Category: Articles
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What is in Our Name?
The Unionist movement, which was mostly restricted to a highlander/Christian movement, was the creation of Haileselassie. Abune Markos was instrumental in coercing ordained and lay priests to create mass bases for the Unionist movement; Tedla Bairu ushered in the Federal era while Asfeha Woldemikael, with Qeshi Dimetros, engineered Annexation. At various stages of our history…
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If You Are an Eritrean…
The following was written on July 18, 2013 by “Haile” at awate forum in response to “Asmara”, an archetypal government supporter. It is being posted here because of your requests. It is one of the greatest take downs of the PFDJ talking points. The PFDJ defenders have somehow convinced themselves that they are the only…
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Eritrea: The Unfinished Revolution
Eritrea is a small country in the Horn of Africa. No state census has been released since 2003, but its population is estimated to be around six million. Eritrea’s a coastal state that borders Ethiopia to its south, Sudan to its west, Djibouti to it south-east, and the Red Sea to its north. Because of…
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Self-Definition And Self-Creation
Outline: 1. A Likely Breakthrough on the Horizon; 2. Rumblings; 3. Eritrean Refugees in Ethiopia; 4. Repeating Myself – need for a framework for responsible political lobbying; 5. Theatrics aka Activism; … The pressure of history is enormous, and its judgment is the most burdensome of all. To throw a spanner in the works, a…
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Unfiltered Notes: Eritrea’s Second Chance
First, a true story for some perspective. From their school days, my brother remembers Jemil as a gentle fellow who stayed out of trouble. Then Jemil’s never-to-be-messed-with line was crossed when a popular Ethiopian general slapped him in a public place in Addis sometime in the mid-1990s. Jemil went out, came back with a gun…
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On the Cynics and on the Frustrated
On the Cynics You certainly have observed that now the time has come when the dead old demons are resurrected and its agents, seeing adventurous, optimistic Eritrea, at this time, standing amid its ruins, bewildered and confused, and although she knows perfectly well who the culprits were, she keeps bemusedly asking herself “whose fault is…
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Perils Of Dependency
Outline: 1. Straw Man Argument; 2. Recycling Gedli; 3. Perils of Dependency; 4. Are we a Failed State? 5. Need for a Transitional Plan An article appeared on Asmarino.com whose content did not surprise me considering ‘the Sobering Times’ we went through these days. It appears some latter-day ‘activists’ are deliberately confusing themselves in order…
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Our New Culture of Victimhood and Voyeurism
Virgil, Dante, Sartre, Milton and James Joyce all took turns describing hell. But it took an Eritrean, Mulugeta, to surpass them all. It is just what we Eritreans do, we are special. This is what hell is like: “Mulugeta said if he wanted to see his daughters, the traffickers would bring the girls to him…
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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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Sobering Times
Outline: 1. Re-awakening the patriotic front; 2. Lies; 3. My Simple Analysis; 4. A variable we do not need; Dear reader, You may not enjoy this article for it is filled with some angry expressions which seem to be dominating my reasoning these days. Please take no offense! Here we go round the prickly pear…
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Clipped Into Co-option
Outline Admonishing Eritrea; Brief reply to comments regarding my previous posting (Ethiopia, Tesfay Temnewo, Our youth) Clipped into Co-option I know beforehand that this article is going to stir some grumbling within some corners of our communities for two reasons: confrontational denunciations of patrons of the Ethiopian intrusion, and for diverting focus on Ethiopia rather…
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PFDJ Toronto Mourns Its Tax Collector
The moqSel Gibri[i] Collector was dismissed, today members of the Toronto Chapter of the PFDJ gathered to lick their wounds and to counsel each other. They showed brave faces by invoking old PFDJ slogans such as: “the more we are challenged the more defiant we become and the more our victory is assured against our…
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Adam Malakin: His Non-militant, Non-public Other Side
Adam Malakin, a prominent figure in the struggle for Eritrean statehood, passed away in May 2013 in Melbourne, Australia. Up until his sudden death following brief hospitalisation, Adam Malakin appeared healthy and sound. Adam Malakin, or simply A’m[1] Adam as he came to be endearingly known, was octogenarian. The purpose of this note is to…
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A Matter of Perspective: Nationalism
I, as a devoted Awate reader, most times scan the pages of this site in the hope that I will find there something informative and educational, something uplifting and inspiring, something original and sometimes something controversial where we all can have an input of our dimes worth. True, time constraints don’t always allow one to…
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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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Mr. Yemane Gebreab: Hands off the Eritrean Orthodox Church!
Mr. Yemane Gebreab, a high official of the ruling party in Eritrea and who often speaks on the government’s behalf, is touring three US cities – Seattle, Atlanta and Washington DC. As was seen in the meeting he held for party members in Seattle on Saturday, May 18, 2013, his main target again is none…
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Eritrea, Africa: The Last Big Man Standing
[As I write this, I haven’t heard Isaias Afwerki’s speech. If history is a guide, he will blame his predecessor for the mess who, in turn, will blame his predecessor all the way back to whoever has been presiding over Eritrea since 1991. Oh, wait, he is his own predecessor. Never mind: did you enjoy…
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‘Eritrean Unity’: As Power Over Life
The Unconscious Eritreans We are the worst of the worst; ask any fellow. The global biopolitics has put us in the worst of 1%. Imagine any human parameter of normative value, at a global scale, and line individual values in a curve, and you observe Eritreans falling under the lowest 1% of this normal curve…
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The Report Card On Eritrea’s Turtle Economy
What is the role of governments? That is: when should a government’s coercive power be used? The answer is on a continuum: on the one side is a classic libertarian view which argues that the only time a government’s coercive power should be used is to protect the private property of citizens (Locke) and/or to…
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Evaluating The Performance Of The ENCDC
Evaluation of the work of Eritrean National Democratic Council (ENCDC) up to the second regular meeting Eritreans for Democracy, Justice and Equality (EDJE) Introduction: The ENCDC represents the last link in a long chain of developments achieved in the course of the Eritrean Opposition’s struggle to improve its mechanisms and capabilities. It was the culmination…