Some readers criticize us, they think we are too biased; what they really mean is that dissent is evident in our website. It is the culture - the politically correct culture - is to conform and align yourself with the power that be. Not us. We have our cake and we do not eat it nor do we give it to one side. Here is your half, come and get it. If you do not claim your half, don�t blame us.

The culture that is being promoted for a long time is to deny others the very natural God-given voice. We disagree and prefer to be conductors of all voices; awate.com is open to all. The above claim is half the truth (influenced by perception and compartmentalization). The second half of the truth is that we are open for any voice�even praise tenors and sopranos�Hallelujah. Come here praise from now to Kingdom come.

Emotional blackmail as usual, our Mission Statement is quoted as if it was a bible: �you claimed to contribute to the healing process?� they say. We did, and we are up against the hindrance to the healing process, we are up against the perpetuators of intolerance and exclusivity in the affairs that concern all. That we do not apologize for. Look beyond the prejudice, it was written on the wall. All those years, reconciliation was rejected. Instead, arrogance in abundance and denial and more denials. What would you say to someone who tells you that you do not exist while you are being baked by the sun and beaten by blizzards? You exist. You exist because you feel the pain. It hurts. Then, is one expected to say, �yes sir, I do not exist?�. For how long?

Blame it on Monday morning. �Why Monday morning?�, you might ask. Well, why not Monday morning? Monday is not going to come to life and sue you for blaming it. So, blame it on it, on Monday morning and carry on. As long as our wisdom filled, God elected government continues to stifle dissent. As long as it gags, supposedly-free voices, the voices of dissent are going to get louder before they get any lower, And awate.com will keep on giving voice to the voiceless. Here, it is a free world, a world of awate.com; all you can eat freedom.

For those who knew of the other side of the story, recent developments are nothing close to surprizing. To those who live in denials, it must come as a surprise. Many writers on different mediums have been warning of this divide, stuffed ears is what they found. Maybe, when the other voice is hammered, at least people will understand, Aha, so it is true there are other voices. This are the voices that never had a medium or a forum to express itself. Its silence was not of choice, but a forced one. Now here it is, lets admit the other voice exixts, that is the beginning of the healing process. Lets listen to each other; lets recognize that we all own Eritrea. Let�s aggree that the government that runs our affairs is the busines of all of us and not of some ficctitious share holding group. With tyhis truth, and recognition, let�s talk, lets discuss and debate issue that affect us all.

The other voices include daring women and sister; Freweini Gebrezadik stands head and shoulder above the rest. She belongs to the other voice. A voice denied the simple civil sympathy. Let�s be human, then the healing will get easier. Reconciliation begins once we recognize that we need it. If that consensus is not heard, it becomes our responsibility to argue that we need it. Then, and only then, our agonies and sufferings will be remedied.

Violence is abhorred by many Eritreans who have seen it first hand. In addition, by those who have heard it second and third hand. Yet, the very government that some are eager to protect is not worried at all. Some even think that it is all right for the government to be violent and aggressive while its opposition are supposed to be sitting like a Duck. Ladies and Gentlemen, thanks to our wise governance, we have enough violence and the government is the breeding space. We see people being pushed to the edges by the day. How do we stop it before it stops the life in us? The brake pedals are under the feet of our wise government. It can either press and stop it or let it go, and � we can revisit our history when we sold our freedom in broad daylight.

Being neutral is one thing, being fair is another. We are not neutral; we are fair. Many wrongly require us to put one praising article against every dissenting and opposing article that we post. We wish we could, as it is, it is not possible; those who specialize in praise are not writing� and if they do, you would be surprised what they write. For example, someone, who considers himself a supporter of the government challenged us to post his message�he thought that his message was brilliant and would demolish all dissent if we published it in awate.com. Guess what, the message starts with the usual branding of �Agame� and finishes with it. In the middle, you find insults that were copied right from the pages of an adult magazine. That is political message as far as the writer is concerned. The second kind of government supporters are loose guns who shoot at us from other websites and consider their mission done. Here, as you can imagine, unscathed, Sano! To them we say, if you want to debate issues that concern awate.com, then you are most welcome to debate your issues in awate.com and by God, we will publish you opinion.

But one thing the supporters of the government must understand is this: awate.com is not the Ministry of Information and praises are out of place here. We might be sued if we assume the job of Haddas Ertra and its dozen or so twin sisters. In the face of the misinformation and propaganda barrage bombarding us from the praise mediums, we can not help it. We have to write to keep the already badly tilted balance: think of it, people need the other side of the story. Nevertheless, observe this, the opinion of awate.com are mirrored on the main column, The Pencil and other articles written by the awate team only. However, the article section is free for anyone and it is to the tune of Fresh Air, you can have it when you need it-- of course depending where you live! Everything we publish is uncensored and unedited provided it sticks to proper ethics and readable language. Even praises to the benevolent government are welcome�. We got carried away�.

On Sunday, October 20, Gedab, awate.com�s Gedab reported to us that seven journalists were jailed. Two days later, the presidential spokesman -- sorry, he was promoted-- the government spokesman Yemane Gebremeskel said that the journalists were AWOL caught in a scoop of draft dodgers. That was AWOL and we still do not know when DEREJA and BEREKA are following. At any rate, we will not talk about the never ending terrorizing scoop or sweep that has become the everyday life of Eritreans. But we will use some common sense, layman statistics:

Let�s assume that Eritrea has 100 journalists and eight of them are caught in a scoop�8%. What would it mean if we took that as a representation of the whole population? Every week, 8% of the population (conservative estimation) has to be caught in a scoop and hauled to police stations where they spend a night or two there and then 2% are kept indefinitely while 6% are set free. Isn�t that living in terror?

Then, we have a standing Army (composed of regulars and draftees) that according to many sources is estimated to be around a quarter of a million, and still, we have Mr. Yemane�s scoop. When will our boys be left to grow to become engineers and doctors, when will they be left to grow and live a normal life? It has become an obsession of the government to watch kids until they reach around 17 so that they make soldiers out of them! Stop this madness; stop this waste of human resources and pain. Stop militarization for the sake of the tired population of Eritrea. Let the tear soaked cheeks of mothers dry, they have had enough misery and sufferiungs. Let children grow without fear of the �scoop� that Mr. Yemane so proudly and confidently mentioned. Then, the Journalists were jailed, weren�t they? Shame on you popular front that gives Justice for lunch and Democracy for dinner!

Then after all of this you see Governor Bush criticizing President Clinton. I am sure this Bush chap is not Eritrean. He must be a �Weyane�!