I miss your smile

I haven’t seen you for a while

And I miss your dazzling smile

Your intelligence and your special style.

Meanwhile , your picture is my unique pleasure

Even more , it’s my precious treasure.

I see your face fair and beaming

Your glamorous eyes bright and gleaming

Your sensual body is a great sculpture

That leaves in me an ineffeable rapture.

I still recall your soft voice echoing

So warm and incredibly convincing,

Your gait bespeaks sheer elegance

And radiates imposing self-confidence.

I’ll put your picture below my pillow tonight

Hoping to see you soon and become your knight.

Blood-stained Roads

The gory scenes of carnage on Moroccan roads continue to grab the headlines .Accident after accident , casualties has risen crescendo and the average weekly toll amounts to 20 dead and hundreds wounded.Our roads are ranked among the bloodiest across the world and this top position is far from being an outstanding achievement .The tourists who pour into Morocco are forewarned about the dangers they may encounter on our roads.I have once overheard a French tourist saying to his interlocutor « J’ ai appris a’ conduire a’ la Marocaine. »Meaning that he has learnt how to drive in the Moroccan style or way.I laughed at that quip but deep down I felt sorry and bitter.Equally, the Moroccan immigrants who come back to spend their summer holidays in their mother country find it hard to acclimatize with the chaos on the roads of the Kingdom.
There is no room for doubt that the human factor is blameworthy.A significant number of Moroccan drivers don’t abide by the road regulations .They ignore traffic lights as well as road signs .Abracardabra ! The fines which are supposed to punish such people change strangely into bribes .What’s more , the road infrastructure in many regions of the country is not blameless as the Moroccan TV claims .A high proportion of our roads are indecent and
Trigger off deadly accidents.In addition to the aforementioned factors,let’s not overlook the fact that 80% of the vehicules in the country are very old and really derelict .
The government has been launching awarness-raising campaigns but to no avail.Similarly, strict measures are occassionally implemented on the ground .The bloody statistics drop significantly during that period and shortly after , they resume their steady rise.As a matter of fact, severe measures must be carried out in order to stop this haemorrhage .The officials have to ascertain that the fines imposed on wrongdoers are actually paid .Moreover, repeated infringement of the rules must result in the withdrawl of the driving licences.In the same vein , the standards set by driving schools to obtain the licences have to be reconsidered drastically.The system of highways in the country will have doubled by the end of 2010 linking the cities of Rabat and Casablanca to Oujda , Marrakech and Agadir ;and we hope it will be streched to remote regions as well such as Ouarzazate ,Errachidia ,Alahoceima ,Chaouen and Layoune .This will certainly help reduce the number and the gravity of accidents in Morocco.

A bitter-sweet life

An individual’s life span is intermittently marked by moments of joy and crises of sorrow,vertexes of utter hope ensued by sheer despondency.People’s feeling and reactions in each particular situation vary according to his/her psychological make-up, frame of mind and preconceived ideas about the matter in question.
Life is brimful of hardships and hurdles too painstaking to surmount .On the other hand, the stepping-stones are few and far between to enable us to go over these obstacles.Consequently, no human soul has ever departed unscathed from this earthly abode.Ineffable and invisible damage inflicted by lifes’ predicaments may bear witness to a person’s strife to survive.
Everyone of us endeavors to lead a happy life and to fulfill his dreams no matter how unrealistic or grotesque they may seem .Alas ! Everyday problems srike and shatters to pieces our reveries.Life resumes its due course, the clock continues ticking by indifferently and people go on indulging in their activities.Don’t expect time or people to commiserate with you in your plights,you have to shoulder the burden alone backed up by patience,mettle and hope.
With the succession of strikes ,many people break down while others capitulate .Some of them commit suicide expressing thus their inability to resist the harshness of the conditions and the dire straits ,indicating impotence to work out a viable solution to a problem or to bring to an end a crisis.Others take fright and flee their responsiblities( job-marriage….) hoping to reconstruct their lives elsewhere.In any case , other people –chiefly kins-suffer horrible aftermaths of decisions taken at moments of despair.
The ups and the downs of life are part and parcel of our destiny.Therefore,we are obliged to put up with the bitter side of life and to cherish our moments of joyfulness. No one knows what God has in store for him/her, so let’s consider pitfalls and problems tests to our patience whereas successes and happy news are rewards for the efforts we deploy to overstep our difficulties.

The Rainbow Poem

Seven united colours embrace in harmony

To form a rainbow of matchless beauty

Red evokes a strong passion and desire

Spreading warmth and love like a glowing fire

Yellow displays a fathomless hope and aspiration

Away from despondency and desperation

Green reflects innocence and honesty

Everlasting freshness and rare purity

Blue suggest s genuine trust and loyalty

With a tinge of deep honor and royalty

Orange shows enthusiasm and stimulation

Mingled with great creativity and innovation

Indigo indicates rejuvenation and male energy

as well as incredible renewal and infinity

Purple bespeaks royal elegance and luxury

Along with sophistication and a bit of mystery.

 

The Sinuous Valley

As I was walking down a stony alley,

Heading towards a sinuous valley

I was stunned by the spellbinding scenery,

The breathtaking landscape and the fascinating greenery .

A mountain looms awesome and imposing,

Flakes of Snow at the top laid bright and posing.

The river ran its course among the trees

As I was welcomed by a warm , gentle breeze.

Then I saw an orchestra of birds perched on a tree

Singing a melody with astonishing glee.

I stretched under a huge shadowy pin

To enjoy the moment away from the city’s din.

Amongst lily flowers and without a single hiss

I slept on the dewy grass in sheer bliss.

Silent Playgounds

Children have been unscrupulously subjected to multifaceted and abject kinds of exploitations and manipulations by grown-ups in different parts of the world .kids are victimized because they are easily influenced ,defenceless and unprotected ;most of them are extremely poor deprived of decent shelter,healthy food and proper medication ;some of them are orphans or school leftovers.On the other hand,many greedy and inhumane people brandish this motto « the end justifies the means »; they resort to fair means or foul( including misusing innocent lads and lasses) to achieve effortless gains or some sort of satisfaction to the detriment of others’ well-being.
Child labour is banned by the national laws and the international regulations as well as by the United Nations charter for the protection of human rights and those related to children .However,millions of kids are being exploited in demanding and arduous chores mainly in Africa and Asia.They are forced to work for long hours in exchange for few coins.The situation has not changed much since the nineteenth century when children used to be expolited as miners;now children in India and most of Asia have to toil hard in painstaking tasks .Another more hideous facet is the trade slave related to the buying and selling of children as a sort of cheap labour force.Child sexual abuse is a another aspect of the topic in hand.Pedophilia has mushroomed in many countries which have become sex resorts par excellence.Sex traders manipulate small kids in this lucrative business and market pornographic material in the internet network.These children who are sexually molested get basic needs such as food and shelter in return for their lost innocence and dignity.In some African and South American countries,children are being invested as soldiers ;they are obliged to hold weapons and to wage civil wars which their immature minds find too harsh to assimilate or to comprehend.As a matter of fact,this sort of indoctrination is very hard to believe in the new millenuim.
In Morocco, the state of affairs is less severe but far from being immaculate.A widespread aspect of child abuse in this country is the expolitative engagement of little girls as maids and in some cases subjecting them to severe mental and corporal punishment.Equally, many families urge their children to quit school and to take up handicrafts such as tailoring,pottery ,carpentry inter alia.In the countryside,some parents refuse to send their offsprings to school with a view to making them work on the farm and in the fields.Homeless children in our big cities is a fact of life that we have to face courageously;these kids are prone to be victims of sexual abuses ,initiated to become beggars and pickpockets,drugdealers…..
It is crystal clear that this problematic is complex,multifaceted and very difficult to be solved overnight.International networks are engaged in this odious exploitaition of children throughout the world.The abolition of these ignoble practices requires worldwide commitment and collaboration.Local regulations and laws have to be enforced to the letter ,”zero tolerance”has to be the watchword in this sort of campaigns.Anyone misusing,exploiting or manipulating children must be punished harshly.The proper place for our kids is the school;that is the reason why compulsory schooling has to be encouraged ,chiefly in the countryside.NGO’s have a crucial role to play in this respect by sensitizing parents to the importance of schools as safe havens against the ills of society.