blogging with a purpose

Let's start off with an OT (off topic):
Happy Birthday, Mosi !! If you want a good friday laugh, check out his photos back then. Priceless !
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Onto the topic of the day:
Sometime ago, someone asked me: "Why the "Rakoto's rants" ? What is a "rant" anyway ?" I started blogging basically because I was too scared to voice out loud the things that upset me. Anything from war for-oil, to broken computer or unpaired socks, I would vent my frustration on the blog, not realizing that someone might actually be reading it. So that's my take on what a rant is : going on and on about something that troubles you.
At some point though, things changed. Either I realized that people started to read, or I got less angry, or ranting was just not enough anymore but there was less "writing-on-and-on-out-of-frustration" stuff and more poised (?) "stuff" to discuss.

Well, there are plenty of people out there who write beautifully, with a purpose. The purpose may be to just brighten the reader's day, increase awareness/knowledge or share a hidden "web-gem". It's not ranting. The passion/drive is there but it is accompanied with facts and well-formed sentences, pretty much the opposite of what I am doing. Others have gone a step further and taken their words to the real world.

Some excerpts from these people recently:

“Pour l’heure, et s’agissant de l’Afrique, il manque tout simplement à la France le crédit moral qui lui permettrait de parler avec certitude et autorité.”
For now, France is simply missing the moral credit which would allow it to speak about Africa with certitude and authority”(Achille Mbembe on Sarkozy's speech in Dakar as translated for Global Voices by sipakv. If you want a nice rebuttal to the patronizing speech, read the whole post, it says it all.)

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"Je ne comprends pas l’utilité de toutes ces lois, annonces et décisions en tout genre si ce n’est une démarche politique de s’affranchir de certaines élites qui ont la double nationalité ou qui sont issues d’une famille binationale."
"matahotra aho mantsy sao ny làlana mifanohitra amin’i Afrika Atsimo no diavintsika ka ry zareo nanavakava-bolokoditra vao « tonga saina » ho mitovy zo ary isika kosa mitovy zo taloha vao mampiditra fizarazarana vaovao anavahana izay heverina ho « tena Malagasy »

(Crjo and Tomavana on the new law in Madagascar restricting the rights of bi-nationals. Personally, If the folks in charge want to strip me of my Malagasy citizenship, they will have to come over here and get it themselves. As for taking away my Malagasy identity, they sure are welcome to try. The conversation is continuing on the two aforementioned posts. )
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"Words mean nothing. Action is the only thing."
( Hjk and JoGany on walking the walk about making a difference back home, one village at a time. Two other people are fully committed to this project. You can find out who by following this link ;) . Hash of White African wrote a great post on how to take blogging to its most effective level.)