Alice Backer · January, 2007

Latest posts by Alice Backer from January, 2007

Haiti: Reflecting on National Soccer

  18 January 2007

Reflecting on Haiti's recent defeat at the hands of the Trinidad & Tobago soccer/football team, Collectif Haiti de Provence writes (Fr): “Yes, formerly our regional rivals had names like Mexico. Today we align with difficulty with nations where soccer/football has no popularity and hence no budget: Cuba, Martinique, Dominican Republic....

Tahitian Music

  17 January 2007

Tahiti Litterature, Musique posts various excerpts of Tahitian music.

DRC: Post-Election Landscape

  17 January 2007

Le Blog du Congolais summarizes the post-election landscape as follows (Fr): “The general trend is to wait and see. People are giving the President the benefit of the doubt . He is far from making people secure so persistent is the question mark on his competence, his good faith, his...

Guadeloupe: Still Site of Magical Beliefs

  17 January 2007

Says Atout Guadeloupe (Fr): “To this day many Guadeloupeans believe in magic and go to “quimboiseurs” and “gadezafe” [i.e. magicians] to take care of private business and disputes with third parties! Guadeloupe still has many magical sites.”

Senegal: How Wade Tried to Bribe a French Journalist

  17 January 2007

Kangni Alem writes (Fr):” In a book titled Les Sorciers Blancs [The White Sorcerers] which will be launched Jan.17 by [French publishing house] Fayard, L'Express reporter Vincent Hugeux shows how President Wade tried to bribe Thierry Oberle, a journalist for Figaro.”

Indian Ocean: New Web 2.0 Cultural Site

  15 January 2007

Collective Malagasy blog Malagasy Miray announces (Fr): “Culture-océanindien [ www.culture-oceanindien.info ] is a space for cultural and islandness expression based on the web 2.0 principle. It was born out of the will to promote and support culture in general and more specifically that of the Indian Ocean. Many aspects of...

French Speaking Blogs of the Caribbean, Africa and Oceania in 2006

  14 January 2007

Logo of the Madagascar Blogger's Meeting that took place January 5-6, 2007 in Antananarivo. By and large French speaking blogs and bloggers of the world have reason to envy English, Spanish and Brazilian speaking counterparts in volume and in interaction with each other. Very few bloggers (Madagascar and Reunion being...

New Caledonia: Lagoon as Potential World Heritage Site

  14 January 2007

5 Minutes en Nouvelle Caledonie writes (Fr): “France will present on January 31 at Unesco, a request that the Caledonian lagoon be made into a world heritage site. A joy for Caledonia which has been lobbying for this for a while … Final verdict June 2008. “

Tunisia: Olive Oil

  14 January 2007

Mouwaten Tounsi writes (Fr): “Tunisia is the 4th producer of olive oil in the world and the 2d exporter in 2006 after the EU… In the Sahel region, many olive farms suffer from an excess in density and from parceling in very small scattered properties. This is bad for profitability.”

Haiti: Commemorating Novelist Jaques Roumain

  12 January 2007

Reacting to news that this year will be the 100th anniversary of novelist Jacques Roumain‘s birth, Collectif Haiti de Provence asks (Fr): “Will Haitians do the comemoration of the author of Gouverneurs de la Rosee [Masters of the Dew] justice?”

Haiti: Petion-Ville Market Burnt Down

  12 January 2007

On Jan.9, HaitiXchange wrote (Fr): “The market in Pétionville went up in flames this morning. It was in horror that we watched all of our merchandise go up in smoke. The merchants complained, since their means of making a living, and their very survival, the education of their 10 and...

Guadeloupe, Montserrat: Soufriere Hills Volcano Eruption

  12 January 2007

Guadeloupe Attitude writes (Fr): “Mrs. Deborah Jones, Governor of the British island of Montserrat, ordered yesterday the evacuation of the volcano's North West zone. About 50 households are involved. La Soufriere Hills began erupting about a week ago. Monday, smoke columns over 7 kilometers high seeped out of it and...

Guadeloupe: “Poll-o-phile” President

  11 January 2007

TiToto says of President of Guadeloupean Regional Council Victorin Lurel (Fr): “Suffering from “poll-o-philiac opinionmania,” Lurel often attempts a real personalization of public opinion, a creation of a fictitious political and social image which claims to represent the Guadeloupean people. … He says “Guadeloupeans have said x” everytime he seeks...

Haiti: Year in Photos

  11 January 2007

Collectif Haiti de Provence recently posted (Fr) a slideshow of important Haitian personalities and events of 2006.

Haiti: 203rd Year of Independence

  11 January 2007

Reflecting on the festivities for the 203rd anniversary of Haitian independence and the clan-like disputes that colored them, Ailleurs Vu d'Ici writes (Fr): “Everyone knows that our society's disease is the unlimited thirst for power. And this pathology … has adopted recurrent forms along our history. It is definitely one...

Tahiti: Turncoat Politicians

  5 January 2007

Reacting to the election of a new president Gaston Tong Sang, Tahitian blogger SamsonPointCom surveys the political landscape (Fr): “Turncoat politics are a national sport, even more so than rowing. There are basically two opposing equally-sized blocs in the Assembly: the independentist “Blues” (socialist affiliated but who have National Front...

Africa: Once Glorious Postal Services

Africa 2.0 reflects on the future of African postal services (Fr): “Under other skies, postal companies occupy a choice spot in the rise of electronic commerce … In Africa, most postal services are sluggishly lagging behind. They've been destabilized by new technologies, the loss of monopoly… competition from … DHL,...