Included amongst the fundamental human rights is that to education. The development of a robust educational infrastructure will be key to the development of any nation. Particularly in the developing world, where there is a significant demographic bias towards the youth, expenditures towards education will be high. As nearly every country has learned however, weathering the storm until the investment in the youth matures is the true test of a nations mettle.
The dream that is America started hundreds of years ago. To bring that dream to fruition, the efforts of an untold many were expended. Today we are one more step closer to bringing that dream to reality. Everyday though that dream threatened by those who are supposed to protect it, to ensure it.
Callous though it may seem the political freedoms that we enjoy in America come with a heavy caveat, you only have one home. Granted, for most Americans this is not an issue, most have both feet firmly planted on American soil, but in an increasingly globalized world, many more of us try to keep our ties to ancestral homes. At the dawn of this new period of engagement with other countries, this is in fact an asset to our country.
It is a curious suggestion that, “…the only time in our history we Eritreans openly and freely discussed the future of our nation publicly was during the British Administration or pre-1952.” (Let the Dialogue Begin: A Passionate Call to ‘Eritrean Intellectuals’) This is a sad recollection of our most recent past. Undoubtedly this suggests that the author (and more broadly those who did not participate in the constitutional congress) ignore the key to representative governance, and at its heart democracy.
In recent weeks the Foreign Ministry of Ethiopia has purported that the demarcation of its boundary with Eritrea was nothing more than “legal nonsense.” Indeed the virtual demarcation is a far cry from the physical border posts that were initially to be constructed. However, after three quarters of a decade trying to construct the actual border posts the Eritrea Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC), which was charged by both countries as the neutral arbiter resolved to demarcate the border in the most practical manner possible.
Further liberal policies from the Eritrean Government. Yesterday the Eritrean President, flanked by his Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Arefaine Berhe, stressed the necessity for reforestation in Eritrea.
It is to be remembered that Eritrea was once covered (up to 30% before the turn of the last century by some estimates) with forested land. It was only the upsurge in population and conflict through the Ethiopian Occupation that lead to the current 1% figure touted in Government and International estimates.