Tunisian blogger dinner

On Friday night, before catching an early flight out of Tunis, I had the great pleasure of joining the 8th Tunisian Bloggers Meetup, along with fellow WSIS participants Jeff Ooi of Malaysia and Isam Bayazidi of Jordan. After the craziness of the past several days, it was really nice to leave the conference behind, just talk about blogging, and enjoy each others' company. Presiding over the event were the blogger couple, Global Voices contributor Mohamed Marwen Medda (MMM) aka "Subzero Blue" and his brilliant and beautiful wife who goes by the nom-de-blog "Aquacool." Many of Tunisia’s bloggers write in French and Arabic, not English, but many of them speak rather decent English (their third language) and we had some fascinating conversations.

We talked a lot about the explosion of blogging in the Arab world, and how it may be time for an "Arab Voices" to help connect conversations going on in various nations' blogospheres. Isam pointed out that bloggers in one country have a hard time knowing who the good bloggers are in neighboring countries, and it's time to create a platform for a pan-Arab blogging community. Sounds like a great idea to me.

Having Jeff Ooi there was a real treat. Everybody at the table sat rapt in fascination and suspense as Jeff told the story of his threatened arrest last year after somebody posted an anonymous, derogatory comment against Islam on his blog. In the Arab world, bloggers naturally share a lot of similar concerns. The conversation was intense as people exchanged experiences and views on how one balances the desire to speak freely with political and religious pressures of various kinds. 

The evening really whetted my appetite for our upcoming Global Voices Summit, in London on December 10th.

Comments

[MMM]

It was an honour and a pleasure to meet you and have you with us in our meetup.

We all really enjoyed your company and had a great time talking to you.

Looking forward to meeting you again soon :)

[adib]

it was a plaisure meet you in tunisia!
i love your blog!

i agrée with subzero; i hope meeting you soon

[Marouen]

I'm really sorry for missing that meetup. I was really busy with all my Youth Caucus friends and guests.

PS: Rebecca, a lot of tunisians are blogging in english too.

[republicforever]

Salam!I dont know what we tunisians could be blogging about!!So Iam glad 2 share thoughts,and facts with you guys here in this tunisian blog
As tunisian first I like talking about tunisia,THE HOMELAND!!
tunisia is country dominated by 3 majors paties,and governed by only one, which was a proxy of an old party,so it was a clear that the country has 3 different approch and thinking about issues and not the core belief of each party.Now you see the swamp.but is contained!!!The liberal elite party in the country fail miserably in bringing solutions 2 PEOPLE,bc the weakness of their fudamentals,they just follow and not lead.The Sd party is talking what's left idealogically,and they are a small number!!Then The 3 third one is The rest. I personally included!
Idont really believe that being liberal is a good thing 2 be labeling ur opponent!!!being liberal is being riding a lost racehorse.

[Arabic Entertainment News]

I really missed my opportunity to be there at the time of meeting.But now from next time I really want to show my presence there.