Author: Saleh “Gadi” Johar
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Negarit 308: The Ethiopian Red Sea Craze
Over a week ago, I started to record an episode that I didn’t finish. This is what I prepared: For the last five or six months, I have been suffering from a nasty papilloma growth in my nostril. Tomorrow, I will lie on an operation table to get rid of it. Those of you who…
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What is the PFDJ problem with the UN?
If you are oblivious to how things work, you risk feeding on every propaganda or rumor and endlessly blaming everyone but yourself. There is a danger of forgetting the root cause, thus point your fingers in the wrong direction. For instance, if you misplace any of your clothes, you would make sure to check the…
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Negarit 305: Merry Christmas and New Year
Holidays, festivals, and celebrations are days to escape the grind of life and unwind. Christmas is one of those holidays. Before independence, though life choked with oppression and was brutal, we still remember it with nostalgia. Eritreans enjoyed a few holidays that we still cherish the memories despite the tragedies. Anything with limited supply is…
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Brezidenti Isaias Named to Lead IGAD
Usually, there are a few people who get knee jerk reaction whenever Isaias is mentioned in a negative tone or criticized. Given the situation at home, I wish they get used to it. Isaias is not your pet, but a man who is ruthlessly ruling Eritreans unelected, for a too long. It’s better to swallow…
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Isaias Calls for Intifada in Eritrea
Recently a usual “interview” of Isaias Afwerki was aired on Eritrean television; none of the people I talked to expected something new, but somehow all had the urge to listen to it. The interview was widely spread, thanks to the many Youtubers who rushed to publish it. People speak to the public because they have…
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Stuttering Yemane Gebremeskel Does it Again!
Recently, the PFDJ has deployed its senior advocates, who are spreading provoking and controversial statements. At the same time, they are exposing their obsession with insulting the people’s intelligence and spreading confusion. In the last few days, a Swedish foundation awarded Dawit Isaak the prestigious “Edelstam Prize.” Dawit was the editor of the private Setit…
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A Secret Letter To President Donald Trump
Satire: republished twice since 2016, and the following is a slightly updated version of it.11 Eight years ago, on November 8, 2008, I published Isaias’ congratulatory letter to the then president elect, Obama. On Nov. 9, 2016, I published Isaias’ congratulatory letter to president-elect Donald Trump. You will notice the two letters seem to have…
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Modeling Election Done; Govern’t Election…
Today’s Negarit could well be version 2 of the 5-year-old episode, which was a sort of social critique. Generally, writers, journalists, and artists are keen observer of life; they mirror the life of societies. They expose forces, mainly pseudo-patriots who spread ignorance, bigotry, and chaos, unwilling to change despite the frequent reminders pointing to their…
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Dear Brezidenti, Is The PFDJ A Fairy?
Growing up, my old aunt was bedridden. I used to visit her in her room, which had a rope with two ends fitted to the opposite wall. Clothes, towels, and a host of other things were hung there. My aunt saw things we couldn’t see hanged on the string. I will return to the remaining…
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A Corporal Warned Eritrea!
In 2021, Negarit 147, I raised the issue of SFO Safer, an oil tanker that was stranded across the Hodeida, a Yemeni port on the Red Sea since 2015. At the time, it carried over a million barrels of oil. SFO Safer used as a storage tank for Yemeni oil that was piped from the…
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Shall we calm down or not?
Our dialogue is a thermostat that reflects our mental development; reading comments, observing debates shows it all. I always strive and encourage my compatriots to dialogue calmly and rationally. So far, its satisfactory and I continue to do my part. Our state of mind needs to be refreshed like beating cotton. Sometimes mattresses and pillows…
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Do Eritreans Envy Tigray?
Envy is a human trait; however, most people are often envious of people they know. They are rarely envious of people they don’t know or are geographically far removed from them. What’s the difference between envy and jealousy? Are they basically rooted on superstitions? I am not sure if the evil eye is envy or…
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The Era of Flashy Pastors
Parents miss their children. Aunt Lemlem had two sons, Saleh and Arabi, who left for Egypt for education, leaving the parents alone in the house. Arabi died soon, but Saleh occasionally wrote them letters addressed to our postbox #39, which I delivered to them. Aboy Berhe was the postmaster; his assistant, Tekheste, received the letter-bag…
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The Massawa-Mekele-Addis-Ababa Railway
Back in the day, aboy Tewelde had a masonry stone hauling truck. To this day, no car company has built a truck like it. It was slow, therefore it doesn’t need brakes, it’ didn’t have lights because it moved only during the day; it didn’t have hoot because aboy Tewelde would take his head out…
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Like Rip Van Winkle!
How long has it been since you left your home country? Are your memories intact? Do you have friends and family you keep in touch with? Maybe your childhood friends or your relatives? Do you tear up or burst into tears with nostalgia, especially when you hear songs, or mundane events that remind you of…
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Broken News
There’re two types of narcotics: Downers cause depression, insomnia, and melancholy; Uppers cause euphoria, excitement, and relaxation. When intoxicated, some laugh hysterically for no reason; others become miserable. They may remember incidents from the past—my great-great-grandmother died—and cry. When I was a kid, I lost a pair of shoes and cried. The sun is too…
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Biniam Girmay: He was ours and he’s still ours
The three-card Monte, known to us as Telate-werega, is a classical swindling trick. There is also the wheel of fortune, known as shertek bertek in some areas, and shetekh-betekh in others. That is the localized pronunciation from the Arabic shortek-bekhtek, meaning ‘your decision and luck.’ Close to the grand Mosque in Agordat, crowds gathered…
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A 40-Years Journey From Communism to Theocracy
Until mid-1970, the members of the liberation organizations were mainly from the countryside: innocent, traditional, honest, brave, and disciplined fighters. They had no qualms about sacrificing their lives for the cause of freedom and liberty. However, by the time of independence, combatants from the cities had increased drastically and they maintained a considerable presence, particularly…
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The Eritrean Ruling Party Apologizes to Meley
Twelve years ago, a creative friend came up with a T-shirt design of the original Eritrean flag; I used it as my profile. Facebook has a Memories section where it brings up old posts. You can either ignore it to be forgotten or give it a new life by commenting on it. That is what…
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Is Eritrea’s Economy Vibrant?
Gerghis Drar’s is an Eritrean who presents basic financial tutorials—stock market, retail consumer financing, investments, debts, and politics. That caught my attention and I have been following him for a while. A few months ago, when the PFDJ propaganda started to proliferate aggressively, I thought it was time to confront the misleading propaganda with facts—a…