The Language of Shabait.com: The Incompetence of the Ministry of Information

Shabait.com is supposed to be the official voice of the Isaias regime. It is owned and run by the Ministry of Information. As such, the least that one would expect from this website is coherence in its messages, immaterial of the truth of its content. Instead, what we find is sheer incompetence in whatever it writes, best exemplified in its strange grammar. A good example of such incompetence would be the Ministry of Information’s latest clarification on Eritrea’s policy towards Somalia: Eritrea’s Sincere Stances And Policies As Regards Somali Issue Become Ever More Apparent: Senior Government Official. The grammar is so bad that it is hard to believe it is written by someone who cares about his work, let alone by a professional. The writer doesn’t even care enough to check obvious spelling errors.

Spelling and grammar

Here are some samples of the gross spelling and grammar mistakes:

Spelling: “abstractionist” instead of “obstructionist”; “liking” instead of “likening”; “on words” instead of “onwards”; etc.

Awkward phrases: "aggravate and deteriorate Somalia’s political reality"; "the reconstitutions of Somalia’"", etc.

Incoherent sentences: "And if at all the Somali issue is to achieve lasting solution, an end should be put to any military intervention as it serves no meaningful purpose, rather than further aggravating turmoil and crisis, refraining from resorting to acts of balkanizing Somalia through concocting various gimmicks and creating conducive ground for the Somali nationals to reconstitute their nation themselves, the official elucidated.”

“Senior Government Offocial”

The incompetence of the Ministry of Information is to be seen not only in its poor grammar, but also in its poor judgments. Let’s ask ourselves: why does the Ministry of Information never mention the name of the “Senior Government Official” that it quotes numerous times? The incompetent fools at the Ministry have heard the phrase, “senior government official”, used in so many reports of foreign countries that they thought saying it would portray the Eritrean regime as a normal government. Hardly did these idiots realize that when a government comes out with announcements, it doesn’t hide its source. In the normal world, when reporters use the phrase “senior government official” without a name attached to it, it is because he/she is not supposed to provide the public with that information and the reporters feel obligated to hide his/her identity. But for the clowns at the Ministry of Information, it looked normal to identify their source as “a senior government official”, even though such anonymity is entirely unnecessary in this context. They are suggesting that Eritrea is a normal nation with a normal government, where unauthorized information leaked by government officials could be published without any retribution whatsoever to whoever is reporting it. They totally forgot that it is the government itself that is doing the reporting! What a tragedy for a nation to be lead by such Neanderthals!

Below is the whole article, as it appeared in Shabait.com, except for the corrections written in parentheses. We have also highlighted the mistakes using three colors: orange for spelling and word mistakes; blue for awkward phrases and green for incoherent sentences.


Eritrea’s Sincere Stances And Policies As Regards Somali Issue Become Ever More Apparent: Senior Government Official

Asmara, 27 June 2011 - Senior Eritrean government official said that Eritrea’s sincere stances and policies as regards Somali crisis have now become ever more apparent after 20 years, while at the same time the dangerous consequences of the erroneous and adventurous actions taken by abstractionist [the correct word is “obstructionist”] forces become visible.

In a statement he gave to ERINA, the official [the word “said” is missing] any external military intervention in Somalia in a bid to promote lasting peace and stability in that country would only aggravate and deteriorate Somalia’s political reality. In this respect, he pointed out that liking [the correct word is “likening”] the Somali issue with international terrorism lacks any evidence at all and constitutes miscalculation.

The senior government official further explained that lifting and applying partial arms embargo is but illogical and absurd, and as such undermines the reconstitution of Somali nationhood. In this connection, he underlined that any partners that claims [it should be either “partners that claim” or “partner that claims”] to ‘help the political process and the reconstitutions of Somalia’ should only back up the dialogue among Somali nationals, rather than imposing its will and aspiration.

The official went on to say that over the past 20 years, especially from 2006 on words [the correct word is “onwards”], Eritrea’s genuine stance has been giving [the correct word is “given”] deaf ear on the part of obstructionist quarters.  At present, Somalia has become ground for holocaust and epicenter of crisis, and is even being referred by the US as the prime failed state in the world, he elaborated. He indicated that contrary to the boasting of such quarter, piracy is being expanded with all its underlying causes.

Moreover, the senior government official noted that the obstructionist force [the correct word is “forces”] in the region, i.e. the US Administration and its subservient regimes are to be held prime accountable to the prevailing crisis in Somalia.   And if at all the Somali issue is to achieve lasting solution, an end should be put to any military intervention as it serves no meaningful purpose, rather than further aggravating turmoil and crisis, refraining from resorting to acts of balkanizing Somalia through concocting various gimmicks and creating conducive ground for the Somali nationals to reconstitute their nation themselves, the official elucidated. He underscored that imposing any ‘government’ from the outside through disregarding the choice of the Somali people  and gross violation of international law and Charter  would as ever be doomed to failure.

The senior official explained that since the early 1990s when the US Administration involved in military intervention under the pretext of ‘hunting down Aidid’, the Eritrean government has maintained the stance of opposing any military intervention. In this regard, the senior government official indicated that failure to hold accountable such quarters on time is the reason for Somalia to head  from bad to worse, the sufferings of the Somali people getting prolonged and the stability of the Horn region begin undermined.