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Facebook and Twitter, the latest Web 2.0 tools to captivate Moroccans, are winning new users among everyone from chatty teens to dedicated cyberactiv ists.

The growing popularity of the two tools indicates that Morocco' s Web users, who now number 9 million, are moving beyond blogging to share informatio n with each other and the world.

Facebook is witnessing intense activity, with 840,000 subscriber s in Morocco. Many of these are young people posting photos and writing back and forth with their friends.

"This network has become an electronic mouthpiece for cyberactiv ists to speak out in defence of the freedom of expression online and in the media in Morocco, " said Sami Ben Gharbia, who manages the advocacy component of internatio nal blogging network Global Voices Online.

Morocco is also home to the very first person in the world to be convicted for using Facebook: young engineer&n bsp; F ouad Mourtada, In 2008, he was sentenced to three years in prison for posing as Prince Moulay Rachid. Web users mounted a worldwide campaign to win his release. After spending 42 days in jail, Mourtada received a pardon from King Mohammed VI.

Facebook has also generated interest at home and abroad via its "Official Moroccan Group", which now has over 2,600 members. The group's bilingual Arabic/Eng lish page features basic facts about the country, well-traff icked discussion boards, and related videos and pictures.

Digital diplomats are also harnessing Facebook's opportunit ies. The European Union delegation to Rabat, for example, has been using a dedicated Facebook page to communicat e with the Moroccan media and other local audiences. The US Embassy in Rabat and USAID in Morocco also set up pages.

"The aim of this digital presence on the social networks is to keep Facebook members up to date on the news and activities of the embassy in Morocco, " said Ghassane Hajji, the embassy's social media officer.

The micro-blog ging site Twitter is also piping up to gain a share of Moroccan fans. This social networking tool allows its users to send 140-charac ter messages (or “tweets”) to a list of friends. It can be accessed from a computer and/or mobile phone, making it easy to bombard people with mass updates.

"At the moment, the Moroccan community, nicknamed Twittoma, is very select," said Siham El Moudden, a member of Morocco' s micro-blog ging community. "It’s still in its infancy."

Neverthele ss, Twittoma includes Ahmed Reda Chami, the minister for industry and informatio n technology , who recently started "tweeting" about his work to pass legislatio n to protect personal data and his plan to roll out broadband internet service.

Other political figures are joining the chorus of tweets. "The use of Twitter is an extension of the detailed posts published on my blog. It’s also an effective way of alerting Web users to events that could otherwise go unnoticed, " MP Khalid El Hariry said.

Politician s are not the only ones tweeting, however. Many young people are beginning to use Twitter to communicat e about new technologi es and internet trends.

One measure of Twittoma's popularity is evident simply from typing the keyword "Morocco" into the search engine http://sea rch.twitter .com. The search returns threads from the top 100 users in Morocco online at http://min yurl.net/tw itt_maroc .

With over 250 million Facebook members worldwide, and with Twitter claiming over 3 million users, it's clear that Moroccans are tapping into a global trend. What happens next is up to Moroccans themselves , as they innovate and modify their own communicat ion.

 By Rachid JBy Rachid Jankari for Magharebia in Casablanca – 09-24-09

Le voyage est souvent synonyme de plaisir sauf s'il commence par ou s'achève à l'aéroport Mohammed V de Casablanca . Il se transforme en cauchemar !

Les ennuis commencent dès l'arrivée. Pour certains, les barrières s'ouvrent pour un accès directe vers les aérogares. Les autres doivent passer par la case parking. Ne rêver pas de trouver un chariot libre! Ils sont tous confisqués par des porteurs !

Pour accéder à l'intérieu r, ça change constammen t ! Une et exceptionn ellement deux portes d'entrée sont ouvertes. Les policiers filtrent les voyageurs un par un. Je me pose la question à quoi sert de gaspiller des millions sur des portes automatiqu es qui ne sont pas utilisées !

L'enregi strement se déroule sans trop de difficulté s. La queue semble interminab le. Le service est lent.

Le parcours du combattant se poursuit ! Muni se son passeport et sa carte d'embarque ment, et après le contrôle de la police et de la douane, il faut passer par les services de contrôle des frontières ! et là surprise ! comptez entre 5 et 7 mn par passager. Le policier téléphone, rigole avec son voisin ... vérifie les informatio ns ... Sourit ... Il semble ignorer les personnes âgées, les femmes enceintes, les enfants en bas âge qui constituen t la queue ! la police est hors temps !


Puis, nouvel contrôle de la police et ouf !!! Nous voici dans la salle d'embarque ment ... un solarium !!! Joli le soleil ! Il sert semble-t-i l pour produire de l'électric ité pour réduire la consommati on de la climatisat ion de l'aérogare ! Conçue pour un climat du nord !

Une fois à l'intérieu r, ne faut pas chercher une mosquée pour prier ! L’architec te ayant conçu l'aérogare du terminal 2 ne l'a pas prévu dans ses plans !

Au retour, la queue au contrôle des frontières est interminab le et les douanes guettent tout voyageur fatigué ! Une heure, deux ... le temps découle lentement !
Puis, un conseil, ne posez aucune question aux agents de l'ONDA ! Ils sont dégoûtés et dégoûtants , ils font l'apparat avec leur beaux costumes et belles cravates ! Mais ne rendent aucun service ! C’est loin des bonnes déclaratio ns de la charte d'éthique !

Pour résumer, pour voyager, soyez patient et pour 3 h de vol, préparez vous à passer 3 h au sol au départ et 2 au retour dans un aéroport dont les services semblent être certifiés ISO 9001 !

Publié par Mohamed El Kortbi

ESSAOUIRA, MOROCCO – For centuries, the Berber people of south-west Morocco have used oil from a tree endemic to the region as a staple food and in traditiona l medicines.

In recent years, there’s been increasing demand for oil from the argan tree in Western countries, where it’s used by gourmet chefs, and by cosmetic companies which claim it has antiaging and restorativ e properties . Now the Moroccan government is hoping to triple production of argan oil by 2020, from the current level of around 100 tons a year.

I t’s hoped that poor rural women in particular would benefit from expansion of the argan oil industry in an arid region with few industries and employment prospects. The trouble is, the slow-growi ng argan tree is already listed as an endangered species, presenting scientists with a huge challenge to avert over-explo itation.

Argan oil comes from the two to three kernels found inside the pit of the oval-shape d green fruit of the tree. Traditiona lly, it is women who crack the pit, lightly roast the kernels, then pound and knead the resulting paste to extract the oil.

Us ing traditiona l methods, 2 pints of oil requires about 220 lbs. of fruit, and up to about 20 hours of work in one of about 25 women’s cooperativ es set up in the region since 1996. Some of the co-ops have introduced a degree of mechanizat ion that reduces the amount of manual labor required.

Others, however, such as the Marjana Cooperativ e near the Atlantic coastal city of Essaouira, prefer to maintain traditiona l methods to maximize employment . As the Marjana Co-op’s production rose from 1.5 tons in 2006 to 3.4 tons last year, the number of women employed full time almost doubled to nearly 50 workers.

For many women, it is their first paid job, and they can earn up to about $280 a month – a good sum in a region where many people live below the poverty line.

T he Marjana Co-op, which was set up by a parents’ organizati on so that the women could work while their children are at school, also provides basic literacy and numeracy classes between shifts to those who need it.

“It is important that those of us who have had a good education help the other women in this way,” says sales assistant Ghizlane Zakkar, who studied for four years for a law degree, but can’t find work as a lawyer. Raising literacy levels is also seen as an important part of spreading the message among the Berber women about preserving argan trees for future generation s, Ms. Zakkar says.

I n 1998, UNESCO declared almost 10,000 square miles of southwest Morocco, including the whole argan-grow ing region, to be a special “biosphere reserve.”

Besides the argan tree’s various human uses, UNESCO noted, it also acted as a buffer against northern expansion of the Sahara Desert – a role that remains just as critical today.

  By Lindsey Arkley