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Eritreans Mobilized For Justice In New York
First I would like to thank the organizers of the New York demonstration for showing their respect for humanity and saying no to injustice in Eritrea. The focus of my message is why this demonstration was vital and why it concerns all Eritreans and why they came together to send a message of solidarity to…
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Eritrean Opposition Goal For PFDJ: Death By 1,000 Cuts
The single argument that unites the entire Eritrean opposition is that Eritrea’s ruling party, PFDJ, is not fit to govern because it refuses to be bound by the rule of law. Twenty-five years after assuming power, the Eritrean regime refuses to be bound by national law–a constitution–and it refuses to comply with international law, despite…
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UNDP Provides Political Adviser To the PFDJ Political Adviser
Activists in Eritrea and other places accuse the policy specialist at the UNDP office in Asmara of doubling as a political adviser to the Eritrean regime. An official described the specialist as “UNDP’s political adviser to the PFDJ’s political adviser.” According to the sources, UNDP’s Mansoor Mirza is lobbying on behalf of the Eritrean ruling…
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Eritrean Youth: The Lost Generation
Many of us living overseas have conducted ourselves in such a way that we remained true to our Eritrean heritage. We unswervingly rallied behind the preservation of the very spirit that sustained the independence struggle. We, overwhelmed by the spirit of the ‘gedli’ era, cherished liberty as a heritage of all Eritreans everywhere as we…
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Confessions of A Recovering Addict: It was All for the Chicks
I relished it and my friends provided it. Truth be told, I was addicted, but it was all for a good cause, it was to impress the girls. I was in love and addicted to two cousins, but they manifested through one person. It was in unlikely place that I first noticed Leila, she was…
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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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From The Archives: Avoid The Downers
This was first published on August 30, 2004. I decided to repost it again, 12 years later, because I feel the same cycle of negativity is overwhelming the justice seeker’s camp. It is my modest advise to encourage them (particularly the self-respecting youth) to shun all negativity and all the cheap talk that denigrate the Eritrean…
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The Role of the Elite In Leading Their Communities
The following post appeared on September 1, 2016, on Ismael Gabayta’s facebook page. Awatestaff took the initiative and translated it into English for the benefit of its readers. The original Arabic content by Ismael was slightly altered to avoid Arabic verbosity and be better understood by the English reader. Omissions and translation errors, if any,…
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Democracy: May Your Heart’s Wish Come True
On September 24, 2016, I was at the University of San Francisco to attend a discussion that was organized by the energetic Meron Samadar (Lead Eritrea). The following is the speech that I prepared but as usual, I delivered its condensed version from memory without reading it. Therefore, though I expressed the gist of the…
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Book Review: Loubet AlMaghzal By Haji Jabir
Title of the book: “Lubetu Almghzal”( The game of the spinning wheel) Author: Haji Jaber Language: Arabic Number of pages: 208 Published July 27th 2015 by Arab Cultural Center, Beirut, Lebanon. I read Haji Jaber’s third novel “Loubet Almaghzal” in which he narrates deeply and brilliantly about some diaries lost; diaries that make the history and memory…
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Canadian Courts To Try Nevsun’s Slave Labor Case
Today, October 6, 2016, the Supreme Court of British Columbia cleared the way to try the lawsuit filed by Eritreans victims to be tried in Canada. The lawsuit was filed on November 2014 against Nevsun Resources Ltd, a Canadian mining company exploiting the Bisha mines in partnership with the Eritrean government. Nevsun uses forced labor…
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United States Policy On Eritrea: Any Prospects for Change?
The United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs held a subcommittee hearing titled ‘Eritrea: A Neglected Regional Threat’ on September 14, 2016. Participating in the hearing were a two-member panel of witnesses representing the State Department and a three-member panel of expert witnesses. Post-hearing reviews and analyses coming out of the Eritrean diaspora focused mostly…
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Eritrea: Of Pressure Valves And Self-Inflicted Wounds
Last month, this column offered suggestions to journalists on how to do their job in Eritrea when they are given that “rare” access. There is a reason why the access the Government of Eritrea grants journalists is inversely proportional to their knowledge and/or skepticism of the actions of the Government of Eritrea over the last 25 years:…
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Canadian Court To Rule On Nevsun’s Use Of Slave Labor
A Canadian court will decide this week if it can proceed with trying a case filed by three Eritreans against Nevsun Resources, a mining company that is extracting minerals in partnership with the Eritrean government in the Western part of the country. The court will rule if a Canadian court has jurisdiction or whether, as Nevsun argues,…
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Yemane Gebreab, Number 7, Can’t Host Meetings In The US
On April 12, 2010, President Barack Obama signed an executive order, declaring, among other things, the following: I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, find that the deterioration of the security situation and the persistence of violence in Somalia, and acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea off the coast of…
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A Very Untimely Article
The American 2016 Election: A white woman on the top, a white man at the bottom. Hilary Clinton is poised to become the first female president, but a white woman on the top with a white man at the bottom is not history making. It is not even history repeating itself much less making it.…
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Toronto Forms Friends of awate.com
Press release In an event held on September 24, 2016, “Friends of awate,com” group was formed in Toronto, Canada. Eritrean-Canadians and Eritreans attended the event that included lectures, entertainments and light dinner. In an opening speech, Mr. Abdulwasie Suleiman applauded awate.com’s professionalism and dedication, and emphasized that the website deserves public support to continue contributing towards the national…
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Invitation By Friends Of Awate.com In Toronto
The fundraising event is a caring initiative by dedicated friends of awate.com to form a permanent group in Toronto, Canada to support awate.com. We add our voice to theirs to invite all friends, beneficiaries of the services of awate.com over the years, and all supporters to attend the event. Place: 857 Dovercourt Road, Toronto Time:…
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Launching The Joshua Edition of Awate.com
You can read the article on the Beta Joshua Version of awate .com here: https://joshua.awate.com/2016/09/19/launching-the-joshua-edition-of-awate-com/
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It’s Late, But Not That Late For Bronwyn Bruton
Bronwyn Bruton was one of the three individuals who provided their personal testimonies at the US Congress’s Foreign Affairs Committee (Subcommittee on Africa) on September 14, 2016. This fact alone is an incredible feat for Ms. Bruton: a person who would have struggled to find Eritrea on a map 5 years ago is now an expert witness…
