April 2007 Archives
Sexual Threats Stifle Some Female Bloggers - washingtonpost.com
The Washington Post today ran a story on women bloggers being targeted with harassment and threats of violence:
As women gain visibility in the blogosphere, they are targets of sexual harassment and threats. Men are harassed too, and lack of civility is an abiding problem on the Web. But women, who make up about half the online community, are singled out in more starkly sexually threatening terms -- a trend that was first evident in chat rooms in the early 1990s and is now moving to the blogosphere, experts and bloggers said.
Beyond the obvious revulsion against threats of sexual violence against anyone, there are several additional reasons why this story is particularly disturbing. Not only are many of the attacks quite graphic, but also the perpetrators are often able to remain anonymous on the Internet. While one's first sympathies go to the victims, the consequences for the blogosphere are also likely to be severe. I would venture to say that a majority of the high quality blogs that I read regularly are written by women, and for women in the Maghreb the Internet seems to have been a particularly liberating opportunity for public expression. It would be a shame for the criminal actions of a few sociopaths to shut down access to free expression on the Internet for over half of the population. Finally, if my daughters want to blog when they get older, I want them to be able to do so without fear.
Stars & Stripes: Iraq-bound Marines get a taste of Morocco
“When I first got here, I thought that this could be California, and we could do this training at Twentynine Palms, so why come here?” Espinoza said. “It costs a lot of money.”
For all the Marines see of Morocco, they might as well be in California. Apart from the fact that the Moroccan medics had a trick or two to show the Americans, the deployment in Morocco for training appears from the Stars and Stripes article to be wholly gratuitous. The article does not indicate that there is any significant contact with the Moroccan population. Even if there were, it is hard to see how such contact would be helpful to preparing the Marines for Iraq. It might be helpful for the Marines to learn a little Arabic, but Morocco, with its significantly different dialect, is not likely to be much help with respect to language, either. So what are the Marines doing in Morocco,anyway?
U.S. Commemorates 50 Years of Partnership in Morocco - Standard Newswire
On April 2, 1957, the United States initiated a program of economic and technical assistance to Morocco. Since then, the American people have invested over $2 billion in the human, economic, and institutional development of Morocco.
The answer may be yes, but it would appear to have more to do with sustained good relations and long-term investment than arms buildup and military action.
Even before the identity of the shooter at Virginia Tech was known, people were speculating that he was a Muslim in the comments to the New York Times story online. However, there were positive comments in the Times condemning knee jerk racist and xenophobic comments, and one person linked to a statement from the Virginia Tech Muslim Students Association.
For a fresh change of pace, check out Evelyn in Morocco. Congratulations to her on her recent wedding.
The Moroccan American Community board
I learned about this site just the other day; it contains a variety of information that may be of interest to Moroccans and Moroccan Americans, particularly those living in the Washington, D.C. area.
The Soul of Morocco - New York Times
And the New York Times, with the usual (detailed and well written, of course).
Everything Morocco: The Two Sides of Fez Medina
Everything Morocco has a grim view of the face of Fez that is too seldom seen:
Right now, today, in 2007, Fez is also a ghetto in every sense of the word and most of its inhabitants are barely eking out a miserable subsistence living. Too many are uneducated, drug-addicted, criminals, and even worse, children of these people caught in a devastating self-defeating cycle of destruction. Bidonvilles surround the area and most foreigners probably walk right past them never imagining what kind of hell exists in a place like that.
Obituaries - washingtonpost.com
"He was the first writer I read as a child who created Moroccan characters that were believable," said Laila Lalami, whose "Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits" chronicles Moroccans' attempts to make the dangerous sea crossing to Spain in search of work.
