{UAH} How i wish Uganda can emulate Eritrea on this!

Eritrea turning away foreign aid: stunt or True conviction?

Eritrea's former Marxist rebel leader and current president Isaias Afwerki still maintains he is not ready to lead another "spoon fed" African country that relies on foreign debts. Eritrea is doing something unheard of in Africa – it is turning away millions of dollars in aid, including food donations from the world food programme.

"These are crippled societies," Isaias says of neighbors whom he described as relying on donors rather than developing their economies. "You can't keep these people living on handouts because that doesn't change their lives."

Many diplomats say Eritrea is suffering from a self imposed sanction. But there is some progress too. A self-reliance program had been launched a decade ago, and was further accelerated sharply in 2005. Relying on its meager budget and the conscription of about 800,000 of the country's citizens, the program so far has shown promising results. Measured on a variety of U.N. health indicators, including life expectancy, immunizations and malaria prevention, Eritrea scores as high, and often higher, than its neighbors, including Ethiopia and Kenya.

It might be one of the most ambitious social and economic experiments underway in Africa. But Eritrea isn't getting much credit. Instead, the government increasingly finds itself in the international doghouse, largely because of its poor human rights record, isolationism and belligerent stance toward its neighbors and the West

It is rather unique that this country that many could possibly imagine as being a very desperate countries is also allegedly a donor. It doesn't donate money though; it is alleged to have supported Union of Islamic Courts in neighboring Somalia.

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H.OGWAPITI
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"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that  we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic  and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
---Theodore Roosevelt