This loose coalition argues the Discovery Channel programming sensationalizes shark attacks and embellishes the dangers sharks pose to humans. While Shark Week may provide a handsome profit to the US-based network, it has created a generation of viewers that feel “sharks need to be hunted to extinction,” the group argues. They are circulating a petition calling for the boycott of Shark Week.

Shark Week, which has run on cable and satellite systems since 1987, offers Discovery Channel viewers a week-long series of documentaries and feature programs. Last year an estimated 29 million viewers around the world viewed Shark Week. As an example of its popularity, a different petition calls for the Discovery Channel to expand Shark Week programming to 24 hours per day.

Shark Week begins in the United States August 2 and runs a few weeks later in different regions.

From the group’s manifesto at the French Polynesia-based blog Discovery’s Shame:

The fact is that no shark species target humans for food and people all over the world swim and dive with sharks for pleasure—the same species that Discovery infers will attack and kill people.

Scientists who's work has been used for Discovery's Shark Week have found it twisted and misrepresented by the company. For those who are familiar with sharks, Shark Week is nothing more than tabloid journalism, and does not reflect modern scientific knowledge.

Until recently, even the dangers to sharks from overfishing was covered up by Discovery, because they considered conservation to be an unpopular subject.

According to most estimates, each year sharks attack 50 to 70 people and kill between 5 and 15. Between 20 and 100 million sharks die annually due to fishing.

The blog Sea Stewards: Sea is Our Sanctuary tells readers to “support rational shark programming.”

Despite promises in a meeting with shark advocates and filmmakers in New York two years ago to promote shark awareness Discovery Channel is still promoting the hype and fear of sharks in their sensationalistic Shark Week programming. We have a responsibility to raise awareness that promote sane and sustainable ocean practices. Sharks are an important component fo a healthy ocean and the fear and hype generated by shark attack films is harmful to sharks.

The Discovery Channel admits it employs attention-grabbing methods to bring in viewers. But the network says its web and television programming educates that audience about the value and plight of sharks. Instead of being sensationalistic, its television programming portrays the complicated relationship between humans and sharks, which is what viewers want to see.

David, a shark conservation graduate student in the United States, blogs under the moniker Whysharksmatter on the site Southern Fried Science. A few weeks ago he interviewed Discovery Channel Executive Paul Gasek on the controversy surrounding Shark Week.

[Whysharksmatter]WSM: Do you believe that how movies, the news, and networks like the Discovery Channel portray sharks affects how the public views sharks? For example, in the scientific community, it is widely acknowledged that the movie Jaws has encouraged public fear of sharks. We can’t help but notice that a poster for this year’s Shark Week bears a strong resemblance to the movie poster for Jaws. Though your website has lots of conservation information, do you believe that some of your programming promotes fear of sharks?

[Paul Gasek]PG: At Discovery Channel, we pride ourselves on telling compelling and accurate stories. Shark Week is no different. Two of our shows this year are based on actual historical events: one is about the first U.S.-based shark attacks on record, off the New Jersey shore in 1916, and the other is about the infamous summer of 2001 when more than 50 swimmers were attacked by sharks off U.S. beaches. It is a fact that sharks sometimes mistake people for prey and attack. In these, and many of our shows, we are digging deeper than the media headlines and telling the stories behind the stories.

WSM: Are you and other Discovery Channel executives aware of the following facts?:

A) Sharks kill less than ten humans a year

B) Less than 1% of shark species have ever bitten a human

C) Sharks play key roles in regulating ecosystems

D) Losses of shark populations have resulted in collapses of economically important fisheries

E) More than 100 million sharks a year are killed in one of the most wasteful, unsustainable, and brutal fishing practices on Earth…

F) Resulting in dozens of species suffering 95% or higher population declines in the last thirty years?

PG: We are absolutely aware of the plight – and importance – of sharks. And while we have millions of people watching our Shark Week programming (29 million people last year) and visiting our Shark Week website (one million people in July alone) we work hard to educate them about the importance of shark conservation.

Each year, Discovery Channel partners with Ocean Conservancy on a Public Service Announcement about the state of sharks which airs throughout Shark Week… We also dedicate a large portion of our website to shark conservation, using it as a tool to entertain and educate people.

The question-and-answer session sparked debate throughout the shark community. Here are a few comments from the Southern Fried Science site.

From Mako:

When it comes to television, people want to be entertained and networks want to entertain. By portraying sharks as menacing eating machines hungry for human flesh, thats entertaining to people. Its the same reason that people flock to the movie theatres for the next lame scary movie. We like to be scared. It may be “accurate”, but its the commercials, camera angles, music, tone of the commentary that bring across fear and misconception to the audience. Its the nature of media, bend the truth a little and sell it better, or give the stone cold boring truth.

From Irradiatus:

No one is claiming Shark Week should be the “Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences.”

Quite the opposite.

What everyone is saying is that you can make a million different varieties of insanely fascinating shark programs that aren’t about them being evil killing machines.

Allie says:

There is a HUUUGE divide between the conservation-oriented Discovery Channel website, and it’s television programming. Yes, choosing sensationalistic headlines may reel people in, but for those who don’t take the time to watch, it also sends a message.

While the debate raged on, the MarineBio Blog compared this year’s Shark Week to previous editions.

I hated that the Discovery Channel aired shows with that threatening voiceover, and all the fear-mongering worked into the script. People who fear sharks won’t respect the fact that shark populations are dwindling worldwide. The only thing people were “discovering” during shark week is that sharks are man-eating demons. There was very little mention of the true nature of sharks, which is that they’re apex predators in search of fish, and seals and other marine critters they find yummy. And that more often than not, human encounters with shark in the wild consist of the sharks swimming away – not attacking. Sharks are extremely important to balanced marine ecosystems. Without them, there’s a top-down cascade of ill-effects as shark prey begin to proliferate and take over – causing their prey-species to be depleted.

However, checking up on this year’s website, the author found:

To my surprise, most of the blood and gore has been replaced with messaging on shark conservation and it seems they’re planning to air documentaries about sharks that are informative and educational rather than shocking and gory. They even have a map of shark populations and their conservation status around the globe.

This year’s Shark Week features the following programs: Blood in the Water; Deadly Waters; Day of the Shark 2; Sharkbite Summer; Great White Appetite and Shark After Dark.

The innocuous-sounding Day of the Shark 2 has generated a tremendous amount of dialogue. The program – described as a “harrowing hour” – exhibits three separate shark attacks: the first when a great white breaks through a shark cage, trapping a diver inside; second, a former Navy seal is attacked in shallow waters and third a bull shark happens upon a spearfishing trip in the Bahamas.

In instances such as this, the blog Shark Divers doesn’t directly find fault with the Discovery Channel. Instead, the blogger Shark Diver takes to task film production companies who combine unsound diving methods with luring sharks in hopes of creating a dangerous situation in front of rolling cameras.

The other side of Shark Porn is more direct. Industry members who enable shark disasters operationally. This years Shark Week will feature one such video.

The operator behind that video has been telling anyone who will listen that this video was an accident, “a one time event”.

Unfortunately all of these claims are after event fabrications and he knows, as does the entire industry, that this video is just one of series of cage breaches at the same site by the same operator.

We have had enough. We have had enough of operators who cry wolf when things go wrong to operational errors that are the result of sloppy operations. We have had enough of operators who blame the videographer, or photographer for capturing their disasters and profiting from it. We have had enough of those few industry members who claim the moral high ground for sharks and yet deliver mayhem and disaster upon an entire industry.

If you are a current supporter of these few industry folks take a long, cold look in the mirror. There is no such thing as “an accident” in a baited shark situation and the myth of cage breaches as an acceptable part of our industry is just that, a myth.

Earlier this year production companies were scoping locations to film portions of the upcoming Shark Week. A dive company in Fiji tells why it refused assistance to a team who wanted to film a “Pro-Shark ‘documentary-entertainment’ show’.”

From the blog Fiji Shark Diving:

Titled “Deadly Waters”, the plan is to travel to the five “most dangerous beaches for Shark attacks” where the waters are “infested with Sharks” and conduct a series of “experiments” to determine what causes the attacks. The locations they have chosen are the Bahamas, South Africa, Oz, Florida and… Fiji!
A list of questions includes
- what makes these specific locations so deadly?
- do you have any documented Shark attack case studies….?

Well, we sent them packing - and I herewith formally apologize to those well-meaning friends who sent them our way thinking that they were doing us a favor.

Thing is, we were not only outraged by their unacceptable portrayal of Sharks and the stupidity of their new “experiments” - but also and foremost, because of the damage they were intending to inflict to the reputation of Fiji. Talk of “deadly beaches”and “Shark infested waters” is simply toxic for the Tourism Industry, the principal income earner of most Island Countries. Yes, also for the Bahamas whose image has already been tarnished by past and equally stupid programs.

Photos courtesy of Fenua (Fr), a photoblog of French Polynesia. Also check out Fenua for photographs of Tahitian beauty queens and local artisans, to name a few.

In the five years since the last presidential election, and in particular after the 2005 riots and the headscarf controversy, immigration and race have moved to the center of the political debate.

This, combined with the fact that the election marks the first time in France's history a woman has come this close to the presidency, might account for Sunday's unprecedented voter turnout, the highest since 1965.

Here's a view of the election from outside the metropole–voters in overseas French departments, interested bloggers in former French colonies, and the growing ranks of hyphenated French.

Around Francophonia

Few Warm Feelings for Sarkozy

Like many francophones, Vive la Francophonie is

Listening to Sarkozy at 20:30, I had tears in my eyes. He wanted to protect me, wanted brotherhood for the big French family, he was against “golden parachutes.” For a moment it seemed he could have become a social democrat with the blink of an eye! Sarkozy finished by condemning everyone to prison for a life sentence, proposing retirement between age 65 and 70. Last about face: on “RCJ” Coassgen announced a referendum on Europe…

…there are other arguments in Royal's favor: popular jury, proportional representation in the National Assembly, the right of petition, the placement of juvenile delinquents in military academies, local boarding schools, flexisecurity, and possibly a greater attention to francophones because she was born in Senegal.

Congo-Brazzaville

At Demain Le Congo Brazzaville, Mouvimat, who clearly has no love for Sarkozy, maintains that nothing is certain; but as if anticipating a Sarkozy win, wonders what France will be like under Sarkozy.

Si la raison l'a emporté au premier tour, rien n'est moins sûr, même si l'on se rend compte que pour une fois, les élections sont conformes aux prédictions des sondages. Les sondages sont-ils devenus une science exacte ? Certainement pas ! Mais nous savons qu'ils influencent les petits esprits et les petites opinions qui se disent :”la majorité a raison donc je vote comme la majorité !”

Si Sarkozy passe, il se pourrait que les Français le regrette mais ce peuple est pétri de contradictions et c'est ainsi qu'il aime à avancer en se vautrant dans sa propre contradiction…s'il gagne dans quinze jours aura tous les pouvoirs…

Mouvimat goes onto call Sarkozy the “standard bearer” (Fr) of the monied classes, one step away from supreme power, and says that Jews are the “masters of global finance.”

Morocco: Overwhelming Support for Royal

Community web portal Yabiladi.com posts an online poll which suggests that like other minorities, French Moroccans remain suspicious of Nicolas Sarkozy, who received only 7% of 1057 votes. Centrist candidate Francois Bayrou received 25% and Segolene Royal was most popular, with 48%. Royal and Bayrou have benefited, Yabiladi explains, from the French Moroccan community's position of “Anything but Sarko” (Fr) .

Lebanon: A Center-Right Blogger Laments Both Royal and Sarkozy

Of the election results, French-Lebanese blogger Frencheagle –a rightest in favor of Bayrou, not Sarkozy–writes of that France has chosen “mediocrity and arrogance” (Fr). Segolene Royal is the mediocre candidate making promises she cannot possibly keep, and Sarkozy the arrogant one, notably for his handling of the 2005 riots.

Frencheagle, who seems to have preferred Bayrou, writes that the results show France has significantly shifted to the right. A rightist himself, Frencheagle thinks this is generally a good sign, but he's not keen on seeing Sarko in the presidency.

la France n'a jamais été autant droite qu'aujourd'hui, si on accumule les votes de François Bayrou, Nicolas Sarkozy, et Jean-Marie Le Pen. Plus de 60 % de la population française estiment en effet que désormais seule une politique de droite pourraient venir à bout des problèmes auxquels fait face leur pays. Je ne peux qu'être bien sûr que content de cela, étant et me considérant de droit. Je déplore cependant en soit arrivé à avoir un Sarkozy deuxième tour, ne fait plutôt penser à un roquet plein président de la république, il a l'art de polémiquer, de provoquer, mais sûrement pas de se poser comme arbitre entre Français qui agissent dans l'intérêt de tous.

Tunisia

Global Voices author Samsoum has an in-depth roundup of the Tunisian blogosphere's coverage of the French presidential election. Girl from Mars wonders why Tunisians seem to be more interested and knowledgeable about French politics than their own.

Overseas Departments Vote

Guadeloupe and Martinique

Guadeloupe and Martinique both saw record turnouts, with the majority of voters in Guadeloupe voting for Sarkozy (42.6%) and in Martinique, for Royal (48.4%).

Overseas departments voted on April 21st, one day ahead of France, so as to “avoid the impression their vote was useless” (Fr), explains Greg at Internet Rapide. Because of the early vote and the time difference, broadcasts of television and radio news from France were temporarily suspended in order to comply with the ban on campaigning after the Friday before the poll.

Segolene Royal is “Dangerous for France”

As passionately as Et Si Nous Parlions writes about his loss of faith in Sarkozy and his support for Royal, Trop Nul en Guadeloupe explains why Segolene Royal is “dangerous for France.”

Marie-Ségolène Royal qui s'est présentée comme une mère aux Français, n'est en fait qu'une fourbe dissimulée sous un beau visage, refait lui aussi pour endormir l'électeur. Depuis le début de “SA” campagne, il y a six mois, Marie-Ségolène Royal n'a cessé de suivre l'actualité au plus près pour adapter ses thèses aux souhaits des uns et des autres. Dans ses tentatives de précisions, sont apparues ce que l'on a appelé des bourdes, mais qui n'étaient en fait que le résultat d'un creux sidéral au niveau de ses idées.

Méprisante avec le PS, son parti, puis à nouveau une fidèle partisane, Marie-Ségolène Royal n'est en fait qu'une courtisane se donnant au plus offrant.

Trop Nul en Guadeloupe also thinks http://samsontahiti.blogspot.com/2007/04/1er-tour-presidentielles-samedi.html”>writes about the election from Tahiti. As in the French Antilles, French Polynesia votes a day earlier. However in this case if they did not vote a day ahead, with the time difference Tahitians would know the outcome of the election in France before the polls even opened in their country.

Like many before him, Sampson notes the record interest in this presidential election. However, he thinks that attention has become somewhat farcical and does not represent genuine civic engagement.

Maintenant, les candidats, on les découvre autant dans VOICI et GALA que dans LE MONDE ou L'EXPRESS…

On entend que cette campagne a passionné les français. Mon oeil comme dirait Le Pen ! C'est de l'auto persuasion non ? On nous bassine avec des petites phrases…on se demande qui est le personnage en photo dans un cadre derrière Arlette Laguiller (est-ce qu'elle a un “mec” ?), on nous montre des photos de Ségolène en jeans parce qu'elle ne met pas que des robes, etc…

Il y a les attaques verbales plus ou moins frontales, et puis les pervers (enfin surtout un…) qui répond “qu'il ne répond pas”, que les autres se querellent et que lui s'occupe des Français…

Samson once went through an “angry adolescent-abstentionist period” (Fr). He is full of doubts. Nevertheless, he writes that it is important to vote and that if people are ever to practice a higher level of politics, civic education is essential. Parents should talking to their children about politics.

An African Living in France Explains His Support for Royal, Disillusionment with Sarkozy

Sarkozy and the 2005 Riots

Et si nous parlions, written by a francophone African, country unknown, explains his reasons for supporting Segolene Royal, even though as recently as one year ago, he was a Sarkozy supporter.

Sarkozy's handling of the 2005 riots have made the author of Et si nous parlions believe that Sarkozy, and the majority of the French, are not really interested in building a multicultural, multiracial France.

Il y'a un an, j'étais prosarkozyste, je suivais avec attention ses idées qui avaient l'air d'apporter du changement dans cette France sclérosée. J'étais pour la discrimination positive parceque j'ai toujours cru que “un tiens vaut mieux que deux tu l'auras”. En effet, au lieu d'attendre, probalement 1000 ans que la France change de mentalité et réintègre sa partie colorée dans son histoire. Je préfère qu'on discrimine positivement en attendant que le monde soit meilleur.

Puis un jour, il y'a eu les émeutes des banlieues, j'ai attendu que cet homme politique traite ce problème de manière pragmatique. C'est a dire remettre du calme mais aussi essayer de comprendre, trouver des solutions sociales au problème des exclus de banlieue. J'ai attendu qu'il profite de cette occasion pour relancer l'idée de dsicrimination positive. Avec 40% de chomage dans certains villes, on peut comprendre que l'emploi est la première solution contre l'émeute des banlieues. C'est alors que nous avons tous compris avec stupéfaction que Sieur Nicolas comptait se servir de la peur qu'a naturellement, historiquement, psychologiquement et socialement un blanc de neuilly pour un jeune basané de clichy sous bois en France.

C'est alors que j'ai compris a quelle sauce Sarkozy comptait nous manger. Et c'est alors que j'ai décidé de regarder ailleurs. Si Sarkozy avait été au pouvoir pendant cette dernière decennie, jamais quelqu'un comme moi ne serait arrivé en France. Je ne scierai pas l'arbre sur lequel je suis assis.

Race & French Politics

Et Si Nous Parlions is deeply skeptical that either the Left or the Right is seriously committed to addressing racism in France, but that the Left represents the lesser of two evils.

C'est vrai qu'il ya presque autant de noirs /arables voire plus à l'UMP qu'au PS. Mais l'UMP de Sarkozy a viré à l'extreme droite. C'est une UMP qui dit aux basanés, nous ferons rien pour que vous reussisiez mais une fois que vous serez riche et populaire, nous oublierons que vous venez d'ailleurs. C'est une UMP qui ne veut garder que les meilleurs, les favorisés ecrasant sur son passage ceux qui souffrent de l'exclusion dans les coins pauvres de France. Je ne pense pas qu'il y ait moins de racistes a gauche mais je pense qu'il ya une difference entre legitimer le racisme et ne pas en parler. La difference est que l'auteur du racisme doute du bien fondé de son acte. Je ne veux pas d'un pays qui croit que c'est normal d'habiter en cité parce qu'on est noir, que seuls les etrangers posent problème, que la polygamie est source des emeutes de banlieues…

J'ai tout prévu , Si Sarkozy et Le pen passent au second tour, j'estime que la France l'aura merité. Il n'y aura plus aucune raison pour moi d'etre pacifique, plus aucune de croire en une France qui se veut diverse. Je ne resisterai pas pacifique et je voterai a ce moment la pour le repli communautaire parceque je pense que de toute facon on ne pourra rien faire contre un majorité de gens qui les aurons sciamment choisi. Je créerai donc ma boite de noirs pour des salariés et des clients noirs. J'adhererai à des associations de noirs etc… Vous me direz, tu feras exactement ce qu'ils veulent. C'est exact mais au moins ce sera pour mon propre intéret.

Cautious Support for Royal

While the blogger is not sure Royal will be better able to represent him than any of the other white candidates, Royal, at least, has more convincingly Intellectuals tell us we should not vote [for Segolene Royal] just because she is a woman. I have a thousand objective reasons that have compelled me to vote for her. The first is that I am African, and she is the only candidate that has said on television, in front of millions of French watching TF1, that France exploited Africa. This does not mean that she will be better than any of the others. And let's be realistic; it's up to us to change our countries of origin. Nevertheless, the fact that she said this is already a good start. She's also the candidate who is proposing “roundtrip” visas allowing Africans to return to their country of origin much more easily, and I think that today for the diaspora that has established itself [in France], that is no small thing.

Woman President As Symbol of Hope and Change

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 notable exceptions) are actually talking to each other, even when they come from the same country. However 2006 saw some interesting developments in certain parts of the French speaking world.

DRC
Until the election of interim President Joseph Kabila, the DRC-based blogs were quite active and vigorously in opposition of him. Most of the bloggers were journalists who turned to blogs to speak with diaspora or western audiences. GlobalVoices featured an interview of the most prolific DRC-based blogger, Tony Katombe of Le Blog du Congolais. We brought you blurbs from counterparts such as Prince du Fleuve du Congo Phillipe Liondjo and Etienne Ngandu. UDPS Liege, the blog of opposition party UDPS did its best to lead the blogging opposition to Kabila from Liege, Belgium. UDPS leader Etienne Tshisekedi never actually ran in the race so UDPS Liege spent much time justifying his choice.

Immediately after Kabila's election late November, activity dropped off for a while in the DRC-based blogs.

(Note that English speaking diaspora blogs such as The Salon have been doing a great job as well and generally brought a refreshing if moderate counterpoint to the staunchly anti-Kabila perspective of its French speaking DRC-based counterparts.)

Senegal
Blogs in Senegal had been relatively sleepy with spotty updates until Blog Politique du Senegal came along halfway through the year. Much like the blogs of the DRC, the blog is obsessed with their incumbent President (Wade) and has spent much time unveiling perceived excesses and failures of his administration. Humor is always present in these parts and posts were short and concise.

Haiti and its Diaspora
Much of the exciting news in Haitian blogs has been in English: 3rdworldgirl, for example or even AyitiToma who unfortunately posted just once. But what a post that “Open Letter To Haiti” was! Roody Edme, however spotty, started a very promising blog Ailleurs Vu d'Ici on which he bombarded us with well written and well informed posts on New Year's Eve. It seems the blogger was saving his best goodies for last. And best yet his commentary is not just limited to Haitian affairs but spans the planet! Call this blogger anything but ill-informed.

By far the most consistent current affairs blog was Collectif Haiti de Provence, the France-based blog of a collective of Haiti and France-based organizations.Though the blog started the year by posting news stories, two individual voices, Deky Lakyel and JoJo began commenting each story, firing daily at the current president, his interim predecessor and the UN Mission (MINUSTAH). Their main preoccupation: “Insecurity” a literal  translation of the French “Insecurite” which has taken the form of kidnappings first aimed at political figures and now at random civilians, increasingly children. But the bloggers also balked at poor governance and incompetence on the part of elected or appointed officials, one issue most agree is a major weakness of Haitian government.

Yon Ayisyen rarely made it online to grace us with his smart take on things once Preval got elected, probably because, as he explained to GlobalVoices in an interview, he did not have an internet connection at home. That is too bad because until the election, he made sure to dissect and demystify many a newsworthy phenomenon, including authorities' many claims leading up to the election that they had actually done something about the many kidnappings that were plaguing the capital. Yon Ayisyen also watched the elections closely and uncovered shameful irregularities that took place under international observers' noses.

Towards the end of the year, India-based Natif Natal started a blog on musings about Indian society from the perspective of an outsider.

Some dialogue started among certain English speaking Haitian diaspora bloggers (Reveiled, Karlito's Blog, kiskeyAcity) who attempted A Skypecast for Haiti which had to be postponed but whose later incarnation might discuss an aggregator.  Those same bloggers all networked with each other on MyBlogLog, along with Haiti-based Marcel Salnave  Jr. who started a blog this year, Parlons Peu, of his father's journalistic works from the 40s and 50s.

French Overseas Departments and Territories
While the blogospheres of French speaking Oceania (Tahiti, French Polynesia and New Caledonia) and of Guyane in South America are still dominated by and large by expats from France, locals actually took to blogging in Martinique, Guadeloupe and especially in La Reunion, the rare French speaking blogosphere that speaks to the local reader.

Martinique's highlights are daring and often controversial lesbian blogger Le Blog de [Moi] whose favorite topics are coming out (or not), sexuality and pop culture (her logo is a creolized Rosie The Riveter) and tech blogger InternetRapide.com who devoted himself to following the expansion into Caribbean markets of local Telecom giant Digicel, among other tech-related developments.

Guadeloupe blogs focused more on local politics and issues of nationhood. Toto M'a Tuer's pet issue was what he described as corrupt local governance while Convention pour une Nouvelle Guadeloupe (the blog of a political party of the same name) highlighted all dates relevant to the formation of the blog's preoccupation: a Guadeloupean nation and national identity distinct from the French. Rotarian Jean-Claude Halley from Guadeloupe Attitude spent more energy on local high art, including the chronicling of the life, music and newfound popularity in France, Guadeloupe and Cuba of historical Guadeloupean figure Chevalier de St-Georges.

La Reunion's very self-aware blogosphere (complete with an aggregator and a local audience) were the topic of Global Voices article Reunion: Actively Blogging. Indeed, prolific local blogger Pierrot Dupuy explained to GV that this French overseas department has more computers per capita than continental France.

Madagascar
Indian Ocean water must contain a special tech mineral. Madagascar though lacking La Reunion's aggregator and French ressources, managed to pull together a very cohesive and active blogosphere with a collective blog Malagasy Miray, over a dozen active bloggers (this does not include their growing crop of English and Malagasy speaking bloggers), a blogger's meet January 5th, “Malagasyscopy”, a “communal post” on Malagasy identity abroad to which over 20 Malagasy bloggers contributed their 2 cents. One wonders whether this incredible momentum is not owed to the government's recent efforts to refurbish the country's image but active, enthusiastic diasporans probably deserve credit too.

Diasporans
Some of the best Francophone bloggers are actually based in the West where they cast an overarching eye on not just their homelands but issues of whole continents. Sanaga Peregrinations, a blogger of Cameroonian origin comes to mind whose blog goes back and forth between French and English and whose topics span technology, current affairs and who took a close look at the DRC elections. Togolese origined, France-based Kangni Alem is another. The blogger loves to wax poetic on African literary issues but also weighs in on general African politics. His blog received over two dozen comments a post, a testament to its appeal and reach.

A 2007 to Look Forward To
As critics predict that 2007 will be the stage to a web 2.0 explosion, there is every reason to believe that Francophone blogs will only get more numerous and better connected. The Blog Africa 2.0 has made it a point to chronicle each step the African internet takes in that direction and will no doubt continue doing so. Plus, Global Voices is preparing to launch Project Lingua which should bring Global Voices content in French to French speaking bloggers, a step which if successful, will only enlarge their cross-pollination and exposure to other more active linguistic communities on the web.

Most links above are to Global Voices translations of the blogs. You can find direct links to individual blogs in the translations.