Despite turmoil in the region, tourism in Morocco still thrives The tourism industry in Morocco is still successful despite the turmoil in the region since 2011, Masralarabia.com reported on Friday. More than 10 million tourists visit the country every year, with Morocco being the least affected by the ongoing geopolitical changes in the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region. Moroccan Tourism Minister Mohamed Sajid expects a 5.5 per cent increase in the number of tourists visiting his country this year. That translates into 10.9 million people. The minister revealed earlier this…
Category: opinion
Hope for the Future: The New Silk Road (Dr. Ahmed Al-Kedidi)
Certain important events this week brought joy to me personally, because they confirmed for me that I was right in taking the decision, three decades ago, to join in the project to change the evils of the unjust trans-Atlantic world order, and replace it with a new and just world order established on the foundations of cooperation and inclusion of all nations in development, and achieving lasting peace on the basis of connecting nations and continents through railway networks, bridges, and tunnels, and facilitating the movement of people, goods, and…
Macron is bad news for Britain’s borders
The Treaty of Le Touquet gives the French president major leverage in Brexit talks. French President Emmanuel Macron’s victory in France was greeted across Europe with an audible sigh of relief, and now many across the Continent are watching eagerly to see if he can carry out the reforms he promised on the campaign trail. In the U.K., however, the outlook is at best mixed. On the one hand, there’s the sense of a bullet dodged with the defeat of Macron’s far-right opponent Marine Le Pen. On the other, there’s the fact that…
Coral smuggling degrades environment, economy
Due to their brilliant composition, design, and strategic locations, coral reefs serve superbly as natural shock absorbers from the relentless force of the sea. By absorbing energy from gentle or powerful waves, coral reefs protect beaches from erosion, preventing water from easily cutting into mounds of sand that lay far beneath the bare feet of beach-goers above them. Without this bulwark of coral, precious beach would degrade and collapse. Little made by man can replace this natural wonder. Although coral reefs comprise less than .01 percent of ocean life and…
Scholarships Prepare New Leaders in Tunisia
The success of Tunisia’s new constitutional democracy depends on the involvement of young people. In 2016, 38 percent of the Tunisian population was under the age of 25. But young people have not yet begun to take an active part in their country’s development in this new era. How can we encourage them to do so? Youth unemployment in Tunisia is at 30 percent, reaching 55 percent in some regions, and 60 percent among youth with higher education degrees, according to the OECD. Meanwhile, Tunisian youth are reluctant to engage…
Quality of life on rise for many Africans, report says
Africans are seeing a steady improvement in the quality of their lives, with some countries even nearing world averages, says a wide-ranging report out Monday on the continent’s future. While large portions of the continent’s 1.2 billion people live in poverty, many of Africa’s 54 nations have made significant progress in health, education and standard of living. “At least a third of African countries have now achieved medium to high levels of human development,” said the report published by the African Development Bank, referring to a composite measure of a…
Tunisia’s “Reconciliation Bill” threat to Revolution gains (Manach Msamhin” Association)
The controversy is growing in the latest few days on the ”Manach Msamhin” Association (we do not forgive), as regards the Tunisian Reconciliation Bill which according to them puts the gains of the Revolution at stake by giving to Ben Ali-era businessmen and officials the opportunity to join the economic and political life with entrenched impunity. For the first time l heard one of the association members speaking on the Tunisian TV channel, I deeply realized that we are facing a new conscious generation willing to do anything peacefully in…
Tunisia faces toxic landfill disaster – and no one is stopping the rot
Borj Chakir landfill has become a symbol of Tunisia’s waste crisis, as government struggles amid funding cuts and vested interests Borj Chakir, Tunisia – Ridha Trabelsi looks out over his village of Borj Chakir, a settlement on the outskirts of Tunis once renowned for its olive groves, and considers how things have changed. The crops are gone, subsumed by one of the country’s largest landfills and its mountain of rotting waste that grows every day. A stench hangs heavy over the village, the result of 2,500 tonnes of rubbish brought from…
Study reveals pay disparities between men and women
Income and education disparities between men and women are still conspicuous in Kenya even as the country makes gains in human development. The UNDP 2016 report Human Development for Everyone shows that the country has registered an annual average human development index growth of 0.64 per cent from 1990 to 2015. The progressive gain has seen Kenya climb from position 147 in 2014 to 146 in 2015, though the country remains at near bottom, only above Pakistan in the Medium Human Development group. Norway, Australia, Switzerland, Germany and Denmark occupy…
Youth in Tunisia find a way out of violence with tech
For young people, the power to choose a path away from violence can come from digital tech Students from deprived suburb in Tunisia use mapping tool to influence planning decisions Peace tech must be driven by young people and be embedded in their local realities Mapping project shows the most effective peace tech is driven by young people themselves, says Harriet Lamb. “Here we have drug problems, we have terrorism, but we want young people to change their minds — and to change people’s lives.” This is what an enthusiastic…