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...

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...

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...

Madagascar: Closing ceremony of the Indian Ocean Island games

According to Jentilisa, the closing ceremony of the Indian Ocean Island Games went on without any troubles because the organizers learned from their previous mistakes during the opening ceremony (Mg).

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).

New Caledonia: Miss New Caledonia pageant is soon

Caledosphere informs us that the Miss New Caledonia contest is fast approaching. The Miss New Caledonia blog has been recently updated for the occasion with photos of the contestants (Fr).

France: Light punishment for racist comments by a high-school teacher.

Titophe on his blog Racisme et Histoire is worried that the French National Board of Education only reprimanded a high-school teacher for racist comments directed at a student of African descent (Fr).

Benin: Let's open ourselves to China.

China ‘s new focus on investing in Africa has been well documented. However, Eloi Goutchili thinks that Africa should also embrace the Chinese influence on culture (Fr). Goutchili advocates the practical application of Senghor's theory: the need for Africa to open itself to the whole world and not only the...

Africa: the “soon-to-be” presidents’ sons.

Fodé-Moussa Keita links to an article that presents sons of African presidents who are groomed to take over the presidency (fr).

Turkey: To each his own traitor

Guillaume Perrier, author of the blog Au fil du bosphore , muses about the toughening rhetoric in the Turkish political sphere (Fr) as the election for the Turkish presidential office comes to an end. Perrier asks whether the promises of uniting the country are already forgotten.

Why a few African nations still support Mugabe

Koudou of Agoravox gives a brief review of the history of Zimbabwe that may explain why some African nations still support the Mugabe regime (fr).

Le blog de [moi] [fr]narrates the devastation caused by Hurricane Dean in Martinique and the anguish of not knowing her parents’ whereabouts during the ordeal.

African writers criticize Sarkozy in open letter

Jean-Luc Raharimanana, a Malagasy writer famous for his influential works on French colonialism, recently authored an open letter to French president Nicolas Sarkozy in response to the now infamous message to Africa and Africans he delivered in Dakar, Senegal. Nearly a month has passed since Sarkozy's speech, but its effects...

Malagasy bloggers rally for Madagascar's children

The Malagasy blogosphere was quite active on humanitarian efforts these past two weeks. It all started when Jogany at the purplecorner.com invited the Malagasy blogosphere to get involved in a virtual fund raiser: a blog-a-thon where participants would write 1 post every 30 min, 24h non-stop to raise fund for...

Madagascar hosts Indian Ocean Island Games

The Indian Ocean Island Games are underway in Madagascar and people are quite thrilled about it. Harinjaka gives us a preview of the anticipation back home: “C’est parti pour le 7 ème Jeux des îles de l’Océan Indien (JIOI). La flamme olympique arrive aujourd’hui au stade de Mahamasina (Tananarive) pour...