Marrakech- The draw of the FIFA Club World Cup due to take place on December 10-20 in Morocco was held on Saturday in Marrakech.
Five clubs have so far qualified for this year’s edition of the Club World Cup: Moroccan champions Moghreb Tetouan, Real Madrid (UEFA), Auckland City (OFC), San Lorenzo (CONMEBOL) and Cruz Azul (CONCACAF).
Two more teams are still to be determined: the champions of Africa, who will be crowned on November 2nd, and the champions of Asia, who will seal their place on November 1st.
Here are the results of the draw for the quarter-finals of the competition:
Preliminary Round:
Match 1: Maghreb Tetouan Atheltic (MAR) vs Auckland City FC (New Zealand), on December 10, 2014 at Prince Moulay Abdellah sports complex at 19:30 (GMT).
Quarter finals:
Match 2: Representative of Africa (AS Vita of RDC or ES Setif of Algeria) vs winner of Match 1. The match will take place on 13 December 2014 at Prince Moulay Abdellah sports complex at 16:00.
Match 3: Cruz Azul (Mexico) vs representative of Asian Football Federation (Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia or Sydney Wanderers (Australia). The match will take place on December 13, 2014 at the Prince Moulay Abdellah sports complex at 19:30.
Semi-finals:
Winner of match 3 vs Real Madrid. The match will take place 16 December 2014 at the Prince Moulay Abdellah sports complex at 19:30.
Winner of match 2 vs San Lorenzo (Argentina) on December 17, 2014 at the Grand Marrakech stadium at 19:30
Classification matches:
5th place: Loser of match 2 vs loser of match 3. The match will take place in December 17, 2014 at the Grand stadium Marrakech at 16:30.
3rd place: Loser of match 6 vs loser of match 4. The match will take place on December 20, 2014 at the Grand stadium of Marrakech at 16:30.
Final:
December 20, 2014 at the Grand stadium Marrakech at 19:30.
New York - In an alarming hate speech that went unreported in American mainstream media, an American Rabbi called simply for extermination of Muslims and a “holy crusade” against them.
In a sermon he delivered on September 29, Rabbi Shalom Lewis from Congregation Etz Chaim in the state of Georgia, said Muslims are “guilty” of terrorism and should be “exterminated.”
This sermon against Islam comes three years after another sermon where he compared Muslims to Nazis.
But this time around, he toughened his rhetoric and calls for the extermination of Muslims.
“Three years later on this bima, on this very same day, standing at this podium, I cry out not ‘Ehr Kumpt – they are coming,’ I cry out, ‘Ehr daw – they are here’,” the rabbi said.
Lewis estimated the number of Muslims worldwide to stand at 1 billion, adding 5% of them are “committed terrorists and murderers.”
“There are one billion Muslims in the world and authorities agree that 5% are committed Islamists who embrace terror and wish to see, by any means possible, the Muslim flag fly over every capital, on every continent. I was relieved when I heard only 5%. Thank God it's only 5%.”
But the furry of the rabbi against Islam did not stop there. He went on to add that all Muslims are guilty of terrorism be default.
“But what disturbs me is, where are the other 950 million Muslims who are not terrorists? Who are not bomb-blasting, acid-throwing zealots? (…) I want to believe that we have partners who dream the dreams we do and wish upon the same star. I want to believe - - but where are they? A silent partnership is no partnership. Sin is not just in the act of commission - it is also in the act of omission. Most Germans were not Nazis - but it did not matter. Most Russians were not Stalinists - but it did not matter. Most Muslims are not terrorists - but it does not matter.”
For the American rabbi, there is only one choice for what he calls the free world to live in peace and enjoy freedom is to exterminate the “evil” represented by Islam.
“The fury of ultimate evil is upon us and we must act – not to contain it. Not to degrade it. Not to manage it. Not to tolerate it, but to exterminate it utterly and absolutely,” he said.
“If we fail in this holy crusade, we will live in a world bereft of color. Empty of music, of art, of romance, of laughter, of freedom, of invention. A world barren of all beauty. Depleted of all virtue,” he concluded.
Rabat - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimates for Morocco downwards to 3.5% for 2014, against 3.9% projected in July last year.
This is still higher than the projected GDP growth by the Bank Al Maghrib of 2.5%. The IMF also anticipates a rebound in 2015, thanks to structural reforms which it says have been successful.
Elsewhere in the Maghreb, the IMF forecasts that Tunisia GDP will be 2.8% in 2014, and 3.7% in 2015, and Algeria will have an estimated growth of3.8 % in 2014, and 4% in 2015. Globally, growth is now estimated at 3.3 percent in 2014, and 3.8 percent in 2015
The IMF notes that recent structural reforms in Morocco are starting to gain traction and signal the government’s future policy direction. For example, Morocco’s diversification efforts particularly with the auto industry have helped increase export enabled firms to increase production in response to strengthening export demand.
Globally, Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the IMF, has noted that growth is still weak and mediocre despite encouraging results in the USA and UK. She called for central banks to make banking sector reforms.
Stock markets have recently dropped due to concerns over global growth.
Marrakech- An editorial in the daily newspaper L’Economiste commented that France was panicking over the security situation after the beheading of French citizen Herve Gourdel in Algeria while Morocco is asleep.
Nadia Saleh, the editor in chief of L’Economiste, also wondered in a separate editorial why some Moroccan ministers do not anticipate international crises.
The tragedy of Herve Gourdel’s ugly and brutal death prompted French tourists to rebook their trips in the Canaries, Spain, Greece, and Portugal, rather than North Africa. After many kidnappings and murders in the Sahel, the ISIS-linked beheading in Algeria was the final straw for French tourists who don’t want to be caught in the wrong place and wrong time and end up as hostages or victims to be executed. But they ignore the fact that Morocco is secure, unlike terrorist-wracked Algeria. .
This reaction should have been predictable. In an interview with L’Economiste, the head of the French tour operators regretted that the Moroccan Tourist Office was slow to mount a positive promotional campaign to stress that Morocco was a secure location. He urged Morocco to react quickly.
Tourism, unfortunately, is particularly vulnerable to external shocks. The Moroccan tourism industry supports 500,000 Moroccan jobs. The fact that a positive campaign was not immediately launched raises several questions. In addition, Marrakech has become a more expensive holiday location than Spain or Portugal for Europeans.
With French tourism to Morocco seemingly in decline, the arrest of an Englishman Ray Cole and his Moroccan companion for an alleged homosexual relationship recently erupted in the Moroccan and British media.
Police supervision of personal Facebook accounts violates the Western belief of freedom of expression and privacy. However, Mr. Cole did break the law and was very naive.
The failure to anticipate a clash between Western respect for personal liberty and Islamic moral precepts has made gay people realize that they will be targeted if they come to Marrakech, and it that is better for them not to come and risk prison in appalling conditions and an incomprehensible legal system.
Islamist politicians like Minister of Justice Mustapha Ramed have made it clear that homosexuals are not welcome.
Could it be that Morocco’s closed media scene in Arabic and French and a concentration only on local Moroccan news make Morocco unable to foresee Western reactions to oppressive policing methods?
Morocco’s reputation as a country of tolerance has taken a severe hit. Many believe that the ambiguous law criminalizing sexual relations outside marriage needs to be clarified and revised.
Taroudant, Morocco - A video posted on YouTube shows one of the Saudi security guards slapping and screaming at a Hajji in the presence of women who seems to be his wife.
The incident took place during the annual pilgrimage, or hajj, a duty that every Muslim, who can afford it, must fulfil once in their lifetime.
In an act of humiliation, the security personnel pushed aside a woman, who stood between him and her husband, and slapped the old man who was in the sacred place, performing the Hajj rituals.
The old Hajji said nothing but a religious statement used for such incidents “Hasbi Allah wa niima alwakil”, Allah suffices me, for He is the best disposer of affairs.
While the causes of this unfortunate incident is unknown, the security personnel has no right to act authoritatively and violently against this Muslim who is in a sacred place, where any form of dispute is religiously unacceptable.
In conformity with the teachings of the Quran, the Hajj is a religious duty that should be performed for able Muslims in tranquility, deep reverence and piousness.
“Hajj is [during] well-known months, so whoever has made Hajj obligatory upon himself therein [by entering the state of ihram], there is [to be for him] no sexual relations and no disobedience and no disputing during Hajj. And whatever good you do - Allah knows it,” Surat Al-Baqarah. 197.
Being "the custodian of the two holy mosques" does not give the Saudi authorities the right to act violently against pilgrims. Everyone who is caught violating the rules and law should be held accountable.
Rabat - Following in the footsteps of Mouad Belghouat, known as Alhaked, a Moroccan rapper who was jailed in 2012 for insulting two police officers, young rapper Othman A., nicknamed "Mister Crazy" is being prosecuted for posting inappropriate music videos.
The young rapper, 17, who was arrested on August 9th, is is currently in a juvenile prison in Casablanca, according to Telquel.
The family of the high school student told Telquel that he is being accused of "misuse of words of the national anthem", "insulting constitutional bodies", "immoral ideas", and "incitement to drug use”.
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The authorities seemed annoyed by the release of three clips posted on YouTube – in which the rapper illustrates (in high quality video clips) scenes of aggression and the daily troubled lives in the slums of Casablanca.
The young rapper has gained popularity on YouTube. One of his clips has more than 968,592 views at the time of writing.
According to the same source, the rapper’s relative said that Othman was again brought before a juvenile judge on Friday, October 10, and his next appearance is scheduled for October 18.
Rabat - The 5th Edition of the Global Entrepreneurship Summit Morocco will be held as scheduled in Marrakech on November 19-21, 2014, said Monday the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation.
Several preparatory meetings were held to ensure the success of this important international event organized under the theme "Harnessing the Power of Technology for Innovation and Entrepreneurship," the ministry added in a statement.
Held for the first time in an Arab-African country, the selection of Morocco as host country reflects the active role Morocco plays in the overall economic development of the African continent, and the Kingdom’s leadership in supporting entrepreneurship and the integration of youth and women into the economy.
The event will bring together over 3000 entrepreneurs, along with heads of State, high level government officials, global entrepreneurs, small-medium enterprises (SME’s), corporate leaders, and young entrepreneurs from around the globe.
Launched in 2009 by U.S. President Barack Obama, the Global Entrepreneurship Summit is a government-supported forum aimed at creating bridges between entrepreneurs, banks, venture capitalists, investors and others in the United States and Muslim communities around the world.
London - The Moroccan state-owned Office Chérifien de Phosphates (OCP) has several projects under way to expand output, with most analysts predicting a recovery in the global market by 2016, said Oxford Business Group (OBG).
Increased sales of value-added fertilizers may help offset the decline in raw commodity prices in the near future, said OBG.
OCP is pushing ahead with a MAD 145bn (€13.05bn) investment program to increase its production capacity and reduce costs, positioning itself well for a market recovery, it added.
The state-owned company, which owns four mining centers and two processing plants, is aiming to double its annual capacity of phosphates between 2007 and 2017 by expanding current mines and launching new ones, with a particular focus on improving downstream activity, it noted.
The OCP investments will be partly used for constructing a phosphate cleaning plant in Merah, a 235-km pipeline between Khouribga and its Jorf site, and the opening of three new mines at the Khouribga mining site, which will expand production from 18.5m tons to 38m tons by 2020.
Rabat - Moroccan Minister of Tourism Lahcen Haddad announced the creation of a watch cell to monitor the development of the French tourism market.
In a statement to Agency of Maghreb Arab Press (PAM), Haddad dismissed claims that 50 percent of French reservations in Morocco were cancelled recently. He emphasized that some tour operators recorded a drop of 15 percent in reservations.
The Minister said that thanks to the efforts made by Moroccan diplomats and the monitoring unit, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs no longer called for French tourists to use enhanced vigilance in Morocco.
In addition to these actions, Haddad added that the Department of Tourism is starting a multi-week media campaign to improve perceptions of Morocco’s security and stability among the French public.
Following the beheading of French citizen Herve Gourdel in Algeria last month, French authorities urged tourists travelling to Morocco to exercise caution and vigilance in certain parts of the country. This measure caused the Moroccan tourism sector to lose between 50 and 60% of reservations in one week due to cancellations from the French market.
Baghad - The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group said that it has given Yazidi women and children captured in northern Iraq to its fighters as spoils of war, boasting it had revived slavery.
The latest issue of its propaganda magazine Dabiq released on Sunday was the first clear admission by the organization that it was holding and selling Yazidis as slaves.
Tens of thousands of Yazidis, a minority whose population is mostly confined to northern Iraq, have been displaced by the four-month-old jihadist offensive in the region.
Yazidi leaders and rights groups warned in August that the small community faced genocide and that threat was put forward by Washington as one of the main reasons for launching air strikes.
Thousands of Yazidis remained trapped on a mountain near their main hub of Sinjar for days in August, while others were massacred and the fate of hundreds of missing women and children remained unclear.
In an article entitled “The revival of slavery before the hour”, Dabiq argues that by enslaving people it claims hold deviant religious beliefs, ISIS has restored an aspect of sharia (Islamic law) to its original meaning.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.An exert from the latest issue of ISIS' magazine Dabiq - pictures showing what the article describes as "dead Peshmerga apostates"
“After capture, the Yazidi women and children were then divided according to the sharia amongst the fighters of the Islamic State who participated in the Sinjar operations,” the article said.
“This large-scale enslavement of mushrik (polytheist) families is probably the first since the abandonment of this sharia law,” it said.
“The only other known case -- albeit much smaller -- is that of the enslavement of Christian women and children in the Philippines and Nigeria by the mujahedeen there.”
Dabiq argued that while the “people of the book” -- or followers of monotheistic religions such as Christians or Jews -- can be given the option of paying the “jizya” tax or convert, this did not apply to Yazidis.
The Yazidi faith is a unique blend of beliefs that draws from several religions and includes the worship of a devil figure they refer to as the Peacock Angel.
Rabat - The Supreme Council for Education, Training, and Scientific Research is preparing a strategic report that will detail a roadmap for comprehensive reform of the national system of education and training.
In a press conference held in Rabat, Mr. Omar Azziman, Head of the Supreme Council, explained that this report will establish a roadmap for the reform of the educational system through the cooperation of government sectors and other relevant institutions.
The report is also the result of a participatory process that will take into account the views and interpretations of various stakeholders to make the goals of educational reform accessible to all.
Regional stakeholder meetings for reforming the system of education, training, and scientific research will begin on Tuesday. The opinions and suggestions heard at these meetings will be used in preparation for the report of the Strategic Council, and will form a critical basis for the bodies of the Council tasked to prepare this report.
Mr. Azziman stressed that the report will highlight the "foundations of change necessary for the rehabilitation of the national system of education, training, and scientific research."
Similarly, the Head of the Council noted that Morocco is ready for a comprehensive and successful reform of the educational system. The country is ready to explore new prospects for a Moroccan School able to meet the challenges of education and training, rehabilitation, and technological innovation.
Mr. Azziman also mentioned the imbalances and obstacles that are still impeding the achievement of the desired objectives. He discussed the main challenges in the lack of continuity of educational policies, the poor academic achievement among students, the serious issues of the language of education, the teaching of languages, and school dropouts.
In addition, he highlighted the main challenges limiting coherence and harmony in Moroccan education. He said there are a lack of connections between school education, vocational training, and higher education.
Marrakech - King Mohammed VI has called for uniting and pooling energies to rise to the great challenge of the 21st century: that of a united, stable and prosperous Africa.
"Our changing continent brings a message of hope and revival to the international community. By uniting and pooling our energies, we shall rise together to the great challenge of the 21st century: that of a united, stable and prosperous Africa," the Sovereign said in a message to the 9th African Development Forum, which kicked off Monday night in Marrakech.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view."Given this great potential and all these assets, it is more relevant than ever to recognize that, today, Africa needs win-win partnerships rather than conditional support - partnerships that can act as a catalyst for mobilizing financial resources, foster regional economic integration and improve Africa’s position in the international value creation chain", the King said in the message, read out by the Government Chief, Abdelilah Benkirane.
For the monarch, the international community’s mobilization to support Africa financially should include other important dimensions and parameters such as good governance, strong institutions, institutional reliability and capacity building, regional and intergenerational cohesion and human resource development.
Recalling his message to the 69th United Nations General Assembly, wherein he said that the issue of development in Africa is not related to the nature of the soil or the climate, but rather to deep-rooted economic dependence, weak support, inadequate sources of financing and the lack of a sustainable development model, the King called on the international community to have a fresh look at the continent beyond classical patterns and approaches.
"As we call on the international community to have a fresh look at our continent - beyond classical patterns and approaches - we African countries are, ourselves, committed to experimenting and implementing new, innovative approaches and developing original, inclusive and mutually beneficial South-South cooperation programs," the Sovereign stressed.
In this regard, the monarch noted that the Kingdom has been constantly guided by this great ambition. "In its relations with African sister nations, my country has been advocating a comprehensive, integrated approach that can at the same time promote peace and stability, enhance sustainable human development for all African men and women, ensure that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of States are respected and safeguard the cultural and spiritual identity of our peoples", the King underlined.
"With the same resolve, I also seek to ensure that Africa learns to trust Africa, thus enabling our continent to muster all its assets and resources so as to make the most of the opportunities offered by globalization", the Sovereign said, noting that the African continent is "determined to adopt a proactive approach and set in motion a dynamic process for the emergence of a "new Africa"- an Africa which is proud of its identity; a modern Africa which has washed its hands of ideologies and archaic notions; a bold, enterprising Africa."
For the King, this determination constitutes, in itself, a call to the international community for an objective approach to development issues in Africa, voicing His conviction that the fact that African countries see eye to eye concerning the conditions required for the continent’s development and economic take-off means that there are strong synergies as well as tremendous prospects for complementarity that we can build upon in the most ambitious, forward-looking manner.
In this respect, the King pointed out that in addition to the overall, strategic vision of Africa as a whole, the continent’s sub-regional dimension needs to be taken into account when we develop, together, operational tools and mechanisms, underlining that this will make it possible for us to invest in regional economic communities as viable, competitive entities.
The Sovereign underlined that as well as helping to achieve continental integration, such an approach would enable African countries to foster regional groups and promote the emergence of geo-economic areas that would help them ensure a better position in the global economy and enhance their competitiveness.
King Mohammed VI also reiterated the Kingdom's unwavering commitment to working for closer ties with several African regional organizations, such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA), the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), and ensuring that its relations with all these economic groups are governed by a "mutually beneficial, balanced and equitable strategy."
Rabat - Following ambiguous circumstances surrounding the recent assassination of Fatmi Noureddine, an officer in charge of consular affairs at the Moroccan Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, the Pretorian police arrested a man today in connection with the murder last week of the Moroccan diplomat.
According to the South African website Timeslive, the police arrested a Zimbabwean at his Monument Park home, close to the murder scene, today. The Moroccan diplomat was found lying in a pool of blood at his Pretoria home on Tuesday.
"The suspect was found with a watch, a camera and a cellphone and other items linking him to the murder,”according to Timeslive. In his possession also were “passports of at least 30 people, as well as several photographs, and passport and visa applications."
The Moroccan Foreign Ministry, which sent envoys to keep up with the security investigation into the killing of Moroccan diplomat, has not yet issued any statement.
Marrakech- A Europe-wide operation, backed by Italy, which has the European Union presidency, was proposed in an EU memo dated 10 July 2014.
The document calls for a joint police operation “Mos Maiorum” or “Our Ancestors”. The operation is now being put into effect.
The Italian Ministry of Interior is leading the operation with the Italian border police and the EU Border Agency FRONTEX. It is a continuation of previous EU actions against illegal immigration, according to the EU memo. It calls for apprehending illegal immigrants on European territory and the gathering information so that action can be taken against criminal human trafficking organizations.
The police operation will coordinate the enforcement of border checks and surveillance and an update of the general status on illegal immigration.
Human rights organizations have pointed out that many migrants are asylum seekers fleeing death and persecution in their country of origin, as well as economic migrants who cannot find work in their own country.
The island of Lampedusa in Italy is one of the areas swamped with illegal immigrants arriving by boat. Spain and Morocco have also been under pressure for some time by immigrants crossing the Strait of Gibraltar.
The data collection will involve migrants’ details, including nationality and date and point of entry into the EU. The goal is to create an up-to-date picture of people trafficking and the continuing abuse of the victims.
Morocco has recently introduced a process to regulate the presence of African migrants in Morocco, so that some of them can become legal in the country, allowing them to work.
Washington DC - A high-level Moroccan Trade Delegation will visit the United States for a second time this year at the 2014 Morocco Trade & Investment Forum in Dallas, Texas, on Thursday.
The Moroccan Trade Delegation will be meeting with business CEOs, potential investors, and “legendary entrepreneurs”of industry and business in the Lone Star State Thursday. Moroccan Ambassador to the U.S., His Excellency Rachad Bouhlal, and U.S. Ambassador to Morocco, the Honorable Dwight Bush, will provide opening addresses. His Excellency Mamoune Bouhdoud, Morocco’s Minister for Small and Medium Enterprises, will give the keynote address. Presentations are expected by Moroccan Ministers and former ministers, including Amina Benkhadra, the former Minister of Energy who is now in charge of the strategically important National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM).
Recognizing Morocco’s foundation of progressive government, its powerful Free Trade Agreement with the United States, and its "Advanced Status" with the European Union, the forum is designed to show that Morocco is open for business and ready to partner with U.S. industry and businesses. The presentations are expected to highlight Morocco's advantages over other countries, such as its economic stability, its skilled workforce, and the fact that it stands at the crossroads of a major international exchange route linking the U.S., Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
The forum begins with a ceremonial signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and the Moroccan National Airport Authority in the presence of His Excellency Aziz Rabbah, Morocco’s Minister for Equipment, Transportation and Logistics, and the CEOs of the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, and the Moroccan National Airport Authority.
The program features one on one meetings with the Ambassadors as well as four afternoon breakout sessions covering aeronautics and manufacturing, infrastructure and logistics, finance, and energy. The energy breakout session will address potential investment opportunities in Morocco’s renewable energy and onshore and offshore oil and natural gas.
Rabat - The National Federation of owners of bakeries will increase the cost of a loaf of bread throughout Morocco without the approval of the government, according to Tuesday’s issue of the Moroccan daily Almassae.
The federation has not yet set up the amount of the increase; however, the increase is likely to vary from MAD 0.10 to MAD 0.30 depending on regions.
Lahoucine Azaz, President of the federation of bakeries, said that the current critical situation of bakeries made it obligatory to make this decision "in order to safeguard the dignity of the professionals at risk of going bankrupt."
Azaz added that after years of fruitless negotiations with the government, the latter failed to honor its commitments to implement the contents of the contractual program.
Following the recent remarkable increase in fuel prices, basic goods and services since the first governmental coalition led by the Islamist party of Justice and Development (PJD) took office in 2011, Moroccans will have to cope with the new increase of bread prices.
For Moroccans, bread is the staple food that any Moroccan family cannot do without since it is widely served with nearly all meals.
Taroudant- Morocco ranked third in the 2013 world rankings of the most welcoming country for foreign tourists, according to the World Economic Forum's Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report (WEF) published recently.
In a ranking of 140 countries, Morocco considered third most welcoming towards foreign tourists.
The kingdom comes on the third position with a score of 6.7 following Iceland and New Zealand, which ranked first and second respectively.
At the negative ranking, Bolivia was rated as the world’s most unfriendly country, scoring 4.1 followed by Venezuela and Russia that came next with a score of 4.5 and 5.0, respectively.
Under the theme “Reducing Barriers to Economic Growth and Job Creation,” the Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report shows that the Kingdom has achieved a "very good reception."
The prestigious Geneva-based organization assesses 140 economies worldwide based on the extent policies implemented by countries develop their travel and tourism sector.
According to the WEF, the classification adopted in the indicator tends to measure the ability of countries to interact with the tastes and cultural diversity of the tourists, "which is a big challenge in the era of globalization."
With 55.7 million international tourists’ arrivals to Africa in the past year, Morocco comes in the first rank among the top five African countries that received most of tourists, according to the rankings announced this week by the World Tourism Organization.
With about 10 million tourist arrivals in 2013 -an increase of 6% compared to 2012- Morocco, is determined to achieve the “Vision 2020? strategy which aimed to double the number of tourists.
Thanks to its numerous assets, mainly political stability, friendly people and proximity to major origin countries, Morocco is “resolved to be among the world’s top 20 tourism destinations by 2020,” according to Lahcen Hadad, minister of tourism.
Taroudante- Only 5% of primary students in Morocco can read in French. The statistic was recently announced in an interview with Menara last week, Abdelaâdim Guerrouj, Minister Delegate to the Minister of Education in charge of vocational training.
Referring to studies conducted in this field, the minister said that “all these studies show that at the end of the sixth grade (primary school), only 16% of students are able to read and write and a lower rate of only 5% read in French.”
The announced foreign language learning results come despite large budget appropriations by the government for the educational system.
According to the minister, the Ministries of national education and vocational training alone “absorb nearly 26% of the general budget of the state, in addition to the resources devoted to higher education and other sectors of the system of education and training”
The minister said that if these efforts had been exploited wisely, the educational system in the kingdom would have yielded beneficial results.
“If one had to measure these efforts in relation to GDP, we would end up at very high levels,” he said.
While Guerrouj stressed the “importance of mastering language, either Arabic or French, as the basic tool in order to accumulate knowledge,” Lahcen Daoudi, Morocco’s Minister of Higher Education, believes that English is the key to improving the quality of the educational system in Morocco.
The minister of higher education had said previously “French is no longer relevant” and “Arabic is important only because it is the language of the Quran,” and believes that English, the language of scientific research, is the solution in Morocco’s education system.
Washington DC- Moroccans are accustomed to Algeria’s anti-Morocco rhetoric when it comes to the Western Sahara conflict that opposes the two nations. Algeria dispatches on a regular basis national and international personalities to champion the Sahrawi cause in international conferences. Yet, the “militancy” of former Algerian athlete Hassiba Boulmerka for the self-determination of the Sahara stands out as a joke and an affront to human rights activism around the world.
While an official Algerian delegation headed by the former Algerian Olympian had been denouncing Morocco’s alleged human rights abuses in New York all week long, Algiers has refused to “uphold the values of the United Nations Human Rights Council by allowing UN human rights experts and international human rights nongovernmental organizations to visit the country.”
Five human rights organizations, including Amnesty international and Human Rights Watch said that “the Algerian authorities have not agreed to visits by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, despite repeated requests.”
On other related developments, Reuters news agency reported Monday on “clashes between Arabs and Berbers near the southern Algerian desert town of Ghardaia, with two people killed and businesses torched” as” policemen staged a march in Ghardaia to protest against attacks on them by gangs of youths”. With the absence of President Bouteflika leaving a leadership vacuum, human rights abuses against Kabyle people will persist and the confrontation with local Arabs likely to worsen.
As the situation in Ghardaia and New York prove, the Algerian government campaign against Morocco is nothing but a failed attempt to hide the mounting security and social instability in Algerian Kabyle region. At the heart of Boulmerka’s speech are disguises and distractions to veil Algeria’s continues human rights abuses.
Ms. Boulmerka, who doesn’t perform any notable human or civic activities outside the Algerian government ordered and financed endeavors in support of” the holding of the self-determination referendum in Western Sahara”, looked out of place in New York.
Her recent speech to the UN Fourth Committee was self-contradictory and a sham , given the deteriorating situation in the Kabyle region and Algeria’s refusal to let human rights monitors investigate extra-judicial killings committed by the Algerian Army during the civil war of the 1990’s.
Like the rest of the Algerian nationals who spoke on behalf of the human rights for Sahrawis warehoused by the Algerian Army in the Tindouf refugee camps, Boulmerka is in no position to call Morocco an occupier or discuss human rights in the region.
Instead of discussing” abuses” in Morocco, Ms. Boulmerka should have used her time to explain to the United Nations body the reasons behind her government’s refusal to let independent investigators look into thousands of disappearances blamed on Algeria’s security forces.
It is preposterous for Boulmerka to address self-determination in the Moroccan Sahara when the Kabyle people in Tizi-Ouzou are being denied their rights to self-governance.
She should worry about protecting the Kabyle community that is abused by terrorists and ignored by the security forces. Amazighs continue to complain about lack of protection from attacks by armed groups that remain “conveniently” active in their mountainous region.
The military backed regime in Algiers will not hold the Kabyles as a hostage for too long. Its plan to exploit insecurity and terrorism as a tool of « occupation » is coming to an end.
Marrakeh- Hundreds of Algerian police officers staged a protest, on Monday October 13, 2014, in the city of Ghardaia (600 km south of Algiers) to show solidarity with their colleagues in the adjacent village of Bryan, according to several media sources, including Algerian Agency Press (AAP).
The protest poses a serious problem for Algerian National Security. AAP stated that the police marched towards the Security Directorate of the state of Ghardaia, in solidarity with their colleagues in Bryan, who had previously withdrawn from public spaces, and refused to follow the orders of their commanding officers.
A number of police officers were injured on Sunday when clashes erupted between security forces and protesters in Bryan, which is located just 45 kilometers north of the town of Ghardaia.
Masked people deliberately pelted the security forces with stones. The situation deteriorated with more clashes wounding dozens on both sides.
Frequent clashes, driven by sectarian motives, have occurred in Ghardaia between Mizabeyen (Amazigh Aabadion) and Arabs Alhaambh (Malikion) since the beginning of the year, leaving at least 15 dead and dozens wounded.
