Global Voices » Mohamed Marwen Meddah

Echoes from the Tunisian blogosphere

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 15:31:19 +0000

The most talked about topic in the Tunisian blogosphere this past week is obviously the Tunisian team's dissapointing performance at the World Cup in Germany after their draw with Saudi Arabia.

Some feedback in French from: Tunisian star, Adib, Anis, Nawarat, Assouma.

On a more serious note, Tarek writes about how Tunisia is aiming to largely cut down unemployment from now to 2016, and he throws in a number of suggestions like going further down the internationalization and privatisation path as well as reforming the university system and work laws. (FR)

As for Swifty, he asks what a country is? and what it is that creates an attachment between a person and a country, enough to make it part of his identity. Is it birth in a certain country, life in it at a certain stage of life or the people surrounding the person? (FR)

Felsfa writes about the morning greeting in Tunisian “Sbah El Khir”, which he explains as much more than just a simple “good morning”, it means may your morning be good in each and every way: moral, material, internal, external, news-wise, business-wise, …etc.
He goes on to state how people no longer bother to greet each other like that anymore in Tunisia these days, and how he thinks Tunisia is changing to the worse, starting from its mornings. (FR)

On the lighter side, Heliodore writes about his discovery of a Tunisian website TunisArts that offers downloads of Tunisian movies, series, theatre plays, music, and more. (FR)

And Zaratoustra publishes the program of this year's Tabarka music festivals, including the famous Tabarka Jazz Festival. (FR)

Adib, the Tunisian vet blogger, writes about “Operation Monique 2”, that is being held by his clinic in cooperation with Mme Monique Busain from June 17th to 23rd, to develop and preserve the species in the Kelibia region. (FR)

Echoes from the Tunisian blogosphere

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Mon, 29 May 2006 06:48:35 +0000

The Tunisian blogosphere has been buzzing as usual with a bunch of different topics, ranging from the serious to the light, and the following is a snapshot of some of the interesting topics discussed these past 2 weeks.

We start off with Zizou who writes about how he thinks an Islamist revolution is invading the Arab society, and that even though it's going at a slower rate in Tunisia because of the government policies and decisions, it exists, and he thinks that the government should go on and officialize the secularity of Tunisia to further seperate state and religion (FR).

Tarek then writes about education in Tunisia, how it is free at all levels, and how he thinks that this is a luxury a developing country cannot afford. He thinks that tuition fees should be introduced in the Tunisian higher education system to help fund research, better pay lecturers, decrease country debts and teach students to depend on themselves and work harder.

Comments on the post are mixed between people who share the same idea and some who are against it.

Another controversal issue is unearthed as Mars writes about how he thinks Tunisia should normalize ties with Israel. He thinks Tunisians, as a people, don't have any hostility towards Israelis. He also says that it's the duty of the country to defend and provide services to all Tunisians whether in Tunisia or abroad and reminds that thousands of Tunisian jew emigrated to Israel and should be taken into consideration.
He thinks Tunisia should recognize Israel and open representative offices there, and continue to pressure Israel to move back to the 1967 borders.
He believes Tunisians shouldn't have to be put in a position to make a choice between Palestinians or Tunisio-Israelis (FR).

On a lighter and more artistic note, Tunizika, the Tunisian musical podcast, release their 15th episode with music from BeskAra, Good Morning Babylones, Mourad Sliti, SKR and Emir. They also have a poll up asking whether people think it's ok to have explicit lyrics in underground Tunisian music.

Swifty writes about a couple of Arabic IT projects to create an arabic programming language and a fully arabic operating system, that are being worked on by Al Khawarezmi (AR), an Arab IT community, and how he thinks this is a great idea.

Mochekes tells students that the whole thing about needing a university degree to get a job is more or less a lie, and that was is really needed is contacts, loving your job, knowing how to evolve, being a good communicator, doing what is necessary and being there (FR).

With the Germany 2006 World Cup approaching, more and more steam will be picking up on the WorldCupBlog, where Bassem, the Tunisian blogger covering the Tunisian squad, has published the list of players that will make up the Tunisian national team at the World Cup this summer, as announced by team coach Roger Lemerre.

Echoes from the Tunisian blogosphere

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Sun, 07 May 2006 16:56:09 +0000

Swobodin writes about how Project Gutenberg has over 10,000 books legally available for download in more than 50 languages, yet none of them are in Arabic. He goes on to talk about the inexistence of any Arabic books in an electronic format, and how Arab national libraries and cultural centers are not doing their job in promoting Arabic literature and culture.

MMM writes about the International Book Fair taking place in Tunisia and his dissapointment after visiting it. He sees the same religious books every year at most stands with different covers and colors, the same translated books about Yoga, Macrobiotics and self-help, the same old Arabic books by old Arabic writers, semi political books talking about age old issues or supposedly “hot”, yet unimportant, topics. Only a few interesting or important books are to be found among all the clutter. He goes on about how new Arabic books by new Arab writers are almost impossible to find. He then gets into statistics about Arab books and content in the world, and how there is basically no support for new writers in the Arab world (Arabic).

Heliodore writes about attending Paulo Coelho's press conference at the International Book Fair of Tunisia and publishes a couple of photos he took (French).
Adib writes about how he got to meet Paulo at the fair a few days later, how nice he was talking to people, and remembers how Coelho's book “The Alchemist” played an important role in his life (French).

Zizou, after reading a newspaper article about some parliamentary discussions about preserving the Tunisian culture and values, and a project to invest 3 million dinars into renewing Cinemas, he wonders how realistic their talks and plans are, and whether they're really tackling the real issues and finding the right solutions (French).

Swifty writes a great post about the scientific side of Islam and the different scientific facts that the Holy Koran already detailed over 1400 years ago. He published a selected list of some of these facts and the verses in the Koran that detail them (French).

Princess, on the occasion of the International Book Fair taking place these days, writes about the issue of how we almost don't have a reading culture in Tunisia. She talks about the people who act like they're intellectuals without having really read books, people who say they don't have time for books in between their “cool” everyday activities like going to clubs or coffee shops, and the students who barely read their school and university books (French).

Soufi gives a quick and short review of the European Cinema Days in Tunis, listing the unforgettable moments or details, as well as hiw favourite movies and scenes (French).

Zaratoustra writes about how the new French visa procedures require people to give their fingerprints and wonders when they'll be requiring DNA samples too, then jokes on about how 5 years down the line they might start requiring people to put an explosive bracelet around their necks that will blow up if their visa ends and they're still in France (French).

Echoes from the Tunisian Blogosphere

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Sun, 16 Apr 2006 19:16:44 +0000

The 12th Tunisian blogger meetup took place on Saturday, April 15th, marking a whole year of meetups. The record was broken for the number of bloggers present with around 35 bloggers showing up, and the number of new faces exceeding old ones. MMM, Marsawi (FR) and Bouzguelif (FR) write about it.

Tunizika, the Tunisian musical podcast, have released their 14th episode with a mixture of Jazz, Blues, Rock and Soul through music from Mamdouh Bahri, Issam Mahfoudhi, le Ptypont and Mawel.

Thysdrus writes about the Tunisian movie Bab El Arch (The door to the throne) by Tunisian director Mokhtar Laadjimi. The director describes the movie as the saga of a young tunisian journalist who is caught between “intellectual castration” and ” sexual castration” and his struggle against a stifling family and social context.

Swifty writes about how Canada is a new major destination for Tunisian emigrants, and gives an interesting list of pros and cons of the country from a Tunisian point of view.

MMM writes about the state of cinemas in Tunisia and how they're lacking in every aspect of the cinematic experience. He thinks that Tunisia lacks places where people can go for entertainment, and that new state of the art cinemas would be a great option for investors to venture into.

Troubadour (FR) writes about how her boss found her blog, where she occasionally writes about things that bug her at work, and how she almost got fired for it. She thinks about what she should do now, and whether she should continue blogging or not. She eventually decides to keep writing.

Felsfa (FR) talks about the famous El Mellassine neighbourhood in Tunis, and how it has changed from a jungle of bandits to a market where you can find almost everything at lower prices.
He talks about how the bandits from the different areas of Tunis respect each other's turf and describes the solidarity between the bandits of the Mellassine area, who are actually the sellers in these markets. He also tells a few funny stories and experience from the market.

Slaim thinks that Tunisia should build its own Formula One circuit. He thinks it would be a really good touristic investment to attract Formula One fans, especially that Tunisia is a very close destination from Europe.

Echoes from the Tunisian Blogosphere

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Sun, 02 Apr 2006 16:29:24 +0000

Mochekes (FR), MMM, Tom (FR), Kaaboura and Adib (FR) write about Dubai's TECOM winning the bid for a 35% stake of Tunisie Telecom, the monopoly fixed-line operator in Tunisia which is also estimated to control 72% of the country’s mobile market.

They hope this will bring about a change to the better inside the company and when it comes to the quality of its services.

Zizou (FR) writes about how a 1997 survey between 500 Tunisian women showed that 33,8% of them were victims of violence at home. He wonders if all women know what to do in cases like this and if everything possible is done to help them. He mentions a number of women organisations in Tunisia, and he states that the position the Tunisian woman is in today is the best in the Arab and Muslim world, but that the fight continues.

Nawarat (FR) talks about shopping in Tunisia and how bad it is, how you're limited to either having to buy mediocre quality clothes at cheap prices that everyone is wearing, or buying clothes you really like at madly expensive prices.

One of the writers at KEN (Khadra Environmental News) writes about how they will start using a Tunisian basket while shopping in Montreal to try to cut down on the use of all the plastic bags and packaging. They think that the Tunisian basket is definitely one of the most ecological means to carry groceries. Not only because it is made of natural products, it's also reusable, and it reflects a Tunisian know-how.
They invite all Tunisians living in Tunisia and abroad, as well as non-Tunisians, to get a basket for their shopping.

Karim provides a coverage of the 5 days of the Mediterranean Guitar Festival that was held in downtown Tunis last week. (Days: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

ImperatorKing asks about the necessity and pertinence of having blogger meetups. He wonders if certain groups are being created between the Tunisian bloggers because of the meetups. He also raises the issue of some people being afraid to let go of their privacy and anonymosity to take the step towards meeting these people they don't know in the real world.

Swobodin writes about the name of Africa, which comes from Ifriqia, the old name of Tunisia, which also means ‘The Seperator'. He states that even the Romans used to call Tunisia ‘Africa' and goes on to explain where the name came from.

MMM writes about blogs being a means of social networking and how many interesting people he got to meet both offline and online because of blogging.

Echoes from the Tunisian Blogosphere

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Sat, 11 Mar 2006 18:27:35 +0000

The 11th Tunisian blogger meetup was held last sunday in the Latina café/restaurant. Turnout was pretty good for this meetup with 18 people showing up. The next meetup should be held in the mountains of Zaghouan. Many of the present bloggers wrote about this meetup (Tom (FR), Marouen (FR), Karim (EN), MMM (EN), Staka (FR), Mochekes (FR), Foufa (FR)).

Tunisian music podcast Tunizika release a new Moroccan music style episode with music from artists: Ahmed Soultan, Darga, Casa Crew and Hoba Hoba.

There's been a lot of talk about Tunisiana's new mobile internet offering, starting from Marouen (EN) who announced it before the service was publicly launched, to Keitaro (FR) who's using it, to Mochekes (FR) who has been giving tips and advice about it.

Both Yamen and MMM picked up the news of the new political party that was born in Tunisia on Friday, March 3rd. The new formation, named “the Green Party for Progress,” (the PVP) is Tunisia’s ninth legal party.

Tom writes about how after usenet, personal homepages, forums, chatrooms, blogs and the blogosphere, something new is starting to take shape: a commentsphere, which consists of people who comment a lot on other people's blogs but don't have blogs of their own (FR).

Le Kerkenien and Swobodin both bring up the topic of racism and how tolerant the Tunisian people are towards Black Africans who come to work or study in Tunisia.

Tarek writes about this show that he saw on Tunisian TV once about this poor rural woman who made her living from the breeding of two sheep, and who was cleverly re-investing small amounts of money she was earning in the purchase of additional sheep, and how she was able to repair and embellish her small home thanks to this income.
He talks about how proud he was to see how she was living and surviving, and he believes that Sustainable Development starts with people like this, people who do not stagnate and wait for someone to give them a hand, people who work and believe in themselves and in a better future. (EN)
His post was also republished on the Tunisian El Khadra Environmental Blog in both English and French.

Rim calls for interested Tunisian Females to participate in the “Interfaith Youth Exchange for Environmental and Cross-Cultural Healing”, which is a joint project of the Cyprus Environmental Studies Centre and United Religions Initiative, being held in Cyprus from June 5th to 12th.

MMM writes about Pr. Habiba Bouhamed Chaabouni from Tunisia, who was awarded the L'Oréal-UNESCO Women in Science Award for her contribution to the analysis and prevention of hereditary disorders.

Blogging Presentation in Zaghouan, Tunisia

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 18:44:12 +0000

In the Tunisian monthly blogger meetups, one of the issues that always comes up is what we can do to spread blogging even more in Tunisia and get more people writing and sharing online.

One of the ideas that we came up with is by giving presentations about blogging in cultural, internet or youth centers. We also thought it was important that we give such presentations in places outside the capital city where most Tunisian bloggers are from.

Last wednesday (22/02/06), we were able to take the first step in that direction, by holding a presentation about blogging in Zaghouan, a city that lies 55Km outside Tunis.

The presentation was held in the ISET institute in Zaghouan, in the presentation/activity room of one of the dormitories.
Around 50 students showed up, mostly girls, for the presentation, in which we tried to explain the basics of blogging, a bit of it's history, how to go on about it, …etc.
We also gave a little overview of the Tunisian blogosphere and the community of Tunisian bloggers.

We were four bloggers (Tom, Karim, Marouen and myself) and one non-blogger Moez, who is a friend of Karim's.

The themes we covered were:

- Introduction, definition and history of blogging: By MMM.
- Blogging approaches and objectives: By Tom.
- Blogospheres and the Tunisian blogosphere: By Marouen.
- Simulation of how to create a blog: By Karim.

Moez kicked in after the presentation with his non-blogger views about blogging and his understanding of it all.
After that we held a little Q&A session in which we answered some questions by the students .

Some of the questions we got were about the credibility and trustworthiness of blogs and bloggers, the difference between blogging and other online publishing and if there were any funny situations that happened with us bloggers.

Some privacy concerns were raised too, especially when it came to the idea of publishing their personal photos online, which we explained wasn't necessary and even unadvisable.

Our goal from the presentation was to introduce blogging to the students and get them interested in exploring it further, maybe even trying to get online and start a blog of their own.
We tried to break it down into simple, interesting ideas and to give them pointers at all the possibilities they could use a blog for.
Overall we think that we were successful in doing that and that we got the message across. A few eyes sparkled and we felt some interest stirring in some of the crowd.

After the presentation, I had the chance to talk further to some of the students and some of them were already thinking of ways to use blogs to help in their studies and projects, which I think is great.

I would personally like to thank everyone who helped make the presentation a reality, as well as the students who showed up and listened to us, and of course my fellow bloggers who believed in the importance of this presentation and came. Last but not least, a big thanks to Moez who was so generous to drive us to Zaghouan and back and added a valuable non-blogger insight to the presentation.

Hopefully we'll get to do this again soon in other places around Tunisia.

Echoes from the Tunisian blogosphere

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 22:29:10 +0000

Karim and Marwen write about their wishes for the Tunisian blogosphere in the year 2006, after a big and healthy year 2005 for blogs in Tunisia.
Adib gives his thoughts on the Tunisian blogosphere in the past year 2005.

Hannibal publishes some pictures he took at an art exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, NY : Tree of Paradise: Jewish Mosaics from the Roman Empire, which displays a number of mosaics from Tunisia.

Tunizika have released episode 8 of their Tunisian musical podcast featuring music from Sofyann Ben youssef, Ghalia Ben Ali & Temnaa, Kerkenah and Amel Mathlouthi.

Marwen thinks that biodiesel could be a very good alternative fuel option in Tunisia, as the prices for petroleum based fuel continue to rise.

Tunisian Globetrotter reports that a new TV channel called “Sport 7″, that will broadcast all the soccer matches from the Tunisian championship, could see the light of day soon. Talks are still going on between Tunisian officials and ART about the details (in French).

Zizou writes about the relations between Tunisia and Italy, and how a bond was created between the two countries when the Italian RAI1 channel became available to all Tunisians back in 1967. He sees the countries moving away from each other over the past few years, and he thinks that the opposite should be the case, especially with Italy being in need of foreign labor and Tunisians being in a good position to fill those gaps. (in French)

OthRez writes an interesting piece about relocation / offshoring in general and also takes Tunisia's example where many textile and ITC businesses from Europe are setting up production centers, discussing the pros and cons of it all (in French).

Ex-Blonde writes about her experience with Tunisian cinemas; the small and old selection of movies, the badly reputated cinemas, the empty theatres, the low quality picture and sound, …etc. She finds watching pirated DivX movies at home in front of her PC a much better experience (in French).

Echoes from the Tunisian blogosphere

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 06:44:03 +0000

The results for the Tunisian Blog Awards were announced, here in French and here in English.

Tarek writes about “Tree of Paradise”, an exhibition of mosaics at the Brooklyn Museum in New York, in which some mosaics from a synagogue in Hammam Lif, Tunisia, are showcased.
He gives an interesting insight into the background of these mosaics and explains their importance.

Zizou is happy to see that shopping malls in Tunisia are playing a role in creating a little book reading revolution by making books more available and accessible to people, and putting an end to a time when only a few people would have to go to dusty bookstores, with unfriendly librarians, to search for books. Now no one hesitates to grab a book or two while they're doing their shopping. (in French)

MMM writes about how he thinks that what we need is not a new and modernized Islam, but a new and modernized understanding of Islam.

Tunisian Globetrotter announces the launch of an online radio station by the supporters of the Tunisian soccer team, Club Africain. The radio will be covering the club's news, events and matches. (in French)

Sup'Comian boy has noticed that news and information about the Internet and Telecom world is somehow a common interest in the Tunisian blogosphere and suggests the creation of a group blog covering these issues in Tunisia. (in French)

Tarek is sick and tired of salespeople who are trained to intimidate customers and make them disburse the most. He talks about his experience buying a laptop recently, and how the salesperson kept trying to convince him to buy more accessories and a 3 year warranty.

Nawarat is writing an article about female Tunisian bloggers for a Tunisian female magazine, and she is inviting female Tunisian bloggers to help her with the article by answering some questions or suggesting some ideas. (in French)

Jrayda writes about the differences in dialect between the people from the capital, Tunis, and the people from the south of Tunisia, as well as the funny situations that occur because of those differences. (in French)

Echoes from the Tunisian blogosphere

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Sat, 24 Dec 2005 05:54:44 +0000

The 9th Tunisian Blogger Meetup will be taking place on Sunday, December 25th at Café 112 in downtown Tunis, at the end of Palestine Avenue. The results of the Tunisian Blog Awards will be announced in the meetup.

Building upon Mochekes‘ post about the situation of Tunisian IT engineers and programmers (in French), Slaim suggests the building of a website which will be kind of an IT company stock market where all Tunisian engineers can assess the companies they're working or worked for, and exchange invaluable information for better personal development and career management in Tunisia. He thinks it could become the perfect dashboard where companies and bosses are evaluated each day each hour constraining them and pushing them to do/behave better and give more.

Zizou covers the assassination of Gebran Toueni from Beirut, posting about the assassination, the feelings and reaction to it in the Lebanese street and the huge funeral (in French).

Tom writes about the work environment and how it is a micro system of its own in which a number of different people, who were put together without their choosing, co-exist and interact, building different types of relationships here and there, and all working for their own goals and in their own directions. (in French)

Nothing just illusion writes about how famous Lebanese singer Marcel Khalifa is now banned in Tunisia because of a dedication he made in a concert he held in Tunisia to all the Arab prisoners in Israeli prisons and in Arab prisons (in French).

Sup'Comian boy thinks that ADSL prices in Tunisia are too high. He compares the prices in Tunisia, where a miserable 128K connection goes for 50 Tunisian dinars to the prices in Europe, where the average personal income is double that in Tunisia. Tunisie Telecom makes huge benefits every year, he thinks they could reduce internet communication costs and make it more accessible (in French).

Sami criticizes the Tunisian blog aggregator for not including blogs of Tunisian cyber-dissidents, which is not entirely true nor entirely false, and thinks that the Tunisian bloggers in the aggregator now discuss every issue in the world but the important issues for Tunisia, and that all they do is reflect this perfected touristic vision of Tunisia (in French).

Mochekes writes about how Tunisiana, the first private mobile phone operator in Tunisia, will be launching a 300 kb/s internet service in February, building on the EDGE platform which is 2.75G technology. (in French).

Tarek tries to answer the longstanding controversy: what exact discipline does Astrology fall under? With it definitely not being a Science, nor a branch of Humanities, he uses the definition of Business in an online etymology dictionary to conclude that Astrology can rightly fall under the business category.

Zied wishes Tunisia was more like Singapore. He wishes we could build a technology and worldwide services based economy, that one of Tunisia’s University could make the Top 20 of the world’s best universities and that Tunisian bloggers could become a dominant force in the global blogosphere.

Chouchitou talks about all the pamphlets and offers we receive in our mailboxes and how they never offer anything new or of value, just the same stuff everywhere. The special offers aren’t special at all and the marketing stops halfway (in French).

Echoes from the Tunisian Blogosphere

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 18:35:27 +0000

The first Tunisian blog awards Tunisie Blog Awards 2005 have been launched to promote the Tunisian blogosphere even more, encourage bloggers to work more on their blogs and give credit to the bloggers who are doing a great job.
The process will be going through 3 phases:
Phase 1: Blog submissions for each category (12 - 18 December)
Phase 2: Jury votes for top 5 submitted blogs in each category (19 - 25 December)
Results: Results are announced (26 December)

Tunizika release the seventh episode of their musical podcast, with a mixture of Tunisian Jazz, Electro and HipHop.

Tarek thinks that Tunisian youth have truly messed up our language with imported and disfigured words. He's worried that we are slowly losing our cultural heritage.

Sailor writes about the professors at INSAT (National institute for applied sciences and technology) and how, to him, the issue of them being good or not is being overshadowed by how unjust some of them are with the students, favoring some over others for different reasons like gender, belonging to the same town, …etc. (in French)

Mochekes complains about the situation of IT engineers and programmers in Tunisia, how the salaries are unfair and unrelative to the amount of work being done, how they are somehow treated like low-level workers or even slaves, how the companies aren't well developed yet…etc. (in French)

An article about homosexuality in Tunisia (in French), and how it is viewed by the society and the law, was published in Tunisian magazine Réalités and was picked up by a number of bloggers like Houssein (in French), Hannibal and K-pax (in French), who think that it was a daring and courageous effort to bring up the issue.

Iskander writes about a discussion he had with some older people from his father's and grandfather's generations, who talked about life in Tunisia before independance and how they were somehow nostalgic and thought that it was a better time socially and that there was a greater racial mixture. (in French)
Tarek disagrees and replies that Tunisians were always an open and tolerant people, and that it wasn't a few years of colonization that taught us that. He also thinks that the racial mixture just changed and evolved because of factors like tourism and travel. (in French)

Adib does some research about a weird story that was published in a Tunisian paper about a 2 ton, 8 meter long anaconda that was found on the Tunisian-Libyan borders in November, and finds that it's a hoax, and that the pictures are those of a python that was caught in South Africa sometime ago. He criticizes the writer of the article for publishing such a false story.

The Soccer World Cup draw has put Tunisia in Group H with Spain, Ukraine and Saudi Arabia. Chouchitou thinks that Tunisia has a chance of making it to the second round for the first time in its history. (in French)

Echoes from the Tunisian blogosphere

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Fri, 25 Nov 2005 18:21:16 +0000

The 8th Tunisian blogger meetup was held last Friday with international guests Rebecca MacKinnon, Jeff Ooi, Mite Nishio and Isam Bayazidi. A lot of blogs followed here, here, here, here and here.

Adib, Chouchitou and Metal Mad write (in French) about the death of famous and passionate Tunisian photographer Bechir El Manoubi who attended and photographed all the big sporting events Tunisia participated in. He also met and took photos of the biggest Tunisian stars. He is famous for his sombrero, that he got from Mexico while he was with the Tunisian soccer team in the 1978 World Cup, and all the flags and badges he wears.

Bechir El Manoubi

Iskander writes about how his several travels to Spain make him wonder how the Muslim civilization, that shined during the days of Al Andalus, has now gone so low. He talks about the modernization of Islam and how we should learn from those times by spreading tolerance and openness (in French).

Zizou writes about the Tunis Marathon that will be taking place this Sunday and suggests we have a Tunisian blogger team running. He thinks it'd be a good change from the cool cafés we usually meet in (in French).

Mochekes is excited about the new MMS service by Tunisiana and the 50 free MMS messages they offer, which he thinks it's a great marketing move by the company. He also favorably compares it with Tunisie Telecom's offering (in French).

Houssein updated the Tunisie Blogs aggregator with a new design and added random photos of Tunisia from flickr, events from upcoming.org, as well as some news and activites in Tunisia.

Aziz talks about the Tunisian rumor creating talent and how it worked at the WSIS with a bunch of rumors surrounding the $100 laptop and that they were selling some at the ICT4ALL expo (in French).

Sup'Comian boy thinks that the Tunisian blogs still don't truly reflect the Tunisian society, belonging to people who are different from most of the masses, and somehow idealistic (in French).

Tom gives a full account about meeting and having dinner with Richard Stallman, the father of open source, at Dar Bach Hamba in Tunis, and how great an experience it was for him.

MMM puts up some photos that he took from the ICT4ALL Expo at the World Summit on the Information Society.

Echoes from the Tunisian blogosphere

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Sun, 30 Oct 2005 10:56:02 +0000

Adib talks about bird flu, giving a complete explanation of the virus and it's dangers, as well as how much risk there is that it could reach Tunisia through bird migration, the places that would be affected, and what measures should be taken. (in French)
He also writes about “Operation Monique”, that is being held by his clinic in cooperation with Mme Moniaue Busain, to develop and preserve the ass species in the Kelibia region. (in French)

MMM writes about how he thinks we should listen more to our children and try to think more like them. He's convinced the world would be a better and more beautiful place to live in if we do.

Karim writes about life in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and how he thinks of fasting as some sort of body control, where you master your body by rejecting all the external elements of your body making your soul more powerful, purifying it and rediscovering the real you.

Jrayda writes about the veil and how the campaign against it is one of the worst contradictions in our liberal world that recognizes human rights. He wonders where the freedom of religious practice and the freedom to choose what to wear is, and why only Muslims aren't allowed to wear the veil, and other types of clothes, or grow a beard. (in French)

Mondher talks about how amazed he is that however cynical we are, the sheer power of our will and creativity can move mountains, referring to Rosa Parks. He thinks the Arab world needs a few clones of her.

Dasdous writes about what she calls the pre-maternal syndrome (P-MS) that women of ages 25 and above go through when they start thinking about marriage.

Dj BouZz, who is the presenter of a radio show called Arabesque on Canadian radio CHYZ FM 94.3 and one of the people behind TuniZika, posts a sound file of a part of one of the shows called “Cordes Sensibles” (Sensible cords), that deals with fusion with Arabic music.

Chouchitou writes about the preparations for the Eid, when it comes to shopping for new clothes, and notices that prices are higher, quality is worse and choice is limited, but people are still buying everything. (in French)

Manichéen writes about the symbolical meanings behind the numbers from 0 to 7, explaining the mythology behind the number 7 and why it figures in so many areas. (in French)

Houssein writes about the Festival of the Arab World in Montreal, Canada. He wonders what the mix between Liu Fang, a Quebecan artist of Chinese origin, and Tunisian Yousra Dhahbi, called the Sultane of Oud, will result in. (in French)

Sami writes and links to an article about the new Rades - La Goulette bridge and how he thinks it will help lighten the traffic as well as change the landscape in the region. (in French)

MetalMad asks how people who don't know him imagine him through reading his blog, and how his image has changed for the people who know him since they started reading his blog. (in French)

Echoes from the Tunisian blogosphere

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Sun, 23 Oct 2005 22:02:08 +0000

The 7th Tunisian blogger meetup was held last Saturday. We met for a Ramadan dinner, then spent the evening together. We talked about everything; Ramadan, religion, blogging, new blogs, WiFi, the internet, personal stuff, …etc. As usual it was a lot of fun. The next Tunisian blogger meetup will be on November 18th.

Adib, the Tunisian veterenarian blogger, was a guest on the Tunisian radio to talk about the races of hunting dogs and especially the “Sloughi”, a race only available in Tunisia and the Maghreb region. (in French)

Drako writes about his decision to start discovering his country, Tunisia, and how he drove to Thuburbo Majus, a Punic-Roman city 60Km south of the capital Tunis.
He writes about it, it's history and the guide that claims he is the last Roman in Tunisia. He also took some really nice photos. (in French)

On the occasion of the World Day for the elimination of poverty, Zizou writes about how proud he is of the social development that has taken place in Tunisia over the past years, how poverty has been greatly reduced, and how rural areas have been developed.
He thinks this should be maintained by extending the 2626 National Solidarity Fund and transforming it into a National Human Development initiative. (in French)

Chikipi writes about attending a UNESCO ALECSO club media event at the Mederssa Chaabaniya, near el Hafsiya in downtown Tunis, that revolves around the topic of Multimedia and Youth. There was a presentation of the club's activities, work and future objectives. (in French)

Nejla has added a new section in her new women portal Nawarat called “They Blog”, in which she will be posting extracts from Tunisian blogs by female bloggers and linking back to them. (in French)

Karim writes about attending the World cup qualifier between Tunisia and Morocco and gives us a review from the stadium with a photo gallery of the event.

Houssein talks about how annoyed he gets by blog entries that end by the blogger asking “What do you think?”. He doesn't like the impression that he “must” answer and sees it more as an invitation to close the window and stop reading. (in French)

Chouchitou writes about the changes in the website of Tunisian daily newspaper “La Presse”, with more colours, more sections, new presentation and better archiving. (in French)

Echoes from the Tunisian blogosphere

Mohamed Marwen Meddah — Fri, 14 Oct 2005 19:34:14 +0000

The beginning of this week marked a big buzz in the Tunisian blogosphere about Tunisia's national soccer team qualifying to the World Cup next year after a 2-2 draw with Morocco.

Marouen writes about the ReachOut initiative that the British Council has launched. This initiative encourages and enables open discussion between young people from Arab countries and the United Kingdom about issues raised by the United Nation's World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
A number of the contributors will be selected to continue discussions face-to-face in Tunis and video conference with a group from the UK at Café Informatique International as part of the WSIS.

Zizou from Djerba wonders why Tunisia doesn't join the European Union (in French). He thinks we have many things in common with the new countries joining the EU; geographically, demographically, historically, economically and linguistically.

Sami writes (in French) about how he doesn't fast in Ramadan, and wonders why people don't respect his choice just like he respects theirs by not eating in public. He talks about how Ramadan is more of a tradition now than a religious practice, and the proof is that people don't pray and only fast, even though praying is more important than fasting.
In another post he wonders (in French) what would happen if people link between him and his online persona and how it would affect his life and his relationship with the people he knows.

K-Pax writes about his first impressions and how he's getting his life together in Montreal, Canada, after his immigration there. (in French)

Nostradamus is happy to find a website about Ramadan in Tunisia, featuring recipes, prayer times, tv programs and everything a Tunisian needs in Ramadan (inFrench).

TuniZika, the Tunisian musical podcast, release their third episode with music from El Tunisiano, Khaled Nemlaghi, Neshez and Watykan.

Keitaro writes about the great concert by US group “The three ladies of blues” that he attended at the municipal theatre of Tunis (in French).