The survival of the Arab monarchies

After The Arab sprint .....

emir of kowait with the king of KSA

Why does monarchy march on while republican dictatorships precariously wobble in the Arab world? The undertow of the Arab Spring reveals how unevenly revolutionary unrest spread throughout the region. While popular uprisings rocked the autocratic republics, not a single ruling monarchy fell. Opposition stood quiet in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), while Oman and Saudi Arabia saw only isolated agitation. Popular reform movements mobilized in Jordan and Morocco, but they fizzled out. Ongoing protests in Kuwait reflect a longstanding tradition of civic activism and political contestation that far predates the Arab Spring. Only Bahrain experienced new large-scale unrest, but military intervention by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) ended the troubles.

While many observers point to cultural reasons and institutional machinations as the answers, in reality two hard strategic factors best explain the resilience of royalism: oil and geopolitics.

The most popular explanation is that absolute monarchism resonates with the religious and tribal values of Arab culture, and that therefore enjoys legitimacy. Ethnocentrism aside, this is a circular argument. The absence of revolution cannot mean legitimacy, for by that definition all regimes are legitimate until the day they collapse. If legitimacy means the lack of popular revolt, then many monarchies already fail this litmus test -- either now, as in Bahrain's recent failed uprising, or in the past, as the kingships of Morocco, Jordan, and Oman all suffered violent conflicts in the 1960s or 1970s. Indeed, history is the harshest critic of all. No royal legitimacy safeguarded the monarchies of Egypt, Tunisia, Iraq, North Yemen, Libya, Afghanistan, and Iran from their ignominious overthrow in the latter half of the twentieth century, with some (as in Iran and Iraq) suffering at the hands violent revolutionaries who were all but loyal and submissive.

If not some exotic cultural essence, what about institutional wizardry? Some scholars believe that kings have the unique capacity to halt public anger by imposing liberalizing reforms and engaging public demands. Yet having the institutional means to pacify opposition does not guarantee thedesire to do so. Morocco and Jordan responded to popular mobilization with constitutional reform, but youth activists fared worse in the Gulf kingdoms, whose regimes embrace repression over compromise. Another argument concerns the institutional practice of dynasticism: royal families can stick together and monopolize state resources, thereby ensuring a united front. However, the same unity can also make kings and emirs beholden to powerful hardline relatives, who fear losing status and wealth if reforms become too bold. In recent years, the kings of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Kuwait have all learned this hard lesson.

Culture and institutions falter because they suggest that something inherent within absolute monarchism explains their survival. In reality, the Arab kingdoms have weathered the revolutionary storm for exogenous reasons -- they happen to float in a sea of hydrocarbon and geopolitical riches, which have allowed them to capture sufficient domestic support and vital international assistance.

Those who doubt the importance of oil wealth in preventing national unrest during the Arab Spring should ask one question: if presidents like Hosni Mubarak or Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali discovered $100 billion in hydrocarbon riches when besieged by the underserved middle-class, would they have exited office so hastily? Since 2011, Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf kingdoms -- and for that matter, non-monarchical Algeria -- have spent hundreds of billions of dollars for programs ranging from cash grants and salary increases to developmental projects and job creation. The logic is simple: well-fed citizens with well-paying jobs do not revolt. Those that do can be effectively branded by regime spinsters as radicals and terrorists.

Some doubters may point to Libya, where Muammar al-Qaddafi lost power despite sitting atop large oil fields. To be sure, leaders must only have these resources, but also expend them wisely by pacifying sectors of potential opposition and mobilizing public support. For this task of coalition-building, monarchies wield no intrinsic advantage. After all, oil-rich kingships in Iraq (1958) and Iran (1979) suffered deposal by committing the same violent repression and corrupt personalism as did the Arab Spring's republican victims. No single regime type has a monopoly on brutality.

Of course, not all Arab monarchies swim in material affluence. Bahrain is fast depleting its oil and gas reserves, and Jordan and Morocco have no hydrocarbon wellsprings at all, resulting in chronic fiscal difficulty. Yet oil wealth has long circulated across Arab borders through aid ties. Months into 2011, wealthy Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and the UAE offered a $5 billion jackpot to Morocco and Jordan should they join the GCC, and pledged a $20 billion Gulf fund to aid more modest Bahrain and Oman. These aid packages, much like past assistance from Arab oil donors, mostly comprise fungible grants rather than conditional loans, and so can be spent by recipients just like domestic revenue. For instance, in late 2011 Jordan reduced a multi-billion dollar budget deficit driven by price subsidies, job promises, and security spending with an infusion of Saudi cash alongside its regular foreign aid haul from the United States.

In addition to the oil factor, many Arab monarchies enjoy staunch backing by foreign powers given their geopolitical locale. The United States had no bases in Libya before it intervened, but the Fifth Fleet anchors in Bahrain, whose unending suppression of the opposition still registers negligent protest by Washington. The same relationship holds for the other Gulf states, on whose territory U.S. military and intelligence assets need to operate if they are to monitor Iraq and contain Iran. Likewise, the recent deployment of U.S. troops to Jordan reflects the strategic value of keeping the Hashemite Kingdom stable, as it abuts Israel and borders Syria and Iraq, while France is in little rush to even gently prod Morocco toward democratization after losing its Tunisian client regime.

For autocratic rulers, external assistance such as this lowers the cost of repression by reducing the prospects of international backlash. Unlike Tunisia and Egypt, whose fallen autocrats received mixed Western signals until the end, those Arab leaders residing in the monarchical states have harvested unambiguous support from every global power. Certainly, some dictatorships can continue to plow through opposition even in the face of international resistance, but continuous foreign patronage makes it all the more cheap.

As a last resort, external actors can protect embattled regimes through coercive means, which the Bahraini case exemplifies. The Arab Spring featured two military interventions, but whereas NATO operations helped destroy the Qaddafi regime in Libya, GCC troops with Western complicity did the reverse in Bahrain. Their physical presence enabled the Khalifah monarchy to regain domestic control and liquidate its opposition movement, and ensured the Saudi state that its neighboring island kingdom would remain under rule by an allied Sunni family. To be sure, the fallen Arab republics had also reaped various kinds of Western coercive assistance, as in the $1 billion-plus U.S. arms and training package that Mubarak earned annually. Yet handing over obsolete fighter jets and outdated radar systems is very different than putting foreign boots on the ground: autocrats cannot deploy heavy military weaponry in tight urban spaces without destroying entire city blocks, as the Syrian civil war has shown.

The Bahraini example is telling in another way. In late February 2011, over 100,000 citizens (nearly 20 percent of the country's population) marched against the regime. In proportional terms, this was far greater than the relative handful who mobilized in Tunisia and Egypt. Had Bahrain actually experienced revolution, arguments about the so-called exceptionalism of Arab monarchy would no longer be as vocal. However, the Khalifah dynasty emerged unscathed not because of royal legitimacy or institutional manipulation, but because it used its modest hydrocarbon revenue to deepen support among Sunni groups while exploiting ironclad GCC guarantees of protection to squash the largely Shiite opposition. These external factors can benefit non-monarchical states, and indeed they did. Algeria's oil and gas wealth proved instrumental in providing well-timed public benefits during the Arab Spring, much like Yemen's presidential transition was hastened by Saudi intervention.

In short, the Arab monarchies are exceptional, but not because they are monarchies. They are beneficiaries of geological fortune, geographic providence, and strategic attention by outside powers. Remove these factors -- rob Saudi Arabia of its oil wealth, deprive Jordan of its Western support, denude Bahrain of GCC intervention, remove France from the Moroccan equation -- and the possibility of monarchical downfall is no longer as far-fetched. Inversely, all this being equal, it is difficult to imagine that Egyptian or Tunisian activists would have delayed their dreams of dignity at the command of a King Mubarak or Emir Ben Ali.

source:mideast.foreignpolicy.com

Desertec: how strong the partners’ will is?

Desertec is the association of 57 partners from 16 countries which defines itself as the world’s biggest solar power. For three years now, Desertec has been working on an agreement to build a 500 Megawatt (MW) solar power plant in Morocco. The plan is to feed power to European countries by underwater cables coming from North Africa especially around the Sahara region where solar power can be harnessed greatly. This Munich based project, will use mirrors to stock the sun’s rays that will produce steam and allow turbines to create energy. The plants are supposed to cover an area of 6,500 square miles and produce 1,064 terawatt hours (TWh) in the Sahara region. However, up till now no concrete work was done because of difficult international negotiations. This incident might threaten to end Desertec initiative because just a month ago Germany retired from this project that was judged to be a loss making solar business. But Desertec Chief executive Pau Van Son keeps his hope high convicted that Spain has a lot to gain from the settlement. This first project is based in Ouarzazate and construction is expected to last for 4 years. It is expected to cost several hundreds of millions of Euros. Which will to boost Morocco’s economy although the country doesn’t really depend on such kind of energy since more conventional ones are still usable? Once built this plant would produce 160 MW of electricity. By 2050, Desertec wishes to incorporate all of North Africa and the Middle East so that Europe can get a fifth of electricity from solar and wind parks. But the political uncertainty in these regions and the high cost the project demands has made it hard for Desertec to attract investors.

source:medafricatimes.com

Apple Inc sold 3 million of its new iPads

 Apple Inc sold 3 million of its new iPads in the first three days the tablet computers were available, driving optimism for a strong holiday quarter despite intensifying competition.

Photo: REUTERS/Robert Galbraith

Sales of the 7.9-inch iPad mini and fourth-generation 9.7-inch version, both Wi-Fi only models, were double the first-weekend sales of the Wi-Fi iPad sold in March, Apple said on Monday.

Morocco's king keeps strong hand despite reforms

Rabat - Unlike other Arab leaders challenged on the streets early last year, King Mohammed VI swiftly reformed Morocco's constitution, held an election and let an Islamist party lead the government.
 

His response smothered popular ferment, drew plaudits from the West and seemed to set Morocco on a more democratic course, but 20 months on it is unclear how much power has changed hands.

Le Matin, an establishment French-language daily, still devotes its first half dozen pages to the doings of the monarch and his advisers before the elected government gets a mention.

The Islamist prime minister, Abdelillah Benkirane, still has his office in the vast precincts of the royal palace in Rabat.

For now, his Justice and Development Party (PJD), whose success in an October 2011 election brought it into government for the first time, insists political cohabitation is thriving.

"Morocco is an exception in the region," Communication Minister Mustafa el-Khalfi told Reuters. "We have succeeded in developing a third way between revolution and the old system of governance: reforming within stability and unity."

Under the new constitution, King Mohammed, who bases much of his legitimacy on his Islamic credentials as "Commander of the Faithful" and as a descendant of the Prophet Mohammad, keeps control of military, security and religious affairs, while parliament legislates and the government runs the country.

"Key institutions enshrined in the constitution are coming to life," said one Western diplomat of the reforms. "The breadth of debate is changing. People feel part of the process." 

source: www.portalangop.co.ao

Morocco’s Banque Populaire May Open an Office in Washington

Washington/Morocco News Board-- Washington Business Journal reported on its Friday (Nov. 2, 2012) edition that Morocco’s Banque Populaire “has applied with regulators to establish its first U.S. office in the District.” According to the same source, “It’s not clear what [Banque Populaire] plans are for the Washington area or the U.S. market as a whole.”Banque Populaire has branches in several European countries including France and Italy where large Moroccan communities reside.  The Moroccan community in the Washington area is in need of such banking institution to assist with the needs of the ever-growing number of Moroccans moving to the Mid-Atlantic region.

source:www.moroccoboard.com

Morocco will Send Security Experts to Bahrain to Confront “Shiite Expansion”

“Morocco had finally agreed with the Bahrain Kingdom to send retired security officials who have previously worked in security and army careers, to work with special Bahraini security units to confront the challenges the country is facing, especially those related to confronting the “Shiite expansion”,” Moroccan Hespress website reported Friday.

The news website quoted sources as saying that “Morocco has been preoccupied since few weeks in writing down names of retired security and armed forces elements in order to dispatch them to Bahrain, so that they aid its internal security apparatuses in stabilizing security especially after the country was exposed to the danger of “terror” and “Shiite expansion”.”

This week, Morocco strongly condemned “the terror attack that the Bahraini Akar region faced, which resulted in the injury of a number of security forces members,” reiterating "its solidarity with the kingdom in its efforts to fight all types of terror and extremism.”

The African country had also “informed the government about Morocco’s support to efforts aimed at strengthening coexistence and stability between the brotherly Bahraini people, in a way that braces pillars of national dialogue and enhances the reformatory and democratic path in the country.”

In this context, Head of the Social and Humanitarian Research Center in Wajda, Dr. Samir Boudinar told Hespress that “Morocco, with its latest stances – its call to join the Gulf Cooperation Council and its royal visit to the Gulf states – has become closer to those countries in the region.”

He considered that “there has been mutual approach on several priority files and cases on various levels between the Moroccan Monarchy and the Monarchies Club in the Gulf,” indicating that “the security aspect is basic in this strategic approach between the Moroccan and Gulf monarchies, especially with the presence of clear sensitivity towards some files like “the Shiites” file.”

Boudinar further pointed out on his phone interview with the Moroccan news website that this is not the first time in which Morocco sends its security experts to Gulf countries, assuring that “dealing with “the Shiite danger” on the security apparatuses level occupies a high profile”.

source:www.almanar.com.lb/english

Migrant Boat from Morocco to Spain Sinks, 14 Dead and 4 Missing

The flimsy craft that went down in Mediterranean waters en route from Morocco to Spain was carrying 35 migrants, not the 71 mentioned by one of the survivors, the Moroccan Human Rights Association said Thursday.

mediterranean sea 

Spanish and Moroccan teams pulled 14 bodies out of the water and rescued 17 other people, Spain’s Maritime Rescue service said earlier.

One of the survivors said 71 people were aboard the boat when it left Morocco.

Ammari Hasan, the representative of the human rights association in the northeastern town of Uxda, told Efe that the figure of 35 passengers had been confirmed by several different sources.

If that number is correct, it would leave four of the sub-Saharan migrants aboard the craft unaccounted for.

The Moroccan government has made no mention of the accident, while the official MAP news agency has reported only that one African migrant was rescued at sea and brought to a hospital in Alhucemas in grave condition.

Authorities from both countries began searching for the boat on Wednesday after a tip from someone who feared for the safety of a family member aboard the craft, Spanish officials told Efe.

The boat was located by a Maritime Rescue surveillance plane, which lowered a raft to pick up some of those in the water and summoned vessels from both Spain and Morocco to aid in rescue and recovery efforts.

The Maritime Rescue plane remained in the area to search for additional survivors or victims.

source:hispanicallyspeakingnews.com

Locust Swarms Threaten North Africa

(Newsroom America) -- The Food and Agriculture Organization has alerted Algeria, Libya, Mauritania and Morocco to prepare for the likely arrival of Desert Locust swarms from the Sahel in West Africa in the coming weeks.

The four countries are being urged to stand by to mobilize their field teams to detect the arrival of the swarms and control them.

Swarms of adult locusts are currently forming in Chad and are about to form in Mali and Niger following good summer rains that provided favourable conditions for two generations of breeding and which triggered a 250-fold increase in locust populations in those countries.

"Prevailing winds and historical precedents make it likely the swarms, once formed, will fly to Algeria, Libya, southern Morocco and northwestern Mauritania," said Keith Cressman, FAO Senior Locust Forecasting Officer.

"Once there, they could damage pastures and subsistence rain-fed crops. They could also pose a threat to harvests in Chad, Mali and Niger."

After becoming airborne, swarms of tens of millions of locusts can fly up to 150 km a day with the wind. Female locusts can lay 300 eggs within their lifetime while a Desert Locust adult can consume roughly its own weight in fresh food per day -- about two grams every day. A very small swarm eats the same amount of food in one day as about 35,000 people.

FAO has been able to monitor the situation in Niger and Chad, but conflict in Mali has made it very difficult to track the situation there. Control operations, with spraying by ground teams, started in Chad in early October. Similar interventions are beginning now in Niger, though teams must be accompanied by military escorts to ensure their safety.

The hazardous security situation plus difficult access to some locust breeding grounds are constraining control efforts, Cressman said. This makes it unlikely that all locust infestations will be found and treated on the ground - especially in Mali.

FAO has brokered agreements with countries that have available appropriate pesticide stocks - Algeria, Morocco and Senegal - to donate them to Mali, Niger and Chad. This will avoid increasing stockpiles of hazardous chemicals in the region. The supplies are being airlifted with the support of the World Food Programme.

Last June, FAO appealed for $10 million to maintain and expand operations. So far, $4.1 million has been received, allowing field operations to continue throughout the summer in Mali, Niger and Chad, thanks to the support from the governments of France, United Kingdom and United States, as well as bilateral assistance to Niger.

A regional meeting organized last month by the FAO Commission for Controlling the Desert Locust in the Western Region (CLCPRO) and the World Bank confirmed that the full appeal is sufficient to cover the costs of the control campaign in the region until December. Efforts are currently underway to obtain the remaining funds.

Frontline countries in the Sahel such as Mauritania, Mali, Niger, and Chad have trained locust survey and control teams but they need external assistance, especially vehicles, equipment and pesticides, to respond effectively to a full-scale emergency.

Mali is particularly short of equipment after more than 30 pickup trucks were looted in the northern part of the country.

source: www.newsroomamerica.com

Morocco's Governing Council Approves Budget

Morocco’s governing council has recently adopted during an extraordinary meeting the country’s 2013 finance bill, providing for a raft of fiscal measures.

Following the meeting, Morocco’s Communications Minister and government spokesman Mustapha El Khalfi revealed that the 2013 budget predicts growth next year of 4.5%, and for a reduction of the public deficit to 4.8% of gross domestic product.

According to El Khalfi, the government’s “ambitious” finance bill aims to tackle the constraints of the financial crisis, while at the same time enabling various strategic development projects to continue to support investment and to reduce social inequalities.

El Khalfi underscored that the budget contains a number of initiatives designed to improve the competitiveness of the national economy, to develop new industrial sectors, and to support and assist SMEs in Morocco.

However, the government aims to increase tax revenues in 2013 by 5.1% compared with 2012, an amount equivalent to MAD8.7bn (USD990m).

The 2013 finance bill is due to be presented to parliament shortly.

source:http://www.tax-news.com

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Israel failed to reelect to Universal Postal Union

Israel's nominations for election to the Council of Administration (CA) and the Postal Operations Council of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) were not supported at the union's congress meeting in Doha last week. 
 
Israel has served on the Council of Administration for the past four years and has been a member of UPU since 1949. Israel’s delegation to the UPU congress came late, after meetings had already commenced because of logistical confusion over security arrangements with the Qataris.


The countries elected to the CA were: Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Barbados, Brazil, Republic of Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Canada, Republic of Congo, Costa Rica, Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Gabon, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Malawi, Mexico, Morocco, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sudan, United Republic of Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United States of America and Viet Nam. According to the report, Israel's Postal Company feels that political considerations were responsible for the failure to win reelection to the Council of Administration, and that this is “part of the price Israel is paying for its diplomatic isolation.” 

The UPU, which was established in 1874, provides a framework for the international exchange of mail through a single global postal territory, formalized through multilateral agreements cited as ‘The Acts’. The UPU is a specialized body of the United Nations that promotes the organization of postal services across 192 member states. In particular, the UPU encourages the development of international collaboration to increase the efficiency of international mail transit. The CA - composed of 41 countries - meets annually at UPU headquarters in Berne, Switzerland, to ensure the continuity of the UPU's work between Congresses, supervise its activities and study regulatory, administrative, legislative and legal issues. Kenya’s Bishar A Hussein has been elected as the new director general to lead the Universal Postal Union over the next four years. Ambassador Hussein is a former Kenyan postmaster general, and has served his country as Ambassador to the UAE. Switzerland’s Pascal Thierry Clivaz has been elected as UPU deputy director general. Clivaz has been director of finance and strategic planning at UPU headquarters in Berne since 2005. He is a former executive of the Swiss Post and was a Swiss delegate at the UPU before joining the organization in 2005.

source:www.port2port.com

Five sub-Saharan migrants drown off Morocco

Five sub-Saharan migrants, including a child, are thought to have drowned when their boat capsized off Morocco’s north coast as it tried to reach the Spanish enclave of Melilla, a rights group said Wednesday.

Seventeen illegal migrants were on board the small boat that attempted to reach Melilla on Tuesday from the nearby town of Nador, on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast, the Moroccan Association of Human Rights (AMDH) said, citing one of the migrants.

The boat capsized around one kilometre before it reached its destination and five people died or remain unaccounted for, including a child under five years old and three women, said AMDH’s Hassan Ammari, citing the same source.

Illegal migrants from sub-Saharan Africa regularly attempt to cross from Morocco into the tiny north African enclave, held by Spain for centuries, but considered occupied by Rabat, in a bid to reach mainland Europe.

The Moroccan authorities have tightened immigration policy in recent months, sending hundreds of sub-Saharans out of the country since early September, and cooperating with Madrid to evict a group that swum to a tiny Spanish islet just off the coast last month.

North African and European leaders agreed in Malta last week to set up an immigration task force following the Arab Spring uprisings, which have seen a sharp rise in the number of people making risky boat crossings to seek a new life in Europe.

This year alone, hundreds of illegal migrants have disappeared at sea.

source: http://www.africareview.com

Morocco says incoming abortion ship is outside the law

(AP) RABAT, Morocco - Officials say a Dutch ship promoting safe abortions set to dock in Morocco on Thursday is operating outside the law.The ministers told The Associated Press Wednesday the boat has not followed proper procedures to land in Morocco, suggesting it might not be allowed to do that.

Interior Minister Mohend Laenser said they had not been informed of the ship’s arrival and "a boat we don’t know or why it is coming, I don’t know what we can do."

Education Minister Lahcen Daoudi said all boats coming to Morocco must obey the law and security forces will "apply law on everything to do with the boat."The Dutch "Women on Waves" ship was invited by a Moroccan women’s group to raise awareness and support efforts to legalize abortion in Morocco.

source: http://www.whec.com/

Morocco In mediterranean Initiative launched in Sicily

   Italy's customs agency has officially launched the "Iniziativa del Mediterraneo" (Mediterranean Initiative) in Taormina in Sicily whose objectives are cooperation and improvement of protecting markets and border control in the run-up to the creation of the European-Mediterranean free trade area. With italy in the lead, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Jordan and Lebanon have signed up. The customs agency is to take action in three areas; the fight against drug trafficking, integrated border control through coordination with all services and agencies of the other nations and finally, customs simplification and easing trade restrictions in order to support exports and Italian investments. The project will hold workshops, seminars, information exchange and training. The free trade area will cover an area of 600 million consumers. Italy today has 21% of the trade between the European Union and the countries in the Mediterranean. In 2009 Italian exports towards those countries were worth EUR 22 billion, with trade worth about EUR 45 billion. These numbers confirm Italy as the number one trading partner with the nations on the south shore of the Mediterranean. To encourage Italian investment in other countries, the Italian Society for Companies Overseas (Societa' italiana per le imprese all'Eetero, SIMEST) has launched 119 projects worth a total of EUR 3 billion. The E.U. is working on a project to support micro-businesses and small and medium-size businesses in the region. The main point of the Mediterranean Initiative, according to the assistant director of Italy's customs agency, Walter De Santis, "is the creation of integrated data banks of networks able to identify trustworthy operators. It's an ambitious program, but achievable," said De Santis, "that can be the basis of long term development in an area with great potential for economic growth." Along with De Santis in Taormina were Mehmet Guzel, Turkey's assistant trade inister, Natalina Cea, director of the International Cooperation Office, Fabio Ballini, project manager for Custom Med, Vincenzo Donato, general director of the development department of the Economic Development Ministry and representatives of the seven countries involved in the initiative. (AGI) .

source : http://www.agi.it

the Morocco-born rapper back home for the first time in 15 years

Fans recently got a rare glimpse into French Montana's personal life when the Morocco-born rapper traveled back to his home for the first time in 15 years to reunite with his father and other family. Although the journey was difficult at some points, French tells MTV News he was happy to show a different side of himself.

"I was like the ambassador of Morocco," French joked, as he described his trip on the BET Hip-Hop Awards red carpet.

The Bad Boy MC, whose real name is Karim Kharbouch, moved from Morocco to the South Bronx in New York at the age of 13 with mother, father and brother, but his dad eventually returned to Morocco without the rest of their family. His recent trip back home, which was documented inFader's October cover story, marked his first time seeing his father in 15 years.
"It was real life... us being entertainers, we really got a real life and all of us got a struggle," French told MTV News, as he motioned to Machine Gun Kelly, standing next to him on the carpet. "More than likely, ya'll [are] gonna find something about [MGK] that makes him who he is, and same thing with me — we go through a lot. That's why we're here."
When asked about the difficulty of reuniting with his dad, French threw in a quick joke before getting to the real stuff. "I think he cares more about the money I gave him," he said laughing, and then adding, "I just feel like, for me, it was a relief off my back to see my father after 15 years. When I had a kid and I went through my drama and situation, I respected my father more because it kinda made me understand what he went through with me."
Away from the cameras, French and his younger brother reunited with their father and gifted him $10,000 cash. The "Pop That" rapper is currently prepping his debut album Excuse My French.

source:http://www.mtv.com

International Convention on Training & Certification for Fishing Vessel Personnel Enters Into Force

The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Fishing Vessel Personnel, 1995 (STCW-F 1995) enters into force on 29 September 2012.

The STCW-F Convention sets the certification and minimum training requirements for crews of seagoing fishing vessels of 24 metres in length and above. The Convention consists of 15 Articles and an annex containing technical regulations.

The STCW-F Convention has been ratified by 15 States: Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Kiribati, Latvia, Mauritania, Morocco, Namibia, Norway, Palau, the Russian Federation, Sierra Leone, Spain, the Syrian Arab Republic and Ukraine, and also by Faroes, Denmark.

The entry into force of the STCW-F Convention comes just days before a diplomatic conference, to be held in Cape Town, South Africa, from 9 to 11 October, which will consider adopting an Agreement on the implementation of IMO’s other instrument relating to fishing vessel safety, the 1993 Protocol relating to the 1977 Torremolinos International Convention for the Safety of Fishing Vessels.

The conference is expected to consider and adopt an agreement on the implementation of the provisions of the 1993 Protocol. The agreement would also amend the technical provisions of the 1993 Protocol, with the aim of bringing them into force as soon as possible thereafter.  

Instituto Cervantes Taller:Laboratory and visual performance practice

Workshop: Laboratory and visual performance practice with choreographer Juan Dominguez from Monday 15 to Friday 19 October from 15h to 20h at the Instituto Cervantes. REGISTRATIONS OPEN UNTIL OCTOBER 8.

  Send us your CV and a covering letter by email with Ref: Juan Dominguez to: adx5cas@cervantes.es or provide documentation in the Cervantes Institute, 31 rue d'Alger, before 8 October.

"Abortion Ship Will Visit Morocco Next Week

A Dutch "abortion boat" has set sail for Morocco, its first trip to a Muslim country, to provide abortions to women who are exposed to grave health risks if treated domestically, its organiser said on Monday. 


 "The ship is on its way. We can't yet disclose the place and time of arrival... We expect it to stay for up to a week." Rebecca Gomperts(in picture), the founder of the Dutch non-profit organisation Women on Waves, said. (AFP)