00:00:00
on November 17th 1869 this small
00:00:03
Peninsula suddenly became a new Global
00:00:05
Hots spot why because a long ditch was
00:00:08
dug through it allowing ships to sail
00:00:10
through this route instead of all the
00:00:12
way around Africa almost overnight the
00:00:15
Red Sea became one of the most strategic
00:00:17
regions on Earth to control or at least
00:00:20
have a presence in one Italian
00:00:22
navigation company did just that they
00:00:24
bought the port of assab from local
00:00:26
sultants just 2 days before the grand
00:00:28
opening of the canal talk about good
00:00:30
timing and today well assab is just a
00:00:34
small City in the much larger country of
00:00:36
arria sometimes called Africa's North
00:00:39
Korea erria is an impoverished highly
00:00:42
militarized one party state it has been
00:00:45
led by a single leader since
00:00:46
Independence in 1991 and has often been
00:00:49
one of the bottom nations in terms of
00:00:51
human development not only does it have
00:00:53
the second highest amount of active
00:00:55
military reserves per capita the country
00:00:58
has mandatory conscription for both men
00:01:00
and women starting from your last year
00:01:02
of high school until whenever you're
00:01:05
dismissed sometimes when you're 40
00:01:07
sometimes in your 50s take that in
00:01:10
that's basically your entire working
00:01:12
Life as a conscript in the military
00:01:15
although many of them don't fight
00:01:16
because of the unique way arria's
00:01:18
government commands its economy
00:01:20
conscripts are not just used for war
00:01:22
they are quite literally the backbone of
00:01:25
everything in the country they build the
00:01:27
country run the services administer it
00:01:29
and and of course defend erria all for
00:01:33
very little pay suffering abuse and
00:01:35
harsh conditions in what is essentially
00:01:37
a mass system of forced labor it's no
00:01:40
surprise then that arria is also called
00:01:42
the world's fastest emptying country
00:01:45
because of how many citizens run away
00:01:47
from it around 800,000 by 2023 that's in
00:01:51
comparison to a home population of only
00:01:53
3.7 million meaning almost 1/5 of all
00:01:56
people born in this land have left it
00:01:59
real attractive but is erria actually
00:02:02
like North Korea that crazy hermit
00:02:05
Kingdom I don't know there is some key
00:02:07
differences for one nukes arria does not
00:02:11
have a nuclear weapons program and thus
00:02:14
is much less of a threat than North
00:02:15
Korea is they don't have the capability
00:02:18
to straight up destroy their neighbors
00:02:20
if the military just feels like it one
00:02:22
day if you were to leave arria you could
00:02:24
come back one day although with some
00:02:26
difficulties whereas if you leave North
00:02:28
Korea you're dead to them aans have a
00:02:32
lot more exposure to the outside world
00:02:34
through TV and the internet although the
00:02:36
majority still don't have access to them
00:02:38
yet and both are still heavily monitored
00:02:40
and regulated by the government and
00:02:42
lastly aitran loyalty is meant to be to
00:02:45
the nationalistic triumphant aitran
00:02:48
State and Military not to the family
00:02:50
that runs it still there are plenty of
00:02:53
similarities we'll run through four that
00:02:55
I think give you a good picture on The
00:02:57
house's and the wise of Africa's North
00:02:59
Korea first militarism look at this fun
00:03:03
parade all the soldiers marching as one
00:03:06
what do you think they might do invade
00:03:08
Ethiopia maybe even jibuti um I'm not
00:03:11
sure but I can say that erria was a
00:03:13
country made by War even back in the
00:03:16
Italian times originally the Italians
00:03:18
did not try to grow this dry and rocky
00:03:21
colony that much they wanted control
00:03:23
over the fertile interior mountains in
00:03:25
East Africa but were defeated by
00:03:27
Ethiopian armies in the 1890s the land
00:03:30
they did keep in arria wasn't all that
00:03:32
interesting to them despite the prime
00:03:34
Seaside location interest came back with
00:03:37
a changing government though the new
00:03:39
fascist Italy was obsessed with trying
00:03:41
to reconquer Ethiopia and where was
00:03:43
their starting block to invade right
00:03:46
here in Atria suddenly investment
00:03:48
infantry and Italians flooded in the new
00:03:51
Italians brought workers to build up
00:03:53
Urban infrastructure and Industry that's
00:03:55
why asara still looks so Italian today
00:03:57
and heavily subsidized The Colony
00:03:59
bringing in the foreign goods and food
00:04:01
they needed but the let's say more
00:04:04
conservative-minded fascist Italians
00:04:06
also brought new laws with them the New
00:04:09
Towns they built were built to be
00:04:11
segregated they limited air train
00:04:13
education to only up to the fourth grade
00:04:16
confiscated aitran cash crop farms and
00:04:19
conscripted and trained many citizens to
00:04:21
help the fight against Ethiopia this
00:04:24
obviously didn't go over too well with
00:04:26
the people and it created an identity
00:04:28
through a shared enemy otherwise this
00:04:30
linguistically religiously ethnically
00:04:32
and geographically diverse Nation
00:04:35
probably never would have come together
00:04:37
the newly trained airit Tran soldiers
00:04:39
never rebelled against the Italians
00:04:40
though because the colony was taken over
00:04:42
by the British in World War II the Brits
00:04:45
also weren't really interested in
00:04:46
administering arria especially when
00:04:49
their empire was in the middle of
00:04:50
collapsing the most they really did was
00:04:52
strip Italian made assets and Deport
00:04:55
many of the fascist administrators who
00:04:56
ran the colony many Italians left the
00:04:59
colony in this period so in the end the
00:05:01
UK and un came to an agreement in 1952
00:05:04
to just make arria an autonomous region
00:05:07
of neighboring Ethiopia funny they did
00:05:10
that even funnier when they were slowly
00:05:12
annexed by the Ethiopian Empire
00:05:14
officially voting arria out of existence
00:05:17
in
00:05:17
1962 atrians became second class
00:05:20
citizens in the Empire Independence
00:05:22
leaders were harassed or killed and
00:05:24
political parties the press and unions
00:05:26
were crushed under Ethiopian rule so if
00:05:29
you thought the rebellious military
00:05:30
culture was made under fascist Italy you
00:05:33
were wrong a 30-year War followed this
00:05:36
30 years yes three decades the final
00:05:39
straw being the fact that they would no
00:05:41
longer teach the majority language to
00:05:43
Gia in school instead opting for amhar
00:05:46
the language of the Ethiopian government
00:05:48
resistance started off as a Muslim
00:05:50
movement but then spread to workers and
00:05:52
spread even further to a general
00:05:54
nationalist movement eventually this
00:05:56
movement split up with the most
00:05:58
successful successor being the arrian
00:06:01
people's Liberation Front fighting
00:06:03
lasted through the cold war with all of
00:06:05
its Shenanigans it was decades of
00:06:07
fighting massacres raisings Mass
00:06:10
burnings sometimes even between atrians
00:06:13
and as time went on the atrians
00:06:15
continued fighting in a way that the
00:06:17
Ethiopians were getting tired of
00:06:18
fighting alongside the T plf funds and
00:06:21
Equipment dropping off at the end of the
00:06:23
Cold War and battles won in the
00:06:25
mountains led to arrian Victory and a
00:06:27
declaration of independence in
00:06:30
1991 and now everyone's happy and
00:06:32
peaceful the Revolutionary Fighters
00:06:34
could now focus on governing their newly
00:06:37
made country the eplf became the pfdj
00:06:41
The People's Front for democracy and
00:06:43
Justice what
00:06:45
a that would be so did the fighting stop
00:06:48
after Independence no this is when they
00:06:51
made their mandatory conscription
00:06:53
although for the time it was only 18
00:06:55
months long and didn't control their
00:06:56
entire Society most new government
00:06:59
official were commanders and officers in
00:07:01
the fight for independence they knew how
00:07:03
to run an army but not a country after
00:07:06
Independence arria was involved in a
00:07:08
small war with Yemen the first Congo War
00:07:11
the Second Sudanese Civil War a war in
00:07:13
Djibouti got sanctioned after that one
00:07:16
and a real doozy in Ethiopia from 1998
00:07:19
to 2000 you see the tplf eventually
00:07:23
installed the government in Ethiopia and
00:07:25
even though they fought with the air TRS
00:07:27
for Independence the two movements did
00:07:29
not get along the government has always
00:07:32
had this idea that the tplf is trying to
00:07:34
destabilize arria and remove them from
00:07:37
power so relations between the countries
00:07:39
soured throughout the 9s the two
00:07:41
countries stopped trading had border
00:07:43
skirmishes and an outright war broke out
00:07:45
in 1998 over the Tiny Village of bod
00:07:48
although it only lasted for 2 years
00:07:51
conflict between them was on and off for
00:07:52
two decades until a formal peace treaty
00:07:55
was signed with the new Ethiopian
00:07:57
government in 2018 hope
00:08:00
not for long though in 2020 they joined
00:08:02
the Ethiopia te Civil War fighting once
00:08:05
again with their compatriots just
00:08:07
kidding they were fighting with Ethiopia
00:08:09
against the tplf again they blocked food
00:08:12
shipments from the sea pillaged Villages
00:08:15
murdered citizens and even did this to
00:08:17
their own aitran refugee camps all in an
00:08:20
effort to officially crush the tplf so
00:08:23
if you were to add up all the Wars all
00:08:25
the people affected moved or killed by
00:08:28
constant Warfare in this time tiny
00:08:30
country uh it would be a lot of people
00:08:33
arria was made by War second is power I
00:08:38
should tell you more about the
00:08:39
government in general I guess you could
00:08:41
call them paranoid isolationist and
00:08:44
brutal with their punishments
00:08:46
particularly this guy is isas aferi he's
00:08:49
been leader for he's been leader for
00:08:52
he's been man at least as long as I can
00:08:54
remember as long as anyone can remember
00:08:57
that's because if we're going off the
00:08:58
perspective of the arrian nation he's
00:09:01
been president forever for 100% of the
00:09:04
independent history you don't rule a
00:09:06
country since 1991 without having some
00:09:08
typical dictatorial characteristics he
00:09:11
was a through and through military
00:09:13
commander who became president he
00:09:16
spearheaded the war efforts was paranoid
00:09:18
about foreign powers arrested opposition
00:09:21
leaders and arrested many of his own
00:09:23
citizens for arbitrary and unknown
00:09:25
reasons one of the most common ways to
00:09:27
do this was to detain dozens of people
00:09:29
people at a time inside of these
00:09:31
shipping containers better pray it
00:09:33
doesn't get too hot outside damn these
00:09:36
metal prisons get hot we're talking
00:09:38
potentially up to the 60s or 7s de C and
00:09:42
this barely scratches the surface of all
00:09:44
the torture and abuse the solders face
00:09:47
Maybe AAS isn't a great dude so if there
00:09:50
is any point where all hope of a
00:09:52
reasonable development plan was lost it
00:09:54
was definitely 1998 the militarization
00:09:57
of society the ongoing War with Ethiopia
00:10:00
was an excuse to extend conscription
00:10:02
from 18 months to well they just say
00:10:04
indefinitely but it's usually around 25
00:10:07
to 30 years of service AKA your whole
00:10:09
working career in forc labor slowly the
00:10:12
government eroded the powers of society
00:10:14
and the people elections in 1997 were
00:10:17
postponed to 2001 due to the war and
00:10:20
then postponed again because part of the
00:10:22
country was occupied at the time I guess
00:10:24
we're still waiting for this one to
00:10:25
happen because there have been no
00:10:27
elections since Independence even even
00:10:29
in local elections the last ones took
00:10:31
place in 2003 the pfdj doesn't even
00:10:34
trust small town Mayors newspapers were
00:10:37
shut down in 2001 and yes journalists
00:10:40
have of course been high on the list of
00:10:42
citizens arrested and detained for
00:10:44
challenging Isaias the list that also
00:10:47
includes many entrepreneurs and business
00:10:49
owners those that ran shops that weren't
00:10:51
pfdj owned and operated yep into the
00:10:54
shipping containers they went there have
00:10:56
even been reports of soldiers going door
00:10:58
to door under the pretext of data
00:11:00
collection or asking how service is
00:11:02
going for the family but it's really to
00:11:04
identify draft Dodgers and those who
00:11:06
fled the country and to flee the country
00:11:09
you have to get through heavily guarded
00:11:10
borders either through bribery or
00:11:12
gunfire or just see where the ocean
00:11:15
takes you many times if they catch you
00:11:17
doing this they'll get a family member
00:11:19
to replace you in conscription or just
00:11:21
arrest a family member as punishment so
00:11:24
I don't know personally to me isaas
00:11:26
doesn't really seem like a stable guy I
00:11:28
might even go as far to say that he and
00:11:31
the pfdj have ruined the nation but hey
00:11:34
not everything is politics there's
00:11:36
always the economy right so third
00:11:39
command how is that economy well it's a
00:11:43
little different to how it works in the
00:11:44
US or Europe or India or even China
00:11:48
which claims to be what erria actually
00:11:49
is and that's a command economy almost
00:11:53
everything at least in the cities is run
00:11:55
by the pfdj and the conscripts working
00:11:57
for them I say in the cities because
00:11:59
more accurately it's a dual economy one
00:12:02
based on government command and the
00:12:04
other on subsistence farming so this GDP
00:12:07
per capita number might not be too
00:12:09
accurate when talking about the aans in
00:12:11
cities like Asmara Karen and assab the
00:12:14
pfdj rules all I mean all private
00:12:18
business is outlawed in the nation
00:12:20
instead many farms businesses
00:12:22
Administration and services are run by
00:12:25
yes you guessed it the conscripts for
00:12:28
example all private construction
00:12:30
companies were banned in 2006 and the
00:12:33
government even went so far to demolish
00:12:35
already built homes because they were
00:12:37
financed from foreign money by a private
00:12:39
firm so infrastructure is weak only a
00:12:42
fifth of the country's roads are paved
00:12:44
industry hasn't made people richer
00:12:46
property rights are borderline
00:12:48
non-existence but hey at least forcing
00:12:51
people to learn how to read does
00:12:52
actually improve the literacy rate so
00:12:55
that's one good thing they've done the
00:12:57
pfdj and Military essenti have a
00:12:59
monopoly on all trade construction
00:13:02
markets Mining and cash crops in arria
00:13:05
in fact most of the trade leaving is
00:13:07
from government-owned mines selling to
00:13:09
China and the Emirates most of the stuff
00:13:11
coming into Atria is a little more
00:13:14
essential to life especially this
00:13:16
category food although the country
00:13:19
claims to be self-reliant in food
00:13:21
production often rejecting Aid their
00:13:23
Imports clearly suggest otherwise
00:13:25
forcing people to run Farms they don't
00:13:27
want to is one way to curb food
00:13:29
production but it might not be entirely
00:13:32
their fault arria is a dry country with
00:13:35
a very little amount of arable land most
00:13:37
of the food going out of the nation is a
00:13:39
small amount of cash crops like bananas
00:13:42
and peppers but most of the food coming
00:13:44
in are staple foods eaten every day when
00:13:47
you zoom in most of the food production
00:13:49
seems to be for small scale domestic
00:13:51
eating almost on a subsistence level
00:13:54
which is where most people work most
00:13:56
atrians do not live in urban centers
00:13:59
they live on small farms or Pastor land
00:14:02
small villages that depend on family
00:14:04
units instead of the pfdj for welfare of
00:14:07
course when drought and soil erosion
00:14:09
hits these are the people most affected
00:14:12
by food and water shortages but they're
00:14:14
also often the ones least affected by
00:14:16
the business band setting up what are
00:14:18
called micro businesses in small towns
00:14:21
in the cities basically just Market
00:14:23
stands of their crop making ends meet in
00:14:25
the cash-based informal economy so
00:14:28
besides the Market vendors working for
00:14:30
cash what do the conscripts work for
00:14:32
I'll let General sabat FM minister of
00:14:35
defense and Mining explain it for me
00:14:37
even though each of the conscripts has
00:14:39
between two and three children they only
00:14:42
receive 500 navka per month how do they
00:14:45
do it the reward is not a salary because
00:14:47
the amount they receive is insignificant
00:14:50
instead patriotism is the driving force
00:14:53
if a private firm were to take over it
00:14:55
would be solely driven by pecuniary
00:14:58
interest rather than than by patriotism
00:15:00
in the beginning the conscript will be
00:15:02
happy to receive 100 navka but soon
00:15:04
after he will demand more in the end
00:15:07
money will dictate everything nothing
00:15:10
can be accomplished in this way
00:15:12
patriotism will drive the country all
00:15:14
while the ones who own the mines and
00:15:16
businesses make a fortune off of free
00:15:18
labor and won't reinvest the profits
00:15:20
back into infrastructure or the people
00:15:22
maybe patriotism will drive the people
00:15:24
to work for only $30 a month but it also
00:15:28
seems to drive D them out of the country
00:15:30
in Mass numbers which has led erria to
00:15:34
for isolation a lot of aeratr live
00:15:38
outside of their closed borders one
00:15:40
thing that means is that a lot of
00:15:42
aerotrans send money back home to their
00:15:44
families called remittances despite the
00:15:47
whole self-reliance thing it's estimated
00:15:49
that around 20 to 40% of the GDP comes
00:15:52
from these remittances in a country with
00:15:55
a large level of poverty little to no
00:15:57
pay low foreign res reserves and food
00:15:59
insecurity remittances are a way for
00:16:02
many to keep their heads above water
00:16:04
maybe even to build up some savings to I
00:16:06
don't know flee themselves one day the
00:16:09
government does try to restrict them
00:16:11
though a family can only withdraw up to
00:16:13
5,000 nafka in cash every month around
00:16:16
$330 that's not a whole lot to subsist
00:16:19
with so some argue remittances have not
00:16:22
helped to develop Atria they've just
00:16:24
stabilized an unstable economy built off
00:16:27
of forced labor pretty ironic for a
00:16:29
country so insistent on its
00:16:31
self-reliance from the outside world
00:16:33
another irony the diaspora attacks every
00:16:36
aitran Refugee is supposed to pay 2% of
00:16:39
the money they make outside of the
00:16:41
country back to the aitran government
00:16:43
it's one of only a few countries on
00:16:46
Earth to tax their citizens living
00:16:48
outside of the nation I'm looking at you
00:16:50
America considering how many refugees
00:16:53
there are that's got to be a pretty big
00:16:55
portion of the government's Revenue
00:16:56
right maybe the government does not
00:16:59
share their income or budget the hdri
00:17:02
trust fund controls all state
00:17:04
Enterprises although no external
00:17:06
monitoring is allowed of it so not even
00:17:08
the Ministry of Finance knows where the
00:17:10
money goes still we could assume this
00:17:13
tax pickes up a pretty big chunk of the
00:17:15
budget pfj run businesses don't pay tax
00:17:18
and neither do they hard to reach rural
00:17:20
populations but 60% of outside air
00:17:23
trains report at least sometimes paying
00:17:25
the 2% tax and almost all said they send
00:17:29
es to their families small scale family
00:17:31
financing likely has a bigger impact
00:17:33
than the government's tax collection and
00:17:35
payments it's a confusing system I can't
00:17:38
tell you everything about the economy
00:17:40
but I think this quote from a fled
00:17:42
Minister sums it up pretty well in the
00:17:44
beginning I thought the diaspora tax was
00:17:46
justified but over the past 20 years
00:17:49
there has not been a visible thing done
00:17:51
in erria we don't know where the money
00:17:53
goes when I worked at the Ministry of
00:17:55
Finance I was involved in diaspora tax
00:17:57
issues the min Ministry of Finance has
00:17:59
no control over the spending of the
00:18:01
money it also does not control the
00:18:03
mining income in the end it is the
00:18:05
president's office and the head of pfj's
00:18:08
financial affairs that control
00:18:10
everything the pfj has a lot of
00:18:12
companies they don't pay tax they are
00:18:14
like the private property of the ruling
00:18:17
Elite does it raise questions that most
00:18:19
of the info we get about these systems
00:18:21
are from those who clearly didn't like
00:18:23
the country enough to run away sure I'm
00:18:26
sure there are some that exaggerate how
00:18:28
a TR is to get more attention than
00:18:30
trying to be totally honest but doesn't
00:18:33
it raise more questions when there is
00:18:35
barely any information coming out of the
00:18:37
country in the first place maybe it's
00:18:39
just me but I think I'm more inclined to
00:18:41
believe the refugees' stories stories of
00:18:44
conscription War command power held by a
00:18:48
few and
00:18:49
selfreliance that's what makes people
00:18:51
call arria Africa's North Korea shout
00:18:55
out to Yao for inspiring this video if
00:18:57
you like to read about economics he
00:18:59
writes a pretty good newsletter with a
00:19:01
particular focus on African economies
00:19:03
check them out if you're interested I
00:19:05
mean you're already done this video so
00:19:07
might as well
