Dating across racial lines and the need to clean up corruption fire up Libyan bloggers.
By Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia in Tunis – 06/01/10
This week, Libyan blogs addressed several thorny issues including racial discrimination, corruption and the responsibilities and freedom of bloggers.
According to Ahmed Bukhari (Taboo), everyone agrees that Libya "is one of the most race-oriented societies. You can ask any girl from the area of Zawriya or any Amazigh girl about that. You may also, if you can, explain to a young "Hamri" man in the south why he can't marry a "free" girl; why a Touareg can't drive a public vehicle in the city of Ghadames; why this or that tribe can't deal at all with this or that tribe; or why the residents of that area are despised by the residents of another."
In his blog, Bukhari suggest that the reader try to "attend the wedding of any black man who's marrying a white woman, or a white man who's marrying a black woman. See for yourself the number of comments and criticisms made by everyone. In reality, these marriages are actually rare. Black Libyan men are doomed to marry black Libyan women."
"As for the other colors, whether white, red, dark-complexioned or even purple, they can marry each other without any notable problems," adds the blogger. "If we look at the issue from another angle, we find that a white woman has the possibility of marrying men of all colors, even black men in rare cases, while the possibility of a black woman marrying a man who isn't black is very small."
Bukhari cites several examples of what he claims is serious racism in his country. "Perhaps one of the harshest incidents that showed black Libyans how they were treated differently were the acts of violence that broke out years ago against Africans in Libya. Because of a certain problem with immigrant Africans, Libyans would hit and assault anyone with black skin, including black Libyans themselves, who were assaulted by mistake. A poor citizen who was attacked had to yell 'I'm Libyan! I'm Libyan!' Just note the absurdity and humiliation that black Libyans were exposed to during that period of time."
As for blogger Ramadan Jarbou, he presents a recipe for reform and eliminating corruption, saying: "There are so many reasons that call for reform, including the spread of corruption, which we can even say has become socially 'acceptable' when poverty worsens, living conditions become difficult and the means to get by become hard to find."
"In this atmosphere, a new mentality gets established, and we see a willingness to do anything in order to achieve the desired ends," writes Jarbou. "Worse still, those who do this and become important and influential people are received in our modern societies with acceptance and great respect, even though in our recent past they represented examples of corruption and conscienceless behavior and faced only criticism and disapproval."
"In this case, when corruption prevails and becomes 'acceptable', it will inevitably reach all levels of administration in this country, including the judiciary," writes the blogger. "The judiciary includes good elements and some bad ones as well, and therefore, reform must be introduced to its structure. This is not a difficult task: all we need to do is to review the reputations and behaviors of their members over the years, provided that such a review is done by competent people."
Meanwhile, blogger Fitouri offers the perspective that personal blogs mirror the nature of the blogger's society. "In my opinion, blogging, before being an act lying within the scope of personal freedom where the writer writes whatever he or she wants without restrictions, limitations or conditions other than what his or her conscience dictates, is a diverse work of art that can be high or low, and can also be different from one person to another in content and aim."
"It represents man's regional and Arab identity," writes Fitouri. "The blogger's image, as it appears to the rest of the sisterly Arab countries and the whole world, in terms of writing valuable and distinguished human content … reflects the cultural identity of the blogger's country and expresses the depth of his or her society's culture to the world."
Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/blog/2010/01/06/feature-03.
By Jamel Arfaoui for Magharebia in Tunis – 06/01/10
This week, Libyan blogs addressed several thorny issues including racial discrimination, corruption and the responsibilities and freedom of bloggers.
According to Ahmed Bukhari (Taboo), everyone agrees that Libya "is one of the most race-oriented societies. You can ask any girl from the area of Zawriya or any Amazigh girl about that. You may also, if you can, explain to a young "Hamri" man in the south why he can't marry a "free" girl; why a Touareg can't drive a public vehicle in the city of Ghadames; why this or that tribe can't deal at all with this or that tribe; or why the residents of that area are despised by the residents of another."
In his blog, Bukhari suggest that the reader try to "attend the wedding of any black man who's marrying a white woman, or a white man who's marrying a black woman. See for yourself the number of comments and criticisms made by everyone. In reality, these marriages are actually rare. Black Libyan men are doomed to marry black Libyan women."
"As for the other colors, whether white, red, dark-complexioned or even purple, they can marry each other without any notable problems," adds the blogger. "If we look at the issue from another angle, we find that a white woman has the possibility of marrying men of all colors, even black men in rare cases, while the possibility of a black woman marrying a man who isn't black is very small."
Bukhari cites several examples of what he claims is serious racism in his country. "Perhaps one of the harshest incidents that showed black Libyans how they were treated differently were the acts of violence that broke out years ago against Africans in Libya. Because of a certain problem with immigrant Africans, Libyans would hit and assault anyone with black skin, including black Libyans themselves, who were assaulted by mistake. A poor citizen who was attacked had to yell 'I'm Libyan! I'm Libyan!' Just note the absurdity and humiliation that black Libyans were exposed to during that period of time."
As for blogger Ramadan Jarbou, he presents a recipe for reform and eliminating corruption, saying: "There are so many reasons that call for reform, including the spread of corruption, which we can even say has become socially 'acceptable' when poverty worsens, living conditions become difficult and the means to get by become hard to find."
"In this atmosphere, a new mentality gets established, and we see a willingness to do anything in order to achieve the desired ends," writes Jarbou. "Worse still, those who do this and become important and influential people are received in our modern societies with acceptance and great respect, even though in our recent past they represented examples of corruption and conscienceless behavior and faced only criticism and disapproval."
"In this case, when corruption prevails and becomes 'acceptable', it will inevitably reach all levels of administration in this country, including the judiciary," writes the blogger. "The judiciary includes good elements and some bad ones as well, and therefore, reform must be introduced to its structure. This is not a difficult task: all we need to do is to review the reputations and behaviors of their members over the years, provided that such a review is done by competent people."
Meanwhile, blogger Fitouri offers the perspective that personal blogs mirror the nature of the blogger's society. "In my opinion, blogging, before being an act lying within the scope of personal freedom where the writer writes whatever he or she wants without restrictions, limitations or conditions other than what his or her conscience dictates, is a diverse work of art that can be high or low, and can also be different from one person to another in content and aim."
"It represents man's regional and Arab identity," writes Fitouri. "The blogger's image, as it appears to the rest of the sisterly Arab countries and the whole world, in terms of writing valuable and distinguished human content … reflects the cultural identity of the blogger's country and expresses the depth of his or her society's culture to the world."
Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/blog/2010/01/06/feature-03.
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