Soon after my last article Halaf’Mengedi was published brothers B.Y. and SY (I have no permission to mention B.Y.’s name – so the initials) wrote me e-mails to draw my attention to a few sentences that they thought were culturally and ethically insensitive to the late Dr. Russom Haile (May God bless his soul!). The reason was because it was Dr. Russom who wrote the poem “Alewuna Alewana” and Aboy Alewuna Alewana as described in the article was him. I would like to thank them for reminding me and would like to sincerely apologize to all those who read my article and felt the same for my honest mistake. The…

I should probably start by saying a few words about how amazing the developments in the opposition camp in general and the civil society component in particular have become. I haven’t been following much of the written material with the exception of my favorite writers on Awate and Asmarino. This, added to what we have been watching about the Arab Spring, I must confess, have motivated me to think of the key issues in our opposition camp in a rather fresh way. I have come to realize that what we need most is “National Unity” – the Hade hizbi, Hade libi way. I apologize to all those we had debated…

I don’t really know where to start. So much has happened in the last two years that I would be lying if I told you I have been following Eritrean politics the way I used to. Several friends have suggested different entry points including private disclosures. I do understand the pressures that my allegedly dubious and ghostly personality might have applied on my good friends in Awate – particularly on Brother SG. If that is Ok at least for now, I would request to skip on the personal stuff with an apology for the inconvenience. First: I am a private guy – I don’t really know so many people and…

Thanks a lot to every good friend who took the time to throw in a few but very valuable words in the comments section of my previous article. All of the comments, I must admit, are on spot and none have said anything that I do not fully agree with and accept to follow word for word (as soon as a new president is elected in Eritrea and depending on circumstances). I don’t want to waste your time commenting on comments so I will just take them as words of wisdom from people who love me so much that they would die to invite me for a cool sitting of…

This article is exclusively intended to acknowledge and congratulate developments that took place while I had no idea they did. Please read each in its totality and do not dwell on the details. What I feel right now is no different than what the Seven Sleepers felt the day they woke up. Please help! The prudent guy that I am, as you know, I hate to say this but you have procrastinated for too long when you know full well that nothing can set you free like the truth. A couple of years ago, if you still remember, we saw what happened and you played ostrich. I don’t blame you!…

Bear with me please! I think we are in quicksand and we need to cross a few steps before starting the journey. By “we” I mean people (Eritreans) who have already crossed over from the stage of “what should I be doing?” into the stage of “how should I do it best for maximum impact?” I usually take it for granted that an organized opposition that is more than twenty years old (very old), is done with obsessive distractions over what is right and what is wrong and deeply focused on just doing it whether it is right or wrong because we want change – any change as long as…

I wrote three full blown articles and every time I finished one, I keep asking myself “So what?” I saved a copy of the article and deleted the original. Part of the reason is that each time I say thank God I am finished with this one, there comes Awate with fresh stuff that blow my arguments down. One piece that especially gave an excellent picture of where our departure point should be “2001-2011: Eritrea’s Wasted Decade” by the Awate Team. The second article was “The Case of Eritrea’s Missing President,” by Saleh Younis. My friend SY as some might have noticed had busted me confused quoting the wrong reference…

‘Thank You’ to all the people who take their time to leave a few notes at the end of the articles, mine included. That impresses me most and deserves all the credit for getting us rolling. I couldn’t find it again for proper referencing and I don’t remember the exact words either but one particular comment depicted a simple yet profound image of the helpless situation of diaspora Eritreans. In a nutshell, I understood it as saying that if we would only stop behaving as if we were physically in Eritrea and start considering the fact that we are stuck in a transnational space of confused political identity, we would…

Many of those who will read this and who have read the few that I wrote before are justified in wondering why any Eritrean in his/her right mind would be skipping all the catastrophes that Eritreans are facing and be fixated with unsexy, irrelevant and off-date issues. There are a lot of Eritreans who are facing death and pain in the hands of dictators, jailers, traffickers and by everyone who can inflict pain almost everywhere. There are a lot of Eritreans doing their utmost to free prisoners, support victims and ease the pain of millions. Why ignore all this and go only for what adds pain and torture to our…

I think what we all do when we take time to write our ideas and make arguments is like painting (not that I know anything about painting). Mind you – WE ALL (from tanika-moulded PFDJ to Gangman-style opposition) HAVE THE SAME THING IN MIND: AN ERITREA THAT WE CAN BE PROUD TO CALL HOME. Simple because we have no choice (as no other human being does as far as I can imagine), we discuss the same thing in three dimensions. Change the name “dimension” if you chose or add others if you will: (a) we describe what a perfect prototype Eritrea is the way we conceive it; (b) we describe…