Ha Ana Za! - Thu, 2008-05-22 14:10 By
I just finished reading a post on Ahmed Shokeir's Blog, Late Night Stories and to be honest I didn't quite know what to make of the news that someone has created an Egyptian Bloggers Union.
On one hand it is good that bloggers are uniting together and getting some kind of representation, especially considering the problems many face in Egypt with the government and getting arrested etc.
On the other hand, it is really worth considering if bloggers need official representation? Of course there is a minority of very influential and high profile bloggers that attract big media and governmental attention and perhaps they started their journey with blogging with this aim in mind. But, the majority of bloggers start small, perhaps only with the aim of venting their feelings, thoughts and oipinions. Sometimes, these are picked up on (depending on how proactive that blogger is at getting his/ her voice heard) and they attract a larger following. Although this still doesn't detract from the fact that they embarked on a very personal quest.
Let's take a hypothetical situation: say a high profile member of the Union takes it into his head to start making serious threats to some government official. Does this mean that his actions represent all other members of that union? And should that union defend him in his right to threaten that official? As a member of that union should this individual be entitled to legal support from the union when he eventually gets arrested?
Ofcourse, what I am saying here is only a worst case scenario but really I don't think that a personal activity/ hobby which is much akin to socialising really merits a Union. Next we'll be needing a facebook union :-)
To be honest, I think this is just another example of Egyptians going through all the motions of setting up 'officially' only to result in so much kalam fil hawa. Still it's nice to see that one of their first meetings was in al-Mansura :p
I just finished reading a post on Ahmed Shokeir's Blog, Late Night Stories and to be honest I didn't quite know what to make of the news that someone has created an Egyptian Bloggers Union.
On one hand it is good that bloggers are uniting together and getting some kind of representation, especially considering the problems many face in Egypt with the government and getting arrested etc.
On the other hand, it is really worth considering if bloggers need official representation? Of course there is a minority of very influential and high profile bloggers that attract big media and governmental attention and perhaps they started their journey with blogging with this aim in mind. But, the majority of bloggers start small, perhaps only with the aim of venting their feelings, thoughts and oipinions. Sometimes, these are picked up on (depending on how proactive that blogger is at getting his/ her voice heard) and they attract a larger following. Although this still doesn't detract from the fact that they embarked on a very personal quest.
Let's take a hypothetical situation: say a high profile member of the Union takes it into his head to start making serious threats to some government official. Does this mean that his actions represent all other members of that union? And should that union defend him in his right to threaten that official? As a member of that union should this individual be entitled to legal support from the union when he eventually gets arrested?
Ofcourse, what I am saying here is only a worst case scenario but really I don't think that a personal activity/ hobby which is much akin to socialising really merits a Union. Next we'll be needing a facebook union :-)
To be honest, I think this is just another example of Egyptians going through all the motions of setting up 'officially' only to result in so much kalam fil hawa. Still it's nice to see that one of their first meetings was in al-Mansura :p
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