Our Special Affairs editor, Lumen, was musing out loud the other day about how difficult it was to get news in English. And a lively discussion ensued - the gist of which was that we need an English language daily in Fez - or a weekly.
Of course I pointed out that as far as news went we were like Meknes - not a lot happening. Well, you can imagine the outpourings of anger from all those Meknesophiles, standing up for their much underrated city. I say "imagine" - because in fact nobody said a word. But was it true? How much is really happening that is news. Just how much news do you really need?
Then Madam Zany said - what about international news?
"Why stop there?" interjected El Glaoui glumly, 'Why not the galactic news - the universe..."
So, dear reader - just for once, an exclusive look at the news through the eyes of the team at The View from Fez as we present ... ( drum roll optional)...
THE DAILY PLANET -
All the news that's fit to eat.
Dateline London, Jan. 23 - Morocco's imperial cities of Fès and Marrakech, were once again listed in the world top ten tourist destinations for 2007. Once again, Meknes did not get a mention.
The survey by the well known internet site, Trip Advisor , places Marrakech in the fifth rank after Pamukkale, Turkey; Parga, Greece; Ayr, Scotland; and Campeche. Fès closes the list.
The two cities have thus outranked traditional destinations such as Miami, Honolulu and Acapulco, noted Trip Advisor, which conducted the study through information compiled from 4,000 world tourists.
A spokesperson for Meknes, who chose to remain anonymous, claimed it would have been different if any of the 4000 world tourists had been to the city. "Meknes has a lot going for it. Really. Truly. Look, trust me."
Dateline Meknès, Jan. 23 - There was much excitement on Tuesday in Meknès (60km from beautiful Fez ) when HM King Mohammed VI dedicated a number of urban projects aimed at fighting unhealthy housing, upgrading the city infrastructure and creating green spaces.
The sovereign handed property deeds to the beneficiaries of the operation aiming to relocate the inhabitants of unhealthy housing in the city and was briefed on the USD 40Mn "Slum-Free City" program in Meknès, which has allowed, so far, for relocating some 5,5039 households, i.e. 76% of the population living in unhealthy housing.
King Mohammed VI also launched several projects to upgrade the city of Meknès and revamp its historical monuments. The sum of 4.5 million USD has been dedicated to improve public lighting and roads, to promote the cultural and civilizational dimension of the city and take up the challenges of national and international tourism competitiveness.
The sovereign also inquired about the USD 8.5Mn project to upgrade green spaces, create a large green center and several gardens, and improve public lighting in these spaces.
Dateline Laayoune, Jan. 23. A rare succession of mine blasts has prompted Moroccan newspapers to speculate that the attacks could be part of a plot by the Polisario Front to end a 16-year U.N.-sponsored ceasefire. A young girl and a town mayor in Sahara died in two landmine explosions, four days after a member of parliament was killed in a similar blast.
But government officials in the territory and in Rabat dismissed such speculation, saying desert winds and rain unearthed some of the thousands of mines planted close to populated areas during decades of conflict.
On Monday, 8-year-old Fatima Bent Ibrahim died when a landmine exploded while she played outside her house in al Haouz 200km to the north-east of the town of Smara. The blast seriously injured her six year old younger brother
Hours earlier Mohamed Joumani, mayor of Gueltet Zemmour town, died in a similar blast. Another three people, who were accompanying the victim, were also injured in the accident.
Morocco's upper house parliament member Mohamed Laroussi was killed four days ago when a landmine explosion hit the car he was travelling in on Bir Inzarane area, about 160 km (100 miles) northeast of Dakhla coastal town,
The Southern Provinces, a former Spanish colony, were retrieved by Morocco under the Madrid Accords, signed with Spain and Mauritania in 1975. During the period from the late Seventies to 1991, the Polisario declared war against Morocco and placed thousands of mines in the Moroccan southern territory. The armed conflict was stopped under a UN-brokered cease-fire concluded in 1991.
A delegation of ministers and senior officials traveled to Laayoune to deliver the condolences of King Mohammed VI to the families of the people killed and injured by the landmine explosions.
Dateline Settat, Jan. 23 - Two girls from the same family perished, on Tuesday in the region of Ben Ahmed (157km south of Rabat), by a cold snap. This is the second deadly chill this winter with around a dozen deaths coming from a previous event.
This time, the two sisters, aged 7 and 10, died of pneumopathy due to extreme cold that has gripped the region, where temperature dropped to reach 2 and -6 Celsius degrees at night. The local medical authorities, who paid a visit to the region, noted that death was ascribed to pneumopathy caused by cold and lack of heating, ruling out the hypothesis that death might be due to meningitis. Medicines against pneumopathy were handed out to the region population.
Dateline Europe: Jan 23. The European Parliament has requested that the European Union review its relations with Libya unless Tripoli releases five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, jailed and sentenced to death in a controversial HIV infection case.
If Tripoli fails to take steps towards a positive resolution, the EU should consider "a revision of the common policy of engagement with Libya in all relevant fields as the Union would deem appropriate," members of the EP (MEP) said in a joint resolution, adopted by a 567-1 vote with seven abstentions.
In a retrial that ended on December 19th, the six medics -- Bulgarian nurses Kristiana Vulcheva, Nasya Nenova, Valentina Siropulo, Valya Chervenyashka and Snezhana Dimitrova and Palestinian doctor Ashraf Ahmad Jum'a -- were sentenced to death for deliberately infecting 426 Libyan children with HIV.
The health workers were arrested in February 1999, less than a year after they arrived in Libya to help care for patients at the Al-Fateh Hospital in Benghazi. Their first trial ended in May 2004, when they were first condemned to death by firing squad. Following a wave of outrage, Libya's Supreme Court overturned the ruling and ordered a retrial.
Expressing their "serious concern" about the grounds on which the foreign medics were prosecuted and about the way they were treated while in custody, the MEPs condemned the verdict. They also stressed that, with Bulgaria's EU entry on January 1st, the case now concerns five citizens of the 27-nation bloc.
Maintaining their innocence, the Bulgarian nurses have retracted the confessions they made early on, insisting they were extracted by torture.
Leading AIDS experts, including French Professor Luc Montagnier, one of the co-discoverers of the HIV virus, say the outbreak in the Benghazi hospital preceded the medics' arrival in Libya by at least a year and was likely caused by poor hygiene at the facility.
Urging Libyan authorities "to take the necessary measures to review and annul the death sentence," the MEPs said this would help meet the requirements for the continuation of the common policy of engagement with the oil-rich country.
They also urged Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi "to exercise his powers and bring about the release of the imprisoned medics as a matter of urgency".
In an address at the end of last year, Qadhafi said the six medics would only be released if a Libyan national serving a prison sentence in Scotland for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing were set free and if Libya received financial compensation for the HIV infections.
Libya has demanded that each of the families of the 426 infected children be paid 10m euros as "blood money". Under Islamic law, this would allow the victims' relatives to pardon the nurses.
Bulgaria has ruled out such a move, saying it would amount to an admission of guilt.
"There isn't the slightest proof that these people are guilty and the EU will not allow any other case to be used as leverage," EU Consumer Affairs Commissioner Meglena Kuneva told Reuters. "It is intolerable."
For its part, Libya has said it will not give in to EU pressure aimed at securing the early release of the prisoners. The EP resolution also prompted a reaction from one of Qadhafi's sons, who heads an organisation that has been involved in the HIV infection case. In a statement issued on Friday, Seif al-Islam Qadhafi warned EU lawmakers that attempts to politicise the case could prove counterproductive.
"Calls from European members of parliament for pressure to be put on Libya, and any EU measure against Tripoli, could have negative consequences," the AFP quoted the Qadhafi Goodwill Foundation's statement as saying. "Such pressures are of a nature that would undermine mediation aimed at resolving this affair."
Qadafi's uses of the doctor and nurses as a bargaining chip comes very close to extortion and has justifiably been condemned around the world.
Magharebia: Jan 23. A month-long nationwide awareness campaign to prevent the employment of child maids has been launched in Morocco, part of a national project to raise awareness about the phenomenon.
"We hope that this campaign will raise public awareness of the dangers of this social problem, which is denying several thousand girls of their human rights and jeopardising them and their futures," Yasmina Baddou, the secretary of state for the Family, Childhood and the Disabled in Rabat.
Baddou said the campaign marks the beginning of project Inqad, which is part of the Childhood National Action Plan adopted by the government last year.
The campaign, which runs from Monday through February 23rd, will feature a series of radio and television awareness and information spots. Discussion forums with a wide range of information materials targeted at people who employ child maids will be held in each of the four regions covered by the project -- Casablanca, Rabat, Fes and Marrakech. A publicity caravan will roam in the target cities, distributing awareness materials to families who employ child maids and families considered likely to contract their daughters to do domestic work.
It is difficult to estimate how prevalent the phenomenon is in Morocco since it happens within families, and there is a severe lack of statistical data on the employment of child maids. Human Rights Watch says there may be as many as 66,000 in Morocco. A study carried out in the Grand Casablanca region put the number of child maids in the city at 25,000.
Dateline Lebanon.Jan 23. Clashes in Lebanon pitting pro-Syrian Opposition supporters against those of the Government have left about 60 people wounded in Beirut and elsewhere. Some of those hurt suffered gunshot wounds.
The violence marked the start of a general strike led by the militant group, Hezbollah, which is demanding a new government. The protesters used burning tyres to barricade major routes in and around the Lebanese capital and other centres.
Air traffic to and from Beirut has also been disrupted.
The economy and trade minister, Sami Haddad, says the Government will not give in to the opposition. "The Prime Minister has accepted many weeks ago the principle of changing the Government into a government of national unity, it's only the terms and composition of the government that remainl to be decided]," he said.
"And obviously since the majority is the majority, it is not acceptable to be dictated to by the Opposition."
Dateline London. Jan 23. If you think that the cost of purchase and renovation in Morocco is steep, spare a thought for the poor old poms. In England, an apartment the size of a snooker table has gone on sale in London's up-market district of Belgravia. This table-sized apartment for sale is a converted basement storeroom and has not been used in 15 years, and real estate agents estimate, despite its tiny size, that it is still expected to fetch 170,000 pounds - more than $425,000. Interior design specialists say it will take a further $75,000 to renovate.
Dateline; Netherlands Jan 23. At a time when the world is short of food, people in many countries face drought and natural food security disasters and the Americans are taking huge amounts of grain and using it to make bio-fuel, a small brewery in the Netherlands has launched what the world really needs - a beer for dogs.
The beverage, made from beef extract and malt is the creation of pet shop owner who wanted to share her refreshment with her dogs after a day's hunting. The beer is non-alcoholic and fit for human consumption but comes with a bite. It costs four times as much as a normal beer.
Dateline: Sublett, Idaho. American tourist, Jack Langerhorn, thinks Meknes is the best. From the US state of Idaho, Jack(61) and his wife, Dotty (36) and daughter Lolita(17) spent an entire weekend in Meknes recently and can't wait to return. "It was the best two days of relaxation we have ever had," chirps Dotty, who says her favourite pastime is knitting. 'We walked around and had a look and I finished a book I have been reading."
"The cafe we went to was clean and friendly," enthuses Jack, a retired pump attendant. "And the Coke tasted great, just like home."
"Meknes is way cool,' says Lolita. 'Lots of people and lots of walls with gates. You don't get that in our town."
The family come from Sublett, Idaho, in the Minidoka Ranger district. "Our town has seven camp sites and 6 vault toilets. So this was pure luxury," says Jack. He is hoping to raise support for a twin town arrangement with Meknes. However a local official said that the Meknes authorities couldn't find Sublett on the map. We will keep you posted.
Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news
2 comments:
You made that last story up, I swear! My husband and I just cracked up on that one.
Also, someone in the U.S. has been selling beer for dogs for two years now - the Netherlanders better check their patent!
For what it's worth, I like Meknes. In fact, I prefer it to Marrakech. It has an air of authenticity about it whereas Marrakech feels like a satellite instalment of EuroDisney.
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