Chaou abdelkader,

A pillar of the Chaabi music in North Africa . Born in al-Kasbah in Algiers early forties. Shares first debuts with seniors of his cohort, Hadj Ak Anqa. Chaou hits the sky and its stars in the seventies to become on of the most famous artists of Algiers.
Song: Lbehja Mahlaha.

iRack, a side/main note

This is a really interesting video that Michael McDonald has made about "iRack"
i wo't say more. watch it. (no pan).

again in casablanca

One of two suicide bombers kills himself in a cyber café where he came to look at terrorist sites.
The owner of the cyber café asked the two suspicious clients to leave the premises and they refused. One of them blows himself. The other one flew away dropping his belt but e was arrested about an hour later. The Moroccan police have not yet determined what their target was or whether they were waiting for orders that never came.
Four bystanders were injured in the internet cafe. The terrorist dies on the spot. Both terrorists were involved with terrorist attacks of Casablanca 2003 and he got a royal pardon in 2005.
A wound was opened again in the country. the wound of Mai 16^th. Now Morocco will probably think about revising the relationship between royal pardons and religious /national holidays. I am assuming that the Moroccan police and the ministry of justice will have a lot of things to talk about now...
what were the intentions of these people remains the question every single Moroccan is asking...
Police and the department of National security are raising the level of vigilance according to Moroccan Press Agency.
It is really sad to think about the reasons for all the terrorism and its political implications and how Moroccans suffer every single day from all the different kinds of terrorism. Moroccan people are the ones who are guarding the gates and towers of the country now and always . Not the police. Not the American embassy. Not the Interpol.
I am sure that the Moroccan department of tourism is worried more about all the effects of this attack on the tourism dream of ten million tourists by the year 2010.

photo BBC archive

Where's Mao?

The Chinese leader is disappearing from the country's new history textbooks, which downplay socialism altogether.
By Joseph Kahn in Beijing

This year, high school students in Chicago will likely learn more about Communism than students in Shanghai: The new world- history textbooks just introduced in China's biggest city have dropped Communist revolutions and socialist theory in favor of colorful tutorials on economics, technology, and globalization.

Socialism has been reduced to a single chapter in the senior high school history course. Chinese Communism before the economic reform that began in 1979 is covered in a single sentence. The text mentions Mao Zedong, the Communist leader and revolutionary considered the father of modern China, only once—in a chapter on etiquette.

Almost overnight, the country's most prosperous schools have shelved the Marxist template that had dominated standard history texts since the 1950s. The changes, the authors say, are part of a broader effort by the Chinese government to promote a more stable, less violent view of Chinese history that serves today's economic and political goals.

"Our traditional version of history was focused on ideology and national identity," says Zhu Xueqin, a historian at Shanghai University. "The new history is less ideological, and that suits the political goals of today."

The old textbooks, not unlike the ruling Communist Party, had changed relatively little in the last quarter-century of market-oriented economic reforms. They were glaringly out of sync with realities students faced outside the classroom.

Trading Agendas

But critics say the new textbooks trade one political agenda (Communism) for another (economic progress). However friendly the new emphasis seems to Western ideals, the Chinese government is still controlling the books' content.

In a sense, the new textbooks do not so much rewrite history as diminish it: Having largely abandoned its own Communist ideology, China's one-party state prefers people to think more about the future than the past.

The new text focuses on the same ideas and buzzwords that dominate the state-run media: economic growth, innovation, foreign trade, political stability, and social harmony.

J.P. Morgan, Bill Gates, the New York Stock Exchange, the space shuttle, and Japan's bullet train are all highlighted. There is a lesson on how neckties became fashionable. The French and Russian revolutions, once seen as turning points in world history, now get far less attention. Chairman Mao, the Long March, and colonial oppression of China are taught only briefly.

The books still present a government view of history, just a different version now. So far, the changes are limited to schools in Shanghai, China's most economically advanced and sophisticated city. In the past, textbooks introduced in Shanghai have followed elsewhere.

Deng, Not Mao

Zhou Chunsheng, a professor at Shanghai Normal University and an author of the new textbook series, says his purpose was to make people and societies the central theme. "History does not belong to emperors or generals," he says.

Students now study Mao—still officially revered but no longer regularly promoted as an influence on policy—only in junior high school. In the senior high school text, he is mentioned fleetingly as part of a lesson on the custom of lowering flags to half-staff at state funerals, like Mao's in 1976.

Former President Deng Xiaoping, who began China's market-oriented reforms, appears in the junior and senior high school versions, with emphasis on his economic vision.

The Shanghai textbook revisions do not address many domestic and foreign concerns about the biased way Chinese schools teach recent history. Like the old textbooks, the new ones play down historic mistakes or atrocities like the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and the army crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989.

The new textbooks also de-emphasize peasant struggle, ethnic rivalry, and war, some critics say, because the Chinese leadership does not want people thinking that such things matter a great deal. Officials prefer to create the impression that the Chinese through the ages cared more about innovation, technology, and trade relationships with the outside world.

But some teachers have criticized what they see as an effort to minimize history.

"The junior high textbook [weakens] history," a Shanghai history teacher wrote in an online discussion, "while the senior high school textbook eliminates it entirely."

Source: upfrontmagazine.com

New Book: Ajjig N Tidi, by Mohamed Akunad.

After the success of his Novel Tawargit d Imik ( a dream and more) Mohamed Akunad publishes his second book Ajjig n Tidi ( A Flower of Sweat).

Ajjig n Tidi tells the story of an Amazigh immigrant who ends up working in the tunnels of coal mines in France in the 1970’s. He decides to go back to his village and start a new life after all the change that had happened during his absence.

The Novel structure revolves round te evolution of the main character and his attempts to understand the changes that happen everyday in his village. changes in values and mentalities of his people during the time of his forced exile in France.

In hisfirst novel Tawargit d imik Akunad explored certain dreams of possibility. Ssi Brahim, the newly hired imam, accepts the position of Msid teacher and Fkih of the village. He tries to bring lots of reforms to the mosque traditions by encouraging more women to come over to the prayer room. He gave his sermon in Tamazight. For the first time people really made sence of what Friday Khotbas are about. A womwn in the back, pleased with what he fqih said, ‘yuyus’ ( tseghret) in the middle of the khotba. Apologizes later. Ssi Brahim had to “pay it expensive”. His personality became controversial and tragic as the Qayd brings his finger into the discussion. With the help of the local Sheikh, Ssi Brahim lost al grounds and lost the villagers , hi students, women coming to the mosque and the right to speak his language, Tamazight in Allah’s House.

Akinad: Ayuz nek.

Mothers and Songs

THIS is a compilation of songs in Tamazight and Arabic Dedicated to all mothers these extraordinary humans with big big heart and livers (tasa) and are there to absorb the pains of the world and wait for a better times to come…
Remembering Ali Azayku and al the great poets, singers and artists who spent time tinking all them...
enjoy.


(Photo: chrisrouge)



Yemma: from the Palestinian Heritage. (Palestinian)

Thifridjas: Yemma. (Tamazight)

Omar Boutmezzught: (Tamazight)

Big H and Jay: Moroccan Rap (Darija)

Sullen irumiyen gan imc elligh.

S Tamazight digh neghedd abda:
G tesga n umsawal g internet ghif tguriwin ur ntilnin xsf hetta yan. Ar enn ettaggagh xef mayd etturun ait marikan wala wiyyad xef tmurt n merruk wala tutlayt nnes d medden. Afeghenn arenn ettafagh ku ass id is wahli degsen ag tsul tizzert ar enn sugguren seg wahlee n ifellaten gher mays ghalen id is iga izdar emmuzdernin. Tamurt d medden ensen. G usays n iblogen seg tmurt ellan enn wahlee n meddan yetturun ayenna ran gin ixfawen nsen winsen. Ku yan ar enn yetturu ayennz as yenna uqerru nes. Ellan wida yusyen angaz n tmurt gin d nternet imassen s ettasin imsisiyen gher idgharen yaden.

Imuzzayen ddehgh ayd da ettirigh ad isanegh mandi gher ettirin ad awin a wal. Tsul twelat na mi 3deln seg eligh tella. Tawlaft dda esskern taf ad essghern i ixfawen nnsen mayd ur gin. Tawlaft n imdanen imezgura, Imazighen d wiyyàd, aklu n “waggagen” ddegh n àemwa. Qqnen ghif ighfawen nsen agensu nnes.

Taguri yat ayd yga ar ettini mami slahen ekw “les indigenes” ddehgh. Slahen add nettawi seg darsen ineghmisen d tguriwin yessbeddan s umata takadimit nnegh d wadif n idlisen xef beddant temsdelsin g timizar g tmizar tirumiyin.

Ur da eyi ineqqa ghas turzimin iqqnen.

Princess Khadija in the Blog sphere

Princess was born first.... then what?

The news “sparkles” around the country. Mohmed VI looked happy (left) and compassionate holding his little baby in front of the press crowd.

21 gun shots were unloaded to celebrate this big event.

In the blog sphere of/about Morocco this event has taken a lot of different shapes and forms.

3az3oza declares her blog a golden book. Sign your congratulations. Many other bloggers like rachidissari and opened it up for comment and people to express their congratulations. Rachid said 2 words (alf mabrouk). Humble and beautiful i admire that in Mr. Issari.

Amazzal (fr) posted the translation of the detailed press release about the birth of the princess.

Basta news post was a photo of a smiling king holding his gaughter khadija. Opened up congratulation as comments.

In a very elegant “trés rafiné” post Nadia Bitar announces to the world the birth of a princess.

Moroccan blogers that i read in the last couple of days (ar/fr/en) were excited about the event and were sharing the happiness of the Moroccan family. Well nationalism has its sides and corners. But i like how Moroccan received their new princess.

Plate Forme Intercontinentale des MRE posted a photo of the king and his daughter and information about the golden books for people to sign their congratulations.

Blogging nnfakha:

One of the bloggers about morocco. Famous for writing about Rabat posts this time about her adventure with the Canadian Embassy. I was trying to read about what some north american ex-pats in the country are writing about this and the importance of the event for them. starts out with a very interesting title. ( i do not really care about the blog itself but i think it has an interesting note...)

My word count found out that she had a post of 894 words. She "donated"22 words (2.2%) to the topic.. the title she promised to talk about. Sprayed : 'On Cannons and Princesses.'

In this post used the word “I” 30 times and "capstoned"more than 97.8% of the post 'khabar'. A story about a mysterious phone call and the bureaucracy of an embassy.

This is the paragraph that the title of the post promised.

As it happened, it was cannon fire that I heard last night, a veritable 21-gun salute. Princess Leia Lalla Khadija was born to "The wife of Moroccan King Mohamed VI " (god almighty!) who, in fact, does have a name: Princess Lalla Salma. I needn't tell you that I was mightily relieved that Rabat hadn't been bombarded by terrorists last night, or that what I heard wasn't the sound of Kenitra's oil refineries exploding ... although, should that happen, I have full confidence that my Government will come quickly to my rescue. Hopefully I'll have my laptop handy so I can submit an emergency S.O.S. online form.

Let’s not talk about the implications of personal safety and the cost of Moroccans as opposed to ex-pats in Morocco.

The advice the post gave to the new born princess:

My gift to her are these pearls of wisdom: don't take any crap from your brother Crown Prince Moulay Hassan. Sure he's going to be king some day but you'll get to wear much nicer clothes. And please don't wear your hair like 2 bagels on either side of your head. It's been done. And it isn't a very pretty look.

[who can comment on this? I can’t]

Well…

Moroccan bloggers interested in this event remained humble and real in the way they defined what is important to them, while the [blogger] stayed above everyone in an ivory tower with a lot of egoistic clouds between her and the morocco she writes about with special interest in royal crap and star wars.