Questions

Level 1- What country was Morocco under power from?

Level 2- Why does Morocco have the languages it does?

Level 3- Why do you think Becoming independent was important for Morocco?

Curent Event 2

Western Sahara: Morocco threat over UN peacekeepers

Fact/opinion
Moroco is planning to pull all of their soldiers out of a UN peacekeeper mission over disputed territory.  This threat to pull the soldiers isn't really nessesary in my opinion.

Fact/opinion
Almost 1 million Moroccans protested in morocco. This shows that the people of Moroco think this is a big deal, and they feel the need to protest in order to get their way.

Fact/opion
Moroco is doing this because the UN Secretary, General Ban Ki-moon said"occupation" about the territory that Morocco Annexed. I think all of these prostestes and news around just words is a little over the top.

Causes
General Ban Ki-moon used the word "occupation" when talking about this disputed land but Moroco is very angry because they annexed the land in 1975. Mr. Ban said this when in southern Algeria, home of  160,000 ethnic Sahrawis live.

Perspectives

General Ban Ki-moon- He seems to belive Morocoo is not in control of this land which is why the Moroccan people are so upset at him. In his opinion, this territory is still up for grabs.

Moroccan Government- The government is clearly upset with Mr. Ban for what he said and plan to get some pay back by pulling troops.


Programs
The UN is the organization, but instead of preventing issues, they are causing this one.

Global/National/Local
Global- the story doesn't go into depth in what other countries outside Morocco think about this issue.

National- The article explains how mad morocco is at Mr. Ban. He just said his opinion and the whole country broke out into anger and the government threatened to pull their troops.

Local- The people of morocco are obviously very upset with this as many of them are protesting in anger.

Global/national/Local
Global- I don't think the rest of the world is very aware or upset with this dispute going on.

National- I think the Moroccan government has every right to be mad as they have annexed this land so being told they don't own it should upset the country.

Local- I can see why this could make people mad, if their government is wanting to take such actions, they are probably a little concerned at what is really going on.

Think Globally, Act Locally
If I wanted to take action and make a change on this issue I could talk to people I know to make people more aware of this news.

Vocab

1. annexed - To add to your territory.

2. withdrawing- To remove or take away.

3. occupation- To be present.




CE link

current event 1

Morocco Current Event.

Fact/Opinion-  The Moroccan government convicted one man of homosexual acts on March 9, 2016. It is hard to believe country's still run their citizens lives like this in todays society.

This man was also beat on video by a few citizens, this video was leaked on march 25th. These men are also in legal trouble for entering a private house but the punishment is not harsh enough in my opinion.

The Moroccan government do enforce anti-homosexual laws even though the event took place in private. I believe people should be able to do what they choose to especially in their own house.


Causes- The reason why this story was even known about was because one of the attackers filmed the victim getting beat and that got on to the internet. But the real root of this issue is just the way of the past in this country because people look down on homosexuals. If that inequality didn't exist this probably could have been avoided.

Perspectives-  Moroccan Government- Although the men who beat the victims are getting punished, the government is against homosexuals too. I don't know how strongly they do feel about this issue but it doesn't seem like they treat it lightly.

Human Rights Watch- This group want the charges to be dropped but they where unsuccessful. As the name of this group states, they are on the sides of human rights.

Programs- The organization listed in the article, Human Rights Watch, is one trying to help with human rights issues by getting involved with the government in this case.

GNL
Global-There are many different views on this subject and the article doesn't go into great depth on other places opinion.
National- The government in Morocco is clearly for punishing gays even if homosexual acts are done in private.
Local- It appears that most citizens agree with the government based on how big of a deal this seems to be.

GNL
Global- I believe the world is slowly changing to being able to accept new thing in our society. It defiantly  depends were you are  in the world but in general people are getting with the times.
National-I think the government is against this because it is just apart of the culture and some things take time but eventual I think laws like these will be taken away.
Local-I think the citizens don't agree with homosexuals there just because that's how they were raised by their parents and that's how their parents were raised so it is a new concept to get used to.

Think Globally- This issue is still present in our country so it wouldn't be hard to join groups or just have support for them If you want to help make a difference.

Vocab
Convicted- To be declared guilty by a judge.

Uttered- To make sound with your voice.

Brutalized- To attack in a violent way.

https://onedrive.live.com/edit.aspx/Documents/jack^4s%20Notebook?cid=03655f6bdae62145&id=documents&wd=target%28Quick%20Notes.one%7CD0634A46-C634-4327-8710-4BAD44FB13ED%2FMorocco%3A%20Victims%20of%20Attack%20Jailed%20for%20%E2%80%9CHomosexual%20Acts%E2%80%9D%20%5C%7C%20Human%7C96303DD9-E3CB-4663-BD5F-84B860EA3AED%2F%29 onenote:https://d.docs.live.net/03655f6bdae62145/Documents/jack's%20Notebook/Quick%20Notes.one#Morocco%20Victims%20of%20Attack%20Jailed%20for%20“Homosexual%20Acts”%20|%20Human%20Rights%20Watch&section-id={D0634A46-C634-4327-8710-4BAD44FB13ED}&page-id={96303DD9-E3CB-4663-BD5F-84B860EA3AED}&end

Technology

Moroccan world new said,  Morocco has been ranked 78th in the 2015 Global Information Technology Report. It is the country that has improved the most (up 21 places) over the past year. They also talk about economics and technology advancements are in a direct comparison. In general, the more income the country has, the higher they placed on this list. Another good way to see a country's modernization is internet speeds, Moroccan News shared this information, Research into Internet speeds within countries, conducted by Net Index, positioned Morocco 115th on the scale of Internet download speeds, with an average of 2.84Mbps. Fixed Internet Meditel scored the highest download speed with 6.98 Mbps

The future of technology in Morocco seems to be bright also. Moroccan World News had another article about students interest into technology. They asked students about learning with technology. Are you happy to learn English when your teacher uses the computer in teaching?

I think these results are very promising for Morocco that technology can be used to help educate the youth, which will be the future of the country.

Economics

The Economy of Morocco is based on supply and demand. Its the 5th strongest GDP economy in Africa and is the strongest in north Africa. More then half of the GDP is made from services like mining and manufacturing. Another big piece of Moroccan government is tourism. France and morocco are trade partners and France is Morocco's foreign investor also. Morocco's government does have issues at the moment with petroleum Import prices being very high and they are in a 20 billion dollar dept.

 According to the World Factbook.

Exports - commodities:

clothing and textiles, automobiles, electric components, inorganic chemicals, transistors, crude minerals, fertilizers (including phosphates), petroleum products, citrus fruits, vegetables, fish

Exports - partners:

Spain 22%, France 20.7%, Brazil 4.6%, Italy 4.3% (2014)

Imports:

$37.32 billion (2015 est.)

$46.16 billion (2014 est.)

country comparison to the world: 57

Imports - commodities:

crude petroleum, textile fabric, telecommunications equipment, wheat, gas and electricity, transistors, plastics

Imports - partners:

Spain 13.4%, France 13.3%, China 7.6%, US 7%, Saudi Arabia 5.4%, Germany 5.2%, Italy 5%, Russia 4.3% (2014)

Government

This info is from The World Factbook

conventional long form: Kingdom of Morocco

conventional short form: Morocco

local long form: Al Mamlakah al Maghribiyah

local short form: Al Maghrib

note: the English name "Morocco" derives from, respectively, the Spanish and Portuguese names "Marruecos" and "Marrocos," which stem from "Marrakesh" the Latin name for the former capital of ancient Morocco; the Arabic name "Al Maghrib" translates as "The West"

Government type:

constitutional monarchy

Capital:

name: Rabat

The Constitution was set up in 1962, and it was updated to meet the king, King Mohamed VI, needs. The constitution was made to establish basic civil rights like being able to move anywhere in the country, freedom of expression, and to able to belong to a political group of your choice. The constitution also states that men and woman have the same political rights as each other. Even though the constitution has these rules, they don't always practiced in real life. Morocco has seen some improvement is things like freedom of speech in the past few years.

Arts/Literature

Art is a very big part of Morocco. Their art includes a blend of Berber, Arab, Jewish and European cultures. Many different kinds of art are produced but most are made out of stone, wood, metal, or leather. Souks are a market place that is a tradition in Morocco,  they sell Jewelry, clothes and ceramics.

The most known artist to be from Morocco is probably Mounir Fatmi. He was born in Morocco and now lives and works out of France. his work includes drawing, painting, sculpting, and installation. He does a lot of his art based on historical events.

Language

There are a lot of languages in Morocco, they have two official languages, Modern Standard Arabic and Amazig. Moroccan Arabic is the spoken native vernacular. There are over 20 million Berber speakers in Morocco. You could also hear French or Spanish if you went to morocco because France used to control Morocco and because of the fact that Morocco is in the north of Africa, near the southern tip of Spain.

The fallowing information is from Wikipedia.

Languages of Morocco
Official languages	Arabic (80–90%) Berber (40–50%)
Vernaculars	Arabic dialects Berber dialects
Main foreign languages	French (33–39%)[1][2] Spanish (21%)[3] English (14%)[4]
Sign languages	MSL

Culture

Morocco is a country with deep customs and traditions. One of the country's most valued traditions in drinking mint tea, and as with most countries, food plays a big role. Morocco is known for their Mediterranean foods like Couscous, it is often cooked with vegetables, nuts, spices and served with meats like lamb or chicken cooked.

Fish is also a popular dish in morocco where beef is a rarity. The majority of foods have many different kinds of spices like chili, cumin, and ginger. Another food that is a large part of Moroccans diets are nuts and fruits.

Morocco has much different etiquette then we have in the United States. For example you must greet people and eat only with your right hand as the left is considered to be dirty. It is also common to kiss people on the check of the same sex to greet them. It is also respectful to cover your knees and shoulders when in public. It is also less access to alcohol because of Islamic beliefs, it is dis respectful to drink near a mosque.

As you can see, the culture of Morocco is about as unique as anywhere else in the world, which is on of the things that make it such a cool and different country.

History

Morocco has a very old and interesting history. The first we know of Morocco is in 1,000 BC where people called the Phoenicians came and settled. The Native people, the Berbers, formed a kingdom at around 400BC. Many dynasties cam and went in he following years. In 1912 Morocco was forced to become a French protectorate. It took until 1956 for Morocco to break free of French rule and become an independent country. A constitution was made in 1962 followed by another in 1970.

Here is a timeline from BBC news of events before the French took full control.

7th and 8th Centuries AD - Arab invasion; Idris founds the first major Muslim dynasty.
10-17th Centuries - Dynasties and religious movements come and go, including the Almoravid movement which at its peak controlled Morocco and parts of present-day Algeria and Spain.
1860 - Dispute over Spain's Ceuta enclave; Spain declares war, wins a further enclave and an enlarged Ceuta in the settlement.
1884 - Spain creates a protectorate in coastal areas of Morocco.

1904 - France and Spain carve out zones of influence.
1906 - Algeciras Conference in Spain; France and Spain get the go-ahead to police Moroccan ports and collect customs fees


Morocco still has quite a bit of its ancient architecture and a lot of traditional customs from the early settlers and the natives.

Religious Beliefs

Religions Figures in 1000.
Islam		31,100	99.7%
	Sunni	31,100	99.7%
Christianity		100	0.3%
Judaism		5	<0.1%
Baha'i		0.4	<0.1%

From LookLex.com

A vast majority of Morocco's population are Islam so Islamic practices and ideas play a huge role in peoples everyday life. When that much of a majority exits, its not much of a surprise that there is a lot of tension towards the minority. Morocco has taken big step in being more accepting towards other peoples beliefs' but there is still some work to be done. Like the fact that it is still illegal to convert from Islam to another religion.  Morocco is however, farther ahead then some middle eastern country's For example, a Islamic woman is aloud to marry a non Muslim man.

In a article by Al Arabiya, it shows that the religiosity in the Middle East  has gone down around 60 percent, most rapidly in Morocco. If you look at southern Africa, about 80% are religious, so 20% more then in the north where Morocco is located. This could be because of a lot of reasons, like, schools not exposing as much of the religion or even the negativity in society against Islamic rule.

Sources

Data

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mo.html

http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2015/04/156205/morocco-ranks-78-2015-global-information-technology-report/

http://www.morocco.com/culture/

https://www.journeybeyondtravel.com/blog/morocco-traditions.html

http://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/national-traditions/moroccan-tradition1.htm

http://traveltips.usatoday.com/moroccan-culture-63322.html
pictures

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g293730-s601/Morocco:Banks.And.Money.html

http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2015/04/156205/morocco-ranks-78-2015-global-information-technology-report/

http://www.all-about-afternoon-tea.com/mint-tea-recipe.html

http://www.academia.edu/1788294/Morocco_-_Analysis_of_the_Moroccan_political_system

http://www.religiousfreedomcoalition.org/2013/05/07/christians-in-morocco-fear-fatwa-portends-harsher-treatment/

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14123260

http://www.britannica.com/place/Morocco

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Morocco

http://alphaomegatranslations.com/2015/06/21/8-things-you-should-know-about-the-languages-of-morocco/

http://www.localhistories.org/morocco.html

http://www.infoplease.com/country/morocco.html

http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/countries/morocco-guide/

http://jaalapure.com/argan-oils-ancient-history-in-morocco/

http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Africa/Morocco-HISTORY.html