Moroccan News Briefs #105

A wrap up of the latest news from Morocco

Traffic accidents in Morocco: 15 dead and 1,413 injured last week

Fifteen people were killed and 1413 injured, 75 seriously, in road accidents during the week from 23 to 29 September.  1079 of these accidents occurred in urban areas. The causes are reported as mainly due to lack of control of vehicles, speeding, non-compliance with traffic lights and stop signs, non-compliance of priority, traffic on the left lane in the wrong direction and driving while intoxicated.

The Directorate General of the National Security Committee (DGNS) reported 26,565 tickets and 12,342 written records being submitted to the public prosecutor, while 14,223 fines were recovered. In addition, the  DGNS reported fines worth 4,990,600 DH and the impounding of 3785 vehicles, seizure of documents from 8355 drivers and withdrawal from circulation of 202 vehicles.

The Casablanca tramway Strike

Casa tram workers gave no notice of their intentions before starting a strike on Wednesday, October 2. The company says that "despite a mediation meeting held on Tuesday, October 1 at the prefecture of Sidi Bernoussi in the presence of the leadership of Casa Tram and representatives of the Union of National Federations and transport professionals, the labor office maintains its drivers strike notice will continue through October 2 and 3."

Casablanca tram passengers can expect delays

The company responsible for the Casablanca tramway informed its users that traffic will experience disruptions. The wait at tram stations may be as long as 15 minutes instead of the usual 7 minutes.

UPDATE: The union are saying the strike may last until Monday

Casablanca's police make thousands of arrests this year

The good folk of Casablanca have been feeling a sense of insecurity of late, but maybe figures released about the police making a record number of arrests will ease the tension. The various police forces have made ​​nearly 38,000 arrests during the first eight months of the year. 24,195 cases were recorded in flagrante delicto, and 14,222 others were as result of investigations. Of this total, 6,242 people were put behind bars for theft.

Rock the Casbah ~ the film

After eight years of absence, the controversial filmmaker Laila Marrackchi returns with new movie Rock The Casbah. Back in 2005, her first film Marock aroused mixed feelings by bringing to the screen a love story between two Moroccan students one Muslim and the other Jewish.

Rock the Casbah - When mourning becomes liberating

Leila Marrakchi returns this year with a comedy. We are no longer in Casablanca this time, but immersed in the intimacy of a bourgeois family from Tangier. The patriarch dies and leaves behind women who seek the language of grief. The protagonists have the traditional three days to bury the father and unearth his secrets. The script is lightweight and leaps around, taking viewers between laughter and tears, while dealing with incest against a macabre background. Leila has assembled an impressive array of pan-Arab actresses, Hiam Abbass, Nadine Labaki Lubna Azabal and Morjana Alaoui.

The "Mr Bean Mystery" ~ Has he become a Muslim?

Has Mister Bean converted to Islam? According to rumours circulating on the Internet since Tuesday morning, Rowan Atkinson, known by the nickname of "Mr. Bean", has converted to Islam, and all that remains is that he let his beard grow and starts wearing a "Islamic dress". The rumours have spread like a wildfire and there are interesting claims and counter claims about the veracity of the report.

The British comedian Rowan Atkinson, best known for his portrayal of "Mr. Bean", has joined the ranks of Islam, the religion of Mohammad after a period of  "thorough research." His reaction on the film that offended the Prophet appeared in the U.S. in 2002, would have increased belief in his possible conversion. Back then Mr Bean received a letter from the Tunisian leader of Ennahda, Rached Ghannouchi, congratulating him on this "courageous and far-sighted decision." However, the conversion of Mister Bean, if it occurred, did not raise a media storm in England. Stay tuned. ...

"Tajinz" - 100% Moroccan fast food

The concept introduced by "The Tajinz 'Factory' is a brand of fast food that presents itself as "the first modern 100% Moroccan fast food".

The idea of presenting the traditional Moroccan flavours in sandwiches seems at first a simple idea. However, Habib El Fassi, co-founder of Tajinz with Driss Dadi, claims to have undertaken a preliminary work that led, among other things, the definition of a product that meets a real demand in the market. "With the creation of the concept, we have insisted on the local and national aspect of the product. We realised that all foreign concepts imported from us (for most international brands) then there is a real demand on purely Moroccan specialties. We created a product specifically Morocco, a Moroccan DNA, but at the same time young, dynamic and modern," says El Fassi.

In terms of taste, several tests were performed prior to opening the first restaurant back in December 2012. The result was the identification of a set of flavours after several adjustments and readjustments. This approach was extended after the opening of its first restaurant with the establishment of a campaign to collect feedback via the Facebook page of the sign. "This has allowed us to continue this approach is to keep listening to our customers," said El Fassi.

The summer of 2013 saw the temporary opening of a second restaurant in Morocco Mall in Casablanca. "We're in a development and we expect to open another premises. Our goal is to anchor ourselves and opening other restaurants at the rate of one every year, "says El Fassi.

A documentary on a 'revolutionary' Moroccan woman

A documentary on women's empowerment in Morocco had its premiere in Brussels yesterday (October 2) at the European Parliament. The film was selected for the Cannes Film Festival and was funded by the Spanish agency for international cooperation, the UN and ACAM APIP. The film focuses on the life of the 36-year-old Najat Aziz from the Errachidia province, where only 15% of women work outside of their homes. ''Revolutionary'' in her own way, she managed to go to university and attend IT, business management, and training courses. She then set up her own business: a centre for pre-school instruction that now teaches 50 children. Najat attended the Brussels screening, alongside the director, Spaniard Ramon Vila from Vision Films. The initial catalyst for the success of this woman entrepreneur in an extremely poor area of Morocco - where until recently girls were married off at age 14 - was a man.

''My father is illiterate but knew educated people and wanted his daughters to get their diplomas and a job,''Najat said, noting that she had to struggle instead against her mother, who wanted to keep her at home. As a result, at 7:30 in the morning Najat had to do all the housework before going to school and then to work at the market after school. Najat wears an Islamic headscarf - like all other women in her community - and got her university degree in Islamic studies in a university 45 kilometres from her home, but said that religion is an advantage for her. ''Our religion is Islam, which puts a higher value on women and gives us the strength to have more,'' said the protagonist of the film, who fought hard for her success and hopes that her work will enable her to provide more future opportunities for other girls - even if there is still a wide wage gap between men and women who do the same job. ''It doesn't make any sense for educated women to stay at home. They can improve their lives,'' she said.

Najat worked in many different jobs to pay for her activities until NGOs began to provide free books and smocks to her pupils. ''I wanted to start this project to save children from a difficult situation in which their parents prefer to keep them in the streets rather than send them to school. I had to knock on the parents' doors and hold meetings to persuade them,'' Najat said, who at this point in her life is looking to get married. ''When I get married, if God wills it, I want my husband to allow me to work outside the home. Otherwise he will have to pay all the expenses,'' she laughs in the film.

SHARE THIS!