Global Voices Online

A local newspaper has started covering Kuwaiti blogs. In many countries, this might be perceived as a positive step but some Kuwaiti bloggers have their reservations.

According to Exzombie:

يحسب على الدكتور عدم حياديته في الطرح رغم توضيحنا له مرارا حول المجتمع التدويني الكويتي، فهو دائما يصور هذا المجتمع بان جمه ليبرالي رغم ان المدونات التي اعلنت توجهاتها تشكل نسبة ضئيلة من مجمل المدونات الكويتية، فضلا عن ان مدوناتنا الليبرالية لا تمثل سوى كسر بسيط من هذه المدونات، و تحامل غير مهني على الاخوان او الاقطاب الاسلامية و احتواء الكثير من ما يسطره من مغالطات دالة على سطحية الرؤية في المجتمع التدويني،

The doctor (PhD holder who runs the page) is not objective in his reporting even though we have explained to him the Kuwaiti blogging community several times. He always portrays it as being liberal - although the bloggers who have stated their ideologies are limited, compared to the size of the Kuwaiti blogosphere. Liberal blogs are a small fraction of the number of blogs. He is also unprofessionally biased against the Muslim Brotherhood and other religious bloggers. There are many mistakes in what he writes which show his shallow understanding of the Kuwaiti blogging community.

Krakatoa-q8 too has his reservations and says:

ثم طينها الاخ رئيس قسم التكنولوجيا و العلوم..بوضعه لمقابلة ( الله اعلم من اين اتى بها ) عن مقابلة مع مدون مصري؟؟!! لحظه لحظه..هل الكويت تعاني من قلة مدونين حتى تذهب الى ارض الكنانه وتقابل مدون مصري لانعلم اصله من فصله يتحدث في امور سياسية تخص دولة اخرى ونحن في الكويت وكمدونين لا نوصي بالتدخل بشؤون الدول الاخرى فلدينا مايكفينا من المشاكل والبلاوي والعلل، حنا شكو والمدونين المصريين..شنو دخل اهلنا فيهم..ماذا تريدنا يا جمال ان نتوقع مستقبلا ؟؟مقابلة مع مدون موزامبيقي او مقابلة مع مدون من جزر الاباطور مثلا؟؟

يجدر بالاشارة الى ان المقابلة مسرووقة حرفيا من موقع نافذة كارنغي على الشرق الاوسط..مع مدون اسمه ساند مونكي..يعني حتى اشارة الى المصدر..ماميش!!!!

The person in charge of the technology page has made the situation worse by publishing an interview (which only God knows where it came from) with an Egyptian blogger!! Hang on for a second! Are there no bloggers here for you to go to Egypt and interview a blogger we know nothing about, who speaks about the internal political affairs of another country?? We in Kuwait, as bloggers, don't recommend interfering in the affairs of other countries - because we have enough issues and concerns of our own. And Egyptian bloggers - what have we got to do with them? What else shall we expect from you in the future? An interview with bloggers from Mozambique?

It is worth mentioning that the interview has been lifted word to word from the Carnegie Endowment site on the Middle East. It is with a blogger called Sandmonkey and there isn't even a reference to the site it was taken from in the article!!

As You Like has another take on the issue and is concerned with the nationality of the page editor. He writes:

ظـهرت في الاسابيع الماضية صـفحة في جريدة القبس تهتم بشؤون المدونات، في بداية نشأة الصـفحة، اهتم الجريدة ببعض المدونات، مدونات نفـتخر بها نحن كـ مدونين، لكن ان يتم استغلال الصـفحة لصـعود الموجة، على حسابنا، فهذا مانرفضه، خصوصاً ان يكـون الصاعد على هذه الموجة شخص “عـراقـي” لايمت للكويت بصلة.

A new page, which focuses on blogs, appeared in Al Qabas newspaper over the previous few weeks. It focuses on a few blogs - blogs which we as Kuwaiti bloggers are proud of. But for this page to be abused to suck up to others at our expense is something we reject, especially when the person climbing up is an Iraqi, who has no relationship to Kuwait.

هذا الـعراقي، رأيت ردوده في احدى المدونات العزيزة علينا، يشـبه احدى الجماعات السياسية في الكويت بأنها “قذرة” وكـ”الزبالة”، وهذا ما لا نرضاه على ابناء الكويت، سواء اختلفنا معهم، ازدادت حدة النقاش بيننا، الا اننا نظل في الاخير كويتيين،.

I saw a comment by this Iraqi on one of our dear blogs, where he describes one of the political gatherings as “dirty” and “garbage” and this is something we don't accept on the people of Kuwait, even if we don't agree with them. Even if we argue, we remain at the end of the day Kuwaitis.

Posted by Abdullatif AlOmar

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