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    <div class="title-div">
        Our Names Matter a Lot
        <div class="author">Abraham Tesfay - Dec 1, 2014</div>
    </div>
    <p class="bold">Preserving our names is preserving our culture</p>
    <br />
    <p>Some time ago I read something similar to what I am trying to address in this article in some other articles. 
    So this may be a duplication of those to some extent. But as the problem still persists I felt writing this article 
    is still helpful.
	</p>
    <br />
    <p>If someone does not know your name or are not sure about it they ask you for your name. You introduce yourself 
    and then they call you by the name you told him. If one forgets it he/she has the right to ask for it again, politely; 
    “I am sorry, what was your name again?”. You tell them until it is well recorded in their memory. It is fine to 
    repeatedly tell them if they are not memorizing it yet. What is not fine, however, is when this person tries to 
    tell you what your name is and insists on that, a name different from what you told him/her. This is wrong because 
    no one knows your name better than you. 
    </p>
    <br />
    <p>There was a struggle for quite a long period of time to change the name “Tigre” to “Tigray”. Finally now I 
    believe almost everyone calls our region “Tigray” and no more “Tigre”. But I still see a similar problem when 
    it comes to Irob. A lot of our names are either distorted or changed completely. Here are some examples:
    </p>
    <br/>
    Indalgeda for Adgadi Are<br/>
Inda Buknoito for Buknaiti Are<br/>
Inda Hasebella for Hasaballa<br/>
Dewhan for Dahwan<br/>
Sengede for Sangade<br/>
Wer Attle for War Attle<br/>
Haish for Hais.<br/>
<br/>
The list goes on ...<br/>
<br/>
    <p>There is a problem. Either we, the natives of Irob, are not introducing our names properly or others are not 
    listening to us. In some cases they prefer to call us using their own names. Most of us have either accepted these 
    new names or at least we are not reacting when we come across them. Even in this website there are postings with these 
    incorrect names. 
    </p>
    <br />

    <p>If we are not telling them our names correctly then it is time to correct our mistakes. We have to tell them the 
    right ones. We have to push and insist on using the correct names until others follow us. </p>    
    <br/>

    <p>If the others are not accepting what we tell them then we should not accept them, we should persistently defend 
    and keep our names. It is our responsibility to tell them to correct until they say or write them the way we want 
    and the way they have always been.</p>
    <br />

    <p>Our names are our identities. Preserving our names is preserving our culture.</p>
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