Virtual Magazine of Morocco on the Web
Morocco Week in Review 
February 14, 2015

Book Caravan « the tenth trip »
Jamila Hassoune (an NGO Leader in Marrakesh area) has the pleasure to announce the next Book Caravan « the tenth trip » which will take place from 20 through 24 April 2015 to  Taghjijit, one of the most important and beautiful palm groves at 70 km from Guelmim,  southern Morocco. It is situated in the heart of the famous mountainous chain called « Bani », which is part of the Anti-Atlas ;  a junction area where the Amazigh and Hassani populations coexisted. It is in fact the ancestral and traditional architecture, which dates back to 2500 years, with not only its outstanding columns, but also the adrar zerzem protohistorical site which is behind the Caravan’s wish to undertake this trip and reveal the rich heritage of our civilization. The Caravan will be joined in this enterprise by the Oued Seyyad Federation  and, as usual, workshops will be conducted in lycées, secondary  schools and associations.
For more information you may want to contact Jamila at: jhassoune@mail.com
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Participatory Stimulus.
By RPCV and HAF President Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir

The election results in Greece have again elevated the debate across Europe between proponents of austerity and stimulus. Which approach – either constricting public spending, including projects that promote sustainable growth, or increasing this funding, even through borrowing – will improve troubled economies and create jobs and new wealth for communities and families?
 
This is in reality a global question, currently echoed in two further examples; namely U.S. President Obama’s new proposals to secure and expand the middle class, and the options facing Arab Spring governments as they strive to outpace public discontent and potential political upheaval. There is indeed an alternative, third way approach that has ascended in the global field of international development, but that is regularly overlooked by governments as they create their own national development policies.
 
Participatory development is an approach to economic stimulus that would see thousands of smaller projects at the local level that communities identify and control, instead of fewer, large-scale costly projects with higher associated risks. Participatory stimulus in the form of human development projects is ideally suited to help shorten recessions and promote growth in two ways. First, people’s ability to adapt to change is increased, as the process builds their practical and critical thinking skills and confidence. Second, economic diversity is created with lower, shared risks on investments in smaller project costs and new partnerships, including community contributions of work and materials.

In this model, communities exist in close geographical proximity to one another, their members interacting and creating organizations that reflect their local interests and identities and that manage development projects utilizing internal and external resources to improve local conditions. Both the timescale and the level of involvement are of critical importance for the success of sustainable human development projects.  In terms of the former, it has been found that the greatest benefits accrue for local communities where such projects are implemented as quickly as possible after the initial idea has been agreed upon.
 
With regard to the latter, the premise is that the timing of meetings, project implementation and the overall development process rests with the people – acting in communities – who identify problems, find and implement solutions and benefit from the initiatives thus created. It has been found that when local communities function in this way, performing their own investigation, analysis and management of projects, their knowledge-base (critically built during the data-generating and information-sharing process) is directly relevant to the outcome.
 
A methodology with proven results
 
The participatory approach has been applied with success in a wide variety of situations.  In rural areas, improvements have taken place in farming systems, food production, natural resource and protected area management, cooperatives, land use and sanitation.  In the sphere of business and public services, improvements have been noted in infrastructural projects, poverty alleviation, technological development, architectural planning and community policing. 
 
There are significant increases in access and empowerment for the disabled, disease control, health education and nutrition.  Participatory methods assist in formal and informal education, experiential learning and communication, adult education and – on college campuses – increasing student involvement in academic decisions, university-community partnership, gender and youth development and in overcoming racial prejudice and other forms of discrimination. 
 
Improvement has been noted too in the fields of disaster management, peace-building and the work of welfare organizations.  Finally, participatory methodology is cited as a crucial factor in increased success in terms of organizational development, building civil society, project evaluation, policy development and advocacy.
 
Political theory and practical application

In political terms, participatory development can be characterized as a third way social movement due to its dualisms or wide-ranging, seemingly contradictory outcomes.  For example, interests that could be considered to be mutually exclusive – such as advancing development and protecting the environment – are fashioned by groups into synergistic partnerships.  All of this results in both autonomy at sub-national levels and strengthened national unity with greater public trust.  It is worth highlighting that such consequences could be particularly relevant in the different yet connected situations of Arab Spring countries.   
 
While the philosophical roots of participatory methodology are ancient, based in consultative decision-making, they are integral to the modern era.  Participatory human development stands where the classic ‘left’ and ‘right’ of the political spectrum can meet, creating decentralized systems and building a society that empowers at the local level and where the people determine and drive their individual and communal growth.
 
For example, in the context of the U.S. political landscape, participatory development combines core features of both major political parties.  It is dedicated to alleviating poverty that is explained to be systemically and historically created (a Democratic outlook) while at the same time it sees central planning of local development as contributing to waste and resentment, seeking instead to transfer power to the people so that they may manage their own affairs (federalism, the Republican party’s identity principle).
 
The prerequisite for the application of participatory stimulus is that it is supported adequately by national laws and policies that promote local democratic planning and action. 
 
National foreign debt ultimately reflects endorsements of borrowers’ national growth.  Participatory stimulus is the smart insurance that creditors should support to guarantee in the best manner possible that loans are paid back.  With connections that transcend party lines and benefits in multiple domains, participatory stimulus may also be the most politically acceptable pathway across the global arena.
  
Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir is president of the High Atlas Foundation.
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IMF reviewed Morocco’s economic performance
Saturday, 07 February 2015

Selected Moroccan economic indicators (% of GDP)

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on February 6, 2015, concluded the first review of Morocco’s economic performance under a program supported by a 24-month Precautionary Liquidity Line (PLL) arrangement. The PLL was approved in July 2014 in an amount equivalent to SDR 3.23 billion (about US$5 billion or 550 percent of Morocco’s quota at the IMF). (See Press release No. 14/368). The access under the arrangement in the first year will be equivalent to SDR 2.9 billion (about US$4.5 billion), rising in the second year to a cumulative US$5 billion. Morocco’s first 2-year PLL arrangement was approved on August 2, 2012.

The Moroccan authorities have stated that they intend to treat the arrangement as precautionary, as they have done with the 2012 PLL, and do not intend to draw under the arrangement unless Morocco experiences actual balance of payments needs from a significant deterioration of external conditions. The PLL was introduced in 2011 to meet more flexibly the liquidity needs of member countries with sound economic fundamentals and strong records of policy implementation but with some remaining vulnerabilities.

Following the Executive Board discussion on Morocco, Mr. Naoyuki Shinohara, IMF Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair of the Board, made the following statement:

“Despite headwinds from external environment, decisive policy action by the authorities has helped in rebalancing Morocco’s economy and in reducing fiscal and external vulnerabilities. Nonetheless, significant external risks remain and sustained implementation of reforms is essential to consolidate gains in macroeconomic stability and foster higher and more inclusive growth. The arrangement under the Fund’s Precautionary and Liquidity Line (PLL), which the authorities treat as precautionary, has supported the authorities’ efforts by providing an insurance against those risks.

“The fiscal deficit declined in 2014 and reached the authorities’ objective of 4.9 percent of GDP. Commendable progress was made in subsidy reform with the removal of subsidies on all liquid petroleum products, while support to the most vulnerable was expanded. The new organic budget law is expected to strengthen the budgetary framework once comments from the constitutional council have been addressed. The parametric reform of the public pension system is urgent to ensure the viability of the system. Continued tax reform is also important to bolster the contribution of the fiscal sector to growth.

“The current account deficit contracted significantly in 2014 while the reserve position strengthened, benefiting mainly from the rise in newly developed export sectors and a positive terms-of-trade shock following the fall in international oil prices. To sustain these gains, structural reforms to enhance competitiveness continue to be a priority. A transition to a more flexible exchange rate regime would also help. The business environment has improved but much remains to be done to enhance transparency and governance. The new banking law is welcome to support the continued soundness of the banking sector. The labor market needs further reform to help reduce unemployment.”
http://newbusinessethiopia.com/index.php/component/k2/item/226-imf-reviewed-morocco-s-economic-performance
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5 Reasons to Go To Morocco Now
Saturday 7 February 2015 By Carlotta Cavallari

Oh, magical Morocco! I have discovered this amazing country relatively late, in 2014, thanks to a road trip that took me from Marrakech all the way up to Tangier. I left with a big desire to go back, buy a riad and just live there permanently! It truly is an incredible country.
Here are my five reasons why you should travel to Morocco now, and a few personal tips.
Read them here: http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2015/02/151297/5-reasons-to-go-to-morocco-now/
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Leadership Development Institute of Al Akhawayn University
Saturday 7 February 2015 Oualid El Meriague Ifrane, Morocco

“In my first semester teaching the leadership class in spring 2008, I was talking about my experience of teaching leadership in the USA in the University of Colorado, and just telling about this experience within this class pushed a very active student to come up, and ask a simple question: This is an American style university, so why don’t we have an American style leadership program? And that’s how it all started”. That’s how Dr. Reinhart, the president of the Leadership Development Institute (LDI) at Al Akhawayn University, described the creation of the LDI.

The Institute’s main mission has been from the beginning to distinctively develop designated students to become global leaders that Morocco and the world need in corporations, governments, and NGOs. Further, the teachings delivered at the LDI develop a portable set of skills based on research conducted in house to acknowledge the skills that should be taught to students and skills that Morocco crucially needs. However, the teachings comprise a global perspective, since they take into consideration qualities that global citizens want from their leaders. For this reason, the LDI’s teachings are also based on global research.

Furthermore, Dr. Reinhart considers the LDI as a model institute that aims toward having a local, regional, and ambitious global impact, not only through teaching, but also by conducting strategic research, knowing that there is almost no leadership-related research published in the region. The LDI’s President also views the Institute’s strategy as a one that would enable LDI alumni to obtain a domestic conception of leadership, but with a global application, since they will be able to play the role of interlocutors in Morocco or abroad through active cross-cultural leadership.

The LDI is the first program of its kind in Morocco, one of two in the MENA region, and one of very few in the developing world. The LDI is a co-curricular program teaching leadership skills not only via in-class lessons, but also through organized service and experience activities. More so, to ensure that the program has the high standard of the leadership programs in the United States, the LDI uses the standards set by the Council for the Advancement of Standards (CAS) in Higher Education to assess its program.

The LDI is currently working on the Leader of the Year Award, which is an annual competition that awards outstanding leaders of associations in the Ifrane-Azrou and the Meknes regions. Moreover, students in the Institute considerably contributes to the promotion, selection, and awarding of the association’s leaders. The associations’ leaders will be announced this year at the upcoming LOTY celebration on the April 23rd.

There are many other main events on which the LDI is working, such as the annual leadership conference, which is scheduled for this coming September, assisting universities in Meknes and Fez in the establishment of leadership development programs and the publishing research on the best practices of developing student leadership in the MENA region. In order to expand its practices nationally and regionally, the LDI is looking for grant and sponsorship opportunities.
Edited by Timothy Filla
http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2015/02/151310/leadership-development-institute-al-akhawayn-university/
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U.S. Science Envoy Peter Hotez To Visit Morocco This Week
Monday 9 February 2015 - 16:47 Washington

U.S. Science Envoy Dr. Peter Hotez will visit Morocco during this week to foster cooperation relations in the field of scientific research, said on Monday a statement by the Department of State. During his stay in Morocco (Feb. 8-14), Hotez will meet with representatives of the academic and scientific community on means to establish networks for scientific collaboration between the two countries’ scientists and engineers, said the statement issued to media outlets.
The visit by the U.S. Science Envoy to Morocco comes in support of President Barack Obama’s initiative to foster American relations with other countries in the area of science and education, it added.
http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2015/02/151409/u-s-science-envoy-peter-hotez-visit-morocco-week/
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UNICEF, Canada Launch Forsa Project to Support Moroccan Youth
Thursday 12 February 2015 Rabat

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Canadian embassy in Morocco launched on Wednesday the Forsa project to support Moroccan youth in their transition to working life. Supported by the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development, this initiative is based on the long-standing experience of UNICEF in Morocco in the field of structural programs to improve the transition of young people to a successful social and economic integration.
The Forsa program is meant to promote national initiatives aimed at supporting Moroccan youth to avoid school dropouts.
“We have planned a number of programs for poor youth; the Forsa program reinforces our actions to achieve more effective and rapid results,” said the Minister of National Education and Vocational Training, Rachid Benmokhtar who chaired the launching ceremony.
http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2015/02/151661/unicef-canada-launch-forsa-project-support-moroccan-youth/
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Volunteer Work: When the Torchbearers Are Moroccan Students
Thursday 12 February 2015 - Asmae Nasri Tetouan

John F. Kennedy’s famous aphorism, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country,” is a paradigm shift in the theory of responsibility: which is supposed to give to the other? Should the country give to the citizen or should the citizen give to the country? Politicians and leaders are surely responsible for what happens in their countries, but citizens should also be accountable.

One way that citizens can contribute to building a prosperous society is by doing volunteer work. It is heartwarming to see students volunteering their time and effort for the wellbeing of others, with no expectation of pay or material benefits for themselves. I feel compelled to shed light on these students who volunteer and to describe them as torchbearers, because they represent the future generation. They have a sanguine view of life, and see the world through an optimistic lens. In the last few years, there has been an upsurge in the interest of volunteer work. We started hearing about newly created associations and started sensing the desire of students all over Morocco to take part in the change that is happening in their communities.

Moroccan students understand that volunteering is a way for them to voice their ambitions of community development and take the lead in changing circumstances both for themselves and for the people around them. Students have become involved in different associations devoted to numerous issues. They have furthered the efforts of humanitarian organizations to take part in public affairs and meet the needs of people that policymakers have been unable to reach, either in part or in full. We find that the majority of Moroccan selective schools allow students to create clubs and organizations. Volunteer work is present in different disciplines: medicine, biology, geology, geography, physics, sociology, engineering, math, languages, law, Islamic studies, and more.
The most notable fact is that in some disciplines, like medicine and engineering, students spend eight hours a day on campus and are overloaded with homework, but still make time for volunteering. Also, students who volunteer are more likely to find jobs than the students who do not. The experience of volunteering is considered an internship that will not only expand the career prospects of the volunteer, but also give them a deep insight into his or her field.
Joining an association or a humanitarian organization that aligns with the volunteer’s field of interest may provide an opportunity for him or her to discover how academic preparation and the theories learned in classes apply to a work setting. Moreover, the volunteer has the opportunity to back up his resume with unpaid experience.

In this regard, Oussama Bouzerouata, a student at Ecole Normale Superieur and the president of Club Citizenship of Ecole Normale Superieur, Tetouan, said that volunteering is one criteria of human development and progress of a country. “My participation in many international events, as well as my participation as a representative of Morocco in the world general assembly of youth, helped me a lot to broaden my social network and increase my awareness of being part of the change happening in my community,” he told Morocco World News.

In the same context, Safae El Herraz, a Master’s student in Agadir and a freelance journalist, said that volunteering for girls, especially in developing countries, is “a gate to increasing leadership in tomorrow’s citizens. It guarantees a social dedication towards responsibility, initiative, and building a strong sense of social engagement.”

In conclusion, we can say that volunteering is a great way to help oneself. It gives the volunteer the privilege to launch a career in any field, acquire new skills, and broaden one’s social network.
http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2015/02/151609/volunteer-work-when-the-torchbearers-are-moroccan-students/
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Marrakech Hosts 2nd International Conference on Education for Democratic Citizenship
Wednesday 11 February 2015 - By Elarbi Imad Marrakech

Over 120 educators, experts, media, youth representatives and civil society leaders from 20 countries participated in the second International Conference on Education for Democratic Citizenship on February 4-8 in Marrakech. The event was organised by the Moroccan Center for Civic Education in partnership with the University of Ottawa and Bishop’s university, Canada, Merryville University in Saint Louis, Missouri and the Center for Civic Education, USA. The event was cosponsored by Calliope, Morocco and mass media partners Morocco World News and Badil.

Under the theme of “The Role of Youth in Promoting Global Citizenship: Opportunities and Challenges,” the conference featured plenary sessions, workshops, roundtables and keynote speeches. During the four days of the conference, participants from Morocco, Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America, Canada, the United States, and other countries had the opportunity to network, share ideas and exchange “best practices” and viewpoints on how to integrate citizenship values and democracy concepts in classroom practices through community projects using innovative and participatory methods and approaches.

Keynote speakers included Dr. Mohammed Melouk, professor at the Faculty of Education at Mohammed V University, Rabat; Dr. Shirley Steinberg, research professor of youth studies at the University of Calgary, Canada; and Dr. Miles Turnbull, Vice President of Bishop’s university, Canada. In his closing remark, Turnbull gave an overview of the conference components with comments and stressed the importance of sustaining such activities to ensure the positive impact of citizenship education on students and communities.

Workshops and discussion groups explored a number of topics and subthemes, including the role of civil society in promoting democracy, civic engagement, education for human rights, the role of higher education and teacher training institutes, developing research and education networks, empowering youth, education for peace, and other areas.

One highlight of the conference was the keynote speech delivered by Dr. Abdellatif El Moudni, Secretary General of the Higher Council for Education, Training and Scientific Research, Rabat. In his keynote speech, Dr. El Moudni drew a road map in regards to the implementation of citizenship education with students and also stressed the importance of the involvement of NGOs and youth in community issues and proposing public policies.

The International Network for Research in Citizenship Education Created
As a result of the conference, the International Network for Research in Citizenship Education was created. This network set up a commission composed of Aicha Lemtouni, Morocco; Chiara Guidetti, Spain; Trevor Gulliver and John Portelli, Canada and Othman Barnaoui, Saudi Arabia to take the lead and work on the mission, goals and structure. The network will be based in Morocco, and Elarbi Imad, President of the Moroccan Center for Civic Education, was selected as the coordinator of this network; his main tasks are research and evaluation of citizenship and democracy education.

The Moroccan Center for Civic Education is a non-governmental organisation whose mission is to educate and train younger generations to become responsible, active and effective citizens committed to democratic principles. The Center has been collaborating with national partners such as the Ministry of Education and civil society organisations and international partners to educate Moroccan young people for responsible civic participation. Thousands of young people have participated in curricular programs created or adapted by the Center, including Project Citizen, originally designed by the Center for Civic Education, and a ninth-grade civics curriculum developed in collaboration with Moroccan education authorities and Maryville University.

Today, the Moroccan Center for Civic Education is a regional leader in education for democracy and collaborates with civil society counterparts in countries such as Libya and Tunisia to implement joint programs funded by the United Nations Democracy Fund and others. In the near future, the Center will embark on a new project called “Forming Responsible Citizens – Promoting citizenship education to prevent school violence, particularly against girls and women” approved by the Union for the Mediterranean and will be implemented in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt under the leadership of the Spanish-based organisation “Ideaborn.”
http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2015/02/151518/marrakech-hosts-2nd-international-conference-education-democratic-citizenship/
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Morocco: online purchase of locally manufactured products now possible
February 12, 2015

The Casablanca Chamber of Commerce and services and the Moroccan National Federation of e-commerce (FNEM) have launched a website, made-in-morocco.ma, dedicated to online sales of locally manufactured products. The website offers more than 420,000 Moroccan products, from all regions of the kingdom, including foodstuffs such as saffron, olive oil or argan oil, readymade traditional costumes (caftans, jellabas, jabadors, selhams, and melahfat as well as cultural products, including more than 90,000 books, works of a hundred painters, and a collection of films and music CDs.

The website, displaying the creations of some 217 Moroccan manufacturers and craftsmen,is the first of its kind in Africa. The promoters of the website and their partners, mainly banking institutions, are pinning hopes that this e-commerce will be profitable for both the economic and tourism sectors. They vow to facilitate the products delivery to consumers in the country and abroad. “You can see the products available, do your shopping, choose the delivery method and set the delivery date. Payments are made by credit card and the transaction is very easy and safe,” said Leila Alami, a representative of a partner bank.
http://northafricapost.com/7018-morocco-online-purchase-of-locally-manufactured-products-now-possible.html
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What Is My Role as a Teacher and Leader?
Wednesday 11 February 2015 - Abderrahim Mamad Rabat

One of the indisputable questions future educators need to ask is ‘where are we in leadership?’ It may be a common view that everyone exercises leadership in his or her narrow domain, but the term “leadership” for us educators is not to be taken lightly.

Setting an example for and directing young people to achieve a common goal does not necessarily mean that you are a great leader. Rather, having a sense of leadership involves guiding the talents and energies of teachers and students toward achieving common educational aims. As far as leadership in education is concerned, John F. Kennedy said, “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” Therefore, we cannot separate education or learning from leadership, and vice versa. When I lead, I grow personally and professionally; and being personally and professionally developed should guide me to lead properly both inside and outside the classroom.

My personal view is that educators in the 21st century need to reconsider their roles as providers of knowledge and begin seeing themselves as teachers and leaders. These traits do not come naturally, but are acquired through continual work and study. Good teachers and leaders constantly improve their leadership skills. Since earning my B.A. in Teaching English as a Foreign Language at Moulay Ismail University in Meknes and the ensuing opportunity to learn and reflect on teacher trainees’ teaching methodology at Ecole Normale Supérieure in Rabat, I have come to realize that my approach as a leader is effective in terms of building my own strong volition as well as my students’. Believing in the fact that great leaders are made and not born encourages me to be the change I wish to see in the world.

The initiative I have taken as a leader, for example, has resulted in my willingness to improve students’ personal and interpersonal communication skills through cooperative learning, extracurricular activities, service learning, and project work. Cooperative learning easily developed, by engaging students in teamwork. Extracurricular activities require the teacher’s ability to host guest speakers and organize workshops that are of considerable importance for students’ learning.

Service learning requires the teacher to make students aware of their important role in contributing to their community. For example, if students recognize that their school needs essential equipment, they will draft a plan and take action to fill the gap. Concerning project work, the teacher has to direct his or her students to take up certain tasks in an organized manner. Small-scale research, poster design, and presentations are examples of project-based learning that involve students’ planning, collaboration, execution, constant evaluation, reflection, production, and display.

Additionally, leadership is a never-ending process. A teacher and leader must ensure his or her ability to bridge theories with practical applications in education settings. As far as I am concerned, I think that my philosophy in exercising leadership inside the classroom in particular and in the school in general addresses the educational needs of students from diverse backgrounds, while incorporating 21st century skills.

The ways teachers lead are as varied as teachers themselves. For example, I can contribute to the school’s success by sharing instructional resources with my colleagues. These might include online web sites, social networking sites, instructional materials, readings, or other resources including articles, books, virtual classes (e.g. Schoology and Wikispaces), and assessment tools. Another role I would gladly play is that of an instructional specialist, enabling my colleagues to implement effective teaching strategies. This assistance might include ideas for evaluating and planning lessons in partnership with teacher trainees.

More importantly, being a specialist in designing the syllabus and understanding the curriculum helps me lead fellow teachers to agree on standards, follow the adopted curriculum, and develop shared assessments. Inside the classroom, I play my role as a leader when I provide support to teacher trainees in terms of giving feedback, observing their performance in the class, and evaluating trainees. Another equally important role is competence in effectively teaching 21st century skills, such as developing students’ critical and creative thinking abilities, helping them use Information Communication Technology effectively, ethically, and appropriately for education, and teaching them how to solve their own learning problems.

From all that has been said, I think that the teacher and leader’s role in a school’s success transcends classroom walls. This philosophy addresses a long-standing concern of students, educators, and society as a whole. In other words, the aim is to achieve both student and teacher development; and then the development of society in general.
Edited by Elisabeth Myers
http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2015/02/151544/what-is-my-role-as-a-teacher-and-leader/
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Increasing attacks making school dangerous for girls, U.N. says
By Tom Murphyon 10 February 2015

Going to school is becoming an increasingly dangerous proposition for girls around the world. Schools in at least 70 countries experienced some form of attack between 2009 and 2014, said the United Nations in a new report. Girls were overwhelmingly the target of such attacks. High-profile cases, like the assassination attempt of Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai and the kidnapping of close to 300 schoolgirls in Nigeria by Boko Haram, illustrate only part of a worrying trend.

“Attacks against girls accessing education persist and, alarmingly, appear in some countries to be occurring with increasingly regularity,” the report said. “In most instances, such attacks form part of broader patterns of violence, inequality and discrimination.”

The report, delivered to U.N. Women by the Women’s Human Rights and Gender section of the Human Rights Council, is concerned by the factors that prevent girls from going to school. It says more than 3,600 attacks against schools, students and teachers were documented in 2012 alone.

The violence is the manifestation of problems rooted in insecurity and culture that contribute to attitudes that are not accepting of girls in school. The cases in Pakistan and Nigeria are ones in areas beset by conflict, but problems exist in countries not experiencing conflict. Cases from Central America and India illustrate the broad challenge faced by efforts to get more girls into school.

“Education continues to be denied to girls as a result of cultural and social norms and practices that perpetuate harmful stereotypes about appropriate roles for women and reinforce the idea that education is ‘wasted’ on girls,” says the report. “The educational rights of girls and women are often targeted due to the fact that they represent a challenge to existing gender and age-based systems of oppression.”

The right to education is a central issue in numerous human rights treaties and even appears in the Millennium Development Goals. That is in addition to the more than 140 countries that include the protection of the right to education in their constitutions. The United Nations is concerned that preventing girls from attending school will have long-lasting negative effects on the girls themselves and societies as a whole.

“Attacks on girls’ education have a ripple effect – not only do they impact on the lives of the girls and communities who are directly concerned, they also send a signal to other parents and guardians that schools are not safe places for girls,” says the report. “The removal of girls from education due to fears for their security and concerns about their subsequent marriageability may result in additional human rights violations.”

“Attack” is used in the broadest sense possible by the report. It ranges from abductions to acid assaults to sexual violence. The lack of security is believed to keep girls out of schools, thus putting them at greater risk of falling into forces marriages or labor, argues the United Nations. Insecurity is extended beyond the students and to the teachers, as well. Reports of rapes for both girls and teachers traveling to school were reported in countries such as El Salvador, Indonesia, Mali, the Philippines and more.

“The common cause of all these attacks, which are very different in nature, is deeply entrenched discrimination against women and girls,” said Veronica Birga, chief of the women’s human rights and gender section at the U.N. human rights office, at a event launching the report.

The findings will be used as a part of a larger report on women due to be published in October. According to the New York Times, Sri Lankan lawyer and rights advocate Radhika Coomaraswamy is leading the study. The pieces of research, including this report, will bring together a better picture of global progress towards gender equality.

In the meantime, the report issues cautious recommendations for countries to do more to ensure the safety of girls. It is careful to recognize that the root problems are found in unbalanced power structures that benefit men and deeper social norms.

“The transformation of unequal power relationships based on gender and age is a lengthy and difficult process, however, it is necessary in order to sustainably address the underlying causes and consequences of violations of the human rights of girls and women,” it concludes.
http://www.humanosphere.org/human-rights/2015/02/increasing-attacks-making-school-dangerous-girls-un/
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44 Million Cell Phone Subscribers, 9.97 Million Internet Users in Morocco
Tuesday 10 February 2015 - Rabat

A new report released by Morocco’s telecommunication regulator reveals that the number of cell phone subscribers has reached 44 million, while the number of internet users reached 9.97 million. This increase in subscribers was accompanied by lower prices for communications by cell phones and internet services.
Telecommunication operators are now charging an average of 0.32 Dirham/Min for mobile telephony, down from 0.41 Dirham/Min in 2013, or a decrease of 22 percent, according to a report released by the National Agency for the Regulation of Telecommunications, known as ANRT.

The report also revealed that customers of internet services have seen a 36 percent decrease in prices, moving from an average monthly bill of 36 Dirham in 2013 to 23 Dirham by the end of 2014.

The average monthly usage of cell phone subscribers continued its growth during the fourth quarter of last year. According to the report, each customer consumed an average of 92 minutes per month by the end of December 2014, which represents an annual increase of 11 percent. Moroccans spoke 48.2 billion minutes on their mobile phones and sent 19.7 billion text messages in 2014, a 20.4 and 74.2 percent increase respectively, the governing body of Moroccan telecommunications sector reported.
http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2015/02/151464/44-million-cell-phone-subscribers-9-97-million-internet-users-morocco/
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Fes, Morocco: A flavour of the nation. An entertaining food tour gives Nigel Tisdall an insight into life within the hypnotic, labyrinthine souks of Fes
By Nigel Tisdall 10 Feb 2015

"I still get lost,” Mehdi Bennani admits as he accompanies me through the ancient heart of Fes. With its 13 mighty gates, eight miles of sandstone walls, pricked with holes like shortbread, and some 10,000 alleys, I’m not surprised.

Just north of the Middle Atlas Mountains, this former Moroccan capital and imperial city is home to the mother of all medinas, dating from the ninth century. A World Heritage site, it is the largest car-free urban area in the world, where 270,000 Fassis dwell in an enclosed space the size of London’s Richmond Park – and it is quite acceptable to yell, “Move your ass!”

Our guide is Houssam Laassiri, ever-smiling chef at Palais Amani, an enchanting 14-room riad on the medina’s northern edge. Born within its time-scarred walls, he knows its secret squares and dog-leg shortcuts inside out, and leads us Pied Piper-like through the maze as part of a half-day cookery course that will teach us how to prepare classic Moroccan dishes such as harira soup, baghrir (Berber pancakes) and fish tajine. Mehdi has come along to translate, clearly relishing the chance to slip away from the reception desk and show us his home town.
Continuous here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/africaandindianocean/morocco/11386935/Fes-Morocco-A-flavour-of-the-nation.html
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WB Approves $130 Million Loan to Improve Waste Treatment in Morocco
Friday 13 February 2015 Washington

The World Bank (WB) approved a 130 million dollar loan to improve recycling and solid waste treatment in Morocco, the WB said in a statement in Washington on Friday. The World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors approved today a US$130 million project to support the Moroccan national goal of ensuring all municipal solid waste is disposed in sanitary landfills, along with 20% of all waste recycled, by 2022, the statement said.

The project will focus on boosting solid waste services in urban areas, while improving conditions and incomes for traditional jobs associated with solid waste management, namely the ‘waste pickers,’ and developing new businesses and jobs based on recycling, the same source said. The reforms being supported under this loan will help significantly upgrade solid waste collection and management and reinforce the shift to a more professional, transparent and accountable management of these services, the statement added. As part of the program, an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 jobs will be created by 2022, through income-generating activities and small enterprises dedicated to waste recycling.
http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2015/02/151786/wb-approves-130-million-loan-improve-waste-treatment-morocco/
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US$130 Million to Support Recycling and Improved Solid Waste Management in Morocco
WASHINGTON, February 12, 2015

The World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors approved today a US$130 million project to support the Moroccan national goal of ensuring all municipal solid waste is disposed in sanitary landfills, along with 20% of all waste recycled, by 2022. The project will focus on boosting solid waste services in urban areas, while improving conditions and incomes for traditional jobs associated with solid waste management, namely the ‘waste pickers,’ and developing new businesses and jobs based on recycling.

The Fourth Municipal Solid Waste Sector Development Policy Loan was designed to support the 15-year National Program for Solid Waste Management. With sixty percent of Morocco’s population living in cities, the country is faced with a pressing demand for more efficient and affordable solid waste management and for sustainably disposing of a growing waste production of around 5.5 million tons per year. The ambitious government program has achieved significant results in improving the overall management of solid waste services and nurturing public confidence in its efficiency and reliability.

“We are delighted to continue to support a pioneering reform program in a sector that is so critical to the health and well-being of Moroccan citizens,” said Simon Gray, World Bank Country Director for the Maghreb. “The reforms being supported under this loan will help significantly upgrade solid waste collection and management and reinforce the shift to a more professional, transparent and accountable management of these services.”

As part of the program, an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 jobs will be created by 2022, through income-generating activities and small enterprises dedicated to waste recycling. More than 15 million people are now benefiting from upgraded municipal solid waste services and the waste collection ratio in urban areas has increased from 45 percent in 2007 to 80 percent today. In addition, more than 35 percent of the waste collected is being disposed in accordance with acceptable social and environmental practices.

“Citizen engagement and access to information are also at the core of this program,” said Jaafar Friaa, the World Bank Task Team Leader for the project. “A ‘Citizen Report Card’ allows the public to monitor the delivery of services and report back with any complaints.”

The reforms supported by the loan also include actions to strengthen environmental control and monitoring in Morocco. “The recent adoption of a decree establishing an Environmental Police is a tangible example of a reform that will help regulate the sector” added Maria Sarraf, World Bank co-Task Team Leader.
The loan is a key component of the World Bank Group’s current Country Partnership Strategy with Morocco that covers the fiscal years 2014-17.

The World Bank currently has a portfolio of 21 projects in Morocco, amounting to a committed financing of US$1.98 billion, providing a diverse range of support in areas such as private sector, financial sector and governance reform, employment, green growth and promotion of renewable energy, access to basic services such as rural roads, water, sanitation, the reduction of vulnerability and social exclusion, and improvements in agriculture. Since 2011, the World Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation, has stepped up its engagement in Morocco and has invested US$590 million to support private sector development in the country.
http://investinbrazil.biz/news/us130-million-support-recycling-and-improved-solid-waste-management-morocco
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Exotic 19th-century Morocco portrayed in Montreal exhibit
Janice Arnold, Staff Reporter, Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Tags: Arts Benjamin-Constant in his Time Marvels and Mirages of Orientalism From Spain to Morocco MMFA Montreal Museum of Fine Arts - MONTREAL

Life in 19th-century southern Spain and Morocco, with its mixing of Christian, Muslim and Jewish cultures, is vividly recalled in the current main exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA). Marvels and Mirages of Orientalism From Spain to Morocco, Benjamin-Constant in his Time, which continues in the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion until May 31, is organized with the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse, France and co-sponsored by the embassy of Morocco and the Communauté sépharade unifiée du Québec (CSUQ), among others.

Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant (1845-1902), a once-popular French painter on both sides of the Atlantic, is being rediscovered by the art world. This exhibition is one of the largest ever of his work and also features other artists of the era who were fascinated by the Maghreb. Benjamin-Constant’s dazzling, sunlit often huge canvases are considered prime examples of the art movement known as Orientalism. His capturing of this mysterious world of potentates’ sumptuous courts, sensuous harems and days whiled away in the Mediterranean’s languid warmth fed the imagination of his fellow Frenchmen.

Colonial France was enchanted by this exotic and somewhat menacing world seemingly untouched by time, yet relatively close at hand. Benjamin-Constant did not rely solely on stereotypes; he spent a great deal of time in Andalusia and, across the Strait of Gibraltar, in Morocco, but he did not shrink from employing a little fantasy, some might say cliché, in his paintings. The prolific Benjamin-Constant earlier on found numerous patrons in North America, as well as Europe, and his work is found in private collections in the United States and Canada, but he is little known today.

The MMFA possesses four of his paintings, which were acquired by Montrealers during his lifetime. Almost 250 works are on view by Benjamin-Constant and several other Orientalists, as well as earlier artists who influenced them, notably Eugène Delacroix. Seventy-one lenders contributed to the exhibition from North America, Europe and Morocco, bringing many of these works together for the first time. Some had been kept in storage for decades and required restoration.

A 400-page catalogue, with over 500 illustrations, covering Benjamin-Constant’s entire career has been published by the MMFA, the product of research by an international team of experts. Among the works of clearly Jewish themes in the exhibition are Alfred Dehodencq’s imposing 1861 Execution of a Jewish Woman in Morocco, inspired by the real-life public beheading of 17-year-old Sol Hachuel in Fez in 1834. She was executed for alleged apostasy from Islam – even though the teen apparently never converted. Hachuel became a Jewish heroine, having purportedly declared, “A Jewess I was born, and a Jewess I wish to die.”
The painting depicts a surging mob around her as the executioner draws his sword toward the neck of the kneeling girl.

A small 1832 Délacroix oil depicts a languid street scene in the Jewish quarter of Meknes, while A Jewish Woman of Morocco is an 1868 portrait by Charles-Emile-Hippolyte Vernet-Lecomte of an apparently wealthy woman in the traditional frock and headdress worn on special occasions. By Benjamin-Constant is Judith, his 1886 rendering of the brave and, in his imagination, sultry biblical heroine, swathed in clingy garb and sword in hand. It’s on loan from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The CSUQ and the company, Buffalo David Bitton, are supporting a number of activities related to the exhibition. Among them is a lecture on March 18 by Peggy Davis, an art history professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal, on “La harem dans la peinture: l’Orient fantasmé.”
- See more at: http://www.cjnews.com/index.php?q=node/136004#sthash.uLYpPAWR.dpuf
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Moroccans and Valentine’s Day
Saturday 14 February 2015 - Rabat

Each year, Valentine’s Day is celebrated on February 14. It is observed in many parts of the world, and it is characterized by exchanging gifts, sending loved-ones texts, and above all reminding oneself of the importance of love in people’s lives. Both couples and singles take part in the celebration, for love means something to them.

In Morocco, so many Moroccans have their say on Valentine’s Day, particularly the educated ones. Whereas some believe in the efficacy of this celebration in that it unites people and spreads love among them, others dispel the idea, thinking that a day of celebration adds nothing to people’s romance and lives.
MWN interviewed several Moroccans about what Valentine’s Day represents to them and whether or not it is worth celebrating.

On the one hand, several Moroccans expressed a negative attitude towards Valentine’s Day, stressing that observing it is but a waste of time. “Valentine’s Day doesn’t mean anything to me. I don’t believe in it,” Sarah Boutafi, a masters student told MWN. “It hasn’t changed anything in my life so far,” she explained.
“Most Moroccans do not celebrate the event; all they do is blindly imitate the West,” said Meryem, a Moroccan teacher of English. “Celebrating this sort of event is against our conservative traditions.” “The youth of today only waste their time indulging themselves in this triviality,” a Moroccan mother of four children told MWN. “I think Moroccan youth must think about something practical and more serious that can positively affect their day to day life,” she added.

For Ikram, a graduate student in Fez University believes that this celebration has nothing to do with reality. “Saint Valentine’s Day does not exist in our religion and is not adequate with our culture and traditions. Instead of making such a fuss it would be better to show some affection to our mothers, fathers and family,” she said.

Other Moroccans, however, hailed this celebration, believing it is a golden opportunity to know their fellow citizens more deeply, to intimately identify with them, and to reunite with one another.

Rachid Acim, a young Moroccan poet and writer, has a different take about the holiday. “Valentine’s Day is a day of love par excellence. For many youths, it is a moment in which they can recall their soul-mates,” he said. “A red rose may be evocative of love. A lovely postcard can fulfill the same purpose.” Mr. Acim added that he respects “all people’s ways of expressing love.”“As I view it, love is not in need of a day to be expressed. All our days should be predicated on love. It’s our essence and the objective of our being,” he continued.

Abdessalam Nejjar, a teacher of science, shares nearly the same attitude towards Valentine’s Day. “Love is priceless. Any opportunity to celebrate it must be seized. Although insufficient, a day of devotion to love is better than no celebration at all. I think exchanging gifts on this day can help partners cement their emotions and strengthen their romance,” Nejjar told MWN.

For Wafae, a University teacher of English and a Ph.D candidate at Mohamed V University, she said that love is one of the magical feelings that can change a person’s life. That is why she believes that is worth celebrating this special day. “We start hearing people talking about Valentine’s Day from the beginning of February. Some get excited and happy since they are going to live the day. Others feel frustrated because they still haven’t found a soul-mate yet and thus they pray to have one by February 14th. Let us show love to our beloved ones and cherish the day and not forget that to love is nothing, to be loved is something, to love and be loved is everything.”

In the same vein, Jamal Aglagal, a technology teacher in Sidi Ifni, praises the celebration, arguing, “at a time when divorce is on the rise, couples along with singles should think of more ways to re-kindle love in our hearts, to evince feelings openly and to get rid of the fear of uttering what are commonly the three most difficult words, ‘I love you’.”

No matter what the attitudes held towards Valentine’s Day and irrespective of whether or not a day would suffice to say the unsaid and to feel the unfelt as regards love, one thing all human beings unanimously agree on is the miracle love embodies, uniting partners’ souls and the inevitability of this universal, human feeling.

It goes without saying that no one is born to withstand or ‘ricochet’ off’ the power of this feeling. Love is inescapable. Feeling it and bonding with our lovers have always been our quest, whether we are aware of it or not. Love is above all a virtue. It is human passion. So, let us wish one another a Happy Valentine’s Day.
http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2015/02/151814/moroccans-valentines-day/
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Moroccan Sweet Potato, Butter Bean and Coconut Tagine recipe
By Judy Walker, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune The Times-Picayune February 09, 2015
Reprinted with publisher permission from "The Complete Coconut Cookbook: 200 Gluten-Free, Grain-Free and Nut-Free Vegan Recipes Using Coconut Flour, Oil, Sugar and More" by Camilla V. Saulsbury, ©www.robertrose.ca

Makes 8 servings
2 tablespoons virgin coconut oil
1-1/2 cups chopped onions
1 red bell pepper, chopped
3 cups diced peeled sweet potatoes
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons sweet smoked paprika
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 cans (each 14 to 19 ounces) butter beans**, drained and rinsed
1⁄2 cup golden raisins*
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 cups coconut water
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup well-stirred coconut milk (full-fat)
3⁄4 cup chopped packed fresh cilantro or flat-leaf (Italian) parsley leaves, chopped
1⁄2 cup unsweetened flaked or shredded coconut, toasted

In a large saucepan, melt coconut oil over low heat. Add onions, red pepper and sweet potatoes; increase heat to medium-high and cook, stirring, for 6 to 8 minutes or until onions and red pepper are softened. Add garlic, paprika, cumin and cinnamon; cook, stirring occasionally, for 7 to 10 minutes or until sweet potatoes are beginning to soften.

Stir in beans, raisins, salt, coconut water, lemon zest and lemon juice; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, leaving lid ajar, and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in coconut milk and simmer 5 minutes.

Ladle tagine into bowls and sprinkle with cilantro and coconut.

*Substitute dark raisins, chopped dried apricots or chopped dates.
**White beans, such as Great Northern or cannellini, can be used in place of the butter beans.
http://world.einnews.com/article/249010476/ubBE5tzrtDlp6XcF
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Argan Oil - the Moroccan answer to EVO.
Richard Frisbie

Traveling to Morocco? It is more than just a literary destination, it’s a culinary destination, too! Light, locally produced and minimally processed foods that make up what is referred to as the Mediterranean Diet are acknowledged by health care professionals to be a healthy lifestyle choice. One aspect of such a diet is replacing animal fat with vegetable oil. As this culinary ethic spreads to health-conscious tables across the globe, extra virgin olive oil (or, as Rachael Ray’s famous catch-phrase has it - EVO) became the go-to replacement for butter. Move over EVO; Argan Oil is here.

Moroccan food made nearly every list of 2015 culinary trends as prognosticators compiled their “top five” or “top ten” New Year’s predictions. Reading the spathe of tagine and preserved lemon recipes these lists engendered, it was clear that the most important Moroccan food was being overlooked - Argan Oil. This light, nutty oil is a staple on every Moroccan table, primarily used for dipping bread or drizzling over salads and couscous, but also as the oil in many other recipes.

Traveling to Morocco, which is, coincidentally, on all the 2015 lists for “top travel destinations” especially those with a culinary bent, you’re bound to see the Argan tree, which is endemic to the country. It bears a small, fleshy stone fruit, with the oil extracted from kernels contained in the pit. For culinary use, the kernels are roasted before being ground and pressed. This produces an oil similar in taste to hazelnut oil, but lighter. The health benefits include claims of lower cholesterol, fewer cardiovascular incidents and reduced chances of diabetes and obesity.

Besides its culinary uses, Argan oil (with the kernels unroasted) is the ingredient in many healthy cosmetic and medicinal oils. Its antioxidizing benefits see it promoted as a treatment to maintain healthy skin and hair, and for application on burns and skin diseases. Additional ancillary benefits of Argan oil production include animal feed from the byproducts, the soil retention properties of the deep-rooted trees, and the collectives created to produce the labor-intensive oil that employ and empower more than 2 million Moroccan women.

So the next time you reach for that high quality EVO, think about what you are trying to accomplish. If it’s a healthier diet with no compromise on taste, reach instead for the Argan oil. You won’t be disappointed
http://www.examiner.com/article/argan-oil-the-moroccan-answer-to-evo
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Morocco’s desert festival in Taragalte bridges the Sahara gap
By Daniel Brown – February 7, 2015

Southeast Morocco’s last oasis, M’hamid El Ghizlane, was the unlikely setting for the Taragalte Festival between January 23-25. Despite the challenges of access and comfort, this annual three-day event near the spectacular Drâa valley attracted hundreds of Moroccan and international festival-goers. They joined forces with the artists and speakers to celebrate a nomadic Amazigh culture threatened by desertification, depopulation and a stagnant economy (see the introductory paper). WMC correspondent Daniel Brown reports on a small but defiant music festival that also addresses the environmental, economic and social challenges of our day.

Mokhtar Bel Adr wiped his forehead with a gnarled hand, distorted by decades of picking one of the 18 varieties of dates the region grows. His hands were slightly numb, feeling the cold of a Saharan winter night that brings the temperature here down to 1°C. Sitting on a stool in his dusty living room he continued to ply his tea, pouring it repeatedly into a glass, then back into the teapot. Steam rose above his head towards the roof made of a mix of earth, straw and palm leaves locally known as “ajna”.

A gaping hole underlined the fragile nature of the abode which, like the rest of Mokhtar’s village, Kasbah Talha, was still repairing the damage caused by this year’s floods. “I didn’t just pick dates, you know,” he told me in his stuttering French, as he handed over a scalding glass of mint tea, “I also spent a little time in France, Nice to be exact, and years working in Casablanca. I had to give up because of my knees.” The 80-year-old ruefully smacked his thigh.

Two young schoolgirls pushed open his door, crossed the room and exited into the main stree without saying a word. Mokhtar’s two-room home also serves as a thoroughfare between the Kasbah’s labyrinthine passages and the road towards M’hamid El Ghizlane, two kilometers away. Mokhtar mumbled in Tamazigh Berber of the region as I sat uncomfortably on a large bundle of dusty rags, sipping the strong desert tea. It was still early, the Taragalte festival seven kilometers away was slowing awaking from its previous night of festivities and I profited from the respite to take in the neighboring realities.

Kasbah Talha is quiet in the morning sun. Only 50 families remain in this suburb of M’hamid, consisting mainly of young children and old folk who increasingly depend on the income sent home by faraway sons and daughters, eking out a meager living in the city. The rural exodus caused by unemployment and drought has gutted the entire region of its youth, drawn by the lure of jobs in the fishing industry in Dakhla and Laayoun, or by the army.

“My brother patrols on the Mauritanian border, we see him twice a year,” explained Abdelrahman, somewhat ruefully as he shoveled together some “ajna” to fix his neighbor’s roof. “He’s a plain border guard, earns 3,000 DH ($340) a month to get bored and his wife is lucky to see him twice a year…” Abdelrahman felt somewhat luckier having fought his way into Marrakesh University where he was finishing off an economics and accounting degree, which he was convinced would find him work some time in the future. Meanwhile, he used his holiday break to earn his family some money : 110 DH ($12) a day on the worksite.

Beneath the beauty, poverty
It is to the backcloth of such stark economic realities that the Sbaï brothers, Halim and Ibrahim, decided to found the Taragalte Festival in 2009. Two of 14 children living in M’hamid, they picked up where elder brother Ahmed left off after deciding to continue his career as a physician in Geneva. Ahmed had set up in 2005 the Association Zaïla ( “ephemeral passage” or “dromedary”) to protect the patch of desert between Zagora and M’hamid. This response to the rapid degradation of the immediate environment in M’hamid consisted in large annual operations to clean away the detritus by federating volunteers from local schools, farmers and groups.

In some ways, this was a modern version of an age-old tradition. “Since time immemorial,” note sociologists Mohamed Aït Hamza and B. El Faskaoui, “oasians have developed forms of adaptation to their environment. The management of scarce and fragile agrarian and pastoral resources are just some of the demonstrations of this civilisational genius.”

The Sbaï’s had plenty of challenges to face when setting out on what many saw as a quixotic mission. M’hamid has long been neglected by Morocco’s central authorities. Situated in the mideastern corner of the country’s Sous-Massa-Drâa region, it hosts many of the 86 poorest communes in the country. (statistics from Rabat’s Haut Commissariat au Plan). And the beauty of the Drâa valley’s rivers, mountains and flora cannot disguise its glaring lack of infrastructure and endemic poverty. It is perhaps this which persuaded the influential Le Guide du Routard to write disparagingly that M’hamid was “founded in 1932 with the arrival of the French (and) offers nothing of any particular interest.” Both allegations are false, as festival co-director Halim Sbaï emphatically notes. “The Saadi dynasty of the 16th century used M’hamid as its base to launch its expeditions southwards in its conquest of Timbuktu. And M’hamid was probably created much earlier than that, when the Sahara was green and fertile. And,” adds the former tour operator, with emphasis, “our heritage has plenty to offer in terms of historical sites, spectacular scenery and a rich culture.”

From environmentalists to festival founders
It is very much this vision of a town with a prosperous and dynamic history which governs the Sbaï’s approach to the festival. For six years, their annual gathering has combined music with debates and exposés on the region’s patrimony as well as its ongoing environmental challenges. Ibrahim and Halim also remind visitors of the ethno-linguistic kaleidoscope the Drâa valley has inherited thanks to a history that brought together populations from the south and north.

The indigenous dark-skinned Drawa shared the staggering landscape of desert and mountains with Saharan Arab tribes like Aït Sedrate, as well as Aït Atta nomads, Shurfa and Murabatin saints and a Jewish minority centered on M’hamid. “The valley inherited a very diversified and hierarchical ethno-sociological structure,” write Hamza and El Faskaoui (op.cit.), “a mixture which marked the collective memory, despite the devastating effects of schooling (sic.), exodus, migration, tourism and growing urbanization.”

The Taragalte Festival has sought to recreate the “moussem”, a crucial tradition which, would annually unite these at times conflicting communities. “We want to resuscitate the most important moussem called Sidi Khalil,” explained Ibrahim Sbaï in an impromptu interview under a roasting winter sun. “This used to mark the end of the date harvest and would celebrate the departure and return of the great caravans southwards.” The bearded artistic director paused searching for his words. “It was a moment when people would rekindle traditions through music and poetry.”

The Drâa’s scenic beauty and crystalline light are elements that clearly played on the imaginations of the artists invited to this sixth annual gathering. Gnawa virtuoso Mahmoud Guinea underlined the power of the elements and the welcome he enjoyed, “light years” away from the circumstances under which his paternal grandfather from Mali was sold into slavery in the Sahara. “May there be a 1,000 more editions of this festival!” he exclaimed at the press conference. A measure of the magnetic lure of the setting was shown by festival headliner Aziz Sahmaoui. On Sunday, the singer was on his way home after his stunning Saturday night concert, but then abandoned his fellow-band members and doubled back at Zagora, 97 kilometers away, to further taste the otherworldly atmosphere of M’hamid.

“When we arrive here,” he told me as he reclined on the Azalay Hotel terrace overlooking an endless forest of palm trees, “there’s the light and this silence which injects us with a kind of truth and energy.” His arms swept the horizon as the sun dipped, shooting its final red beams. “It makes us look deep into ourselves and ask questions in front of this nature, this vast force.” Unconsciously, Aziz strummed the ngoni he’d been repairing for the previous hour. “There’s also this Saharan music, this union celebrated in the festival. For my group University of Gnawa, it’s like a philosophical echo. Taragalte is a union of Senegalese artists, Malians, Moroccans, French, Algerians. It’s a beautiful intersection serving culture, music to embellish the moment, soften the bitterness of life. For me, this M’hamid meeting is a renewal of oneself.”

Uphill challenges to local traditions
This was the unabashedly romantic vision by one of the true musician poets from North Africa. Yet, the outlook also ran smack into genuine fears for survival shared festival participants like Brahim Zalzouli who presides over a regional association of tourist guides, Argat-Ozt. He has seen a steep drop in tourism as the western media links this northwestern corner of the Sahara with the vast expanses in the south where AQMI, Boko Haram and other violent insurgents are said to operate. “These amalgamations have been devastating for us,” he confided. “It’s ironic, really, since we’re next to one of the most secure borders in the world.” Indeed, the open hostility between Morocco and Algeria has resulted in a watertight frontier dating back to 1994. “With a nosedive in tourism,” Zalzouli pursued, “the youth are disappearing towards Europe, Switzerland, France, and the like. The future is very bleak : the youth don’t know about their heritage, they’re no longer in touch with the legacy of their rich history.”

Issa Dicko, cofounder of Mali’s Festival in the Desert, has been a regular guest to Taragalte since 2010 and insisted that the problems the region’s Saharan communities are facing are not of their own making: “It all boils down to geo-strategic issues between the major regional and world powers. The Sahara represents a huge mining potential for the multinationals and cultural concerns are collateral victims to various tug-of-wars between States and private interests.” An opinion local tour operator Brahim Mizrahi put more prosaically if somewhat provocatively: “The desert here is a capricious woman which drives men crazy. Coming here is easy, leaving isn’t.”

Dicko, meanwhile, insisted on problems shared by populations on both sides of the Sahara, pointing to the loss of basic nomadic skills amongst the youth. “They no longer know about the remedial uses for the desert’s plants, the woolly cumin that grows here, for example. Now, that’s an effective way of curing diarrhea. Or the ability to navigate thanks to the stars, a gift that used to be the difference between life and death. Modernity,” he continued, “represents true dangers to our way of life, both here and in Timbuktu where I’m from. There were great civilizations here once and much of its desert culture can still be salvaged if we federate our efforts.”

Peace Caravan towards the South
Dicko was part of a Cultural Caravan for Peace which, for the second year running, set out from Taragalte back towards its homeland in northern Mali. But, as of writing and for the second time running, it is likely to remain at its door, internally exiled in Mali’s southern capital of Bamako.

Violent instability and inconclusive negotiations in Algiers continue to jeopardize plans for the Caravan to return home to Timbuktu where it was at the heart of a Festival in the Desert that used to attract the likes of Bono and Robert Plant. Its director Manny Ansar has been globe-trotting for two years searching for solutions to the exile. “This desert music is a vital part of our concept of peace,” he calmly explained to me, readjusting his glasses. “The three festivals here, Taragalte, the Festival du Niger from Ségou, Mali, and our own exiled version, we all have similar approaches to this concept : music can relay universal values, it allows the nomadic communities from which it emanates to re-acquaint themselves within their universe, in their own, somewhat difficult, daily context.”

Sitting near the central stage of Taragalte festival site, Ansar’s voice was challenged by the wind and the riffs produced by Ahmed Ag Kaedi, guitarist in Malikanw. This ensemble was one of three acts representing the Caravan on the final day of the three-day gathering. It was first spawned at a residency in South Africa in December 2013 and brings together Ag Kaedi with the likes of veteran star Samba Touré of Timbuktu, Zoumana Tereta, an outstanding violinist from Ségou, Sadio Sidibé, a vivacious vocalist from Wassoulou and the powerful vocals of Cheick Sissoko from Kayes. 14 months on the road have allowed this kaleidoscope of Mali’s various regions to gel together, though the road to consecration is still a long one. “It’s a steep learning curve,” admits Ansar, “but we’ll get there, we’re determined.”

Music seeds spawned
Malikanw was in good company at Taragalte. Considering the festival this year was hastily re-organized as a result of budget difficulties, the line-up was a solid if uneven mix of North African and Malian grooves, both modern and traditional.

Aziz Sahmaoui and his University of Gnawa band tore into their repertoire to provide the unquestionable highlight of the three days. They have been touring their 2014 CD release “Mazal” for over a year and it’s become a well-oiled band. Next to Sahmaoui and his wily three-string ngoni was the precocious Guimba Kouyaté on guitars, self-assured percussionist Adhil Mirghani, discreet yet solid drummer Jon Grandcamp and the sizzling Alioune Wade on bass. Wade was a revelation, a name to be marked in red for the future, both dextrous on the bass and spine-tingling as a vocalist. His encounters with the likes of Joe Zawinul, Cheick Tidiane Seck and Oumou Sangare have honed his onstage self-assuredness and his upcoming third solo album promises to mark him out further as a major West African force.

The festival’s impact on the local music scene remains harder to gauge. Five years after setting out on a semi-professional career, the Génération Taragalte group has cobbled together a demo CD strongly inspired by the Malian Tuareg group Tinariwen and their landmark concert at the inaugural 2009 festival. But little of the local Amazigh flavor has seeped into the band’s repertoire. Why not, for example, integrate the rhythms of the traditional “aqlal” dance ceremonies or the “sqel” sword dance performed by the Draâ communities at moussem gatherings down the ages ? These vibrant traditional performances have marked visitors to the region including American author Paul Bowles who was captivated by the interweaving of local disciplines: “music and dance are one thing (for the Amazigh),” he once wrote.

However, the enthusiasm of the numerous youth at the festival was infectious. None more so than a local trio of 15-year-olds calling themselves Les Petits Princes, named after the book by Antoine St. Exupéry, the immortalized French author who disappeared somewhere in the nearby Sahara.

The three adolescents are faithful followers of the festival and since the visit of Tinariwen have been steadfastedly learning the intricacies of the desert blues. On the final night of the Taragalte Festival they accepted guitars and a darbuka drum to improvise a set for a French TV crew on the dunes next to the encampment. And there, under the usual tapestry of the Milky Way, they dazzled onlookers with an incongruous mixture of songs honoring the desert and the small canals which transport water from the Drâa to the fields, known locally as “seguias”.
http://worldmusiccentral.org/2015/02/07/moroccos-desert-festival-in-taragalte-bridges-the-sahara-gap/
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Intissar Louah: a 14-year-old Moroccan writer hailed by Queen Elisabeth II
Monday 18 March 2013 youssef El kaidi Fez

I came to discover this name two years ago when I was surfing the net in search of Moroccan diasporic writers to work on for my PhD thesis. I wanted to dig deep where there might be unknown writers to the Moroccan academics so I typed “Les écrivains marocains au Canada” (Moroccan writers in Canada) because Moroccan writers in Europe seem to be exhausted and overused in academic circles in Morocco.

Among the results google granted me was a novel entitled Le chant de la colombe (the Song of the Dove) by a fourteen year-old writer called Intissar Louah. The search for the novel in Morocco was to no avail as the book was published and distributed in Canada. But my curiosity to read this young author made me push the search to the edge; I contacted a friend of mine in Toronto and she called the publishing house that brought her in contact with Intissar’s father Mr. Driss Louah. My friend’s mission stopped right after she established connection between me and Mr. Louah who just after two days of our virtual acquaintance kindly mailed me the book.

When you read Intissar’s novel you feel the genius of this writer who despite her young age reflects thoughtfully and eloquently on a big political and cultural issue, namely immigration. In fact, while reading you can’t escape the question that sporadically surprises you amidst your immersion in the details and stages of the novel: how did this young girl manage to put such liveliness and meticulous descriptions of her fleeting feelings and impressions into her work?

After reading the work twice, I came to understand the cultural and psychological implications of immigration differently, this time from the perspective of a fourteen year-old girl. Le chant de la colombe is the confluence of Intissar’s personal experience with her imaginative and imaginary worlds. Intissar had to leave Morocco early in her life to settle with her family in Alberta, Canada.

This voluntary displacement from Morocco to Canada marked the shift from a cultural context to another which is drastically different. Intissar’s novel is exactly on this cultural encounter and the reconfiguration of personal and cultural identity within the multicultural context of Canada.

Intissar’s novel traces the trajectory of a fourteen year-old girl named Leila Sharif who emigrates from the city of Chefchaouen (in northern Morocco) to Canada, thus, joining her father whom she didn’t see for two years. The protagonist (and the writer’s persona) arrives at a world that is fascinating, yet culturally shocking. She writes: “pour une éternité, ils roulent dans un monde nocturne étrange et fascinant. Jamais Leila n’a connu une endroit aussi brouillant et agité, étant habituée à la vie tranquille marocaine de chefchawen” (for an eternity, they roll in a strange and fascinating nocturnal world. Being accustomed to the quiet life of Chefchauen, Morocco, Leila has never seen a place as blurring and restless as such.

In this different world, Leila starts her journey for integration and self assertion despite the multiple linguistic, cultural and religious obstacles. Her first day at school will be the beginning of a plot that takes her on the adventure of a treasure hunt in which she will prove her intelligence and heroic personality and finally manage to assert herself in the new society.

Intissar’s book has been acclaimed by a number of personalities and institutions. On February 9th, 2011 a letter was written to Intissar from the Buckingham Place on behalf of the Queen Elizabeth II. It reads: “The Queen is pleased to receive the book ‘Le Chant de la Colombe’ which you wrote at the age of fourteen, and Her Majesty was interested to learn that this will be added to the literary annotated bibliographies, aged 7 to 9, by the Alberta Education Department.” Intissar also received letters of admiration and encouragement from the Canadian Prime Minister Mr. Stephen Harper, Alberta’s Minister of Children and Youth Services Mrs Yvonne Fritz, Alberta’s Minister of Education Mr. Dave Hancock, the Governor General of Canada David Lloyd Johnston, Alberta’s Minister of Employment and Immigration Mr. Thomas Lukaszuk etc.

Intissar is now embarking on the writing of a new novel –in English this time- that will be published soon. As the youngest author in Alberta, the young woman is the epitome of perseverance, determination and ambition; the qualities that earned her a very good reputation not just in her Alberta community, but in Canada in general. Intissar travels a lot in Canada talking about her work to children and young students and providing inspiration for them. Morocco World News will soon publish an exclusive interview with this young talent.
http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2013/03/83091/intissar-louah-a-14-year-old-moroccan-writer-hailed-by-queen-elisabeth-ii/#########################################

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