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Economy

News Roundup: Israel attends anti-terrorism conference in Morocco; Polisario under Greatest Diplomatic Isolation;Morocco to Lose Tourists Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

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Photo credit: The Times of Israel

March 9th, 2020

Three stories you need to read today. Compiled and broken down for you by Reporting Morocco student journalists — every day. Brought to you from the School for International Training’s journalism program, Rabat.

In further sign of detente, Israel attends anti-terrorism conference in Morocco

Sources: The Times of Israel

Lede: In yet another indication of warming ties between Jerusalem and some Arab countries, an Israeli official this week actively participated in an anti-terrorism conference in Morocco.

Key background: In a joint statement released Thursday, participating countries and organizations acknowledged “the ever-changing threat posed by al-Qa’ida” and listed several principles to help promote “collective cooperation by participants to employ a comprehensive approach against the ever-changing and evolving al-Qa’ida threat.”

Why is this newsworthy: The story offers an interesting follow-up to the Trump proposed Morocco-Israel trade-off.

Out in the Cold: Development Transforms Moroccan City But Doesn’t Address Most Difficult Problems

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This article was published in U.S. News and World Report. Find it here: “Out in the Cold”

By Olivia Fore

RABAT, MOROCCO – AT night under the orange light of new street lamps, residents stroll along the Bouregreg River. Vendors sell toys and kites; children ride miniature cars on the pavement and musicians entertain a friendly audience.

A new Grand Theater, still under construction, looms in the shadows. A new bridge extends tram service to commuters from the city of Salé, across the river.

The five-year “Rabat City of Lights” program launched in 2014 aims to put Morocco‘s administrative capital on equal footing with other major world cities by “promoting its cultural heritage, preserving green space, improving the economy, access to social services, governance and road infrastructure,” according to the country’s Ministry of Culture and Communication.

Three Generations Find Pride and Opportunity in Family Leather Business

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by Emily Vega

RABAT, Morocco – Ayoub El Khalifi stands against a wall covered in his family’s handmade traditional leather goods. He wears a black felt fedora hat. Every square inch behind him displays polished and hand crafted leather bags, cushions, belts and more. As customers explore the store, the smell of tanned leather follows them. Hanging from the ceilings and lining the walls, hundreds of designs are displayed.

This traditional craft has provided the El Khalifi family with an escape from a troubled region and livelihood in a country where many young people struggle to find jobs.

Another shore: Morocco’s child migrants

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by ZOE HU; photos by ELOISE SCHIEFERDECKER

This article was published in Al Jazeera on Jan. 30, 2015. Read it HERE.

Tangier, Morocco – Saber first decided that he wanted to live in Spain when he was 10 years old. Hoping for a better life on another shore, he began to think of migration and of leaving his family behind in Morocco.

Now 13, rosy-cheeked and rustling in a thin yellow windbreaker, he stands with his friends at a stone lookout nestled high in Tangier’s medina, watching the sprawling ferry port across the street.

Morocco’s young entrepreneurs face barriers

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by HANNAH NORMAN

This article was published Al Jazeera on Dec. 27, 2014 . Read it HERE.

Morocco – Ali Aaouine had no job but one big dream; to start a rental car company in this town near the historic city of Fez.

In 2011, the 30-year-old joined a US-supported government programme called Moukawalati or “My Small Business”. This initiative was designed to help young Moroccans write business plans and get low interest loans.

Despite completing the programme and receiving a certificate, Aaouine couldn’t get a loan because of a lack of credit and assets.

Café El-Griny

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By Lauren Kopchik

Photographs by Rachel Woolf

RABAT, Morocco — On a lazy Sunday afternoon, El-Ayadi El-Griny sits in a dimly lit garage watching the people of Rabat stroll along Lalou Avenue. They walk past hole-in-the-wall shops like his that surround the old medina marketplace, with its narrow streets and close-knit neighborhoods, without casting a second glance.

El-Griny, 39, makes a comfortable seat using plastic bags filled with the only product he sells: wool. It surrounds him, with overstuffed bags filling the corners of his shop and excess white and blue fabric spilling onto the floor.  

For African refugees in Morocco, a perilous path to asylum

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By JACOB AXELRAD

This story was published in The Christian Science Monitor on November 30, 2013.

On the main drag in Oujda, a border city that most Moroccans have never visited, a neon sign hanging from a balcony reads “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas.”

But for thousands of migrants who wash up here, life is anything but fabulous. One of them, a Ghanian who calls himself Afro, sits in a restaurant called Mr. Smith, under the neon sign. Sipping water, he talks about life as an undocumented migrant in Morocco.

Sugarcane and Conversation

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By AMULYA SHANKAR

A sugarcane juice stall can be an oasis in a bustling market, and there are a myriad of vendors peddling freshly pressed sugarcane juice to weary shoppers looking for a cool drink and a rush of energy in Rabat’s medina. Hassan is one such vendor, combining the distinctive sweetness of sugarcane with a hint of lemon and a pinch of salt for five dirhams a glass.

“It’s cheap, and everyone loves it. Sugarcane is easy to sell,” he says. Hassan’s stall, resting in the shade amidst various shops selling everything from shoes to snails, is marked by a large bundle of green sugarcane stalks, ready to be fed into the pressing machine to be made into juice.

Fruit: An Unlikely Economic Indicator

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By MADELEINE THOMPSON

In Morocco, it is fruit that distinguishes a big-budget wedding from a more modest one. Bananas from Cuba, three kinds of apples from France, mangoes from South America and pineapples from Hawaii are paraded around under gauzy tents — nothing from inside the country.

For 35,000 dirham (4,170.07 US dollars) Brahim Hafalat’s traiteur company will plan, decorate and supervise a wedding or party for 100 people that pulls out all the stops. “You start with … the tables, the servers, the napkins,” Hafalat said. “Then you have the appetizers — pistachios, mineral water.

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