Magharebia launches new discussion forum Zawaya
2009-05-06
The new, interactive Zawaya service provides a space for thoughtful and intelligent discussion.
 [zawaya.magharebia.com] To satisfy readers' desire for greater participation, Magharebia presents Zawaya to be a pioneer in today's interactive media. |
Magharebia unveiled a new service Wednesday (May 6th) to engage readers more thoroughly on matters important to the Maghreb region and to involve them in news and issues. Zawaya will serve as a platform for a vibrant exchange of ideas and opinions.
Zawaya panellists hail from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and soon, from Mauritania. Specialists in their areas of work, they come from a diverse range of professional backgrounds. They are experts in human rights, human development issues, democratisation, and women's rights. They include educators, national newspaper editors-in-chief, lawyers, union organisers and private sector executives.
Each week, Magharebia will suggest a topic inspired by current developments in the region or derived from key issues concerning life in Maghreb countries and ask the distinguished panellists to give their opinions. The articles will be published on the website.
Readers will have the chance to comment on the chosen topic, react to the opinions expressed by the panellists and engage in a healthy discussion with each other or with the experts. The articles and comments will be published in Magharebia's three languages: Arabic, French and English.
The new discussion forum is the latest effort by Magharebia to promote freedom of speech and public involvement on the region's key issues.
Zawaya was generated as a direct response to an online survey conducted by Magharebia in October 2007. To satisfy readers' desire for greater participation, Magharebia presents this platform to be a pioneer in today's interactive media.
In order to maintain a healthy discussion and protect readers from spam comments, Zawaya will be available only to registered users. Readers are also encouraged to carefully read Zawaya's user and comments policies, which are provided for their protection.
"We're excited about this new feature," said Magharebia's editor-in-chief. "Zawaya gives our readers another venue to discuss issues that matter to them."
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hallal Posted 2009-05-06
Hello- Personally, I consider Zawaya to be the anchor to our ship of tradition at high sea. There is nobility in our origins.
بوكرش محمد Posted 2009-05-06
Zawaya...??? Responding to the desire of readers to a bigger participation...??? In favour of whom? Zawaya will be available only to registered users...??? Encouraging freedom of expression and involving the public in major issues in the region. Are the negative effects of successive American policies on the region included in your interests in the Maghreb region? Does Zawaya offer room to talk about hegemony and unipolarity...the policies of enslaving people, tyranny and abuse of them as a result of the repeated American offensive under many names...? As Mr the editor-in-chief of Magharebia said "We're excited about this new feature. Zawaya gives our readers another venue to discuss issues that matter to them." It will be nice if this mentioned interest is real with clean conscious pens from both sides the American and Maghreb not just on a pure Maghreb side. Mohamed Boukerch.
Anonymous Posted 2009-05-06
You say that the purpose of this new initiative is to promote the freedom of expression. This is why you have chosen a panel of experts of such topics as human rights and democratization, or, in other words, the most taboo subjects in the Arab world and, more particularly, the Maghreb. Your experts include, among other people, editors of the national newspapers, from which the wrongdoing has come. The people of the Maghreb countries have been subjected to a ferocious campaign of propaganda and disinformation. The ones who carry out this criminal campaign are none other than the ones in charge of the national media, to whom journalism applies as nothing more than a name. I know that there are differences – more or less subtle as they are – between countries, but if the ones in charge of the media in the Maghreb had done their work with integrity, then your website would not have had a reason to exist. The honest journalists in the concerned countries have been subject to persecution, including loss of work, imprisonment, torture and so on. In order to preserve their lives, some have exiled themselves, some have kept quiet, and some have hung up their gloves. As for those in charge of the unions, many are instruments of and accomplice to the regime in place, and, by their nature, they think only of doing wrong and repeatedly discrediting organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders. That said, I am really curious to see how committed your panel is and the credibility they will bring… and also how the regime reacts.
Ezroura Posted 2009-05-06
Excellent idea! Zawaya will certainly encourage citizens of the maghreb and those from other parts of the world concerned about the maghreb to connect and exchange constructive thoughts. Hopefully, minds will come together across the borders of difference and political divide.
saidani miloudi Posted 2009-05-06
A good initiative.I will register soon.
خليل وصفي الحاج درويش Posted 2009-05-07
Salam alikum. Is it possible to accept me as a guest? Amman, Jordan.
سمراي Posted 2009-05-07
Salam alikum. We welcome the new service or in other words the new born in order to enrich and enhance debate of issues in our Arab nation and the Arab Maghreb in particular. This initiative by supervisors of the site is a good initiative by Magharebia site, for its readers, researchers and is a boost to the site to go ahead in the latest developments, events and current issues so that they will be discussed through dialog and ideas exchange channels between experts in the field. This will contribute to coming up with positive results by involving readers and researchers in the field of knowledge.
AHMED Posted 2009-05-07
This initiative you have just started is very good. I go there every time I go on the Internet. I hope that they subject you take on will hold the attention of the Internet-goers. Good luck, Magharebia!
محمد Posted 2009-05-07
Irresponsibility of the president of the commune of Ikayghan, Tata. To the governor of his majesty the king in the province of Tata. Subject: corruption in Ikayghan. I am a citizen from Oujda. I am originally from the region of Ikayghan, Tata. I am concerned about my hometown. When will the enormities which persisted for a long time end? People, including unemployed young people and the public who can't make a living, expect the assistance cards which they receive to calm the problem and meet their requirements. But they were astonished to find that these cards are a source of plundering, corruption and favouritism. They are given to people who aren’t poor or miserable. They benefit rich people. So we ask that an urgent investigation be opened given the importance of the issue and its impact on the economic and social levels.
IBALINE EL HACHMI Posted 2009-05-08
I forgot to ask Magharebia about an issue. Which issue? -The issue in regards to the usefulness of comment archiving for commenters. Every time we prepare to write something on a given topic, we have to be aware of everything they published before. And, so as not to lose time searching before every new comment, I propose that you give us accounts where we can find all of our old comments together.
BEN Posted 2009-05-10
I do not know if Magharebia is a daily newspaper, weekly newspaper or what. Some articles are changed out according to their mood - and our comments with them - while others stick around. This is an indirect way of censoring us without any explanation.
سعيد محمد سعيد Posted 2009-05-10
This initiative deserves respect and encouragement as it offers an opportunity for free and constructive debate among visitors of the site. It also opens intellectual horizons, enshrines the values of dialog, difference and respect between citizens in the Arab World. We need so much such a free forum to get rid gradually of our despicable intellectual traditions which impose on us either to swallow the opinion of the other or oppose it. However, interacting with it in analysis, criticism and enriching is something which is not part of the ordinary and natural behaviour of the Moroccan citizen whose thinking and behaviour are governed by the popular saying “Do as your neighbour does or move the door of your house”. This does not let any room for difference or right to cohabit. With my wishes of success.
Anonymous Posted 2009-05-15
It is too early to pass judgment on the new Zawaya forum, which was just inaugurated. Some visitors have responded politely before reading anything. (This is a thousand-year-old custom in Arab culture.) I would like, in the absence of a judgment, express the impression I got after learning of the first topics it covered and the somewhat boring academic manner in which they were treated. (I am not going back on what I said above.) Instead of discussions, these are conferences held with intellectuals. I expected nothing other, given the style imposed on us for decades in the countries of North Africa. The godfathers in charge of the mafias in power speak and we listen and then applaud, and we do so even if we did not understand them. They have managed to impose a style on us that, consciously or not, has nestled itself in our minds and resides in our behaviour. This is the consequences of fear, which, in extreme cases like that of Libya and Tunisia, is on the verge of terror. If this new forum does not untie our tongue and stimulate our minds, then I can only pray for you. In the current state of things, the ephemeral swine flu in comparison to the deadly, aggressive virus of dictatorship, which destroys democracy and attacks human rights on daily basis. Do the intellectuals on your panel have a vaccine to suggest for this?
el hoo Posted 2009-05-24
This is an excellent initiative. On the other hand, if this forum becomes one of insults and propaganda, it would be better to avoid having it for the good of all the people of the Maghreb.
sofiane Posted 2009-05-24
I think your magazine goes fishing for primitive, anti-Algerian attitude. This anti-Algerianism has no legitimate foundation! I will cite an example for your news article reporting on terrorism in Algeria. Do you at least know that many Moroccans are in Algerian enclaves and are often quite virulent, having taken part in terrible carnage (particularly in the mountains of Tizi Ouzou, Boumerdès and Bouira)? All this dirty work is most often done by Moroccans, who hate Algerians. This hate is cultivated and injected by the King of Kings and late Hassan II spokesmen so as to drive the ferocious animosity against the Alge-"riens". Lyada and other head terrorists help and encourage him!
funmaroc Posted 2009-05-26
To Sofiane- There is no need to believe that what you feel towards Moroccans carries over to what Moroccans feel towards Algerians. We do not hate you. What is more, we ignore you and the stupid things you write (for example: how the Moroccans feed terrorism in Algeria, which we would like to take action against). No, you are lying to yourself - either that, or you are trying to put your rottenness on the backs of Moroccans. When will the gene of boldness kill off the gene of ridiculousness?
عبد الرحمان نيت علي Posted 2009-06-08
On 8 June 2009 in Safi. First of all, I greet all the sons of Douar Idousoultane. With the upcoming communal elections 2009 which try to achieve local development, within the participation of citizens to choose their representative as chairman of their commune 'Akaighan', out of their concern for their local affairs, we need change.
Anonymous Posted 2009-06-10
In follow up to the article in Al Attihad Al Ichtiraqi daily in its edition of 20/06/2009, in fact the budget of the commune usually exceeds 24 million dirhams. The annual surplus highly exceeds the one announced. In his speech about the human structure of the commune, the article alleged that this structure and its number doesn't contribute to rural development in the commune. It is a shame to describe the human structure in that way...on the socio-cultural level and its relationship with development, electricity. To be continued.
mad Posted 2009-06-15
In reply to the question of Abderahmane Ait Ali Idousettane, commune of Akighane, Tata about the change of the council. Yes brother, I salute you for the article published on 7. Everything has changed with the efforts of people who endure in this commune marginalization, corruption and favouritism. The poet says in the exam one is honoured or humiliated. 18 years of negligence, today in 2009 we want the welfare of all the Moroccan people. Our motto is God, the nation, the king.
hassouna/saraha raha Posted 2009-06-19
I love this site so much but unfortunately I don't like this. However, I will remain loyal to you.
محمد Posted 7 days ago
On 28/12/2009. Subject : negligence of the schools of Akighan, Tata. Irresponsibility of the principal in the schools of Akighan, hiding the truth, absence of teachers working there. To whom it may concern. Addressed to the delegate of education in Tata to find facts. Salam.
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