Author: Younis Omer (Ali Salim)
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Eritrea’s Ghost Bureaucracy
1. Hidden Bias Eritrean political life is often narrated through the familiar vocabulary of dictatorship, militarization, and repression, as though the visible machinery of authoritarianism alone explains the daily injustices citizens endure. Yet the lived reality of Eritreans is shaped far more intimately by a quieter and more pervasive force that rarely enters the national
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The Anatomy of State Failure in Eritrea
I. The Origins of Authority States do not fail in a single dramatic moment. They unravel slowly, beginning in the quiet spaces where no one imagines politics is taking place. The earliest fractures appear not in ministries or parliaments but in the daily negotiations of ordinary people. A fisherman trading his morning’s catch for a
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The Elephant in the Room
I. The Meteor We Pretend Fell From the Sky There is a comforting story circulating in Eritrean political discourse – a story repeated so often, and with such ritualistic conviction, that it has become less an argument than a reflex. It tells us that the dictatorship is an alien force, a meteor that crashed into
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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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Eritrea: The Constitution
Here is a follow-up on “gual mengedi” – the constitution. I will stick to word limit and make it short. Maybe I should just have posted it as comment. Anyway, for some reason people seem interested in revisiting the subject. I tried to read as much of the discussion on the subject as possible. Things
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Baby Corp!
I look left and right before I post this. For some reason, I tend to receive a hail of unhappy e-mails from people you would least expect would oppose what I say, that somehow manage to send me into another run of hibernation. It was more fun writing as a ghost. I didn’t care what
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The Takfiri State
In this article we will try to understand and justify what might have happened to Eastern Bejastan but from a distance and in a way that I hope is more engaging. It is a bit weird to try to talk about something without talking about it. You shouldn’t take these things seriously anyway. What should
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BEJASTAN
It has been a long time since my last post and many things have happened ever since: some personal and some public but mostly sad or worrying. I will skip the exclusively personal and will take your sympathy as implicit in the time you will spend reading. Thank You! I am happy to see SJG
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The ELL: Context And Method
Disclaimer: Say you are telling a friend in Adi-Qontsi about an argument you had with an ugly woman in Siberia, who had long nails. Your next-door neighbor (you never mentioned her name) jumps in and starts explaining. Applying simple logic: (a) your neighbor thinks she is ugly; (b) she has long nails; or (c) she
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ELL Document (II): The Blamed. The Prototype. The Bipolar
ABSTRACT In this article, I intend to do four things: (a) Defend the position of the Tigrigna elite in our struggle by arguing that their missteps be excused for reasons of the “Ethio-Fixation Disorder” (EFD). (b) Touch on the argument that the Eritrean struggle is a package of good and bad and that no Eritrean
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The Document Of The ELL: An Analysis
OFF TOPIC: This year 2015 – my new year and that of family and friends, was clouded by the sudden deaths of at least two great landmarks in the way many of us have come to know and approach Eritrean politics. The first in my case, was the loss of Yassin Mender, who, as far
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The Eritrean Lowland League: An Introduction
Background : I am not someone who is ruled by some “dictatorial chauvinistic regime” running my mind. I am of the belief, however, that women have ways of getting things into your head if you are a man simply because only the survivalist concerns that they raise (when they are serious and acting feminist) are
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The Brewing Nightmare
I know we have a few former commies in here. So let us try to appear “ideological” at least in one paragraph. In a way, it is also the abstract, summary or snapshot of the rest. If you are a lazy reader, a serious person or do not have time for too much BS, read
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Advocates of Civil War
Many readers have suggested that I say what I think I should say the way they want me to say it – flat with no sensations, no room for maneuvers and in black & white. Let us try if I come close to their expectations. Housekeeping: A few points to make sure that we actually
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The Third Way
We have had very good discussions in the U-Turn articles. The majority were genuine exchanges of views raising very legitimate concerns and contributing real value to our understanding of alternative routes. They have been a great input to how we should proceed especially with the need to force our presence by bulldozing our way through.
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Creative Destruction
Let me start by first sincerely apologizing to Awate, the website, for referring to it as “extreme opposition website” (thanks SY for calling my attention). For some reason, I believe, some might have interpreted it as saying “extremist” website. Thank you for tolerating our always unintended transgressing. You have done a fantastic job and we
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THE U-TURN SPIRIT
. Some friends have suggested that we need a clear path and a focus on issues this time and proposed that I make a little introduction as a regular contributor. Also bowing the my good friend SY, here is what I thought any good friend would want to know: I was born to a mother
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U-TURN
To start by getting this out of the way and for those who may care to know, my real name, if there is anything real about names, is Younis Hossein (for details, I would be glad to have an autobiography ready for you and we can always negotiate the price). I have in the few
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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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Just Tickling!
This article is exclusively intended to acknowledge and congratulate developments that took place while I had no idea they did. Please read each in its totality and do not dwell on the details. What I feel right now is no different than what the Seven Sleepers felt the day they woke up. Please help! The