When Magharebia Shamelessly Distorts News & Misleads Readers...
It is not the first time I express my disapproving standpoint of Magharebia and how it systematically manipulates and distorts the writings of North African bloggers just to serve its own interests and that of the US Administration, but I guess this time Magharebia has crossed the line. I was perusing Magharebia's recent North African blog review and I was shocked on how it clearly and shamelessly distorted and manipulated certain posts by a fellow Tunisian blogger Stupeur.
"Tunisia celebrated the 51st anniversary of its independence Tuesday (March 20th), the day when Tunisians "have lost the chance to have a chance," bemoaned Tunisian blogger Stupeur. "On … March 20th, the [Council of Ministers] … announced that repression will be a major shareholder in our society. [Repression] will be a shareholder with financial, ideological and socio-cultural influence…and like our ancestors have said: [in our society] whales eat whales and small efforts die."
And here is Stupeur's actual post:
"Eh Oui, on a perdu la chance d’avoir une chance!
En ce jour du 20 Mars, le conseil d’administration s’est réuni et a annoncé que la répression serait actionnaire majoritaire de notre société!
Un actionnaire qui a son poids financier, idéologique et socioculturel.
Il est capable de racheter encore des actions aux dépends des autres actionnaires.
Une société de consommation ou le plus grand bouffe le plus petit.
Et comme avaient dit nos aïeux : حوت يأكل حوت و قليل الجهد يموت "
En ce jour du 20 Mars, le conseil d’administration s’est réuni et a annoncé que la répression serait actionnaire majoritaire de notre société!
Un actionnaire qui a son poids financier, idéologique et socioculturel.
Il est capable de racheter encore des actions aux dépends des autres actionnaires.
Une société de consommation ou le plus grand bouffe le plus petit.
Et comme avaient dit nos aïeux : حوت يأكل حوت و قليل الجهد يموت "
I won't discuss Stupeur's post here for he might be alluding to something else that quuenches the thirst of Magharebia but I found the latter's action unethical and irresponsible!. Please correct me If I am wrong...
posted by Hannibal | 12:31 PM
7 Comments:
Hannibal, the Arabic version was more outrageous (See post "Lost in Translation" from MetalicaNaddou last week).
On this one besides the vicious association between the Independence Day and the post that was never mentioned explicitly by Stupeur and the Counsel of Ministers that should have been the board of directors, the rest is kind of ok.
The arabic version is really bad. BTW, I did not know that it is a US Army organization until this incident; I think Said's blog mentioned that.
@Hannibal: Ok you got me worried now, because I translated the same post for GlobalVoice and this is my version. Please tell me what you think?
Oh yeah, we’ve lost the chance to have a chance!
On this day, March 20, the board met and announced that repression
would be the majority shareholder in our company!
A shareholder of great financial, ideological and socio-cultural
importance.
He is capable of buying even more shares at the expense of other
shareholders.
A consuming company where the large eat the small.
@No worries your translation is much more better and after all FAITHFUL to the original text. Once again, reading between the lines one can guess Stupeur's message which Magharebia just spoiled by its reckless and unethical move.
@Samsoum: oh yeah Magharebia is under the oversight of Pentagon my dear:) I mentioned this in my blog since Magharebia's inception two years ago I think.
I agree that samsoum's translation is much better. I had the good fortune to read it first. But even in the original French, I'm still confused about what stupeur is alluding to. Is there a backstory here I'm not aware of? On Global Voices, the connection samsoum made for me in my head was not to Independence Day but to the war in Iraq. Is that what I'm supposed to get from this? If so, I agree that magharabia.com's interpretation is shamefully bad, because it twists the original meaning around almost backwards. Hard to say whether they did that out of malice or complete cluelessness, but I would guess the latter.
It is clear what Stupeur meant-- even the title of his post had "51%"-- what was this in reference to? The sales season? The Mauritanian elections? Or could it be the 51st anniversary of Tunisian independence! If Magharebia is guilty of anything, it's giving Stupeur and co a forum to air out their grievances about their society (and not 'company'-- give me a break!). And I believe, Hannibal, that the site responded to stupeur's comment (just follow the link) and offered to unpublish his quote. It's laughable how so many of you are coming to the rescue of a blogger that's apparently being attacked by the big bad US that-- god forbid-- is funding a website as opposed to a war. What's the complaint here? that the US government is not engaging Maghreb citizens in dialog instead of sending bombs? No. The site is being accused of "manipulation". I don't know what kind of team stands behind Magharebia-- but as someone who follows Maghreb news, I find it to be a decent source that actually respects the intelligence of its readers. They've got local correspondents, and they're not sensational. Given the pathetic state of Tunisian and Maghreb media in general, I would have imagined bloggers such as yourselves to be welcoming of the site and its attempt to give you a voice. But bla bla bla, it's a lot easier to bash a democracy than have the balls to call for one in your own backyard, let alone own up to your own words.
@Good Morning! You took so much time to flush away your irresponsible remarks! Your nick Mr. Spy leads to nowhere cos' you don't have the guts nor the courage to to tell who you really are! Well thank you Magharebia and Co! you shouldn't bother yourself and come to defend who? but yourself.SHAME ON YOU AGAIN AND AGAIN("I don't know what kind of team stands behind Magharebia", ohh I am sorry I was mistaken!)Stop this bullshit! We know your disgusting rhetoric, so please GIVE US A BREAK! we don't need your Democracy lessons you better clean your own rotten house!.Enough is enough!
Post a Comment
<< Home