Month: March 2013
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Ghosts Of The Horn!
Many of those who will read this and who have read the few that I wrote before are justified in wondering why any Eritrean in his/her right mind would be skipping all the catastrophes that Eritreans are facing and be fixated with unsexy, irrelevant and off-date issues. There are a lot of Eritreans who are…
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Eritrea and Syria: Doha Pulls On Isaias Afwerki’s Leash
The League of Arab States, which has officially offered the Syrian seat to the opposition coalition (“National Coalition”), held a ceremony at the Syrian embassy in Doha, Qatar to mark the event and participating in the ceremonies was Eritrean Ambassador to Qatar, Ali Ibrahim Al-Uqud. Eritrea is not a member of the Arab League, nor…
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Cry my beloved country
Responding to the Scenario of ICG, is it ever possible to start, “a reconciliation with non-reconcilable devil”? The International Crises Group(ICG) is telling us that it is probable. But how credible, one might ask them! Let us see the scenario that our friends at the ICG are trying to draw to save the naked Emperor. See “Africa Report N°200,…
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Ethar relief: Good News
“ The Mercy” Project carried out by Ethar Relief, continues at the refugee Camp of Um Gherghour. About a year ago Ethar Relief started the project to build a secondary school for girls in Um Ghergour. However the project was not initiated due to lack of sufficient funding at the time. We would like to…
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Unfiltered Notes: “I Am Thinking Now”
After a fulfilling career at Microsoft, Patrick Awuah returned to his native Ghana to start Ashesi University with the goal of cultivating ethical leadership and innovative thinking for a new Africa. A month after starting the project, he received an email from a student which he says almost moved him to tears. The student’s email…
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In Memory Of Chinau Achebe: “Things Fall apart.”
Chinua Achebe’s “Things fall apart” is a milestone of African literature: Starting in the 1950s, Achebe was central to a new Nigerian literary movement that drew on the oral traditions of Nigeria’s indigenous tribes. Although Achebe writes in English, he attempts to incorporate Igbo vocabulary and narratives. Other novels include: No Longer At Ease (1960),…
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“Massacre At Wekidiba”: A Survivor’s Book Review
A review of a new Book by Dr. Habtu Gebreab (Aka, Fr. Athanasius) Some events are destined to be part of the collective psyche of a nation. No time or healing can blot out the indelible imprints they leave behind. They remain an integral part of a society either in their physical, cultural or psychological…
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Forto 2013: A Matter of Perspective
There has recently been a spate of articles about the recent rare phenomena that occurred at Forto Baldisera, the building that houses the Ministry of Information of the current ruling class, the PFDJ. The stories are varied and many and variously categorize the incident as an “attempted coup d’etat”, “A putsch”, “a supplication to the…
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Eritrea’s Dismal Human Development Report
The United Nations has published its 2013 Human Development Report (HDR) and Eritrea ranks number 181 in the world, that is, 7th from the bottom. With a Human Development Index (HDI) of 0.351, Eritrea is ahead of only 6 mostly war-torn African nations: Niger, Congo, Mozambique, Chad, Burkino Faso and Mali. The HDI is a…
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Perspective On Forto 2013
Eritreans For Democracy, Justice and Equality (EDJE) There is no doubt that the event of January 21, 2013 in Asmara will remain one of the most important and most controversial in the Eritrean political arena for a long time to come. This is due to its uniqueness, quantitatively by the involvement of a far greater number…
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Operation Forto: A Prelude To A Final Showdown?
If you return to awate after a few weeks or even a few days it is hard to catch up but skimming quickly through some of the discussions that passed, the most outlandish was that triggered by Yosief Ghebrehiwet who unabashedly declared that the struggle for independence had been useless! Yosief writes eloquently and cleverly…
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Isaias Afwerki Deals With His Regime’s Suicide Note
The goal of all authoritarian leaders is to create a state that does not have alternative power centers or breeding grounds for a leader to emerge and to challenge them. In Eritrea, the institutions which incubated emerging leaders were traditional, religious, civil society, and the military. After a 50 year-long assault by secular fundamentalists, social…
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Eritrean Women, March 8 And NUEW
March 8, the International Women’s Day is approaching. Invitations for numerous upcoming events have been published in “governmental” and opposition websites. International Women’s Day is celebrated since the mid seventies (in ELF and EPLF areas) and was established as a public holiday after independence of Eritrea. On SHEMONTE MEGABIT (March 8) many Eritreans top styled with their…
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Waiting For An Eritrean Spring Or Making It
Between waiting for the Eritrean spring and making it: An attempt to find a new approach to change in Eritrea Preface: More than two decades after the liberation of Eritrea, it seems that the chances of change in the Eritrean political scene is diminishing, not because there are significant new conditions in favor of the regime…