Morocco: a country of marvels

Press Code Reforms...

The latest approach to Morocco Press Freedom is technocratically called : reform.
The new government is taking press freedom seriously !!. One of many things that were left in the hands of the “past” government, as they walked out of the Ambassadors' Gate, was Media, Press, Censorship, detentions of journalists...

Maghreb Arab Press, MAP, the walking stick of this all governments, said:

Rabat, Oct. 24 - Morocco is determined to amend the Press Code and to gather the legal texts governing this field into one Act, Prime Minister, Abbas El Fassi assured Wednesday before the House of Representatives.
The government, he said in the statement of the new government's program, will see to the practice of the freedom of the press - within the total respect of the law - and introduce new mechanisms, such as the National Council of the Press, due to play a key role in the implementation of the professional rules.
The PM also affirmed that the government will erect communication as a major instrument for the construction of a democratic and modern society, as declared by the monarch back in 2004 when he said that the reform of the media is a prerequisite for improving the political scene.

MAP published this information under the rubric of culture !]

I hope these words will stay fresh in the heads of the new hires, the brand new government.They sound great (the words). but even if i really try to put my skepticism in a jar an through it out in the ocean, i would always think that

Inerview with Gobal Voices

Lucky Dube is no more !

One the most famous and the most peaceful artists of South Africa, Lucky Dube, 43 was gunned down in front of his two kids by some gangster carjackers. He was driving in the outskirts of Johannesburg yesterday.
Reggae music admirers, fans and musicians as well as people in his town are still under shock. He left seven children. The youngest of them, Melokuhle, is only three months.
Lucky Dube was a freedom fighter, a social justice activist.. a complete and mature African artist. He sang and danced for the poor and the oppressed Africans. His songs educated a lot of people for generations. He was censured and imprisoned.. but struggled and gained an international renomé and inspired people…
It is outrageous that he gets killed by a bunch of gangsters hired to steal cars to make little money when the rest goes to the big ones...
BBC reported reactions of people protesting against the violence and crimes that take more than 50 lives everyday in south Africa.
it's the way it is.. one of my favorite Dube songs.

The Photo that threw me off

Photography has always been a fascinating art and a great expression that can go beyond the boundaries of verbs. Some photos as just eternally beautiful (like this one) and they teach us constantly about ourselves and the world round us. transmitting the message of beauty would be one of many goals of photography. This is a photo of a photographer. It is the cover picture of a photo book or a coffee table book as known among designers, where the photographer is preparing herself for the shot.
This is a horrible photo....!!! (ps)
I almost fell off my chair.I want to go and get lost in the desert and never come back again. Looking at this picture and reading the "reviews" wrote on the web site of Amazon dot com, I almost fainted.. hen the comments…!!
Lalla Mira, please help... Jjawi , some fasukh ( insense) or anything.
I just… please have a look.

(my apologies to your eyes... i just wanted to share)

Peace and global warming

Al Gore is a man from warm places!
He is interested in Politics, global warming and the area in between...
Al Gore’s movie Inconvenient Truth which won Academy Award(s) is a Documentary film about global warming and climate change.
Nobel Committee pronounced the Nobel Peace Prize this year goes to HIM and to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) equally ( fifti-fifti) for their jobs in showing humans how they messed up with their universe.
This is official Nobel Committee statement:

“for their [winners] efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change" (more).

Miranda Devine of the Sydney Morning Herald writes beyond the glamours of the event and tries to answer some "warm" questions like:

“Since Al Gore was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize you might have been wondering what global warming had to do with peace...” (read more).

The conversation is still going on.. may be heating up soon. watch out.

Che, Abdelkrim and Imam

Forty years ago Che Guevara was assassinated..today he is still alive..\
he shared the legend with Adelkrim and Sheik imam.

They all shared the love for freedom. They said it out loud. They fought for it.
Who could have guessed that the most iconic figure of “people’s liberation”, Che Guevara, would be a humble student of Abdelkrim Khattabi the engineer of the Rifan revolution in the 1920s. Che would have wished he me this mentor in the Rif but… They met in Cairo (1959) where Abdelkrim was exiled. During one of the meetings Guevara was reported to have spent many hours talking to Abdelkrin, his Guerillaro Mualim.

le 14 juin 1959, à l'ambassade du Maroc au Caire. “Abdallah Ibrahim a présenté Che Guevara à Abdelkrim Khattabi, alors en exil au Caire. Puis Guevara et Khattabi se sont isolés au fond du jardin de l'ambassade pour une conversation de plusieurs heures sur l'expérience de la guerre du Rif”. (Telqulel)

Che visited Morocco many times in private and by invitation from the first socialist government of morocco. A story told Telquel (Fr) sheds the light on the different layers of Che’s experience in morocco and how he got arrested by the Moroccan police before the Prime Minister Abdellah Ibrahim goes himself to liberate him from Balima Hotel/jail and takes him to a private residence.

The Egyptian exile of Abdelkrim did never prevent him from sharing his knowledge with all the movements of liberation in through t the world as well as his experiences: the battle of Anwal to the declaration of the first Republic of the Rif to the lost hopes in the communist parties of France and Spain. In His book La question berbere.. , Ammar Ouerdane generously gives an a account of these relationships. In fact, Tangier was the international city that hosted different diplomatic and business communities right there on the Riffan coasts. Non of these were ready to recognize the new Riffan Republic then, although promises of had flooded after Anwal (1921) was won by Abdelkrim and his companions.

Egypt was the classroom where Abdelkrim would teach the knowledge and the experience of a movement of liberation and a republic that did not last too long.

It is the same classroom where Sheikh Imam sang for freedom and for the poor for decades before he had to live his own country. he sang for the poor and for all those who fought for them.

“Guevara Mat” ( Guevara died , Video) is one of his most famous songs written by Ahmed Fouad Najm, his companion and comrade. (lyrics Ar.) .

These are the three icons that are still inspiring the world and reminding everyone that a better world can be possible regardless of the corporate iconism.

Omaar re-discovers Spain

Rageh Omaar, former BBC journalist goes in a journey he called a look at what "impact Muslims had on European art, science and philosophy."
What interests me personally in all of this is the question. The presence or absence of the old Moors ( berbers) in the historical discourse devised both by Europeans and Arab muslims is a different area of investigations that has to wait a little more. However, Rageh Omaar tries to educate his fellow Europeans about facts like the bridge was not really that wide.