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Morocco Week in Review
August 21, 2010
Morocco’s Ramadan culinary and lifestyle experience
Monday 16 August 2010 / by Kaci Racelma
The holy month of Ramadan, one of the five pillars of Islam, begun on August 11 in the ninth month of the Muslim calendar all across the Muslim world. During this holy month, Muslims must abstain from eating, drinking or engaging sexual relations from sunrise to dusk. In Morocco, this month comes with its own culinary experience and a celebration that is second to none.
In Morocco in particular and Muslim world in general, the sacred month of Ramadan ushers a shift from everyday culinary habits. A great number of special recipes are unearthed during the month of fasting, but most of all people pride themselves in their ancestral and traditional culinary legacy.
Harira, a well known soup in Northern African countries, is served as Iftar meal to break the fast after which Lahm Lehlou or “sweet meal” is served as a main meal. Lahm Lehlou is an energy-boosting meal. In some parts of Morocco, usually in the South, the daylong fast is broken with dates and milk.
North Africans, along with most people from the Muslim world, change their habits during the Ramadan. Traditionally, men attend Tarawih Salat special Ramadan prayer sessions at mosques, after which they head home to share tea and Kalb Elouz (sweet cakes) with their family members.
Fasters get up before dawn to eat Sahur, a meal that consists of couscous and milk. This traditionally Moroccan meal is above all meant to satisfy the energy needs of the Muslim faster before dusk.
Unlike other countries where the prices of basic products skyrocket during the Ramadan month, the Moroccan government adopts measures to control prices every year so as not to deprive the less fortunate of their basic food needs.
Nightlife is most animated during the Ramadan in the whole of Morocco. Coffeehouses are filled to the brim and provide entertainment as most people seek to while away their time and get ready for another physically and mentally demanding day.
Many families also choose Casablanca’s sea front close to the Hassan II mosque to pass the time during the night.
Ramadan is a period marked by security and peace, and a large number of North Africans always regret the end. It goes without saying that this period of spiritual introspection ushers brotherly love and much laughter.
Morocco has continually attracted more people from neighboring countries due to its infectious "ramadanesque" ambiance. ”I like spending the Ramadan in the Moroccan Kingdom for the particularity of its cuisine and culinary habits. The nocturnal ambiance is unforgettable” says Moulay N. from Mauritania.
This idea is shared by a large number of people among whom Nassim, an Algerian journalist who discovered the Moroccan Ramadan way of life a few years ago. "Discovering the Moroccan culinary experience during the Ramadan season was a nice surprise... I have since spent most of my Ramadan months in Morocco”. http://www.afrik-news.com/article18110.html
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Educating women in Morocco.
From PRI's The World 17 August, 2010
A Moroccan boarding school is giving young girls an education for free.
This article was originally reported by PRI's The World. For more, listen to the audio above.
The Moroccan constitution has no fewer than three articles guaranteeing equal rights for all citizens. And plenty of women have managed to rise to prominence in the country. In 2009, Marrakech, one of Morocco's biggest cities, elected its first woman mayor,
In general, though, female literacy lags behind male literacy throughout the country, and girls lack access to many of the educational resources that boys do. That is why the Moroccan chapter of the nonprofit Soroptimists decided to open up a tuition-free boarding school specifically for girls.
"I definitely think Morocco is deeply changing," the school's co-founder Leila Binebine told PRI's The World. "Will is everything." Binebine is trying to apply that will to improving her home country. She asks, "How can you call yourself a citizen if you do not take part in the development of your country? The citizens, people have to make the change. We are the change."
Part of the reason why a boarding school was necessary was because schools are often too far away from children. One student told The World that her school "was very very far, that's why I came here and I was given a really golden opportunity." She also believes she is benefiting from her time at the school:
You know such boarding houses teach you a lot. You learn how to be far from your parents you learn how to be independent, how to interact with other people and you learn how to treat them.
The school teaches a version of Islam that emphasizes gender equality, and Binebine believes the school has gained the trust and support of parents throughout the country. "The girls that we bring from the country, their parents are not intellectual," says Binebine, "they have never been to the city, and they are supporting us."
Challenges remain, but the school's founders believe they have already accomplished a lot. Touria Binebine, who co-founded the school with her sister Leila, told The World:
We are a poor country. We have no cars, no diamonds, nothing. But we did build a boarding house for 200 girls, and we did find the money. So we are Soroptimists, and in Soroptimists you have optimism, and we're optimistic.
PRI's "The World" is a one-hour, weekday radio news magazine offering a mix of news, features, interviews, and music from around the globe. "The World" is a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston.
http://www.pri.org/business/social-entrepreneurs/educating-women-in-morocco.html
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School for rural girls in Morocco
By The World ⋅ August 13, 2010
Alexa Dvorson reports from Morocco on a women’s organization that founded a school for girls from the country’s rural areas. It’s an effort to address a gender imbalance in Morocco’s culture and education system.
Read the Transcript
This text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.
JEB SHARP: I’m Jeb Sharp and this is The World. Like many countries around the globe, Morocco has a problem with gender inequality in schools. Female literacy in the North African nation lags well behind that of men. And in rural areas, girls who do learn to read and write rarely get a chance to go beyond primary school. But as Alexa Dvorson reports from Morocco, one women’s organization is trying to change that.
ALEXA DVORSON : Time traveling comes easily at Jemaa el Fna, the giant, fabled square in the heart of Marrakech. Snake charmers compete for attention with ancient Berber melodies, and shops overflow with incense and plump dried figs strung like amber beads. But right next door is a boutique selling tight t-shirts that say “Don’t be jealous” in English. They’re probably meant for tourists, but this could be a subliminal message to men as Moroccan women take more charge of their lives. No fewer than three articles in the Moroccan constitution guarantee equal rights for all citizens. And the women at this fundraising party a few miles away are putting them into practice. The Moroccan chapter of Soroptomists, a worldwide women’s organization with roots in 1920s California, opened a tuition-free boarding school for rural girls. That’s no small achievement, says founding director Touria Binebine.
TOURIA BINEBINE : We are a poor country. We have no gas, no diamonds, nothing. But we did build a boarding house for 200 girls. And we did find the money, so we are soroptomists, and in soroptomist you have optimism, and we are optimistic.
DVORSON: The students are optimistic too. 13-year-old Hakima wants to join the police force to fight crime when she grows up. As she rattles off part of the school’s curriculum: math, science, French and Arabic, she’s joined by her friend Rezlan, who wants to be a pilot for Morocco’s national airline, and Karima, who loves English literature. For all their diverse aspirations, these girls have plenty in common. They’d never have gone beyond primary school if they hadn’t come here, because the distance from their rural homes to the nearest secondary school was too great, as Karima explains.
KARIMA: The school was very, very far. That’s why I came here. And I was given a really golden opportunity.
DVORSON: When she’s not reading George Orwell or John Steinbeck, Karima, who’s already completed her baccalaureate, works as a teacher’s aide to help the younger girls with their studies.
KARIMA: You know, such boarding houses teach you a lot. You learn how to be far from your parents, you learn how to be independent, how to interact with other people, and you learn how to treat them.
LEILA BINEBINE: Well here we are in the library. What you can see there if you want to follow me…
DVORSON: With her sister Touria, Leila Binebine founded North Africa’s first chapter of Soroptomists ten years ago.
BINEBINE: I definitely think Morocco is deeply changing. Will is everything.
FRENCH SPEAKING
DVORSON : And will is what drives 14 year-old Khazma, who’s in her third year at the boarding school. She says living here is like being part of a big family.
FRENCH SPEAKING
DVORSON: “We can work alongside men,” she says, explaining that the form of Islam taught at this school emphasizes gender equality. She’s convinced that this is the key to progress in Moroccan society, and she draws inspiration from women in Europe and the US who balance their careers with family life. In fact, Khazma doesn’t have to look that far for role models, two high-profile Moroccan cities, including Marrakech, have women mayors. To Leila Binebine, providing access to higher education for girls like Khazma and her classmates is nothing less than a civic responsibility.
BINEBINE: How can you call yourself a citizen if you do not take part in the development of your country? The citizens, people have to make the change. We are the change.
FEMALE SPEAKER: And do you feel that you have a lot of support in the wider community?
BINEBINE: Sure, sure. I can tell you because the girls that we bring from the country, their parents are not intellectual, they have never been to the city, and they are supporting us.
DVORSON: Well, not everyone. Sometimes the fall semester starts with a few girls missing if their parents decide to marry them off from the age of 16. But thanks to what’s known as the Arab telephone, or word of mouth, many other girls from rural Morocco will be lining up to take their place. For The World, this is Alexa Dvorson on the outskirts of Marrakech.
Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.
http://www.theworld.org/2010/08/13/school-for-rural-girls-in-morocco/
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Managing public finance.
18 August 2010
Two different reports released this summer that evaluate Morocco's public finance management have reached similar conclusions about the country's efforts to improve the delivery of financial services and budget allocations.
The World Bank's "Public Financial Management Reform in the Middle East and North Africa: An Overview of Regional Experience", released in June, and the African Development Bank's (AfDB) appraisal report for phase four of the Public Administration Reform Support Programme (PARSP), released in May, both state that the government has made modest but effective progress in advancing its delivery of public services.
Governments throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region spent €317.5bn in 2007 in delivering policy, regulatory and service functions. In many countries in the region, public finance management reform programmes have been on the agenda for a decade, sometimes longer, according to the World Bank.
In Morocco's case, the specific objectives of the PARSP, which is managed by the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Public Sector Modernisation and supported by the AfDB, the World Bank and the EU, include improving government efficiency in budget and human resource management, controlling the civil services' wage bill, and streamlining administrative procedures by developing electronic government services, according to the AfDB report.
The PARSP, now in its fourth phase, is intended to improve Morocco's investment climate and attract foreign investors. It is being financed by a €100m loan from the AfDB, a €73.7m loan from the World Bank and another €73m grant from the EU. The AfDB's €100m contribution will be used to cover the widening budget deficit in 2010, which, according to the AfDB report, was caused mainly by government measures to stave off effects of the global financial crisis.
Indeed, after excellent public finance performance in recent years, the government's budget position worsened in 2009, due mainly to an expansive policy to maintain growth amid sluggish exports. Overall, however, ongoing structural reforms of the public sector, which are associated with PARSP, have contributed to strong economic growth over the past decade, minus the recent financial crisis, the World Bank report notes. Morocco scores among the highest in the MENA region on budgetary and financial management performance, although, as has been the case with countries around the world, the global financial crisis has resulted in a need for extraordinary government action.
Since 2003, when the World Bank's Country Financial Accountability Assessment gauged Morocco's public financial management fiduciary risk as low, the country has continued to improve revenue management and institute stricter control of the civil service payroll. This has been done, the World Bank notes, despite higher international fuel and food prices during the mid- to late-2000s.
Morocco's fiscal targets for 2009, for example, were all achieved, including a budget deficit of no more than 3% of GDP, public debt of no more than 60% and a civil service wage bill of less than 10% of GDP. In 2009 Morocco's growth rate stood at nearly 4.9%, down only slightly from 2008's level of 5.6%, a result of the strength of its economy.
In early July Salaheddine Mezouar, the minister of economy and finance, told media that Morocco's economic growth should exceed 4% this year, although it will also see a 4% deficit as a result of an increased fuel subsidy bill.
The World Bank report does, however, note areas where services can be improved. Though Morocco has consistently performed above the MENA region average in most measures of governance, including scoring well on the quality of public administration, its major weakness is insufficient accountability. The Global Integrity Index, put out by the international NGO Global Integrity, gave the country a disappointing overall rating in 2008, emphasising issues such as limited citizen access to information and poor regulations governing the budgetary process.
The World Bank's report also notes that fiscal transparency is "reasonable" but that "the scope of the budget needs expansion. Budget execution and accounting procedures are cumbersome and need streamlining." And while overall budget information is available to the public, the report notes, in practice it is not easy to access.
Efforts are under way to change this, however, with the "Maroc Numeric 2013" programme set to establish 89 new online services by 2013, local media reported in July. The strategy, funded with Dh5.2bn (€465.1m) from government and banking institutions, aims to bridge the gap between government and citizens, particularly in regards to public services, and should help to mirror the larger goals of the PARSP.
"The public sector will gain hugely in terms of efficiency and effectiveness with the introduction of [e-government] services, with simpler automated processing of information," Mohamed Benmahjoub, an advisor to the minister of industry trade and new technologies, told local media. The plan is expected to add some Dh27bn (€2.4bn) to GDP and create 26,000 new jobs.
Morocco's public finance management reforms have managed to implement a number of modest but effective changes. With further work under the PARSP and an increased focus on providing e-government services, efforts to increase transparency and efficiency of public financial services will likely increase further, or at least continue at a steady pace. If the fourth phase of the PARSP finishes as planned, the country is also likely to see improved transparency in human resources and public administration.
© Oxford Business Group 2010
http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20100818045352
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The Goal in Morocco: Research on Women Via Soccer.
By ERIN STROUT
Two years ago, while spending a semester abroad in Rabat, Morocco, Nicole Matuska saw something out of the ordinary: girls playing soccer. While she had frequently seen men and boys take to the streets and fields to kick the ball around, this was the first time she had seen girls at the popular game. "I ran up to them — they were amazing and played really well," says Ms. Matuska, who graduated from Northwestern University in June. "They took me in and invited me to practice." The team was exceptionally diverse, with girls as young as 12 and women in their 30s. Some of them came from wealthy, educated families; others lived in homes without electricity.
That unusual sight got Ms. Matuska thinking about a broader set of issues. She developed a more nuanced picture of women's lives in Morocco through their participation on the team, and it fascinated her. When she returned to the United States and applied for a Fulbright grant, she proposed studying the role of women in Morocco through the lens of women's soccer. "They are really breaking boundaries by playing in public," she says. "The visibility can start to foster greater respect for women in general from men."
Ms. Matuska, who earned a degree in journalism, kept in touch with the Moroccan women's soccer coach after she returned home. He wrote a letter of recommendation for her Fulbright application, saying the team would welcome her back while she conducted her research.
Before returning to Rabat, Ms. Matuska is spending time in Fès, another Moroccan city, improving her Arabic as a recipient of a Critical Language Enhancement Award. The grant, which is made on a competitive basis to Fulbright recipients, was created by the State Department in an effort to encourage greater proficiency in languages including Arabic, Mandarin, Korean, Turkish, and Uzbek.
Ms. Matuska, who is originally from Indian Rocks Beach, Fla., took a few Arabic lessons as an undergraduate but wanted to become proficient in order to communicate with the women she will be studying. "It's a really neat experience to be able to do this for free," she says. "When I saw that the option was available this year, I thought, Why not?"
Ms. Matuska, who played soccer as a child and continued on intramural teams in college, is keeping her options open for post-Fulbright plans, but she hopes to help women in North Africa use sports as a path toward greater self-esteem, better health, and disease prevention. "Everybody asks what I want to do when this is over, and I have no idea," she says. "I do know that I want to continue on this path, and I hope my work here leads me in the right direction."
http://chronicle.com/article/The-Goal-in-Morocco-Resear/23888/
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In Morocco, Visions of a Silicon Valley Campus
By Ursula Lindsey August 16, 2010 Rabat, Morocco
Noureddine Mouaddib left Morocco to pursue his university studies in France over 30 years ago. He became a professor of computer science at the University of Nantes and a member of the French national council for higher education and research.
Yet Mr. Mouaddib's thoughts turned often to his native country, where, he says, emigration has remained unavoidable for those who want to pursue higher education. "In the global South, as soon as you graduate from high school, you wonder: Where will I go? Canada, France?" he says. "If you look at world rankings, there isn't a single internationally visible university in Africa, with the exception of South Africa."
Yet even as more and more young people in the region aspire to a good higher education, opportunities such as the ones he enjoyed have shrunk, he says. "Moroccan students and African students from modest backgrounds are no longer able to come to France or Europe to study. ... The door's been closed. With what they ask to get a visa—it's impossible."
It was those realizations that led him, in 2005, to envisage the creation of the first global research university in Morocco.
Mr. Mouaddib undertook a feasibility study and began talking with government officials, colleagues, and members of his country's diaspora about the need to create an internationally oriented, R&D-driven university in Morocco.
This September the International University of Rabat, here in the capital city, is set to welcome its first 200 students.
"Rather than young people traveling toward knowledge"—and finding their path littered with obstacles—Mr. Mouaddib says, "we'll move knowledge toward them."
The university is a public-private partnership. Mohammed VI, the Moroccan king, donated the 20 hectares—about 50 acres—in a new technology park on the outskirts of the city. Classes, which this fall are being held in temporary offices, will move there next year, and the campus should be completed by 2015. The university plans to have 280 faculty members and 5,000 students by 2020.
Two pension funds, one French-run, the other operated by the Moroccan government, are the two main investors, contributing over a third of the university's planned five-year budget of 1.12 billion Moroccan dirhams (about $130-million).
Moroccan Context
The curriculum has been conceived to complement government development plans and with emerging sectors in the Moroccan economy in mind.
The country is in a construction boom. In recent years, Moroccan authorities have begun major infrastructure developments focused on transportation, tourism and affordable housing. The government is also committed to developing local sources of alternative energy; plans are to have about 40 percent of the country's energy be wind- and solar-generated by 2020.
The new university has responded accordingly. "Many students can't find the degrees they want in Morocco," Mr. Mouaddib acknowledges. "We are focusing on disciplines that are new and that respond to national development needs."
In addition to business, political science, and information technology, Rabat will offer programs in renewable energy; railway, naval, automobile, and aerospace engineering (several airplane manufacturers have set up facilities in Morocco recently); and architecture and design.
Fifteen faculty members are in place for this fall, and the university plans to hire 20 more for next year, and to continue increasing the faculty ranks year by year.
The number of university students in Morocco has risen steadily over the past decade, to more than 300,000 today, and is projected to as much as double by 2015. Yet public universities here remain largely focused on humanities and social-science degrees that, critics say, give graduates no marketable skills. Morocco has only nine engineers per 10,000 people (compared with 40 in Jordan and 130 in France). The government has not yet met its goal of devoting 1 percent of gross domestic product to research and development.
Mr. Mouaddib says his standing in the academic community and decades-old network of contacts helped him get his project going quickly.
The university's faculty has been largely drawn from the Moroccan and North African diaspora. It was "something personal I wanted to do," says Mokhtar Ghambou, a professor of literature at Yale University, of his decision to help shape the Moroccan university's core humanities component. "At a certain point you feel nostalgia. You start to wonder, What can I do for my native country? To think about what you can contribute."
Many of the scholarly recruits have helped structure partnerships between Rabat and their own colleges, and have brought corporate research sponsors to the new university. Mr. Ghambou himself hopes to divide his time between Yale and Rabat.
International Orientation
In the new university's name, "the word 'international' is not rhetorical," says Mr. Ghambou. "This is a unique project. People are joining from all over the world."
Marcia C. Inhorn, a professor of anthropology and international affairs and chair of the Council of Middle East Studies at Yale, visited Rabat last year in a delegation led by Mr. Ghambou.
As part of its mission to promote understanding of the contemporary Middle East, she says via e-mail, the council is looking to collaborate with "promising partner institutions" in the Middle East and North Africa. Yale hopes to engage in student and faculty exchanges with the university in Rabat, she adds.
"Moroccan-American relations are being strengthened as well, and [the Council of Middle East Studies] wants to be a part of this hopeful moment," she writes. "Yale is currently in a major process of internationalization/globalization, and the Middle East is near the top of its lists of priority areas."
Most of Rabat's partnerships are with major French universities—not surprising, given Morocco's historic links to France. The goal is to "combine the French and U.S. systems, pick the good things from both," says Mohammed Cherkaoui, a professor of mechanical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology, who will lead the Moroccan university's engineering department.
Rabat hopes to offer dual degrees with many of its foreign academic partners. Students will be required to spend two semesters abroad, and instruction is to be in both French and English.
The new university's other defining characteristic is a focus on applied research.
Morocco's ministry of energy will finance a five-million-euro (about $6.5-million) project to increase the efficiency of solar cells, says Mr. Cherkaoui, who adds that the university will make research on renewable energy "part of its identity." Rabat's corporate research partners include the engineering giant Siemens AG, the media company Vivendi, and the aerospace company Thales Group.
Alongside government and corporate-backed research and development, says Mr. Mouaddib, the university will focus on "niche" research.
"We won't produce super-high-tech products," he explains. "We'll work on products that meet the needs of the local, of the African, market. In other words, inexpensive innovations."
The engineering department has already patented three alternative-energy devices. Designed to produce power for domestic use, they are a wind turbine that will function even with very weak breezes; a light panel that shuts off automatically when it detects other sources of light; and a solar-powered water heater.
There is demand for such devices in Morocco and other African countries, where many rural areas remain off the electrical grid, says Mr. Cherkaoui. In fact, Rabat is already negotiating their commercial mass production.
Regional Ambition
The university hopes that at least 20 percent of its student body will come from sub-Saharan Africa. And it wants to offer opportunities to deserving student of limited means. It will give academic scholarships, covering the approximately $7,500 yearly tuition, to a fifth of its students, as well as help them get bank loans to cover living expenses.
Dina El Khawaga, the Ford Foundation's program officer for higher education in the Middle East and North Africa, says the university has the potential to create a "more human and more egalitarian face to the internationalization of education in Africa."
But even South African universities—by far the best in the continent—haven't had an easy time attracting students from other African countries, she notes. Rabat's administrators will have to address a number of questions: "Will they offer remedial classes? Who says Morocco will facilitate visas for students? Will scholarships be available to non-Moroccan students? What kind of institutional partnerships will allow them to reach this 20 percent [target of sub-Saharan African students]? When you are in a Dar el-Salam high school [in Senegal], what will encourage you to get up and go to Morocco?"
"Theres a whole strategy that needs to be put into place," says Ms. El Khawaga, sounding a cautious but still optimistic note."I'm really dreaming that this will be a nice initiative by a non-oil country to make a research hub in the next decade. But we have to be patient. Our expectations have to be low."
Mr. Mouaddib's vision is nothing if not ambitious. He envisages his new university as a catalyst for national and regional development and innovation, the center of a North African Silicon Valley. "Morocco can be a regional leader." he says, "given its potential, its position, its stability."
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The challenge of the Rif mountains. 13-08-10
The recent Community Challenge in the Rif Mountains of Morocco saw local individuals of all ages and from businesses across Gibraltar, to spend five days trekking, doing community work and experiencing rural Morocco. All this in aid of Gibraltar based charity RifCom who work with the Rif communities to assist in their economic development.
A team from SG Hambros Private Banking Gibraltar participated in this year’s event with a group of five individuals. "We were taken deep into the Rif mountains on foot, navigating through the wilderness, experiencing a variety of different challenges, both physical and mental, camping out in nature while witnessing how the Rif mountain people live and experiencing some of their culture and lifestyle," said a spokesman.
He added: "The bank very kindly agreed to meet all the registration and travel costs of the team and we were pleased to have raised a total of £4,542.46 for this very worthwhile charity.
"We take this opportunity to thank the following sponsors who generously supported our trip and helped us raise the above. They have contributed to RifCom’s work in many ways. These are:
SMILE (Sports & media Management Company limited); Hassans; Deloitte; Netgear; Capurro; EIM; Sapphire Networks; Netgear; SG Hambros Gibraltar.
This money will go towards furthering RifCom’s work in this part of Morocco which also includes the expansion of their trekking activities and training of local guides, building a base for their work and promoting education and health care in the region.
"We look forward to this charity’s ongoing work in the region, to continuing to build relationships between the peoples of Morocco and Gib, and possibly returning for next year’s challenge!" said the Rifcom 2010 Challenge team, SG Hambros Bank Gibraltar. http://www.panorama.gi/localnews/headlines.php?action=view_article&article=6360&offset=0
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AfDB loans Morocco 203 million euros for water . PANA
The African Development Bank (AfDB) on Thursday loaned 203 million euros to Morocco to finance a project to improve the supply of potable water for the coastal region of Rabat-Casablanca, oficial sources told PANA.
According to the agreement signed in Rabat between the Moroccan minister of Economy and Finance, Salaheddine Mezouar, and the resident representative of AfDB Office in Morocco, Amani Abou-Zeid, the project aims at improving the living conditions of an estimated 5.5 million inhabitants by securing the supply of potable water for urban and rural areas.
AfDB's investments in Morocco in the domain of water are estimated at 755 million euros.
From 1967, when cooperation between Morocco and AfDB began, until 2009, over 103 operations have been financed in Morocco with priorities given to agriculture and infrastructure.
The Pan-African financial institution says AfDB, over the past few years, has laid particular emphasis on the financing of structural reforms and multi-sectoral programmes undertaken by the Moroccan government.
http://www.africanmanager.com/site_eng/detail_article.php?art_id=15393
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Environment needs Muslim support.
Brendan Borrell / guardian.co.uk, Thursday 19 August 2010
The Qur'an teaches respect for the environment. But Moroccan activist Mohamed Attaoui has found the authorities less keen. In early March, just days after the Kingdom of Morocco announced plans for a landmark environmental charter called "the first commitment of its kind in Africa and the Arab world", Mohamed Attaoui was sentenced to two years in prison in the Atlas mountains. His crime? Speaking out against illegal logging of shrinking cedar forests and corruption among the ranks of the forest service and local government officials.
Politicians and high-powered clerics in the Muslim world often seem to be more concerned with the preservation of social mores than the deserts, peaks and wetlands they lord over. Yet consider the words the prophet Muhammad is said to have taught: "The world is green and beautiful, and Allah has appointed you his guardian over it."
While other major religions, such as evangelical Christianity, are beginning to find a place for an environmental ethic in their people-centric preachings, the political turbulence of the Muslim world threatens the longevity of their spectacular ecosystems, from Iraq's marshlands to the rainforests of Sulawesi. That's why we need to support to a new generation of daring, eco-minded muckrakers like Attaoui, who are bringing some semblance of transparency to the most far-off corners of the world.
Attaoui lives in the town of Tounfite, tucked into a valley at the base of Morocco's highest mountains, where he runs a tiny NGO out of his garage called "L'Association Avenir pour le Cèdre et le Mouflon" – the association for the preservation of cedars and the bighorn sheep. It doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, but then again Attaoui is a homegrown activist who has supported the operation with his own money and contributions from other concerned locals. No one taught Attaoui how to be an environmentalist, and, well, it was hard to hold my tongue when I watched him bury a sardine tin in the woods or capture a hedgehog on the road and haul it 30 miles to his backyard. That's not to say his heart is not in the right place, particularly when it comes to cedar.
Morocco's forests are protected at a national level because they are key to capturing its limited water supply and reducing erosion from its arid valleys. Roy Hagen, a forestry expert who has worked for USAID in the region, says that government foresters have been involved in illegal logging for decades but no one has done anything about it. At least until 16 February when Attaoui started naming names. He published an exposé in the local paper, Al-Monataf, that tracked the movements of illegally felled logs by government officials, whom he named the "cedar mafia".
On 8 March, two plainclothes officers stopped Attaoui on his way home from work, handcuffed him and said he was being arrested for possession of hashish, a charge Attaoui denies. It would be days before his wife and children learned what happened and before Attaoui even learned of the formal charge against him: extortion. A whistleblower in the forestry service who Attaoui had interviewed had lodged the claim earlier that day, perhaps – Attaoui believes – to prevent the axe from falling on his own head.
The truth of the matter is Attaoui's case is not unique. Envirnomental activists in other countries have suffered a similar fate. In 2008, Uzbek journalist Solidzhon Abdurakhmanov, who has been documenting the destruction of the Aral Sea, was sentenced to 10 years on apparently bogus drug trafficking charges. This July, the naked, handcuffed body of Ardiansyah Matra, the reporter who uncovered illegal logging by the Indonesian military, washed up in the Gudang Arand river. "Conservation is still seen as a luxury by most people," says Cagan Sekercioglu, a Turkish conservationist who fought to establish Turkey's 13th Ramsar wetland last year (Mexico, by contrast, has 113.)
Despite an audio record of the conversation Attaoui had with the whistleblower at his own home, he was summarily declared guilty and was facing up to two years in prison when Reporters Without Borders stepped in with legal help. His sentencing has been pushed back multiple times this summer, but it seems like the gavel may finally fall on 20 September. With it, the international community can finally judge whether Morocco means what it says when it comes to the environment.
For his part, Attaoui is hardly chastened. When I visited him with fellow journalist Daniel Grushkin, he had been out of his prison cell for a little more than a week. He led us up a steep stream where fresh stumps were still powdery with sawdust. A couple of logs had been felled by prohibited chainsaws, but not yet hauled away. "Encore un désastre!" he shouted.
He launched into a verse from the Qur'an about the conversations of the birds and the trees. "The trees eat, they breath, they even speak," he said in French. Hopefully, the faithful will start listening. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2010/aug/19/environment-needs-muslim-support
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Morocco - the souks of Marrakesh to the Sahara desert
From the hectic souks of Marrakesh to the silence of the Sahara desert , Morocco is a land of adventure. Here's what happened when TNT's Janine Jorgensen visited:
It’s desert war. My sheet slaps me in the face, my eyes begin to sting and the rest of my bedding gets chucked around me. Groping for my torch, I surrender to the sand and wind, and drag my mattress back to the protection of the tents.
Sleeping on top of a sand dune under the stars and moon seemed like the perfect way to round off a memorable day in the desert. But to get any rest, I have to be content to drowse off to the sound of camel grunts in the shelter of the Berber camp.
I wake up to stillness, no sign of the buffeting wind of the night. Dragging myself up a dune, I rub my eyes and have to tell myself, that yes, I really am watching the sun rise above the red dunes of the Sahara.
We’ve journeyed for three days from Marrakesh, our minivan going up into the High Atlas mountains, down into palm-lined valley oases, through villages where children stare at us camera-laden foreigners, and past abandoned kasbahs and buzzing markets selling prickly pears and watermelons. We stop along the way to refuel with mint tea and delicious tagines and refresh in cool hotel swimming pools.
When our modern-day caravan reaches Rissani, Morocco’s gateway to the Sahara, our travel weariness (much of it to do with the 40˚C heat) ebbs away as we realise how close we are to the desert.
Turbans at the ready, water bottles by our sides and cameras around our wrists, we meet our mode of desert transport. Lined up, blanketed and baring dirty gnashers, our camels groan as they heave us up, and slowly plod towards the dunes for our night at a Berber camp.
The Berbers were the original inhabitants of North Africa, a people who managed to hold on to their traditions and culture, despite the invasion of Arabs, Romans, Phoenicians and other tribes (and later countries) sent to conquer the tip of the continent. The majority of Berbers live in Morocco, and call themselves the Imazigen (free men), despite intermingling with Arabs and adopting Islam as their religion. And though many have moved to the cities, three main Berber groups in Morocco live in the Rif mountains, the Middle and High Atlas ranges, and the Sahara.
After a candlelit dinner, we are treated to entertainment by the fire, listening to Berber music – of drumming and soulful singing – until someone starts Buffalo Soldier and so begins a medley of Beatles, Bob Dylan and other ’60s hits. Even the desert can’t escape pop culture.
A few days later, we’re back in Marrakesh and our serene Sahara experience feels like a dream next to the crowded chaos of the city’s square, Djemaa El Fna, at dusk. As we make our way among henna artists, storytellers and snake charmers, we are met with dancers and monkey handlers, all pointing to our cameras chanting “photo, photo”, for a fee of course.
We dine at one of the pop-up stalls, with gas fires, cooks dressed from head to toe in white and waiters touting for business. Food ranges from brochettes (skewers of meat), salads and couscous to fish and snails, all washed down with freshly-squeezed orange juice.
Later, we sip on an overpriced soft drink, which we are forced to buy if we want to get a view of the madness from one of the rooftop restaurants above the square, and gaze below at the lights, smoke and milling people to a soundtrack of incessant drumming.
The next day, we try to recapture the peaceful night in the desert and after a session in Marrakesh’s souks, head for a relaxing hammam (traditional steam bath) and massage.
Any thought of a soothing experience is put aside as voluptuous topless women scrub away traces of the Sahara (including our tans), throw buckets of water over us and then instruct us to lie on our backs on concrete slabs as if we are sacrificial lambs while they lather black clay on our bodies. As we sweat it out in the sauna we’re not quite sure if this will really rejuvenate us or if “hammam” is a code word for torture for unsuspecting tourists.
But after a cooling shower and a cup of mint tea, we’re led into a darkened room and given a therapeutic massage with argan oil, used in Morocco for almost everything from cosmetics to cooking. I drift off, dreaming of camels and kasbahs, while outside Marrakesh sets up for another night of hectic activity.
The souks of Marrkesh
Marrakesh’s souks, which are located behind Djemaa El Fna, are a riot of spices, bright fabric and interior accessories. Here’s what you need to know before you shop:
Janine Jorgensen travelled on the eight-day Marrakesh & Beyond tour with On the Go [020 7371 1113; onthegotours.com/morocco] who offer a comprehensive range of year-round group tours and trekking trips from eight to 15 days. Prices start at £319 and all tours are led by fully-qualified local guides.
read more: http://www.tntmagazine.com/tnt-today/archive/2010/08/16/morocco-the-souks-of-marrakesh-to-the-sahara-desert.aspx#ixzz0xFVQnMCH
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Marrakech's unforgettable heart
By TREVOR RICHARDS
Long before Crosby, Stills and Nash sang of riding on the Marrakech Express, the path there was a well-beaten one. Writers and artists such as Flaubert, Delacroix, Gide and Matisse (Morocco was a French colony) all visited. So did the English. To Winston Churchill, it was "the most beautiful spot in the whole world".
In the 1960s and 70s, it was a favourite hippie-bohemian destination. The Rolling Stones tripped here on acid. Cecil Beaton, who happened to be visiting at the time, photographed Mick and Keith by the pool of their hotel.
By the 1980s it had become a favourite destination for backpackers. Today, the words most commonly used to describe Marrakech are "chic" and "elegant". One recent article went so far as to describe it as "a cosmopolitan centre of cool". The city's new airport, a gleaming, soaring structure, elegant and full of confidence, tends to confirm this.
The unforgettable heart of Marrakech is its main square, Jemaa El Fna. Anything but elegant, and not even really a square, its attraction is its sights, sounds and smells. This is sensory-overload territory.
In Jemaa El Fna one is engulfed by the ordinary and the bizarre: orange sellers and henna artists, snake charmers, performing monkeys, acrobats, musicians, old sages offering cures for most conditions, touts and tourists. In the distance - as if Marrakech had been created by a stage-set designer - the Atlas Mountains create a spectacular backdrop.
In the evening, half the square is covered by stalls and tables. The food is laid out, the smoke from the fires rises and the world in microcosm comes to eat.
Off the square are the souks, a vast, seemingly disorganised myriad of shops for tourists and locals alike. Once you get the hang of the place, it is actually far less disorganised than it at first seems.
Here you will find carpets, leatherwork, jewellery, brass, copper, skins, stringed instruments, cotton and much else. Marrakech is not the first place in which my attention has been sought by cries of "Hey, moustache", but it is the place where this cry was most persistent. If being shouted at, charmed, cajoled and enticed with promises of moroccan whisky (the omnipresent mint tea), does not appeal, a more peaceful shopping experience might be the Ensemble Artisanal on avenue Mohammed V, not far from the Koutoubia Mosque.
Here prices are fixed, but generally a bit higher than the prices that can be negotiated in the souks.
For a bit of peace and quiet - and after Jemaa El Fna and the souks, you will need some - head for Le Jardin Majorelle. On the outskirts of Marrakech, the garden was created in the 1920s and 30s by French painter Jacques Majorelle. The garden features marble pools, raised pathways, banana trees, groves of bamboo, more varieties of cacti than I thought existed, coconut palms, bougainvillea and aquatic plants.
Most of the buildings are painted in a dark blue. There is also a lot of bright yellow around. Given that the garden was designed by a painter, it is not surprising that it looks like a painting - a wonderful Mediterranean Matisse comes to mind. Majorelle died in 1962. After years of neglect, the garden was taken over in 1980 and restored by the French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Berge. The 19-kilometre-long, two-metre-high 12th century ramparts are impressive, as are the Saadian tombs. Dating from the late 16th to the 18th century, and consisting of two mausoleums set in a garden, the tombs of these former rulers are not exactly well signposted, making the search for them almost as fascinating as the tombs themselves.
Not being Muslim, I was not allowed into the 12th century Koutoubia Mosque, one of the largest mosques in the western Islamic world. Nor was I allowed into any of the others - a rule created not by the mosques, or by Moroccans, but by the French colonialists.
By the time I boarded the bus five days later for the three-hour trip to the coastal city of Essaouira, my feelings about Marrakech had become somewhat ambivalent. Perhaps expectations had been raised by all the "cool" hype. Much of the chic and elegance, in the medina (old quarter) at least, is to be found inside its buildings, most of which one never gets to see.
Essaouira (population 70,000), Morocco's most fashionable coastal resort, is laid back and relaxed. In the 1960s and 1970s it was a hippie hangout - Jimi Hendrix even put in an appearance.
The brilliant whiteness of its lime- washed walls, its pleasant climate, the squawk of seagulls, the smell of the sea and it's generally non-commercial atmosphere made it a wonderful antidote to Marrakech.
Because it is not on the Moroccan rail network, it has managed to escape the effects of mass tourism. Here one can look around and shop without attracting much attention, and being much less frequented by tourists, prices are better than in Marrakech. I suspect the longer one stays in Essaouira, the more apparent it becomes that one has not stayed long enough. The journey by bus and train from Essaouira to Fez takes around 10 hours, which is paradoxical given that once one is in Fez, it feels as if you have travelled back in time six or seven centuries. Fez is the world's largest living medieval city. Despite all that the 20th century has brought, the old city's 200,000 inhabitants live pretty much as they have for centuries. For 1000 years, the city has dominated Morocco's religious, cultural and commercial life.The medina of Fez El Bali is reputed to have more than 9000 alleys. The widest street is too narrow for a car and the narrowest barely allow two people to pass - just. As it has been for a millennium, donkeys, mules and humans remain the sole source of transport within the medina.
Nowhere is medieval Fez more apparent than in the Chouara (tanners' quarters). The health and safety conditions of the workers do not bear thinking about. On a hot day, it helps to use the little bundle of mint you are handed as you ascend the stairs to the Terrace, as the smell can be overpowering.
Hides are dipped into a honeycomb of vats that at first glance look like a giant's messy watercolour paint set. Some contain brilliantly coloured dyes, made from seeds and minerals crushed in a small riverside mill; others contain urine and pigeon guano to soften the skins, or chalk and salt, which add intensity to the colour of the dyes.
To stand on the Terrasse de Tannerie, which overlooks the largest of Fez's three tanneries, is guaranteed to take even the most unimaginative on a journey back through time. http://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/international/4037151/Marrakechs-unforgettable-heart ##########################################################
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