LIES.   The BBC catches up with the incurably and pathologically lying machine who goes by the name of Girma Asmerom (even the name is probably a lie.)  Asked whatever happened to Patriach Antonios, he said that the Patriarch has retired to an isolated monastery and is very much "alive, kicking and praying."

MISCHIEF:  The ELF-RC visited Tigray, Ethiopia, met with the president of the province and toured Shimelba in October 2007.  Nothing happened.   The ELF-RC became the Eritrean People's Party (EPP), visited Tigray, Ethipia, met with the president of the province and toured Shimelba in August 2008. Some people had major panic attacks. But they did not explain why not then, or why now.

AMUSED BY WAR:  Adam Smith was a great economist.  But does he understand the PFDJ War Mongrels?  Yes, he does: In great empires the people who live in the capital, and in the provinces remote from the scene of action, feel, many of them, scarce any inconveniency from the war; but enjoy, at their ease, the amusement of reading in the newspapers the exploits of their own fleets and armies. To them this amusement compensates the small difference between the taxes which they pay on account of the war, and those which they had been accustomed to pay in time of peace. They are commonly dissatisfied with the return of peace, which puts an end to their amusement, and to a thousand visionary hopes of conquest and national glory from a longer continuance of the war. In Adam Smith's scenario, the wars are distant and the cheerleaders live in the capital.  In Eritrea, the wars are at home, and the cheerleaders live in the capitals of foreign nations. 

DICTATORS WITHOUT BORDERS.  Have an opinion about what goes on anywhere, everywhere in the world.  Sometimes, they write articles without bylines.

PREDICTION: 0% ACCURACY SUGGESTS "STOP MAKING PREDICTIONS", DOESN'T IT? In November 2006, shabait.com made 4 predictions that war was about to break out between Eritrea and Ethiopia (with strong encouragement from the US) any minute now. The International Crisis Group (ICG), which should know better, jumping in and made the same prediction.  There was no war.  ICG then made the same prediction in 2007, thereby maintaining its perfect record of 0% accuracy in its predictions.

NUMBER TWO:  In October 2007, the IMF issued its report showing that Zimbabwe had the world’s highest inflation rate, which everybody in the world knew.   Less known and discussed was the world’s second largest inflationary market, Eritrea’s.

NUMBER ONE:  In Reporters Without Borders 2007 Index, Eritrea displaced North Korea as the worst country for the press.

WAITING TO EXHALE: The BBC had yet another reporter expelled from Eritrea.   Jonah Fisher: 2003 – 2004:  Dismissed for “racist, negative reporting.”  Jonah was told that they “have been closely monitoring my phone calls, e-mails and activities.”  Peter Martell: 2007 – 2008:  Dismissed for refusing to disclose the names of Eritreans who, in his report, had expressed an opinion different from the happy-talk of I-support-my-government.  "You will not work again, until you tell us the names of the people," he added.  Given Eritrea's grim record for jailing its critics, I declined politely to reveal the names. I was then made to surrender my work permit.

David vs David (with 2 Goliaths watching): Eritrea vs Djibouti: The distance between the rival armies is shorter than the barrel of a gun. Hundreds of opposing troops are lined up on the border, staring each other down, from just inches away.... There is no buffer zone between the soldiers, as there usually is along a contested frontier. Instead, the heavily armed fighters, who are becoming increasingly tense and irritable, are squeezed together on a sweltering hilltop, watching each others’ every move. New York Times

President Gone WILD, Continued:  The president-for-life’s Independence Day Address is now available on YouTube in three parts. (President For Life Isaias Afwerki has been shortened to “PFLIA”, courtesy of Asmarino’s Equilibrium.)  Every year, the Independence Day address is the same play: with Isaias in the heroic role, and a rotating cast of bad guys who have been (or have to be) vanquished.  Our 2008 bad guy is the US Administration, which takes up all of part 1 and part 2 of the video.    Part 3 is where things get interesting: tired of blaming the US administration, here PFLIA blames unnamed administrators within his regime for screwing up the bumper harvest of 2007 and for misreading the esoteric weather forecast language of KLIMA.  Heads will roll.

FLOWER POWER:  "Khadra Mohammed, First Lady of Djibouti, has received the 20 hectares of land in the Sebeta area for a flower farm…The First Lady received the plot on behalf of her son Ayinashe Omar Guelleh, whom it was learnt, plans to engage in the booming flower sector…" so reports Ethiopia's Capital. Last week, Reuters reported that Papa Guelleh received “10,000 square meters of lakeside land” as well as “7,000 hectares of land some 400 km (250 miles) south of Addis Ababa, where government officials say he will grow wheat.”  The message of the two stories? (warning: Four Winds cannot resist bad puns.) FIRST IT WAS THE POPPY; NOW THE SON-FlOWER.

DIVISION: Kinjit split.  OLF had a splinter group.  Union of Islamic Courts split into a Djibouti and Asmara factions. Sudan's Eastern Front fired its chairman. 

SUDAN-CHAD LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP: Continued with fighting and reconciliation and fighting again and reconciliation again.

IMPERFECTION AS THE ENEMY OF GOOD:  Kenya had an imperfect election.  Zimbabwe had an imperfect election.  Sudan will have an imperfect election.  All used and will be used by the PFDJ to explain how the perfection of no elections is superior to flawed elections.

OLYMPIC SPIRIT: Bankrupt African countries suddenly discover money when their athletes do well.  Mugabe gave Zimbabwe's gold swimmer 100,000 (US dollars, not the funny Zimbabwe currency.)  Bashir, whose country did not do well at the Olympics, gave money to the Egyptian football team, which did well in the African Cup (15,000 - 20,000.) Meanwhile, Egypt, which didn't do well in the Olympics has tasked a committee to find out what exactly happened.  The olympics committee is headed by the wife of Hosni Mubarek, which is entirely coincidental.