Wednesday, March 28, 2007

MFL Account: One Year Old Anniversary

Exactly last year I decided to open Marxist From Lebanon and decided to blog.

It all started in December 2005 when a fellow comrade showed me the Angry Arab blog. I already read couple of articles here and there in my field for Dr. Bou Khalil, and kept a close eye on his blog for academic purposes, specially when he was a critique to US Foreign Policy and even internal policy. I never even thought there were millions of blogs on the web.

Eventually, several comrades started writing their blogs, mainly to express anger towards political entities and to write their own journals. Sadly, I can't link their blogs to their post because it would risk exposing our identities. I discovered my work colleague, a certain famous anarchist over here, was heavily into blogging. By March 28, 2006, I decided to write my first post as a trial.

Probably no day I wrote as much as I did on that day. I wrote about the three left-wing actors, and just spilled my anger ideas. After couple of days, around 5 comrades suspected it was me, and sort of we established our own tiny network. We thought it was for the fun of it. Me and Angry Anarchist had our debates on almost every post, while I thought I would write on class struggle. Angry Anarchist was my first visitor, and encouraged me to be active.

Then the July War broke, and I was involved extensively in relief work. The sad part, I couldn't write as I wanted, specially about the blunders of the political parties during the Israeli aggression on Lebanon. With the war over, a powerful Marxist established contact with me, his name is Renegade Eye. I was about to stop blogging and went as far as to delete my blog. Renegade introduced me to a new world on the blogsphere, and showed me the international sphere of leftists, and how the clashes between the right and left taking place.

When I wrote my first post to Renegade Eye, a powerful debate took place in a post that almost reached 90 comments, then I realized that it was my duty to reflect what is going on. I encountered different friends, and foes. Zionists would attack my blog, while very few Zionists to be objective were interested in constructive debates.

Eventually, through Renegade Eye, I met the comrades of the Further Left Forum. I was invited to be a contributor over there, and comrades Pocho, Say No To Mullets, and my neighbor Puppeteer encouraged me to write more. To a certain extent, we became friends, and the Further Left Forum was to a certain extent my online family.

Red Mantis posted my entire blog on Carnival of Socialism, and ever since I contributed to the Carnival every time I had the chance to do so.

Afterwards, I started interacting with the Lebanese Blogshere. Rampurple devised a gigantic Lebanese Aggregator, and Ur Shalim put some of my posts on Global Voices Online. Both encouraged me to write more. The Lebanese Bloggers were the trickiest of all. I was already a person who enjoyed reading different opinions from other Lebanese. I was, and still am fascinated with Khawwta's blog, and kept a close eye on the Lebanese Bloggers Forum. The trick was how to talk with people without exposing my identity. Afterall, if people knew my identity, I wouldn't be able to write what I want efficiently. I had couple of Lebanese on MSN, and it was great chatting with them. Liliane's "My Lebanon is Being Burnt to Ashes" was another blog of interest, as we agreed more and more with time. Delirious was as hilarious as ever on her blog, and during her short visits to my blogs, while me and N10452 had heavy but respectable debates despite the fact we never agreed on one thing and indirectly we despise each other's movements. La Lebanessa keeps dropping me funny notes from time to time.

Lately, Hillz, and Sham's blog were of massive interest to me, despite the fact I disagree with either couple/or a lot with their ideas (depending on the author).

It is funny, that such a blog, which started out of simple ideas became that important to me. I established contacts with different large organizations, some of them are my comrades, such as www.marxist.com

In any case, I wish I can attend those bloggers meetings, but guess I can't. I want to thank all those who supported me, those who sent me kind words and those who read my blog. I am sure more and more articles are coming as class struggle is an on-going issue as I got plenty of my mind. The subjective analysis of the duality camps has ruined most of the blogs and rendered them non-reliable. A lot has to be written from an objective fashion, and observing everything as they take place, and from a class struggle perspective. No War But Class War!!

Happy One Year Anniversary to my blog :)

16 comments:

Hilal CHOUMAN said...

will wait your 2nd anniversary post :)

yin3ad 3leik and thanks. :)

Anonymous said...

what??? No mentioning of ME ???
fine fine ...
i think ur readers would be rather shocked if they knew who u were ...i mean its as shocking as finding out this blog is being written by saad hariri or maybe Condi !!
so yeah ...its that interesting to find out who MFL is ...
anyways, i wont sign with my name ...cuz its risky ...but ull know who this is ...
~~The Manyak

Unknown said...

happy birthday MFL's blog!!
3o2al el 100 sini :-)

Anonymous said...

Gasp!

MFL has mentioned me and my hilariousness on his blog!

Yin3ad 3leik w 3a2bel el miyyi :)

Anonymous said...

Meybe Hassan Nasrhalla...or someone who work for Al-Manar...
one of your angry zionist reader ;)...

Rampurple said...

mabrook!
glad u stuck in this long and looking forward to hearing about ur 10 year anniversary

Angry Anarchist said...

Mabrouk. ;)
Glad to see your blog picked up. ;)
What do I get? :D

Liliane said...

Mabrouk 3a2beil el 100 :P 10 is not bad either.

Liliane said...

Oh and I enjoyed reading your blog w I learned a lot kamen (bass nsit most of them :P) Keep writing.

Blacksmith Jade said...

Congrats! :)

Korakious said...

Well, this seems like a nice blog. I'll be keeping an eye on it. Keep up the good work.

Moussa Bashir said...

Congratulations.

You started and continued for a cause. I started because I was trying a new software. Testing the technology.
Blogging becomes addictive.
Something should be written about that.

Pocho said...

Happy First Anniversary Marxist! Yesterday my wife an I quietly celebrated our 49th in marriage. Every significant life's move I have ever made has come through the luck of that. They usually took place at what seemed to me spontaneously at her wiser than I suggestions. Blogging for myself however has been much more a slow drawn out learning process rather than sudden move. Its advancement was fortified with experience taught understanding that the ears are far better tools for causing change than the mouth. The first seeds of what grew to today's Further Left Forum were planted a few days short of five years ago though they were preceded by about 20 of internet probing in unanticipated preparation. Your story here highlights the commonness in the routes we've taken. My first thought on reading it was that I ought to do the same on the Forum. It may take a while though if I do, for there is a lot to tell. Just as yours has done here, some of it might help guide others as we feel our way forward. And, now for a nap that may induce dredging memories of some of what got us here.

Frank Partisan said...

It was harrowing during the bombing of Lebanon. You didn't post. There was no way to tell if you were ok.

I was determined to get you to my blog.

Puppeteer said...

Many happy returns of the day. And !Hasta la victoria siempre!

Khawwta said...

3a2bal l 100
I really liked the story and thx for the compliment