Morocco in the News: Nov 22- 30

Morocco aims to reduce maternal mortality. By Sarah Touahri 2010-11-22


Policy-makers and civil society groups call for action on rising deaths in childbirth in Morocco. The Moroccan government seeks to curb the rising maternal mortality rate by implementing a variety of measures throughout the country. With 132 deaths per 100,000 live births, the country is facing a real crisis as many women give birth without medical supervision, particularly in rural areas.

At a November 7th meeting organised by the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USFP) in Rabat, parliamentary advisor Zoubida Bouayad said that the lack of infrastructure and human resources made the problem worse. She stressed the importance of boosting efforts to address the problem, notably by recruiting qualified doctors and setting up mobile maternity units.

Nadia Belkari, who oversees health provision in the Gharb-Chrarda-Beni-Hssen region, said that deaths among mothers and infants were also due to socio-cultural factors, particularly the close family circle.

"Poverty and distance to the nearest hospitals mean that many Moroccan women do not have any access to medical care or supervision during pregnancy and labour. Many of them continue to give birth at home, calling on the services of the traditional midwives, who have received no formal training," said sociologist Samira Kassimi.

On a CD

The other day I bought a CD. A REAL CD! From a store. You might not understand what a big deal this is. Buying a CD that isn’t pirated and on a burned disk is not a normal experience in Morocco. Which makes sense, why pay Dh13 for music you could get for Dh5 (or free for that matter.) Thus, trying to find some new Arabic music that I might like I picked up a Baby Haifa CD.

My initial thoughts on seeing said Baby Haifa CD was that it was a promising choice. From the name and cover art I imagined that I was holding in my hands the music of the Lady Gaga of Lebanon. The girl at the check out even told me the artist was good, an opinion I was inclined to believe since, working at a Marjane in a big city, she was clearly younger and hipper then I. And it might be that the artist is good, except that, as it turns out, the artist’s name was just Haifa, and the CD was her singing traditional baby’s lullabies. Not quite what I was going for.

NewsArticle: On The Break-In

A rough and edited translation of the contents of the webpage http://azilal-online.com/inf-ar/news-action-show-id-3334.htm



Four hours after the telephone call, the offender has been caught by the Royal Gendarmerie





On the seventh day of the previous month on the third hour, the Royal Gendarmerie Center received a phone call from a U.S. citizen Peace resident stating his house was robbed while traveling. Then moved a unit of the Royal Gendarmerie under the chairmanship of chief the center to the spot. After previewing a minute some moves initiated to investigate some of the suspects from among the audience of the people of the region.



At precisely seven o'clock pm the offender, who admitted his role in deeds attributed to him, where he had entered the home after the break and the theft of some devices that had been working with the victim, including: a video camera and a computer-type high.



To hide the crime, the offender gave every piece to one of his friends in the region and the other to sell the computer to the Internet club owners in the city. The camera by fate reached the city of Casablanca. In order to continue the search, the Gendarmerie went to both cities and despite challenges and difficulties, were able to retrive these stolen items and the arrest of all who participated in this crime, which has raised great disgust in the soul.



All this happened in a short time and speed the morning the next day, the thing that impressed raised widespread in the mystery of the success of this process.

I have free minutes at the center of the gendarmerie in the right of the offender and his accomplices were brought to the Court of Appeal, Beni Mellal her justice to say in the matter.

This is sure to succeed in such cases significantly reduce the recurrence of crime and to deter all of Salt has the same embarking on such inhuman crimes.



Correspondent




Comments



[Jealous] [22/11/2010 5:29 pm]

If the victim is a Moroccan will be things such speed????



[For transient] [22/11/2010 10:08 pm]

Hahahahahaha reason for the success of the process is that the victim was an American national Hahahahahahahahahah

Happy Thanksgiving

On Me In The News

A news report about the break in at my house (so I am told):

 http://azilal-online.com/inf-ar/news-action-show-id-3334.htm

On Forgiveness

Since the break-in my understanding of Moroccan Legal systems, which was nonexistent to begin with, has increased.  I get a say in what happens to the burglars who broke into my house. Thus I found myself petitioned to forgive them their trespasses and write a letter to that effect. Forgiveness is an tricky topic, but with five years worth of college ethics classes, it was a topic I was up to. Drawing on the teachings of Dr. Tony Clark of the University of St. Andrews I composed this letter:

To Whom It May Concern:

·      Whereas I recognize the youth and foolishness of the perpetrators,

·      Whereas I understand the agony that their mothers are experiencing as the result of their crime,

·      Whereas most of the property stolen was promptly returned through the valiant efforts of the Gendarmes,

·      Whereas the physical damage caused has been repaired,

·      And in full awareness of the teachings of forgiveness that God and his Prophets have endeavored to give,

By the powers vested in me by his Majesty Mohammed VI, King of Morocco and by the laws of his subjects, I do hereby forgive:

Rajil Wahida and Rajil Tani [obviously not real names]

 of the wrongs that they have done me.

May god make them penitent and give them the wherewithal to live justly and not commit further crimes.

It is an interesting method of doing things, asking the victim to forgive the perpetrators that their sentence might be reduced, but it has merit.

Morocco In the News: Nov 14 - 20

Olive green Morocco. Rasheeda Bhagat

“Olive oil is a fruit juice; and we have programmed our harvesting operations in such a manner that every 20 minutes a truck-full of olives leaves for our mill. That way we are able to avoid any delay in the crushing of fresh olives.” Othman Aqallal

Olive cultivation in rocky, mountainous Morocco gets a fillip with the government pulling out all plugs to help olive farmers..

At the end of the 19th century his great grandfather got the title ‘Amine-el-Fellaha' of Fes, the historic city often considered the spiritual capital of the North African Kingdom of Morocco. Its meaning: ‘The wisest of farmers'. What got him the title was not only his passion and devotion to the land he cultivated but also the zest to experiment with farming practices.

Well, Othman Aqallal, the young and dapper managing director of Atlas Olive Oils, wears lightly the 123-year-old history of his family's four-generational foray into olive cultivation. His family orchards have over a million olive trees and the century-old orchard in Marrakech has 3,000 olive trees growing mainly the Picholine varieties of both French and Moroccan origin.