Monday, March 06, 2006

A few changes

I am a bit ashamed of myself, as I have been so overwhelmed with daily life, and the unbelievably self-destructive nature our world seems to be developping (have you read the news lately?), that I have been kept from fulfilling my blogging duties. I guess it is the real world catching up with me. Additionally, the politicians in Congo seem to use everyday to further prove that many of them are self-serving and immature overgrown schoolboys, and that does not help matters.

But something that I have done, is do some reevaluating. As you can see, the name of the salon has been reduced to its most simple expression. I realized that with my writing on Congo, and my trying to keep up with the situation there, I have been neglecting other things, and other places, that are just as important So we are now going to have 2 salons. The Salon will stay as the Congo blog, with my fellow team members, and the new "The Salon II" will be for some international issues.

What does this mean for the reader of The Salon:
  • A more mixed tone in the posts. The posts will sometimes be in news article style, but I want to allow for the fact that part of the beauty of blogs, is the fact that we can all write in our own voice, with a bit less formality. So more opinions, more shorter posts, and the same articles you are used to from our team.
  • More pictures. I am really working on illustrating the articles better, so we can actually give visuals to the things we talk about, on Congo. I need to contact Kim and Tim for that.
  • More writers. As I am trying to make a living here in the US (with the corollary savage capitalism), I am finding myself with less time to write, if I want to eat... and I regret that. So I need to find some good souls to compensate. Even if it means x-posting with their blogs (as our beloved Congo Girl does already). I also want more Congolese bloggers, and bloggers from other African countries... we'll see.
  • More bilingual French-English posts. As the elections are coming up, I want to make sure that some of the things we say here, are accessible to those Congolese people living in the DRC, who are lucky enough to be in a cyber cafe, and finding us.
On a personal note, I will also try to write more, and post more pictures on my personal blog, because it has really been a while. Not that anyone needs to know about my personal thoughts on my surroundings, but it's a good catharsis.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Ali,

That sounds good !!!
So 2 blogs to follo up now ... This initiative goes well with your natural interest towards the surrounding world and I am pleased to hear that we will now have a wider knoledge of your views and thoughts.

Anonymous said...

I like this idea. Interesting... we should talk when we bith have a minute. A few things I'd like to discuss with you.

I thought you might want to have a look at the folowing sites. Political analysis by Congolese bloggers (something tells me they also post at Congo2000)...in French of course:

http://congomania.afrikblog.com/
http://congolibere.afrikblog.com/

voila A bientot ;)

TheMalau said...

Ouais, quelque chose me dit qu'ils sont sur Congo 2000 aussi, hahaha.
Je ne suis pas aussi anti-Kabila qu'eux, mais ce n'est pas parce que je pense qu'il est bon. Juste une affaire de pragmatisme, you know?

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