Moroccan wine has been the subject of a couple of recent reports on European news channels. Here’s one of them.
Tag Archives: Morocco
Press Freedom in the Arab World
Al Jazeera gets such a bum rap in the United States because they are perceived as being biased against the United States and overly critical of US foreign policy. It’s not a fair evaluation, which is not surprising given that it is too often made based on hearsay by people who don’t speak Arabic, but that is not my concern in this post.
The network also does a very good job of holding Middle East governments to account. In fact, that has often gotten them into trouble. This is an episode of Inside Story, a program that is broadcast on the English service of Al Jazeera, assessing freedom of the press in the Arab World.
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Al-Jazeera operates in Qatar almost completely free of official interference, but I also don’t recall seeing critical coverage of Qatar or much coverage from the Emirates, at all. You don’t hear much from those countries in which a tightly controlled press is the norm such as Saudi Arabia or Syria. The clampdown in Morocco is significant because there are fears that it signals the end of a long period of liberalization.
Thanks to 3arabawy for finding it.
Reporters without Borders on Press Freedom in Morocco
Stamp Commemorates Moroccan American Treaty of Friendship
A few days ago I posted an entry about recent setbacks in freedom of the press in Morocco. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be visiting Morocco November 2-3. In advance of that visit Reporters Without Borders, an organization that fights for freedom of the press has sent an open letter to the Secretary of State outlining violations of press freedom since July 2009 and concluding:
Reporters Without Borders urges you to use the opportunity offered by your visit to Morocco to talk about the difficulties that the independent media are facing and to raise this crucial issue with the Moroccan authorities. The aim of the Forum of the Future which the US government set up in 2004 is to promote democratisation in the Broader Middle East and North Africa region. Press freedom is an essential component of this democratisation.
The Perils of Being a Journalist
Two more Moroccan journalists were fined today for reporting false information on the health of the King, Mohammed VI. According to Agence France Presse
The editor of the daily al-Jarida al-Oula, Ali Anouzla, was handed a one year suspended jail term, while journalist Bouchra Eddou was also given a suspended sentence of three months.
The tribunal fined Anouzla 10,000 dirhams (876 euros, $1,315) and Eddou 5,000 dirhams.
Both men have appealed and accused the government of simply trying to clamp down on the press. As I noted previously, it continues a worrying trend. Continue reading
Freedom of the Press in the Maghreb
Upon the death of his father, it looked as if Morocco might be on its way toward total freedom of expression. This post is too short to go into much detail, but tentatively at first, then progressively with more and more confidence the media and the arts began to confront previously taboo subjects including corruption in government and the private sector, human rights abuses, gender oppression, linguistic and cultural suppression of minorities, policies in the Western Sahara, homosexual rights, etc.
There was shock when the Moroccan magazine TelQuel was able to publish an investigative piece on “The Salary of the King,” and get away with it. Under his father Hassan the II such matters were kept as secret as nuclear launch codes. I don’t mean to say that the media totally ignored all that was wrong in Morocco until the liberalization, either. But when something was reported, it was done very carefully, with great care as to who was bore the blame. All of that changed in the years following the elevation to the throne of Mohammed VI.
Recently, however, there have been a number of setbacks and it has been hard to watch. Continue reading
Morocco to fund overhaul of universities / Conference for Arab youth and media takes place in Tunis
This is good news.
The Moroccan government will provide universities with resources to boost reforms under a far-reaching 2009-20012 education emergency plan.
The government and universities signed 17 agreements to promote higher education at a ceremony on Tuesday (October 6th) presided over by King Mohammed VI. With nearly 12.6 billion dirhams earmarked for the improvements, the plan will enlarge and improve infrastructure, revamp facilities and instruction, increase universities’ intake capacity and promote scientific research.
But the investment is much needed.
The backdrop for the recent agreements is a 2007 World Bank report on education in the Arab world that sharply criticised Morocco for failing to implement widespread reforms. The report cited a lack of systematic evaluation of students, an alarming rise in dropout rates, the small budgets allocated to schools, and the inability of educational institutions to prepare students for the workforce. Following these findings, King Mohammed VI urged the government to create the emergency education plan.
You can read the full story “Morocco to fund overhaul of universities” on Magharebia.com, but I taught for six years in the Moroccan university system, and Moroccan university students deserve a system of education that is worthy of their academic talents and skills.
Another article by Mona Yahia also, on Magharebia.com, discusses a recent meeting of Arab youth throughout the region.
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Young people from all over the Maghreb and the wider Arab world met in Tunis on Monday (October 5th) for a three-day seminar on moulding the media to match the aspirations of Arab youth.
Delegates from Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Qatar, Egypt, Yemen, Palestine and Sudan drafted a number of recommendations at the event, which took place under the auspices of the Ministry of Youth, Sports and Physical Education in collaboration with the Arab League.
“The topics discussed were important and motivated us to exchange expertise with participants from various countries, and discuss with them means of developing youth-oriented information in the Arab world, especially with the appearance of other media that can threaten youth,” said Karima Weslati, a member of the Tunisian media, who took part in the event.
The full story is availabe at”Arab youth call for media that reflect their interests” on Magharebia.com
Stacie Nevadomski Berdan: No More Cuts! Keep Foreign Languages in Schools
In “No More Cuts! Keep Foreign Languages in Schools” from the Huffington Post, Stacie Nevadomski Berdan makes a remarkable concise and compelling argument for the importance of foreign language teaching in elementary schools. She really drives the point home in the following paragraphs.
In the global financial crisis, Americans learned that — for the first time — the so-called developing world surged past the developed world in its share of global productivity; Americans are learning that we can no longer afford to ignore China, Russia, India or Brazil. When today’s kids grow up, they are as likely to be competing for jobs in and with people from Beijing or Brasilia or Bangalore as from Boston or Baton Rouge. In our ever-shrinking world, global experience will continue to move from “nice” to “must-have” for career success.
At stake is nothing less than our ability to compete successfully in the raw global arena, and one of the deciding factors will be American professionals’ ability to speak strategic foreign languages.
However, because studies show that language learning comes more easily to those whose brains are still in the development phase — up until roughly 12 or 13 years of age — when we cut language programs from elementary schools, we are inhibiting bilingualism in future adults. We comfort ourselves with the unrealistic expectation that students will learn in high school or college. But that is unlikely to happen due to the increased difficulty in language learning as we get older. Arguably, bold and innovative new methods of teaching foreign language are needed now more than ever – and instituted in schools as early as kindergarten.
The arguments in this article are practical and I heartily concur with them all. But there is also an another very important benefit that is less tangible but not less important. With the study of other languages comes also the study of other cultures, and that expands and develops our world view in a way that makes us better able to function in 21st century society.
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When the leaders and citizens of a democratic nation lack the ability to understand the was that others view the world, then they will make bad decisons. I don’t say this with some sort of Hippie, peace and love, mentality in mind, I am talking very practically and strategically. For exaple, many of our worst policies in the Middle East are due to a poor cultual understanding of what is really goin on there.
As the world becomes more and more interconnected, it becomes all the more imperative that Americans be ready to encounter the other on their terms. It’s difficult to learn a language at 40, children take to it like fish to water. Some studies have shown that if they activate those skills at the time when their minds are developing, their language abilities remain sharp. Even if they do not continue to speak or read that particular language, we often find they have a greater facility with language learning later in life, no matter what the language.
Interesting, no? I can’t find the studies now and it is late, so I’m not going to look more. But if anyone has thoughts, I’d love to hear them.
GOVERNMENT INTERNET FILTERING INCREASES IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA
Below is the text of an August 12 announcement from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society.
Cambridge, Mass. – 14 countries in the Middle East and North Africa out of 18 countries surveyed filter Internet content using technical means, according to new studies released by the OpenNet Initiative (ONI), a partnership among groups at four leading universities: Toronto, Harvard, Cambridge, and Oxford, funded by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. These reports offer an updated view of Internet content controls in the region and a point of comparison to an earlier global survey carried out in 2006-2007. The studies show that Internet censorship has continued apace in the Middle East and North Africa.
“Our latest research results on Internet filtering and surveillance in the Middle East and North Africa confirm the growing use of next generation cyberspace controls beyond mere denial of information,” said Ron Deibert, ONI Principal Investigator and Director of the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto. “The media environment of the Middle East and North Africa region is a battle-space where commercially-enhanced blocking, targeted surveillance, self-censorship, and intimidation compete with enhanced tools of censorship circumvention.”
“Internet censorship in the region is increasing in both scope and depth, and filtering of political content continues to be the common denominator among filtering regimes there,” said Helmi Noman, the OpenNet Initiative’s Middle East and North Africa lead researcher. “Governments also continue to disguise their political filtering, while acknowledging blocking of social content, and censors are catching up with increasing amounts of online content, in part by using filtering software developed by companies in the U.S.”
Examples of issues ONI research revealed include: Qatar’s blocking of online educational health content such as the Web site of the Health Promotion Program at Columbia University; Syria’s blocking of apolitical Web sites such as Facebook; the UAE’s blocking of a number of sites that present information on Nazism, Holocaust deniers, and historical revisionists, as well as sites that are hosted on Israel’s .il domain; and two Yemeni ISPs’ use of Websense.
Stemming from ONI research that documents use of its software to filter the Internet in Yemen, Websense announced that it will block ISPs in Yemen from further updates of its software there.
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The 2008-2009 Middle East and North Africa regional overview and country profiles can be accessed at http://opennet.net/research/regions/mena.Today’s release of new data and analysis follows the ONI’s May 2007 release of its first global survey, and the subsequent publication of Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering (MIT Press, 2008). In the coming months, the ONI will release additional, updated reports on countries in Asia, the Commonwealth of Independent States, Europe, Latin America, and sub-Saharan Africa, as well as on North America and on Australia and New Zealand. These reports will provide the analytical basis for a book to be released in early 2010, Access Controlled: The Shaping of Power, Rights and Rule in Cyberspace.
via GOVERNMENT INTERNET FILTERING INCREASES IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA | Berkman Center
The percentage of countries filtering the Internet is not cause for celebration, but on the other hand there have been real advances in freedom of expression in parts of the MENA region. In both Morocco, for example, print, broadcast and online media are all able to discuss things not that they would not have dreamed of when I was a Peace Corps volunteer in the 90s. Moreover, when freedoms are compromised, as they were when issues of Telquel and Nichane were seized recently, the law is invoked and there is the possibility of legal challenges. They are seldom effective, but nonetheless, the possibility exists.
Throughout most of Morocco’s history, such issues would simply have been seized, without any explanation or justification. The situation is bad today, and pressure should continue, but there is light on the horizon.
Le Monde Banned in Morocco because of an Opinion Poll
Cover of the seized edition of TelQuel
The August 4 issue of Le Monde was seized and blocked from distribution in Morocco because it republished a survey that was supposed to appear in the Moroccan magazines TelQuel, and ????? but which was censored in them, as well. 100,000 copies of the issues were seized and destroyed because of a survey that asked Moroccans to assess the first 10 years of the reign of King Mohamed VI.
L’édition du Monde daté mardi 4 août a été censurée au Maroc. La non-distribution du quotidien dans le royaume a été confirmée, mardi matin, par la société en charge de la distribution, la Sochepresse. Au cours du week-end, les autorités marocaines avaient informé celle-ci que Le Monde serait censuré dès lors qu’il publierait les résultats d’un sondage d’opinion sur le bilan des dix années de règne du roi Mohammed VI.
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It is disheartening to read such stories because for the first few years of Mohamed VI’s reign there was an incredible spirit of hopefulness. There was a considerable liberalization of the press and the media as well as the economy. It seemed that Morocco was moving quickly down the road to democracy. Ten years on, progress has stalled. This is a real setback.
Maths and science to be taught in English – The National Newspaper
ABU DHABI–All pupils in state high schools will be taught maths and science in English by 2012, the Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec) said yesterday.
At the launch of its 10-year strategic plan, Adec said it aimed to see pupils graduating with equal proficiency in English and Arabic.
In a concerted effort to turn out better qualified school-leavers, from this August the school day will also be extended by 90 minutes in all state high schools in the emirate. Pupils in all Abu Dhabi’s state schools will study for 10 extra days a year.
It follows the publication of results showing that only 13 per cent of applicants to federal universities scored enough in their English exams to bypass remedial courses.
via Maths and science to be taught in English – The National Newspaper.
Language of instruction is always a sensitive issue in the Arab world for a number of reasons: practical, political and religious, among others. Arabic is regarding by Muslims as a sacred language, the language in God revealed the Holy Qur’an to the Prophet Muhammad, so for many it has a special status above all others.
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It also has a special status as an identity marker. To speak Arabic was to resist colonial rule or cultural imperialism from the West. And it is seen as a factor that unifies folks across the region beyond religious ties. There are Muslim Arabs, there are Christian Arabs and their are even Arabic-speaking Jews.
Arabizing curricula is often a way of asserting a unique, independent identity. That said, though, Arabization is quite controversial in places where there are minority populations that don’t speak Arabic as a native language.
English, on the other hand, is unquestionably the dominant world language at the moment and there is a certain practicality in acquiescing to that.
In terms of practicality, transforming the language of instruction is always difficult and some of the challenges are pointed out in this article. Are teachers trained in one language capable of teaching a subject in another? If you are changing a language of instruction, when do you do so? Will the College student who was taught a subject in one language follow when they are taught in another?
It’s all very interesting. I’ll be following how it goes.