Shabait

"Eritrean steam locomotive is spectacular and it is one of the best classic railways in the world," were some of the remarks of many tourists who visited Eritrea last week. The 42-tourist group came from Australia, Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria and Italy. Some of the group members have came for more than a third, fourth and ninth time as they couldn’t get enough of the classic steam locomotive in a single trip. One of the tourists, Mr. Lindsay Rickard, 59, from Melbourne, Australia has worked in tram recovery and tourist steam railway as volunteer for 20 years now. Shabait interviewed Mr. Lindsay about his impressions of Eritrea and its classic locomotives. Excerpts follow:

Eritrean health care system has shown remarkable progress in the past 18 years of independence, owing to intensive efforts to ensure the provision of health care for every national. Parallel to this, it is equally important to strengthen the administrative aspects of the health system so as to monitor and evaluate the quality of services rendered. The National Referral Hospitals Coordinating Office in the Ministry of Health was established in 2002 by the late Minister Saleh Meki so as to deal with the state affairs of referral hospitals in each region. Shabait conducted an interview with Dr. Habteab Mehari, the Director of the coordinating office regarding the activities of the office and other issues. Excerpts follow:

After a considerable time of illness and intensive health follow-up, Secretary of the PFDJ, Mr. Al-Amin Mohammed-Seid has been able to resume his regular activities. On the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the Fenkil Operation, Mr. Al-Amin conducted an interview with shabait. Excerpts follow:

Mr. Zarai Haile is one of the freedom fighters-photographers during the armed struggle for liberation period. The valiant photographers and fighters of the time sacrificed their blood and toil to document the bravery and extraordinary feats of their fellow fighters. Mr. Zarai was head of the cinema unit of the EPLF from 1983 – 1991 and had been present in almost all major wars at that time as a cameraman. Having served in the same field for several years after independence, Mr. Zerai moved to Washington DC where he launched the Voice of Eritrea and Warsay TV in 1998 and 2000 respectively. Following are excerpts of the interview he conducted with Shabait:

Basketball in Eritrea was introduced in the 1940s during the British colonization period. At the moment, there are 13 men's teams in the 1st division and seven women's teams. Although a favorite sport among many young Eritreans, basketball has not shown much progress in the past three decades. In an effort to upgrade the skills of its teams, the Eritrean National Basketball Federation recently sent a young coach, Mr. Henok Amine to Semmelweis University in Hungary to attend a three-month course in basketball coaching. Shabait conducted a brief interview with coach Henok regarding his experience in Hungary and basketball in general. Excerpts follow:

Thanks to distorted images and information spread through the western media, some foreigners have an image of Eritrea as a barren land and war wrecked country, where every citizen lives in starvation and destitution. But the reality could be more different. Ethiopian-Belgian writer, Mohamed Hassan came to Eritrea with an image of a barren land in his head but was quite astonished to find out that the reality was in fact quite different from the commonly held perceptions. Shabait conducted an interview with Mr. Mohammed regarding his impressions during his visit. Excerpts follow: