New blogs, Western Sahara-related and not

People hungry for North Africa news or journalism writing are in luck:

• Alle, the great blogger behind Western Sahara Info, is refocusing his North Africa writing on a new group blog, Maghreb Politics Review. He kicked off his new empire with Algerian politics. While it'll let him share his expertise beyond Western Sahara (he knows a lot more about North Africa than that), he better not abandon WSI. It's an institution.
  
• Meanwhile, I launched the cleverly-named Will Sommer, a blog about the changes affecting journalism as it moves online (and the cool stuff that move creates). Check it out!

Before I get on with the business of managing two blogs at once, though, an apology: I haven't been up on Western Sahara lately. I got disheartened with how nothing ever changed in Western Sahara, and how it looked like nothing ever would. Before you say, "Try living it for 30 years," I know.

Fortunately, I'm reinvigorated by studying abroad in Cairo and a potential visit to Morocco. Most of all, though, commenters and readers seem to have stuck around and still care about this issue. So let's get to it! Please leave any new Western Sahara blogs in the comments so I can catch up.

A video for you and a blogiversary for me

2 years ago today I launched this fine blog with a post about how I didn't know anything about Western Sahara. I've gotten a little more knowledgeable since then, and I've had a great time blogging.

Thanks to all the readers and commenters who made this a great place to talk Western Sahara, and thanks to the Sahrawis for keeping their humor in an awful situation. Most of all, though, thanks to the Together Foundation for being so incompetent that they put me on the map.

You didn't think I'd celebrate our blogiversary without giving you a gift, did you? I made this video earlier in the summer, and now's a perfect time to show it. It mashes up videos of Sahrawi protests and the Clash's "Rock the Casbah", and I think it'll delight you.


Stick around, because the third year is going to be even crazier.

Moroccan blogs fume about Western Sahara Global Voices spot

While many people are happy that blog mavens Global Voices started covering Western Sahara, some in Morocco aren't. A blog about Moroccan blogs grumbles (translation from a pal):

The event went unnoticed in the Moroccan blogosphere but as of July

Global Voices is an international site visited by tens of thousands of Internet users each day and covers countries and their blogospheres around the world, and offers translations of blog content.

After three articles devoted to this "new country," the bloggers of the Polisario separatists have welcomed with grand fanfare the consideration of "their country" as an independent entitty within Harvard's site

I'm the listed "bloggers of the Polisario separatists"! Cool. Anyway, this site and any other Moroccans who take issue should realize that Global Voices bases what countries they cover on a list that they don't control.

Now seems like a good to point Renata Avila's post about Sahrawi poetry.

Western Sahara earns its own Global Voices spot

Global Voices, a site that plucks interesting stories from blogs across the world, has usually lumped Western Sahara stories in with Moroccan news. That changed that last week as Global Voices launched its first glimpse from the Sahrawi blogosphere, a post from Sahrawi TV station RASD-TV.

I'm a little disappointed that the first blog Global Voices chose to profile was a SADR-government one, ignoring in their inaugural post the rich Sahrawi blogosphere unaffiliated with Moroccan or Sahrawi government.

Still, it's a start, and I'm looking forward to learning more about Western Sahara from Global Voices. The writers will look at Sahrawi blogs in all languages, so those of us who can't read Arabic, French, Spanish, and English will get to look at more.

Global Voices is looking for more Sahrawi blogs (including non-political foreign ones--good luck with that!) to write about. If you have any suggestions, comment on the first article.

A little Western Sahara publicity

From your humble blog servant, through Ezra Klein, to you.

The comments about Palestine versus Western Sahara are unnecessary and unproductive (why not free both?), and I wish he hadn't linked to the mediocre Times article about Western Sahara. Still, Phase I of Operation No Living Thing (Not Aware of Western Sahara) is complete.

Beast with two Pushbacks

There's a new widget on the right-hand sidebar showing stories from Pushback, a new blog written by liberal college students. I doubt any of the stories will be Western Sahara-related, but there's a method to my widget madness: I'm trying to target Western Sahara to Pushback's valuable audience (American, politically-active, tech-savvy young people) and maybe trick them into helping out.

Also, shame on Saddam Hussein for stealing this blog's title gimmick.

Polisario blogging in the icy north

Reindeer, universal health care, lutefisk--Scandinavians get all the best stuff. They also had one more good thing I wasn't aware of: Polisario Sweden, the only Polisario government blog in English and maybe the only one, period.

It's been a while since the last update (almost 8 months), but the first post was in November 2005. Scandinavians sure are crazy about Western Sahara (with admirable results), and I think this blog has something to do with it. Will SADR ambassador to North America Mouloud Said soon be compiling his blogroll and setting up a Photobucket account? I hope so!

All the waiters at your grand (internet) cafe

Hey, pals! Western Sahara news got so hot while I was on vacation and looking for a job (I was inspired by Real-Sahara-Watch's comment "get a job lol"). If you've been lax and haven't been following the other blogs and websites, make sure to check out Sahara-Watch and Western Sahara Info on Peter Van Walsum. Peter Van Walsum now seems not like a bad guy so much as one who got fed up with the UN and the whole Western Sahara dispute.

Post coming up about the outrageous repression of both Sahrawi and Moroccan students in Marrakesh. As a teaser, here's a recent comment by a Sahrawi who gets harassed in internet cafes by Moroccan police for reading...blogs like this one! I arbitrarily paragraphed it to improve readability.

I knew many youth here even if it is hard for them to navigate because of the moroccan repression on the internet coffees and on the movement of the human rights and selfdetermination defenders but people here are striving and in their own means they invent new methods for dealing with the situation that they live in.

For me i was arrested several times with some camarades in the internet coffee because of our (illegal deeds) as they told us,we were treated savagely and brutally we were detained for 3 days in 2006 and for 1 day the second time and for hours some times we were beated and insulted.

the police is everywhere even at the internet coffee.so you could imagine how is it hard to navigate or to open pro-independance websites you have always to be careful.one day the moroccan police stopped the whole people at the cyber and take the cyber manager and his computers and closing the cyber and so on and so forth..........

Awesome to have readers like you, DevoteeofWS. I'm grateful for how hard you and Sahrawis like you work to get information out to the rest of the world.

Do I speak double Dutch to a real double Dutch Western Sahara blog?

Valued One Hump commenter Van Kaas has a blog of his own about Western Sahara, alternately named Van Kaas or الجبن. His blog's in Dutch, but that doesn't mean he's a bad guy. In fact, he has a couple of posts about Peter van Walsum.

Sahara-Watch and Western Sahara Info: the game always pulls them back

A Moroccan tank after Sahara-Watch and Alle got through with it

The "realistic" MINURSO renewal has brought some old hands back to blogging: Sahara-Watch and Alle at Western Sahara Info. Here's what they've been up to:

• Alle pondered what foreign policy eagles, as opposed to hawks and doves, should think about Western Sahara and relations with Algeria.
• Sahara-Watch thinks about Resolution 1813, the realism MINURSO renewal everyone's abuzz about, and wonders if it's time for Polisario to go to war. Also, he gets a little scoop on the Western Sahara blogosphere: Polisario is sick of Peter van Walsum.
  
• And oh, they collaborated! Alle and Sahara-Watch on Resolution 1813.
  

Glad to have those blogangsters back. Sahara-Watch is responsible for me entering the game, as he was the first person I contacted about Western Sahara. Gave me my first hit for free.

Photo by Nick Brooks used under Creative Commons license

DotEh.org takes up fight for .eh domain

There was talk earlier about the dispute between Morocco and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic over the last unassigned top level domain, .eh. The Sahrawis say they should administer it, Morocco says it should instead.

SADR seems to have taken some good advice and increased its online presence in this dispute by launching doteh.org, a blog about SADR's claim. The site looks nice, but I wish it would update more (although I'm not in a position to talk lately).

There was some question about how SADR would run the domain, but I'm sure they could hire companies in Europe or Algeria for that. If Western Sahara gets to administer .eh, I'll register my domain as .eh.

What good taste in interviewees!

The young Sahrawi women at Zeina have run a lot of "gets" lately--they interviewed Malainin Lakhal earlier, and they just had Kamel Fadel write a piece for them. Now that they've interviewed me, I'm joining their trophy case as well.

I think it's a fun read, but then, I would. More fun is the picture at left, which I suggested should accompany the interview. Suggestion denied!

The picture means I need to write more to keep the layout sane, so I'll take this time to again wish my decidedly Muslim audience a happy Ramadan. I've never fasted myself, but I have been to iftar dinners and they're delicious.

New Sahrawi blog explains what's up with the tea ceremony

Another day, another blog written by Sahrawi women. This time it's Zeina, a blog about Sahrawi culture written by two Sahrawi girls, Mona and Ward. They write about Sahrawi culture and tie it, quite cleverly I think, to the struggle for independence.

I never got the details on the famed Sahrawi tea ceremony, but they had an explanation:

One of the greatest features of the Saharawi culture is that of Tea ceremony. It is special and unique to the Saharawi people. It is a time of unity and celebration of happiness. Family members, neighbors, relatives or simply people passing by gather around to chat about everything and nothing and at the same time enjoy a cup of the special tea. The Atay or tea in Hassania the Saharawi native Arabic dialect is three cups and each one represents a different thing. The first cup is bitter as life, the second is sweet as love and the third is soft as love. The tea ceremony can take few minutes to make or can last as long as hours...

As it is said in Arabic: “there is an end to everything”, and so it is the time for the Saharawi people to get their share of justice and freedom. So let’s not give to enjoy the last cup of this struggle and the reward of freedom.

I'm looking forward to more explanations of Sahrawi culture. While I'm pretty versed in the politics of Western Sahara, I don't think I know near enough about the culture. Hopefully the ladies at Zeina will remedy that.

Happy blog anniversary to me

One year ago I started One Hump with a pretty dull post about Western Sahara. Since then, things have only improved.

I got yelled at by Robert Holley, ate a tasty chicken with President Abdelaziz, protested at the Moroccan embassy, and enjoyed how cool everyone involved in this issue is. Thanks for reading, commenting, and emailing. The more we talk and the better we know one another, the closer the Western Sahara gets to a free and fair referendum.

Photo from Flickr user Princessrica. Like her daughter's, my blog birthday involved Disney princesses

Sahrawi woman writes pro-integration blog

Usually the only Sahrawis who want to stay with Morocco we see are under the paternal guidance of the Moroccan-American Center for Policy. Not so with Chagaf Aziza, a young Sahrawi woman who has been active on this post and whose blog, Freedom Writer, is unequivocally supportive of the Moroccan annexation.

For example, in this post she calls out those of us who want a referendum:

It is sad too see people questioning our Identity and doubting who we are!
Why they can only see two neighborhoods in Lyoun protesting!
Why they refuse to feel the other many eyes in peace resting!
No one is allowed to take our Moroccan Identity or our Sahrawi lifestyle away.
No one is allowed to take my 25 years old way.

As always to people who say most Sahrawis want the occupation to continue, the response is "Then why not a referendum?"

Even more notably, she quoted my Georgetown Voice article about Western Sahara in this post. Unfortunately, she avoids my allegation of human rights abuses in occupied Western Sahara and instead writes about food aid corruption in Tindouf. Perhaps, but rice ending up in Mauritania doesn't soothe Amidayne El-Ouali's bruises.

I hope Chagaf Aziza will eventually decide to support a referendum. All Sahrawis deserve to participate in their country's fate, not just those whose choices were made reality by the invasion. Until then, she's an interesting, different voice in Western Sahara commentary.

Western Sahara bickering used to be so innocent

These are heady times for Western Sahara fans. Alle from Western Sahara Info writes astutely about the occupation, Toby Shelley kicks ass and chews bubblegum, Robert Holley comments on blogs, and I stumble through comments of my own. But did you know that the same thing was going down last August?

I've had the good fortune to come across this post on North Africa Journal, a blog about the Maghreb. The post itself is a rumination on the United States's relation to the Moroccan occupation, but the real juice is in the comments. Alle, Toby Shelley, Robert Holley, Mohamed Brahim of Western Sahara Echo, and I all commented. It's like Battle of the Western Sahara Stars, the post game!

It goes down like you might expect. Alle brings facts and points, he gets into a talk with a nice Moroccan, and Brahim pops in at one point. Toby Shelley has a juicy cameo, featuring the line " As to autonomy, it is unthinkable that the Makhzen could offer anything more than the power to empty municipal trash cans."

My own comment makes it obvious that I only learned about Western Sahara a week or two before. The real juice comes, though, when a Moroccan calls out Robert Holley, the Moroccan-American Center for Policy's executive director and King Mohammed VI's paid pal.

Holley does a little introduction and complains about Polisario corruption, linking to a shifty organization beloved by Tommy Thompson and George "Horse's head in your mailbox" Allen.

One Moroccan, however, is having none of it. His/her comments, in full:

Mr Holley,

You say:

“We are supported by the Moroccan government to undertake academic work and educate individuals on Morocco.”

As a Moroccan taxpayer, I am compelled to ask, what has your organization achieved, concretely?

If we were - and this is the most useless and abused statement ever - the United States’ oldest ally/friend…What has your center added to this friendship ?

Even the website for the “Moroccan American Center for Policy” is bland and redundant. All it contains is the contact information of two people, and recent news.

I’m not accusing you in anyway. Just tell us, if it is our taxes that pay for your center, what have you achieved, results wise, for Moroccan-American relations?

Don’t get me wrong, we’re very happy that someone of your experience is championing our interests. Just understand our thirst for transparency - American style.

Surprise us,
Whoever.

Zing. I haven't seen that much burning since the 1976 invasion.

Sahrawi women write a blog about life in Tindouf

While the Western Sahara blog scene abroad is getting so robust it might be called festively plump, I haven't read much from the camps. That was, at least, until an anonymous commenter on this post about Western Sahara blogs pointed me to Mujeres de Dajla, a blog about women in the Dakhla camp in Tindouf.

Despite 7 years of Spanish before college and the loving care of my Chilean host family, my command of Spanish isn't enough for Mujeres de Dajla. Indeed, they're only reminding me why I loved Babelfish so much in high school. But I'll try and puzzle some things out anyway.

• The Mujeres de Dajla are crafty enough to use Wordpress.
• They've opened a pizzeria in the camps! It's delicious, but no Ray's Pizza.
• The women produce clothes, some of which goes to charity and some of which is sold.
• Sahrawi women are business-minded and productive, if their blog is anything to go by.

I hope this is just the beginning of blogs written from the camps.

Sahara Panorama's got a brand new bag

Western Sahara Echo (formerly Sahara Panorama) is an old guard Western Sahara blog, but it went inactive for a while. No longer! As a big supporter of Western Sahara blogs, I'm happy to say Western Sahara Echo is back, and with better content and a redesign.

Western Echo's claim to fame recently has been scooping everyone on Morocco's autonomy plan. It also reruns several articles and interviews related to Western Sahara, as well as this letter from Suzanne Scholte and Carlos Wilson of the US-Western Sahara Foundation to President Bush.

My only complaint is that none of the article's are written by Mohammed himself. We already have ARSO and Western Sahara Online compiling articles about the Western Sahara; I want to know what Mohammed thinks.

Speaking of Western Sahara bloggers from way back, Chasli of Western Sahara Endgame has decided to come back from his almost yearlong vacation from posting to call out The Washington Times. As you might know, The Washington Times has a weird fondness for the Moroccan side of the Western Sahara issue. Writing about a recent pro-autonomy editorial, Chasli demonstrates just how weird that fondness is.

Chasli's the bomb in general and a frequent One Hump commenter in specific, so it's good to have him back writing. With so many exciting things happening about the Western Sahara, on- and off-line, why don't you start writing a Western Sahara blog too?

New Western Sahara blog is delicious, highly recommended if you have the means

New, knowledgeable One Hump commenter Alle has started a Western Sahara blog of his own, Western Sahara Info. Like his comments, it's entertaining and informative.

He (or she) does his (or her) research. Check out this exhaustive post on Mauritanian elections and what they mean for the Western Sahara. I also enjoyed the predictions about the future of CORCAS's autonomy plan.

Speaking of CORCAS, using his translation skills, Alle discovered that King Hassan II himself said autonomy was illegal. Speaking of it, he said, "That is, quite simply, impossible. I have no right to do it."

My favorite post so far, though, has been his dissection of different names for Western Sahara's capital, El Aaiún or Laâyoune (depending on which side you're on). According to Alle, El Aaiun emphasizes Western Sahara's separate colonial history, while the latter transliteration extends Morocco's Frenchness. I'll use whichever version doesn't require hard-to-place accent marks.

So, with Western Sahara Info starting and Sahara-Watch undergoing a revival, the Western Sahara blog community continues to grow. Writing this post, I discovered Sahara Views is back! It won't be long before we can't walk from our fat Technorati links.

If a revolution happens in the desert, blog about it

Writing One Hump has been a great experience for me, and I plan to continue until Mohammed VI buys me off. I haven't just gotten emails from a lot of nice people, met some of you, and been invited to interesting events, but i actually feel like I'm working on something bigger than me. That's why I think you should write a blog about the Western Sahara, too!

It's easy enough to get started. If you're not sure if you want to buy a domain or software, just get a free account on Blogger or a similar website. I haven't had any problems with Blogger, and some of the most prominent blogs use it. If you're in the Western Sahara or Morocco, though, it's probably a good idea to use another website, because there are reports that Morocco's blocked Blogspot domains.

After you've made your account, it's gravy. Make some posts and get in contact with other people on the Western Sahara scene. Send me an email and I'll link to you.

Reporters without Borders has a great guide to starting and running your blog that was especially designed for people in repressive countries like Morocco or the occupied territories. I even used it for One Hump, because although no one in the U.S. government is tracing my IP and sending federal agents, it has handy advice about increasing traffic, earning a higher Google ranking, and writing better posts.

Is this just a ploy to increase my Technorati ranking? Partly. I also like reading about the Western Sahara (there isn't nearly enough opinion writing about it, and most of it is in Arabic or French). Additionally, the Western Sahara needs ideological and methodological arguments that we can continue in blogs.

I have a motive larger than the others: blogs make noise. All the hype about citizen journalism aside, a lot of people read blogs, and the more we write about the Western Sahara the more people will consider it. Additionally, it makes the Moroccan government nervous. I've heard that my blog has been emailed between officials in their government. Let's get make them nervous together.