Eritrea: the state of its library and information economy

Eden Zeratsion. Country fact sheet - Eritrea. (Asmara, Eritrea: educationUSA, undated).

United States. Department of State. Background note: Eritrea. At http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/ 2854.htm (accessed 15 March 2004).

Lib Lit indexes only five articles on libraries and ERIC contains less than two dozen articles on education ; the best sources are professional encyclopedia articles. See, for example, Rita Pankhurst's 'Ethiopia' on pages 188-189 of the Encyclopedia of Library History, edited by Wayne A. Wiegand and Donald G. Davis Jr. (New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 1994) or her earlier entry entitled 'Ethiopia, Libraries in' Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science, vol. 8, pages. 215-227, edited by Allen Kent and Harold Lancour ( New York: Marcel Dekker, 1968); 'Ethiopia' by Adhana Mengsteab in the ALA World Encyclopedia of Library and Information Services, 2nd ed. ( Chicago: American Library Association, 1986). The best source on Eritrea per se may be Paul B. Henze's Layers of Time: a history of Ethiopia (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000).

A STEPE analysis (i.e., the social, technical, economic, political and ecological trends) is employed when reviewing the external environment to ascertain the likely impact of these issues upon any undertaking; see James L. Morrison and Thomas V. Mecca , 'Managing Uncertainty,' In Higher Education: handbook of theory and research (New York: Agathon Press, 1989), vol. 5, pp. 334-382.

Meaning, the development of a sustainable future based on best practices in American librarianship, and with due consideration to the cultural, economic, legal, organizational, political, and appropriate technological contexts, given the constraints listed.

"A third ... are nomadic or semi-nomadic..." according to Zeratsion, p. 1.

Mebrat Tzehale. Eritrean cuisine. At http://home. planet.nl/-hans.mebrat/eritrea-cuisine.htm (accessed 15 March 2004).

Regional Security Office. TDY Security Briefing. (Asmara, Eritrea: Embassy of the United States of America, undated, but circa late December 2002 or early 2003); for a more moderate document, see Welcome to Asmara, Eritrea (Asmara, Eritrea: Embassy of the United States of America, undated but post 1997).

Johanna McGeary and Marguerite Michaels , 'Africa Rising,' Time , 151 (30 March 1998): 35-37.

Often, literacy is defined as the percentage of the population above age 15; the September 2002 World Bank figures in 'Eritrea at a Glance' (see http://www.worldbank.org/data/countrydata/aag/eri_aag.pdf, accessed 15 March 2004) suggest 43 percent of the population are illiterate; see also, Robert D. Kaplan , "A Tale of Two Colonies [Yemen and Eritrea]," Atlantic Monthly, 31 March 2003, or http://www.theattantic.com/issues/2005/04/kaptan.htm (accessed 15 March 2004).

According to Article 4, point 3 of the Constitution, "The equality of all Eritrean languages is guaranteed."

Gc'cz (aka Giiz), the ancient liturgical language of Eritrea, is also important for their cultural heritage.

Anthony D. Smith has written about the perennialist versus modernist notions of the role of the past in the formation of nations; see his book, The Ethnic Origins of Nations (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers , 1986).

According to the University's Prospectus 2002-2003, the five colleges include: Agriculture and Aquatic Sciences; Arts and Social Science; Business and Economics; Education; and Science; there is also a Faculty of Engineering and a Health Science unit.

The grading system at the University of Asmara and all other institutions is standardized: 80+=A; 70-79=B ; 55-69=C; 45-54=D; 44 and below =F", according to Country Fact Sheet - Eritrea, p. 2.

Still, the most important university library in the rcgion is the Addis Abba University library, founded in 1961 with support from the Ford Foundation and USAID, and which held more than 500,000 items by 1980; see Mengsteab's Ethiopia.

While one can get good deals on baskets and beads, Eritrea is not really a tourist destination yet, although Eritrea; the Bradt Travel Guide by Edward Denison and Edward Paice is in its third edition (Bucks, England: 2002). The only other rcadily available source is official: Eritrea; a country handbook, edited by Dan Connell (Asmara, Eritrea: Ministry of Information, 2002).

In Wasting the Rain: rivers, people, and planning in Africa (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1992) William M. Adams makes the point that many experts ignore or miss the local knowledge systems; one needs to think within the context of the existing cultural and social-economic systems.

Background Note: Eritrea, p. 2 and The World Bank Group, Eritrea at a Glance, 2000. At http:// www.worldbank.org/AFR/-afr.nsfleS9ac2b361477ae 8852567cfOO4d3c4f119fOe2eddfe61dl852567dlOO 463019?OpenDocument (accessed 15 March 2004).

With its first ExpoSyria in March 2003, this country is trying to make inroads with furniture, clothes, and music.

Thus far, they seem to have avoided the trap of Middle Eastern rentier state theory (see Hazcm Beblawi and Giacomo Luciani , eds., The Rentier State, London: Croom Helm Giacomo , 1987).

Furthermore, Jack Doutrich, the US Political Officer at the US Embassy, states that national service conscripts from 1996 are still working and the government still has not released them yet.

IMF News Brief 02/123. IMF and World Bank Issue a Statement on the Food Situation in Southern and Eastern Africa. 13 December 2002. At ' http://www.imf.org/external/nl2/sec/nb/2002/nbO 2123.htm (accessed 15 March 2004). According to this briefing, "Eritrea is facing a critical food situation that is expected to worsen appreciably in 2003 [due to soil erosion caused by deforestation; locusts; and unpredictable rainfall]. Agricultural production could fall by as much as 70 percent from 2001. The cereal deficit in 2003 is estimated at 400,000 tons. Of this food deficit, the WFP is appealing for funding for 140,400 tons." If it isn't already obvious, Eritrea is a non-mineral dominant economy.

The best work on Eritrean nationalism is Roy Pateman's Eritrea: even the stones are burning, 2nd cd. ( Lawrenceville, NJ: Red Sea Press, 1998).

See excerpts from the 'Preamble' in Eritrea: a country handbook, p. 28 or in its entirety at http:// www.oefre.unibe.ch/law/icl/er_indx.html (accessed 15 March 2004).

The World Bank Group. Countries: Eritrea: Political. At http://www.worldbank.org/afr/er2.htm (accessed 15 March 2004).

The TSZ political issue, which may be a proxy for something else, is focused in the southwestern Gash-Barka province and appears to be about the posscssion of the town of Badme and the Cunama (also Kunama) people on the Badme Wcrcda plains dissccted by the classical or traditional straight boundary line at an approximate 28 degree angle from true North-between points 6 (i.e., the confluence of the Tomsa with the Setit rivers) and point 9 (i.e., the confluence of the Mai Ambessa and the Mareb rivers) rather than natural features; see the relevant political tests: the 1902 Treaty that the border "shall be delimited by Italian and Ethiopian delegates, so that Cunama tribe belong to Eritrea," the Ethiopian map of 1923, the 1935 and 1998 wars, and the UN Secretary General of 6 March 2003; and ground-based activities; several of these items are mentioned in Ethiopia's War on Eritrea (Asmara: Research and Documentation Center, 1999). Whether the neutral Eritrean-Ethiopian Boundary Commission findings are binding, final, and respected by both sides, including the Tigrean rulers of a now land-locked Ethiopia, remains to be seen. In any event, more than 100 people have been killed and scores more injured by landmines in the past four years.

Indeed, the refrain is almost tiresome; when will it be time to move onto the pressing economic recovery concerns that President Afwerki acknowledges ? See Pateman, p. 238. Alternatively, this phrase gives some insight into Eritrean national identity, the geographical imagination of its people, and territoriality.

'World Bank Contributes to Post-Conflict Recovery in Eritrea'. At http://web.worldbank.org/ WBSITE/EXTERNAL/NEWS/0,,contentMDK:200 20711∼menuPK:34460∼pagePK:34370∼piPK:34424 ∼theSitePK:4607,00.html (accessed on 15 March 2004).

In addition, "40 rural reading-rooms are functioning in different regional administrations of Eritrea," according to the Ministry of Education.

Technically, there is no freedom of press since September 2001 when the independent press journalists, editors, and publishers (N=9 or 10), who supported the reformist G15 group, were imprisoned ; the Committee to Protect Journalists placed Eritrea on its list of the ten worst places to be a journalist in 2002. In March 2003, the newspaper cost one Nalda; at that time, the official exchange rate was about 13.5 Nakfa to one US Dollar.

The major ones, of course, are located in Asmara; medium sized presses include the Francescana Printing Press, Universal Printing Press, Falcon Printing Press, Africa Printing Press, Semhar Printing Press, Aser Printing Press, and Yemane Printing Press, according to http://www.inasp.org.uk/pubs/ bookchain/profiles/Eritrea.html (accessed on 15 March 2004).

Awet Weldemichael to Richardson, 2 July 2003.

'Know Thyself.' The Economist, 369 (25/31 October 2003), p. 42.

Oddly, the 2002-2003 Prospectus does not show the library on the organizational chart (although the archives and stationery store appears on page 11) nor does it recognize any university library official or the heads of administration on page 10 nor in the table of contents.

Donald J. McConnell , 'Inauguration of the American Corner at the Keren Public Library: draft remarks,' 21 March 2003.

In some locales, one can find the Eritrea Al-Hadisa, the Arabic daily as well.

People's Front for Democracy and Justice. 'Massawa Today' At http://www.shaebia.org/artman/publish/-article713.html (accessed 15 March 2004).

In Massawa, the only libraries arc the Ministry of Fishing and the local hospital, which may have serious book collections.

According to the USAID Leland Initiative, only 17,154 main phone lines exist with a waiting list of 39,680 customers; see http://www.usaid.gov/ leland/eriindex.htm (accessed 11 February 2004).

See '11th MEU (SOC) Spreads Good Will in Eritrea' and http://www.geocities.com/AthensZ8 744/ readgb.htm (accessed 15 March 2004).

When the author visited Eritrea in March 2003, the copy machine was inoperable due to an E002 error which indicated 'Turn off and then on again' and requires shorting two jumper wires to reset the machine.

See 'Eritrea Pathfinder: library resources on economic issues' at http://jolis.worldbankimflib.org/ Pathfinders/Countries/ER/index.html (accessed 15 March 2004).

World Bank and International Development Association. 'Cultural Assets Rehabilitation Project' dated 26 November 2001. At http://www.dgmarket.com/ el2roc/-notice-view?noticeid=25421&full=f (accessed 15 March 2004).

Pateman, Eritrea , p. 240.

Pateman, Eritrea , p. 240.

In 2001, Eritrea ratified the 'Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage' (also known as the World Heritage Convention), but its cultural property still needs strengthening as a source rather than market nation. For instance, neither Ethiopia nor Eritrea have ratified UNESCO's 'Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict' of 14 May 1954.

"In the year 2002, a proclamation reduced the tax levied on books from 12 per cent to 5 per cent, [though] imported books are still subject to taxes and custom duties," according to Assefaw Abraha's The Book Chain in Eritrea, at http://www.inasp. info/pubs/bookchain/profiles/Eritrea.html (accessed 15 March 2004).

Lucie Cheng and Philip Q. Chang , 'Global Interaction, Global Inequality, and Migration of the Highly Trained to the United States,' International Migration Review, 32 (Fall 1998): 626-653.