Recently, Eritrea�s Ministry of Information issued its alleged rebuttal to the photos which appeared in Italy�s Corriere dela Sera, which purported to show a person trying to avoid a round up for �national service� who was massacred in broad daylight by Eritrean authorities. 

With its free press of Admas, Keste Demena, Meqaleh, Setit, Tsigenay, and Zemen closed; with the brave reporters like Amanuel Asrat, Dawit Habtemichael, Dawit Isaac, Fessehaye Yohannes (�Joshua�), Gebrehiwet Keleta, Hamed Mohammed Said, Mattewos Habteab, Medhane Haile, Saedia Ahmed, Said Abdulkader, Saleh Aljezairi, Selamyinges Beyene, Seyoum Tsehaie, Temesgen Gebreyesus, Yusuf Mohammed Ali, and Zemenfes Haile and others arrested, Shabait now has complete monopoly and lies with inpunity: ill-serving the truth and the nation.

There is a reason why Shabait news is unsigned: nobody wants the responsibility of being associated with such blatant falsehoods when people will have to account for their actions, in a free and just Eritrea.

With a private press and free reporters, we would have had stories that are closer to the truth.  But it has been four years now since our private press were closed and our brave journalists arrested, without formal charges. This has given total monopoly to the state media to do what state media are good at: to lie, to obfuscate and to omit.

We consider one of our missions to be filling the void of Eritrea's private press.  Our job is to give you information Shabait forgot to tell you about.

In subsequent reports, we hope to provide information as to why the �witnesses� (none of whom includes the uniformed soldiers seen, nor the victim who is allegedly in jail) who were brought forth to rebut Corriere�s report about the daylight murder of an Eritrean are, at best, dubious sources.

UNDP's Human Development Index

For now, we would like to focus your attention on a more recent report, Shabait�s coverage of the UNDP�s annual Human Development Index (HDI.)  Entitled �Human Development Report for 2005 highly rates Eritrea's performance,� Shabait's article provides selective information, meant not to inform but to propagate an obvious falsehood.  Then, we are told, Dr. Wolday Futur blamed the donor nations for not doing their share towards fulfilling the Millenium Development Goals (MDG), a standard complaint of all sub-saharan Africans; and Mr. Yemane Gebreab blamed the donor nations for not doing their share towards ensuring the implementation of the ruling of the Eritrea-Ethiopia Boundary Commission (EEBC), a standard lament PFDJ shares with any visitor, even if the visitor is in Eritrea to discuss, say, anthropology. 

Shabait�s report of UNDP�s HDI is typical of all its reports: full of omissions and distortions. A casual reader who digests nothing but Shabait and the affiliated government-owned media and its echo chambers would actually think that Eritrea is actually showing improvements per the yardsticks employed by the UNDP. 

UNDP uses 33 yardsticks, each with scores of subsets, resulting in hundreds of measuring tools.  Yet, Shabait mentions three yardsticks of �average life span of citizens, educational achievement and annual income of individuals� and then tells its readers that Eritrea is �registering better performance than those African countries with high GNP as regards human development� based on the three yardsticks.

You can see the entire report here. 

http://hdr.undp.org/statistics/data/cty/cty_f_ERI.html

Would you like to know what Eritrea is registering better performance than those African countries with high GNP as regards human development means? What it means is that Djibouti, for example, which has a higher GDP than Eritrea, has a life expectancy of 52.8 compared to Eritrea�s 53.8.  Or, for example, Eritrea�s adult literacy rate of 56.7 is better than Ghana�s, at 54.1, although Ghana has a better GDP.

But this is like saying I failed the matriculation exam but I did really well in the first five questions.  As a new country, Eritrea is not expected to pass, but citizens should expect that each time it takes the exam it should get better.  In other words, a candid report would begin with what matters, the trend: is Eritrea�s overall Human Development Index getting better?

The simple answer is no.  As a matter of fact, Eritrea�s Human Development Index for 2005 is 161, out of a total of 177, besting only 16 nations in the world (yes, including Ethiopia.) 

Eritrea: 161

Benin: 162

Cote d�Ivoire: 163

Tanzania: 164

Malawi: 165

Zambia: 166

Congo: 167

Mozambique: 168

Burundi: 169

Ethiopia: 170

Central African Republic: 171

Guinea Bissau: 172

Chad: 173

Mali: 174

Burkino Faso: 175

Sierra Leone: 176

Niger: 177 

Is Eritrea improving or regressing?  The simple answer is: it is regressing.  In 2004, Eritrea�s HDI was 156, besting 21 nations (yes, including Ethiopia.)  As a matter of fact, it was out of the �Bottom 20.�

Eritrea: 156

Senegal: 157

Timor: 158

Rwanda: 159

Guinea: 160

Benin: 161

Tanzania: 162

Cote d�Ivoire: 163

Zambia: 164

Malawi: 165

Angola: 166

Chad: 167

Congo: 168

Central African Republic: 169

Ethiopia: 170

Mozambique: 171

Guinea Bissau: 172

Burundi: 173

Bali: 174

Burkino Faso: 175

Niger: 176

Sierra Leone: 177

And in 2003?  Eritrea�s HDI was 155. 

Thus, it is sheer dishonesty to pretend, as Shabait does, that Eritrea is �developing.�  Eritrea is, under PFDJ leadership, regressing.

Now, whenever we criticize the Eritrean government, we are accused of applying the standards of our host country�an unfair measurement for a Third World country, we are told.  We won�t ask you to compare Shabait with CNN or BBC; we are asking you to compare how Shabait reported the news in comparison the media in Asia and Africa who reported the publication of UNDP�s report, in reference to their countries.  In each case, the media sources cited (even that of communist China) report where their nation is, where it was in prior years, and then attempts to provide analysis and/or identify weaknesses. (We are including various sources from Uganda in solidarity with the free press which is being threatened by a tyrant-in-the-making, Musevini, who is bullying them.) 

Shabait�s motto seems to be �ill-serving the truth.�  Not only is this harmful to the nation, as ill-informed people are ill-equipped to address the challenges of their nations, it is also a futile exercise in the information age.

The following samples from other countries are the different ways Eritrea would have covered the news of UNDP�s Human Development Index if our brave indpendent journalists were free and the private press were open.   

Read the samples below.

 1.  Kuwait�s Arab Times

Kuwait has retained its place in the Human Development Index measuring achievements in terms of life expectancy, educational attainment and adjusted real income in all UN-member countries according to the Human Development Report 2005 released by the UNDP recently. It occupies the same 44th place unchanged from its previous ranking behind Qatar (40) and Bahrain (43) and the only Arab countries to figure prominently in the top 57 countries in the High Human Development category in select company that includes Norway, Iceland, Australia, Luxembourg and Canada among others, according to the UNDP Resident Representative in Kuwait. The HDI list includes 177 of the 191 UN-member countries. In a press conference held Wednesday at the UN headquarters in Kheitan to announce the launch of the Human Development Report 2005, Moez Doraid also said that billions of the world's long-suffering poor face an even bleaker future unless the developed world delivers on its commitment to help improve their lot.

2. Pakistan�s Daily Times:

ISLAMABAD: The Human Development Report 2005 issued by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) ranked Pakistan 135th among the 177 world economies on the basis of a human development index. The report titled �International Cooperation at a Crossroad: Aid, Trade and Security in an Unequal World� took stock of progress towards Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in health, education and income. The report, which was launched by the UNDP resident coordinator Jan Vandermootele, said that Pakistan had shifted to medium human development from low human developed countries by securing the 135th position. Last year Pakistan was below Nepal and Bangladesh in the ranking, while in the current ranking it fared better than the other two countries.

3.  Vietnam News

HA NOI � Viet Nam has continued to improve its place on the United Nations Development Programme�s Human Development Index, HDI. This year�s index shows that sustained economic growth has propelled Viet Nam�s human development ranking to 108 out of the 177 countries listed. It was at 112 in 2004. The HDI, which combines indicators of economic growth with the provision of education and health care, measures a country�s long-term progress in human development.

4.      Cameroon: The Post

The level of human development in Cameroon is not only still in the doldrums but also, statistics also indicate that more and more Cameroonians are wallowing the abyss of poverty. Government's efforts in fighting poverty and raising the living standards of the population has proven to be insufficient as the situation is taking a downward trend. The 2005 Human Development Report that was launched in Yaounde on September 13 indicates that Cameroon has slipped backwards, moving from 141st position last year to 148th position this year, in a rating of 177 countries in the world.

5.  Uganda: New Vision

UNITED Nations Development Programme has released a disturbing report about Uganda's state of health. The UNDP 2005 Human Development Report due for launch today, says Uganda has lost track of all the major health goals. The report says Uganda's health indicators, including infant, child and maternal mortality have either stagnated or deteriorated, with the under-five mortality rising since 1995. "One of the strongest Millennium Development Goal (MDG) performers in Africa, Uganda is now off track for all of the major health goals. The progress in the health sector has been hampered by deep structural problems. Malnutrition is implicated in two-thirds of childhood deaths, less than one third of women give birth under the supervision of a trained staff and there has been no decrease in major childhood killers, such as malaria and measles," the report states. However, out of the 177 countries considered in HDR 2005, Uganda's position has improved from last year's 146th to 144 ahead of neighbours Kenya (154), Rwanda, (159) and Tanzania (164).

6.  Uganda: The Monitor

Since the Human Development Index being launched today makes a direct connection between poor performance and conflict, the central query should be how Uganda has succeeded in becoming an exception. While conflict-free neighbours Kenya and Tanzania are dropping in ranking Uganda, which has endured more than 25 years of armed conflict since 1980, is enjoying improvement. Understanding what Uganda is doing right could impact on the report's relevance. It could sieve the reality from the statistics and show whether Uganda is, in fact, getting better or other countries are getting worse.

 7.  Nigeria: Daily Sun

Most likely, few Nigerians took any interest in the just released United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)�s 2005 Human Development Report (HDR) released last Wednesday. It is a measure of the ascent of banalities in the times that the import of that report was drowned in the din orchestrated by Abuja tsunamists; now, only heavens can truly quantify the extent of the havoc that their Hurricane PDP would wreak on the polity when the time comes to take stock. For the moment, the new thing is that our beloved country, Nigeria has notched deeper still in the abyss of global underdevelopment. The simple highlight in the 2005 HDR report is that whereas in 2004 the nation ranked 151st in the Human Development Index (HDI), this year we have moved to the 158th position.

8.  India: Press Trust of India

India may be at the forefront in terms of economic growth, but it continues to lag behind in quality of life, with its Human Development Index (HDI) remaining static at a low 127.The United Nations' Human Development Report (HDR) 2005, released on Wednesday, however, praised neighbouring Bangladesh for the rapid human development it has achieved despite its moderate growth. In the ranking done annually by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), India has made progress on the HDI value, which has gone up from .595 in 2004's report to .602 this year, but it is again ranked at 127 amongst 177 countries. The HDR notes that while India has moved into the premier league of world economic growth, the pick-up in growth has not translated into a commensurate decline in poverty.

9.  China: Chinabroadcast.cn

China has climbed 9 places in human development this past year. That's according to the newly released 2005 Human Development Report by UNDP. But the report also pointed out that China is still facing some critical challenges, including inequality in development, environment protection and medical care. CRI reporter qiuwei brings us the details. China ranks 85th this year on the list of 177 countries in terms of Human Development Index ranking, a jump of 20 notches since 1990.

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