Category: Articles
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Meles Zenawi: A Life Spent Fighting Poverty
“Our first enemy is poverty and backwardness.”Meles Zenawi Meles joined the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) as a young student to struggle for the right and equality of his people. He was one of the prominent leaders who contributed to the downfall of the Ethiopian military regime, the DERG. After the fall of the DERG
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Beyond Politics: The Psychological Impact Of Our Suffering
Eritreans are so much consumed by and addicted to politics that sometimes we forget we are human beings who breathe, live, love, hate, get sick, feel sad, happy and die. Politics reflects on our every day lives. My first article beyond politics was ‘To be human’. I had planned to write more of that but
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Tewekel On The River Nile: Review The Conventions
Appearing on Al Jazeera’s “Behind The News”, Mohammed Taha Tewekel, an Eritrean regional political analyst, called for reviewing of the 1929 agreements between the United Kingdom and its colonies regarding the River Nile. Furthermore, argued Tewekel, the agreement signed between the Lower Nile countries of Egypt and Sudan in 1959 is not binding on the
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Hidomona’s Reply To Meskerem’s Willful Ignorance
[awate.on-forge.com notes: On August 17, the Winnipig Free Press reported on the efforts of Hidmona Eritrea-Canadians Human Rights Group of Manitoba to call on the Canadian government to comply with its own laws and not allow individuals like Zemehret Yohannes, who is in charge of Eritrean ruling party’s “Research and Documentation” department, and Walta, a
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Ramadan Stream Of Consciousness: Touring The Eritrean Political Mind
[This article the second part of a four-part series written by Omar Jabir under the title “Ramadan Stream Of Consciousness.” It first appeared at farajat.net and other Arabic websites on July 27, 2012. Awate.com has translated it into English for the benefit of its readers. Any discrepancy that might appear in translation is not the
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Unfiltered Notes: Where Are We And Where Are We Headed?
21 years after Eritrea’s geographic sovereignty, the things that really matter — like individual freedoms, economic vibrancy, quality education and Eritrea’s long term viability as a respected member in the community of nations still lag far behind. Measured against the high hopes Eritreans had in 1991, the disappointments are far too many; accomplishments scanty little.
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The Risks And Challenges Facing The Youth Movements
No doubt many of us are glad when the youth make fast strides towards establishing a united and independent movement that will enable them to fully utilise the great potential they possess and effectively channel it to accelerate the national struggle for democratic change. Naturally, relationships between the older and younger generations are not expected
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“Baito Baitona”: The Debrezeit Dialogue Forum
It was my first participation in a big Eritrean gathering of various youth organizations and diverse individuals: refugees, students, journalists, writers, artists and opposition leaders; and I met my Facebook and media acquaintances from all over the world and reminisced our school experiences and all the ups and downs of life in Eritrea. It was
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Reflection On The Bishoftu “Youth Dialogue Forum”
The preparations The first time I heard about the idea of planning to hold a youth conference in Ethiopia and other sectorial conferences was during the seminar of Eritrean intellectuals, professionals and other interested individuals held in Ethiopia in September 2011. It means the idea precedes the Eritrean National Conference for Democratic Change (ENCDC) conference
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Undemocratic: Youth Organizations vs. Youth Conference Organizers
Indeed, the Eritrean Youth Conference in Ethiopia is extraordinary, but what inspired me to write today is Dr. Mohamed Kher Omer’s facebook message to Kiros Yohannes and others concerning the conference. I want to thank Dr. Mohamed Kheir Omer for his advice, his valuable information and his continuous articles at awate.on-forge.com. I stand corrected, but Dr.
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Eritrean Think Tank – And The Need For Purification Of The Intellect
We are in big trouble! At first shot, this may look like stating the obvious. But, I am referring to something probably much more serious than you think. It hits directly at the centre. It raises questions about the very existence of Eritrea as a nation and the survival of its people. I believe that we
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Eritrea: Where The Victims Are Villains
I am livid – absolutely livid, in fact!! The reason for my anger has to do mainly with the last three comments made by S. Temelso, Y. Kahsai and A. Hidrat in response to my article of June 30, 2012 (www.awate.on-forge.com) in which the Eritrean people are labeled as cowards, self centered opportunists and runaways
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Youth Rebellion: Limitations, Challenges, Opportunities And Expectations
Uprising & opportunities The last two years has seen an increased awareness, readiness and action oriented tasks involving a growing number of Eritrean youth in the Diaspora. Increased use of social media such as facebook and paltalk, inspiration from the Arab spring and the tragic fate of many asylum seekers in Sinai has given this
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The Eritrean Holocaust: Sweet Revenge of the Old Fox
Long ago in our youth, when we were intoxicated with Marxist thinking, we were made to believe that the masses were the true drivers of history and not individual leaders. The latter were seen not as ordinary mortals but as the hand, the very embodiment of history, of society, of nature, of God himself. Therefore,
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The Eritrean Holocaust — And How To Stop It
Preface This is a serious attempt to first describe and explain the present situation in Eritrea and the nature of its political leadership. It then tries to suggest some simple but effective solutions which may have far reaching consequences for the future of the country and the region within a short time, not years. In
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Eritrea: A Dissection Of The Opposition
The current Eritrean opposition organisations are offshoots of the mainstream politics of either the ELF or the EPLF; both organisations had a distinct political experience, stemming from different social and cultural background that contributed in creating separate trends that greatly impacted the course of the Eritrean history and general developments of the past and present
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The Referendum: A Matter Of Perspective
I was reading the excellent article by Mr. Mesfin Araya on the trajectory of the Eritrean nationalism when of all the points he raised, a point that had always struck me as odd, the one about the referendum, was the one the least talked about and least analyzed by any of the Eritrean intellectuals or
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Eritrean Youth And Their Political Positions
These are my reflections on why some of the Eritrean youth are either supporters of the regime or politically indifferent. Youth is a social sector defined by an age group normally ranging from 15-35 but the regime extends the upper limit to 40 or more to suite its manipulative purposes. In Eritrea, like in any
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Notes On The Historical Trajectory of Eritrean Nationalism
Eritrea—which was once an Italian colony, a British protectorate, and briefly an autonomous region before it was reduced to a mere province of Ethiopia—became in 1993 an independent nation-state, redefining post-colonial African map, hopefully not setting a dangerous precedence. The history of over thirty years of bloody armed struggle had inflicted unbearable human suffering with
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National Unity Existing Only As Virtual Reality
The question of national unity is of a paramount importance and to a great extent, the way it is resolved would determine the preservation and continuation of Eritrea as an integral united nation. Eritrean history clearly demonstrates that we have thoroughly and fundamentally failed in resolving that and other important issues. This could mainly be