Virtual Magazine of Morocco on the Web
Morocco Week in Review 
September 29, 2007

New centre to help rural Moroccan girls receive education.
24/09/2007

Morocco's King Mohammed VI inaugurated a new social centre on Saturday (September 22nd), which is tasked with providing educational possibilities for girls in the village of Boukhalef, near Tangier. The centre will offer housing and educational support for 120 girls. It is part of a project that aims to reduce school dropout rates and increase literacy. The Mohammed V Foundation for Solidarity has opened 47 similar centres in different parts of Morocco and plans to open 13 more. http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2007/09/24/newsbrief-06
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Moroccans protest soaring food prices.
26/09/2007

Protests continued in Morocco over high food prices on Tuesday (September 25th), two days after a sit-in degenerated into riots in the town of Sefrou, where protesters clashed with police and set fire to cars. The protests, the latest of which took place in Rabat, were organised by the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, which has called for more protests later this week.

The protests reportedly aimed to force the government to cancel a 30% increase in the price of bread. The price hike had been announced before Ramadan as a response to the rising cost of grain on the international market. Moroccan Interior minister Chakib Benmoussa called an emergency government meeting on Monday (September 24th), after which the price hike was annulled. http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2007/09/26/newsbrief-01
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US development agency to fund wastewater management project in Morocco.
26/09/2007

The United States Trade and Development Agency and Morocco's national water facility signed an agreement on Tuesday (September 25th) regarding a $392,000 donation to partially finance a wastewater management project in the town of Berrechid. According to the agreement, the US money will be used to conduct a feasibility study on setting up an industrial station for wastewater treatment. Over the next two years, the project aims to reducing environmental problems stemming from the city's industrial park, and at working out a master wastewater treatment plan.http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2007/09/26/newsbrief-06
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Over 195k persons practice beggary in Morocco, survey.
Casablanca, Sep 28

Some 195,950 persons are practicing beggary in Morocco, revealed on Thursday, a national survey on beggary conducted among 3,400 beggars by the department of Social Development, Family and Solidarity. The survey shows that 62,2% of these beggars are professionals, 51.1% are women, 48.9% are men, 34.6% are adults (between 40 and 59), 11.5% are 18 or below and 35.2% are married. According to the survey findings, the region of Rabat tops the list with 21,8% of beggars, followed by Casablanca 17.8%.

93.7% of beggars prefer to ask for charity alone, the study added, stressing that poverty is seen as the main reason for beggary (51.8%), followed by disability (12.7%), diseases (10.8%) and scarce job opportunities (9.3%). It also noted that a large portion of beggars (66.7%) is illiterate and only 20.1% have been to school.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/imp_social/over_195k_persons_pr/view
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About 10K new heart disorder cases diagnosed annually in Morocco.
Casablanca, Sept.28

Morocco counts some 10,000 new heart disorder cases each year which require a surgical operation, including 2,500 cases among children, said on Thursday officials of the NGO "Bonnes oeuvres du Coeur," at a press conference on the occasion of purchasing a unique medical equipment. D ubbed "Somatom Definition", the scanner is first of its kind in the Arab and African world, for high-resolution diagnosis of heart conditions.

The new equipment images patients with high or irregular heart rates, or even arrhythmia. The system also enables physicians to better identify and characterize plaque, an early indicator of heart disease and permits also faster and earlier diagnosis in acute care patients while maintaining the highest image quality, independent of patient size and condition. Recently made in Germany, the device is operational in some of the biggest medical centres in the world, notably in the United States, France and Germany. http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/box3/about_10k_new_heart/view
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50 to 60k Moroccans suffer from Alzheimer's, expert.
Casablanca, Sep.24

About 50,000 to 60,000 Moroccans suffer from Alzheimer's, head of the neurology and neuropsychology department at Rabat's 'Hopital des Specialites', Faris El Alaoui, said on Friday. Speaking at a press conference on World Alzheimer's Day, Mr. El Alaoui noted that the disease is the first cause of dementia in Moroccan patients, stressing that 5% of old people -representing 4% of the overall population- suffer from different kinds of dementia.

Alzheimer's is a neuro-degenerative disease that, in its most common form, is found in people over age 65. It is a progressive, irreversible brain disorder with no known cause or cure. It attacks and slowly steals the minds of its victims. Symptoms of the disease include memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, personality changes, disorientation, and loss of language skills.

Always fatal, Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of irreversible dementia. According to the expert, medications can help reduce the symptoms of the disease but they cannot change the course of the underlying pathology. Some 24.3Mn people worldwide suffer of dementia have dementia, Mr.El Alaoui concluded, noting that 4.6Mn new cases of dementia are discovered every year, that is a new case every 7 seconds.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/social/50_to_60k_moroccans/view
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USTDA grants Morocco USD over 390k to set up wastewater treatment station.
Rabat, Sep. 25

The United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) will grant Morocco a USD-392,000 donation to fund a feasibility study on setting up an industrial station for wastewater treatment in the town of Berrechid (center), under an agreement signed on Tuesday. The agreement was signed by U.S. ambassador in Morocco, Thomas Riley, and the Moroccan Water facility (ONEP) director general, Ali Fassi Fihri.

The study, which is due to span over nearly two years, will allow for reducing environment-related problems posed by the industrial park of the city, and to work out an optimal plan to treat waste waters. Late last July, the USTDA had granted the Kingdom USD 350,000 to reinforce meteorological radar network.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/social/ustda_grants_morocco/view
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Morocco builds museum to host Tazoudasaurus Naimi south.
Ouarzazate (south), Sep. 24

Morocco has allocated some USD 437,483 to build a museum that will host Tazoudasaurus Naimi in the "Iminoulawen" vally of the southern city of Ouarzazate. The fossilized skeleton of the 180-year-old Tazoudasaurus Naimi was discovered by a team of international paleontologists headed by French Philippe Taquet in the end of the past century.

Tazoudasaurus naimi is a vulcanodontid sauropod dinosaur hailing from the Early Jurassic Toundoute overthrust beds located in the High Moroccan Atlas Mountains. The remains, consisting of a partial adult skeleton and associated partial juvenile skeleton found in continental detrital sediments, were described by Ronan Allain et al. in early 2004. The generic name derives from one of the localities, Tazouda, while the specific epithet is a latinization of the Arabic term for slender due to the animal’s small size for a sauropod.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/culture/morocco_builds_museu/view
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Polls Largely Maintain the Status Quo for Women in Parliament.
By Amina Barakat RABAT, Sep 23 (IPS)

This month's parliamentary elections in Morocco have seen the number of women legislators decline from 35 to 34 in the 325 member body. With 30 of the female representatives elected under a quota, the results would seem to indicate that women face challenges in making their presence felt in the lower house -- even though a proportional representation system is used for polls.

The 30 women's seats are filled by aspirants from national lists. Separate, local lists comprising men and women are used to fill the other 295 posts, with candidates allocated seats according to their parties' share of the vote (the system also allows independents to run).

The proportional representation system is generally held to be more favourable to women's political representation than the constituency system of elections, for various reasons. Often, tackling discrimination against women is more easily done in political parties than at constituency level.

But Mohamed Regragui -- a political journalist with the weekly Al Ayam paper -- believes the difficulty in increasing women's representation in this North African country lies with political parties, and the fact that women are still in a minority in decision making bodies of these groups. Many Moroccans hold traditional views about the status of women.

On a more optimistic note, the number of women running for office this year increased from 266 (the figure for the 2002 elections) to 299. In all, about 6,700 candidates contested the Sep. 7 poll -- while 33 political parties were in action.

One of the four women who were voted into the Chamber of Representatives on a local list, Latifa Jbabdi, puts a positive spin on the outcome of the ballot.

"Although it is still weak, the number of women elected can make up a force. What counts are the speeches, the quality of initiatives in parliament, and the ability to convince," she told IPS.

Jbabdi represents the Socialist Union of Popular Forces. The former political detainee is also a member of the party's executive committee, and well-known for her support of women's causes in Morocco.

Moustafa Zaari, a columnist for the Assabah Arabic daily, voices similar sentiments: "What characterises this new wave of elected women is the quality of the representatives themselves. They are young, educated, high-level officials of the administration -- and academics. This gives them the ability to debate. It's a gain for the country."

In addition to Jbabdi, Yasmina Badou of the Istiqlal (Independence) Party was elected under the local lists, along with Fatna Khiel of the Popular Movement, and Fatiha Lyadi, an independent.

Badou was secretary of state in charge of the family, solidarity and social action in the previous government, while Lyadi served as director of information in the Ministry of Communication.

The 30 special seats for women were shared between the Justice and Development Party (seven seats), Istiqlal (six seats), the Popular Movement (five seats), the National Movement of Independents (five seats), the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (four seats) and the Party of Progress and Socialism (three seats).

The conservative-leaning Istiqlal, part of the ruling coalition in the previous government, won the highest number of seats in the polls -- 52. It was followed by the Justice and Development Party (Parti pour la justice et le developpement, PJD), a moderate Islamic grouping that had been expected to take the lead. The PJD emerged with 46 seats.

The overall number of seats in female hands could have been greater if the Constitutional Union (Union constitutionnelle, UC) had been in the race, as this grouping had more than ten women in its executive committee who may have been well positioned on the party's local list. However, a party dispute resulted in the annulment of the UC list by the Ministry of the Interior.

For Fatima Bekkari of the National Democratic Party, "the campaign was a…rich experience in terms of having contact with the public. Even if this (the campaign) did not result in anything I see a rosy future, and I hope that my daughter will be able to gather the fruits of our fight."

With the legislature appointed, women politicians must now turn their attention to getting positions in the cabinet. The former government had only three women in a cabinet of about 30.

Last week, King Mohamed the Sixth named Istiqlal leader Abbas el Fassi as Morocco's new prime minister. The monarch has extensive authority in the country, of which he is also the military and religious leader.

El Fassi is taking over a country struggling with poverty and illiteracy -- 14.3 percent of people here live on less than two dollars a day, according to the 2006 United Nations Human Development Report -- and at risk of Islamic terrorism.

Earlier this year, seven suicide bombers staged attacks in Morocco's financial capital, Casablanca; in addition, the Al Qaeda terrorist network announced it was targeting North Africa for attacks. Morocco is considered an ally of the United States in the region.

El Fassi is furthermore beginning his term in office amidst public gloom about the effectiveness of government.

As IPS reported earlier, many Moroccans view their legislators with scepticsm (see 'POLITICS-MOROCCO: Quotas Overpowered by Machismo').

This was reflected in voter apathy during the recent polls: just 37 percent of the approximately 15 million people who were registered to vote did so -- a record low. http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39367
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Ramadan in Morocco.
24/09/2007 By Latifa al Arousni Rabat, Asharq Al-Awsat

Amongst some of the justifications put forward to explain the low turnout in Morocco’s 2007 parliamentary elections, was that the voting process coincided with the country preparing for the holy month of Ramadan. In their own opinion, the Moroccans were too busy to take part in the elections - which had a turnout of no more than 37%, the lowest ever in Morocco’s history - with preparing for the fasting month by heading to the markets and buying certain ingredients that are unique to Ramadan in order to make sure that the dinner table was full at Iftar [point at which fast is broken] and Suhoor [last meal before the fast begins] with popular dishes.

Getting ready for Ramadan in Morocco begins in the middle of Shaaban [the month that precedes Ramadan] and it is the markets that inform customers of this point as the market traders begin to sell products unique to this noble month, most notably dates, dried figs, and ingredients that are used to make Ramadan sweets such as ‘Chebbakia’, [a deep-fried sweet that is covered in honey and sesame seeds] and ‘Sfoof’ [also known as Sellou in some parts of the country, is a powder-form sweet made of ground almonds, sesame seeds and butter], that are essential for Ramadan in Morocco, as well as ‘Harira’, the soup that is irreplaceable for the fasting Moroccans.

As they prepared for the holy month, the Moroccans hoped that the weather in September, which is considered a summer month, would not be too warm in fear of causing thirst during the longs hours of fasting. Many holiday-goers have extended their vacations until September in the hope that prices would decrease and that popular places would not be overcrowded.

It is customary in Morocco that families get together during the month of Ramadan and spend part of the evening in front of the television sets. Television channels aim to attract viewers with Ramadan specials such as soaps and comedies, the latter of which seem to draw much criticism when they fail to make people laugh. Rather, they become a topic of conversation amongst people to the extent that this has also become a tradition of Ramadan.

But food is what is on everyone’s mind in Ramadan. Most people exchange recipes or discuss the increase in prices of vegetables, meat and fruit or advise each other on what is healthy to eat during this month.

People differ when it comes to breaking fast in Morocco. Some would break their fast with a cup of coffee whereas others would begin with a hot bowl of ‘Harira’. There are even those who prefer to end their fast with a cigarette, completely ignoring the advice of doctors who urge smokers to make the most of the fasting month by kicking the habit.

Whilst, in general, people in the cities prefer to break their fasts with a light, simple meal so as to avoid digestion problems, villagers prefer to end their fasts with a richer meal such as ‘Cous Cous’ or ‘Rafeesa’ [a popular local dish consisting of bread cut into pieces with lentils and chicken] after a hard day’s work in the fields.

Another feature exclusive to Ramadan is the attendance of men and women at the mosques to take part in the Tarawih prayers. This attendance means that the mosques are often filled quickly to the extent that many people have to head to the mosques straight after Iftar in order to secure a spot to pray in. It is noticeable that many Moroccans strongly adhere to taking part in the lengthy Tarawih prayers, even if they do not usually pray for the rest of the year, out of respect and appreciation of the holy month during which bars are closed.

Furthermore, another interesting factor in Morocco during Ramadan is that the level of reading increases. The readership of newspapers that increased during the recent elections will also enjoy a similar boost in Ramadan because reading is a way to pass time during the fasting hours and many papers strive to include interesting journalistic material such as memoirs of well-known figures for example. Ramadan this year has been overshadowed by politics as a lot will be written about the post-election period and the forming of the new government. Furthermore, the number of sales of books on religion and cookery books increase significantly.

The holy month of Ramadan is over before we know it. For those who find fasting comforting for the soul and of spiritual benefit, it is missed for the rest of the year. http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=7&id=10306
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