We’ve translated this article from Sefrou.org from the original French for those of you who don’t read anything but English.

The Sefrou Cherry Queen elected this year to the 90th edition of the Cherry Festival is Sefrou Lubna Al-Bakri, the representative of the city of Marrakech. She was crowned on Friday alongside Sara Bahar and Bouchra Dou dauphine representatives respectively of Rabat and Casablanca and Jihane Al Ismaili and Noor Huda Boujr, married local Amazigh representatives of Meknes and Immouzzer.

Results strongly contested by Sefriouis claiming that the Cherry Queen should be from Sefrou as has been customary since the launch of the festival 90 years ago.

Nearly 22 local associations also threatened to stage a sit-in protest today on these results and also for having been excluded from the organization of a festival they regard as the heritage of the province of Sefrou. “The choice has been done very professionally, based on criteria including beauty, general culture and elegance. This was done transparently by the Jury members who account associative operators, local officials and media representatives, “says Ouafae Khaber, the commission official Cherry Queen in response to challenges to certain players association. But these divergences haven’t spoilt the 90th Festival of Cherry Sefrou and it remains a festive time with different cultural aspects, sustainable development, arts and sports.

The program for this event, this year entitled “The icing on the cake of development” was also punctuated by lectures, given by national and international stakeholders, including on the cherry and its medicinal properties, exhibitions of local produce (cherry, endive, honey, olive oil …), display of regional crafts, cultural evenings of poetry, history, homage Screening of a documentary on the ancient history Sefrou and exposure to Sefrou’s unique heritage.

This year the festival had the participation of countries such as Turkey, Spain, France and Jordan.

The highlight of the festival remains, the election and the inauguration of the official Cherry Queen with a parade of Cherry Queen, thematic carts, marching bands, torchlight. The idea Jamal Tazi, president of the association Sefrou Event, organizer with the provincial council of the festival is to not only this event, an enjoyable, festive, but convert it into a real engine of development city.The festival has happened since 1920.

It is considered the oldest popular festival in Morocco. Its just different and human nature makes it a locomotive for the development of the city. “If it is still there today, thanks to the tenacity and commitment of many volunteers, all committed to the unique spirit, friendly and bold this event. Today the festival has new look, “says Jamal Tazi. For him, the priority is to create, through this type of event, a socio-cultural, artistic event likely to give impetus to development throughout the province. Better yet, the organizers of the festival have the ambition of cherries on the list of intangible cultural heritage of UNESCO.

Maâzouz Abdellatif, chairman of the council said at a press conference a few days ago in Fez, that the Cherry Festival in Sefrou is part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Morocco. Morocco ratified an agreement to safeguard that with UNESCO in 2006. For him, the Festival of Sefrou has many features to become an “intangible cultural heritage”.

Benchmarks
• Event: 90th Festival of Cherry
• Date: 17-20 June 2010
• Location: Sefrou, Morocco
• Targets: 400 000-500 000 visitors every CSP confused mainly Moroccan
• Owner: Municipality of Sefrou
• Owner representative: Event & Hab Sefrou lamlouk
• Sales: 2,000,000 DH Festival’s budget

A 2 million DH budget was devoted to the 90th edition of the Cherry Festival, 2010. Besides the support of City Council, the association has the support of sponsors for this successful edition, which marks the return of one of the oldest events in Morocco, which dates from 1920.

By Rachida Bami

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Maghreb Blog

A forum devoted to current political, economic trends, and news of the Maghreb region.

This is a great intellectual blog filled with informed and thoughtful posts about the region of North Africa.

Check out this recent post on Morocco’s Western Sahara region.

Morocco and the Polisario Front will resume informal talks about the Sahara next week in Westchester County, north of New York City. On the table is Morocco’s plan for Sahrawi autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty. The plan has US, France and Spain’s support so far, but the Polisario and its benefactor Algeria have rejected the plan as a mere Moroccan attempt to tighten its de facto control of the territory. The talks between the two parties (some say three parties including Algeria) to work on confidence-building measures have led nowhere over the last three years, so it is likely the current round of talks will yield no results either.

In an earlier comment, I was critical of the application of the self-determination concept in the Western Sahara, notably its neglect for Morocco’s historical ties to the territory. The historical past of the Western Sahara consisted of the colonial intrusion in North Africa and its indelible marks on culture, the people and the politics of the region. In fact, I argued that the United Nations application of self-determination in the Saharan territory completely ignored the colonial powers’ process of re-drawing the borders of the region and how that affected identity of the local population. Furthermore, colonial powers brought both Bled el Makhzen and Bled es Siba together as one unit within a state much like European states, therefore, diluting the historical political system that existed prior to the colonial invasion.

In addition to identity and historical factors, the conflict involves regional and international dimensions. Past non-interventionary strategies followed by major international powers and lack of international urgency of the issue contributed to prolonging of the conflict. Only targeted pressure and active diplomatic engagement from the United States, France or the European community as a block can provide a window of hope in the resolution of the dispute, and a much needed relief to the plight of the thousands of Sahrawis in the camps of Tindouf.

Regional issues also hampered any resolution of the conflict. The nature of inter-Maghrebi politics, especially, the rivalry between Morocco and Algeria, fueled the conflict and exacerbated the situation in the territory. Domestic issues have further fomented this rivalry namely the role of the military in Algeria, its hard line strategy vis-à-vis the conflict in the Western Sahara, and the intransigency of the Moroccan government backed by public opinion and a staunch mass support for the “Moroccanity” of the Western Sahara and the territorial integrity of Morocco.

For the last 35 years, the Maghreb has been plagued with the conflict in the Western Sahara, which greatly stalled any prospects of regional integration and cooperation necessary to face the challenges of the rapidly globalizing world. As the de facto ruler of the Western Sahara, Morocco has looked into the long-term benefits of reaching a compromise with Algeria over the Western Sahara. It has provided a serious plan for resolution of the conflict. Alas, Algeria’s military and its political obsession with its larger geo-political ambitions in the region have hindered any attempt at a meaningful consideration of the Moroccan plan.

If the plan is not to their liking, which is obviously the case, then it is incumbent upon Algeria and the Polisario to step up to the plate and propose a non-obstructionist, realistic alternative. The blind rejectionism of anything Moroccan will only lead to maintaining the current status-quo largely in favor of Morocco at this point. Any meaningful compromise between Morocco and Algeria is beneficial, not only to the two countries, but also to the other three countries in the Maghreb region, as it could be a tremendous step towards full economic and political integration.

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Maghreb Politics Review

Maghreb and Sahel Affairs

If you are tired of reading about renovating riads, Moroccan food, and what’s happening with expats, have a look at Maghrb Politics Review.

It’s a hard hitting analysis of what is happening on the political front in Morocco and Sahel.

Here’s a recent post that provides a great example:

The Saharan Al Qaeda – Cocaine has finally hit the North American domestic news with the much trumpeted arrest by United States agents of three Malians who they allege “the direct link between dangerous terrorist organizations, including Al Qaeda, and international drug trafficking that fuels their violent activities”.

I have a feeling we’ll be repeatedly discussing these arrests in the future. But at first blush these men are likely not involved in the large scale West African drug trade that has recently been in the papers, nor are they any part of any recognized AQIM groups connected to Algerian militants scattered in the Malian Sahara.

Admittedly we have very little to go on at the moment. Three Malian men, said to be in their mid 30s, were arrested by the US in Ghana, and flown to New York. Here they were disposed before a judge on drug smuggling and terrorism charges. We have the New York Times and wire articles, based entirely on the press release and a copy of the actual deposition provided by the US government. I await the reaction of the Malian press especially.

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We like to see everything that is going on in the Morocco Blogosphere and we figured maybe you do too…so we’ve created a page where you can see everything that is going on with your favorite blogs at the same time.

http://moroccoblogs.com/morocco-news/

We know, you’ll never remember the address, well you don’t have to. Just come to MoroccoBlogs.com and click on Morocco News on the top of the page and you will get the latest from all over Morocco….and all in one place. Updated constantly so you won’t miss anything.

Enjoy.

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We are constantly looking for the best blogs in Morocco, in any language. That’s why we will now be bringing you the best Morocco blogs that we can find in French and Arabic too. Our first non-English blog is a fine example of why you should use that google ‘translate this page’ button.

J’écris parce que je chante mal ( I write because I sing badly)

This is a blog about society, criticism and philosophy. It’s a place where Nawfal Chana shares his feelings, sadness, bad and good experiences, and everything else he wants.

Nawfal Chana wrote this as a description of his blog:

(French)

Bienvenu dans mon blog qui traite un peux de tout, beaucoup de rien, humeur de jour, lecons, réflections, quéstions, doutes, hypothèses, spiritualites, joies, peines,amour, colère, coup de Coeur, coup de gueule, hier, demain, aujourd’hui..Histoire, culture…Passé, future et présent…et toute turpitudes de mon âme distillés au fil de mes écrits.

(English)

Welcome to my blog. It deals with a lot of things, nothing much, mood of the day, lessons, reflections, questions, doubts, hypotheses, spirituality, joys, sorrows… Love, anger, affairs of the heart, affairs of the emotion, yesterday tomorrow, today… history and culture … past, future and present … and all my soul’s turpitude distilled through my writings.

Here is a sample post the lead in post from this well written blog:
(French)

Nowbi ne guérit pas le cancer, n’a pas de recette pour maigrir sans régime, n’a pas la solution aux conflits du Moyen-Orient. Vous n’apprendrez pas ici comment marcher sur l’eau, ni comment éviter les péages ou comment tromper l’ennui. Il n’a pas la prétention de faire de ses lecteurs de brillants citoyens, n’a toujours pas appris à cuisiner, ne sait pas de quoi demain sera fait, pas même aujourd’hui, ne prétend pas pouvoir en finir avec la pauvreté en Afrique, il n’a même pas réussi à en finir avec ses études. Par contre, il trouve que cela peut être utile de vivre avec un peu d’humour, beaucoup de coeur et de laisser le dernier mot à la raison. Si ce que j’écris vous plait, n’hésitez pas à me contacter. De même, si vous ne m’aimez pas du tout, si vous avez des remarques, des critiques, n’hésitez pas à les gardez pour vous. Si vous écrivez en SMS, mettez « SMS » dans le sujet de votre mail, ça sera plus facile pour moi de le supprimer. Nowbi, un blog réputé pour sa réputation qui offre un regard masculin et au singulier sur ce qui l’entoure. Des textes qui se veulent parfois prétentieux, vicieux, pessimistes, ridicules, impertinents, hypocrites, lâches et laids; tout comme vous. Un blog qui vous rassemble et vous ressemblez. Pour avoir la force de faire face à ce que nous sommes, parce qu’un jour il faudra apprendre à se respecter. Bonjour chez vous, Nawfel, d’en face. De l’autre coté du miroir

(English)

Nowbi is not a cure of cancer, has no recipe for weight loss without dieting, it’s not the solution to conflicts in the Middle East. You will not learn how to walk on water here, nor how to avoid tolls or how to alleviate your boredom. It is not intended to make readers of brilliant people, has still not learned to cook, does not know what tomorrow will bring, not even today, does not claim power to end poverty in Africa, it has not even managed to end of mystudies. By contrast, you might find that it may be helpful to live with a little humor, a lot of heart and leave the last word to the reason. If what I write pleases you do not hesitate to contact me. Similarly, if you do not love me at all, if you have any comments, criticisms, please keep them to yourself. If you write in ”SMS”, highlight ”SMS” in the subject of your mail, it will be easier for me to delete it. Nowbi is a blog known for its reputation, both masculine and alone. Texts which are intended sometimes pretentious, vicious, pessimistic, ridiculous, irrelevant, hypocritical, cowardly, ugly, just like you. A blog that brings you together and that you look like. We must have the strength to face what we are, because one day we will learn respect. Hello to you, Nawfel, opposite. On the other side of the mirror.

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WHile not updated very often, when there is a new post at Ghasouba, you might want to know about it. One thing for certain, the blog has a fantastic header image.

http://ghasbouba.blogspot.com/

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Morocco Times is essentially a list of up to date news in English Language for Morocco. Sure, we know, we prefer to know the individuals that write the blogs, but it’s nice to be able to check out the news too.

Morocco Times Blog

For instance, where else would you find a letter from the Freedom of the Press Committee to HM King Mohammad VI?

Your Majesty:

Along with a great number of other human rights organizations and freedom of the press advocates, we of the Overseas Press Club of America are dismayed to see the escalating efforts of your government to suppress and intimidate the Moroccan press. These efforts are particularly disappointing since Morocco has been seen as a country where there was some space for freedom of expression.

In the last three weeks, we have been reminded of the growing suppression of the press in Morocco in at least three cases:

-The editor of Al Michaal, Driss Chahtan, was sentenced to a year in jail for publishing information about Your Majesty’s health and immediately started to serve his sentence. Two of his editors were sentenced to three months imprisonment but are for the moment free.

-Ali Anouzla, editor of Al Jarida Al Oula, was sentenced to a year in jail for publishing information about Your Majesty’s health. His sentence was suspended. Another journalist on the same paper received a three-month suspended sentence.

-Publisher, Taoufik Bouachrine, and cartoonist, Khalid Gueddar of Akhbar al Youm received deferred three- year sentences because the daily published a cartoon about the wedding of a relative of Your Majesty.

In addition to these recent efforts to suppress the free press, Your Majesty’s government has banned issues of foreign newspapers, destroyed issues of a Moroccan magazine, and blockaded the offices of another Moroccan publication. These actions were usually undertaken without a clear legal basis or proper court orders.

A common factor in most of these cases is that journalists dared to raise questions about Your Majesty’s health. Is that really a justification for accusing the journalists of “criminal defamation”?

Freedom of the press, which we believe Your Majesty’s government has endorsed, means in particular, the freedom to question those in power. Without that freedom, then the people cannot know what their rulers are doing. Freedom of expression is a fundamental right which, until lately, seemed to be gaining ground in Morocco. We urge Your Majesty to allow Moroccan journalists to report freely, even if what they say displeases you.

Respectfully yours,

Jeremy Main Kevin McDermott
Co-chairmen, Freedom of the Press Committee

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