To commemorate our third birthday, we asked Awate�s Public Opinion Forums to provide us with their input on how best to improve this website. (Now, really, we were not fishing for compliments, but we will take it anyway.)  We thank those who participated�Advisor, Aida, AMF, Asmelash Gebray, BM, Berhe, Berhe Yeman, Ferej, Gilai, Hawna, �Let�s meet halfway�, Luqman, Nemi, Tekeste Ogbamichael, Tess, Triple A, TsaTse, TX, and a whole bunch of �unregistered��for sharing their mostly very kind views.

The Awate Forums were designed to facilitate discussions among Eritreans and friends of Eritrea. Based on the experience of other websites, we have learned that a free-for-all, un-moderated medium degenerates into bathroom graffiti where the unruly ones, under the cover of anonymity, post obscene messages fit for bathroom graffiti. On the other hand, we don�t want a medium where participants feel so constrained by the hallway monitor that they have to disclose their identity or write only what they think will pass the moderator�s watchful eye. The result is our posting guideline: write what you wish, refrain from abusing fellow participants and expect the moderator to be an observer but not a participant.  

The Awate Forums has been a great success. Since its launching in October of last year, the membership of the �Awate Forums� has grown to 520. After Gedab News and The Pencil, it is the most highly visited section of our website. It is, quite simply, the most constructive Eritrean �message board�, one where you can read and write with reasonable certainty that you won�t be subjected to obscene language.

Question: Why is Awate�s public opinion section called �Awate Forums� and not �Awate Forum�?  Answer: Because there is more than one forum. The �parent� forum is the one that everybody can access and read.  Within this parent forum, there are sub-forums, with limited membership, for people who want to do more than read�people who are activists, people who want to form groups, civil society, and lobbying groups. In short, a virtual community who share a common bond�whether it is politics, music, education or what have you. These sub-forums have their own �moderators� and they retain the title even when posting messages to the parent forum, thus the occasional confusion: �who died and elected you moderator?!� To clarify, the moderator of the parent forum is any member of the Awate Team and only the team.  Which begs a follow-up question, reminiscent of a line from the movie �Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid�, namely: �Who are these guys?� Ah, that will be disclosed in our annual report which will be published next week�

And now to your suggestions and our responses�We are excluding all the nice words you included because God knows we don�t want to encourage the PFDJ culture of �qalat bwerqi qelem�J   

Luqman writes: �stop being "poltical commercials" stick to your principles of freedom of speech encourage people from all the walk to participate and please try to gain those you lost, i demand point blank to be back!!�

This message was paid for by Luqman For President�Luqman, we know what you are saying and it is a valid criticism.  We had no intention to promote or demote people; when we first began our series of interviews, the intent was to educate.  What people remember about our interviews with Herui, Ahmed Nasser, Seyoum, Dr. Bereket were that we used defiant and provocative adjectives like �icon�, �legend�, etc.  But if you look deeper, you will see that the questions were tough and uncompromising.  If you are looking for fluff, you are thinking of Shaebia.org.   As for Point Blank, we, too want it back.  I suggest we bombard Ismail Omar Ali with e-mails until he responds�  

TsaTse, who has been searching high and low for the constitution, gives two suggestions: 1) Perhaps you can create either two fictitious proponents or select or allow two forum volunteers to debate two opposing views (could be diametrically opposed) and showcase your capability to reconcile them. Demonstrate a give and take that should take place by examples. Or simply educate us the rules of reconciliation. I am sure there are volumes out there. (Yes I am lazy)
2) You could censor (by not posting) the quid pro quo, I said this then you said this while she said that... back and forth that we see a lot of. Specially lately from the two RC once one. It is just simply immature. Those posts are counterproductive too.

You are a funny guy, TsaTse.  Provoke a fight just to be a mediator? How is that different from being an arsonist just to show off your firefighting skills?  Background on our theme of reconciliation: you have to recall that when we started this website, there were credible people talking about �let�s move on without them.� There were people who had no qualms about having an Eritrea where a significant percentage of the population would be permanently displaced, exiled, voiceless, demoralized just because the government doesn�t like them.  This belief had permeated deeply not only within the PFDJ clan but in quarters one would least expect.   So, reconciliation is about mutual respect and its message is: we are all equal stakeholders here; so don�t try to pretend that you hold the keys to the gates of the nation.  If you treat people as your equal, then they will reciprocate;  if you disrespect them, you will get no peace.  We prefer peace, so we push reconciliation.  Almost all our reconciliation efforts (except for our failed effort to reconcile the ELF-RC with ENA) is low-profile in nature and it involves introducing and setting rapprochement groundwork for sworn enemies who had for years refused to talk to one another.  By its very nature, it is the kind of work that cannot and should not be publicized.  Some people thought that the �Champions� in our �reconciliation champions� slogan was a bit conceited and we�ve, as of September 1, gotten rid of it.  (Now we have to raise more money to replace our stationaryJ  As for censoring the �back and forth�, well �back and forth� is the essence of freedom of expression, isn�t it?

Our dear friend Berhe Yeman writes: �� please stay impartial especially when you try to sell the opposition leaders and groups to the Eritrean people. Do what you do best, that is tell the truth to your best ability. If the so-called opposition are not capable to look good and do good things by them selves, please don't try to make them look good. Understood, you are meaning well for the Eritrean people and you are trying to shorten the suffering of our people if we have a united opposition but it's a two way street. If they don't want to be united, there is nothing much you can do. And I don't believe the Eritrean people will be served by such self-centered people. One other thing that you should look into is introducing ethnic origins in the current political arena of the Eritrean politics. By this I mean, and I believe it's the only way we will know for sure the balance of power within Eritrean political leaders. I believe, no matter what the leader ship of Eritrea (which ever party) should be composed of equally or about to 50% Muslims and Christians. Also, I believe the people in each group should have an equal representative of people from each ethnic group according to the population. We this in mind, we need to know who the leaders are and where they are from�. The reason I am saying this, reading the book "Aynfelale" there are a lot of people with Ethiopian heritage that sabotaged the Eritrean unity, and the murdering of many Eritrean heros such as Kebire is by such people. So we need to know, if there are some special group who infiltrate in the opposition camp to protect their hidden agenda. That we need to know.

Berhe, we accept your criticism about the effort to make the opposition �look good.� Having been in the wilderness for years, they had no media, no means of communicating to the people, nor a concept of how to communicate with the people.  They were lost and they didn't even know they were lost.  Now they have websites, writers, communicators and we feel no need to help, only report on them.   While we acknowledge your point about the role of the sabateurs, we are very uncomfortable about disclosing people�s ethnicity or roots.  People�s ethnicity contribute towards their beliefs and values but since the co-relation is not absolute, we see no relevance in disclosing it�unless we see a case where those who group themselves on the basis of ethnicity and nationality try to lecture others on why they shouldn�t do it.  In this case, it will be exposed�not to target a group, but to expose hypocrisy. 

Ferej writes: more interviews. what happen to interviews? Instead of "reconciling" the ELF-RC (a dead end), interview W. Ammar and Ismail Ali Also Dr. Medhanie, the bravest intellectual eritrean.  more dr. Kamal Ibrahim, wed neberai. i don't agree with anything he say, but I admire the man's mind! he makes me proud to be 'wed keren saeda!' more dr Dawit mesfin! more ismail ali. what passion! more agdoobai!
and of course more gedab. i don't know wher you get it, but get it!

OK, �wed neberai�, Dawit, Ismail O Ali: are you reading this?  Agdoobai, have you gone to Morocco again?  What happened to the serialized stories you promised?

Unregistered tells us what he really thinks: what do I not like? i do not like 'politicfreezone', and 50 articles about basketball. Please!! i do not like your tigrina font, it is ugly. (sorry!) i do not like LONG articles, please we have a life. please keep up the good job. you have been the only consistent fighters, genbar's nightmare!! instead of "champion reconciliation", you should say "genbar's nightmare!"

The NBA? It is faaaaantastic! No? That is sports at its best: individual effort, plus team effort, plus coaching, strategizing and, a rapid-fire pace.  Slam!  Ok, no more basketball (until May 04), until then, we will just speak in basketball clich�s.  He shoots, he scores!  As for your suggested slogan of, �genbar�s nightmare�?  Too negative.  How about, �Raising Hell is our business; and business is good.� Or: "Dismantling PFDJ One Article At A Time."  Nah, we'll stick with what we got.

Unregistered pipes in with: First of all i would like the columnist of awate.com to start writing again. Second I have a proposal that maybe many readers of awate.com will like.  I would like if awate.com could provide us with a short profile of the writers of the articles, at least the writers you know well. This will make it easier for the readers.  And this also will encourage people to write with their real names.

OK, you Awate columnists, happy now?  This is the third request.  As for profile, and pictures...we just are not there. We write the articles, we leave it to other websites to give you doctored photos:-)

Tekeste Ogbamichael writes from Seattle:I like your comment about the EIRM , but at the same time with their / EIRM / permission was is posible to say Menadlen instead of Mejahedin. It is a thought the perception some Eritreans may have about Mejahedin�holy war. It can scare the Christian fanatics. Your fight is working and PFDJ is the witness. It is digging a hiding place.

Tekeste, when one is trying to translate, the effort is to stay faithful to the original.  The EIRM do not call themselves �munadleen�; they call themselves �mujahdeen� and we don�t really know the English translation of �mujahdeen��that is what it is called in English as well.  We are an independent website; we don�t like to ask for �permission� from a political group.  If you do that, you are placed in a position of owing a favor�and that�s how you lose your independence. That was the ELF-RC's problem with us: they wanted us to ask for "permission": yegrmawintachew feqad kehone...

BM writes: It has been over a year since you initiated the citizens initiative and we never heard a word shortly after. I am one of those who are still waiting to hear something about it, because I believe that a people's approach is the only way out from our present predicament. It must have been difficult then but it looks the time is more ripe now for such an endeavor. Please don't let us down, take it as a serious initiative this time around.

We can't really speak on behalf of CISE, that is a different topic altogether.  We will try not to let anybody down.

Guest, �Let�s meet half-way� writes: I don�t remember you made any poll when you started either on what you write and or how to conduct and mange Awate Web Site. You have simply fallowed what you genuinely believed, to deliver unbiased balanced news and views to interested Eritrean readers and any one interested to know about our Homeland. The say goes � If it is not broken don�t fix it� I don�t c any shortcoming in any of this respected Web site. The last request is stay as you are.

Thanks! In the immortal words of a great philosopher, �we take a licking and keep on ticking!�J

AMF writes: I specially like, Gedeb news and the interviews you had with the people who had contributed to Eritrea�s independent struggle. Although I should point out that it is not easy to find the interviews. Recently I was looking for Seyoum Ogbamichael interview, I could not find in your �interviews� or �fertile womb� link, I had to Google his name to find the link for the interview. I would also love to see more interviews as well. The other improvement I would like see is on your Tigrigna or Arabic article for that matter. I don�t know if it is caused by my browses inefficiency, I use Internet Explorer 5.0, I can�t read any of the articles that are written in Tigrigna. I don�t seem to have the same problem with articles posted on Asmarino.

This is a first in a series of complaints about our poor archiving.  This is a case of trying to trim a bush as you water it.  We are in the process of trying to organize this in a way that makes sense.  In the meantime, we need this great forum to volunteer to �google� all the interviews and documents� We are also working on a way to improve the appearance of the Tigrigna articles.  The only available method (converting text to graphics or, worse, PDF file) is either too time-consuming or requires massive memory.   Any techie volunteers?

Another guest writes: have a comment on usability issue.  First of all i am glad that you have new pages for arabic and Tingrga, please highlight the links to those pages, because that will make it very easy for people to find all articles written in the languages.  Get rid of Quiz, links, because they, furthermore put all the columns (negarit, alnahda, spotlight, sayit ) under the same page call columns or what ever u please. The fertile womb and documents, should be updated regularly too in order to stay. Further i wonder where is ur archives, come on, your archive is very valuaable, we need it.

Agreed, agreed, agreed.

Unregistered says: my request? the fight for eritrea's soul and salvation is ON. could you please spare us articles like the one from "Halaw gedem."?? what is he saying? the festival was a 'success'? what does that mean? please, awate, help us from these people who drive us CRAAAAAZY!

You mean the festival was not a success?J People danced, got drunk and were graced by the presence of a PFDJ official.  What more do you want? Look, it is a difference of opinion, that�s all. 

Asmelash Gebray wants the guests to register�The name "Unregistered" is driving me nuts! Those participants who identify themselves as such are generally people with good ideas. Therefore, I realy want to address them with dignity and precision. Would you please at least add a 'numeric' or 'alpha' suffix (or prefix) to go along with the "Unregistered" designation? Unless of course "Unregistered" is the same person throughout! I mean well. Where there is a will, there is a way.

O, ye hordes of �Unregistered�! You don�t have to register, but you can sign your piece with a pen name.  Don�t like a pen name?  Use a number.  How about your favorite color? Book? Anything so that people who are communicating with you can address you directly. 

Berhe opines�The first is try to keep neutral regarding the opposition. The second is try your best to interview the opposition leadership on so many pressing issues, at least once a month. In addition I would like to see further interviews with others or important people such as Mussie. Interview is a very good way to inform people about the different opposition groups, and it also creates ways for the invited guests to pass their messages across. The readers then may be asked to comment or discuss the issues that were raised during the discussion.  Finally, if possible......... if I repeat if possible try also invite pfdj elites give interviews.

We have an open invitation to some members of the PFDJ elite to sit for an interview with us.  We say �some members� because we believe our readers are interested in interviewing people who have something to say. (We don't mean to pick on the guy but what could Girma Asmerom possibly tell us, for example, that would not be an insult to our readers' intelligence?)  Berhe, who would you like to hear from?  Please give us a list. 

Remember, though, many of the PFDJ elite are used to very friendly questions in the style of, �what more can we do to please you?� �Do you have any messages you want to give.�  They are welcome, but they shouldn�t expect those questions here and I wouldn�t hold my breath: they simply cannot dare to face tough questions�you know how �well� they do with the BBC.

This reminds us of a joke.  Egypt's Husni Mubarek and Saudi Arabia's King Khaled exchange positions for a week.  Husni Mubarek, used to demonstrations, riots, semi-critical press is bored in Saudi Arabia.  Finally, just to provoke his new "subjects", he gathers some people randomly and says, "You have been sentenced to death by hanging!" and sits back expecting some excitement.  The Saudis come back meekly and ask, "we have one question.  Does the state provide the rope for our hanging or do we pay for it?"   The point is, that is the sort of "subjects" the PFDJ want in Eritrea and we just are not obedient enough...

Tx has a request�one humble request to awate team can you please put tegadalay abdela idris's mini biography written by Mr Barole in the fertile womb ?

The article, �Sectarian attacks on Abdella Idris,� is available at http://www.awate.com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/17/567  It didn�t make it to the �Fertile womb� because the tone of the article was not exactly inspiring.

�Advisor� has a wish list�:Recant any incorrect news you write in Gedab, after it has been revealed that it was only a rumor. 2) Put your archives in order,so that people can fish out long forgotten articles. If you dont have enough disc space to save every article, initiate a fund-raising drive so that Awate.com lovers donate green bucks to acquire more space. 3) A team may be composed of many individuals.I guess,it is time to tell who the "Awate team" are,including those who do "research". 4) Why is "AhmedAA aka Triple" a moderator without the consent of the forum participants.  Where is the democracy that you guys talk on a daily basis? 5) allow as many as possible GoE supporters without censoring the contents of their articles.  Izi Wedhankum

We don�t know which �incorrect news� we are being asked to recant.  Could you be more specific? Here�s the link to Gedab News http://www.awate.com/artman/publish/cat_index_15.shtml  Was our news about the petrol rationing (which we reported on September 2 and the BBC got around to doing it on September 5) �inaccurate news�?  The death of Sheikh Idris Mohammed Adem (which we reported on August 29 that nobody else has reported) is �inaccurate news�?  Please pick a news item and challenge us.  A few times, we corrected wrong news and we apologized for it.   2. Part of our archiving problem is financial and we have a blinking �please donate� collection box on the front page.  3. OK, we will disclose the members of the �Awate Team�; the researchers are voluntary gedabites and scholars who, like you, �advisor,� want to remain anonymous.  4.  Triple A is not a moderator of the Awate Forums; he is a moderator of a sub-forum who, I presume, �elected� him moderator.  5. GoE supporters can completely dominate this forum if they want to.  They just have to unlearn some of the bad habits they picked up in �PFDJ Communications 101� and speak like civilized people. 

TRIPLE A gives us a Triple Header�.ACCEPT CRITICISM & BE HUMBLE. We all know that sometimes humans can�t handle being praised very well, with wisdom and humility. I urge the Awate Team to not let the public respect they have worked so hard to earn and win to blind them and make them forget that they are simply ordinary Eritreans who do their best to keep in touch with the heart and soul of the average and ordinary citizen. Accept criticism. In fact encourage criticism of your Team and your Web Site. Don�t dismiss criticism as being �unconstructive� as some do, be it constructive or not, one can always learn from it. LEARN TO SAY �SORRY� & Be and example. Being humble and admitting your mistake is a sign of courage. Sometimes, you don�t need to have wronged intentionally. We all unintentionally err. And no exception the Awate Team too. Learn to apologize for the mistakes you make, even if you do not know you made one. Be an example, saying sorry is, you know better than me, is a way to true RECONCILLIATION. Continue: Politicfreezone it is hard to get away from politics these days, but at least leave the window for the opportunity open. I am sure there are lots of children short story writers (as an example) that can be accommodated in that section. Even the basketball is not that bad, although it is the least interesting sport to me. Awate.com should not just be about politics, but about the entire Eritrean life style. The general user friendliness of the site is good, whatever you do, make sure you do not over use lots of graphics and colours with flashing pictures etc. Keep it simple and easy to download, particularly think of those who are in Eritrea. They have slow computers and need pages that can be user friendly and download easily. Like everyone else, I want more GEDAB, more of THE PENCIL, more PICTURES, and of course ...................THE AWATE FORUM.

Thanks Triple A.  Same message as above: please, please, please correct, criticize us when we are wrong. There  is sometimes a case of blaming the messenger because you don�t like the message.  There are still people who hate us because we reported that Sherifo was �frozen.�  Recently, a whole group of people who used to applaud us but are mad because we relayed a bad message about the disintegration of their organization, ELF-RC.  It depends on whose ox is being gored.  Of course we make mistakes, lots of them; you will know that we have gone �native� when we start celebrating our old achievements, as the PFDJ still celebrates the wisdom of its decision to hold a referendum 10 years ago and its claim to have accepted political pluralism 16 years agoJ

 
Unregistered�s requests are simple and direct�:more cartoons, more funny stuff, more interviews.

Ok, ok, ok.

Another unregistered�s requests are direct, but not so simple�:The next step should be inluding audio and video, they are very impactfull. use multimedia to reach with your message. Make interviews in audio, we need a section called awate Radio. God bless You.

God bless you, too.  Radio Awate is a victim of resource shortage.  Right now, the Awate medium�written and in English�is targeting one audience: the political class.  The relatively well-educated, the agitators, the activists and those in a position to wield influence.  At some point (hopefully, with your contributions, by September of next year) we will address the Eritrean people: the spoken word, in their language.  Radio Awate.  We cannot disclose the format but we guarantee you that after Radio Awate, you will never listen to Dimtsi Hafash the same way.  

Unregistered praises: Congratulation for the new design, it is fantastic.

Thanks, friend!  While the design concept is ours, every year, we rely on friends to help us with the technical implementation.  This year, it is our old friend (we will thank him publicly and appropriately soon) who slaved away to execute the plans and design a website that is easier to navigate and, hopefully, more appealing to the eyes.

But another unregistered says� I like your old website. It was neat and humble. Typically Eritrean. This one is ugly and not well organized.

Thanks, friend.  While the design concept is ours, every year, we rely on friends to help us with the technical implementation.  This year, a friend, in complete violation of every instruction we gave him, designed a web site that is even harder to navigate is ugly and not well organized.  We are certain that he is a defeatist, and typically unEritrean, to bootJ.

Nemi has a list: Congratulation on a job well done to date. Keep up the good work. Your GPA to date is A.  I have the following suggestions to improve the awate forum. 1/ keep it cencor free medium so ideas from our diverse population is expressed and discussed. 2/ More interviews of opposition group leaders, preferrablly in video or audio format so that the public knows where they stand on key issues. 3/ Awate team need to be an advocate of eritreans all over the globe. The voice of the voiceless and oppressed whether it is in eritrea, malta, south africa or usa needs to be heard thru the use of the internet via letter writing campaign and other means to powers that be. 4/ Annual retreat of all awate forum members so that we know each other in person and meet the awate team. Moreover, since most of us are like minded especially in the political spectrum it could be a great opportunity for networking. Relevant seminars can be arranged during the retreat such as how to start a truly representative nongovernment affiliated community center in most metropolitan areas of usa and around the world in order to advance the growth of every member of the community physically thru athletics, intellectually, spiritually, socially, etc. 5/ I suggest some cooperation with asmarino.com and other like minded websites in a joint venture in order to accelerate the demise of public enemy #1, DIA AND HIS BLIND FOOT SOLDIERS, before they totally destroy eritrean culture, people and economy.

Nemi, we hope most of your input has been addressed above.  Two areas that we have to improve on, and quickly: one is EHRAG: Eritrean Human Rights Advocacy Group.  Right now, the work is being done but it is at an �individual� and �ad hoc� level.  We want to institutionalize this, create a board, a constitution and an executive director.  To do that, we need a few good men.  Don�t get us wrong, there are many good men and women; what we need is people who can dedicate at least 10 hours a week.   As for the Awate Retreat�it is coming.  It is late, but it is coming.

Gilai writes: First of all I would suggest to replace on the web all the interviews of the Eritrean professionals and leaders (Dawit Mesfin, Ahmed Nasser, etc) as it may refresh our memories.  Secondly to remake again the interviews so that we can re-evaluate our leadership. We cannot afford a new situation where at the beginning we know nothing about our leaders and later we have to face devastating monsters.  Finally provocative articles like �Eritrea Faces Another Defining Moment� are very welcome. For the simple reason that we have to grow!  The best yet dramatic phrase: We chose wrong and it cost us fifty years of strife, war and civil war, displacement, exile.However the dialectics between Saleh and Dr. Tadesse must go ahead. There should be no stalemate nor exclusion as is happening (from 40 years) between our leaders. PS The content of this document does not exist: A crisis of a ruling regime or an international conspiracy? By Tesfai Sherif, Asmara , Apr 19, 2001, 1:06am

Gilai, I followed up on your lead and sure enough, �Tesfai Sherif�s
article is missing.  We will upload it as soon as we get a chance, in the documents section.  I honestly don�t think the exchange between Saleh and Dr. Tadesse would ever rise to a �dialectics�: if we were sitting together, we would say so many, �I agree; I quite agree� to each other, you would be bored.  Now, bring us Zemehret Yohannes and we would have a real dialecticsJ

THANKS FOR ALL YOUR INPUT AND KIND WORDS.   SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!