Virtual Magazine of Morocco on the Web
Morocco Week in Review 
June 30, 2007

Moroccan King Moving His Country in a New Direction
By Nick Gier, New West Unfiltered 6-24-07
MOHAMMED VI, KING OF MOROCCO, TAKES HIS COUNTRY IN A NEW DIRECTION

By Nick Gier, Professor Emeritus, University of Idaho

Once again the North African country Morocco is in the news. In late May, 2007, Spanish police arrested 16 men in Barcelona, 14 of whom were Moroccans. In addition to recruiting and training jihadis for action in Iraq, these suspects were most likely connected to the Madrid training bombings on March 11, 2004 that killed 191 people. Earlier in January, 2006, 16 Moroccans were also arrested in connection with this atrocity.

Spanish police have been closely watching radical Muslims from North Africa for many years. Saudi national Mohammed Atta, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, visited these terrorist cells twice and most of their funding comes from Saudi Arabia. In May of 2003, three Saudis were given ten-year sentences for starting an Al Qaeda cell in Morocco and planning to blow up ships in the Straits of Gibraltar. The Ministry of Islamic Affairs has also proscribed the teaching of the fundamentalist Wahabi theology from Saudi Arabia.

As in most countries in the world, the Moroccan view of America, now 86 percent unfavorable, has become much more negative. This same 2006 University of Maryland poll asked what would improve Moroccan opinion of the U.S. Brokering peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians garnered 75 percent, and 50 percent said withdrawing from Iraq. On the general question of whether the killing of civilians is ever justified, 79 percent of Moroccans in the same poll said never, but on a more specific question about killing Americans in Iraq, 56 percent said that it was OK.

What is interesting, and not a little shocking, is that only 46 percent of Americans said never to the killing of civilians. With regard to the second question, it would interesting to see how many Americans would think that it was OK to kill Muslims who had invaded a Christian country.

Morocco's king, Mohammed VI, has vigorously pursued policies that project a moderate image, that liberalize the economy, that reject radical Islam, and that move away from an earlier American alliance in which the CIA helped his father to liquidate alleged leftist sympathizers. Mohammed VI has supported the Equity and Reconciliation Committee, which has investigated the deaths of thousands of political prisoners, some of whom disappeared in huge vats of acid in a detention center in Rabat, the capital city.

The committee has recommended the abolition of the death penalty, which, it is argued, would make it easier for those involved in the extra-judicial killings to come forward and confess. If capital punishment is abolished, Morocco would join Turkey and Turkmenistan as the only Muslim nations to have done so.

When Mohammed VI ascended to the throne in 1999 at the age of 36, most of the world knew him as a flamboyant playboy. That image soon faded as he soon broke with tradition and decided not to reside in his father's palace with 40 concubines. The king has declared that he will have only one wife, and he and his bride were married in an unprecedented public wedding.

As both the head of government and religion, Mohammed VI has issued a decree that Moroccan men must limit themselves to two wives, down from the traditional limit of four. Actually only two percent of Moroccan men have more than one wife.

He has also ruled that women have a right to divorce, a right to sign the marriage contract, and the right to approve of a second wife.

When I was in the beautiful Moroccan port city of Essaouira in April, 2007, there were dozens of banners with the king's portrait, and every curb was getting a fresh coat of red and white paint for a royal visit.

All of us should hope that this popular young king can help change the face of the Muslim world and eliminate the conditions and beliefs that make the terrorist cause so attractive.

Nick Gier taught religion and philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years. Draft chapters of his book on the origins of religious violence can be read at http://www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier.htm.
http://www.newwest.net/index.php/citjo/article/moroccan_king_moving_his_country_in_a_new_direction/C33/L33/
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Morocco launches Rawaj Plan to boost domestic trade.
29/06/2007  By Lahcen Moqnia

Morocco's government has undertaken a new project to stimulate the domestic trade sector through the creation of new financial tools to aid merchants and a series of investments to optimise local commerce at all levels. Morocco's Prime Minister Driss Jettou announced the launch of the Rawaj Plan Tuesday (June 26th). The plan aims to boost the domestic trade sector, modernise its various components, increase its performance by 2020 and create a trade development fund directed at supporting the promotion and modernisation of small merchants' business activities.

Prime Minister Jettou said the domestic trade sector receives special attention from the Moroccan government because of its strategic importance, as it employs around 10.6% of the population, or 1.2 million people. The annual value added for the sector is 63 billion dirhams, or 11% of Morocco’s GDP.

According to Jettou, the plan is one of a series of measures the Moroccan government has taken since the beginning of the year to support trade activities. The government has worked to improve the basic system of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry by elevating the level of its services and support for merchants. It has also taken measures to raise workers' standard of living in the trade sector. One such initiative was the creation of the INAYA health care package for small merchants and professionals, and the FOGARIM fund to provide mortgage loans for social groups with low incomes, as well as the TAMWIL product to help small merchants and professionals obtain bank loans.

Jettou said that the Rawaj plan aims to increase the size of domestic trade sector’s contribution to Morocco’s GDP from the current 11% to 15% by 2020, and to generate nearly 450,000 jobs. Morocco's Minister of Industry, Commerce and Economic Development, Salaheddine Mezouar, said the Rawaj plan depends on strengthening integration between three branches of commercial activity: proximity trade areas, large and medium-sized modern commercial centres, and wholesale markets.

For proximity trade, the plan aims to protect small and independent merchants by helping them align their activities with changing patterns of consumption and by insulating them from threats from the expansion of modern commercial areas. Mezouar said, "We set, as one goal of the plan, increasing the number of commercial shops of this type from the current 850,000 to 980,000 by 2020 and boosting the size of their sales from the current 54.7 billion dirhams to 101 billion dirhams."

The government has chosen to establish a special trade development fund to support these merchants. Mezouar told Magharebia the fund would be financed by 200m dirhams as the first disbursement, and the government would incorporate it within its budget for 2008.

As for large and mid-sized commercial centres, the plan aims to increase them from the current 50 to 600 by 2020, to increase their total area from the current 142 hectares to 1000 hectares, and to increase the number of employees who work there from 8,000 to 90,000 and the volume of their transactions from 8.2 billion dirhams to 26 billion dirhams.

The plan will reduce the number of wholesale markets from 42 to 16 by 2020, to enhance their profitability and utility. Mezouar said the goal is one wholesale market in each of Morocco's 16 administrative regions. The plan is expected to expand wholesale market transactions from 5.3 billion dirhams to 33 billion dirhams by 2020.

The plan also calls for the establishment of 15 malls on 180 hectares, which would create 20,000 new jobs.
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2007/06/29/feature-01
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Over USD 6Mn paid to insured retirees in Morocco in 2007 .
Rabat, June 28

The hospitalization expenses paid off by the national fund of insurance "Caisse Nationale des Organismes de Prévoyance Sociale" (French acronym CNOPS) to insured retirees and their claimants, reached some USD 6Mn for the year 2007, revealed, here Wednesday, Moroccan Employment Minister, Mustapha Mansouri. Speaking at the House of Representatives' (lower house) question time, the minister noted that the Mandatory Health Insurance (AMO) enabled some 74,929 new insured to benefit from health coverage.

The minister said services concern preventive and medical care. The AMO guarantees risk insurance and fees of medical services following sickness, accident, delivery or physical rehabilitation to the insured and his family members, with the exception of cosmetic surgery. With the AMO and the Medical Assistance Regime (RAMED), which is destined to the economically destitute population, the overall number of the population benefiting from medical insurance in Morocco will reach 50%.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/box5/over_usd_6mn_paid_to/view
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Morocco boosts cancer fight with telemammography technology.
Rabat, June 25

A breast Cancer screening center using the tele-mamography technology was launched, on Monday, for the first time in Morocco and the Middle East region, part of Morocco's strategy to boost the fight against cancer. Set up by the "Lala Salma Association Against cancer" in collaboration with the Brussels Coordination Center for Breast Cancer Screening (BRUMAMMO), this center is expected to provide high-quality screening services (telemammography) for approximately 1000 women in the Rabat region to extend in the future to the rest of the country.

Digital mammograms, made and analyzed at the National Institute of Oncology are to be transmitted electronically for a second reading at BRUMAMMO. This method will help reduce error interpretation and diagnosis. Princess Lala Salma, chairwoman of the "Lala Salma Association Against cancer" who launched the construction works of the facility, also enquired on the chemotherapy day hospital. The USD-600k building, still under-construction, has an annual hosting capacity of 4,800 patients. One of a kind in the Maghreb region, this hospital is due to offer top-level treatment to cancer-stricken people, and reduce hospitalization-related complications as well as health expenses.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/social/morocco_boosts_cance/view
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Morocco developed integrated strategy to promote children's rights, Princess.
Cairo, June 25

Princess Lalla Meryem, chairwoman of the Moroccan Observatory of Children Rights (ONDE) stressed, here Monday, that the Kingdom has developed an integrated and collective strategy for the promotion of children's rights, a strategy in which NGOs play a key role. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 3rd regional meeting on "Fighting Violence Against Children", Princess Lalla Meryem regretted that "wherever they may be, children are hunted by violence which has no heart and no conscience, no home-land and no religion."

Children are "no longer threatened at home, at school or in the street, but treated mercilessly in all tension spots, areas under siege, terrorism and extremism hideouts," she said. "They are exposed to misuse of the Internet, loaded with hatred, sexually abused and subjected to shameless trade and barter," she added, calling on everyone to counter such practices that stain "mankind as a whole."

Lalla Meryem recalled that the ONDE has worked out a protective and preventive plan, providing for efficient mechanisms and concrete actions, that include nationwide vaccination campaigns against the five diseases, the extension of immunisation from measles, rubella and haemophilia. In addition, a reference center has been set up, providing guidance and care to children subjected to violence, as well as legal counselling, emergency treatment and psychological support.

She also recalled Morocco’s decade action plan for childhood, aimed at preserving the dignity of children, protecting them from maltreatment, exploitation and violence, and shielding them from epidemics, deadly diseases and sexually transmittable diseases. The plan also provides for “good quality teaching and for education on democracy.”

During the ceremony, Princess Lalla Meryem and Mrs. Suzan Mubarak, spouse of the Egyptian president, signed the Annexed “Declaration” to a study of the United Nations Secretary General on “violence against children,” which calls for commitment to end all forms of violence against children and build a violence-free society.
Princess Lalla Meryen arrived on Sunday to Egypt to take part in the 3rd regional meeting on "fighting violence against children", chaired by Mrs Mubarak. This three-day event will be marked by the release of the Arabic version of a study by the United Nations Secretary General on "violence against children."
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/social/morocco_developed_in/view
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Morocco a 'place of mind' for world movie-making, British paper.
Rabat, June 22

"Morocco in western cinema is a place of the mind for moviemakers," as many top world directors chose the North African country to shoot movies that marked the history of the seventh art, wrote on Thursday, British newspaper "The Financial Times". In an article entitled "Mythical Morocco", the newspaper recalled that several unforgettable movies such as Casablanca, The Sheltering Sky, Kingdom of heaven, Babel, The last temptation of Christ, Lawrence of Arabia and Orson Wells' Othello were shot in this country.

Describing Morocco as a place offering ideal conditions for shooting movies "due to its proximity to Europe, low production costs and it enchanting setting," the publication brings to mind that the famous Movies Director Ridley Scoot "has one foot permanently planted in a Morocco of many roles, while his other leg, like a compass, arcs back and forth across the finance-and-production world between London's Pinewood studios and Hollywood."

The Financial Times ran another story on Morocco’s capital, Rabat which "may not have the mystique of Marrakech or Fez," but it is "a picturesque and relaxed city which offers an enticing melange of history and modernity." The city "gives its visitors an appealing taste of Moroccan culture and tradition, as well as an idea about the lives of the country’s elite," wrote the daily, noting that Rabat "has a small bustling medina, long stretches of ochre-colored crenellated walls and hidden riads."

“Its upmarket areas like Agdal and Souissi exude a southern European elegance with immaculate white villas, bougainvillea-filled gardens and trendy shops and restaurants,” the publication added, recalling that “this pretty and hassle-free place serves as the kingdom’s political and administrative capital while the country’s economic heart lies elsewhere in the hectic metropolis of Casablanca.” http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/culture/morocco_a__place_of/view
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The Gnaoua and World Music Festival celebrates its tenth anniversary.
29/06/2007   By Sarah Touahri and Oumnia Guedda

Visitors to Essaouira last week were treated to an enriching experience at the annual Gnaoua and World Music Festival, in honour of the event's tenth year. In addition to the traditional concerts fans have come to expect, organisers provided a retrospective look at the festival's history, inviting performers from great moments in the event's past. The Gnaoua and World Music Festival celebrated its tenth anniversary with colour and symbolism in Essaouira from June 19th-23rd. The city grooved to the annual festival's unique mix of rhythms produced by artists from Essaouira and around the world.

Gnaoua refers to a style of Moroccan music with sub-Saharan African origins. It also refers to an ethnic group and religious order descended in part from black Africans who migrated in caravans as part of the Trans-Saharan trade. Gnaouis play deeply hypnotic trance music, marked by low-toned, rhythmic melodies, call-and-response singing, hand clapping and cymbals called krakebs. Gnaoua ceremonies use music and dance to invoke ancestral saints who can drive out evil, cure psychological ills and remedy physical pain.

As the Gnaoua and World Music Festival has come of age it has remained true to its philosophy of giving the Gnaoui cultural heritage a forum to express itself and to flourish. This year 25 Gnaoui groups, nearly 250 Moroccan artists and 150 foreign musicians brought new life to traditional sounds. The interaction of the ancestral music with international beats continues to progress and lavish moments of great emotion on the public.

Essaouira was decked out in all of its finery, with its thoroughfares filled with a rainbow-coloured Moroccan, Western and African crowd, both young and old. The city's authentic back streets were complimented by modern light shows on the Medina's ramparts.

This year's programme offered festival-goers a series of carefully paced intellectual, musical and cultural events. These events gradually filled the city and its suburbs. "We wanted to start progressively, because the weekend is when lots of people come," said festival director Neila Tazi.

The Festival has led a resurgence of interest in Gnaoui music and customs. "I’m really delighted. It’s my first real concert, and I think that because we’ve met foreign artists, the art and the cultural heritage have been enriched," said Gnaoui master Abdellah Guinea.

"Tradition is being reborn," said Guinea's associate, Mohamed Kouyou. "The organisers are doing everything possible to stop our art from disappearing. The fact that international artists appreciate Gnaoui music is a great recognition, and it gives us immense pride."

This year's event paid tribute to one of the masters of Gnaoua music, H’mida Boussou, who passed away last February at the age of 68. Boussou performed his final concert during last year’s festival before an audience of 25,000 fans. His son, who is living in France, will help pay homage by performing with his late father’s group.

Organisers erected nine stages to captivate festival audiences. Festival-goers listened to Gnaoui musicians play either alone or with foreign musicians, groups or artists. Nearly 500,000 music lovers sampled three exceptional concerts, centring on three artistic directors and musicians Abdeslam Alikane, Loy Ehrlich and Karim Ziad. Each of them crafted an original musical creation which brought together Gnaoui artists and world musicians. Karim Ziad was delighted at the festival's success and said that everything came together to give the audiences an enjoyable show.

Organisers said they had been hoping to celebrate the festival's ten years by re-living the best examples of musical fusion it has hosted since its creation. To this end, organisers invited world musicians who have had a major impact on the festival in previous years, particularly French guitarist Louis Bertignac, Burkinabè percussionist Yaya Ouattara, Berlin-born drummer Cyril Atef, Moroccan-Senegalese percussionist Mokthar Samba and self-taught pianist Jean-Philippe Rykiel.

American artist Hari Hoeing truly enjoyed his time at the festival. "I’d love to have stayed longer. The work we did really touched me," he exclaimed.

With dancing, leaping, singing and colours, the shows dazzled visitors. By and large, the audience was grateful for the festival. Thousands of people had come to experience the Essaouira festival for the first time, and many had returned to enjoy it once again. Some came for Essaouira itself, while others concentrated on the artistic planning behind the event and voiced their appreciation for the musicians, their artistic qualities and the many unexpected and original encounters they experienced.

Samira Bahi, a Moroccan woman living in France, comes to savour the atmosphere the festival creates. She told Magharebia the Essaouira Gnaoua Festival should be congratulated for encouraging Moroccans to rediscover the Gnaoui rhythms which make up a rich part of their cultural heritage. "I come each year, and it’s like an adventure, because I go through moments of great emotion, in an atmosphere which is both festive and peaceful," she said.

In addition to the concerts, a series of artistic and cultural conferences and meetings shed light on the history of Gnaouis. Film matinees also provided an opportunity to look back on the history of the festival and Gnaoui culture.

Created in 1998 under the name "First festival of Gnaoui culture", the Gnaoua and World Music Festival was born out of the initiative of a handful of enthusiasts who had it in their hearts to restore the disappearing Gnaoui heritage. From the outset, the organisers sought to mix Gnaoui musical styles with those from around the world including jazz, blues, pop, techno and African drumming.

In a decade, the festival has transformed Essaouira. It has boosted economic activity in the city through infrastructure, tourism and building projects, and draws half a million people annually, with a budget that increases accordingly – this year reaching nine million dirhams. Essaouira, the city of winds, continues to open its arms wide both to Gnaoui musicians and their fans, and looks forward to seeing them again next year.
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Berber Activities Plan first is Israeli friendship.
Rabat, 26 June (AKI)

A group of Berber activists is planning to create next month North Africa's first friendship association with Israel, pan-Arab daily al-Quds al-Arabi reports. The activists plan to hold the official inauguration on 20 July in the city of Taroudaut, 60 kilometres inland from the western coastal resort of Agadir, the paper said. Jewish Berbers living in Israel and Moroccan Berbers will be involved in the new association, which aims to allow Jewish Berbers to keep in touch with Berber and Moroccan culture and the Amazigh language, the association's founding committee said in a statement.

Berber activists are inviting all Moroccans wanting dialogue with Israel to attend the 20 July inauguration and sign up. But the association faces hostility from some quarters. It is a "way to divide the Moroccan people and to deny it its history," al-Quds al-Arabi quoted the Palestinian and Iraq solidarity association's president Khaled Al-Sufiyani as saying. Jews make up 0.2 percent of Morocco's population, Arab-Berbers 99 percent and other groups, 0.7 percent. The country is 99 percent Muslim. Arabic is the official language, while several Berber dialects are spoken. However French is often still the language of business, government, and diplomacy. http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level_English.php?cat=Terrorism&loid=8.0.429247790&par=
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