Tunisia: Tunisian Bloggers Speak in English

Tunisian bloggers used to avoid expressing themselves in English (the third language in the country), writing in Arabic (sometimes in Tunisian dialect) or French instead. This has, in some way, limited their foreign audience and hindered the access to their thoughts and opinions to non-Arabic and non-French speakers. But lately some bloggers are using English in their posts. Here's a look at some of the blogs in English.

In his post entitled:AlJazeera.net inaccessible in Tunisia , Amin Zayani exposes the controversial censorship of AlJazeera.net: Tunisians can watch Al Jazeera freely whereas the website is censored. He writes:

You switch on your TV and satellite receiver in Tunisia and you can watch Aljazeera, Aljazeera English, Aljazeera Children, Aljazeera Documentary, Aljazeera Live, Aljazeera Sport all day.

But you type the web address in your browser and you can not access it. Strange, isn't it?

Under the title: Tilikum The Killer Whale, Foetus.me jotted down a small story about freedom:

Remind ‘em who you are. Remind ‘em how free and wild you really are. These people forgot you’re the apex predator of the oceans. Don’t bear with them, they dreamed of power, wicked as they see it, food related and cruel. Tell them that true power is to respect others freedom and build up on that. Show them that they are responsible and accountable. Nature will prevail my friend.

Amor blogging his world wrote a post about China's new rules concerning the media coverage of the conflict with Google:

A new set of rules and instructions from the Chinese government itself suppresses China media outlets from reporting almost anything about Google’s recent pull out from China.
The instructions, nabbed by China Digital Times, outline a series of rather disturbing edicts to media outlets that are covering the Google story. While this is nothing new, the Chinese government’s broad and suppressive mandates are still striking.


Sam’ s World
gives us his take on the First Arab Internet Conference, held in Beirut recently. He says:

For the first time, the Arab web industry has its conference bringing together leaders from across the MENA, Europe and Silicon Valley to discuss cutting-edge trends and emerging opportunities.

How to settle up your e-business or manage/promote your e-commerce? Online advertising, social media, entrepreneurship, startups, emerging opportunities … These and more will be discussed during the 2 days Arabnet 2010 event (March 25 & 26)

Sula7fet, an English language student and a newcomer to the Tunisian blogosphere shared with us extracts from a book he read :

The Paranoid Style in American Politics by Richard Hoftasadter , when reading the title I first thought that the issue s discussed in the book will be mainly addressed to the American reader , I remember taht i took a moment , hesitated for a while , and then asked how much ?

Hopefully, this new linguistic orientation towards the use of the English language, will give the Tunisian blogosphere a new fresh breath and will introduce it to readers from all over the world.

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