Global Voices Online

Although blogging in Morocco 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 he gave to eMarrakech (French link).
And he notices in his French Big Blog that even if officials in Morocco seems to see Blogging 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, a writer based in Portland, Oregon. She started her english Moorishgirl 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 with the authorities.

Amazigh wonders in his French Bikhir Nation if the Moroccan citizen could have a green telephon number 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 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(ERC). Jawad says 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 smugglers. For those of you still not familiar with Morocco ,let me explain that Derb Ghallef is a very special market in Casablanca 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 when those concerned by this law are mostly jobless graduates.

Othmane Boumaalif,the doctor who blogs in French, asks Driss Basri 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”.

Sonia a Moroccan young woman who lives in Egypt and blogs in French, talks in her latest post about Ayman Nour , the Egyptian opposition figure, who was sentenced to 5 years imprisonment for forgery.
She also seems deceived to realise that even her collegues don't think that anyone can replace Housny Moubarak.

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 by the Moroccan militant Saida Lemnebhi (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. 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;)