The community bade farewell to the outgoing Director of Outreach, David Sasaki and welcomed the new Director Eduardo Ávila.

This year Rising Voices, in collaboration with the Heinrich Böll Foundation, awarded microgrant funding of up to €2500 to three Egyptian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to train citizen media to underrepresented groups in Egypt so that they can voice their opinions.

Now let us look at some of the notable news of the grantees community we featured in the Rising Voices website in 2010.

Featured Bloggers:

Throughout the year we interviewed bloggers from different Rising Voices projects and here is a list of those features.

Shinetsetseg (Shinee) Sukhbaatar

• Shinetsetseg (Shinee) Sukhbaatar from Nomad Green Project in Mongolia
• Olzod Boum-Yalagch from Nomad Green Project in Mongolia
• Saki Golafale from Ceasefire Liberia project in Liberia
• Nat Nyuan-Bayjay from Ceasefire Liberia project in Liberia
• Nora Catalina Urquijo from HiperBarrio project in Colombia
• Yesenia Corrales from HiperBarrio project in Colombia
• Edgar Andres Yana Lisme from Voces Boliviana in Bolivia
• Getutza from Blogging The Dreams Project in Romania
• Tahina Rakotomanarivo from FOKO in Madagscar
• Ahmed Awadalla from Exploring Taboos project in Egypt
• Randa AbulDahab from the Women of Minya Day by Day project in Egypt
• Sara Abd Al-Maktari from the Empowerment of Women Activists in Media Techniques (EWMAT) project in Yemen
• Award Winning OLPC (XO) laptops Bloggers from Uruguay - Part 1, Part 2

The New Grantees Of 2010:

• Introduction to Exploring Taboos Project
• Introduction to Mokattam Blog Tales
• Introduction to Women of Minya Day by Day

Barcamps And Conferences:

Otgonsuren Jargal presenting Nomad Green at the Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2010 in Chile. Image by Krzysztof Pawliszak/GV. CC BY

The Global Voices Citizen Media Summit 2010 took place in May at Santiago Public Library in the capital of Chile. Four Rising Voices projects were presented during the two days of the summit. Here is a two part report (Part 1, Part 2) highlighting the presentations and the reactions from the members who attended the conference.

Photo of Catalina Restrepo speaking at BarCamp Santa Cruz. Photo used with permission by BarCampSCZ.

Catalina Restrepo of the HiperBarrio project in Medellín, Colombia was invited to speak at BarCamp Santa Cruz, Bolivia in January. The event also featured Hugo Miranda of Voces Bolivianas from Bolivia.

This year members of HiperBarrio were invited to the Campus Party in Colombia and was told to do something different, use the pin hole camera technique to record the activities of CampusBlog.

Contests:

In February the Best Of Malagasy Blogs (BOMBS) 2009 awards were announced. Several bloggers from FOKO, the Rising Voices grantee in Madagascar, won the awards.

Empowerment Of Women:

With the help of a Rising Voices microgrant, the project “Empowerment of Women Activists in Media Techniques” is teaching blogging to female politicians, activists, and human right workers in Yemen to bring them in global conversation.

Ghaida'a Al Absi, the project leader, says: “EWAMT project is like a candle with other candles, which are lighting up the darkness in Yemen.”

Blogger Ahmad Awadalla of “Exploring Taboos” project conducts sexuality education workshops in Egypt and wrote about discussions about the topic of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) with his students.

Language:

Ruben Hilary of Voces Bolivianas project, with some local volunteers of El Alto, Bolivia, established the virtual community Jaqi Aru. The goal of the Jaqi Aru website is highlighting and spreading Aymara language in internet through creation of digital media contents, which involves translation, use of multimedia and social media tools.

Culture, Travel And Lifestyle:

Bus shaped balloon at the Festival de globos de La Loma 2010

The citizen journalists of the Rising Voices grantee Hiperbarrio shared some photos and videos of the Balloon festival of La Loma (Festival de globos de La Loma 2010).

Nine citizen journalists from Nomad Green in Mongolia visited Taiwan to learn more about Taiwan's social and environmental issues and local cultures and receive citizen media training.

Sustainability:

Hiperbarrio from Colombia finally got its legal identity this year as a nonprofit corporation. This allows the organization to continue to grow as they can be hired by public and private institutions for outreach activities. According to an agreement between the EPM Foundation Network and HiperBarrio from Colombia, citizen media outreach activities in 3 new communities in 3 libraries of Medellín (Villatina, La Esperanza and EPM) were started in 2010.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation awarded Ceasefire Liberia project a $10,000 grant to start a new arm called Ceasefire. This project will focus on creating a citizen media project for African immigrant and African-American youth in Staten Island based on the Ceasefire Liberia model.

Thanks to the bloggers of the different projects of Rising Voices we could read many stories from Liberia, Madagascar, Ivory Coast, Mongolia, Romania, Colombia, Yemen, Republic of Congo, Egypt, Kenya, Bolivia, Ukraine, Uruguay, etc. Some Rising Voices bloggers also participated in and contributed for the Blog Action Day 2010 and the One Day On Earth initiatives. We hope to continue hearing from them. The ‘Introduction to Global Citizen Media Guide' has been translated in Macedonian and Albanian.

We wish the members of the Rising Voices Community and our readers a happy and prosperous 2011.

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Matters of public interest in Media. Image by Flickr user PhillipC. CC BY.

Janice Winter at Axess Programme on Journalism and Democracy tells about the threats to public interest journalism and protecting sources in Africa:

I have spent the last few weeks in South Africa interviewing journalists and editors about both the gains of our media freedom and concerning signs of regressive state legislation, such as the proposed Public Service Broadcasting Bill that – if passed – would make the public broadcaster effectively a state broadcaster directly accountable to Minister of Communications.

In an analytical piece in his own blog Théophile writes [fr] why true public interest journalism is urgently required in Africa:

Some critics believe that journalism should be made public in a neutral news and stop there. Among them, former French Prime Minister Michel Rocard, who was criticized in an interview with the weekly Marianne (quite outspoken against Nicolas Sarkozy), to act “not as pure news reporters, but as actors of policies. This criticism has often been done in the Ivorian press.

What is journalism? Probably the door ajar to provide worlds often closed to increase the wealth of folk knowledge about the contemporary world, as it will or will not. Are we to accomplish this task? In any case, it seems clear that, in our skies, and in the print media in particular, we “over-cover” a certain type of news. One related to policy, including its size and the politician most people and sport, topics that attract a wide readership within our small middle class that can provide enough money to buy newspapers. We neglect serious events, including the unveiling could build our contemporaries, and push them to act for a number of social changes. Our failure to us, private media, is amplified by the fact that the public media, at home, remain sounding power or entertainment spaces vampired completely by advertising. (machine translation)

Théophile continues [fr]:

It is urgent to raise a public interest journalism. In a context where the separation of powers at times seems like a figment of the imagination, as the reflexes of allegiance and connivance of one-party legacy is strong, our role is, more than ever to track the failures of society, to rescue citizens voiceless victims of injustice hidden investigate patiently on topics of general interest. [..]

Is there or elsewhere in our skies patrons may fund a type of journalism whose main interest is to arouse and to change society by revealing its dark? (machine translation)

Martin Moore at British Journalism Review explains public interest journalism:

Public-interest journalism has two elements. The first is as a watchdog, holding the powerful to account, exposing fraud, deceit, corruption, mismanagement and incompetence.

The second element of public-interest journalism is much less discussed, yet in many ways more important, especially in our world of information overload. This is the responsibility to inform, explain and analyze. Public interest journalists find, digest and distill information that helps the public form views and make decisions. How do I know, for example, whether or not I should give my child a multiple vaccination? How much should I worry about the H5N1 virus and should I take action? Is Iran about to develop a nuclear arsenal and, if so, what should we do about it? Is my mobile phone going to give me a brain tumor? Our world is increasingly inter-related and complex and we need news media that genuinely seek to explain, rather than frighten, hector or bully.

Martin Moore asks:

So if the Government is perverting the course of public-interest journalism, business is quite happy to promote private not public interest, and the public remains blissfully unaware, can the media protect the public interest?

Professor Jay Rosen of New York University, argues

If markets replace public as the only relevant arena in contemporary society, we're all sunk. What we do won't matter, what they do won't matter. Only the TV ratings will matter.

If public-interest journalism should be protected, it has to be promoted and nurtured. An way out may be efforts like ProPublica, a non-profit corporation based in New York City, which won a Pulitzer price this year for its report on public interest. We hope to see efforts like this in Africa soon as Théophile points out that they are urgently required.

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Stéphane Guédé, Théophile Kouamouo and Saint Clavier Oula, the detained journalists. Image courtesy Richman.

The African blogosphere exploded with anger and concern when Théophile Kouamouo was arrested with his two colleagues of the Ivorian Daily Le Nouveau Courrier. Ivorian bloggers like Manasse Dehe used blog posts and Facebook groups to update latest information and spread the news to the world. Théophile, also the project manager of the Rising Voices grantee Abidjan Blog camps, was charged for refusing to name the source of a leaked report published in Le Nouveau Courrier describing the high profile embezzlement in the cocoa-coffee sector of Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast).

The three journalists were freed on 26th of July after spending two-weeks in prison. Richman reports:

The law has spoken. A court sentenced the journalists to a fine of 5 million CFA (roughly $10,000 USD) and released. It is a punishment which fits over the press law rather than criminal matters where we had boarded the prosecutor, provoking disgust and shocking the world. The Ivorian court has restored the image that would harm the other.

Beyond the three journalists from The New Courier, the two other defendants in the entourage of attorney (his secretary and his communications advisor) have been released. The flight has not been demonstrated, the better the trial revealed the ignorance of computer security measures in the prosecutor's office, such as a confidential file had no protection due to his rank. (machine translation)

Théophile Kouamouo and Saint-Clavier Oula talking to press after the release. Image courtesy Richman

John Henry Kwahulé at Nouvelle Afrique magazine says that Côte d'Ivoire is probably the only country in the world where journalists are imprisoned for publishing truthful information. He comments:

It is a verdict that makes a double mistake to the colleagues. So, after they have been deprived of liberty for two weeks, their newspaper will not appear for two weeks also. This is not fair. But then, why have them jailed?

Tim Newman at Change.org reports about international support for Théophile and his colleagues:

Over 1,150 activists on Change.org wrote to Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo and the U.S. Embassy in Abidjan to register concern about this attack on the freedom of the press. Last week, the U.S. Embassy issued a statement in response that expressed concern and emphasized the importance of press freedom.

Théophile Kouamouo thanks his fellow bloggers for the support and activism:

I'm browsing the web, and I'm aware of support and remarkable activism in the blogosphere, in addition to the natural relay that the press is “classic”. The blogosphere exists, and it may take flesh, beyond our thoughts “thrown” on the Web. I do not know what words can contain my gratitude to you all. I feel a great responsibility weighing on my shoulders. I have the duty to be better, more concerned with the interests of the community in my way of practicing journalism, worthy of the mobilization that was yours. (machine translation)

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Théophile Kouamouo

From Theophile's blog [fr]

It relates in great details the facts upon which the ‘barons' of the industry, including leading figures Henri Amouzou and Lucien Tapé Doh are charged of having committed incredible felonies for the purpose of diverting tens of billions of CFA francs from the sector's fund.

Fraud, misappropriation, embezzlement, forgery and use of forgery, misuse of company assets … Le Nouveau Courrier describes in great detail the methods used, citing financial manipulations, purchases of properties in France, bank accounts in Monaco etc.

Image Courtesy Jean-Christian De Irie

Reporters Without Borders reports about the arrest of Théophile and his two colleagues [fr]

By order of Raymond Tchimou Fehou, Prosecutor of the county court, three journalists from Le Nouveau Courrier d'Abidjan, Saint Claver Oula, editor, Steéphane Guédé, newspaper editor and Théophile Kouamouo, managing editor, were arrested by the Criminal Police. The prosecutor accused them to have published the findings of his own investigation into the embezzlement in the cocoa-coffee sector. The classified document had been handed over a few weeks earlier to President Laurent Gbagbo.

Tuesday, July 13, the prosecutor summoned editor Théophile Kouamouo to his office to compel him to disclose his sources. The journalist declined. The prosecutor then ordered him to be arrested by criminal police, who kept him in custody after the hearing. The newspaper's premises were then searched.

Reporters Without Borders reminds that protection of sources is a fundamental principle of the practice of journalism and demands release of the journalists.

Connectionivorienne.net reports claiming a source that if the source was named these journalists could avoid arrest [fr]:

Other sources claim however that things will sort themselves out, “there is nothing serious, the Prosecutor is only annoyed and he just wants to know the source, who it was that provided the top-secret file meant for the head of the state, at the Nouveau Courrier editorial staff. “

Our attempts to contact Mr. Patrice Pohe, press secretary of the prosecutor, remained unsuccessful.

Yoro (Israël Yoroba) of Abidjan Blog Camps informs at Avenue 225 Blog [fr] about the latest condition of Théophile Kouamouo in prison:

The meeting with Théophile Kouamouo took place in a relaxed atmosphere. His pace and good mood are undeterred. “We're doing fine,” he reassures. The editorial director of the “Le Nouveau Courrier” is willing to go back over this imprisonment which hides some unspoken intentions on the part of Prosecutor Tchimou.

For the newspaper's editors, it is out of the question to yield to pressure. “We remain strong and worthy of the trust of our readers and especially of our profession. The main issue here is that the prosecutor is asking us to reveal the sources of our information and if we don't, he'd put us right away in jail.” Kouamouo and his colleagues by refusing to reveal their source(s) say they want to preserve the spirit of journalism. “The stand we defend is that if a journalist has to disclose his sources to a prosecutor, that means that the profession itself has disappeared. We stand firm for our readers, for the corporation and our idea of democracy. “

We demand the earliest release of Theophile Kuoamouo and his colleagues. Here is a petition you can sign to show your support.

Update: Global Voices author Elia Varela Serra reports in Global Voices Advocacy site:

The three journalists, who spent the last two nights in police custody in spite of the pressure to reveal their sources, are waiting to be taken before a judge and charged with “theft of administrative documents.” Since the news of their detention broke out yesterday they have been receiving visits of numerous colleagues and organizations who are showing their support, including the Groupement des éditeurs de presse de Côte d'Ivoire (the newspaper editors' professional association). Some colleagues have pointed out that the first article in the official Code of Ethics for the Ivorian Journalist published by the Ministry of Communications (see original in French here) states that “the journalist has the right to the protection of his/her information sources”.

Several bloggers and journalists have shown their support to Kouamouo and the rest of the Le Nouveau Courrier team through an online petition asking for their immediate release, as well as through Twitter and a Facebook group where they have shared updates about the case.

Global Voices author and Translator Suzanne Lehn helped us with the Translation.

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The Abidjan Bar Camp (also known as Barcamp Babi) took place during March 5-7, 2010.

Members of the Rising Voices grantee Abidjan Blog Camps participated in that event and its project leader Theophile Kouamouo wrote:

I want to say out loud that BarCamp Abidjan in 2010 was of great quality. The organization was good (thank you Frederick), And the speakers were of quality. If we are able to best capitalize on the meetings and discussions that have been made possible by this event, the ecosystem of the Web will be radically transformed Ivorian.

He made two proposals in the barcamp advocating for an union of online producers in Ivory Coast:

- The creation of a union of producers of online content in Côte d'Ivoire. The union would seek to protect their production (through a defense of copyright) and the value (through the creation of a portal redirection, as Wikio). The union also will fight for a charter of “netiquette” (Ethics on the Net) should be enacted to punish the “systematic theft of content, including preventing their rise from the pub on the Ivorian territory.

- The creation of a unique governance / advertising marketplace for content producers in Côte d'Ivoire, which would improve their negotiating capacity in relation to the hundreds of thousands or millions of page views that they represent.

If you are a producer of online content (news, entertainment, games, applications) and that you approve of the idea of creating a union / group / specialty society, send me an email to kouamouo@yahoo.com. We begin to work on the project. (machine translation)

Manasse Dehe reports:

Young people passionate about web and internet, set themselves the dream of making this technology a force for Côte d'Ivoire. Akendewa demonstrates that age and number of participants of a team are not necessarily the key factors of success. Uniting their thoughts and energies overflowing Frédéric Tapé and his friends have organized a series of meetings, during which several people full of talent gathered in one place.

With a reactive nature, action groups were formed, recruitments were made, innovative projects arose. My biggest satisfaction is that in a friendly atmosphere the best content producers, students, software developers, designers, web marketers and web entrepreneurs and technology and mobile Internet enthusiasts have spoken the same thing. The Web is in the process of having a future in Ivory Coast - it was reiterated by everyone. And it began with managing the content that overflows the land, and waiting only to be promoted on Internet. (machine translation)

Here is a slide-show of the event.

Now let us see what other bloggers from this project are saying.

Roger Kasse talks about dumping of toxic waste in Ivory coast.

Yoro (Israël Yoroba) writes about a recent transport strike that paralyzed Abidjan city:

All's well that ends well. The crisis lasted 4 long days. 4 days of hell for both domestic food prices have soared. 4 days of walking under a blazing sun. 4 days of hitchhiking and carpooling.

This song by Daouda reminds how the Gbaka (minibus transport) are important to Ivorians:

Theophile Kouamouo informs about an innovative car pool in Abidjan which uses Facebook to communicate and was beneficial to many during the transport strike:

A group has been created on Facebook to allow linking Abidjan citizens, between those living in the same neighborhood, work in the same area, each with a car, others not. In this period of strike, they would benefit from opting for carpooling - and even after, too. It is more convenient and we share the costs. (machine translation)

Euclid Okolou of Le Blog De Richman was interviewed by Avenue225.com recently.

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Théophile says this is “an economic conspiracy against the Ivorian and Ghanaian cocoa” and argues that:

Who, in the United States, is considering checking ravings of the “distinguished professor” who speaks of 6.3 million child slaves while the total number of children under 14 years in Côte d'Ivoire, including and infants, including 62% of children enrolled, including 45% of children living in the city and over 70% living outside the loop of cocoa, is barely 8 million? If this figure is real, as in Côte d'Ivoire, virtually all children are slaves. If this figure is real, Côte d'Ivoire and Ghana are part of the most sordid history of mankind.

Such nonsense, they can not be debited on Africa. It's disgusting!

Carrying cocoa bag in Ivory Coast by Flickr user missbax, used under a Creative Commons License

The Common Raven, a commentator on the post, says:

It should be noted that Dagoba Organic chocolate which is listed (and actually originated in my town) is now owned by Hershey's chocolate which purchases a majority of it's cocoa from Ivory Coast. So in a case such as that, there are two ways to look at it: a.) does purchasing more Dagoba chocolate tell Hershey that it should move more towards it's fair trade and organic product, or b.) does it simply provide more cash flow for a corrupt company while making you feel better about yourself.

Théophile continues:

I do not deny the exploitation of children in Africa. It exists, it must be fought relentlessly, but it is a minority. And the hysterical campaign waged against the Ivorian cocoa is not based on independent study but on newspaper articles.

In an another article Théophile writes [fr] how the cyber-scammers can damage your reputation.

Yoro (Israël Yoroba) informs:

After Avenue225 (Abidjan), Avenue223 (Bamako) and Avenue221 (Dakar), Avenue226 (Ouagadougou in preparation) [others are in progress], here the mother of all: Africa Avenue.
What will this space be used?

Avenueafrique.com, will relay all information relating to the creation, promotion and operation of national avenues. Before becoming in a few months only a true portal, you will find profiles of the”Endorsements” which are the platforms of the country. You will know also those who sponsor and partners who accompany us.

Here is the concept of Avenue Afrique.

On 2nd of February 2010 Yoro heard an explosion. He soon found out that others heard it too but nobody knew what it was. Later it was learnt that it was a military plane causing that noise and a Facebook group titled “You also did hear a big boom?“ continuous to gather members at an exponential rate: over 10,000 in 48 hours.

Recently the Oxford University of Spain has included some screen-shot of Yoro's blog in a textbook in French for Spanish higher secondary students to illustrate blogging.

Nadine Kouamouo reports that the second edition of Barcamp Abidjan will be held from March 5 to 7 of 2010. She writes:

Barcamp is a community and participatory event where everyone will just make something and give a little help … so why miss such an event??

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On Saturday, December 19, 2009 the second Alloco Bloggers Party, organized by Manassé Déhé (Cartunelo), took place in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. Dozens of Ivorian bloggers were present including several bloggers who attended the Abidjan blog camps. Dinde Fernando writes:

The Alloco Bloggers Party is a concept created by Israël Yoroba and his dynamic small team to gather bloggers residing in Ivory Coast (Côte d Ivory) around a table, to enable them to become better acquainted and discuss their work. (machine translation)

Bob Traoré Djess writes in his blog Cogito:

I blog, therefore I am. [..] Last Saturday, members of the Ivorian blogosphere moved from virtual to reality, via the Alloco gathering.

In this edition of Alloco, the masks have fallen, and all the bloggers present were finally able to see, physically, feel, admire, touch each other. Finally they could put a face to each name.

Richman sheds a light about the concerns of profitability by the bloggers, which was discussed a lot during the Alloco meeting.

Edith Brou Yah describes the foods served in that meeting:

On the menu, there was the Alloco (a traditional dish of West and Central Africa), the fries, the chicken and fried fish, the kédjénou well spiced and attieke. We drank, we ate but we mostly chatted, laughed and exchanged.

Yoro (Israël Yoroba) celebrated the 2nd birthday of his blog and reflects what blogging has brought to him:

I still remember the first week I got 10 unique visitors (my brothers and sisters, my girlfriend at the time and some friends). Today, I have a large family of blogger, I have friends in the world …

I met people I never imagined seeing (except on TV). Je suis entré dans des endroits ou même dans mes rêves cela ne serait pas possible. I went into places or even in my dreams it would not be possible. Two years have passed … I have never traveled as I did in 25 years … Ghana, Dakar, Bonn, Marseille, Paris, Stockholm, Bamako. Today I received a scholarship to study in one of the top schools of journalism in Europe.

My greatest satisfaction was having inspired several bloggers. And today, the family becomes more and wider … wider … wider.

Israël Yoroba runs Avenue 225, the successful citizen journalism platform of Ivory Coast. On behalf of Avenue 225 he trained eight citizen journalists last month.

Based on success of Avenue 225, Israël Yoroba also founded Avenue 223 for neighboring Mali, which will be hosted by local bloggers. It is dedicated to the daily life and current affairs in Mali.

Richman posts an interesting story that in Ivory coast, some coffee sellers serves coffee controlling the intensity according to the order of the customer denoted by a hand gesture. So without knowing it your natural hand gesture can get you the wrong coffee.

Image credit: Traoré de Djess and Israël Yoroba

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2nd Abidjan Blog Camp. Image by Nadine Kouamouo

The event took place on the 14th of November 2009 at the Fondation Les Amis de l'Excellence in Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast. Information about the program and participants can be found here [fr].

The project leader of Abidjan Blog Camps Théophile Kouamouo wrote [fr] about the expected participants in an invitation published in his blog:

The target? People who already blogging and want to share their more experienced “tip”. Stakeholders? Those who have a theme to develop in twenty minutes, and who are willing to distinguish themselves through a comment below this post.

He listed [fr] the program:

There will be four speakers:
- Nadine Kouamouo, who will speak of liveblogging, notably about Twitter and CoveritLive.
- Israël Yoroba of Le Blog De Yoro, who will speak about referencing and maintaining a blog over time.
- Manassé Dehe (cartunelo) will show how to produce audio podcasts and video and publish them.
- Theophile Kouamouo (myself). I will speak of blogging in the workplace.

Register by clicking this link: http://abidjanblogcamp.eventbrite.com

2nd abidjan blogcamp. Image by Nadine Kouamouo

10 participants with blogging experience attended the blog camp. However, Nadine Kouamouo mentions [fr] that they had hoped of more participants. This event was live blogged by Nadine [fr]. The transcript tells that there was a bonus for the participants - a discussion on blogging under pseudonyms.

Here is a video [fr] of an interview with Israël Yoroba, who talks about the blog camp:

Theophile looks back [fr] at the success of the workshop and announces future plans of the project:

It seemed important at the outset to educate journalists, opinion leaders and influential, who have the habit of writing, the practice of the blog. We subsequently created the framework for cross-training of those who are already blogging - and will continue to meet and learn from each other within the BlogCamps.

Now it is for us to go to groups less naturally well disposed but which would benefit from blogging. We want to start by artists, writers and musicians. Perhaps in a single session, perhaps two, depending on enrollment.

We expect bloggers, blog readers and members of these groups they help us to have contacts with writers, musicians, agents and managers. This will help them share our project and to organize the next BlogCamp in early December.

2nd Abidjan blog camps participants. Image by Nadine Kouamouo

In a recent post Theophile wrote about the linguistic barrier which divides the African web (bloggers, developers, entrepreneur) like the “Berlin Wall”.

It may seem almost impossible to read afro-bloggers who write in a language we do not know - although a friend pointed out to me that Google Translate is not for dogs

Beyond what can be considered like interpersonal communication problems, it seems that the linguistic challenge is also a technological and economic challenge for us. For example, large platforms like Facebook and Google are safe to translate their interfaces in as many languages as possible, simply because they want to expand their user base and their financial value, simply.

Should we not do the same? How many Kenyan or South African start-ups are interested by developments in Côte d'Ivoire and Gabon? How many Cameroonian startups would benefit to cross the border and conquer Nigeria? I think that investor’s interest would increase if we could develop online brands which go beyond language barriers. In this regard, the blogging platform Maneno shows the path.

Ivorian Wedding. Image by Elia Varela Sera

It's really a shame that the Abidjan lagoon (named Ebrie), is now extremely polluted and in some parts of the city it stinks like a dumpster. But at night, when you can't see the fowl color of the water and the trash littering its banks, it's really quite a lovely view to enjoy sit on a terrace next to it sipping a beer.

Now let us look at some posts from Ivorian blogs [fr]:

Houedanou explains “how to create a personal website in 3 steps”. The blogger also writes about the African email scams and the Google Money kit scam.

Euclid Okolou writes about the spread of scams via sms to mobile phones instead of emails.

Israël Yoroba informs that Avenue 225, a local radio station has launched the first ever radio webcast in Ivory coast. Yoroba also writes about a debate which took place in the Deutsche Welle akademie titled “New Media for a New World: Democracy and Development“:

Roger Kasse writes a multi part report on the ill practices of private medical clinics and shops in Vavoua region. He also writes about the challenges the African bloggers face to blog - the internet is slow and costly, it takes time to blog, tools like pc and camera are not easily available etc.

Richman posts this interesting picture with the apt title “Sustainable development”:

Sustainable Development. Image by Richman Mvouama

While it can run, let's go. The decor is done with the resources available. It is also sustainable development.

Nadine Kouamouo writes about a local geek who engaged in the community service voluntarily and helped many:

I have learned through Facebook this morning. My friend Manasseh Dehe was made available to all for providing help on how to use the WAP service for mobile phones. [..] He was happy to help twenty people today [..] and I too can now “twitter” on my phone.

Telecommunications companies should support such initiatives. Those of who opens the eyes of users on specific applications. It is not enough to just note that the “customers” do not use many applications available to them by the operators. We must help those who are willing to “educate” … only “glamorous” advertising campaigns are not enough.

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Today is the Blog Action Day and this annual event aims to unite the world's bloggers where they write about a single topic in a single day to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion on the subject. Some of the members of Rising Voices projects are also participating in this event and we bring to you a brief round-up.

One of the main focus of the Rising Voices grantee FOKO is make the citizens of Madagascar a crucial factor in their unique and threatened environment. Tahina from FOKO Blog Club in Antananarivo, Madagascar writes:

Today is the Blog Action Day about Climate Change, thousands of blogs are uniting to raise more awareness and put pressure on each individual and world leaders to take quick and apropriate actions. The fight is worthwhile since the future of our kids is at stake. I’m pretty skeptical on the direct impact of this online activism here in Madagascar but since blogging has once helped Baby Kambana, why wouldn’t it do the same for all of us. We want to tell the World as well that we do care.

He points out to the action required:

How many of the Malagasy homes are using coal and woods to cook? 80-90%? We just can’t afford other source of energy in the long term. And this is where higher responsibles should take actions.

Patrick from Tamatave, Madagascar: Looking for the right place where to plant a tree

Lyva, another member of FOKO writes [fr] from Antsirabe :

We believe that everyone should be concerned by this problem because no one ever knows what season we see. For example, is this spring or summer? The temperature varies a lot because there is no winter. It drops to 3°C while in spring and in summer it rises to 35°C or more. (machine translation)

Ariniaina tells what prevents people from taking action against environmental damage:

I think that the main problem here in Madagascar is that people are so busy to search for what they are going to eat today. We then become selfish and just think of ourselves. We forget our neighbours and our future generation.

I hope that the Bloggers’Action of today will wake up millions… billions of people… governments… poor countries… rich countries… and then, we will altogether rescue the Earth. What I can and already do now is planting my own trees.

Théophile Kouamouo from Abidjan Blog Camps project in Ivory Coast writes about a a private conversation between him and a 70 years old Ivorian politician:

Originally from northern Ivory Coast, he told me about his childhood and told me that in front of his eyes, two rivers have dried up in his village. He saw that as the deep wells have increased the likelihood of finding water by digging decreased. What is responsible for what farmers see as a disaster or a curse? The desert encroachment, climate change, but also agro-industrial policies requiring irrigation works, all are quite dangerous in the long term.

The politician spoke with conviction, even with fear for the future, because he had seen with his eyes the danger. (machine translation from French)

“Africa is one of the places of the world most threatened by climate change,” warns Théophile.

Cartunelo from Abidjan Blog Camps writes [fr]:

As a web developer there are simple actions we can take to save our planet and make us web developers eco-compatible in Abidjan:

1. Turn off the computer: Use the lowest possible standby and hibernation.
2. Turn off your external hard drives at night
3. Use Eco-friendly Bulbs
[..]

The issue climate change is addressed specifically by another Rising Voices project. Nomad Green trains Mongolian citizens how to spread awareness - both at home and abroad - about their country's environmental crisis. Read their blog to learn more about their activism to stop degradation of Mongolia's environment.

Written by Rezwan
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Roger Kassé informs about the workshop held on the September 3, 2009:

At the initiative of the National Union of Journalists of Côte d'Ivoire (UNJCI) in collaboration with the Association I3C, a training seminar on ‘Journalism and e-blogging' was held at the Press House of Abidjan. This training session was attended by 10 journalists from various Ivorian media.

Théophile Kouamouo (journalist blogger) and Manasseh Dehé (computer engineer) introduced a number of citizen media tools to the participants to teach them blogging. Besides theoretical lectures the new bloggers also engaged in practical trainings.

Théophile Kouamouo writes [fr] about the workshop:

They know - especially the young - that their job is changing. There have already created two blogs, one of Roger and Cynthia, in addition to that of Prosper, which already existed. Many Twitter accounts have been created.

True change agents, journalists who attended the training have already turned into evangelists of blogging. Their articles were published in Le Nouveau Réveil, L'Expression, Fraternité-Matin, AIP, etc. … We had also the opportunity to discuss the topic of online media and blogs on Radio Côte d'Ivoire and Radio Jam. (machine translation)

Roger Kassé informs about the case of toxic waste dumped in 2006 by the ship Probo Koala.

Roger also writes an interesting report on the internet scammers aka “grazers”:

Most of the time, they pose as women or are in collusion with women experts in the art of Internet scam. Their targets or victims reside in Europe. Within a decade, Abidjan became the hub of cyber crime because of these grazers. These crooks on the net belong to a vast network from Nigeria. Their scenario is simple. They storm the cyber space in the district of Abidjan. Their favorite sites are social networks like Facebook or chat sites. (machine translation)

Cinthia R Aka explains that the marketing strategists in Ivory Coast lure clients at any price:

The sellers of clothing, cosmetics and even food installed in our markets do not lack imagination when it comes to bringing people to buy their goods.

Manasseh Deheer, writes about a gathering of entrepreneurs to discuss “The new web based tools for optimizing digital identity (personal / professional).”

Yoro informs that Théophile's wife Nadine Kouamouo, a team member of the project has won the “Best woman ICT reporter” at the Highway Africa Conference.

Nadine writes about the abundance of skin whitening slogans used to sell cosmetics products in Abidjan.

We are looking forward to read more from the Abidjan Blog Camp participants' blogs.

Written by Rezwan
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