anti-NATO. On the contrary, the goal should be a sovereign Ukraine that falls in neither the Russian nor the Western camp. To achieve this end, the United states and its allies should publicly rule out NATO’s expansion into both Georgia and Ukraine. The West should also help fashion an economic rescue plan for Ukraine funded jointly by the EU, the Inter-national Monetary Fund, Russia, and the United states -- a proposal that Moscow should welcome, giv-en its interest in having a prosper-ous and stable Ukraine on its west-ern flank. And the West should considerably limit its social-engi-neering efforts inside Ukraine. It is time to put an end to Western sup-port for another Orange Revolu-tion. Nevertheless, U.s. and Euro-pean leaders should encourage Ukraine to respect minority rights, especially the language rights of its Russian speakers. some may argue that changing policy toward Ukraine at this late date would seriously damage U.s. credibility around the world. There would undoubtedly be certain costs, but the costs of continuing a misguided strategy would be much greater. Furthermore, other coun-tries are likely to respect a state that learns from its mistakes and ultimately devises a policy that deals effectively with the problem at hand. That option is clearly open to the United states. One also hears the claim that Ukraine has the right to determine whom it wants to ally with and the Russians have no right to prevent Kiev from joining the West. This is a dangerous way for Ukraine to think about its foreign policy choices. The sad truth is that might often makes right when great-pow-er politics are at play. Abstract rights such as self-determination are largely meaningless when pow-erful states get into brawls with weaker states. Did Cuba have the right to form a military alliance with the soviet Union during the Cold War? The United states cer-tainly did not think so, and the Russians think the same way about Ukraine joining the West. It is in Ukraine’s interest to understand these facts of life and tread care-fully when dealing with its more powerful neighbor. Even if one rejects this analysis, however, and believes that Ukraine has the right to petition to join the EU and NATO, the fact remains that the United states and its Euro-pean allies have the right to reject these requests. There is no reason that the West has to accommodate

Ukraine if it is bent on pursuing a wrong-headed foreign policy, espe-cially if its defense is not a vital in-terest. Indulging the dreams of some Ukrainians is not worth the animosity and strife it will cause, especially for the Ukrainian people. Of course, some analysts might concede that NATO handled rela-tions with Ukraine poorly and yet still maintain that Russia consti-tutes an enemy that will only grow more formidable over time -- and that the West therefore has no choice but to continue its present policy. But this viewpoint is badly mistaken. Russia is a declining power, and it will only get weaker with time. Even if Russia were a rising power, moreover, it would still make no sense to incorporate Ukraine into NATO. The reason is simple: the United states and its European allies do not consider Ukraine to be a core strategic inter-est, as their unwillingness to use military force to come to its aid has proved. It would therefore be the height of folly to create a new NATO member that the other mem-bers have no intention of defend-ing. NATO has expanded in the past because liberals assumed the alliance would never have to honor its new security guarantees, but Russia’s recent power play shows that granting Ukraine NATO mem-bership could put Russia and the West on a collision course. sticking with the current policy would also complicate Western re-lations with Moscow on other is-sues. The United states needs Rus-sia’s assistance to withdraw U.s. equipment from Afghanistan through Russian territory, reach a nuclear agreement with Iran, and stabilize the situation in syria. In fact, Moscow has helped Washing-ton on all three of these issues in the past; in the summer of 2013, it was Putin who pulled Obama’s chestnuts out of the fire by forging the deal under which syria agreed to relinquish its chemical weapons, thereby avoiding the U.s. military strike that Obama had threatened. The United states will also some-day need Russia’s help containing a rising China. Current U.s. policy, however, is only driving Moscow and Beijing closer together. The United states and its Europe-an allies now face a choice on Ukraine. They can continue their current policy, which will exacer-bate hostilities with Russia and devastate Ukraine in the process -- a scenario in which everyone would come out a loser. Or they can switch gears and work to cre-ate a prosperous but neutral Ukraine, one that does not threaten Russia and allows the West to re-pair its relations with Moscow. With that approach, all sides would win.

Why The Ukraine Crisis Is...continued from page 5

5Eritrea Profile, Wednesday 24th of september 2014

Many a time important events in the global arena are not presented in their entirety in mainstream media as there is lack of context in most of the in-formation they cover. In response, this column sets out to question this trend by presenting diverse perspectives from as many sources as possible with the underlying aim of bringing to fore context that is culturally, historically, politically and economically relevant to any given topic.

Putin’s actions should be easy to comprehend. A huge expanse of flat land that Napoleonic France, imperial Germany, and Nazi Ger-many all crossed to strike at Russia itself, Ukraine serves as a buffer state of enormous strategic impor-tance to Russia. No Russian leader would tolerate a military alliance that was Moscow’s mortal enemy until recently moving into Ukraine. Nor would any Russian leader stand idly by while the West helped install a government there that was determined to integrate Ukraine into the West. Washington may not like Mos-cow’s position, but it should under-stand the logic behind it. This is Geopolitics 101: great powers are always sensitive to potential threats near their home territory. After all, the United states does not tolerate distant great powers deploying military forces anywhere in the Western Hemisphere, much less on its borders. Imagine the outrage in Washington if China built an im-pressive military alliance and tried to include Canada and Mexico in it. Logic aside, Russian leaders have told their Western counter-parts on many occasions that they consider NATO expansion into Georgia and Ukraine unacceptable, along with any effort to turn those countries against Russia -- a mes-sage that the 2008 Russian-Geor-gian war also made crystal clear. Officials from the United States and its European allies contend that they tried hard to assuage Russian fears and that Moscow should un-derstand that NATO has no designs on Russia. In addition to continual-ly denying that its expansion was aimed at containing Russia, the al-liance has never permanently de-ployed military forces in its new member states. In 2002, it even created a body called the NATO-Russia Council in an effort to fos-ter cooperation. To further mollify Russia, the United states an-nounced in 2009 that it would de-ploy its new missile defense system on warships in European waters, at least initially, rather than on Czech or Polish territory. But none of these measures worked; the Rus-sians remained steadfastly opposed

to NATO enlargement, especially into Georgia and Ukraine. And it is the Russians, not the West, who ul-timately get to decide what counts as a threat to them. To understand why the West, espe-cially the United states, failed to understand that its Ukraine policy was laying the groundwork for a major clash with Russia, one must go back to the mid-1990s, when the Clinton administration began advocating NATO expansion. Pun-dits advanced a variety of argu-ments for and against enlargement, but there was no consensus on what to do. Most eastern European émigrés in the United states and their relatives, for example, strong-ly supported expansion, because they wanted NATO to protect such countries as Hungary and Poland. A few realists also favored the pol-icy because they thought Russia still needed to be contained. But most realists opposed expan-sion, in the belief that a declining great power with an aging popula-tion and a one-dimensional econo-my did not in fact need to be con-tained. And they feared that en-largement would only give Mos-cow an incentive to cause trouble in eastern Europe. The U.s. diplo-mat George Kennan articulated this perspective in a 1998 interview, shortly after the U.s. senate ap-proved the first round of NATO ex-pansion. “I think the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies,” he said. “I think it is a tragic mistake. There was no reason for this whatsoever. No one was threatening anyone e l s e . ” The United states and its allies should abandon their plan to west-ernize Ukraine and instead aim to make it a neutral buffer. Most liberals, on the other hand, favored enlargement, including many key members of the Clinton administration. They believed that the end of the Cold War had funda-mentally transformed international politics and that a new, postnation-al order had replaced the realist logic that used to govern Europe. The United states was not only the “indispensable nation,” as secre-tary of state Madeleine Albright put it; it was also a benign hege-mon and thus unlikely to be viewed

as a threat in Moscow. The aim, in essence, was to make the entire continent look like western Europe. And so the United states and its allies sought to promote democracy in the countries of eastern Europe, increase economic interdependence among them, and embed them in international institutions. Having won the debate in the United States, liberals had little difficulty convincing their European allies to support NATO enlargement. After all, given the EU’s past achieve-ments, Europeans were even more wedded than Americans to the idea that geopolitics no longer mattered and that an all-inclusive liberal or-der could maintain peace in Eu-r o p e . so thoroughly did liberals come to dominate the discourse about Eu-ropean security during the first de-cade of this century that even as the alliance adopted an open-door policy of growth, NATO expansion faced little realist opposition. The liberal worldview is now accepted dogma among U.S. officials. In March, for example, President Ba-rack Obama delivered a speech about Ukraine in which he talked repeatedly about “the ideals” that motivate Western policy and how those ideals “have often been threatened by an older, more tradi-tional view of power.” secretary of state John Kerry’s response to the Crimea crisis reflected this same perspective: “You just don’t in the twenty-first century behave in nineteenth-century fashion by in-vading another country on com-pletely trumped-up pretext.” In essence, the two sides have been operating with different play-books: Putin and his compatriots have been thinking and acting ac-cording to realist dictates, whereas their Western counterparts have been adhering to liberal ideas about international politics. The result is that the United states and its allies unknowingly provoked a major crisis over Ukraine. In that same 1998 interview, Ken-nan predicted that NATO expan-sion would provoke a crisis, after which the proponents of expansion would “say that we always told you that is how the Russians are.” As if

on cue, most Western officials have portrayed Putin as the real culprit in the Ukraine predicament. In March, according to The New York Times, German Chancellor Angela Merkel implied that Putin was irra-tional, telling Obama that he was “in another world.” Although Putin no doubt has autocratic tendencies, no evidence supports the charge that he is mentally unbalanced. On the contrary: he is a first-class strat-egist who should be feared and re-spected by anyone challenging him on foreign policy. Other analysts allege, more plausi-bly, that Putin regrets the demise of the soviet Union and is determined to reverse it by expanding Russia’s borders. According to this interpre-tation, Putin, having taken Crimea, is now testing the waters to see if the time is right to conquer Ukraine, or at least its eastern part, and he will eventually behave ag-gressively toward other countries in Russia’s neighborhood. For some in this camp, Putin represents a modern-day Adolf Hitler, and striking any kind of deal with him would repeat the mistake of Mu-nich. Thus, NATO must admit Georgia and Ukraine to contain Russia before it dominates its neighbors and threatens western E u r o p e . This argument falls apart on close inspection. If Putin were commit-ted to creating a greater Russia, signs of his intentions would al-most certainly have arisen before February 22. But there is virtually no evidence that he was bent on taking Crimea, much less any other territory in Ukraine, before that date. Even Western leaders who supported NATO expansion were not doing so out of a fear that Rus-sia was about to use military force. Putin’s actions in Crimea took them by complete surprise and ap-pear to have been a spontaneous reaction to Yanukovych’s ouster. Right afterward, even Putin said he opposed Crimean secession, before quickly changing his mind. Besides, even if it wanted to, Rus-sia lacks the capability to easily conquer and annex eastern Ukraine, much less the entire country. Roughly 15 million people -- one-third of Ukraine’s population -- live between the Dnieper River, which

bisects the country, and the Russian border. An overwhelming majority of those people want to remain part of Ukraine and would surely resist a Russian occupation. Furthermore, Russia’s mediocre army, which shows few signs of turning into a modern Wehrmacht, would have little chance of pacifying all of Ukraine. Moscow is also poorly positioned to pay for a costly occu-pation; its weak economy would suffer even more in the face of the resulting sanctions. But even if Russia did boast a powerful military machine and an impressive economy, it would still probably prove unable to success-fully occupy Ukraine. One need only consider the soviet and U.s. experiences in Afghanistan, the U.s. experiences in Vietnam and Iraq, and the Russian experience in Chechnya to be reminded that mili-tary occupations usually end badly. Putin surely understands that trying to subdue Ukraine would be like swallowing a porcupine. His re-sponse to events there has been de-fensive, not offensive.

Given that most Western leaders continue to deny that Putin’s be-havior might be motivated by le-gitimate security concerns, it is un-surprising that they have tried to modify it by doubling down on their existing policies and have punished Russia to deter further aggression. Although Kerry has maintained that “all options are on the table,” neither the United states nor its NATO allies are prepared to use force to defend Ukraine. The West is relying instead on econom-ic sanctions to coerce Russia into ending its support for the insurrec-tion in eastern Ukraine. In July, the United states and the EU put in place their third round of limited sanctions, targeting mainly high-level individuals closely tied to the Russian government and some high-profile banks, energy compa-nies, and defense firms. They also threatened to unleash another, tougher round of sanctions, aimed at whole sectors of the Russian e c o n o m y . such measures will have little ef-

Why The Ukraine Crisis Is The West’s Fault The Liberal Delusions That Provoked Putin Part II & Final

A WAY OUT

BLAME GAME

THE DIAGNOSIS

continued on page 4

6Eritrea Profile, Wednesday 24th of september 2014

Daniel semere

Comparison is not as easy as it looks and can in fact be extremely tricky.

It is a fact though most of our conversation, opinions, observa-tions, and decisions are in one way or the other based on comparison. When we claim someone to be tall, smart, kind or quite we have already set the parameters with which we are relating the person to. In other word we have put in place an ac-ceptable criterion that has illumi-nated the difference of the person in question. The same analogy can be used in just about everything. Comparison is not bad per se and in many occasions it might be the only way we can understand and com-prehend things. The fact the matter is we can’t just do away with com-parison. The point however is that conclusions that are formed in such a way might be misleading about the opinion we form about things and the actions we take based on this opinion. This tendency has the capacity or the side effect that lim-its potentials, kills motivation and aspirations, deny further opportuni-ties, and lock the door to options.

When we compare ourselves and consider exceeding others as our goal then we limit ourselves. It is not always the case that we are aware of our capacity. In some cases we may have what it takes to achieve much more but make the mistake of settling for less by con-sidering it the best result in com-parison to others. In school for in-stance such kind of mistake is very common, as most students measure successes as excelling better than the next student or scoring more mark than their classmate. One of the classic mistakes we were mak-ing in colleges, our professor point-

ed out, was that we measure our success or rather limit the horizon of our success as we compare our grades with most of our colleagues. so the goal becomes beating up other students in grade, instead of stretching ourselves to the limit and be all we can be or achieve all we can. Perhaps that is why, in retro-spect many of my friends from col-lege feel like they could’ve scored better grades than they got. Perhaps we should have searched our inside than spying on our friend’s cumula-tive grade; it would have saved us from today’s regret.

Another danger of compari-son is the fault of comparing two seemingly comparable things only they are not similar or don’t pos-sess similar qualities that will al-low for fair comparison free from prejudice, bias, or errors. This is like comparing apple and orange. Not that they can’t be compared to a common object or objective like say in the use they give to our body or our health, or what have you. But if we try to compare the two of them by asking which one tests better, there could not be a correct answer. This is to say that the answer is highly subjective and cannot be taken as universal or objective. In the series of lectures known as the Ted Lectures, a cer-tain Chinese scholar made a point in which westerners often make a mistake of trying to understand and measure the Chinese political system with Western standard and set of criteria. One particular point that sticks out from his refutation of such tendencies was when he points out that although there are many civil societies in china one wouldn’t recognize it with a prede-termined and preconceived notion that a civil society must oppose the government. To quote his words;

“There is a vibrant civil society in china whether environmental or what have you, but it is different and you wouldn’t recognize it. By western definition a so called civil society has to be separate or even in opposition to the political system. But that concept is alien to Chinese culture. For thousands of years we have civil societies and yet they are consistent, coherent and part of the political order.” We can debate on the assertion he made and whether it is correct or not, but as far as the possibility of faulty comparison is concerned it can teach us a lot. Af-ter all why can’t the Chinese have their own definition of civil society that is compatible with their culture and current situation? And if that is the case how can we compare civil societies of the westerns with that of Chinese and reach a conclusion with normative result? Just because we are considering one thing or

Be Careful Of Your Comparison

topic we can be inclined to over-look factors that can bring about fundamental difference in the topic when it is seen or scrutinized in dif-ferent environment.

One of the biggest problems of comparison yet again is that it can mislead people by giving the wrong impression and distort perception. We can get the wrong ideas of ourselves by failing victim of such a comparison. This is when we, intentionally or inadvertently, distort reality through comparison and shift our attention from asking fundamental questions and from getting in to the bottom of things. For instance from the same lecture about China’s political system that was mentioned above, the lecturer in his attempt to defend the notion that China’s one party system is intrinsically liable to rampant cor-ruption brought the comparison of china which is placed on the 70 - 80 rank to that of India that was place at 94 in corruption index. The im-plication here was that a one party system is no more corrupt than the largest democracy in the world. But the point however should have been why should there be that much cor-ruption in china in the first place whether India is corrupt or not. One could as well ask why the person didn’t compare it with say Norway where there is much lesser corruption and which is also a de-mocracy. The person apparently picked India over Norway because it was convenient for the point he was determine to make. However, if the lecturer or China for that mat-ter was to feel good just because it is better than india then the Chinese

people will be subjected to all the ills of corruption and things will get worse. so the point is, leaving poli-tics and rhetoric aside, the Chinese wouldn’t get anything but misery if they accept the fact that they are better than India in the matter. The point is irrelevant as far as the most important thing is concerned which is building corruption free administration in China. One will never be strong, in its true sense, by comparing oneself with bunch of weak. True strength is an inher-ent quality. One has to be strong in its own right and not by compar-ing oneself with worse and worst examples. Those who search for consolation in the weakness of oth-ers will doom themselves to have nothing better than what they have in the future and will eventually plunge themselves in to a quagmire of problems.

The fact the matter is just like the saying ‘nothing is as what it seems.’ Hence this guarantees the likelihood of committing mistakes or errors during comparison. Of course we can’t always monitor our conversation, thoughts and ac-tions; and it is ok for most of issues we deal in our daily life. However when we make important decisions that are going to affect our life sig-nificantly, or when we make deci-sions on behalf of people it is worth giving a careful thought about our comparisons. We shouldn’t accept things at face value if we don’t want to limit our potentials, kill our motivation and aspirations, deny ourselves further opportunities, and lock the door to options. Let’s be critical of our comparisons.

7Eritrea Profile, Wednesday 24th of september 2014

The world has one language, and undoubtedly, that is music. There-fore, musicians go crazy to dis-cover a new beat. similarly, sing-ers sweat blood to compose their talents; to create an ever increasing spirit of their fans, they – the sing-ers- verbalize that the sky is the limit. We had an interview with one young artist to discover the hidden masks of this artist who is exerting unreserved- efforts to international-ize the word- ‘Eritrea’ and ‘Eritrean music.’ ‘How this can be possible? Details follow.

Before limited years, Eri-TV’s betterly figured entertaining pro-gram broadcasted a newly pro-duced song. A young Eritrean sing-er appeared in the screen together with Ugandan honored singer Dr. Jose chamelon (kamelon). soon a bettered glance of the Eritrea’s mu-sic fans excelled. Who is this new singer? His single song entitled ‘beauty’- acclaimed and got a bet-tered level in Eritrea. Therefore, the famous Ugandan singer who was born on January 1 of 1979 wel-comed to- Eritreans music fans for he enabled to give us the beauty of divers: - tying your music career together – with sami Ezra sibhatu (sami Eritrea).

Assuredly, in his 1960’s moder-ately crafted book which entitled “Tiri Ebidty” (the crazy January) Mr.Berhe Araya authored about the restless enthusiasm of our so-ciety especially of the Tigrigna’s ‘Guaila.’ He Mr.Berhe Araya, voiced that ‘Guaila’ started to en-gulf the dancers by a storm of wild seems emotions, then, no one knows where he/she is.”

Mean while, the British Military Administration attempted to chase ‘Guaila’ performers ‘disturbing the environment and violating individ-uals’ freedom to have their own si-lent environment. Hence the BMA continued its exertions by enforcing –the Coptic religious leaders to put a ‘justified and reasonable’ excom-

munication over ‘Guaila’ perform-ers. However, the society respond-ed ‘ዕዳ’ስ እዕደ፥ ከበሮ ጥራይ ኣይብደ.’ This donates no matter of the burden and the chastisment cost; the drum will not be abandoned.’ This was from 1942- 1952.

sami Ezra, however, has one comment. For me, the kunama style of Eritrea is one similar to other African countries Afro beat style. ‘Guila’, as it follows the pentatonic cadences measure, it is not only a peculiar one. But also, much more is entangled to be understood easily by others.

sami EZra, therefore, produced 17songs in the past less than a half decade- term. The contents of his songs are- diversified. Betterly, he is attempting to unearth the overt and covert- graces of music. He has already been marching on the nar-row, much efforts demanding road that takes to the-international podi-ums. That is why sami Eritrea has been attempting to expand his hori-zon. Indeed, he is not an outshining native speaker of such languages like swahili, Luanda of Uganda, Ruwanda’s one language and Eng-lish. Lucky enough, however, sami has been active to use his talents to study some process in the afore-mentioned languages, embracing for his crazy driven to sing in the kunama as he have already initiated to take such hortative actions.

The writer also got credible wit-ness about this young artist who has now started taking the torch of his music career there by to outshine the light of his profession among the undiscovered careers. And in full confidence, he told me that he is not going to stop from toppling any challenges which probably happen in his way.

Absolutely, Zoal TV from sudan, East- African radio system from Kenya, MTV and EBs are some of the few media- outlets that once or intermittently have aired the song entitled ‘beauty.’ And truly, sami

adores talking much about the beauty of collaboration as a key for triumphing success, a way for con-structing an ivory-tower legacy in the musical career.

“If there is anyone who don’t like music, truly, he is a cruel, inargu-ably a tyrant with limited mind ho-rizon to entertain art and humani-tarian missions. Hence, to achieve this, I am already to mingle my ef-forts to create a resultant world of co-operation,”authenticated sami Ezra during our afternoon chat at Asmara palace here in Asmara, Eri-trea’s cosmopolitan city.

Indeed, highly underpinned by his goodly frequented tours to dif-ferent countries, sami Ezra en-abled to dream a big dream. He is now running to take a lion’s share in East Africa thereby to continue strolling through international ave-nues. Then, would be this possible? sami Eritrea declares ‘YEs.’ And for detailing all the angles of his musical performance is possible,

in another but researched article, the writer will attempt to expand and enrich the content of this angle. And truly, as professionalism and collaboration are the key for suc-cessful career, I wish all the best

Young Eritrean Artist continue strolling through

international avenues

for sami Ezra (sami Eritrea) and his close partner Dr.Jose chamo-len (kamelon) for enabling to give us the grail of success by working together.

Yoasief. A. Z

of his greatly expanded Circle of Influence.

The “Have’s” and the “Be’s”One way to determine which cir-

cle our concern is in is to distinguish between the have’s and the be’s.

The Circle of Concern is filled with the have’s

“I’ll be happy when I have my house paid off.”

“If only I had a boss who wasn’t such a dictator.”

“If only I had a more patient hus-band.”

“If I had more obedient kids.”“If I had my degree.”“If I could just have more time to

myself.”The Circle of Influence is filled

with the be’s -- I can be more pa-tient, be wise, be loving. It’s the character focus.

Anytime we think the problem is “out there,” that thought is the prob-lem. We empower what’s out there to control us. The change paradigm is “outside-in” -- what’s out there has to change before we can change.

The proactive approach is to change from the Inside-Out: to be different, and by being different, to effect positive change in what’s out there -- I can be more resourceful, I can be more diligent, I can be more creative, I can be more cooperative.

One of my favorite stories is one in the Old Testament, part of the

fundamental fabric of the Judeo-Christian tradition. It’s the story of Joseph, who was sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers at the age of 17. Can you imagine how easy it would have been for him to languish in self-pity as a servant of Potiphar, to focus on the weaknesses of his brothers and his captors and on all he didn’t have?

But Joseph was proactive. He worked on be. And within a short period of time, he was running Potiphar’s household. He was in charge of all that Potiphar had be-cause the trust was so high. Then the day came when Joseph was caught in a difficult situation and refused to compromise his integrity. As a result, he was unjustly impris-oned for 13 years. But again he was proactive. He worked on the inner circle, on being instead of having, and soon he was running the prison and eventually the entire nation of Egypt, second only to the Pharaoh.

I know this idea is a dramatic Par-adigm shift for many people. It is so much easier to blame other people, conditioning, or conditions for our own stagnant situation. But we are responsible -- “response-able” -- to control our lives and to powerfully influence our circumstances by working on be, on what we are.

If I have a problem in my mar-riage, what do I really gain by con-tinually confessing my wife’s sins?

By saying I’m not responsible,

I make myself a powerless victim; I immobilize myself in a negative situation. I also diminish my ability to influence her -- my nagging, ac-cusing, critical attitude only makes her feel validated in her own weak-ness. My criticism is worse than the conduct I want to correct. My abil-ity to positively impact the situation withers and dies.

If I really want to improve my sit-uation, I can work on the one thing over which I have control -- myself. I can stop trying to shape up my wife and work on my own weaknesses. I can focus on being a great marriage partner, a source of unconditional love and support. Hopefully, my wife will feel the power of proac-tive example and respond in kind. But whether she does or doesn’t, the most positive

I can influence my situation is to work on myself, on my being. There are so many ways to work in the Circle of Influence -- to be a better listener, to be a more loving marriage partner, to be a better stu-dent, to be a more cooperative and dedicated employee.

sometimes the most proactive thing we can do is to be happy, just to genuinely smile. Happiness, like unhappiness, is a proactive choice. There are things, like the weather, that our Circle of Influence will nev-er include. But as proactive people, we can carry our own physical or social weather with us. We can be happy and accept those things that at present we can’t control, while we focus our efforts on the things that we can.

Taking Initiative...continued from page 3

8Eritrea Profile, Wednesday 24th of september 2014

Kesete Ghebrehiwet

The National Union of Eritrean Women (NUEW) has conducted an international symposium at As-mara Palace on 15 september and also its 7th congress on 16th and 17th september 2014 at the hall of its head office in Asmara. In this in-ternational symposium, representa-tives from different African coun-tries as well as from the UN have been present.

Ms. Victoria Malkoa, From the University of Pretoria, south Af-rica has presented a paper titled “ Women and Peace-Building: Expe-rience of south Africa.” As regards her participation in the interna-tional symposium organized by the NUEW she said that she attended the symposium to express solidar-ity with Eritrean women.

Ms. Victoria is of the idea that such symposium would open a venue to share not only the experi-ences of the struggle of women in south African Africa, but also to learn from the experiences of the

struggle of Eritrean women. “By doing so, we will be strengthening our efforts in bringing peace in our respective countries,” she said.

As regards what could be learned from the experiences of south Af-rican women in bringing develop-ment and social justice, Ms. Victo-ria Puts her views saying:

south African women have been at the forefront of ensuring justice for our people as well as in mak-ing a difference in the country’s economic sector. We have highly dedicated women in various justice sectors working as judges, mag-istrates, and as judicial officers. We have also women leading big businesses, who have thereby been contributing to the development of their country. There are various do-mains where we can share experi-ences.

As regards what the contribu-tions of such a symposium would be, Ms. Victoria reiterated the idea of sharing experiences be-tween south African and Eritrean women. she said “I am here not to only share my experiences as a south African Women but also to learn from the Eritrean women and to take all the lessons and the insights from here and then to re-port back home. Our experiences in here would really strengthen our efforts at home. There are women in Eritrea who have gone through the same struggle that we have gone through before. We are learn-ing from them and taking courage to never give up and fight despite the odds.”

Citing an ecodate of a sheep

and that of a hen, Ms. Vitoria said that the women’s unions of Eritrea and south Africa need to produce enough mutton and eggs to as-sist large masses in Africa. The message she wants to convey to the Eritrean men and women is to make a decision whether they want to make contribution or rather to be committed to that cause.

Another foreign participant of a

recently held symposium that was organized by the NUEW, Ms. Jud-aline Mulqueeny, from the Central Committee of the south African Communist party, on her part said that Eritrean women have high-lighted in the symposium the issue of equality and justice. “I think we are grabbling with the same issue back in south Africa. so, we are to learn a lot form coming in here. I have already learned from Eritrean women and from what they have been able to do. When we go to south Africa, we will see how it would go forward. “Ms. Judaline expressed.”I am really interested in the issue of equality. I think the women of Africa need to rethink

NUEW’s Symposium from the View Point of Foreign ParticipantsReportage

Ms. Victoria Malkoa

anew on how we are going to work together in solidarity.”

In the symposium, experiences of south African, Rwandan, Ugan-dan, and Tanzanian women in terms of peace-building were shared to all participants. As regards such expe-rience sharing platform in which different African countries have took part, Ms. Thokozile Ruzvidzo , Coordinator of African Center for Gender and social Development at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, puts her ideas as follows:

The symposium has looked at varied issues. We looked the ex-periences of a number of coun-tries in peace-building including the experience of Eritrean women. This looked at the issue of violence against women, especially female genital mutilation in which Eritrea has conducted a huge campaign against such practice. The way NUEW is working both with men and women to try and address the issue of genital mutilation.

What I have found fascinating is the contribution of women during the struggle for independence. It reminds me of the struggle for in-dependence in Zimbabwe and gen-erally how women contributed in the struggle to gain independence. What I have found fascinating again about the women of Eritrea is they are here to share their own ex-periences. However, I would like to encourage them to write about their stories from which the world has to learn a lot. I am also impressed by the initiatives of Eritrean women in Diaspora who have been support-

Ms. Judaline Mulqueeny

Ms. Thokozile Ruzvidzo

Ms, sophia M. simba

ing women’s development initia-tives here in Eritrea. This is indeed a valuable experience the rest of Africa could learn from. What re-ally impressed me most is the idea the President of this country shared with us in the symposium saying “Women’s issue is more than gen-der equality, it is about citizenship.” so, if we treat each other equally as citizens then gender inequality does not become an issue.

sophia M. simba, Minister for Community Development/Gen-der and Children/ in the republic

of Tanzania and Chair person of Women’s wing of the ruling party also said “We learned a lot of what is happening in Eritrea. As the issue of women is concerned, the sympo-sium discussed economic empow-erment of women, issues of FGM, among others and it made me know Eritrea better.”

Ms. Sofia is of the idea that not only women have to change their mindset but should also work hard to change men’s mindset towards women.

The international women’s sym-posium that was held last week at Asmara Palace has indeed become a platform where a number of Af-rican women discuss issues that concern them and shared ideas on how to tackle challenges and work in unison for a betterment of living standards of African women. What different representative of wom-en’s unions and women’s associa-tions from Uganda, south Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, sudan and other officials who took part in the symposium reiterated is they have learned a lesson from the work ac-complishment of Eritrean women and they would look forward to make use of it back in their respec-tive countries.