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Arab Africa Net is the homepage of
Arab-African community based in Seoul, Korea. It was created to provide an
objective news and information on a wide range of issues related to the Arab
and Africa world-- including politics, economy, diplomacy, culture, sports, and
religion, among other things. It is envisioned that this website will
promote deeper understanding on Arabs and Africans that will eventually lead to
a better and mutually beneficial ties between Korean and the Arab-African
people.
In January 2000, a group of Arab ambassadors
based in Seoul approached Mr Min Byung-il, the then president of Digital
Korea Herald-- an online newspaper of The Korea Herald. Mr.Min also served
as executive director and editor of the Herald before taking over online
newspaper CEO post.They brought up the idea of embarking on a project that seeks
to promote mutual understanding and friendly relations between Korea and the
Arab world-- via the Internet. According to them, international mass media
have not been objective in their reports about the Arab world. Most of the
time, Arabs are portrayed either as an Islam Fundamentalists or terrorists
against Israel or Westerners.
Also, Koreans are usually not given an easy
access to correct information about the Arab world.
In the face of this
misinformation, these ambassadors, Mr. Min, and Ms. Esther Lee, chairperson
of Space Group-- one of the leading Korean IT firms, got together over
dinner on May 26, 2000 at Ritz Carlton Hotel in Seoul to discuss in detail on
how to create an Internet environment leading to a correct understanding of the
Arab world by Korean netizens which now totaled at about 25 million.
After a month of brainstorming and feasibility work, the project got
underway in July 2000 under the financial and technical sponsorship of
Space Group. Finally, the domain http://www.arabplaza.co.kr was officially
registered in August 2000.
During the first year, however, Amb.
Ahmed Boutache of Algeria, who also heads the African diplomatic mission in
Korea, and one of the brains of the project-- suggested the need to further
reconstruct the web to expand the scope of its coverage. On July 1, 2001, the
web restarted its service with the new address: http://www.ArabAfrica.Net.
This website aims to provide Korean netizens with unbiased news and
information about Arab and African countries. Koo Ja-hyuk, president and
CEO of Digital Media Co.,Ltd., was instrumental in creating the
new web site of ArabAfrica.Net.
This cyber space is
open to all-- Koreans, Arabs, and African businesses and individuals, not to
mention diplomatic corps from Arab and African communities. Ambassadors from
13 countries who joined in the meeting on May 26, 2000 were:
Amb. Hussein
Elfarouk Derar (Egypt)
Amb.Salem A,J.Al Sabah (Kuwait)
Amb.Nasrat
El-Assaad (Lebanon)
Amb. Ahmed Mohamed Tabuli (Libya)
Amb. Ahmed
Boutache (Algeria)
Amb.Mohamed Bennani Smires (Morocco)
Amb.Yayha S.H.Al
Wahaibi (Oman)
Amb. Ali A.A. Al Musiemani (Qatar)
Amb. Saleh M.Al-Rajhy
(Saudi Arabia)
Amb.Abdel Hamied Ibrahim Gibreel (Sudan)
Amb.Mondher
Jemail (Tunisia)
Amb.Abdulla M. Al-Shurala (UAE)
Charge d'affairs Yahya
Ahmed Mohamed Al Wazir (Yemen).
We then need your support and
cooperation to make this website a
meaningful avenue for objective
information, more particularly for Korean and Arab-African people. We welcome
your comments and suggestions as all feedback will be reflected on the
improvement of the website in the months to come.
Contact points:
02-2055-2020(fax) e-mail mihnbi@hanmir.com
Min Byung-il, web editor
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