Category: Articles
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Of Water, Women and Wind: The Three Ws of Eritrea
Semere Andom, the child of the Ontario water, wiring from Toronto–fresh is its breeze! The Water Isaias Afwerki told Eritreans that water does not come to where people are, it is the people who should travel to where it is available. He was predictably belligerent in the context of the question given his habitual disrespect…
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The Shingrwa Of Eritrean Politics
Just to make things clear first: ‘Shingrwa’ was the American idol of Eritrea, and the word which is borrowed from the Blin language, means ‘Star’. The first time it was aired on Eri-TV in 2009, I remember when we surrounded the TV on Saturday afternoons eagerly waiting to be entertained. To be honest, the first…
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They Spoke Truth To Power
There is no dearth of honest, courageous individuals who, at various stages of the evolution of Eritrea’s current dictatorship, spoke out and stood up to injustice. General Bitweded, whose historic 1997 speech exposed PFDJ’s brutal rule; Seid Ali Hijay (Wed Ali), and his colleagues, who paid the ultimate price in search of freedom and constitutional…
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The Saleh Younis Reader: His Craft and Politics
I would bet that most people if asked to introduce Saleh Younis, they would just say one sentence: Saleh Younis does not need introduction. I disagree. He needs a lot of introduction. And if you want to talk about both his craft and politics, the introduction will be excruciatingly long. So I will skip the…
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EU Pays For What It Imported From Isaias
The men and women in the European Union first did what all bureaucracies do: they dithered for months, then they did what Europeans always do: they gave a tyrant a much needed lifeline, siding with the PFDJ, a group of criminals not unlike the Mafia, who are tormenting the Eritrean people. With the 200 million,…
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San Bernardino: In Memory of Issac Amanios
Isaac Amanios Gebreslassie, 60, was tragically taken from us on Wednesday December 2, 2015 in San Bernardino, California. He was one of the 14 killed in the mass shootings by two radical Islamists. Isaac was born to Aregash Emnetu and Gebreslassie Amanios on June 29, 1955 in Adi Merkeja, Eritrea. He attended San Gorgio high…
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The Great Relapse
Many people pooh-pooh character assassination. And rightly so, but the same people are indifferent about the assassination on life. Both character assassination and life assassination are rampant in PFDJ’s Eritrea. But the moment one harshly criticizes a PFDJ or a former PFDJ higher ranking official, he is accused of character assassination: “that is low, aim…
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Currency Change: An Absurd Tipping Point For Disobedience
It is absurd to expect the currency change to be a tipping point for disobedience. In keeping with its founding principles of inflicting the utmost suffering on our people, the PFDJ once again sent shock waves in Eritrea by announcing the currency change. Both the clueless and those in the know offered their conjectures, but…
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The Adi-Mengonti Speech: A Commentary And Translation
Commentary: I am a jealous person, but it is not what you are thinking. I am jealous as in “zeyqen’e ay’yweled”, jealous as in, “I am a jealous God.” Both are positive attributes. The Eritrean adage challenges us to seek higher accomplishments by emulating others without malice, and God’s jealousy springs from giving something that…
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From The Teachings Of The Late WelWel
The following was translated by the Awate Team and published as part of the set of launching content of awate.com in September 1, 2000. The late Ato Woldeab Woldemariam was a lifetime teacher, and a great debater. His Commitments to individual freedom, democracy and justice were as unshakable as his commitments to the unity of…
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A Fish Rots From The Head
Games of Financial Choke-hold: Prima facie, there may not appear to be direct connections to the new tender note that the regime in Eritrea is to duly institute. It is, nonetheless, worth noting that the PFDJ brass has had a very bad year. With UN’s CoIE incriminatory report coming out earlier this summer, things appear to…
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Eritreans Will Repeat Geneva In New York
Earlier this summer Eritreans the world over spoke in unison in their unequivocal support for the UN commissioned CoIE report, to which overwhelming number of Eritreans voted with their feet, literally, as they marched the streets of Geneva, in the thousands. Who could forget the 26 of June show of force when young and old,…
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Resolution 1325 on Women And It’s Implications For Eritrean Women
Network of Eritrean women was set up by a group of Eritrean women with diverse backgrounds and experiences to setting up a solid Eritrean women’s organisation that protects women’s rights, promotes the involvement and participation of Eritrean women in all decision– making processes. As one of the main objectives of Network of Eritrean Women has…
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Thanksgiving Edition: A Ruby Celebrates Sweet Fifteen
The life of an Eritrean in 2015 was riveted by the COIE report, the unprecedented Geneva demonstration against the tyrant, the death of hundreds of Eritreans in the Mediterranean Sea and Europeans Union’s flirtation with the idea of injecting capital into the tills of Eritrea’s dictator to stop the influx of refugee to its shores.…
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A Sample Of The Eritrean Grief
The following was posted as a comment on Awate Forum; it is a profound story that we decided to make it a feature article Tesfabirhan, the author of the article stated, “my story is a drop in an ocean I am just lucky to be able to write about my family; there are families with…
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The Genius in a Lamp: ‘Eritrean Solutions to Eritrean Problems’
The Genius in a Lamp: ‘Eritrean Solutions to Eritrean Problems’ First things first: It is the purpose of this article to enlighten. Further, to provide insights into a very important (but optional!) political perspective in Eritrea’s cause for democracy in which many Eritreans – but in my view not many enough – wholeheartedly believe in.…
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Jebena Introduces: Iraqi Singer Kazem AlSahir
Jebena weekend repose introduces to you the famous Iraqi singer Kazem Al Sahir through his song, Zidini Ishqen (Give me more passion). Kazem was born in Mosul, Iraq, the city that has been ravaged by ISIS. The late Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani wrote the lyrics for the song that has remained on the top of…
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Eritrea VS. Eritrea: One Citizen’s Internal Dialogue
If there is one fallacy that both PFDJ* and anti-PFDJ Eritreans have in common is their belief that there is one Eritrea. But there are two Eritreas. There is the Eritrea that started out to outlaw the outlaws and to supplant it with laws, but instead it has become an outlaw of the first rate…
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Strapping Youth: How Do You Feel About Our Incarceration?
September 18, 2015 will commemorate the 14th year since the G-15 have disappeared into the Eritrean ether. The last count pegged the number of political prisoners to about 10,000. To remember this dark day, Amanuel Eyasu of Assenna interviewed Michael Araya, a former prison guard whom serendipity chose as one of the witnesses of the…
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Two Heroes, Same Gene, Same Strain
Awate the initiator, Awate the continuation, congratulation! Awate, the man who gave birth to a nation Awate, the website which inspired the population Awate, two heroes, the same gene, the same strain Awate, the Founder shot first from his old “Brein” Awate, on the web roared like a lion once again Awates, stood fast and…