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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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The Dilemma of Eritrean Diaspora Movements – Article review
“The Eritrean Diaspora Opposition Movements: Obstacles and Challenges”, A Master thesis, Linné University, Sweden, by Berhane Kidane, spring term, 2022. “Eritrea Diaspora pro-democracy Blue Revolution movement: From where to Where”, by Aron Hagos Tesfai, published by Martin Plaut, March 21, 2024. Defining the issue The Master thesis by Berhane Kidane (2022) and the short history…
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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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The Horn of Africa States Ethiopia’s Undiplomatic Faux Pas
It was always clear that Ethiopia’s false historical narrative would one day catch up with it. The country that was Abyssinia adopted Africa’s historical Greek name, Ethiopia, in 1932. It currently proves every sunrise and every sunset that it cannot hold the many nations it had held together by force in the past. The war…
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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…
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The Horn of Africa States The Need Beyond the Narrow Mindset
Favoritism is a disease that causes immense damage to any organization, country, or region. It takes competency out of the equation, and if one goes back to history, one will note that any leader who used favoritism as a guide to his/her leadership by appointing friends, loyal people, and family members in key positions in…
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Re-aligned with the PFDJ but disappointed
After the downfall of the Derg regime in Ethiopia and the liberation of Eritrea in 1991, the Sudanese government curtailed the movement of Eritrean opposition organizations on its soil. Denied the opportunity to operate from Sudan, most moved to Ethiopia and stayed there until Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018. Several Eritrean opposition organizations…
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Reverse Season on Migration
Dilemma: do we welcome those who abandon the PFDJ, forgetting the pain they inflicted on us because we dared to oppose the regime, and move on, or should we insist on holding them accountable for their past actions? Today, many are facing a dilemma after Abdulkadir Hamdan, a journalist and veteran of the struggle era,…
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Please respond to the call
Dear Friends of Awate and Negarit 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 41 donators have responded; the ratio of those who responded compared to…
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The Shirt-Color Rivalry
Eritrea is the home of diverse social groups, a country built on an idea. And the citizens are content on being Eritrean, despite the tribulations that have become an alibi for those aiming at dismantling, deforming, and making it a fascist state. For a while, known bigoted elements are recklessly attempting to destroy it; they…
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Negarit 273: Citizenship and Identity Chaos
The most disturbing debate many uninformed disrupters were engaged in was on the difference between identity or citizenship and which supersedes the other! There are many views on that but generally, an identity is composed of many layers, including national identity. While personal identity describes, among others, the individual’s culture, tribal, ethnic, and linguistic affiliation,…
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Will they die or be martyred?
Listening or reading Negarit requires patience, please bring some additional patience from your storage. If you are short-tempered, with little or no patience, please pretend you are patient. Talking like responsible adults is fun. My next few episodes might be a bit unsettling for some; I am planning a sequel to address a few issues…
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Yemane Gebreab And Associates
anyone who sneaked out can sneak in I do not know much about soccer, but I gather most Eritreans support either Arsenal or Chelsea. I know about that from Bakri Humed’s YouTube channel. Please remember I am bringing the teams as an example, because we often say our discourse has become akin to fans rooting…
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Is PFDJ Honest or It’s a Gimmick?
“Farmers work the land; Merchants trade in the market (freely).” That profound saying is attributed to the first proclamation the Italian colonization government issued when it established itself in Massawa. Eritreans accepted that wholeheartedly, though it was issued by their colonizers. Sadly, they are denied that freedom by those who supposedly freed them, and that…
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Alemseghed Makes a Pilgrimage to Keren
comments on a speech Alemseged made in Keren.
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Awate-Negarit Fundraising Drive 2024
You can donate using the method you think is most convenient to you, using the links provided below. Please chip in generously. Contribution addresses and account details: Credit and Debit Cards: Below the “Support awate.com” icon on the front page, there is a form through which you can make your donation. PayPal: Click the orange…
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The Media is like a midwife: EriSat as an Exhibit
Gambling is risky—sometimes lucky—and “the winner takes it all” is the title of the ABBA song. No one knows the results. If they knew, it wouldn’t be called gambling. And what is happening to EriSat* saddens me. In a way, a court trial is like gambling. Both nemeses believe they are right, but the opponent…
