ኣብ መላእ ዓለም ዝተፈላለየ ቋንቋ ዝዛረብን ዝተፈላለየ እምነታት ዝኣምንን ሕብረተሰብ ከም ዘሎ ንኹልና ብሩህ እዩ። እዚ ኣህዛብ ናይዛ ዓለምና ብዓለማውን መንፈሳውን ሕጊ ተገዚኡ ዝኸይድ ከም ምዃኑ መጠን፥ ኣብ ኣተገባብራኡ፡ ምእዙዝነቱን ተኣማንነቱ ኣብቲ ሕግን ምስቲ ዘለዎ ባህልን ልምድን ክፈላለ ይኽእል እዩ። ንኣብነት ሓደ ካብቲ መንፈሳዊ በዓላት ሓዲሽ ዓመት ዝብል ክንወስድ ንኽእል።

ኣብ ዓለምና እምበኣር ብመጠን እቲ ባህልን ልምድን መንፈሳዊ ሕግን ናይቲ ሕብረተሰባት (societies) ክቑጸር ይኽእል።ኩሉ ህዝቢ ሓዲሽ ዓመት ክዝከር ከሎ ኣብ ኣእምርኡ ብዙሕ ተዘክሮታት ክህልዎ ይኽእል እዩ። ስለዚ በቲ ዝሓለፈ ዓመት ናብቲ ዝሰጋገርዎ ዘለዉ ሓዲሽ ዓመት ገሊኡ  ሓሚሙ፥ ካብ ሞት፥ ድሒኑ ብጥዕንኡ ምጽንሑ ከመስግንን ንዝመጽእ ዓመት ድማ ብሩህ ተስፋ ክኾነሉ  ይምነን ይጽልን።

ሓዲሽ ዓመት ኣብ መላእ ዓለም ኩሉ ኣብ ሓደ ዕለትን ወርሕን ኣይኮነን ዘብዕሎ። እንታይ ደኣ ኣብ ዝተፈላለየ ዕለትን ወርሓትን ኢዩ ዘብዕሎ። እተን ኣዋርሕ ከኣ ጥሪ (Jamuary) ለካቲት- ውይ መጋቢት፥(February or March) ሚያዝያ (April) መስከረም (September) እየን። ኩሎም ዝተፈላለየ ወግዕታት (traditions) ልምድን (customs) ስለዝውንኑ ከከም እቲ ልምዶምን ወግዕታቶምን ኣብ ዝተፈላለየ ዕለትን ወርሓትን ሓዲሽ ዓመት ከብዕሉ ከለዉ ምኽንያት ክህሉ ናይ ግድን እዩ። እዚ ከኣ ወይ ካብ ወለዶ ንወለዶ ክሰጋገር ዝጸንሐ ወይ እውን ካብ ካልእ ባህልታት ዝተወርሰ ክኸውን ይኽእል።

ብዝኾነ ግን ሓዲሽ ዓመት ካብቲ ቅድሚኡ ዝነበረ ዓመት ዝሓሸ ክኸውን እተዘኻኽረሉን፥ ሓዲሽ መደባት እትትልመሉን፥ ከምኡ እውን ብሃይማኖታዊ ሸነኽ ካብ ልቢ ዝነቐለ ይቕረ ክትብህሃልን ዝደፋፍእ ዕለት እዩ። ወዲ ሰብ ግን ስሱዕ ስለዝኾነ በቲ ዝሓለፈ ክቕጻዕን ካብ ሕማቕን ክፉእን ተግባራት ክቑጠብን ስለዘይክእል ናብታ ሓዳስ ዓመት’ውን ተመሊሱ ናብ ጭቃ ኢዩ ዝጎዓዝ። ንኣብነት ንሕጊ ትራፊክ ተኸተል ማኪናኻ ብናህሪ ኣይትኺድ ንዝበሃል ናብታ ሓዳስ ዓመት’ውን  በቲ ዝተባህሎ ገዲፉ ብፍጥነት ክኸይድ ይጅምር። ኣብታ ዝሓለፈት ዓመት ናይ ምቅትታል ይኹን ንደቂ ሰባት እንተስ ብዓሌት ወይ ብሃይማኖት ወይ እውን ብፖለቲካዊ ጸጊዒነት ኣሳቢብካ ዝግበር ግፍዒ ተመሊሱ ክደግሞ ኢኻ ትዕዘብ።

ሓዲሽ ዓመት እምበኣር ኩሉ  ግዜ ናይ መዘኻኸሪ፡ ምስ ነፍኻ እትመራመረሉን ካብቲ ዝሓለፈ ፍለይ ዝበለ እንታይ ክገብር ኣሎኒ ኢልካ እትሓስበሉን ኣጋጣሚ እዩ ክኸውን ዝግበኦ። እዚ ማለት ካብቲ ትሓስቦ ዝነበርካ ሕማቕ ሓሳባት ይኹን ናይ ተንኮል ስራሓት ንምስትውዓልን ምብርባርን ዝሕግዝ ናይ ሰዓት ደውል እዩ እንተተባህለ ሓሶት ኣይኮነን። ንሓዲሽ ዓመት ክነብዕሎ ከሎና ዝኾነ ይኹን ስምዒት ይሃልወና ብዘየገድስ ነቲ ዓለማውን መንፈሳውን ሕግታት ክንክተል ናይ ግድን እዩ። ግን ስለምንታይ ኢና እነብዕሎ ዝብል ሕቶ ክምለስ ኣለዎ።

እቲ ቀንዲ ንሓዲሽ ዓመት ምኽባር ብእምነት ወይ ባህሊ ተደሪኽና ዲና ወይ ዕላማ ኣሎና ንዝብል ውን ኣገዳሲ ጉዳይ እዩ። ብዝኾነ ግና እቲ ንሓዲሽ ዓመት ክነብዕሎ ከሎና ዋላ እኳ ንድሕሪት ምልስ ኢልና እንታይ ከምዝነበረን እንታይ ከምዘሕለፍናን ኩሉ ጽቡቑን ሕማቑን ምናልባት ኣብታ ሰዓት  ካብ ኣረጊት ዓመት ናብ ሓዲሽ ዓመት እንሰጋገረላ ደቒቕ ኣይንዝክሮን ንኸውን። ምኽንያቱ ኩሉ ሓሳባትና ናብቲ ዝመጽእ ሓዲሽ ዕለት ኢዩ ክኸውን። ይኹን እምበር ነቲ ሓዲሽ ዕለት ቅድሚ ምቕባልና ይኹን ምስግጋርና እቲ ዝሓለፈ ዓመት ከመይ ነርና፥ ምስ መን ተዃሪና፥ ምስ መንከ ተጻሊእና፥ እንታይ ሽግር ኣሕሊፍና፥ ንካልኦት ሽጉራትን ዝተጻገሙን ናይ ምሕጋዝ ይኹን ምዕንጋል እንታይ ኣስተዋጽኦን ምትሕብባርን ገርና ዝብሉ ገምጊምና፡ ንብድሕሪ ሕጂ ዝመጽእከ እንታይን ዝሓሸን ተግባራትን ባህሪያትን ናይ ምምሕያሽ ውሳኔ ምግባር ኣድላዪ ኢዩ።

ንዝመጽእ ዓመት ኩሉ ሕልናና ንጽቡቕን ሰናይን ተግባራትን ኣብ ምፍጻም እንተዘይወጊንናዮ ነቲ ዝሓለፈ ጉድለታትናን ጌጋታትናን ደጊምና ክንፍጽሞ ኢና ማለት እዩ። ስለዚ ለውጢ ኣይገበርናን ከስምዕ ኢዩ። ምኽንያቱ ካብቲ ዝሓለፈ ኣረጊት ዓመት ናብ ሓዲሽ ዓመት ክንሰጋገር ከሎና ንኣተሓሳስባና ካብቲ ዝነበረ ከነመሓይሽን ክንቅይርን ኣብ ነፍስና ለውጢ ክንገብር እንተዘይክኢልና ነፍስና ንጥብር ኣሎና ኢዩ ዘስምዕ።ሓደ ወዲ ሰብ ኣብ ነፍሱ እንታይ እንታይን ለውጢ ክገብር ከም ዝግበኦ ነቲ ዝሓለፈ ህይወቱን ትግባሬኡን ክምርምሮን ዘጓነፎ ጸገማትን ዝፈጸሞም ጉድለታትን ክፍትሽ ከሎ ኢዩ ዝረኽቦ። ንኣብነት እዚ ኣብ ሃገርና ዘሎ ጨቋኒ ስርዓት፥ ብምኽንያት እዚ ቀዛፊ ዝኾነ ሕማም ለበዳ ንህዝብና ኣደዳ ጥምየትን፥ ስራሕ ኣልቦነትን ኣቃሊሕዎ እንከሎ፥ ሃገርና ንቕድሚት ትግስግስን ትምዕብልን ኣላ እናበልካ ዓይኒ ዘውጽአ ሓሶት እናነዛሕካ ዝሓለፍካዮ ንኽንደይ ሰባት ከም ዝልክምን፥ ከምዝፈላልን ዘንጊዕካ ዝግበር ለውጢ የለን።

 እወ! ኩሉ እቲ ጽቡቕ ንምግባር እንሓስቦን ክንኮኖ ንደልዮን ብምሉኡ ኣይንፍጽሞን ንኸውን። ምኽንያቱ እቲ ንኹልና ዝገዝኣና ናይ ምንባር ሕቶ፡  ንናይ ውልቅኻ ምንባር ሓሳብ ስለ ዝዕብልል እዩ። እዚ ከኣ ነቲ ንመላእ ሕብረትሰብ ዝሃስን ዝደቁስን ሸነኽ፡ ምስቲ ናይ በይንኻ ረብሓ ብምትእስሳር ንናይ ካልኦት ወጽዓን፥ ግፍዕን መከራን ከምዘይስማዕ እዩ ዝገብር። እዚ ምእንቲ ንናይ ውልቅኻ ረብሓ ክትብል ኣብ ልዕሊ ካልኦት ግፍዕን መከራን እናተፈጸመ ከምዘይተፈጸመ ጌርካ ምቕራብ፡ ኣብቲ ውጹዕ ሕብረተሰብ ሕማቕ ኣሰራት ኢዩ ዝገድፍ። ስለዚ ረብሓኻን ድሌታትካን ንምርዋይ፥ ንጌጋታትን ሕማቕ ተግባራትን ዓገብ ክትብል ዘይትኽእል ፍጡር እንተዀንካ ሓዲሽ ዓመት ነዓኻ’ውን ኣይንታይካን እዩ።

SEPTEMBER 11, 2020 MARTIN PLAUT NEWS

Government Ignores its own Covid-19 Restrictions

Source: Human Rights Watch

Government Ignores its own Covid-19 Restrictions

Laetitia Bader

Director, Horn of Africa

LaetitiaBader

Satellite Imagery of the Sawa military camp, including the Warsai Yikealo Secondary School, recorded in January 2015.  Imagery © DigitalGlobe – Maxar Technologies 2019; Source: Google Earth

Videos and photographs circulating on social media earlier this week showed buses in Eritrea’s capital, Asmara, crowded with students, who were not wearing masks, as they were separated from their families and sent off to a military training camp in the country’s west.

Each year, Eritrea’s government forces thousands of secondary school students, some still children, to attend their final school year in the infamous Sawa military camp, where students study but also undergo compulsory military training.

This year’s departures take place amid a lockdown. To curb the pandemic, the government imposed strict movement restrictions and closed schools. Yet it still decided to send the students off to Sawa and risk exposing them to the virus.

That is likely because the final secondary school year in Sawa serves as the government’s main conveyor belt through which it conscripts its citizens into indefinite government service.

Last year we reported on what life in Sawa looks like: students under military command, with harsh military punishments and discipline, and female students reporting sexual harassment and exploitation. Apart from Sawa’s other defects, dormitory life there is crowded, facilitating the spread of the virus if introduced. The danger is compounded by its very limited health facilities.

This has a devastating impact on students’ futures. From Sawa, those with poor grades are forced into vocational training – and most likely military service. Those with better grades go to college, then into a civilian government job. Students have little to no choice over their assignment.

Former Sawa students abroad have campaigned recently for the government to stop sending students to Sawa, but in vain.

Even in “normal” times, life at Sawa is grim and abusive. During the pandemic, it is likely even more dangerous. Eritrea will not build education back better after the pandemic if it funnels students into military camps.

Instead of bussing new students to Sawa, the government should allow students serving in Sawa to return home and let them choose where they complete their final year in school, including at public secondary schools closer to home. It should end compulsory military training during secondary school and ensure that no one underage is conscripted.

Eritrea’s youth deserve real reform if they are to have any hope of a brighter future.

Palestine recalls Bahrain envoy, denounces latest deal as 'another treacherous stab to the Palestinian cause'.

Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner travelled to Bahrain as part of his Middle East tour earlier in September [Bahrain News Agency/Handout via Reuters]

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Bahrain has joined the United Arab Emirates in agreeing to normalise relations with Israel, in a US-brokered deal that Palestinian leaders denounced as "another treacherous stab to the Palestinian cause".

Donald Trump, the president of the United States, announced the deal on Twitter on Friday after he spoke by phone to Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"This is truly a historic day," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, saying he believed other countries would follow suit.

"It's unthinkable that this could happen and so fast."

Joint Statement of the United States, the Kingdom of Bahrain, and the State of Israel pic.twitter.com/xMquRkGtpM

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 11, 2020

In a joint statement, the United States, Bahrain and Israel said "opening direct dialogue and ties between these two dynamic societies and advanced economies will continue the positive transformation of the Middle East and increase stability, security, and prosperity in the region".

A month ago, the UAE agreed to normalise ties with Israel under a US-brokered deal scheduled to be signed at a White House ceremony on Tuesday hosted by Trump, who is seeking re-election on November 3.

The ceremony is due to be attended by Netanyahu and Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The joint statement said Bahrain's Foreign Minister Abdullatif al-Zayani will join that ceremony and sign an "historic Declaration of Peace" with Netanyahu.

Like the UAE agreement, Friday's Bahrain-Israel deal will normalise diplomatic, commercial, security and other relations between the two countries. Bahrain, along with Saudi Arabia, had already dropped a ban on Israeli flights using its airspace.

Friday's joint statement only made passing mention of the Palestinians, who fear the moves by Bahrain and the UAE will weaken a longstanding pan-Arab position that calls for Israeli withdrawal from already illegally occupied territory and acceptance of Palestinian statehood in return for normal relations with Arab countries.

The statement said Bahrain, Israel and the US will continue efforts "to achieve a just, comprehensive, and enduring resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to enable the Palestinian people to realise their full potential".

'Grave harm'

Netanyahu welcomed the agreement and thanked Trump.

"It took us 26 years between the second peace agreement with an Arab country and the third, but only 29 days between the third and the fourth, and there will be more," he said, referring to the 1994 peace treaty with Jordan and the more recent agreements.

For its part, Bahrain said it supports a "fair and comprehensive" peace in the Middle East, according to BNA state news agency. That peace should be based on a two-state solution to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the report said, quoting King Hamad.

Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior White House adviser, hailed the agreements as "the culmination of four years of great work" by the Trump administration.

Speaking to reporters in a call from the White House soon after Friday's announcement, Kushner said the UAE and Bahrain agreements "will help reduce tension in the Muslim world and allow people to separate the Palestinian issue from their own national interests and from their foreign policy, which should be focused on their domestic priorities".

The Palestinian leadership, however, condemned the agreement as a betrayal of the Palestinian cause and recalled the Palestinian ambassador to Bahrain for consultations.

Palestinians have protested against Arab states normalising ties with Israel [File: Raneen Sawafta/Reuters]

In a statement, the Palestinian Authority said it "rejects this step taken by the Kingdom of Bahrain and calls on it to immediately retreat from it due to the great harm it causes to the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people and joint Arab action".

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), based in Ramallah, the occupied West Bank, called the normalisation "another treacherous stab to the Palestinian cause". And in Gaza, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said Bahrain's decision to normalise relations with Israel "represents a grave harm to the Palestinian cause, and it supports the occupation".

'A purely Saudi decision'

Khalil Jahshan, executive director at the Arab Center of Washington, said Saudi acquiescence was key to Bahrain's decision.

"It is a purely Saudi decision. In the absence of the ability, due to internal constraints, by the leadership in Saudi Arabia to respond positively to Trump, they gave him Bahrain on a silver platter."

Bahrain, a small island state, is home to the US Navy's regional headquarters. Saudi Arabia in 2011 sent troops to Bahrain to help quell an uprising and, alongside Kuwait and the UAE, in 2018 offered Bahrain a $10bn economic bailout.

Al Jazeera's Nida Ibrahim, reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, agreed, saying Palestinian officials believe the Bahrain and the UAE deals would not have happened "without regional backing".

"The fear among the Palestinians is that these deals are a green light for more Arab states to normalise with Israel," she said. "And many Palestinians say that for years they saw the US as Israel's lawyer or partner and now they see it as Israel's agent. That's because Trump is the one announcing these normalisation deals."

Since taking office, the Trump administration has pursued staunchly pro-Israel policies, including moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, ordering the PLO to shutter its Washington, DC, office and recognising Israel's occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights.

The US president and his advisers have championed a so-called "deal of the century" proposal to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - and they have courted Arab Gulf states to try to drum up support for that initiative.

Bahrain, for example, hosted a US-led conference in June 2019 to unveil the economic side of the proposal, and Emirati and Saudi leaders voiced support at the time for any economic agreement that would benefit Palestinians. Palestinian leaders boycotted that summit, however, saying the Trump administration was not an honest broker in any future negotiations with Israel.

Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera's Kimberly Halkett said while the deals between Israel, Bahrain and the UAE are not high on the list of priorities for most US voters, a large portion of Trump's supporters are Evangelical Christians who favour his pro-Israel positions.

Halkett said Trump is trying to show them before the November 3 contest that he can get the "deal of the century" done in his second term.

"He's acting as if this is a framework that will bring about that so-called 'deal of the century'," Halkett said, despite the fact that "the president and his administration's representatives are not even talking to the Palestinians right now".

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES

Source=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/09/israel-bahrain-agree-establish-full-diplomatic-ties-200911171014685.html

October 12, 2019

Source: Washington Post

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, left, and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed disembark from an airplane upon arrival at Juba International Airport in South Sudan before meeting with South Sudan’s president for tripartite talks on regional affairs on March 4. (Akuot Chol/AFP/Getty Images) By Adam Taylor October 11 at 2:14 PM

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was announced as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, with the committee that decides the awards singling out his efforts to achieve peace with neighboring country Eritrea.

But notably, the prize was not awarded to Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, Abiy’s partner in the talks.

Instead, Nobel Committee Chair Berit Reiss-Andersen simply acknowledged that “peace does not arise from the actions of one party alone” and said that they hope the “peace agreement will help to bring about positive change for the entire populations of Ethiopia and Eritrea.”

In some years, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to multiple parties for their work trying to end a conflict. In 1994, for example, the prize was awarded to Israel’s Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin, as well as Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

But the decision to award the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize only to Ethiopia’s Abiy was hardly surprising. Eritrea’s Isaias leads one of the most repressive military dictatorships in the world; his government has been compared to North Korea and accused of possible crimes against humanity.

And even though he reached an agreement with Abiy in Eritrea’s capital last year to end the conflict between the two nations, in practice the agreement remains largely unimplemented, and there have been little visible benefits for Eritreans.

“I think there was a lot of hope in Eritrea,” said Laetitia Bader, a researcher at Human Rights Watch. “But very quickly, Eritreans saw that things were not changing on the ground.”

Vanessa Tsehaye, an Eritrean activist based in London, noted, “I’d say it has brought no positive developments for the Eritrean people, because the lived reality is the same more than a year after the peace deal.”

The conflict between Eritrea and Ethiopia stretches back decades. After European powers left occupied Eritrea in 1951, landlocked Ethiopia claimed the land of its coastal neighbor, eventually resulting in a civil war that started in 1961 and lasted three decades.

In 1991, Eritrean forces helped overthrow the communist-led government in Ethiopia, and two years later, Eritreans voted for independence.

However, the two nations did not reach an agreement on the border between them, and in 1998, small-scale border incidents around the town of Badme grew into a full-fledged conflict. It’s estimated that almost 100,000 people died, and after it ended, Ethiopian troops had control of Badme and other disputed areas.

As part of a peace agreement brokered in Algiers, in 2000, a commission cited colonial-era documents to rule that the land around Badme was part of Eritrea. But Ethiopia did not agree to the arbitrated border, and the two sides remained in a standoff.

Their relationship was dubbed “no war, no peace,” which meant that diplomatic, trade and transport ties were severed, and the countries remained on a war footing, clashing repeatedly and supporting rival rebel groups.

Abiy, a former intelligence officer who had taken part in the operations to drive Eritreans out of Badme, took office as Ethiopia’s prime minister in April 2018 and almost immediately began changes in the country, which had long been ruled by authoritarian governments.

On June 5, 2018, Abiy made a key pledge to accept the peace agreement with Eritrea and withdraw Ethiopian troops from occupied territory. Within weeks, Isaias responded by saying that both nations yearned for peace.

Just a month after Abiy’s announcement on July 8, the Ethiopian leader touched down at the airport in Eritrea’s capital Asmara, where he was greeted by Isaias. The leaders embraced and later announced they would reopen embassies, allow direct communications and restore transport links.

“Love is greater than modern weapons like tanks and missiles,” Abiy said. “Love can win hearts, and we have seen a great deal of it today here in Asmara.”

Despite the signs of goodwill, critics say not much has changed between the two nations. Among the Eritrean diaspora, many voiced disapproval for the Nobel Peace Prize focusing on the agreement with Eritrea when so little had changed in practice.

“I didn’t know one could win a peace award without achieving peace!” Selam Kidane, a London-based activist wrote on Twitter.

Border crossings between Ethiopia and Eritrea were opened last year, but Eritrea soon closed the border again. Analysts suspect that Eritrea, which has virtually complete control over its citizens, is delaying because of fears about wider reform.

Isaias, a former freedom fighter, has led the country since 1993, and his government has left no room for opposition. In 2015, the United Nations released the results of a year-long investigation into human rights in the country, finding “systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations,” including extrajudicial killing, torture and forced labor.

Bader said that there was little evidence that there had been any positive change to some of the most restrictive elements, such as the arbitrary arrest of people for perceived political crimes, or the indefinite national service that sees many Eritreans permanently conscripted to the military.

“The government has often argued that it was the ‘no war, no peace’ situation with Ethiopia was what forced it to conscript its whole population,” Bader said.

Jeffrey Smith, the director of Vanguard Africa, said that he viewed the Nobel Prize as “encouraging Prime Minister Ahmed and the new regime in Ethiopia as much if not more than it is about the progress already made.”

But for activists such as Tsehaye, the peace deal had helped legitimize Isaias, the leader of an isolated and repressive nation of 5 million people on the world stage. The Eritrean leader had traveled with Abiy to foreign nations, and the United Nations lifted sanctions on Eritrea.

“Peace is always a good thing, it’s never something that we should be against,” Tsehaye said, “but we need to understand peace beyond its literal meaning of no war.”

Source=https://eritrea-focus.org/why-eritrea-didnt-win-a-nobel-for-its-peace-accord-when-ethiopia-did/