Reunion: Actively Blogging

Alongside the Democratic Republic of Congo, Reunion a French Overseas Department located in the Indian Ocean to the East of Africa has one of the most active blogospheres in the francophone world. Its portal Reunion Permanente either explains the bustling activity or illustrates it. The portal even keeps track of overseas Reunion bloggers such as Sandy of Reunion-USA2 who lives in the United States; her blog seeks to explain her reactions to American culture. One particularly prolific island-based netizen, Pierrot Dupuy, keeps a blog updated several times a day that focuses on the island's and nearby independent Mauritius’ current affairs. Another blogger, Jean-Paul, summarizes the island's main news on his blog Dijoux.re every sunday.

Recent preoccupations in the country's news and blogs have included a local Chikungunya fever epidemic and its effects on local tourism, frequent mostly scenic lava flows of the local volcano of which France-based blogger Audrey from Reunion Passion consistently shows pictures. A recent alleged corruption scandal involving local official Samia Badat was also widely blogged by Zarabes, the blog of the local Indian moslem community. (Ironically, as the blog's header explains, the creole word Zarabes which is used on the island to designate the mostly moslem Indian population actually derives from the French word for Arab.) And it should come as no surprise that the sometimes tension-filled relationship to France, including a successful fight against housing discrimination practices perpetrated in mainland France against overseas French citizens from Reunion, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyane and other French overseas departments and territories, constitutes a recurring theme.

Among the week's highlights, Jean-Paul at Dijoux.Re, offered (Fr) the latest on the local volcano, namely that it is still erupting but that local authorities have been preventing locals from admiring its spectacle in the last couple of years. On the Chikungunya front, the blogger explained (Fr) that two biologists have linked an anti-rubeola vaccine to a possible cure. Meanwhile, on a lighter note, US-Based Sandy at Reunion-USA2 explained (Fr) the significance in America of the interracial romance movie Something New.

(Pictured Above: 2004 Volcano Eruption, Reunion, by Hugo aka Hughes Leglise.)

Global Voices La Reunion Page.
Global Voices La Reunion RSS feed.
Global Voices La Reunion JSS feed.

6 comments

  • Hi,
    it’s a real pleasure to see that news from my island Réunion are related by an american web site. Moreover these news from Reunion island are critical often and do not please everybody here in the island.

    These kinds of blogs help you to denounciate what you feel as injustice, that is my situation, on my blog (htpp://ilereunionambition.over-blog.com) from Réunion Island I talk about my lay-off from french Education Nationale and blogs like pierrotdupuy.com or Zarabes help me to talk about it a bit wider.

  • Hi William,

    Thanks for your comment. It is good to know that you and others are reading from La Reunion and find the coverage helpful. I will add your blog to my coverage list. See you on the blogosphere.

  • Hello,
    Interseting point of view on the reunionese blogs. Please have a look on our two independants webmagazines : http://www.lepiratedelareunion.net and http://www.webzinemaker.com/laurelen/

    We’ll be glad to have your comments on these.
    Regards,
    Laurelen

    Le Pirate de la Reunion

  • […] Likewise, the portal of La Reunion’s blogosphere, Reunion Permanente noticed a recent Global Voices story on the country’s bloggers: Mais l’évènement de cette année c’est bien évidemment les 15 min de gloire de la blogosphère réunionnaise sur le site de journalisme participatif américain globalvoices : A ne pas rater. The event of the year is obviously the 15 minutes of fame of Reunion’s blogosphere on the American participative journalism site GlobalVoices: not to be missed. Alice Backer […]

  • […] 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 obsession: 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. Alice Backer […]

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