FOM Newsletter April 2003
Morocco Week in Review 
April 5 2003

Warner Bros. has cancelled plans to film battle scenes for upcoming blockbuster 'Troy' in Morocco. The filming was halted because international insurance companies refused to provide coverage in the event of an US-led military campaign on Iraq.  Morocco has been actively trying to market its geographical advantages. Abdel Kader Al-Halawi, production manager at the Moroccan Cinematographic Centre (CCM), said most Hollywood productions are now pulling out and feared that European production companies would join the movement. Aware of the industry's importance to the economy, Moroccan authorities have recently made efforts to lift administrative hurdles for international companies required to obtain production permits. They also instituted a system of incentives, including a reduction of up to 50 per cent on travel fares and hotels.  "Despite a severe recession after September 11, the film industry has recently generated $154 million for Morocco and will surpass that amount this year," Halawi told The Daily Star. The industry also provides some 80,000 local jobs. © Gulf Marketing Review 2003

Moroccan tourism ministry launches Iraq counter-offensive

Morocco will beat its tourist drum more loudly to counter a decline in visitors caused by the war in Iraq, Tourism Minister Adil Douiri said Tuesday. The number of tourists visiting Morocco has fallen less than 10 percent since the beginning of the Iraq crisis, he said, predicting the decline would remain "fairly weak" for now in the context of the war. Douiri said the ministry was launching an "action plan" that includes redirecting promotional budgets toward institutional communication. The Moroccan tourism sector was devastated by the fallout from the first Gulf War in 1991.  

Morocco Announces Plan to Eradicate Illiteracy by 2015

RABAT, Apr.03 - The Moroccan government has devised a national plan to eradicate illiteracy in the country by 2015, it was officially announced this Thursday. The plan seeks to cut illiteracy from 48 percent of the 30-million population now to 35 percent in 2004, 20 percent in 2010, before its complete eradication by 2015, Moroccan communication minister and government spokesman, Nabil Benabdallah, told the press at the end of the weekly government meeting. The plan, devised in accordance with the National Education and Training Charter, provides for actions targeting people aged 5 to 45 years with priority given to women and to rural world populations, the official said.  Only 400,000 people currently attend literacy courses throughout Morocco. Countrywide awareness campaigns are envisioned to win the population's adherence to the drive.

Morocco to earmark 1% of gdp to scientific research by 2010, minister

Moroccan Minister in charge of scientific research, Omar Fassi Fihri, said Morocco will earmark 1% of its GDP to scientific research by 2010. The move will be made pursuant to recommendations of UNESCO's International Sciences Congress, held in Budapest in 1999. The official told a local daily the amount allotted to scientific research in Morocco was 0.8% in 2001 and 2002 and 0.3 in 1997 and 1998.

RABAT, April 2 - No case of killer SARS pneumonia has been detected in Morocco, Moroccan Public Health Minister, Mohamed Cheikh Biadillah, said on Wednesday. "So far no such case was detected in the country," the Minister told MAP news agency, underlining that measures have been taken by his department to avert the threat, citing intensified control in border points. SARS, which is proving fatal in around four percent of cases, is believed to have begun in Guangdong in November before spreading to Hong Kong and then other parts of South-East Asia. The disease, which starts with a fever and a dry cough and for which there are no fully effective drugs, subsequently spread to Canada, where six people have died, and to other parts of North America and Europe, where no one has died so far.

http://www.map.co.ma/mapeng/eng.htm  

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RABAT, April 4 (Reuters) - A court in Casablanca on Friday cut to 45 days from one year the prison sentences handed down last month to three heavy metal music enthusiasts found guilty of trying to woo young Moroccans away from Islam.  The Casablanca appeal court acquitted the 11 other defendants in the case, the official MAP news agency reported, overturning sentences of between one and six months jail for lesser public morality offences. In a court case which triggered great controversy, state prosecutors had maintained that the young men's musical tastes and dress code suggested they were part of a "Satanist" cult. This caused an outcry among Moroccan liberals, who said the case resulted from a misunderstanding of the heavy metal sub-culture and should never have come to court. The 11 acquitted on Friday were found guilty on March 6 of minor public morality offences. The three other men, including one Egyptian national living in Morocco, were sentenced to one year in jail for trying "to undermine the faith of a Muslim". The 11 were freed on bail the week after being sentenced, as young people in Casablanca joined human rights activists in demonstrations of solidarity with the jailed music lovers. Most of the 14 are musicians in three Moroccan heavy metal bands: Nekros, Infected Brain and Reborn. ((Reporting by Eileen Byrne; editing by Tim Pearce; Reuters Messaging: eileen.byrne.reuters.com@reuters.net ; tel +212-37 720065))

Hotfoot through Sahara: Businessman Mr Simon Fleet will start six days of runs across the Sahara Desert on Sunday.

Mr Fleet (38) of Fosse Road, Farndon, will run with work colleague Mr Mark Clifford (41) from Nottingham. They have raised £50,000 in sponsorship, which will be matched by their employers, St James Place Partnership insurance company. The money will help children's charities. They flew to Morocco yesterday to join 600 runners in the event, the Marathon Des Sables. It is said to be the toughest foot race on earth. The contestants have to carry their own food and equipment across the desert in temperatures exceeding 104?F. On Sunday they will run 15 miles, on Monday 18, on Tuesday 26, on Wednesday 52, on Thursday 26 and on Friday 12. They will set off each day at 9.30am after making their breakfast. Mr Fleet has prepared for the experience by reading a diary written by a friend, Mr John Guthrie, who completed the event five years ago. At the end he spent a week in hospital recovering. Mr Fleet started training in November and has been running four times a week. The farthest he has covered is 32 miles but he is confident of finishing. He feels his main problems will be blisters, fatigue and heat stress.

Morocco's Communication minister, Nabil Benabdellahn announced in Rabat on Wednesday the launching of two new TV channels, a parliamentary TV and a regional one, broadcasting from Laayoune (Southern Morocco). The minister, who made the announcement at a conference held in Rabat's Law Faculty, stressed these two channels are part of endeavours aiming to develop the audio-visual sector, to accompany Morocco's democratic advance. The Moroccan official further said the draft law regulating the audio-visual sector will soon be tabled in the parliament, recalling the creation of the high audio-visual communication authority that comprises the high council of audio-visual communication and the general directorate of audio-visual communication.  Touching on the draft law regulating Morocco radio-television broadcasting (RTM), he stressed that this project aims to endow public media with a "strong" channel, that gives the priority to quality national productions, an objective that can't be achieved without motivating the personnel in terms of compensations and training. Concerning the written press, he praised the role played by Maghreb Arab Press Agency (MAP) as well as its distinguished standing on both Arab and African levels.

RABAT, Apr.04 - H.R.H. Prince Moulay Rachid chaired here on Friday the premiere of a 55-minute documentary on a renowned sea trip through Moroccan coasts by Spanish Kitin Munoz. The documentary titled "El Viaje del Buque Mata Rangi en Marruecos" (the expedition of Mata Rangi to Morocco), traces the expedition of the Mata Rangi III through Moroccan coasts.  The Mata Rangi III is a primitive reed boat, which tried in 2001 to cross the Atlantic Ocean. It made a stop over in the Moroccan city of Tangiers before sailing towards Rabat and then to the town of Sidi Ifni, home town of Kitin Munoz. Munoz, now 45, and his multinational seven-man crew-- including members from the Easter Islands, Japan, Venezuela, Bolivia and Colombia- tried to prove that ancient seafarers could have crossed the Atlantic Ocean. The Mata Rangi III boat was identical to the boats used by ancient navigators, using ancient indigenous techniques, without any modern materials such as plastics. Munoz, a UNESCO honorary ambassador, had made two unsuccessful attempts to cross the Pacific Ocean during the late 1990s. Munoz's Mata Rangi I sank shortly after setting off from Easter Island, while Mata Rangi II sailed 10,000 km before the crew had to cut the boat in two to get rid of an infestation of sea termites which were eating it. H.M. King Mohammed VI had made in 2001 the Spanish explorer Morocco's honorary consul in Spain in recognition for his efforts.

RABAT, Apr.04 - H.R.H. Princess Lalla Meryem on Friday dedicated the Al-Azhar Cancer Treatment centre, located in central Rabat. H.R.H. The princess heard explanations on the US$ 5 million centre, endowed with state-of-the-art equipment and facility necessary for cancer treatment. The centre employs 90 full-time medical staff in all specialties. It has an accommodation capacity of 20 patients.

RABAT, Mar.30 - Tens of thousands of Moroccans staged this Sunday in Rabat a march to express their solidarity with the Iraqi people and express their rejection of war. The demo, that set out at around 9.35 in Rabat central square "Bab El Had" crossed the major avenues of Mohammed V and Moulay Youssef before dispersing after 2.00 pm at Bab Rouah.  Demonstrators, wearing stickers that read "we are all Iraqis" chanted slogans and waved Iraqi and Palestinian flags, to speak out against the sufferings of the Iraqi people.  The Iraqi people does not need another war, says a teacher from Kenitra (40 km north of Rabat), the country has already been ruined by two wars that destroyed its economy and all its potentials. For Khalid Soufiani, member of one of the organizing associations "the National action group of support to Iraq" -that groups several political parties, associations, trade unions and non-governmental organizations, the demo is a clear message showing that Moroccans are against the US-British war and that Iraqis are not alone in the battle for dignity. An Iraqi national, living in Morocco, who was also present among the Moroccan protesters, said he "appreciates, respects and is grateful" to the Moroccan people for their massive support to the Iraqi cause. The march, that coincides with the celebration of the Palestinian earth day, was also an opportunity to condemn the massacres perpetrated by Israel against Palestinians and renew Moroccans' unconditional support to the Palestinian people struggle for a Palestinian state with Al-Quds as its capital.  Despite a minor incident that occurred as a small group of people tried to attack a Mac Donald's restaurant before being dispersed by the police, the march proceeded peacefully as Moroccan and foreign journalists covered the event that was broadcast live on the Moroccan TV. Two press centers were set for journalists along the march itinerary while a health staff of 200 doctors, medicaids and rescue personnel were deployed in downtown Rabat. © MAP 2003

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