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Isaias Shrugged: And The Eritrean People Sighed
This is Al Nahda’s final installment on the various reactions to Isaias Afwerki shrugging. The media in Eritrea, which is owned by the State (which is to say, Isaias) –nods its head in agreement to...
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Isaias Afwerki’s Five Stages Of Dealing With Crisis
Outrageous things happen in Eritrea all the time. But outrageous things have a scale and sometimes even people who have been conditioned to accept the outrageous as the normal are jolted. The refusal...
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Free Citizens and Foot Soldiers
What does a national institution with a name like “Research and Documentation Department” do? If you answered: “Research and publish basic data like the census, national budget, unemployment rate,...
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Same March, Different Drummer
The Circular Journey in Search of Eritrea: A “World Distance” that Never Was ( by Yosief Gebrehiwet) is an answer to the question posed by Eritrean Independence: Is It Worth All The Sacrifice? (also by...
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The Power Of Infantilism In Eritrea
If you are asking, “why is the Eritrean government having only its second investment conference in 2012, twenty one years after Eritrean independence?” the bad news is that the first conference was...
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Ghedli Defamers And The Appeal Of Inevitability
In “Eritrea: the illusion of independence-liberation dichotomy” (asmarino.com, January 11), Zekre Lebonna attempts to frame the positions of the “gedli romanticizing” and “gedli de-romanticizing”...
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Isaias Afwerki Deals With His Regime’s Suicide Note
The goal of all authoritarian leaders is to create a state that does not have alternative power centers or breeding grounds for a leader to emerge and to challenge them. In Eritrea, the institutions...
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The Report Card On Eritrea’s Turtle Economy
What is the role of governments? That is: when should a government’s coercive power be used? The answer is on a continuum: on the one side is a classic libertarian view which argues that the only time...
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Eritrea, Africa: The Last Big Man Standing
[As I write this, I haven’t heard Isaias Afwerki’s speech. If history is a guide, he will blame his predecessor for the mess who, in turn, will blame his predecessor all the way back to whoever has...
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Our New Culture of Victimhood and Voyeurism
Virgil, Dante, Sartre, Milton and James Joyce all took turns describing hell. But it took an Eritrean, Mulugeta, to surpass them all. It is just what we Eritreans do, we are special. This is what...
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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....
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Younis: Disengage from Isaias Afwerki; Engage Alternative Voices
[This is the entire text of the speech made by Saleh Younis, and addressed to attendants of an event organized by Eritrean and international human rights activists and was attended by Eritreans,...
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Yohannes Tikabo and the King’s Men
This is the story of Yohannes Tikabo and Yosief Ghebrehiwet. More accurately, about their beliefs. Two Eritreans, with varying degrees of enthusiasm for their particular identity. First things first:...
View ArticleThe Engagement Party
In mid-December 2013, Hank Cohen argued that it was time for the US to rethink its policy towards Eritrea and there was over-reaction everywhere. Some in the opposition were alarmed by this, and some...
View ArticleWhen Even Good News Is Given A Shrug
On behalf of myself and all awatistas (whether you like it or not), I would like to congratulate Nigerians and Ghanians for waking up one Monday morning (let’s assume it was Monday) and learning that...
View ArticleWhy Isaias Afwerki Invalidated the 1997 Constitution
On May 24, marking the 23rd anniversary of Eritrea’s independence, President Isaias Afwerki had this to say near the conclusion of his address: “Within the framework of our tasks of nation building,...
View ArticleConstructive Ambiguity And Eritrea’s Bad Choices
One of the most memorable revelations of Dejen Ande Hishel, the Eritrean Air Force pilot who escaped after 15 years of arrest without charges, was his realization (four years into his arrest) that, in...
View ArticleWhy Democratic Coup Is The Best Option For Eritrea
Over the past several months, I have been posting disjointed pieces at the Awate Forum and on my Facebook page that are my vision for transition in Eritrea. This edition of Alnahda is an attempt to...
View ArticleBeing Right vs Being Prudent
To plough on, oblivious to risks, is the stuff of legends. The rational mind assesses risks and judges some to be too high. Even a compulsive gambler will look at the cards he’s been dealt and at the...
View ArticleBreaking Through Our Dejavu of Disasters
You could spend a lifetime marveling at the criminality of the Eritrean government, if you were not so awestruck by its stupidity. I am saying the Eritrean government because using its...
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