Saturday, March 31, 2007

If A dog Was the Teacher:


If a dog was the teacher, you would learn stuff like:


- When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.

- Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.

- Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure ecstasy.

- When it's in your best interest, practice obedience.

- Let others know when they've invaded your territory.

- Take naps. Stretch before rising.

- Run, romp, and play daily.

- Thrive on attention and let people touch you.

- On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.

- When you're happy, dance around and wag your entire body.


- Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.

- Eat with gusto and enthusiasm. Stop when you have had enough.

- Be loyal. Never pretend to be something you're not.

- If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.

- When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by and nuzzle them gently.
by unknown author

Sunday, March 25, 2007

CONGRADULATIONS ZERSENAY!!!!!




Congratulations Zersenay!! You are a hero! we are proud of your achievements. You have opened a new window to hundreds of athletes in Eritrea and you will have special place in the history of athletics in our country.
We are now compensated for the disappointing losses we suffered in soccer.
Keep the good work!!
And congradulation too all Eritrean sport funs!

Friday, March 23, 2007

Searching For Scholarship

This Blog is intended to provide information for those looking for Scholarship/financial aid opportunities in the western world. It is all based on my experience and I hope you will find it help full in your search. Good luck!

What You Need for Sholarship:
To make successful application for scholarship, you need to know what are the requirements in each university and weigh it against your potentials for meeting them. Here are some of the general requirements:

Cumulative GPA(CGPA): undergraduate GPA is one of the main criteria for admission in graduate school. Most US and Canada universities require CGPA of 3:00 or above. European Universities accept a lower CGPA.
Standard tests: these tests include TOEFL, IELTS, GRE and GMAT. Almost all graduate school in USA and most universities in Canada require TOEFL and GRE. The probability of waiving either of these requirements is easier in Canadan universities, but very difficult in USA universities. However, if you are applying both for admission and financial aid, you MUST not only take these tests, but also score high. Remember, these requirement are party of the selection criteria and there are many more students around the world looking for them than are the available positions. If you don’t take these tests, in these competitive atmosphere, chances are higher your application will be eliminated at the primary stage.
With European universities, except for few top schools, most of them don’t require GRE and in most cases they can waive the TOEFL/IELTS requirement if you demonstrate that you graduate from a school with English as medium of communication. With regards to taking whether TOEFL or IELTS: most US universities prefer TOEFL while British Universities prefer IELTS. In other countries either of them are equally acceptable. However, IELTS is cheaper, payment is in local currency and is provided more frequently than TOEFL. In Eritrea, IELTS is administered by the British library and TOEFL by the University of Asmara Testing Center. Reference materials and information about TOEFL, GRE and GMAT is available at the American center in Asmara. They are located at the Eritro-Germany building. (http://asmara.usembassy.gov/eritrea/educ_advising.html)

3. Statement of purpose: appealing statement of purpose is supposed to help your admission and compensate some weakness in your GPA or standard test scores. Almost all graduate schools require statement of purpose and writing a good statement of purpose is not either easy. If you need guide lines and reference materials in writing effective statement of purpose, the American center office in Asmara has amble reference materials.

4. Application fee: almost all US universities and Canadian universities require application fee that ranges from $40 to $100. If you don’t pay these fees they will not process your application. Given the hard currency problem in Eritrea, you have to plan and figure out how to pay these fees. On the other hand, European universities don’t require application fees.

5. Application Deadlines: Most grad schools have early application deadline and application deadlines for financial aid are usually earlier than application for admission. In Most schools the application deadline ranges between January to early March. To be successful, your application package including test scores and official certificates should reach the university before the deadline date.





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Some Important Tips
Another important factor that affects your search for scholarship is the reputation of your undergraduate university. As a general rule, students who came from universities with good reputation have a higher probability of getting admission/financial aid even if their CGPA is way lower than your GPA. Unfortunately, the University of Asmara(UOA) is not a well known university in the western world. So students from UOA have to make extra steps in their search for financial aid to overcome this disadvantage. Here are some tips that you might find helpful:

Apply to a department where a University of Asmara Student is/was already enrolled. Most of Asmara University students are very successful when they came to the USA universities. Departments which have already students from University of Asmara know the quality of the students and that helps to overcome the reputation issue. To give you an example, currently the Department of chemistry at the Illinois University at Chicago has 5 teaching assistants from the University of Asmara. Similarly the Department of mathematics at the university of Illinois at Carbon dale has four students from UOA.
2. Another important point to consider is in which universities to apply: As a general rule the higher the reputation of the university the more competitive admission and financial aid are in that university. A useful strategy in this case may be to apply to a university with lower reputation and secure financial aid. Once you are here, if you have the ambition and capacity to go to a better school, you have higher probability to do so.


3. A similar strategy to secure admission and financial aid is to apply to field of studies where financial aid is easily secured. In general, there is more financial aid in hard science fields such as chemistry, mathematics, physics and the like than in social science and business departments. So it may be a good strategy to consider applying to a field that is related to your field and that provides you with financial aid.





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Funding Organization
Links for potential funding organization in USA and Europe is provided on the right side of this Blog under the "Shishay-Hakote" section. You might want to explore them in your search for scholarship.

Friday, March 16, 2007

The Prescription

A calm and respectable lady went into the pharmacy and walked right up to the pharmacist, looked straight into his eyes, and said, "I would like to buy some cyanide."

The pharmacist asked,
"Why in the world do you need cyanide?"
The lady replied, "I need it to poison my husband."
The pharmacist's eyes got big, and he exclaimed, "Lord, have mercy! I can't give you cyanide to kill your husband! That's against the law! I would lose my license! They'll throw both of us in jail! All kinds of bad things will happen! Absolutely not! You CANNOT have any cyanide!"

The lady reached into her purse and pulled out a picture of her husband in bed with the pharmacist's wife.
The pharmacist looked at the picture and replied, "Well, now. That's different. You didn't tell me you had a prescription."

Contributed Aman

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Contributed Jokes!

There was a blind girl who hated herself just because she's blind. She hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He's always there for her. She said that if she could only see the world, she would marry her boyfriend. One day, someone donated a pair of eyes to her and then she can see everything, including her boyfriend. Her boyfriend asked her, "now that you can see the world, will you marry me?" The girl was shocked when she saw that her boyfriend is blind too, and refused to marry him. Her boyfriend walked away in tears, and later wrote a letter to her saying. "Just take care of my eyes dear."
Contributed by hdra

Saturday, March 10, 2007

ViVa Red Sea Boys!!!

Tomorrow the junior Red Sea boys will mark a new opening into the history of soccer in Eritrea. For the first time in history, an Eritrean team will play in continental championship. As such, it is a historic event and Congratulation for all Eritrean soccer funs!!
No matter how they will play on the championship, they are marking history. As for the outcomes of the play, as a fun, I am crossing my hands. It is unfortunate; the team is in the “death group” of the champion- along giants Nigeria, Ghana and Burkina Faso. These teams have a well know record and name in the game, which is very important. But who knows! Tomorrow, they make miracle against Nigeria. After all, who expected them to beat Libya, Egypt and Zambia! All these teams have undermined the Red Sea Boys before each game: only to find them selves in surprise defeat. So the Nigerians may be presented with another surprise tomorrow. If they did win over Nigeria, or even get draw, it will boost their moral and help them to keep their ticket for the world championship in Korea. If they manage at least to be the second in their group, then they will authematically qualify for the world championship in Korea. But even if they didn’t manage, they have already done great job by securing their ticket to Togo. After all, the Red Sea boys are the only team from the entire East Africa to play this game. Not a bad achievement.
With this regard, credit is due to their Head Coach Dorian Marin who is making great contribution for both teams- the juniors and Seniors. In a total of 8 matches he has so far, he win 5 games, two draws and only one defeat. That is quit achievement for a team which has no known record of victory in last 5 years now. The official name of the team is “Red Sea Camels”, but the media has preferred Red Sea Boys, and I like it.
Guys, let’s hope for another miracle, but even if that doesn’t come true, the team deserves credit for making this history. Viva Red Sea Boys!! Good Luck!!

Friday, March 9, 2007

One Suggestion For HAMADE'A

Look at the following statements carefully and try to identify their differences:
Minister of Foreign Affairs Weizero Abrehet Hadgu
Minister of Education Hiwet Debessay
Minister of Justice Ato Habtom Negsai
Minister of Energy and Mines Ato Salih Abubeker

Do u find out?

These are 4 ministers- two men two women. One man and one women from the ministers listed above are single while the others are married. It is simple to identify Hiwet is single by looking at the prefix before her name. But for the men, it is very difficult to tell which of them is single. So what we are saying is that the title system for women tells their marital status, but not for men. Hummm! It doesn’t look fair, especially given how socially sensitive it is for women to be single in our culture. The solution is not with creating another prefix for men, but creating new and uniform title for women.
In our traditional title system, a married woman is prefixed with weizero while a single woman with weizerit. This has an unintended disadvantage for modern women. It is socially not appealing to call a 50 year old women weizerit. Of course getting married is an individual choice, and if one decided to be single, it shouldn’t be concern to society. But the fact of the matter is that in our society, being single is not perceived as a result of individual choice. It is perceived as result of social failure. It becomes a concern then, especially when the individual holds public office, like minister or general directors. As these positions expose them to public media and conferences, calling them weizerit is giving out unnecessary private information. It is in realization of these concerns that the Ministry of Information adopted their own way of calling- they simply drop the prefix and call them as” Minister of Education Hiwet Debessay”. But it is not enough fix. People have quickly realized why they do so. So the absence of the prefix is equivalent to weizerit!
The real solution is to come up with a uniform prefix that doesn’t distinguish marital status which will replaces the exiting prefixes of weizero and weizerit. I don’t see any objection for such move. All it needs is for HAMADE’A to come with such proposal and initiate it. So, if any of you are associated with the organization, forward them my suggestion.

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Are You Worried Like Me?

I was watching BBC news tonight and there came the news about the abducted British in the Afar region. And a man who was presented to the reporters and diplomats at the area by the Ethiopian officials as a witness was interviewed. The young man said the abductors who were in Eritrean soldier uniforms and they released him. But guess what? The man speaks tigrigna! So how did a tigrigna speaker from Tigray become a local resident of the Afar region? And are the Eritrean soldiers stupid enough to leave the Tigrian guy for witness there even if they did the abduction? Of course it is unbelievable fabricated drama. Even though the government in Eritrea does stupid things now and then, I don’t believe they will do this kind of political gamble.
But this is part of the ongoing project to portrait the Eritrean government as terrorist government or supporting terrorist an ongoing effort prepares ground for invasion. After Ethiopia successfully destroyed the union of Islamic courts in Somalia, Meles is emboldened. And soon after Somalia he has started fabricating false accusations against Eritrea: First came the news that Eritrean Generals were arrested by Kenyan authorities while escaping from Somalia (awate.com has confirmed that the general is in Asmara- unless you believe EPM’s version of the story); and then came another fabrication ……Eritrea tried to blow up the African Union headquarter in Ethiopia. And now Eritrea abducted British tourists in the Afar region.
Well, were does this take us? Professor Tekie has put it clearly in his article “ Who is next after Somalia?”
False accusations and wild fabrications by weyane is not the first time and as such I wouldn’t worry about it. What is worrying me now is, unlike the past, that the Eritrean government has diplomatically isolated itself from the supper powers and I will not be surprised if the Ethiopians decide to gamble with another war, they will get full blessing from the superpowers and we will be left out in the cold with out any sympathy. And as these accusations come ever two weeks now, it worries me that these miscalculations may lead into unnecessary war. We have enough of it. And worse, I dread to death to imagine what will happen the future of Eritrea, if in fact this materialized.
There are some people who would accept the removal of the government in Eritrea by any means is good enough by itself. But, dear fellows, no mater how much we dislike the government, it should be only our business to remove it from office. And if any outside help is to be appreciated, the last one should be from Ethiopia!

Friday, March 2, 2007

The Power of the Professor's Pen

Professor Tekie is one of the best writers we have. The professor of Economics, is a gifted and experienced writer. He is eloquent, and articulate. He has a blessed pen, and using his pen he has made huge contribution to the Eritrean case over the years- both during the struggle for independence and during the boarder conflict. As a result, he has earned wide recognition both at home and in the Diaspora Eritrean.
But now and then he has become the target of criticism. In August 2001 he wrote an article titled, “let’s listen to the other voices” which by many accounts, is considered as his best single influential contribution. It has served as the basis for the wide wave of public opinion that followed later on the private newspaper at that time. Not surprisingly, it brought him huge criticism from the supporters of the government. Since then, the professor has sided on the government side and abandoned the very public opinion of listening to the other voices. Instead he focused selectively on writing about the boarder issue. Given the unfairness of the international community on the issue, his articles serve the cause of our country. Nevertheless, this has also resulted in sharp criticism for the professor from the other side- those on the opposition side.
Once again, the professor is on the hot seat. Two weeks ago, he wrote another piece entitled “After Somalia, who is next?” in which he put an equation:

Ethiopia+ America + the opposition meeting in AdissAbeba = preparation for invading Eritrea.
I don’t see any problem with the article. The news that were coming from the horn of Africa and the American diplomat for Africa indicate the same sign and his article was timely. But by doing so, implicitly the professor has said what the government wanted- We have a big enemy and be patient and alert.
An Eritrean associated with EDP responded him with criticism. The professor responded the criticism. It is this response that caused the wave of counter criticism. Many writers have sharpened their pen against him.(see the link www.selfi-democracy.com).
To be franc, the professor’s selective approach is not balanced. Although a professor of Economics and member of the Eritrean constitution drafting commission, he didn’t write any thing about those problems, which are equally or more important for Eritrea at this time.
But it is not only him who writes on the side of the government. There are other professors who write only on issues which please the government only. More important the majority of other Eritrean scholars have chosen to silence them selves. To me, they are equally responsible and subject to the same level of criticism. So why is all the criticisms labeled against Professor Tekie?

In any case, it looks his pen has the power to produce waive of opinions. And if he decides to point it again on “listening the other voices”, he has the power to break the silence.