Author: Dr. Bereket Berhane Woldeab
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Inquest Into The Lampedusa Migrant Boat Disaster
The tragic boat accident of October 3, 2013, which claimed the lives of 366 young Eritreans off the coast of the Sicilian island of Lampedusa,has been coming for a long time. Warning signs, in the form of human skeleton, have been piling up in the Mediterranean Sea bed for years. Fed up with the prospect
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The Unsung Tragedy of Eritrea’s Children: Past, Present, and Future
Children can help. In a world of diversity and disparity, children are a unifying force capable of bringing people to common ethical grounds. Children’s needs and aspirations cut across all ideologies and cultures. The needs of all children are the same: nutritious food, adequate health care, a decent education, shelter and a secure loving family.
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Appraising Eritrea’s Social Media (Part II)
Reining our Elephant I want to start this follow-up article by thanking Haile for the following very constructive comments that he posted for the first part: “I know the topic ICT could be daunting, however your piece has come short in practical appraisal of the net effect of social media (say in the last decade
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Appraising Eritrea’s Social Media ( Part 1)
There now exists a ‘’different’’ Eritrea in the cyberspace, what can be called a ‘’virtual diasporic nation’’ of the free, populated mostly by the young and recent émigrés. This community of activists, working across the transnational space and without fear of retribution, has the potential to inject new vigor and a sense of direction to
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The Ghion Hotel Metting: A Refugee’s Perspective
The legacy of past generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living. K. Marx Saliha must have been dozing when the accident happened. When she came to her senses she could see an overturned Toyota pick-up land cruiser and human bodies strewn all around it. A baby was crying near her, and
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Eritrea 20th Birthday: Time For Reflection!
“Those languishing in prison, those just out of prison, and the relatively free…” -A ‘’deranged’’ lady’s demographic classification of the Eritrean population into three groups. (Adi-Keih, 2005) A profoundly dismayed, sad, outraged, and silently suffering society with in Eritrea is in a state of what might be called ‘’cerebral cortex shut down’’, a trance-like self-preserving
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At The Crossroad (3rd & Final Part)
‘’They are capable of loving only the dead.’’ A. Pushkin The new mantra for the just ended 21st Anniversary of Massawa’s liberation goes: ‘’Fenkel: Apiary of Eritrea’s Independence’’. Sounds cute and clever. Full of meaning. Intelligent. Nationalistic. I am sorry if I am being a spoiler, but frankly, after twenty years of listening to this
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At The Crossroads (Part II)
A chilly Mediterranean wind is blowing across the stale political landscape of Africa’s Arab north, and it has turned a new page, and a new chapter has just begun. In Tunisia an iron fist that ruled for 23 years was unraveled a few days back by popular unarmed street strikes. Despots in the neighboring countries
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At The Crossroads (Part 1)
“April 4th, 1984. Last night to the flicks. All war films. One very good one of a ship full of refugees being bombed somewhere in the Mediterranean. Audience very much amused by shots of a great huge fat man trying to swim away with a helicopter after him, first you saw wallowing along in the
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Entrapped ‘Miners’ Of Conscience In Eritrea And A Largely Indifferent Diaspora
“If our people 50 years ago in 1946 could form political parties of varying ideologies and policies and manage to hold a dialogue with each other, and after 50 years the EPLF says that we are not matured politically to do the same today! This is nonsense. The reason is that the EPLF wants to
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To The Silent Majority – For How Long Can You Keep Your Silence?
A priest asked a dying Spanish Statesman and General who ruled his country in the late 18th century: ‘’Does your Excellency forgive all your enemies?’’ ‘’I do not have to forgive my enemies,’’ the ruler replies, ‘’I have had them all killed.’’ In Eritrea, today, every kind of available weapon is being unleashed: education, mass
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Reflections: Seven Days At The NCDC
Having lived in Addis-Ababa for almost four years as an Eritrean refugee with urban status, and having strong “shaebia” sentiment, and being a member of the silent Eritrean majority, I had still many misgivings about the handling of the NCDC, but decided anyway to attend on the fourth day after the conference was started.