Moroccan Elections 2009: Who steals the show?

After the victory of the makhzeno-khobzism back in 2007, Morocco is approaching yet another election date in June 09.

Besides the official elections site updated by the Ministry of interior to locate election offices on a map (certainly NOT the censored google maps!) there is no big buzz about this event online. I have tried some key words (in French or English) to google it but the results turned poor. There even seems to be a few bloggers subscribed to blogma aggrgator who are intersted by this event. The reason for this might be that more people are attracted to social networks these days like Fecebook to express themelves or simply that some people are stealing the show !!

Well let me allow a pragraph to those people who steal the show. You can all remmber the new face that emerged in the Moroccan political scene who had resigned in August to take part in the following September elections.  Si Fouad has created an association, then a party that has grown so strong to the point it s defying other ministries and shaking the government’s stability in case they try to apply the law against the new recruits. There isn’t a single day that I don’t read his name on the paper or see his face on the news.  The secons “show stealer” is si Chabat who is criticising not only living people but also the dead! 

All for Chabat and Chabat against all

 Source:  http://difad.wordpress.com

 Will the show stealers succeed in the elections? let’s wait and see!

Israel vs. Palestine

Please if you care for what’s happening to civilians in Gaza, then go to this poll : http://www.israel-vs-palestine.com/gz/

You will have to chosse between the two following options:

• I support Israel
• I support Plestine

At the time of writing this post out of the 1063342 1064750 participants, 43,7 % support Israe while 56,3% support Plestine. There’s at least one voter every second!

Your call?

The website defines the project as follows:

About project

This project is created for people to express their free opinion about recent militaristic events in Gaza and Israel. It is not made to set at variance between Israel and Palestinian people. It is an open project just to find how people around the world feels about recent conflict.

The website is created in peacefull purpose, so we hope peacefull discussions in our Comments section. We show the country of origin of every commentator at every comment by flag, and commentor’s selected vote.

Who are we?

We are independent people, we do not belong to any Israel or Palestinian organizations, and we do not have any relationships with them.

Where do donated money go?

Your donations goes to improvement of this poll and servers expenses. Donated money do not support any Israeli or Palestinian organizations.

The Venezuelean job

I have read so many articles lately about what is happening in Gaza.  Yesterday’s read was simply the best. The article is about Hugo Chàvez, Venezuela’s president and what he did in respnse to the massacre.

I thought about translating the article but that will not work as the text carries much arabic culture that’s difficult for me to convey. (hope a reader can do something about it!)

الأمة الإسلامية تطالب بتعيين تشافيز خليفة عليها

عبد الله الدامون

إلى الرئيس الأمجد والصديق الأعز هوغو تشافيز، حفظك الله ورعاك
أيها الأخ العزيز
نحن شعوب أمة تدعى الأمة العربية، الموزعين على أكثر من عشرين قبيلة، عفوا عشرين دولة، بعدما طاولنا الهوان، وتدحرجنا نحو مهاوي الذل والخسران، قررنا أن نعيّنك بمشيئة الله خليفة علينا نحن المسلمين، المسحوقين تحت أرجل حكومات بلا مبدأ أو دين، وأن ندعو لك في خطب الجمعة والأعياد، بأن يحقق الله لك النصر المؤزر وسؤدد الأمجاد.
أيها الرئيس العزيز، نعلم أنك رئيس دولة تسمى فنزويلا، بعيدة عنا بسنوات ضوئية ومسافات طويلة، وأنك قابع في منزلك بكاراكاس، تحكم رعيتك بالعدل والقسطاس، وليس بما يمليه عليك النبيذ والكاس، مثلما يفعل حكام العرب الذين قهروا شعوبهم بالقمع والبأس. غير أن بعد المسافة لا يثنينا عن التماس قربك، وبحر الظلمات لا يحجب عنا بهاء مواقفك، لذا اقبل منا رجاءنا أيها الرجل الشهم بأن تكون خليفة علينا، وأن نضعك مكان 20 من حكامنا، لعل الله يعوضنا بك خيرا، فنتّبع خطاك سرا وجهرا.. وهلم جرا.
إننا يا عزيزنا هوغو، ومنذ أن رأينا مواقفك الحسان، خلال عدوان إسرائيل على لبنان، وتملّينا بطلعتك البهية، وأنت تشتم إسرائيل الغبية، عرفنا أن الوقت آت لا محالة، لتكون زعيمنا الوحيد بلا إطالة، ونعاهد الله أن نكون وراءك كرجل واحد، نؤازرك حين تقلب الموائد، ونشد عضدك حين تتكالب عليك الميكروبات والزوائد.

read more here

Moroccan Elections 2009 Intro

I can’t resist not blogging once more about the political scene in Morocco.  Since my last series of blog-posts about Moroccan politics, things have well changed.  The most important of which is Si Fouad’s outgoings: creating a mouvement, going on national tours, and lastly changing the movement to a party! The buzz has been spreading online through multiple websites, a neat bio on wikipedia, and so many groups on facebook. And of course, trouble may come at any time…

Si Abbas,  the Kingdom’s prime minister, has also been making the news. Regarded as the odd man out of the new era, he hasn’t yet made any substential change to the course of Moroccan politics.  His relation with the  press has not been so peaceful and he had to mend it at times as when HE called on “Jeune Afrique” to be interviewed. Some hours ago, Abbas got elected (a 3rd term in office) as the secretery general of his party. According to the party’s constitution, a SG can go only for two terms in office. That brings to mind other Arab world stories….

The next communal elections will be held on June 12th, 2009 as announced by the King. More than 16 million voters will choose some 24,000 counsellors. Candidates representing 30 political parties will run in the elections. But will these elections be any different for the previous one(s)? Will Si Fouad’s party make any change? Will people go to vote? Will the current economic crisis in Morocco and the world affect the way people think about politics?…

Well, there seem to be many questions to answer. So let see how things evolve.

To be continued…