A blog revolution in Madagascar?

Wed, 08/12/2009 - 12:21pm

Political expression has grown up in Madagascar. After a coup deposed the government in March, previously dormant bloggers who once had little to talk about fired up their computers to comment on the instability. The BBC has the story:


Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Twitter have become popular forums for debate, and video and picture sharing.

"The crisis has triggered something like social-media activism here in Madagascar," says Tahina.

Lova Rakotomalala, who analyses Malagasy bloggers for Global Voices, a project promoting citizen media across the world, believes the political crisis has helped inspire political expression among young Malagasies.

He says he wants to see the Malagasy blogosphere evolve into an internet forum similar to Kenya's Mzalendo.

Mzalendo, meaning "patriot" in Swahili, is a volunteer-run website whose self-declared mission is to "keep and eye on the Kenyan parliament".

The emerging trend seems to be that social media can help legitimize public unrest in politically unstable countries. Recent protests in Iran and Moldova appear to prove the point. Does Madagascar's experience with Web 2.0 confirm anything?

AFP/GETTY IMAGES

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The need for infrastructure

by Eric C on Wed, 08/12/2009 - 3:35pm

Compare these revolutions to places that don't have them (Sudan, N. Korea) and you can see that infrastructure plays a role. Iran's educated, literate and connected youths were able to engage in the movement.

I also see it as a test of whether the internet can be censored and shut down. This article makes the case that it can be.

Eric C (www.onviolence.com)

Interesting

by Giorgio on Thu, 08/13/2009 - 3:06am

Whether we like it or not, social networking sites are becoming part of the new civil society, just as international solidarity-based NGOs came to prominence in the environmental, animal rights and poverty movements.

A whole lot of people are getting kicks and kudos out of playing the sceptic and underestimating the effectiveness of these technologies. Never underestimate the chattering classes, especially not in the long term.