DAY TWO FESTIVAL OF ELF-RC REPORT

By Nharnet Stringer

August 4, 2007

Kalbach, Frankfurt, Germany

PART 2

After the first session of the official opening of the festival the chairman of ELF-RC, Weldesus Amar, delivered his keynote speech of the festival by addressing the following festival dignitaries:

The honorable representative of the Mayor of Frankfurt

The honorable representative of the Social Democratic Party of Germany  

The Chairman of the Eritrean Democratic Alliance –Blok_1

The Chairman of the Eritrean Democratic Party

The members of the revolutionary Council and leaders of the opposition group

The representatives of the Eritrean Civic Organizations

The 22^nd festival organizing committee

The gallant members of ELF_RC and opposition groups

The festival invitees at large.

In his welcoming salute, Waldessus Amar, said this is a venue of renaissance and a stage of forward motion of our struggle. Then he thanked the government and people of Germany for their generous hospitality and cooperation and for giving us this opportunity to conduct our cultural and political activities that is totally forbidden in our home country.

This festival is organized by the Democratic Association Of Eritrea in Germany under the auspices of ELF-RC as an instrument for change and democracy. In other words this festival is one of our public, diplomatic and informational venue in our straggle. Such events would be continuous because we see the achievements in political and social victory regardless the heavy pries we pay. His speech in its entirety will follow soon.

Next Mengisteab Asmerom, the provisional chairman of the Eritrean Democratic Alliance Blok-1 delivered his long awaited important speech. He explained all the things that went wrong at the EDA’s second congress. It is a valid question to bit deemed necessary to be transparent and educate the public. At first he said that the unfortunate negative outcome of the congress was bad news. It must be noted that EDA blok-1 had presented at the table possible solutions to avert the unwanted outcome but it fell on deaf ears. In the absence of unity of all opposition forces, Mengisteab underlined the impressions and feelings of the public and its significant impact in our struggle against the dictatorial regime. 

After assessing the outcome EDA Blok-1 believes that it is fruitless to sit and mourn and grime about the past but to accepted the objective really and has no other option except to continue the path to victory with vigor and resilience.

Not abiding by the accepted charter that was designed on one’s free will to administer EDA’s internal differences and healthy competition must at all times be condemned. One that can not abide by his/her internal organizational charter or that of EDA cannot be trusted to respect a National Charter. The activities conducted by the three organizations in Block-1 since February of 2007 boosted the morale and hope of our people in general and that of our grassroots of the three organizations in particular

During this second session of the festival Dr. Selomon Weldegiorgis presented his extensive studies on the Structure of The Eritrean psychology and the sources of our problems. He has vast experience in this field and he was one of the professors at Asmara University. In his presentation elaborated the following subtopics.

1)  The causes of the Eritrean Geographic location

2)  World opinion on Eritrea

3)  Pre-scientific thinking

4)  Eritreans’ perception on time

5)  Cultural preservation

6)  Importance  of being on solid ground and consistency

7)  Personal values, honor, and causes of shame

8)  Provoking behavior of Eritreans

9)  Unti- win win philosophy

10)     Social strata of Eritrean societies and their causes

11)      The question of political power

12)      Higher culture of civic governance and the lack of

13)     Lack of civilized way of communication and handling of a society

14)     Democratic  principles and their  limits

Dr. Selomon dwelt on those topics and explained by utilizing appropriate and wise Eritrean proverbs to reach the hearts and minds of his audience.

Please stay tunes to the third reportage live from the festival