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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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Azien Yasin, the Famous Freedom Fighter I never knew
Azien Yasin was a brilliant freedom fighter who had great influence on the Eritrean Liberation Front. He was present on the battlefields of Eritrea when the armed struggle called for incredible feats of bravery. He was there among the distinguished fighters who went above and beyond the call of duty during that intense period of…
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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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Isaias and Abiy: The Fallout
Often times, news surfaces only to be quickly subdued and forgotten, though it occasionally reemerges in surprising ways. Below is a brief list of key events: After the liberation of Massawa in 1990, Isaias returned from London where he attended a meeting between the TPLF and EPLF to discuss the future of the two countries.…
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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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History is Watching us
[This article is dedicated to a group of Eritrea’s Prisoners of Conscience who were arrested in 2001 after criticising President Isaias Afwerki’s rule, and have never been seen or heard from since. The prisoners, rather selflessly, led the way to meet the challenges head-on while their fellow ex-freedom-fighters failed to follow suit .] This piece…
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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 Eritrean Dilemma with Its President
Isaias Afwerki. The most mentioned. The most criticized. The most admired, and at the same time, the most despised. He’s a prominent character in most dialogues, debates and discussions among Eritreans. Some admire him as the most accomplished person because he successfully led the struggle for the independence of Eritrea. To others, he’s notorious for…
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The myth of the “pure Eritrean.”
Eritrea, given its strategic location on the Red Sea, has been a gate to Africa and a destination for various migrants and seekers of better opportunities. Eritrea’s association with migration goes deep in history and the Eritrean ethnic composition was formulated over centuries of migrations, intermarriages, and resettlements. Beginning with the indigenous communities who mingled…
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Too Many Lemons to Carry
Dear Friends of Awate and Negarit (please scroll down for details), When we launched the 2024 fundraising in January, we were (and still are) counting on the thousands of fans, friends and colleagues to chip in. Fundraising is the most difficult part of the tasks. So far, only 52 friends have responded; the ratio of…
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PM Abiy’s Mama Economy
Recently, Ethiopia relaxed currency controls and restrictions as per the recommendations of the IMF, which provided it with a generous credit line. Theoretically, it’s a loan even if Abiy Ahmed, the prime minister, insinuates otherwise. He said that borrowing from the IMF is like “borrowing from your mother!” However, many countries, including Egypt and Kenya,…
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Is Ethiopia Doomed?
For an Eritrean, pretending to wear a 20/20 lens, you dwell on snooping around Ethiopian critiques, regardless of their successes and failures. I for example, wouldn’t expect anything neutral/good to come out of people like Monsieur Hidrat or other ELF offspring about Isaias’ government. Because I know that they have bones to pick with him.…
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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…
