June 2003 Archives

Agassi edges El Aynaoui Second seed Andre Agassi overcomes Younes El Aynaoui in four sets to reach the last 16 at Wimbledon.

Morocco raises Euros 400m in eurobond issue as investors shrug off fears
In Zawya: Political Affairs The economy is stable in the wake of the Casablanca bombings, but the jailing of Ali Lmrabet has raised new human rights concerns.

BBC News | AFRICA | Eyewitness: Moroccan women's misery

"Tackling poverty and illiteracy is a goal that everyone can agree on. But in this still traditional North African country, society is deeply divided when it comes to the status of women."

False Terrorism Tips to F.B.I. Uproot the Lives of Suspects

"Federal agents, facing intense pressure to avoid another terrorist attack, have acted on information from tipsters with questionable backgrounds and motives, touching off needless scares and upending the lives of innocent suspects."

The Washington Post has a Morocco page at washingtonpost.com: Morocco.

Zawya.com | arab business and finance

A Moroccan appeals court on Tuesday sentenced journalist Ali Lmrabet to three years in jail and backed a previous court order shutting down his two satirical publications on charges of insulting the king, judicial sources said.

Committee to Protect Journalists Delegation Meets With Ambassador
AllAfrica News: Morocco: "A delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) met withMoroccan ambassador to the United States, Aziz Mekouar, inWashington, D.C., today to express its deep concern about the recent imprisonment of two Moroccan editors and to call for their immediate release."

I noticed last week that my former Peace Corps colleague Jeff Tayler has a new book out about crossing the Sahara.

I had tea with an old friend from Outat El Haj yesterday. I was happy to hear that there have been many material improvements in the quality of life over the past ten years. There is now a bridge across the River Moulouya from the village to the high school. Electricity and water are now reliable. When I lived there, telephone calls could only be made by going to the post office and asking the operator to place the call. Now even children have cell phones. I hope this news means that life is easier for the people I knew.

allAfrica.com -- Morocco: Committee to Protect Journalists Delegation Meets With Ambassador

"Morocco's press is at a critical point. No matter how unsettled the government feels by criticism, it must remain true to its stated commitments to a free press," said CPJ board member Friedman. "The imprisonment of these editors seriously jeopardizes Morocco's reputation as a country that tolerates a more open press than its neighbors."

allAfrica.com -- Morocco: Newspaper Editor Held Under New Anti-Terrorism Law

RSF has protested over the detention of Mustapha Alaoui, managing editor of the Arabic-language weekly "Al Ousboue". He has been held under a new anti-terrorism law since 5 June 2003 for publishing a letter from a hitherto unknown group claiming responsibility for three of the five bombings in Casablanca on 16 May.

allAfrica.com -- Morocco: Newspaper Editor Remains Imprisoned Following Appeals Court Decision

"One would have hoped the Moroccan justice system would ease the situation and show clemency by ordering Lmrabet's provisional release," RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard said. "Instead, its inflexibility seems to be confirming the fears of those who say that Lmrabet's imprisonment has sounded the death knell for the independent press." Ménard added, "People thought King Mohammed VI's Morocco was on the road to democracy, but they were clearly mistaken."

allAfrica.com -- Morocco: WPFC Urges Release of Publisher

Lmrabet's case, literally, adds insult to injury because he was charged with Morocco's insult laws, obsolete pieces of legislation which date back to colonial times and provide a chilling tool for public officials to shield themselves from society's scrutiny.

I have almost reached the end of Albert Hourani's History of the Arab Peoples. Not only is the separate history of Morocco fascinating, but also the ruthless colonization of the Maghreb as a whole by the European powers. The situation in Algeria today is much easier to comprehend once one understands the extent to which the French colonizers completely subjugated the Algerian people, reserving land, wealth, education and power to themselves. My friend Rachid once said to me in Morocco: "Nous some les indiens." At the time, I did not really see the parallel to the American frontier, but the parallel is a little clearer after reading Hourani's account of the colonization of Algeria and its cataclysmic war of independence.

I am trying Movable Type with my Maghreban weblog also.