Lonely Servitude: Child Domestic Labor in Morocco

AHMED TAIBI

12/05/12

Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a recent report titled “Lonely Servitude: Child Domestic Labor in Morocco,” published in November 15th, 2012, wrote that the data it compiled between April and August of 2012 suggests the number of child domestic workers has decreased since 2005. It is difficult to take such a suggestion seriously when HRW recognizes within its report that no “accurate statistics regarding the number of children working as domestic workers in Morocco” currently exist.

Muslim Mob Violence Shows Need For Reformation

AHMED TAIBI

09/14/12

Washington / Morocco News Board---   Moderate Christians, especially those living in Western nations, are always shocked when they are reminded that Muslims, so unlike them, do not turn the other cheek when their religious symbols are attacked. Mocking Islam is tantamount to hugging a killer bees hive; the reaction is almost always homicidally violent.

Morocco: Coming Out Of Political Closet

AHMED TAIBI

08/23/12

Washington / Morocco News Board---Many see Abdelilah Benkirane’s moments of candor and transparency as a breath of fresh air in Morocco’s political governance today. In a clear departure from the false demagoguery proffered by previous prime ministers, he provides a glimpse of a pervasive and growing reality Moroccans have long been denied, but have always suspected.

 

Morocco’s Great Illusion

AHMED TAIBI

07/07/12

Washington / Morocco News Board---For the past three months, I have been struggling with the notion that Joseph de Maistre’s famous “every country has the government it deserves,” found in his “Lettres et Opuscules Inédits vol. 1, letter 53,” is indeed an accurate delineation of Morocco. Could it be conceivable that we, Moroccans, are not aware of the judiciary’s pliancy? Do we lack proof of the politicians’ venality?

Morocco: US Marines' African Lion 12

AHMED TAIBI

04/06/12

Washibgton/ Morocco News Board ---  The United States Marine Corps has deployed its “Few and Proud” to Morocco to take part in African Lion 2012, a joint and combined annual iteration sponsored by the Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff (CJCS), scheduled by US Africa Command (AFRICOM), executed by Marine Force Africa (MARFORAF), and hosted by Morocco’s Royal Armed Forces (RAF).

A Tweet To Mohammed

AHMED TAIBI

02/27/12

Washington  / Morocco Board News--    Hamza Kashgari, a 23-year old journalist and blogger from Saudi Arabia, is currently in jail in Jeddah awaiting trial on apostasy charges. On February 5, the day Moslems celebrated Mohammed’s birthday, Hamza sent the following tweet addressing the prophet:
“On the day of your birthday, I won’t bow before you (…) I loved certain things about you, but I abhorred others, and there is so much I don’t understand about you.”

 

The Moroccan “Paper Terrorist”

AHMED TAIBI

02/22/12

Amine El Khalifi as the Moroccan community in D.C. knows him. (Photo:  glittarazzi )

Washington  / Morocco Board News--  When the news that a Moroccan was arrested in Washington, D.C. on charges of terrorism, a friend of mine called. ”I thought it was you,” she joked. But the case of Amine El khalifi is no joke. It profoundly rattled the Moroccan community in the D.C. area. Many feel an unwarranted haze of suspicion floating over their heads now. They look over their shoulders. They fear the community will be singled out in intrusive federal probes, stereotyped by local businesses, and harassed by local law enforcement.

Morocco: The New Court Jester

AHMED TAIBI

01/25/12

Before he uttered a word, Mr. Abdelilah Benkirane, the new Moroccan Prime Minister, was made to understand he will be challenged. As he stood before the lectern to address Morocco’s bicameral Parliament, parliamentarian women stood up holding printed slogans expressing their indignation at the trifling representation of women in his new government and chanting their intention to be no milquetoast opposition. Outside the parliament, another group of women demonstrated; their voices squawked through loudspeakers to deplore the regression of the status of women. Mr. Benkirane was hardly nonplussed as if he expected such an outburst.

2011: The Year That Was

AHMED TAIBI

12/31/11

Washington / Morocco Board News--     2011 will be remembered as the year a young Arab generation leaders, intellectuals, and parents thought to be politically vain, unengaged, timorous, convulsed and toppled three dictators and caused others to reassess their positions, make concessions, and reform their ways. So many died for intangible ideals such as freedom, social justice and equity, democracy. Others wanted nothing more than an honest job, a decent living, a dignified existence. Many hold Mohmmed Bouazizi’s self-immolation as the catalyst of the revolution that spread like wild fire.  Somehow his demise pinched a nerve many believed neuroparalytic.

Morocco’s Museum Of Things I Can’t Afford

AHMED TAIBI

12/22/11

Casablanca / Morocco Board News-- As I sat in Fanajeen, Aasmaa, Akhannouch’s café, contemplating a map of Morocco amputated of its southern provinces in a Morocco Mall brochure while sipping from my 30 dirhams cup of coffee, I couldn’t help thinking Salwa Idrisi Akhannouch, the queen of retail franchising in Morocco and CEO of Aksal Group, must have sensed Moroccans’ bubbling need for a new shopping and entertainment experience.

Morocco: You Supply The Vote, We The Results

AHMED TAIBI

11/28/11

Washington / Morocco Board News -  Surveying the Moroccan media’s coverage of today’s election, I got the impression the political parties are locked in a vicious, but healthy fight for power. I have intently read, listened, and watched as the leadership of the thirty political parties vying for a parliamentary majority reveled in exposing their grand vision of Morocco under their governance in newspapers and magazines and on national radio stations and television channels.

Libya: Qaddafi, Return to Sender

AHMED TAIBI

10/22/11

Who is Next?

Washington / Morocco Board News --    And so, it has been proven that the King of Kings of Africa, the Guide of the People was a mere mortal who bled red like the rest of the Libyan people he tortured and executed. For once, his hands were covered in his own blood and not others’. The circumstances of his demise are still unclear. His eighty-vehicle strong convoy was annihilated by strafes of fire from NATO gunships as he was escaping westward from Surt, his hometown and final stronghold.

On Killing U.S. Citizens

AHMED TAIBI

10/13/11

Washington / Morocco Board News -- A few days ago, Charlie Savage wrote an article for the Times reporting on a sub-rosa 50-page U.S. legal memorandum drafted in 2010 justifying the execution of a U.S. citizen without a trial.David Barron and Martin Lederman, the drafters of the memo and both decisive lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel then, posit that the killing of a U.S. citizen that has never been found guilty by a court of law is compatible with the character of the Constitution if the individual constitutes an eminent lethal threat to innocent Americans and the conditions for his arrest are prohibitive.

Morocco: Murder of an Underage Servant

AHMED TAIBI

09/28/11

Washington / Morocco Board News - -  For an hour, in the sanctum of an apartment in El Jadida, the maid was beaten with the hose of a gas cylinder. Her screams and supplications brought her aggressor, the daughter of her employer who “borrowed” her to help around the house, to a frothing rage; she repeatedly struck her over the head and face with the heel of a shoe until she collapsed on the floor she had so thoroughly scrubbed lifeless.