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The Dilemma of the new Graduates in Eritrea

Assenna.Com Commentary Government print media is filled with ‘graduation’ stories these days.  The ‘Institute of Technology graduates 1463 students’, ‘College of Health Science graduated 566 students’, ‘Halhal School of Business and Accounting graduates 315 students’, ‘College

Assenna.Com Commentary

Government print media is filled with ‘graduation’ stories these days.  The ‘Institute of Technology graduates 1463 students’, ‘College of Health Science graduated 566 students’, ‘Halhal School of Business and Accounting graduates 315 students’, ‘College of Arts and Social Science graduates 281 students’ and so forth.  During ceremonies, numerous representatives of the graduates ‘commend the opportunity given to them by the government’.  Their statements take the familiar line of coerced promises – readiness to live up to expectations.

It is fascinating to witness how every graduation ceremony is enveloped in utter government hype. Irrespective of the hoopla, the facts on the ground is quite different.  Actually, the situation for the graduates has remained tragically static for decades, with no end to years of servitude. The graduates have grown up in a country without a constitution.  They have grown up in a country that offers them a bleak future.  The system around them, one that depletes them of their energy, enthusiasm and goodwill, continues to churn out ‘graduates’ by the thousands every year.  What happens to them after graduation is indeed a sad story.

The new graduates were born after independence.  The majority were toddlers when Eritrea plunged into a slippery slope from which it failed to recover.  If they are asked who Astier Fissehatzion or others who have fallen victims to the regime’s draconian nature they will simply shrug off the question.  They have no idea of the tragic episodes that ruined the country under the leadership of the only person they have come to know in the country. They have grown watching the images of Isaias Afwerki day in and day out as if he were totally committed to their wellbeing.  Government programmes which always include stories that attempt to embellish the president’s image and prop up his inner circle have impaired their senses.  They have grown accustomed to the dreary way of life that is filled with pitfalls on a political landscape devoid of nurturing qualities. In Eritrea, it has been too easy for propaganda to work, and of course, dissent to be mocked. Eritrea is now geared to a ‘Sawa’ economy bred in an artificially induced psychosis of ‘nationalist’ hysteria and an incessant propaganda of the ‘greatness of its youth’. The sad part of the story is that it quickly dawns on the new graduates that they are merely stuck in the so called ‘Eritrean development project’.

Soon after graduation, the graduates take matters into their own hands.  They, like their predecessors, disperse and follow escape routes to Ethiopia, Sudan, Djibouti, the Sahara desert, Libya, Egypt, Israel and other parts of the region.  As we have been witnessing it for years, many of the new graduates will end up in the shores of Europe.  Sadly, that is what happens to the graduates of Eritrea.

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8 COMMENTS
  • ሃብተ July 11, 2017

    እንታይ እሞ እዚ ደይ ማንቲለ ዘሊላ ዘሊላ ኣብ መሬታ።

  • andom July 12, 2017

    Did u forget all the devellopments registerred during the past 26 years.
    If so let me remind u
    The university of asmara advanced to colleges. The eritrean airlines develloped from six plene air liner to air fied where several birds land and take off every day. This is to just mention a few. Devellopment is not blichlich that u see in ethiopia but hilimlim ” xelmat” that u see in eritrea.

    • stefanos temolso July 12, 2017

      You are right Andom but you forgot to mention that the people get abundant water, milk, kerosene, wheat flour, electricity, and also that the salary of the Sawa military graduates is 1200 Nakfa. In brief Eritrea is a very developed country where everyone is very satisfied to the extreme. In contrast Ethiopia is the least developed and cities like Mekele and Adigrat unlike Asmara are ghost cities.

  • k.tewolde July 12, 2017

    It makes you wonder what king of commencement speech they give them,’congrats grads,but you are overqualified for the vacancies we have,so we have to ship you abroad…’ may be? or the military and the espionage sector of the economy is big enough to absorb all this grads regardless of their field of study.

  • Amanios July 12, 2017

    The words of the Nazi propoganda minister Joseph Goebbels ring on the ears: “Give me control of a nation’s media and I’ll make them a nation of pigs”. Goebbels redux: with hgdef monopolised degenerate propoganda galore, Eritrea has been turned into a worthless nation of sheeples. It is like a tragedy from Franz Kafka.

  • Muzit R July 12, 2017

    It is indeed sad what happens to young Eritreans after they finish college and how the leaders ‘make use’ of their potential. The bozo who is talking about ’26 years worth of development’, the one who is confusing lies with reality, may not have the word ‘abuse’ in his vocabulary. To make things click in his head, he finds it easier to look reality in the eye, and deny it.
    Muzit R

  • Danilo July 12, 2017

    Una bella forma! Award, celebration, promise and eagerness that vanish the day after.

  • Dr. Senay July 13, 2017

    For those of us who spent decades in dealing with higher education research, this primitive propaganda is just a joke. Eritrea’s per capita graduates of higher education are by far lower than all neighboring countries including Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, even Somalia with all its problems. These barbarians are playing with the intelligence of our people.

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