The Post Cards in My Room

It was late afternoon. In my small room, I was sitting on the bed. Had it been a school time, I couldn’t afford such time, but now I am still in semester break and I don’t have pressing things to do. I have decided not to read any thing related to school till class starts. So I was sitting on my bed. It looks as if I am in deep thinking- although I am not sure about what I was thinking. Suddenly my eyes fall on the well in front of me. In that very small wall, there are some post cards hanging- all of them from friends in Eritrea. Many thanks to those who send me the cards! They are beautiful postcards and I always get surprised whenever I get one. That is why I hang them in my wall. It is also interesting to see how fast the idea of using post card greeting is becoming part of our culture. 15 years ago, it was probably only very few people using it. Some ten years ago, almost all the post cards you can get in the stationary where imported ones with foreign idea and language on them. Now the shelves of the stationary are stocked with home made post cards, like the ones in my wall. To me, it is great development- every thing is process and it takes time.

But still there are things to improve. As I look one by one to the post cards hanging on my wall- they all speak about one topic- Me’Adi(meal)!! From left to right, except one, all the postcards have a picture on the cover that shows food and food related staff-A beautiful meal though(like the one on the pic above). Looking at them, my mouth would fill with saliva. But if an outsider would try to learn about Eritrea from the post cards, all he would learn is we are obsessed with food. Wouldn’t it be nice if we have more variety? – a variety of post cards that reflect the treasures of our culture. Don’t assume it is because that all my friends happened to select the same kind from the market. It is the market that doesn’t provide the variety. As far as I know, there were very few variety that started, but because they didn’t get enough demand, they couldn’t survive another year. There was one post card that successfully penetrated into the market - a tigre girl by one of the people in this group ( I hope if he has it, we will share us here).

This concentration of post cards around Me’seb Werki is not unique to the post card business. There is the same trend in the film industry. Although at this time many films are being produced in Eritrea(large number in fact), almost all of them revolve around one topic- LOVE. Similarly trends is also reflected in the main stream business. In the early 1990’s when Foto Zula made a remarkeable progress in the photo business, many businessmen rush to share that profit and as a result dozens of Photo centers were accumulated in the same street as FoTo Zula. When 1998/99 ASMARA Sweet Café revolutionized the business of Pastry and fast food in Asmara, quickly the same business was established every where in Asmara.

The motive is clear- business always moves to the market where there is potential profit. Those who succeed in the process are those who come up with the creative idea in identifying what the customer wants.