More on comments

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Comments Are Back (I Think)!

I finally clued in to the fact that a rogue plugin was effectively disabling my comments. I believe that I have fixed the problem, and I hope to hear from you.

The Latest Thing

The View From Fès is among the latest in a growing number of high quality English Language blogs about Morocco. In light of the polished prose, stunning photographs, and steady stream of content, it is no surprise that this is a website produced by professionals — novelist and broadcaster Sandy McCutcheon ("Samir") and his wife, photographer Suzanna Clarke ("Zany"). McCutcheon and Clarke are in the process of renovating a "riad" or traditional Fassi house that once belonged to the notorious qaid Thami El Glaoui, who ruled southern Morocco for most of the French Protectorate but was spectacularly humbled upon the return of Mohammed V from exile in 1956. See Gavin Maxwell, Lords of the Atlas. The View from Fès is not merely a first class blog on Morocco, but a first class blog in its own right.

Dry Hole

In Morocco, One Man's Oasis Is Another's Watering Hole - New York Times

The Sahara, the world's second largest desert (after Antarctica), covers 3.5 million square miles, nearly the size of the United States. Only one quarter of it is sand; the rest is rocky plains, steppes and volcanic mountains. I wanted to experience not just the desert's moonlike isolation - Saharan dunes can rise to a thousand feet and stretch hundreds of miles - but also its lush aberrations: oases.

A Times reporter takes a trip to a desert oasis but returns disillusioned by the local tourism business.

Time Bomb

Unemployment Will Force More Youths to Flee Africa - New York Times

Events last month in Morocco, where troops deployed to stop hundreds of African youths storming Spanish enclaves, would ''pale into insignificance compared to what we could witness in 20 years time,'' the U.N. Office for West Africa said in a study.

The New York Times identifies unemployment among youth as one of the greatest threats to the region's stability.

49 New Peace Corps Volunteers

Menara

Les 49 nouveaux volontaires du corps de la paix ont officiellement pr�t� serment vendredi � F�s, en pr�sence de l'ambassadeur des Etats-Unis au Maroc, M. Thomas T. Riley, du wali de la r�gion de F�s-Boulemane et gouverneur de la pr�fecture de F�s, M. Mohamed Rherrabi et des familles d'accueil.

Forty-nine new Peace Corps Volunteers were officially sworn in Friday in Fes, in the presence of the United States Ambassador to Morocco, Mr. Thomas T. Riley, and the wali of the region of Fes-Boulemane and governor of the prefecture of Fes, Mr. Mohamed Rherrabi and some host families.

Human Rights Concerns Continue in Western Sahara

THE VIEW FROM F�S: Human rights defenders on trial

The View from Fes reports that Amnesty international is sending a delegate to observe the trial of seven advocates for human rights in the Western Sahara:

Amnesty International announced today that it is sending a delegate to observe the trial this week of seven human rights defenders from Western Sahara who the organization believes may be prisoners of conscience. They are standing trial together with seven other accused who are being prosecuted for participating in demonstrations against Moroccan rule.

In addition, Amnesty remains concerned about the fate of activist Brahim Dahane, who was also mentioned in testimony at a hearing before a subcommittee of the the U.S. House of Representatives.

Two Books

The topical interest of Laila Lalami's might present a danger of obscuring its literary merit if it were not so beautifully written. This compact book of less than 200 pages presents snapshots in the lives of four Moroccans who attempt the dangerous illegal crossing of the Straits of Gibraltar in search of a better life in Spain. The results are ambiguous and poignant.

Phillip Kurata's dissects the slimy underbelly of a thinly fictionalized Tunisian police state. His naive, self-centered protagonist, Habib Ben Hamed, is quickly in over his head as his brother lures him into becoming an agent of the national police, a job for which his basic decency renders him completely unsuitable. This hard-boiled novel provides an unblinking look at the brutality of the modern police state, also a topic of considerable contemporary interest as Morocco reflects on the Years of Lead and on its own current human rights record.

Out of Sight

refusenik: About Sebta and Melilia..

Sebta and Mellilla — the Spanish enclaves on the Moroccan coast — have been much in the news lately as the Moroccan and Spanish government have turned back waves of African immigrants. Foulla's post suggests that the issues of Sebta and Melilla have not traditionally enjoyed a high profile even among Moroccans.

Samir at the View from Fes has researched the issue and found that there has been little progress on the status of the two cities since the June 2003 meeting of the Arab Parliamentary Union.

The sticking point, of course, is Gibraltar. So long as it remains part of Great Britain, Spain will have a pretext for keeping Sebta and Melilla, no matter how troublesome they may be.

Dylanesque

When I was a teacher in Morocco, we used to teach the students songs on Fridays, and Bob Dylan was a perennial favorite. For example, "Blowing in the Wind" is rife with examples of the present continuous: "The answer is blowing in the wind." Naturally enough, the students would use phrases from the songs in their essays, so that the answers to questions sometimes came back as Dylanesque pastiches.

I was listening to Dylan this afternoon with the kids, while I was thinking about John Murtha, and the war, and how we seem to be right back where we started in 1965. It don't take a weather man to know which way the wind blows.

History of the Maghrib in the Islamic Period

Jamil M. Abun-Nasr's is a finely detailed tapestry which sweeps from the early days of the Al-Moravids in Morocco to the post-colonial regimes in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya. While the book is academic in tone, it is so well written as to be accessible to the casual reader, so long as one is willing to come to grips with the intricacies of Maghreban dynastic politics.

While I learned more from the first half of the book, which discusses pre-Modern Maghreban history; the second portion covering the modern era was particularly relevant in light of the recent rioting in France. Abun-Nasr vividly describes how the European powers — under the guise of bringing civilization — ruthlessly exploited their North African colonies. Although the fruits of their policies were most bitter in Algeria, it is clear that throughout the Maghrib the European powers' short-sighted pursuit of commercial gain had long-term repercussions for everyone involved.

The Sahara Can Wait

After thirty years of attempts to resolve the conflict in the Western Sahara, the House of Representatives International Relations Subcommittee on Africa, Global Human Rights, and International Operations was scheduled to hold hearings on the conflict at 1:30 p.m. today. At 2:25 p.m. and a room change later, an overflowing, largely North African crowd was still waiting for the hearings to begin. By that time, I had had a chance to pick up some of the prepared testimony and ask the press person for the Moroccan Embassy for a copy of the embassy's statement, which she declined to give me because I was not a member of the press. At that point, my lunch hour was over and I had to return to work.

Highlights of the Prepared Testimony

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Gordon Gray was scheduled to speak first. In his prepared remarks, Mr. Gray emphasized that the United States supports the United Nations. Otherwise, Gray acknowledged that there had been little progress since the Department of State last testified before the Congress in 2000. The seven-year effort to produce a Peace Plan led by James Baker failed to bear fruit, and Mr. Baker resigned as Personal Envoy in June 2004. Despite the success of the Lugar mission in securing the release of 404 Moroccan prisoners of war from the Polisario Front, relations between Morocco and Algeria remain cold. The State Department has reported human rights abuses by all sides (Algeria, Polisario, and Morocco), but notes that the Annual Human Rights Report on Morocco classifies Moroccan human rights performance as poor throughout Morocco and the Western Sahara.

Erik Jensen, Former UN Undersecretary General, stated that while Polisario has been calling for international sanctions to impose the Baker Plan,

The Security Council has been unwilling to impose it. The international community, through the Council, again makes clear that it will not impose a solution, that it will not resort to sanctions, much less force, to compel Morocco and Polisario and Algeria to act against their perceived interests. It has only recently reaffirmed its commitment to achieving a just, lasting and mutually acceptable solution.

Journalist and author Toby Shelley testified to a long history of human rights abuses by the Moroccan government in the Western Sahara, but denied any bias toward to the Polisario. Mr. Shelley stated,

[T]he streets of Laayoune are currently swarming with units of an alphabet soup of security forces. Each week I and many other journalists receive photographs of Sahrawis covered in blood, bandages, bruises after their release from custody. I know children as young as five years old who have been chased through their neighborhood by police on the grounds that they were illegally demonstrating.

Mr. Shelley described the murder of demonstrators, the detention of civil rights activists, prison sentences of many years handed down after hearings where the defense was unable to function, and "appalling" prison conditions, particularly in the Carcel Negre prison in Laayoune. Mr. Shelley warned of violence and possibly "pogroms" by the Moroccan settler majority if a peaceful resolution is not reached.

Congressman Christopher H. Smith, Chairman of the Committee on International Relations, reiterated his support for self determination for the Sahrawi people, and distinguished his support for self determination from United States support for its longtime ally, Morocco. Congressman Smith cited a 1975 International Court of Justice ruling that "Moroccan claims to the territory are without merit, and the Saharawi people have the right to decide whether they want to join the ranks of independent African nations."

"Morocco is one of America's longest-standing allies," he continued. "Our relations with Morocco are separate from the issue of self-determination for the Saharawis."

Rap on Brooks

David Brooks, Playa Hater - The New York Times columnist grapples with "gangsta rap." By Jody Rosen

The crime here isn't just laziness. It's tackiness and gall. Did Brooks bother to notice that the rappers whose songs he cites in his piece about "the future of Islam" aren't Muslim at all, but two black Frenchmen and one black Belgian? There's a word for this kind of stuff. "Mr. R," I suspect, would call it teub�.

Slate takes the Times to task for stereotyping Muslims and French rappers.

The Easy Way Out Is No Solution

France Says It Will Deport Foreigners for Rioting - New York Times

The expulsion measure, which affects even those foreigners living in France legally, was greeted with applause when it was announced at the National Assembly today by Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, a spokesman for the minister said. It appeared to be aimed primarily at youths of North African and sub-Saharan African descent who have been involved in nearly two weeks of disturbances across France.

Expelling rioters seems like a shortsighted solution to the problems that caused the riots.

Self-Fashioning

I have always thought of my blogs primarily as a means of self-fashioning and self-expression. To the extent that they also serve to communicate, I am pleased, but I have few illusions about my place in the blogosphere. What has been gratifying in recent months, as I have tried to focus more on my blog about Morocco, is the gradual discovery of other sites about Morocco, including an increasing number of sites in English. Attempting the quixotic (presumptuous?) task of trying to write about Morocco from the eastern United States has required me to read and learn more about the country than I would ever have done otherwise.