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Lampedusa: Rage, Grief, Indignation Grips Eritrean Diaspora
On Thursday, October 3, nearly 500 immigrants crowded on a 60-foot long boat originating in Libya were shipwrecked in Lampedusa, Italy when, due to mechanical problems–and the subsequent actions taken by passengers to draw the attention of rescuers–the boat was set on fire. Despite the efforts of Italy’s Coast Guard, hundreds are presumed dead. The…
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Isaias: Too Strange to Captain Our Ship of State
Shore but only a kilometer away, Shoes new, untraveled, for a new day, Fire on deck, 60-foot of God’s acre. Black dots, tearless eyes, Slippery arms, sudden goodbyes, Took wing soaked in water. Tides, tides, tides, tiny dots in tiny crates, Tears now to tide us over. Your ethics professor is an atheist. He is…
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Eritrea: Hazardous to Eritreans
Yes, it is almost entirely the Eritrean regime’s fault. If you have no family in Eritrea, no connection to Eritrea, and all you had to rely for information about Eritrea was Google News–which aggregates Eritrean state media’s always happy news next to the almost always negative news about the country from independent media–you would have…
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A Human Rights Lawyer Vs. A Trained Healer
The perversion and the Orwellian double speak has reached a new summit. Now some young Eritrean professionals in Diaspora, the supposed trained healers are turning into accessories to the executioners in Eritrea. Presumably those who aspire to become professional healers are there to heal the ill, the frail, and the unhealthy as they ease the…
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A Time to Love and a Time to Hate
My favorite book in the bible says: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down…
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Smoking At Airport Colonies
Let me start this with a slogan: Smokers of the world, Unite! Every time I pass by the Frankfurt airport I have to visit the smoking cabin (more of a jail cell) and meet interesting people who seem to be avenging themselves for not being allowed to smoke elsewhere. In the cell, a sticker reads: Rauchen…
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Calendar Featuring ……
This article has been pulled out of awate.com pages for serious publishing violation. We will take necessary action to rectify an ethical violation. //Awate Team
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The Enigma of The Bologna Conference
This article is systematically produced to entertain with different perspectives about Bologna Conference based on content analysis and empirical data done with the intention to develop a ground for healthy political discussion and debate among Eritreans regardless their political thoughts. We should view this article keeping in mind that there are difficulties of analyzing the…
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In Support of Ato Kidane Alemayehu’s Initiative
When I first met ato Kidane Alemayehu, I thought we were auditioning for a rendition of the movie, Odd Couple. He was an Ethiopian and an Amara with a propensity of repeating the all-too-familiar “sameness mantra” I’ve heard all my life; but one that was unequivocally rejected by my own father and over twenty immediate…
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The Chronology of Eritrea’s Reform Movement (2000-2001)
On December 5, 2002, the Awate Team published an article entitled “The Chronology of The Reform Movement”, which we introduced with the words “The following is a chronicle of the reform movement…” It covers the period of August 2000–the beginning of the reform movement–to December 2001. Of course, Eritreans’ call for reform is as old…
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Eritrea: Over 10, 000 Prisoners of Conscience
Ours is not a tragedy; tragedy has some ingredients of chivalry and integrity. Ours is a farce directed by us on us; a cheap drama aimed for prurient, sensory gratification, blithely forgetful of a sense of history and destiny. Willfully employing cynical manipulation of facts, devoid of central moral core, devoid of the organic nature…
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Miriam Was Here: A Book Review
As the last glint of hope vanished, they whimpered, fully aware that death was closing on all of them. They have never been so sure of the inevitable. There was neither a sudden surge of fear rippling through them nor a riot of doubts crashing on them; they just were sure and clear of what…
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Brainwashing The Young: YPFDJ Panelists Redefine Human Rights
Over labor day weekend, while most of the City of Davis was out of town vacationing for the holiday, UC Davis became the site for a large youth conference organized by the government of what is often referred to in the media as “Africa’s North Korea.”[1] Davis is a small college town nestled in the…
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The Riddle of The Unpredictable
We are faced with the Liar’s Riddle. Two doors, one guarded by a compulsive liar, one guarded by a compulsive truth-teller. One door leads to heaven, one to hell. The guards are identical twins. Your objective is to go to heaven. If you could ask one, and only one question, who would you ask it…
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The Conditions of Eritrean Refugees and POWs In Djibouti
Last week, Eritrean journalist Mohammed Taha Tewekel was in Djibouti to press Djiboutian authorities to improve the living conditions of Eritrean detainees, prisoners of war (POWs) and refugees. Djiboutian authorities declared that they have dealt with more than 500 Eritreans who were members of the Eritrean military. Out of those, 235 have already been settled…
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PIA interview – Summary Notes
Last week began with what appeared to be a curious finding by some pro-regime of the Eritrean diaspora, in the form of a letter dated September 17, 1945 and addressed to the then US secretary of state James F. Byrnes from the then President of a USA based Sinclair Oil Corporation (a company now known…
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Bologna Conference: The Benefits of Non-Violent Struggle in Eritrea
I was recently invited to speak at a conference organised by EYSC (Eritrean Youth Solidarity for Change) in the historic Italian town of Bologna held from 30th August to 1st September 2013. My presentation focussed on the merits of non-violent struggle against the tyrants ruling Eritrea from 1991 to present day. EYSC is a diaspora…
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The Political Fate of Eritrea: In The Context of Our Time
The Eritrean political condition has occupied the major part of the lives of four generations of Eritreans. In the processes, such political condition has consumed countless lives creating untold sufferings; putting on regression for human and technical development. This is neither my pessimistic view nor the wishful thinking of the opposition groups that do not…
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Bologna Speech: Do Your Principles Benefit Eritrean Victims?
(Note: The following speech was delivered in Tigrinya) Last wednesday I was in the middle of writing this speech when an excited friend called and urged me to listen to a discussion in a Paltalk room. “They are discussing Bologna and someone is talking about you!” I told him I was busy and he reluctantly…
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“If You Want Us to End Our Armed struggle…”
September 1, 1961 is often described as the day Hamid Idris Awate “fired shots at Mt Adal” which makes it sound like it was some sort of spontaneous, celebratory and symbolic gunfire. In truth, September 1 (Bahti meskerem in Tigrinya or FatiH mn September in Arabic) is the day Hamid Idris Awate led a small…
