Year: 2017
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The Hurt Locker: Film Review and Analysis
In an era of the Internet, in the age of sound bites, and in the world of texts that collapse the meaning of words into a single letter or two; where the bombardment of information ceaselessly flows, the ability to analyze, synthesize, and correctly processing information becomes ever more crucially important. How does one begin, for…
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The Eritrean Government Admits Its Banking Blunder
In an unusual admission to problems it faces, in yesterday’s edition of Haddas Eritrea, a Tigrinya newspaper it owns, the Eritrean government issued an editorial entitled “Appropriate Correction.” The editorial raises more questions than it answers as it fails to restore the exceeding loss of confidence in the government-owned financial institutions that allows depositors only…
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Eritrean Economy in Limbo
The recent government decision to withdraw the licenses of businesses and freeze their bank accounts has resulted in freezing the entire economy. Eritreans are complaining that the unpopular government policy has destroyed the already weak economy and made many people lose their means of livelihood. So far, over 300 businesses that didn’t deposit their revenues in banks…
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Hajji Mussa Refuses to Walk Out of Prison
After almost two months in jail, sources reported to Gedab News that Hajji Mussa, who was arrested by the government security forces, is seriously ill. Though there is no specific information about the illness that he is suffering from, the presidential office has instructed the prison warden to release Hajji Mussa on bail and put…
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Eritrea’s Democratic Credentials!
During the United Nations deliberations on the future of Eritrea in the 1950s, one particular claim was made consistently to justify the annexation of Eritrea to Ethiopia. This claim was economical in nature and it maintained that Eritrea was a poor country that can’t sustain itself as an independent nation. This claim was sarcastically refuted…
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Abdurahman Younis: My Proud Friend Moves On
A famous commercial tagline goes, “Never let them see you sweat.” And there was a man who never let them see him sweat. A free-spirited man who faced adversity, jail, and deprivation, but never capitulated. How could he? How could he when he was blessed with a free, stubborn soul that refused to depart except…
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Awate Archives: Why Idris Aba Arre Is Arrested
[The following archived article is being republished for the fourth time] Seven months after this controversial article was published, Idris Aba Are, a severely handicapped veteran EPLF fighter, was arrested. The article deals with the author’s observations of the government’s policy regarding “education in mother tongue.” At the time of his arrest, he was a director within…
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Eritrean Depositors Lose Control of Their Funds
In a move reminiscent of past campaigns, over the last few weeks, the Isaias Afwerki’s government has arrested many people and sealed their businesses. Government sources indicated the reason for the far-reaching arrests is to investigate alleged crimes of corruption. The doors of at least 200 businesses in Asmara and other places in Eritrea have…
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Akhriya Steps-Forth: From Akhriya to All of Eritrea
ኣኽርያ በገሰው፡ ካብ ኣኽሪያ ናብ ኩሉ ኤሪትሪያ: Unlike the commonly known Las Vegas slogan, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” our motto is and should be the stark opposite of that: What happened in Akhriya did not, could not, and will not stay in Akhriya. This is a call to action and a call to arms from the belly of…
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A Notch Up in Eritrea’s Struggle For Liberty and Justice
Circumstances surrounding a student-led public protest that took place in the Eritrean capital, Asmara on October 31, 2017, were lauded by many citizens as a historical event that marks the beginning of an end of one of the modern world’s ugliest tyrannies. Accounts of the protest were extensively reported by opposition websites and radio stations…
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Ali Saleh Faced Muammer Gaddafi’s Fate
Two days after he disowned his Houthi allies in a television interview, and calling on Saudi Arabia to end its hostilities in Yemen, armed Houthis stopped his convoy south of Sanaa and shot him in the head. Yemeni sources indicated he was on his way to being smuggled out of the country by UAE forces.…
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The Akhriya Uprising: Lessons Gleaned
To expect convergence when canvassing various Eritrean opposition media outlets during any confrontational events like the Akhriya uprising would be par for the course. What shouldn’t be par for the course is the colluding, inadvertently or not, that aligns us with the supporters the PFDJ (the ruling party) with the propaganda machination of the Eritrean…
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Halloween Uprising
Eritreans as you know are unique especially in their courtesy towards one another and towards others. For example, if a Muslim is taken to jail by a Christian, another Muslim cannot state the fact without digging some Christian name from jail books and reassuring the jailer that it is OK because these things happen…
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What Ethiopian-Eritrean “Friendship” ?
(This is a speech delivered on Saturday, March 26, 2011, at a conference organized by the Eritrean Ethiopian Friendship Forum in San Jose, California: “Ethiopia & Eritrea: Healing Past Wounds and Building Strong People-To-People Relationships.” March 27, 2017) One night a man came upon a child who was searching under a street lamp for a coin he…
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Al-Diaa: No, It Wasn’t About The Curriculum
Writing for the pro-government website tesfanews.com, a certain Alamin Adam (“Wedi Hajji”) has written an article entitled “Al-Diaa School Incident and the Frenzies[sic] that Ensued” regarding the tension between community school in Asmara and government. If you were hoping to get an insight into details of the incident (never mind the events which preceded it)…
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Nevsun Loses Appeal to Dismiss Slave Labor Case
A British Columbia court dismissed Nevsun’s appeal to have the case filed against it to be rejected. Three Eritrean refugees who worked in Nevsun’s mine in Bisha, Eritrea, had filed the case in November 2014. Nevsun had argued over jurisdiction and appealed to have the human rights-related case be moved to Eritrean courts claiming that the…
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Enough to the Cruel Man in Asmara
The need of good governance inspires us to say enough to the cruel man in Asmara. It is the historical record of peoples that reflects their suffering and heroism and conveys their experiences to generations. The agony of the peoples of the Third World was the result of the Western invasion of its countries, which…
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The Case of “Business and Human Rights” In Eritrea
Companies have an obligation to conduct due diligence of their Business activity and this article is a case of “Business and Human Rights” in Eritrea. Business has a direct and indirect impact on the lives of people. It is for this reason that the UN Human Rights Council came with a new framework of “Business…
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To Nobody’s Surprise, Sanctions on Eritrea Renewed
(1) The Security Council voted to extend the mandate of the Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea (SEMG) and to continue the sanctions on Eritrea for another year. (2) The vote was 11 in favor, 4 abstentions and 0 against. The abstentions were Russia, China, Bolivia and Egypt. (3) This means that in addition to…
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One More Nonagenarian Star
His name is H. H. Abune Makarios, an inspiring and pious church leader. In 2009, His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of All of Africa on the Holy Apostolic See of St. Mark the Evangelist, assigned H. G. Abune Makarius to serve as bishop (overseer) of the North America Diocese of…