Archive for
June 12th, 2007
Stories
Touring Libyan Blogs: Is the Arabic Language Dead?
Usually Libyan bloggers talk about varied and different topics - whether they are mundane or not. A recent supposedly anodyne post by Lebeeya in in which she was describing how her colleagues loved her chocolate cookies and congratulated her by touching wood to ward off the ‘evil eye' sparked a debate about the so called ‘death' of the Arabic language.
It all started when Lebeeya said: ” SAY ” Mashallah” people…. STOP saying “TOUCH WOOD”, say mashallah.” (The Arabic phrase ma sha`a allah indicates acceptance of what God has ordained in terms of good or ill fortune that may befall a believer). This prompted blogger Suliman to comment that :
“I think your coworker used “Knock on wood” instead of “Mashallah” because of the prevalence of American pop culture throughout the world, including Islamic countries like Oman, Saudi Arabia, Libya, etc. My observation is that young people like yourself do not find what they need in the dead tongues of Arabic, Berber or Swahili. Those languages are rooted in cultures that do not promote individuality and self expression, and as a result, it is not uncommon that young bloggers, even in Arabic countries, freely express themselves in English. It works better for them, as it does here for you.”
Mani took the initiative to further elaborate on his own blog and defend the “life” of Arabic and other languages.
“Free choice is all about the freedom of the individual to choose.. by being free, we mean that the person uses their own head to think, observe, reason their way through life and choose a course of action accordingly..”
Here again the comment section became pretty lively.
The ball rolled and was picked up on Ghazi's blog Imtidad .
“Recently I've been preparing a study on Libyan Blogs on the Internet. Until now I managed to count 76 blogs written by either Libyans in or outside Libya, or expatriates living in Libya and writing about it, and one of the main results is that the majority of blogs use English only or in conjunction with Arabic or Libyan dialect as the main language to write in their blogs. 55 blogs write in English only, 11 blogs use both English and Arabic, and only 10 blogs use Arabic only.
My question to bloggers is:
From your opinion why are you using English or Arabic Language only?
And why the majority of Libyan blogs use English Language?”
The debate at times became very heated and bitter by detractors who were out to prove that Arabic is the language of terrorism and others who assert the validity of this language as that of the Quran. If you have the courage I recommend you wade through all the comments as it makes for an interesting read guaranteed to make you think more deeply about your language.
What is the conclusion then? Has globalization succeeded in killing Arabic? Is it the language of terrorism as opposed to English being synonymous with freedom?
GV's Advocacy Director at AI-Observer-Irrepressible.info's June 6 meeting
On June 6, 2007, Global Voices' Advocacy Director Sami Ben Gharbia appeared at an event in London marking the one-year anniversary of the Amnesty International-Observer-Irrepressible.info campaign. The video above is of Sami's address. Global Voices' co-founder Ethan Zuckerman also participated remotely — a video and transcript of Ethan's contribution are available at this page.The webcast of the full proceedings is archived here, and Kevin Anderson offers an overview of the event at the Corante weblog.
Links for Tue, 2007-06
“I can't stand girls with low self esteem.
I can't stand shallow people who need to constantly be complimented.
I can't stand people who play with others' feelings to make themselves feel better.
I can't stand weak people.
I can't stand LIARS!!!
I can't stand fakes.
I can't stand people who think they are fooling everyone.
I can't stand people who can't stand up for themselves.
I can't stand people who think they own the world,” rants Dotsson from Saudi Arabia.
“The Hamas-Fatah deathfest continues in Gaza and elsewhere, with 17 people being killed since Monday morning. Today's tally so far: 3 dead, 14 wounded. Things are happening at a bloodcurdling pace, and it is very hard sometimes to keep track of all the terrorist vs terrorist goings on. Thus as a special service for Israellycool readers, I have summarized today's events in an easy-to-follow manner. No thanks needed, I'm a giver,” writes Aussie Dave from Israel.
“I thank my friends who expressed concern about my fate. Well, my life and that of my family is in a state of great upheaval and flux at the moment. I have at last succumbed to a life long temptation that I have resisted for many, many years. At last I had to give in, mainly for the sake of my children and their future. I leave more than just property and belongings in Baghdad. I leave memories, not all bad, and above all I leave with a bitter feeling for a great opportunity missed, that could have worked. However, I am by no means despondent of all possibility of change for the better. It is just that I and my family need some respite,” writes Iraqi blogger Ala, who is immigrating to Canada.
“22% of the Egyptian People are infected with Hepatitis C Virus or virus “C” as it is common between us in Egypt according to the WHO.
Egypt is the 3rd country in the world to have the highest rate of cancer between Children and it will achieve a higher position soon insh Allah for the adults soon.
One third of the Egyptian population is suffering from depression with its different kinds and degrees and most of them don’t know they got depression.
Is it me or Egypt is in danger as its people are in a great danger of extinction,” writes Zeinobia from Egypt.
“Tomorrow is 83 (almost 84) year old Shimon Peres's great day. He may finally win an election. That is if party discipline holds strong in the democratic secret ballot for Israel's President. Now, “party discipline holds strong in the democratic secret ballot.” Wow! That's an oxymoron in the lexicon of political science,” writes Batya from Israel.
Libyan blogger Khadija Teri attended a wedding and gives us a sneak preview of what was on offer here. “I survived the wedding.. it was actually kind of nice because my friend asked that the music not be so loud and for the most part you could actually have a conversation. One of my most favourite ex-students was there and I enjoyed catching up on her life. Also saw lots of friends that I haven't seen in ages. The food was wonderful and way too much to ever finish no matter how hard anyone tried - and of course the aroosa (bride) was beautiful, masha'allah!” she notes.
Sad About Gonu is a new blog in town - which aims to aggregate information about the deadly tropical cyclone Gonu, which hit the shores of Oman.
“It is very unfortunate that large international media organisations such as CNN and the BBC (!) have failed to provide the public with decent coverage of such a catastrophic event, except for detailed analysis on how their oil supplies might be affected. It appears that their priorities are to serve the idiotic masses who are more interested in knowing what happens to a false celebrity and her imminent charges for drunk driving,” writes the anonymous blogger.
Ola Eleiwat, from Jordan, is enraged at the extend of child abuse.
“As adults, sometimes we forget what it feels like to be a kid. Worse yet, somewhere in the back of our minds, we think that we have the right to take it out on them whenever we feel like it. Be it anger, frustration, worry, you name it. Sometimes we even recruit them in our battles against other adults. They become a scapegoat for something they have nothing, absolutely nothing to do with. Why? Because we can, and they have to be “good” kids and obey,” she writes.
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