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Al Jazeera’s The Stream hosts Ms. Sheila Keetharuth
On June 16, 2015, Al Jazeera’s The Stream hosted her excellency Ms Shiela Keetharuth and three other Eritrean guests to discuss the report that was issued by the UN appointed Commission of Inquiry on Eritrea. The extensive report is damning and it has angered the Eritreans government. The extensive report contains minute details covering the…
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AlBashir Sticks Out His Tongue At The ICC
AlBashir was not the only one, South Africa also stuck its tongue out at the ICC, so did many African leaders, including dictators who naturally want to see the ICC close shop. On Saturday, AlBashir had arrived in South Africa to attend the African Union summit; the summit concluded on Monday. The moment he arrived,…
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Eritrea’s Prospect: Joining The league Of Hybrid Regimes
The war against superstition and totalitarian mentality is an endless war. In Protean form, it is fought and refought in every generation (Christopher Hitchens) For years we have debated on the nature of the Eritrean regime some opposing it and others giving it unreserved…
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Isaias’ State Visit To Sudan Without A Photographer
Almost ten days after Isaias Afwerki missed Omar AlBashir’s swearing-in ceremony, on June 11, the official Eritrean government website posted a 114 word report entitled, “President Isaias Leaves for Republic of Sudan on a working visit.” This is the first time that news about a president’s official visit is not reported alongside fresh pictures. It…
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EXCERPTS FROM THE PENCIL: Sept. 2000 – Sept. 2001
The following are editorial excerpts from The Pencil covering the first year of awate.com’s life, between September 2000 to September 2001. This archive file was first published on September 1, 2001. Incidentally, we are still trying to restore our archives so that it can be easily accessible, but the task proved to be more difficult…
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The Games Of Dictators
In this article, I want to elaborate on the theme I started with in my previous article, “Recognizing The Games Dictators Play“. My objective in bringing the issue is not to stir up old controversies or to wallow in the past but because I truly believe the past is intruding on our thoughts in a…
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In Spite Of Security Hurdles Somalia Recovering Fast
A stable Somalia is good for the Horn of Africa, a successful Somalia is excellent. The country that has been marred in civil wars since the overthrow of the late dictator Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991. Since then, millions were internally displaced or left their country as refugees. Somalia went through difficult times and became…
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Isaias Absent From Al Bashir’s Party
On Tuesday, June 2, 2015, President Omar Hassen AlBashir was sworn in for a five-year term. In April, AlBashir won in an election that most opposition parties boycotted. AlBashir has been ruling Sudan since he came to power in a military coup in 1989. Almost all leaders of Sudan’s neighbors attended the ceremony when AlBashir…
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A Documentary: Eritrean Refugees In Ethiopia (Part 2)
Last week Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation aired a two part documentary about the general Eritrean situation. This is PART 2 of it. The documentary is heavy on interview and reports by eyewitness who are now stranded in several refugees camps across Northern Ethiopia. They include, army officers, college professors, housewives, students, conscripts, veterans, handicapped, artists, farmers,…
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A Documentary: Eritrean Refugees In Ethiopia (Part 1)
Last week Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation aired a two part documentary about the general Eritrean situation. This is PART 1 of it. The documentary is heavy on interview and reports by eyewitness who are now stranded in several refugees camps across Northern Ethiopia. They include, army officers, college professors, housewives, students, conscripts, veterans, handicapped, artists, farmers,…
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Eritrean Opposition’s Pink Panther Show
I envy people who grew up watching the Pink Panther cartoon show; there was no television where I grew up. But as an adult, I avenged myself; I watched all Pink Panther shows. If you find a strange word, run for the dictionary. If you want to check a location of a country, go for…
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The Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living
Socrates, one of the great ancient philosophers, was convicted by a jury in Athens for ‘undermining state religion and corrupting the youth.” His crime was his never ending questions that made people think, reflect and challenge old held beliefs and reasoning. That was too much for some and they wanted to silence him. Hence, he…
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Eritrean Heart And Mind At Work In Italy
“Here is heart and mind in action! Here is the meaning of Independence as depending on one another! Here is the meaning of organizing, one that is for a purpose and not for mindless beating the koboro [drums] in a land that doesn’t wont you and for a regime that doesn’t care for you. Here…
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Isaias Of Eritrea Threatens Corrupt Government Functionaries
Pressure exerted by international governments and agencies to release prisoners of conscience, and the latest meeting where some of his select officials expressed the need for performance evaluation, has driven Isaias Afwerki to the edge. The president’s independence day speech of May 24 exacerbated the fear of the business community that their ranks will witness some arrests…
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Recognizing The Games Dictators Play
Have you ever wondered why dictators loom so large in all our history books and why they are so often mythologized and eulogized despite the horrors they unleash? Fear of punishment may explain the submissiveness but what explains the fascination many people have or have had with dictators past and present? More close to home:…
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When Eritreans Went To The Polls In 1997
Everybody is going to the polls, let’s go to ours. Well, it is a different kind of poll our is an opinion poll and not voting poll. And it requires a time machine…that takes us 18 years back. And it is not by the millions but by the dozens. But it may give us a clue…
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Election Season: Ethiopia Hoy!
Probably the best thing that is happening in the 2015 Ethiopian election is the absence of European Union (EU) observers. The last time EU sent observers in 2005, “Anna Gomez the European parliamentarian seemed to be running for a seat in the Ethiopian parliament.” So far, the African Union (AU) has deployed almost sixty election…
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On Eritrea’s Independence Day Ten Years Ago
On May 28, 2005, on the occasion of Eritreans Independence Day anniversary, the following editorial appeared on awate.com under the title, “The Hidden Picture of Eritrea Under PFDJ” What has changed, or what will change under the current Eritrean rulers is everybody’s guess. But this may help to remind people what the issues were ten-years ago,…
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The Smashed Eritrean Wristwatch
Some anecdotes are timeless, I will tell you an old one: Adey Tekh’a, was a very old senile woman. A combatant asked her how old she was. She tried to remember, “Since I was baptized as Tekh’a, since I shepherded the goats. What! I could be 400 or 500 hundred years old! ” እምቧዕ!፡ተኽኣ ካብ…
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San Francisco: A Rally For People vs A Rally For Propaganda (Archive)
Thirteen years ago, as the Bay Area Eritreans were preparing for a rally in San Francisco for June 1, 2002, on May 28, 2002, The Pencil carried the following editorial which is being republished on the occasion of the demonstration that is planned for May 18, 2015. We encourage everyone to join the San Francisco…
