Virtual Magazine of Morocco on the Web
Morocco Week in Review 
October 8, 2005

Subscription to American lottery starts on Wednesday.
Poverty rate in Morocco falls to 14.2 per cent in 2004.
Centres for women victims of domestic violence to be launched soon.
Violence against women not related to poverty.
Moroccan writer Mohamed Choukri's rise from poverty to universal recognition.
Morocco grooms post office for banking role, sale.
Swiss-based Moroccan to launch initiative in favour of diploma holders.

Subscription to American lottery starts on Wednesday.

The US Department of State has announced that registration for the 2007 Diversity Visa (DV) Lottery will start on Oct. 5, 2005, reported the Moroccan daily Assabah on Monday The DV lottery, a programme that gives out green cards to few people all over the world, will be held from Oct 5 to Dec 4. The programme is designated to bring greater racial and ethnic diversity to the United States.

As every year, 50,000 immigrant visas are made available through a lottery to people who come from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States. People seeking to take part in the lottery programme must register online through the designated Internet website during the registration period. The website for registering for the 2007 DV Lottery, www.dvlottery.state.gov, will be available from Oct. 5, 2005 to Dec. 4, 2005. Unlike precedent years, the dossier of subscription to the DV lottery will cost USD 755, a sum fixed by the American Congress which decided that the programme should be auto-financed.
http://www.moroccotimes.com/news/article.asp?id=10065 
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Poverty rate in Morocco falls to 14.2 per cent in 2004.
06/10/2005

The poverty rate in Morocco stood at 14.2 per cent in 2004, decreasing by 2.3 per cent from 1994, High Commissioner for Planning Ahmed Lahlimi announced Tuesday (4 October) in Rabat. Speaking at a press briefing to present the September 2004 census results, he said the development is due to an improvement in living conditions, specifying that the decrease in poverty was 2.5 per cent in urban areas and 1 per cent in rural areas. Lahlimi stressed that human development increased during the latest four years because of national programmes to provide drinking water and electricity and extend the roads network. The rate of children attending school jumped from 62 per cent in 1994 to 80 per cent in 2004, with the rate for girls increasing from 51.7 per cent to 77.6 per cent over the same period. Illiteracy decreased from 55 per cent in 1994 to 43 per cent in 2004
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/homepage/ 
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Centres for women victims of domestic violence to be launched soon.

Moroccan Justice Minister, Mohamed Bouzoubaâ said on Tuesday that centres for women victim of domestic violence in the country will be created soon, reported MAP news agency. "Now, it's time to work out a judicial framework and to reflect about specific mechanisms for women in need of social care," Bouzoubaâ told participants in a meeting on domestic violence.

Bouzoubaâ said that "listening centres" for abused women will be created, and added that from now on, women working in the general prosecutor's office or in the judiciary police, will be in charge of domestic violence cases. He also lashed out against violence against women and urged NGOs to coordinate their actions with general prosecutor in this issue.
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Violence against women not related to poverty.

The phenomenon of violence against women is not always due to poverty, said the Secretary of State in charge of Social Development, Family and Solidarity, Yasmina Baddou, adding that "even in the developed countries this phenomenon exists and has to be fought," reported MAP news agency. In an interview published on Thursday by the Moroccan French-language daily Le Matin du Sahara et du Maghreb, Baddou noted that great efforts have been made by the government in order to put an end to violence against women.

"At the moment we want to implement the government policy of fighting violence, along with a public-awareness campaign," she added. She stated that there will be an evaluation of the impact of this campaign on Nov. 25. This will be combined with the launch of a green telephone number aiming at helping women victims of violence. Baddou recalled that MAD 25 million has been allocated by the Canadian government in partnership with the Moroccan government to support its strategy against violence.
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Moroccan writer Mohamed Choukri's rise from poverty to universal recognition.
02/10/2005

Mohamed Choukri (1935-2003) is one of North Africa's most controversial and widely read authors. Mohamed Choukri's childhood was spent in abject poverty; as eight of his brothers and sisters died of malnutrition or neglect. When he was 20 years old and still illiterate, Choukri decided to learn to read and write classical Arabic, a decision that transformed his life. After mastering the language, he became a teacher and writer, eventually being named the prestigious chairman of Arabic Literature at Ibn Batuta College in Tangier.

Choukri's first story, "Violence on the Ocean", was published in Al Adab magazine in 1966. The world was introduced to an exceptional, rebellious and angry writer ready to expose everyone through harsh language. His last work was "Faces", a continuation of his autobiography, the lives of the people surrounding him and the life of the cities and the places he lived in or passed by.

His work is an absorbing pursuit of survival in a hostile world that allows him very little time to reflect, according to Professor Ferial J. Ghazoul. The work is written in the style of a "naive narrator". Events are recalled from the point of view of a child. Ignorance, bewilderment and bitterness are all expressed as they were actually felt at the time.

Choukri describes scenes of sex and violence without any sense of guilt, because he portrays them as he experienced them then and from the viewpoint of an urban youngster. The idea expressed is that the most wicked would survive best. When he is starving and has to pick food from the garbage and eat dead fish, Choukri announced there are only three ways to survive in the filthy underworld of Tangier: stealing, smuggling and whoring. While he participates in all three vices, he does express an occasional sense of shame or even revulsion at what he has been reduced to truly reflects Choukri's way of life in a raw manner with no euphemisms "Faces", with its colourful images and languages, truly reflects Choukri's way of life in a raw manner with no euphemisms.

"Choukri is graphic, but not pornographic: he recounts sipping a glass of tea, slashing another vagabond or spending a night in the brothel in the same tone. A voyeuristic reading is only possible if the significance, plot and closure are dismissed. Then, and only then, the readers will miss the element of conversion and dwell on the perversion", Ghazoul declared. Choukri survived life on the streets to relate a tale of the underworld in the city, a tale of absolute denial and ruined childhood. Yet it is also an inspiring narrative because it shows one can pull oneself up from the gutter and that literacy and literature can change a life.
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2005/10/02/feature-02  
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Morocco grooms post office for banking role, sale.
Tue Oct 4, 2005 By Souhail Karam RABAT (Reuters)

Morocco is reforming postal service Barid al-Maghrib to tap its potential for financing housing for the poor and to ready it for a possible privatisation in the medium term, officials and bankers said on Monday. The state-controlled firm has recently undergone a series of changes as part of a strategic 2005-2008 plan, including an 11 percent reduction in staff to 7,650 over 2001-2004 and a new logo and Web site (www.poste.ma).

It has joined the local banks' network that manages data storage for all ATMs, has struck a business partnership with private Attijariwafa Bank and now speaks of using its unmatched network of 1,635 outlets to compete with local banks, especially on housing projects for the poor.
"We can bring unbeatable housing saving plans for those who are too poor to have a bank account but independent enough to have a savings account," the spokesman said.

The firm has a 2 billion dirham investment plan over 2005-2008 to modernise its business and boost annual growth in turnover by 10 to 12 percent, a company spokesman said. Barid posted turnover of 1.24 billion dirhams and a net profit of 118 million dirhams in 2004. The potential for Barid is great, because barely 22 percent of the Morocco's 30 million people have a bank account, the Barid spokesman added. Commercial banks are located mainly in and around cities, while large remote areas are ignored, he added.

BANK FOR THE POOR?
Because of tight banking regulation, millions of Moroccans end up excluded from borrowing from banks, while banks suffer from an excess of liquidity. The Barid spokesman said: "We have more than 2.2 million accounts as our starting potential, and we'll target more who do not have a bank account". Morocco wants to get rid of shantytowns and unruly housing units by 2010, and officials estimate that eliminating the housing shortage would cost up to 75 billion dirhams by 2015.

Barid is also considering converting some outlets into platforms that would offer services such as paying taxes and water and electricity bills and supplying official documents in remote areas where public authority is weak. "Our ambition is to provide a top-quality universal service by promoting equal treatment for urban and rural areas for the rich and poor," the Barid spokesman said.

Despite having the largest number of accounts, deposits at Barid barely reach 2 percent of the total 300 billion dirhams held by local banks. Analysts say the firm may have potential to emerge as a major player in the local financial arena but it will need a deep, internal change of mentality to succeed. "Barid has a strategy, but it will need strong resolve to implement it successfully. Previous privatisations have showed us that a foreign shareholder can enforce this in a formerly state-owned firm," a banking industry analyst said.

A finance and privatisation ministry top official said the firm may be privatised in the medium term but that it was too early to speak of a plan and timetable. "We want Barid to stand on its feet, restructure its business, diversify its products and fully take advantage of its network's reach. That's the agenda for now," he said. The cash-tight government has been increasingly dependent in recent years on privatisation receipts to fund costly reforms and fight poverty and widespread unemployment.
© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.
http://za.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2005-10-04T065105Z_01_BAN424622_RTRIDST_0_OZABS-FINANCIAL-MOROCCO-POST-20051004.XML  
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Swiss-based Moroccan to launch initiative in favour of diploma holders.
By Kaoutar Tbatou

Abdelkrim Samiri, a Moroccan polytechnician living in Switzerland, has decided to launch in Morocco a "High-tech" programme meant to face the problem of unemployment, said the Moroccan French-language newspaper l'Economiste. Samiri, who believes that the problem of jobless university graduates can be solved, launched his innovative programme, High-tech, in 1996 in Lausanne, south Switzerland.

The programme offers specific training to participants according to their particular skills. After a two to three-week evaluation stage, a professional project is set up. It is then implemented within a period of one to six months. "Today, the strong eruption of new technologies makes numerous university graduates jobless, although they received solid training," notes Samiri. "This is a real social problem because these persons feel they are depreciated, and even useless."

Samiri's High-tech excludes Utopian projects from the very beginning. It helps the candidate make a business plan, master communication rules, and learn the basics of business creation. The results achieved in Switzerland were highly remarkable. 70% of participants could find jobs, and 20% created their own businesses.

Following the programme's success in Switzerland, Samiri decided to launch it in his native country, Morocco. His major aim is to benefit thousands of unemployed persons who have obtained high-studies diplomas. Samiri believes it is possible to implement the programme in Morocco. "This is a universal concept which can apply to any context, on condition a minimum infrastructure of new technologies is provided," he said.

The programme addresses 20 to 70-year-old candidates looking for jobs. The only condition is having a diploma in social sciences, human sciences, economics, or science. High-tech was almost totally sponsored by public powers in Switzerland. But in Morocco, Samiri will rely on the private sector to finance the programme.
http://www.moroccotimes.com/paper/article.asp?idr=2&id=10113   
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