Stories about French from August, 2007
Tunisia: A new Mohammed cartoon crisis ?
Tunisian blogger A.L.G.Y of Cos-maux-polis is wondering whether a new Mohammed cartoon crisis is brewing. She explains that drawings of a man with the body of a dog wearing a turban were published in a local Swedish newspaper on August, 18th. As protests are underway in Pakistan and Iran, she...
Producing traditional music in Benin
Benin couleurs posts photos of a Solidarite Internationale project to build a sound studio (Fr) that will produce traditional music.
Efforts underway to recover downed plane in French Polynesia
Parlons Tahiti writes about efforts to recover the downed plane (Fr) from a crash that killed twenty earlier this month in French Polynesia.
Slideshow of Iran's female athletes
Tunisiendoctor has a slideshow of Iranian female athletes (Fr).
Arabeyes: Who is Using the Tunisian Presidential Airplane?
The Tunisian presidential airplane and the 'unofficial' trips it takes to Europe and the fashion capitals of the world has attracted the scrutiny of the country's most outspoken bloggers. Who is using the president's plane? Who approves the trips abroad and how much is it used for official business? These are some of the questions being raised in Arabic and French, which I am translating today into English.
Mauritania : Ignorance and Tradition
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Generously endowed women are favored in Mauritania. The fatter the woman, the more beautiful she is thought to be. Being big is also a sign of wealth and the search for beauty and signs of exterior wealth leads to some unorthodox methods...
Madagascar : Andriamanankoavy Jonny r'afa on why he writes
Malagasy Author-Musician-Sculptor Andriamanankoavy Jonny r'afa explains his art : “D'abord, à travers l'Art, entretenir et enrichir la ” Mémoire Collective ” des Malgaches. Celà reste un devoir par respect des origines. Trouver alors ce qu'il faut préserver, et les transmettre, les traduire.” “Through art, one can maintain and enrich the...
Morocco: The Upcoming Elections
With the Moroccan legislative elections looming on September 7, Moroccan bloggers share their concerns about the process and its progress.
Congo: Lack of new work by Black Francophone writers
Alain Mabanckou regrets the lack of new works by Black Francophone writers at the 2007 “rentrée littéraire” in France.
Mali:Abandoned wives and children
Faits Divers d'Afrique relates the fates of abandoned wives and children left behind by men who emigrate.
Morocco: 2 Million Blogs Banned
MoTIC (fr) provides us with statistics on Livejournal, which has been blocked in Morocco for over a year, as well as other blocked sites.
France: The use of the French language in international communication.
The general delegation for the French language and languages in France, a branch of the Ministry of Culture and Communication recently published a report on the use of the French language in the digital world. The objective of the delegation is to promote the use of the French language in...
Morocco: The Death of Butcher Basri
Driss Basri, one of Morocco's most powerful figures during the past 50 years, has died in Paris at age 69. Jillian York brings us the latest reactions from Moroccan bloggers writing in Arabic, French and English.
Vietnam: wedding ceremony in photos
Yoann describes a Vietnamese wedding from a foreigner's perspective. He is pleasantly surprised that to hear familiar french songs during the ceremony (Fr).
Morocco: Casablanca in August
Marc Daniel gives a picturesque description of Casablanca in August. He notes that beaches are always full at that time of the year and that surprisingly women and men are both wearing swim suits. Keep in mind, he says, that sports clubs are still men or women only (Fr).
Madagascar: Malagasy travellers encouraged to blog their stories.
Tattum explains that madonline started a new project that strives to promote blogging activities in Madagascar. The project will initially focus on asking bloggers to tell stories of their travels across Madagascar in order to help people learn more about unfamiliar places. A familiar obstacle for blogging in Madagascar is...
Papua New Guinea: AIDS patients buried alive.
Caledosphere links to an article in which people living with AIDS in Papua New Guinea (New Caledonia's neighboring country) were buried alive by their relatives because they could not afford their treatments and were also afraid of being infected (Fr).
South Africa: Continuing education is working
The nonrequired writes about the success story that is continuing education in some African nations and how it can prevent the brain drain. Continuing education is paid for by companies and provided by local universities at an affordable cost. It has been succesfully implemented so far in countries such as...
Tunisia: explanations about lodging regulations
Mouwaten Tounsi explains that the accusation of racism in a dispute over lodging regulation is much ado about nothing. He explains that in Tunisia, it is against the law to rent a room to unwed Tunisian couples. This rule applies only if you are of Tunisian citizenship. Therefore the couple...
Tahiti: Photos of dancers performing the “fire” dance.
Amazing photos of Tahitian dancers performing “la dance du feu” (the fire dance). Fenua blog advice: “do not try it at home !” (Fr).
Reunion: Mild earthquake felt on the island.
At. 15:17 local time, an earthquake (3.6 on the richter scale) was felt all around the island of Reunion today. There is no report of major damages as of yet. Jonathan Gravier said he was driving in St-Denis at the time but did not feel the earthquake (Fr).
