Although blogging in Morocco [1] is a new “fashion”, it is spreading with a high speed among Moroccans from all ages and different activities. You have the Doctor , the politic , the student, the antropologist,..etc.
And if in other Arab countries blogging is mostly in Arabic, Morrocan bloggers happen to like blogging mostly in French. There's also a considerable number of Arabic blogs and few ones in English.
Blogging in Morocco cannot be considered as a “revolution” states Mohamed Zainabi in an interview [2] he gave to eMarrakech [3] (French link).
And he notices in his French Big Blog that even if officials in Morocco seems to see Blogging [4]with a positive eye “they are still not taking serious steps to vulgarize its use in Morocco”.
By the way, one of the first Moroccan blogs belongs to Laila Lalami [5], a writer based in Portland, Oregon. She started her english Moorishgirl [6] in 2001.
Every Wednesday, I'll be posting a report about what caught Moroccan bloggers’ attention during the week. And I'm really excited about it, since I consider the Moroccan blogsphere to be really interesting.
Let me give you a taste of what was going on last week.
Bluesman ,blogs in Arabic and he regrets that Moroccan journalists are still not free when their “scoop” may cause them endless problems [7]with the authorities.
Amazigh wonders in his French Bikhir Nation if the Moroccan citizen could have a green telephon number [8]he may feell “safe” to call to denounce some corrupted “police officers”.
Jawad publishes in his English blog the report released by the Human Rights Watch [9] urging the government of Morocco to end impunity for the security forces and enhance judicial independence in order to cement the legacy of the country's Equity and Reconciliation Commission [10](ERC). Jawad says [11] that his position in this issue is largely in line with that of HRW. “This is because I do not believe that our people can fully reconcile with a brutal past and look forward to a brighter future when those responsible for past abuses continue to enjoy total impunity”, he adds.
In a different note, Miloud Atmani asks the readers of his Arabic blog to give their opinion about the new law that criminalise Derb ghellaf's [12] smugglers. For those of you still not familiar with Morocco ,let me explain that Derb Ghallef is a very special market in Casablanca [13] where you can find anyhing you look for, from niddles to dishs passing by tables and international clothing. You can also find the newest CDs and DVDs for less than 2 Dollars since they're just illegal copies of the originals. Lately, the Moroccan government issued a law that impose to every plagiarist a considrable indemnity and sometimes a period in the jail. Atmani is wondering if that's a relevant solution [14] when those concerned by this law are mostly jobless graduates.
Othmane Boumaalif,the doctor who blogs in French, asks Driss Basri [15] to “get away!”.Othmane says in his latest post that the ” intellectuel’ outfit that the Moroccan ex-ministeri is trying to wear..” doesn’t fit him .he ends his post “screaming” to Basri “we don't need you anymore”. [16]
Sonia a Moroccan young woman who lives in Egypt [17] and blogs in French, talks in her latest post about Ayman Nour , the Egyptian opposition figure, who was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment [18] for forgery.
She also seems deceived to realise that even her collegues [19] don't think that anyone can replace Housny Moubarak [20].
At the end of each report I'm going to have a section called “Coup de coeur” about posts I find special .
For this week I choose Mouna‘s Imagin which latest post is a poignant poem [21] by the Moroccan militant Saida Lemnebhi [22] (French link), who died after a hunger strike December 11th,1977.
I would also love to introduce u to a very artistic blog . Amud Awal continues to impress and this week's post is simply amazing [23]. We can sense how connoisseur is the author who's pseudonym is, by the way, Laseine.
That's it for this week. See you next Wendsday, Inshallah;)