The Purple Corner

and here i am again being cynical since there is no good or bad blogging, since there is blogging "tout court".a little less than a year ago, the most annoying thing on blogosphere was named simp but today you even have hard core bloggers, such as Ikalamako-the-hard-core-blogger, facebooking :

" …je vais finir mes gaga de blogs, moins de blaogy trop polifiqué…"/ "I'm done with my gaga blog, less blaogy, too much politicized"

YES.

 

the landscape has changed and even if I still don't get "who is fighting who and claiming what in which town of Madagascar" : my best advise would be to you to check some Foko blogs to see for yourself that the political message is not the same weither you are in the North, South, East, South-Center or Center of the country.Or maybe get lost in translation by reading the gazillions new blaogy that were opened in less than 3 months. The fact that those gazillions of blaogy were mostly publishing FROM Madagascar  is a great great news for freedom of expression in our country. I remember those days when we went through a very well-organized, professional and impartial (:D) contest to elect the best blogs and discover that 3 out of 4 reside in Madagascar (Vazagasy was in Diego-Suarez, Pierre Maury blogs about Culture and Jentilisa is still the best in Teny Gasy) . Knowing how difficult it can be to find good connexion and put blogging as one of your prioritary online leisures, ahum, activities (even though we've noticed that forums and social networks are still very popular), the sudden growth of partisan blogging is a good sign for citizen media in general. Frustrated by a vast campaign of local media manipulation and international media desinformation, many have chosen blogging as a tool to express their thoughts and intensify the debates. Of course most are adressing to a Malagasy speaking only audience and get dizains of reactions mostly from the diaspora. But the progress are noticeable. With more videos and pictures loaded minutes after the events, citizen media has become a steady source of income for some websites and media or more and more reliable sources of informations for others (I wished rue89 relayed on more Madagascar based bloggers…).

BUT. and this is something we've been discussing for a while, between us, wise (sometimes lunatics), bloggers. There are many concerns about citizen media in a country were censorship and media manipulation have been used as a weapon to control freedom of expression. Still, the majority of bloggers are using anonymity for protection but even cyber-bullying cannot easily be avoided so what if they start to persecute and arrest internauts? We talked about different online tools developed by Global Voices Advocacy and of course the importance of safety!

Anonymous Blogging with Wordpress and Tor

The latest news on Mal(agasy) Twittosphere are about the military forcing people to erase their pictures of images of March 28th protests are not good news for citizen media. Journalists were already the targets of multiple attacks, a courageous cameran, Ando, lost his life on February 7th, feet away from where our friends bloggers were taking pictures of the events this bloody day. Of course reporters take risks for duty and for freedom of information and for democracy and even have that precious press card.

From Gazety_Avylavitra :

nisy iray tamin’ireo miaramila avy tao amin’ny RM1 izay nivoaka teo amin’ny arabe no tonga dia nanondro basy AHY no sady niteny hoe: Miala any ny mpanaogazety, Tsy mila mpanao gazety eto. Miala sao tifiriko eo an.

One of the soldiers from RM1 (a downtown military camp, in front of 13 May square) pointed his weapon at me ordering: Go away , journalist, we don't need journalists here. Go away or I'll shoot you.

Bloggers need to be aware of this tiny important difference (I am sure Mialy and Randy can list thousands). and you, Readers! you have to show your support and, maybe, some kind of gratitude for those who work so hard (Jelona in Fianarantsoa pictures) in delivering the different colors of reality to you when you are in the comfortness of your home (or when in Mada, wondering which radio station to listen to).

Citizen media is the best way for them to prove to the world that Malagasy people living in Madagascar have their say and want to take actions in shaping the best future possible. When you are there busy "socializing":  back in December Dadandry was translating sections of the Malagasy Constitution (yep the texts none of us have read, we've all voted for and now are all complaining about) putting in light some worrying informations; Avylavitra and Jentilisa were fueling much needed citizen debates; Lova brought Thierrys insomniac radio  twitter reporting to another dimension; Radotiana, Barijaona, Tahina and Lalatiana took pictures at Ambohijatovo and at Antaninarenina ; Mialy repeated in so many medium (her editorials are my favourite) how much we ALL need to get involved in building a real democracy:

Si le projet m’intéresse, c’est aussi parce qu’il me paraît utile pour les années à venir, pour la tâche immense qui nous attend tous. et parce qu'à un moment, il faut véritablement accepter de dépasser les positions partisanes, pro-ci ou pro-ça. Dans un pays où la démocratie est aussi ridiculement galvaudée, je pense qu’il est bon d’appliquer pour une fois une gestion véritablement concertée, où la diversité des idées comme les idées elles-mêmes auront une force. Plus tard, dans les mois à venir comme dans le long terme, cette expérience nous servira de base pour une vraie refondation de notre démocratie, ses principes, les valeurs républicaines que Madagascar veut faire siennes.

so what will you do next? what about learning some Twittering for a start? and foko around after?

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