Major shirk can be divided into four categories:

- The first category of major shirk is “associating in supplication”, which involves directing one’s supplications to other than Allah as a means of gaining provisions or being cured from a sickness or obtaining help during a crisis or for any other purpose.

- The second category of major shirk is “association in the intention”, that is, performing deeds that may be good in themselves but which are done for the sake of this worldly life and not for the sake of Allah.

The third category of major shirk is “association in loving Allah”. That is to love someone or something else more than or as much as

Love Allah

one loves Allah.

The fourth category of major shirk is “association in obedience” which is to obey people when they make unlawful things lawful, and to believe that it is permissible to follow those who make such legislations.

Here we discuss the third category.

The third category of major shirk is “association in loving Allah”. That is to love someone or something else more than or as much as

Dinars and Dirhams

one loves Allah. Allah says: “There are men who take others besides Allah as equal with Him. They love them as much as they should love Allah. But the believers have more love for Allah.” (Qur’an 2:165)

There are people who recognize Allah as the Creator, the Owner and the Sustainer of the universe, and yet love others more than Him. Some people love money more than they love Allah and for this reason, they do not pay zakat or they gain their money from unlawful sources. They are the slaves of Dirhams and Dinars, or in today’s terminology, the slaves of Dollars. The Prophet, sallallahu `alaihi wa sallam, said: “He who became the slave of the Dinar or the Dirham will perish and be destroyed.” (This is part of a hadith related by Al-Bukhari). Some people love their desires more than they love Allah. Consequently, they would follow their desires even when they lead to disobeying Allah: “Do you see the one who is taking as his lord his own desires?” (Qur’an 25:43).

Therefore, loving Allah and His Messenger more than anything is a precondition for tasting the sweetness of faith. It has been narrated in an authentic hadith that the Prophet sallallahu `alaihi wa sallam, said: “There are three qualities whosoever has them will taste the sweetness of Iman: loving Allah and His Messenger above all else, loving someone solely for the sake of Allah, and hating to return to disbelief after Allah has rescued him from it, as much as he would hate being thrown into Hellfire.” (Related by Al-Bukhari). Allah has put two criteria to test whether one’s love for Him is more than the love of anything else. The first is the following of the Sunnah of the Prophet, sallallahu `alaihi wa sallam. Allah says: “Say (Muhammad), if you do love Allah, follow me, Allah will love you (in return) and forgive your sins” (Qur’an 3:31). Thus, following the Sunnah in all aspects of our lives is absolutely essential. The second criterion to know if one’s love of Allah is more than anything else is through jihad for the sake of Allah: “Say: If it be that your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your wives or your kindred, the wealth that you have gained, the commerce in which you fear a decline or the houses in which you delight, are dearer to you than Allah or His Messenger, or the jihad for Allah’s sake; then wait until Allah brings about his decision; and Allah does not guide the rebellious,” (Qur’an 9:24).

Source: Islaam.com

Las entradas para el Mundial de Clubs de la FIFA, que se celebrará del 9 al 19 de diciembre próximo en los Emiratos Árabes Unidos (EAU), en el que participará el Barça, están a la venta desde hoy. Los precios son asequibles, aunque otra cosa es cómo llegar a Abu Dhabi

¿Le gustaría ver en directo dos partidos oficiales del FC Barcelona esta temporada por menos de 9 euros? Si se decide a pasar unos días en los Emiratos Arabes Unidos el mes de diciembre, eso es posible. Por 45 dirhams -al cambio actual, 8,57 euros-, usted puede conseguir dos entradas para presenciar, en la localidad más modesta del estadio Zayed de Abu Dhabi, las dos últimas jornadas del torneo, con dos partidos en cada una de ellas.

Por poner un ejemplo relacionado con nuestro fútbol, ver al Barça en esos dos encuentros -y asistir a dos partidos más- costará menos que la entrada general para ver un choque de Tercera División. Y más aún: el precio de la entrada general del Barça-Sporting de la primera jornada de Liga (31 euros) era casi cuatro veces superior al de todas estas localidades.

Esas entradas para ver al Barça en el Mundial de Clubs se pueden adquirir a partir de hoy a través de la web oficial de la FIFA. Y si esas localidades son baratas, aún lo son más las de los partidos anteriores. Así, los seguidores ‘pincharratas‘ que quieran ver al Estudiantes de la Plata en la primera semifinal del torneo sólo tendrán que pagar 1,90 euros (10 dirhams) para ocupar un asiento en la zona 4.

El conjunto de Pep Guardiola sólo tomará parte en dos de las jornadas de competición. El miércoles 16 de diciembre, a las 17.00 horas en Abu Dhabi (15.00 horas en Barcelona), jugará la semifinal contra el conjunto ganador del partido de cuartos que se dispute el sábado 12. Ese mismo día, a las 20.00 horas locales (18.00 h. en Barcelona), la jornada se completará con el choque por el quinto y sexto puesto. El precio de las entradas oscila entre los 160 dirhams (30,46 euros) de la zona 1 -tribuna principal- a los 15 dirhams (2,86 euros) de la zona 4.

El sábado 19, con los mismos horarios, se disputarán los partidos para el tercer y cuarto puesto y la final. Las localidades cuestan entre los 300 dirhams (57,12 euros) y los 30 (5,71 euros). El torneo se disputará en los estadios Mohamed bin Zayed y en el Zayed, ambos en Abu Dhabi, que en respeto a las costumbres del país musulmán han habilitado zonas exclusivas para las mujeres y para las familias.

A falta de conocer los representantes de las confederaciones asiática y africana, el torneo ya tiene siete equipos definidos. El Barça -como campeón de Europa- y el Estudiantes de la Plata -como campeón de la Copa Libertadores- acceden directamente a semifinales, mientras que el Atlante mexicano -campeón de la CONCACAF- entrará en competición en cuartos. Finalmente, el Al Ahli local (equipo anfitrión) y el Auckland City -campeón de Oceanía- jugarán el primer partido del torneo para ganarse una plaza en los cuartos de final.

Por lo tanto, no se puede ver fútbol hoy en día a un precio tan barato. Otra cosa es cómo llegar a los Emiratos Arabes Unidos y lo caro que puede salir viaje y estancia. Pero esa es otra historia…

Dubai was meant to be a Middle-Eastern Shangri-La, a glittering monument to Arab enterprise and western capitalism. But as hard times arrive in the city state that rose from the desert sands, an uglier story is emerging.

Johann Hari reports

Construction workers in their distinctive blue overalls building the upper floors a new Dubai tower, with the distinctive Burj al-Arab hotel in the background

The wide, smiling face of Sheikh Mohammed – the absolute ruler of Dubai – beams down on his creation. His image is displayed on every other building, sandwiched between the more familiar corporate rictuses of Ronald McDonald and Colonel Sanders. This man has sold Dubai to the world as the city of One Thousand and One Arabian Lights, a Shangri-La in the Middle East insulated from the dust-storms blasting across the region. He dominates the Manhattan-manqué skyline, beaming out from row after row of glass pyramids and hotels smelted into the shape of piles of golden coins. And there he stands on the tallest building in the world – a skinny spike, jabbing farther into the sky than any other human construction in history.

But something has flickered in Sheikh Mohammed’s smile. The ubiquitous cranes have paused on the skyline, as if stuck in time. There are countless buildings half-finished, seemingly abandoned. In the swankiest new constructions – like the vast Atlantis hotel, a giant pink castle built in 1,000 days for $1.5bn on its own artificial island – where rainwater is leaking from the ceilings and the tiles are falling off the roof. This Neverland was built on the Never-Never – and now the cracks are beginning to show. Suddenly it looks less like Manhattan in the sun than Iceland in the desert.

Once the manic burst of building has stopped and the whirlwind has slowed, the secrets of Dubai are slowly seeping out. This is a city built from nothing in just a few wild decades on credit and ecocide, suppression and slavery. Dubai is a living metal metaphor for the neo-liberal globalised world that may be crashing – at last – into history.

I. An Adult Disneyland

Karen Andrews can’t speak. Every time she starts to tell her story, she puts her head down and crumples. She is slim and angular and has the faded radiance of the once-rich, even though her clothes are as creased as her forehead. I find her in the car park of one of Dubai’s finest international hotels, where she is living, in her Range Rover. She has been sleeping here for months, thanks to the kindness of the Bangladeshi car park attendants who don’t have the heart to move her on. This is not where she thought her Dubai dream would end.

Her story comes out in stutters, over four hours. At times, her old voice – witty and warm – breaks through. Karen came here from Canada when her husband was offered a job in the senior division of a famous multinational. “When he said Dubai, I said – if you want me to wear black and quit booze, baby, you’ve got the wrong girl. But he asked me to give it a chance. And I loved him.”

All her worries melted when she touched down in Dubai in 2005. “It was an adult Disneyland, where Sheikh Mohammed is the mouse,” she says. “Life was fantastic. You had these amazing big apartments, you had a whole army of your own staff, you pay no taxes at all. It seemed like everyone was a CEO. We were partying the whole time.”

Her husband, Daniel, bought two properties. “We were drunk on Dubai,” she says. But for the first time in his life, he was beginning to mismanage their finances. “We’re not talking huge sums, but he was getting confused. It was so unlike Daniel, I was surprised. We got into a little bit of debt.” After a year, she found out why: Daniel was diagnosed with a brain tumour.

One doctor told him he had a year to live; another said it was benign and he’d be okay. But the debts were growing. “Before I came here, I didn’t know anything about Dubai law. I assumed if all these big companies come here, it must be pretty like Canada’s or any other liberal democracy’s,” she says. Nobody told her there is no concept of bankruptcy. If you get into debt and you can’t pay, you go to prison.

“When we realised that, I sat Daniel down and told him: listen, we need to get out of here. He knew he was guaranteed a pay-off when he resigned, so we said – right, let’s take the pay-off, clear the debt, and go.” So Daniel resigned – but he was given a lower pay-off than his contract suggested. The debt remained. As soon as you quit your job in Dubai, your employer has to inform your bank. If you have any outstanding debts that aren’t covered by your savings, then all your accounts are frozen, and you are forbidden to leave the country.

“Suddenly our cards stopped working. We had nothing. We were thrown out of our apartment.” Karen can’t speak about what happened next for a long time; she is shaking.

Daniel was arrested and taken away on the day of their eviction. It was six days before she could talk to him. “He told me he was put in a cell with another debtor, a Sri Lankan guy who was only 27, who said he couldn’t face the shame to his family. Daniel woke up and the boy had swallowed razor-blades. He banged for help, but nobody came, and the boy died in front of him.”

Karen managed to beg from her friends for a few weeks, “but it was so humiliating. I’ve never lived like this. I worked in the fashion industry. I had my own shops. I’ve never…” She peters out.

Daniel was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment at a trial he couldn’t understand. It was in Arabic, and there was no translation. “Now I’m here illegally, too,” Karen says I’ve got no money, nothing. I have to last nine months until he’s out, somehow.” Looking away, almost paralysed with embarrassment, she asks if I could buy her a meal.

She is not alone. All over the city, there are maxed-out expats sleeping secretly in the sand-dunes or the airport or in their cars.

“The thing you have to understand about Dubai is – nothing is what it seems,” Karen says at last. “Nothing. This isn’t a city, it’s a con-job. They lure you in telling you it’s one thing – a modern kind of place – but beneath the surface it’s a medieval dictatorship.”

II. Tumbleweed

Thirty years ago, almost all of contemporary Dubai was desert, inhabited only by cactuses and tumbleweed and scorpions. But downtown there are traces of the town that once was, buried amidst the metal and glass. In the dusty fort of the Dubai Museum, a sanitised version of this story is told.

In the mid-18th century, a small village was built here, in the lower Persian Gulf, where people would dive for pearls off the coast. It soon began to accumulate a cosmopolitan population washing up from Persia, the Indian subcontinent, and other Arab countries, all hoping to make their fortune. They named it after a local locust, the daba, who consumed everything before it. The town was soon seized by the gunships of the British Empire, who held it by the throat as late as 1971. As they scuttled away, Dubai decided to ally with the six surrounding states and make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The British quit, exhausted, just as oil was being discovered, and the sheikhs who suddenly found themselves in charge faced a remarkable dilemma. They were largely illiterate nomads who spent their lives driving camels through the desert – yet now they had a vast pot of gold. What should they do with it?

Dubai only had a dribble of oil compared to neighbouring Abu Dhabi – so Sheikh Maktoum decided to use the revenues to build something that would last. Israel used to boast it made the desert bloom; Sheikh Maktoum resolved to make the desert boom. He would build a city to be a centre of tourism and financial services, sucking up cash and talent from across the globe. He invited the world to come tax-free – and they came in their millions, swamping the local population, who now make up just 5 per cent of Dubai. A city seemed to fall from the sky in just three decades, whole and complete and swelling. They fast-forwarded from the 18th century to the 21st in a single generation.

If you take the Big Bus Tour of Dubai – the passport to a pre-processed experience of every major city on earth – you are fed the propaganda-vision of how this happened. “Dubai’s motto is ‘Open doors, open minds’,” the tour guide tells you in clipped tones, before depositing you at the souks to buy camel tea-cosies. “Here you are free. To purchase fabrics,” he adds. As you pass each new monumental building, he tells you: “The World Trade Centre was built by His Highness…”

But this is a lie. The sheikh did not build this city. It was built by slaves. They are building it now.

III. Hidden in plain view

There are three different Dubais, all swirling around each other. There are the expats, like Karen; there are the Emiratis, headed by Sheikh Mohammed; and then there is the foreign underclass who built the city, and are trapped here. They are hidden in plain view. You see them everywhere, in dirt-caked blue uniforms, being shouted at by their superiors, like a chain gang – but you are trained not to look. It is like a mantra: the Sheikh built the city. The Sheikh built the city. Workers? What workers?

Every evening, the hundreds of thousands of young men who build Dubai are bussed from their sites to a vast concrete wasteland an hour out of town, where they are quarantined away. Until a few years ago they were shuttled back and forth on cattle trucks, but the expats complained this was unsightly, so now they are shunted on small metal buses that function like greenhouses in the desert heat. They sweat like sponges being slowly wrung out.

Sonapur is a rubble-strewn patchwork of miles and miles of identical concrete buildings. Some 300,000 men live piled up here, in a place whose name in Hindi means “City of Gold”. In the first camp I stop at – riven with the smell of sewage and sweat – the men huddle around, eager to tell someone, anyone, what is happening to them.

Sahinal Monir, a slim 24-year-old from the deltas of Bangladesh. “To get you here, they tell you Dubai is heaven. Then you get here and realise it is hell,” he says. Four years ago, an employment agent arrived in Sahinal’s village in Southern Bangladesh. He told the men of the village that there was a place where they could earn 40,000 takka a month (£400) just for working nine-to-five on construction projects. It was a place where they would be given great accommodation, great food, and treated well. All they had to do was pay an up-front fee of 220,000 takka (£2,300) for the work visa – a fee they’d pay off in the first six months, easy. So Sahinal sold his family land, and took out a loan from the local lender, to head to this paradise.

As soon as he arrived at Dubai airport, his passport was taken from him by his construction company. He has not seen it since. He was told brusquely that from now on he would be working 14-hour days in the desert heat – where western tourists are advised not to stay outside for even five minutes in summer, when it hits 55 degrees – for 500 dirhams a month (£90), less than a quarter of the wage he was promised. If you don’t like it, the company told him, go home. “But how can I go home? You have my passport, and I have no money for the ticket,” he said. “Well, then you’d better get to work,” they replied.

Sahinal was in a panic. His family back home – his son, daughter, wife and parents – were waiting for money, excited that their boy had finally made it. But he was going to have to work for more than two years just to pay for the cost of getting here – and all to earn less than he did in Bangladesh.

He shows me his room. It is a tiny, poky, concrete cell with triple-decker bunk-beds, where he lives with 11 other men. All his belongings are piled onto his bunk: three shirts, a spare pair of trousers, and a cellphone. The room stinks, because the lavatories in the corner of the camp – holes in the ground – are backed up with excrement and clouds of black flies. There is no air conditioning or fans, so the heat is “unbearable. You cannot sleep. All you do is sweat and scratch all night.” At the height of summer, people sleep on the floor, on the roof, anywhere where they can pray for a moment of breeze.

The water delivered to the camp in huge white containers isn’t properly desalinated: it tastes of salt. “It makes us sick, but we have nothing else to drink,” he says.

The work is “the worst in the world,” he says. “You have to carry 50kg bricks and blocks of cement in the worst heat imaginable … This heat – it is like nothing else. You sweat so much you can’t pee, not for days or weeks. It’s like all the liquid comes out through your skin and you stink. You become dizzy and sick but you aren’t allowed to stop, except for an hour in the afternoon. You know if you drop anything or slip, you could die. If you take time off sick, your wages are docked, and you are trapped here even longer.”

He is currently working on the 67th floor of a shiny new tower, where he builds upwards, into the sky, into the heat. He doesn’t know its name. In his four years here, he has never seen the Dubai of tourist-fame, except as he constructs it floor-by-floor.

Is he angry? He is quiet for a long time. “Here, nobody shows their anger. You can’t. You get put in jail for a long time, then deported.” Last year, some workers went on strike after they were not given their wages for four months. The Dubai police surrounded their camps with razor-wire and water-cannons and blasted them out and back to work.

The “ringleaders” were imprisoned. I try a different question: does Sohinal regret coming? All the men look down, awkwardly. “How can we think about that? We are trapped. If we start to think about regrets…” He lets the sentence trail off. Eventually, another worker breaks the silence by adding: “I miss my country, my family and my land. We can grow food in Bangladesh. Here, nothing grows. Just oil and buildings.”

Since the recession hit, they say, the electricity has been cut off in dozens of the camps, and the men have not been paid for months. Their companies have disappeared with their passports and their pay. “We have been robbed of everything. Even if somehow we get back to Bangladesh, the loan sharks will demand we repay our loans immediately, and when we can’t, we’ll be sent to prison.”

This is all supposed to be illegal. Employers are meant to pay on time, never take your passport, give you breaks in the heat – but I met nobody who said it happens. Not one. These men are conned into coming and trapped into staying, with the complicity of the Dubai authorities.

Sahinal could well die out here. A British man who used to work on construction projects told me: “There’s a huge number of suicides in the camps and on the construction sites, but they’re not reported. They’re described as ‘accidents’.” Even then, their families aren’t free: they simply inherit the debts. A Human Rights Watch study found there is a “cover-up of the true extent” of deaths from heat exhaustion, overwork and suicide, but the Indian consulate registered 971 deaths of their nationals in 2005 alone. After this figure was leaked, the consulates were told to stop counting.

At night, in the dusk, I sit in the camp with Sohinal and his friends as they scrape together what they have left to buy a cheap bottle of spirits. They down it in one ferocious gulp. “It helps you to feel numb”, Sohinal says through a stinging throat. In the distance, the glistening Dubai skyline he built stands, oblivious.

IV. Mauled by the mall

I find myself stumbling in a daze from the camps into the sprawling marble malls that seem to stand on every street in Dubai. It is so hot there is no point building pavements; people gather in these cathedrals of consumerism to bask in the air conditioning. So within a ten minute taxi-ride, I have left Sohinal and I am standing in the middle of Harvey Nichols, being shown a £20,000 taffeta dress by a bored salesgirl. “As you can see, it is cut on the bias…” she says, and I stop writing.

Time doesn’t seem to pass in the malls. Days blur with the same electric light, the same shined floors, the same brands I know from home. Here, Dubai is reduced to its component sounds: do-buy. In the most expensive malls I am almost alone, the shops empty and echoing. On the record, everybody tells me business is going fine. Off the record, they look panicky. There is a hat exhibition ahead of the Dubai races, selling elaborate headgear for £1,000 a pop. “Last year, we were packed. Now look,” a hat designer tells me. She swoops her arm over a vacant space.

I approach a blonde 17-year-old Dutch girl wandering around in hotpants, oblivious to the swarms of men gaping at her. “I love it here!” she says. “The heat, the malls, the beach!” Does it ever bother you that it’s a slave society? She puts her head down, just as Sohinal did. “I try not to see,” she says. Even at 17, she has learned not to look, and not to ask; that, she senses, is a transgression too far.

Between the malls, there is nothing but the connecting tissue of asphalt. Every road has at least four lanes; Dubai feels like a motorway punctuated by shopping centres. You only walk anywhere if you are suicidal. The residents of Dubai flit from mall to mall by car or taxis.

How does it feel if this is your country, filled with foreigners? Unlike the expats and the slave class, I can’t just approach the native Emiratis to ask questions when I see them wandering around – the men in cool white robes, the women in sweltering black. If you try, the women blank you, and the men look affronted, and tell you brusquely that Dubai is “fine”. So I browse through the Emirati blog-scene and found some typical-sounding young Emiratis. We meet – where else? – in the mall.

Ahmed al-Atar is a handsome 23-year-old with a neat, trimmed beard, tailored white robes, and rectangular wire-glasses. He speaks perfect American-English, and quickly shows that he knows London, Los Angeles and Paris better than most westerners. Sitting back in his chair in an identikit Starbucks, he announces: “This is the best place in the world to be young! The government pays for your education up to PhD level. You get given a free house when you get married. You get free healthcare, and if it’s not good enough here, they pay for you to go abroad. You don’t even have to pay for your phone calls. Almost everyone has a maid, a nanny, and a driver. And we never pay any taxes. Don’t you wish you were Emirati?”

I try to raise potential objections to this Panglossian summary, but he leans forward and says: “Look – my grandfather woke up every day and he would have to fight to get to the well first to get water. When the wells ran dry, they had to have water delivered by camel. They were always hungry and thirsty and desperate for jobs. He limped all his life, because he there was no medical treatment available when he broke his leg. Now look at us!”

For Emiratis, this is a Santa Claus state, handing out goodies while it makes its money elsewhere: through renting out land to foreigners, soft taxes on them like business and airport charges, and the remaining dribble of oil. Most Emiratis, like Ahmed, work for the government, so they’re cushioned from the credit crunch. “I haven’t felt any effect at all, and nor have my friends,” he says. “Your employment is secure. You will only be fired if you do something incredibly bad.” The laws are currently being tightened, to make it even more impossible to sack an Emirati.

Sure, the flooding-in of expats can sometimes be “an eyesore”, Ahmed says. “But we see the expats as the price we had to pay for this development. How else could we do it? Nobody wants to go back to the days of the desert, the days before everyone came. We went from being like an African country to having an average income per head of $120,000 a year. And we’re supposed to complain?”

He says the lack of political freedom is fine by him. “You’ll find it very hard to find an Emirati who doesn’t support Sheikh Mohammed.” Because they’re scared? “No, because we really all support him. He’s a great leader. Just look!” He smiles and says: “I’m sure my life is very much like yours. We hang out, have a coffee, go to the movies. You’ll be in a Pizza Hut or Nando’s in London, and at the same time I’ll be in one in Dubai,” he says, ordering another latte.

But do all young Emiratis see it this way? Can it really be so sunny in the political sands? In the sleek Emirates Tower Hotel, I meet Sultan al-Qassemi. He’s a 31-year-old Emirati columnist for the Dubai press and private art collector, with a reputation for being a contrarian liberal, advocating gradual reform. He is wearing Western clothes – blue jeans and a Ralph Lauren shirt – and speaks incredibly fast, turning himself into a manic whirr of arguments.

“People here are turning into lazy, overweight babies!” he exclaims. “The nanny state has gone too far. We don’t do anything for ourselves! Why don’t any of us work for the private sector? Why can’t a mother and father look after their own child?” And yet, when I try to bring up the system of slavery that built Dubai, he looks angry. “People should give us credit,” he insists. “We are the most tolerant people in the world. Dubai is the only truly international city in the world. Everyone who comes here is treated with respect.”

I pause, and think of the vast camps in Sonapur, just a few miles away. Does he even know they exist? He looks irritated. “You know, if there are 30 or 40 cases [of worker abuse] a year, that sounds like a lot but when you think about how many people are here…” Thirty or 40? This abuse is endemic to the system, I say. We’re talking about hundreds of thousands.

Sultan is furious. He splutters: “You don’t think Mexicans are treated badly in New York City? And how long did it take Britain to treat people well? I could come to London and write about the homeless people on Oxford Street and make your city sound like a terrible place, too! The workers here can leave any time they want! Any Indian can leave, any Asian can leave!”

But they can’t, I point out. Their passports are taken away, and their wages are withheld. “Well, I feel bad if that happens, and anybody who does that should be punished. But their embassies should help them.” They try. But why do you forbid the workers – with force – from going on strike against lousy employers? “Thank God we don’t allow that!” he exclaims. “Strikes are in-convenient! They go on the street – we’re not having that. We won’t be like France. Imagine a country where they the workers can just stop whenever they want!” So what should the workers do when they are cheated and lied to? “Quit. Leave the country.”

I sigh. Sultan is seething now. “People in the West are always complaining about us,” he says. Suddenly, he adopts a mock-whiny voice and says, in imitation of these disgusting critics: “Why don’t you treat animals better? Why don’t you have better shampoo advertising? Why don’t you treat labourers better?” It’s a revealing order: animals, shampoo, then workers. He becomes more heated, shifting in his seat, jabbing his finger at me. “I gave workers who worked for me safety goggles and special boots, and they didn’t want to wear them! It slows them down!”

And then he smiles, coming up with what he sees as his killer argument. “When I see Western journalists criticise us – don’t you realise you’re shooting yourself in the foot? The Middle East will be far more dangerous if Dubai fails. Our export isn’t oil, it’s hope. Poor Egyptians or Libyans or Iranians grow up saying – I want to go to Dubai. We’re very important to the region. We are showing how to be a modern Muslim country. We don’t have any fundamentalists here. Europeans shouldn’t gloat at our demise. You should be very worried…. Do you know what will happen if this model fails? Dubai will go down the Iranian path, the Islamist path.”

Sultan sits back. My arguments have clearly disturbed him; he says in a softer, conciliatory tone, almost pleading: “Listen. My mother used to go to the well and get a bucket of water every morning. On her wedding day, she was given an orange as a gift because she had never eaten one. Two of my brothers died when they were babies because the healthcare system hadn’t developed yet. Don’t judge us.” He says it again, his eyes filled with intensity: “Don’t judge us.”

V. The Dunkin’ Donuts Dissidents

But there is another face to the Emirati minority – a small huddle of dissidents, trying to shake the Sheikhs out of abusive laws. Next to a Virgin Megastore and a Dunkin’ Donuts, with James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful” blaring behind me, I meet the Dubai dictatorship’s Public Enemy Number One. By way of introduction, Mohammed al-Mansoori says from within his white robes and sinewy face: “Westerners come her and see the malls and the tall buildings and they think that means we are free. But these businesses, these buildings – who are they for? This is a dictatorship. The royal family think they own the country, and the people are their servants. There is no freedom here.”

We snuffle out the only Arabic restaurant in this mall, and he says everything you are banned – under threat of prison – from saying in Dubai. Mohammed tells me he was born in Dubai to a fisherman father who taught him one enduring lesson: Never follow the herd. Think for yourself. In the sudden surge of development, Mohammed trained as a lawyer. By the Noughties, he had climbed to the head of the Jurists’ Association, an organisation set up to press for Dubai’s laws to be consistent with international human rights legislation.

And then – suddenly – Mohammed thwacked into the limits of Sheikh Mohammed’s tolerance. Horrified by the “system of slavery” his country was being built on, he spoke out to Human Rights Watch and the BBC. “So I was hauled in by the secret police and told: shut up, or you will lose you job, and your children will be unemployable,” he says. “But how could I be silent?”

He was stripped of his lawyer’s licence and his passport – becoming yet another person imprisoned in this country. “I have been blacklisted and so have my children. The newspapers are not allowed to write about me.”

Why is the state so keen to defend this system of slavery? He offers a prosaic explanation. “Most companies are owned by the government, so they oppose human rights laws because it will reduce their profit margins. It’s in their interests that the workers are slaves.”

Last time there was a depression, there was a starbust of democracy in Dubai, seized by force from the sheikhs. In the 1930s, the city’s merchants banded together against Sheikh Said bin Maktum al-Maktum – the absolute ruler of his day – and insisted they be given control over the state finances. It lasted only a few years, before the Sheikh – with the enthusiastic support of the British – snuffed them out.

And today? Sheikh Mohammed turned Dubai into Creditopolis, a city built entirely on debt. Dubai owes 107 percent of its entire GDP. It would be bust already, if the neighbouring oil-soaked state of Abu Dhabi hadn’t pulled out its chequebook. Mohammed says this will constrict freedom even further. “Now Abu Dhabi calls the tunes – and they are much more conservative and restrictive than even Dubai. Freedom here will diminish every day.” Already, new media laws have been drafted forbidding the press to report on anything that could “damage” Dubai or “its economy”. Is this why the newspapers are giving away glossy supplements talking about “encouraging economic indicators”?

Everybody here waves Islamism as the threat somewhere over the horizon, sure to swell if their advice is not followed. Today, every imam is appointed by the government, and every sermon is tightly controlled to keep it moderate. But Mohammed says anxiously: “We don’t have Islamism here now, but I think that if you control people and give them no way to express anger, it could rise. People who are told to shut up all the time can just explode.”

Later that day, against another identikit-corporate backdrop, I meet another dissident – Abdulkhaleq Abdullah, Professor of Political Science at Emirates University. His anger focuses not on political reform, but the erosion of Emirati identity. He is famous among the locals, a rare outspoken conductor for their anger. He says somberly: “There has been a rupture here. This is a totally different city to the one I was born in 50 years ago.”

He looks around at the shiny floors and Western tourists and says: “What we see now didn’t occur in our wildest dreams. We never thought we could be such a success, a trendsetter, a model for other Arab countries. The people of Dubai are mighty proud of their city, and rightly so. And yet…” He shakes his head. “In our hearts, we fear we have built a modern city but we are losing it to all these expats.”

Adbulkhaleq says every Emirati of his generation lives with a “psychological trauma.” Their hearts are divided – “between pride on one side, and fear on the other.” Just after he says this, a smiling waitress approaches, and asks us what we would like to drink. He orders a Coke.

VI. Dubai Pride

There is one group in Dubai for whom the rhetoric of sudden freedom and liberation rings true – but it is the very group the government wanted to liberate least: gays.

Beneath a famous international hotel, I clamber down into possibly the only gay club on the Saudi Arabian peninsula. I find a United Nations of tank-tops and bulging biceps, dancing to Kylie, dropping ecstasy, and partying like it’s Soho. “Dubai is the best place in the Muslim world for gays!” a 25-year old Emirati with spiked hair says, his arms wrapped around his 31-year old “husband”. “We are alive. We can meet. That is more than most Arab gays.”

It is illegal to be gay in Dubai, and punishable by 10 years in prison. But the locations of the latest unofficial gay clubs circulate online, and men flock there, seemingly unafraid of the police. “They might bust the club, but they will just disperse us,” one of them says. “The police have other things to do.”

In every large city, gay people find a way to find each other – but Dubai has become the clearing-house for the region’s homosexuals, a place where they can live in relative safety. Saleh, a lean private in the Saudi Arabian army, has come here for the Coldplay concert, and tells me Dubai is “great” for gays: “In Saudi, it’s hard to be straight when you’re young. The women are shut away so everyone has gay sex. But they only want to have sex with boys – 15- to 21-year-olds. I’m 27, so I’m too old now. I need to find real gays, so this is the best place. All Arab gays want to live in Dubai.”

With that, Saleh dances off across the dancefloor, towards a Dutch guy with big biceps and a big smile.

VII. The Lifestyle

All the guidebooks call Dubai a “melting pot”, but as I trawl across the city, I find that every group here huddles together in its own little ethnic enclave – and becomes a caricature of itself. One night – in the heart of this homesick city, tired of the malls and the camps – I go to Double Decker, a hang-out for British expats. At the entrance there is a red telephone box, and London bus-stop signs. Its wooden interior looks like a cross between a colonial clubhouse in the Raj and an Eighties school disco, with blinking coloured lights and cheese blaring out. As I enter, a girl in a short skirt collapses out of the door onto her back. A guy wearing a pirate hat helps her to her feet, dropping his beer bottle with a paralytic laugh.

I start to talk to two sun-dried women in their sixties who have been getting gently sozzled since midday. “You stay here for The Lifestyle,” they say, telling me to take a seat and order some more drinks. All the expats talk about The Lifestyle, but when you ask what it is, they become vague. Ann Wark tries to summarise it: “Here, you go out every night. You’d never do that back home. You see people all the time. It’s great. You have lots of free time. You have maids and staff so you don’t have to do all that stuff. You party!”

They have been in Dubai for 20 years, and they are happy to explain how the city works. “You’ve got a hierarchy, haven’t you?” Ann says. “It’s the Emiratis at the top, then I’d say the British and other Westerners. Then I suppose it’s the Filipinos, because they’ve got a bit more brains than the Indians. Then at the bottom you’ve got the Indians and all them lot.”

They admit, however, they have “never” spoken to an Emirati. Never? “No. They keep themselves to themselves.” Yet Dubai has disappointed them. Jules Taylor tells me: “If you have an accident here it’s a nightmare. There was a British woman we knew who ran over an Indian guy, and she was locked up for four days! If you have a tiny bit of alcohol on your breath they’re all over you. These Indians throw themselves in front of cars, because then their family has to be given blood money – you know, compensation. But the police just blame us. That poor woman.”

A 24-year-old British woman called Hannah Gamble takes a break from the dancefloor to talk to me. “I love the sun and the beach! It’s great out here!” she says. Is there anything bad? “Oh yes!” she says. Ah: one of them has noticed, I think with relief. “The banks! When you want to make a transfer you have to fax them. You can’t do it online.” Anything else? She thinks hard. “The traffic’s not very good.”

When I ask the British expats how they feel to not be in a democracy, their reaction is always the same. First, they look bemused. Then they look affronted. “It’s the Arab way!” an Essex boy shouts at me in response, as he tries to put a pair of comedy antlers on his head while pouring some beer into the mouth of his friend, who is lying on his back on the floor, gurning.

Later, in a hotel bar, I start chatting to a dyspeptic expat American who works in the cosmetics industry and is desperate to get away from these people. She says: “All the people who couldn’t succeed in their own countries end up here, and suddenly they’re rich and promoted way above their abilities and bragging about how great they are. I’ve never met so many incompetent people in such senior positions anywhere in the world.” She adds: “It’s absolutely racist. I had Filipino girls working for me doing the same job as a European girl, and she’s paid a quarter of the wages. The people who do the real work are paid next to nothing, while these incompetent managers pay themselves £40,000 a month.”

With the exception of her, one theme unites every expat I speak to: their joy at having staff to do the work that would clog their lives up Back Home. Everyone, it seems, has a maid. The maids used to be predominantly Filipino, but with the recession, Filipinos have been judged to be too expensive, so a nice Ethiopian servant girl is the latest fashionable accessory.

It is an open secret that once you hire a maid, you have absolute power over her. You take her passport – everyone does; you decide when to pay her, and when – if ever – she can take a break; and you decide who she talks to. She speaks no Arabic. She cannot escape.

In a Burger King, a Filipino girl tells me it is “terrifying” for her to wander the malls in Dubai because Filipino maids or nannies always sneak away from the family they are with and beg her for help. “They say – ‘Please, I am being held prisoner, they don’t let me call home, they make me work every waking hour seven days a week.’ At first I would say – my God, I will tell the consulate, where are you staying? But they never know their address, and the consulate isn’t interested. I avoid them now. I keep thinking about a woman who told me she hadn’t eaten any fruit in four years. They think I have power because I can walk around on my own, but I’m powerless.”

The only hostel for women in Dubai – a filthy private villa on the brink of being repossessed – is filled with escaped maids. Mela Matari, a 25-year-old Ethiopian woman with a drooping smile, tells me what happened to her – and thousands like her. She was promised a paradise in the sands by an agency, so she left her four year-old daughter at home and headed here to earn money for a better future. “But they paid me half what they promised. I was put with an Australian family – four children – and Madam made me work from 6am to 1am every day, with no day off. I was exhausted and pleaded for a break, but they just shouted: ‘You came here to work, not sleep!’ Then one day I just couldn’t go on, and Madam beat me. She beat me with her fists and kicked me. My ear still hurts. They wouldn’t give me my wages: they said they’d pay me at the end of the two years. What could I do? I didn’t know anybody here. I was terrified.”

One day, after yet another beating, Mela ran out onto the streets, and asked – in broken English – how to find the Ethiopian consulate. After walking for two days, she found it, but they told her she had to get her passport back from Madam. “Well, how could I?” she asks. She has been in this hostel for six months. She has spoken to her daughter twice. “I lost my country, I lost my daughter, I lost everything,” she says.

As she says this, I remember a stray sentence I heard back at Double Decker. I asked a British woman called Hermione Frayling what the best thing about Dubai was. “Oh, the servant class!” she trilled. “You do nothing. They’ll do anything!”

VIII. The End of The World

The World is empty. It has been abandoned, its continents unfinished. Through binoculars, I think I can glimpse Britain; this sceptred isle barren in the salt-breeze.

Here, off the coast of Dubai, developers have been rebuilding the world. They have constructed artificial islands in the shape of all planet Earth’s land masses, and they plan to sell each continent off to be built on. There were rumours that the Beckhams would bid for Britain. But the people who work at the nearby coast say they haven’t seen anybody there for months now. “The World is over,” a South African suggests.

All over Dubai, crazy projects that were Under Construction are now Under Collapse. They were building an air-conditioned beach here, with cooling pipes running below the sand, so the super-rich didn’t singe their toes on their way from towel to sea.

The projects completed just before the global economy crashed look empty and tattered. The Atlantis Hotel was launched last winter in a $20m fin-de-siecle party attended by Robert De Niro, Lindsay Lohan and Lily Allen. Sitting on its own fake island – shaped, of course, like a palm tree – it looks like an immense upturned tooth in a faintly decaying mouth. It is pink and turreted – the architecture of the pharaohs, as reimagined by Zsa-Zsa Gabor. Its Grand Lobby is a monumental dome covered in glitterballs, held up by eight monumental concrete palm trees. Standing in the middle, there is a giant shining glass structure that looks like the intestines of every guest who has ever stayed at the Atlantis. It is unexpectedly raining; water is leaking from the roof, and tiles are falling off.

A South African PR girl shows me around its most coveted rooms, explaining that this is “the greatest luxury offered in the world”. We stroll past shops selling £24m diamond rings around a hotel themed on the lost and sunken continent of, yes, Atlantis. There are huge water tanks filled with sharks, which poke around mock-abandoned castles and dumped submarines. There are more than 1,500 rooms here, each with a sea view. The Neptune suite has three floors, and – I gasp as I see it – it looks out directly on to the vast shark tank. You lie on the bed, and the sharks stare in at you. In Dubai, you can sleep with the fishes, and survive.

But even the luxury – reminiscent of a Bond villain’s lair – is also being abandoned. I check myself in for a few nights to the classiest hotel in town, the Park Hyatt. It is the fashionistas’ favourite hotel, where Elle Macpherson and Tommy Hilfiger stay, a gorgeous, understated palace. It feels empty. Whenever I eat, I am one of the only people in the restaurant. A staff member tells me in a whisper: “It used to be full here. Now there’s hardly anyone.” Rattling around, I feel like Jack Nicholson in The Shining, the last man in an abandoned, haunted home.

The most famous hotel in Dubai – the proud icon of the city – is the Burj al Arab hotel, sitting on the shore, shaped like a giant glass sailing boat. In the lobby, I start chatting to a couple from London who work in the City. They have been coming to Dubai for 10 years now, and they say they love it. “You never know what you’ll find here,” he says. “On our last trip, at the beginning of the holiday, our window looked out on the sea. By the end, they’d built an entire island there.”

My patience frayed by all this excess, I find myself snapping: doesn’t the omnipresent slave class bother you? I hope they misunderstood me, because the woman replied: “That’s what we come for! It’s great, you can’t do anything for yourself!” Her husband chimes in: “When you go to the toilet, they open the door, they turn on the tap – the only thing they don’t do is take it out for you when you have a piss!” And they both fall about laughing.

IX. Taking on the Desert

Dubai is not just a city living beyond its financial means; it is living beyond its ecological means. You stand on a manicured Dubai lawn and watch the sprinklers spray water all around you. You see tourists flocking to swim with dolphins. You wander into a mountain-sized freezer where they have built a ski slope with real snow. And a voice at the back of your head squeaks: this is the desert. This is the most water-stressed place on the planet. How can this be happening? How is it possible?

The very earth is trying to repel Dubai, to dry it up and blow it away. The new Tiger Woods Gold Course needs four million gallons of water to be pumped on to its grounds every day, or it would simply shrivel and disappear on the winds. The city is regularly washed over with dust-storms that fog up the skies and turn the skyline into a blur. When the dust parts, heat burns through. It cooks anything that is not kept constantly, artificially wet.

Dr Mohammed Raouf, the environmental director of the Gulf Research Centre, sounds sombre as he sits in his Dubai office and warns: “This is a desert area, and we are trying to defy its environment. It is very unwise. If you take on the desert, you will lose.”

Sheikh Maktoum built his showcase city in a place with no useable water. None. There is no surface water, very little acquifer, and among the lowest rainfall in the world. So Dubai drinks the sea. The Emirates’ water is stripped of salt in vast desalination plants around the Gulf – making it the most expensive water on earth. It costs more than petrol to produce, and belches vast amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as it goes. It’s the main reason why a resident of Dubai has the biggest average carbon footprint of any human being – more than double that of an American.

If a recession turns into depression, Dr Raouf believes Dubai could run out of water. “At the moment, we have financial reserves that cover bringing so much water to the middle of the desert. But if we had lower revenues – if, say, the world shifts to a source of energy other than oil…” he shakes his head. “We will have a very big problem. Water is the main source of life. It would be a catastrophe. Dubai only has enough water to last us a week. There’s almost no storage. We don’t know what will happen if our supplies falter. It would be hard to survive.”

Global warming, he adds, makes the problem even worse. “We are building all these artificial islands, but if the sea level rises, they will be gone, and we will lose a lot. Developers keep saying it’s all fine, they’ve taken it into consideration, but I’m not so sure.”

Is the Dubai government concerned about any of this? “There isn’t much interest in these problems,” he says sadly. But just to stand still, the average resident of Dubai needs three times more water than the average human. In the looming century of water stresses and a transition away from fossil fuels, Dubai is uniquely vulnerable.

I wanted to understand how the government of Dubai will react, so I decided to look at how it has dealt with an environmental problem that already exists – the pollution of its beaches. One woman – an American, working at one of the big hotels – had written in a lot of online forums arguing that it was bad and getting worse, so I called her to arrange a meeting. “I can’t talk to you,” she said sternly. Not even if it’s off the record? “I can’t talk to you.” But I don’t have to disclose your name… “You’re not listening. This phone is bugged. I can’t talk to you,” she snapped, and hung up.

The next day I turned up at her office. “If you reveal my identity, I’ll be sent on the first plane out of this city,” she said, before beginning to nervously pace the shore with me. “It started like this. We began to get complaints from people using the beach. The water looked and smelled odd, and they were starting to get sick after going into it. So I wrote to the ministers of health and tourism and expected to hear back immediately – but there was nothing. Silence. I hand-delivered the letters. Still nothing.”

The water quality got worse and worse. The guests started to spot raw sewage, condoms, and used sanitary towels floating in the sea. So the hotel ordered its own water analyses from a professional company. “They told us it was full of fecal matter and bacteria ‘too numerous to count’. I had to start telling guests not to go in the water, and since they’d come on a beach holiday, as you can imagine, they were pretty pissed off.” She began to make angry posts on the expat discussion forums – and people began to figure out what was happening. Dubai had expanded so fast its sewage treatment facilities couldn’t keep up. The sewage disposal trucks had to queue for three or four days at the treatment plants – so instead, they were simply drilling open the manholes and dumping the untreated sewage down them, so it flowed straight to the sea.

Suddenly, it was an open secret – and the municipal authorities finally acknowledged the problem. They said they would fine the truckers. But the water quality didn’t improve: it became black and stank. “It’s got chemicals in it. I don’t know what they are. But this stuff is toxic.”

She continued to complain – and started to receive anonymous phone calls. “Stop embarassing Dubai, or your visa will be cancelled and you’re out,” they said. She says: “The expats are terrified to talk about anything. One critical comment in the newspapers and they deport you. So what am I supposed to do? Now the water is worse than ever. People are getting really sick. Eye infections, ear infections, stomach infections, rashes. Look at it!” There is faeces floating on the beach, in the shadow of one of Dubai’s most famous hotels.

“What I learnt about Dubai is that the authorities don’t give a toss about the environment,” she says, standing in the stench. “They’re pumping toxins into the sea, their main tourist attraction, for God’s sake. If there are environmental problems in the future, I can tell you now how they will deal with them – deny it’s happening, cover it up, and carry on until it’s a total disaster.” As she speaks, a dust-storm blows around us, as the desert tries, slowly, insistently, to take back its land.

X. Fake Plastic Trees

On my final night in the Dubai Disneyland, I stop off on my way to the airport, at a Pizza Hut that sits at the side of one of the city’s endless, wide, gaping roads. It is identical to the one near my apartment in London in every respect, even the vomit-coloured decor. My mind is whirring and distracted. Perhaps Dubai disturbed me so much, I am thinking, because here, the entire global supply chain is condensed. Many of my goods are made by semi-enslaved populations desperate for a chance 2,000 miles away; is the only difference that here, they are merely two miles away, and you sometimes get to glimpse their faces? Dubai is Market Fundamentalist Globalisation in One City.

I ask the Filipino girl behind the counter if she likes it here. “It’s OK,” she says cautiously. Really? I say. I can’t stand it. She sighs with relief and says: “This is the most terrible place! I hate it! I was here for months before I realised – everything in Dubai is fake. Everything you see. The trees are fake, the workers’ contracts are fake, the islands are fake, the smiles are fake – even the water is fake!” But she is trapped, she says. She got into debt to come here, and she is stuck for three years: an old story now. “I think Dubai is like an oasis. It is an illusion, not real. You think you have seen water in the distance, but you get close and you only get a mouthful of sand.”

As she says this, another customer enters. She forces her face into the broad, empty Dubai smile and says: “And how may I help you tonight, sir?”

Some names in this article have been changed.

Até bem pouco tempo atrás quando nos lembrávamos de Dubai, logo nos vinha a mente imagens como essas do post anterior.

Dubai teve um crescimento no seu PIB de 168% nos últimos 6 anos, isso da uma média de 28% ao ano de crescimento do PIB. Só o setor de construção civil foi responsável por 8% do PIB do emirado, existiam previsões de aportes na construção civil de até US$ 100 bilhões de dólares até 2010.

Mas infelizmente com a crise americana que não para de crescer, as previsões de crescimento para Dubai em 2009 são bastante preocupantes, a expectativa é que Dubai cresça apenas 6% em 2009.

E o reflexo desce decréscimo já estamos assistindo logo no segundo mês de 2009, as taxas de desemprego não param de aumentar, para se ter uma idéia do que estamos falando mais de 3 mil carros estão abandonados no aeroporto de Dubai por estrangeiros que não tiveram condições de quitar sua dívidas.

A situação hoje é totalmente diferente, carros de luxo estão sendo vendidos com descontos de até 40% em relação a dois meses atrás, segundo concessionárias locais, os preços do mercado imobiliário, que aumentaram dramaticamente durante a expansão de seis anos de Dubai, caíram 30% ou mais nos últimos dois ou três meses em algumas partes da cidade. Na semana passada, a agência de classificação financeira Moody’s anunciou que poderia baixar as notas de seis das mais importantes companhias estatais de Dubai, citando uma deterioração das perspectivas econômicas.

Sem contar nos indicadores de desemprego e nos níveis salariais, até bem pouco tempo atrás a oferta de emprego era altíssima, hoje a média para se conseguir duas entrevistas esta levando três meses de procura para duas entrevistas.

O salário mínimo também esta recuando, para se ter uma idéia o salário mínimo para um engenheiro civil com quatro anos de experiência era cerca de 15 mil dirhams por mês. Agora, o máximo oferecido é 8 mil dirhams(ou cerca de US$ 2 mil), ouve uma queda de quase 50% no salário mínimo dessa categoria.

Infelizmente a realidade é essa, tigres que até pouco tempo brilhavam aos novos ouvidos como novas potencias econômicas, hoje estão desmoronando como um castelo de cartas.

Quem será o próximo a cair?

Josué Silva

Another day, a normal day here in Erfoud, south east Morocco. I went to the market to get some groceries, fruits and vegetables. Erfoud market is in the city center just opposite of the grand taxi and bus stop.

I got lots of stuff, the normal weekly shopping.

I made a small list of the things I bought today just to share with you so that you can have a general idea of how much things cost here in south Morocco (yes prices are different depending of the city).

i bought exactly 20kg of fruits and vegetables for 9.5 Euros, 1.5kg of olives for 1.8 Euros, 5 breads for 1.2 Euros, 3.5kg of fresh maajoul dates for 9 Euros per kg, and 4 plain iogurts kind of sweet cream cheese.

Moroccan Dirhams / Euro exchange rate:

• 10 Moroccan dirhams = 0.885998589 Euros
• 1 Euro = 11.2866997 Moroccan dirhams

Prices in Morocco

• Turnip 1kg = 3 dirhams
• Carrot 1kg = 4 dirhams
• Cucumber 1kg = 4 dirhams
• Potatoes 1kg = 4 dirhams
• Onion 1kg = 3.5 dirhams
• Tangerine 1kg = 5 dirhams
• Sugar 1kg = 5 dirhams
• Zucchini 1kg = 6 dirhams
• Tomato 1kg = 5 dirhams
• Large apple good quality 1kg = 13 dirhams
• Banana 1kg = 10Dirhams
• Oranges 1kg = 5 dirhams
• Great homemade bread = 2.5 dirhams
• Black olives homemade 1kg = 13 dirhams
• Purple olives 1kg = 2.5 dirhams
• Seasoned olives varied mix 1kg = 2.5 dirhams
• Sweet cream cheese 1 package = 2.5 dirhams
• Fresh dates Maajoul type 1kg = 9 Euros

Mais um dia de ida ao mercado para comprar os vegetais e fruta para a semana. O mercado de Erfoud fica em frente da praça de táxis no centro da cidade.

Comprei coisas variadas, muita fruta, vegetais, tâmaras, pão e azeitonas. Faço uma pequena lista de coisas que comprei hoje. Ao todo comprei 20kgs de vegetais e fruta variada por 108 Dirhams (9.5 Euros), 1.5ks de azeitonas por 1.8 Euros e 5 pães por 1,2 Euros. As tâmaras comprei 3.5kg, e, porque são as de melhor qualidade custaram cerca de 9 Euros o kg.

Dirhams marroquinos / Euro:

• 10 Dirhams marroquinos = 0.885998589 Euros
• 1 Euro = 11.2866997 Dirhams marroquinos

Preços em Marrocos

• Nabo 1kg = 3 Dirhams
• Cenoura 1kg = 4 Dirhams
• Pepino 1kg = 4 Dirhams
• Batata 1kg = 4 Dirhams
• Cebola 1kg = 3.5 Dirhams
• Tangerina 1kg = 5 Dirhams
• Beterraba 1kg = 5 Dirhams
• Courgette 1kg = 6 Dirhams
• Tomate 1kg = 5 Dirhams
• Maçã grande boa qualidade 1kg = 13 Dirhams
• Banana 1kg = 10Dirhams
• Laranjas 1kg = 5 Dirhams
• Pão caseiro grande = 2.5 Dirhams
• Azeitonas pretas caseiras 1kg = 13 Dirhams
• Azeitonas roxa 1kg = 2.5 Dirhams
• Azeitonas temperadas mix variado 1kg = 2.5 Dirhams
• Tâmaras grandes maajoul 1kg = 100 Dirhams

El Polisario sopesa el retorno a la lucha armada, dice responsable saharaui

El Frente Polisario considera de nuevo la posibilidad de una vuelta a la lucha armada contra el Ejército marroquí en el Sáhara Occidental, indicó un responsable de ese movimiento independentista saharaui.

‘El Ejército de Liberación Popular saharaui está dispuesto para una vuelta a las armas si es necesario’, ha advertido Brahim Ahmed Mahmud, un alto oficial de ese ejército y miembro del Secretariado Nacional del Frente Polisario en una declaración difundida hoy por la agencia de prensa saharaui SPS.

Mahmud hizo esta declaración con motivo de un desfile militar organizado con motivo de la segunda edición de Festival Artifariti que se desarrolla desde el 22 de noviembre hasta el 6 de diciembre en Tifariti, en territorio bajo control del Polisario.

Con anterioridad, en mayo pasado con ocasión del 35 aniversario de la creación del Polisario y el comienzo de la lucha armada, este mismo oficial había señalado que ‘nosotros privilegiamos una solución pacífica y negociada que garantice el derecho del pueblo saharaui a la autodeterminación, pero el alto el fuego no significa el fin de la guerra’.

Asimismo el presidente saharaui, Mohamed Abdelaziz, evocó esa misma opción en abril pasado durante una entrevista con Efe al afirmar que los saharauis no renunciarán nunca a la defensa de sus derechos, ‘incluida la vuelta a la lucha armada’.

El Polisario acusa a Marruecos de bloquear la reanudación de las negociaciones directas al no dar su acuerdo al nombramiento del diplomático estadounidense Christopher Ross como nuevo enviado especial del secretario general de la ONU para el Sáhara Occidental.

A principios del pasado mes de octubre el secretario general de la ONU, Ban Ki-moon, informó de su decisión de designar a Ross a la parte saharaui, que dio su aceptación, en tanto que la marroquí aún no se ha pronunciado.

En abril 2007, el Consejo de Seguridad de la ONU apeló a los contendientes a entablar ‘negociaciones directas y sin condiciones previas’ para encontrar una solución a este conflicto territorial, cuya última cuarta ronda se celebró en Manhasset, cerca de Nueva York, sin resultados.

Está prevista una quinta ronda de negociaciones pero aún carece de fecha.

Fuente original: http://actualidad.terra.es/nacional/articulo/polisario-sopesa-retorno-lucha-armada-2922932.htm

LA VERDAD DEL PLAN DE AUTONOMIA MARROQUI

Muchos leemos u oimos hablar del Plan marroquí de Autonomía para el Sáhara y muchos incluso lo verán como un gran avance para el Pueblo Saharaui, que por fin podrá salir de los campamentos de Tindouf y volver a su tierra. Por supuesto, en este último grupo no meto a los políticos, ya que tanto Zapatero como su gobierno como el resto de los gobiernos del mundo, saben que en la práctica, el Plan marroquí de Autonomía para el Sáhara Occidental, significa:

- Tener plena capacidad para expoliar los recursos naturales saharauis de una forma más “legal”. Los beneficios obtenidos de esto, lógicamente, no serán repartidos entre la población marroquí o saharaui menos favorecida, puesto que serán destinados a aumentar las riquezas del sultán Mohamed VI, de su familia, de los miles de afines al régimen y de los generales del ejército marroquí.

- Tener carta blanca para acabar con cualquier resquicio de Derechos Humanos en el territorio del Sáhara Occidental. Una vez que los escasos observadores internacionales y la MINURSO se retiren del territorio del Sáhara Occidental, el régimen marroquí podrá detener, violar, asesinar, torturar y encarcelar a cualquier saharaui sin necesidad de rendir cuentas por ello. En eso los saharauis tendrán igualdad de derechos con la población marroquí.

- Acabar con la libertad de prensa saharaui como en el territorio marroquí. Ninguna voz discordante será permitida. Cualquier periodista, blogger o pensador que sea crítico con el régimen serán encarcelado y torturado en igualdad con la población marroquí.

- Los niños saharauis que sufran la miseria y exclusión social tendrán todo el derecho de prostituirse con el beneplácito del régimen marroquí en igualdad de derechos con los niños marroquíes que son prostituidos en ciudades marroquíes como Marrakech con la vista gorda del sultán y su régimen.

- Las niñas saharauis podrán ser obligadas a casarse a los 9 años como en marruecos porque algunos representantes religiosos marroquíes opinan que “las niñas de 9 años dan mejores resultados en la cama). De esta forma, tendrán igualdad de derechos con las niñas marroquíes.

- Acabar con cualquier avance democrático que pudiera haberse conseguido en los campamentos de refugiados de Tindouf para que los saharauis tengan igualdad de derechos con los millones de marroquíes que no han visto un avance democrático en su vida.

- Acabar con el papel fundamental de la mujer saharaui en los campamentos de Tindouf. Pasarán a ser ciudadanas de segunda clase en igualdad de derechos con las mujeres marroquíes.

- Acabar con el sistema educativo saharaui, el más avanzado del continente africano. De esta forma, los niños saharauis que no sean víctimas del genocidio saharaui, podrán ser masivamente analfabetos como los niños marroquíes. Al menos el 50% de la población marroquí se tendrá que convertir en analfabeta en 20 años para evitar distinción de clases con la población marroquí.

- Reforzar las reivindicaciones marroquíes sobre Canarias, Ceuta, Melilla y parte de Argelia para seguir con los planes colonialistas y expansionistas del régimen marroquí.

- Fomentar la emigración de la población saharaui que no sufra el Genocidio Saharaui para que tenga plena igualdad de derechos con la población marroquí. El régimen marroquí fomentará la emigración ilegal porque patera o cayuco hundido con saharauis dentro es un avance para conseguir el Genocidio Saharaui.

- Finalizar el Genocidio Saharaui. Acabar con el plan que inició el sultán Hassan II en 1975 con los bombardeos con napalm, fósforo blanco y bombas de fragmentación contra mujeres, niños y ancianos que huían de la ocupación marroquí. Si se extermina finalmente a la población saharaui, se acabará definitivamente con el problema.

Madrid tramitará una ayuda directa en material y alimentos para el pueblo saharaui

El Ayuntamiento de Madrid tramitará con carácter de urgencia la concesión de una ayuda directa en material y de alimentos al pueblo saharaui, colaborando para su gestión con la Delegación Saharaui en la capital, tras aprobarse por unanimidad de los tres grupos una propuesta de IU en este sentido durante la celebración del Pleno municipal de noviembre en la Casa de la Villa.

La edil de IU Milagros Hernández recordó que “el problema político del pueblo saharaui sigue sin resolverse, a la espera de que las Naciones Unidas cumpla con el acuerdo de legalidad internacional para la realización del referéndum de autodeterminación“.

“Mientras tanto, el pueblo saharaui sobrevive gracias a la ayuda internacional, que ha venido recortándose en los últimos periodos, ya que tanto el Alto Comisionado de Naciones Unidas para los Refugiados (ACNUR) como el Programa Mundial de Alimentos (PMA) han disminuido los presupuestos para la ayuda humanitaria, lo que ha tenido como consecuencia pasar de mantener la cobertura alimentaria de 148.000 habitantes a sólo 90.000 en la actualidad“, apuntó Hernández.

Según sus datos, esto está generando un aumento de la malnutrición entre la población infantil, de mujeres y de mayores, con lo que “en la actualidad un 35 por ciento de la población está afectada por anemias nutricionales“.

“En este contexto, en el pasado mes de octubre varias provincias (wilayas) fueron devastadas a causa de inundaciones y fuertes tormentas de arena que afectaron a 1.850 hogares y destruyeron el almacén y, con ello, del stock de alimentos que conservaba la Media Luna Roja, lo que supone que en la actualidad no existe stock alimentario, repartiéndose al día lo recibido por ayuda internacional“, apostilló.

Así, la edil de la coalición de izquierdas puso como ejemplo al Gobierno de la Comunitat Valenciana, que “el pasado 7 de noviembre celebró una Conferencia Internacional por el Pueblo Saharaui, en el que el presidente de la República Saharaui y el presidente de la comunidad autónoma, Francisco Camps, llegaron a un convenio de colaboración permanente“.

“En nuestra comunidad autónoma son muchos los ayuntamientos que mantienen ya también este tipo de colaboración directo con las delegaciones sahararuis”, concluyó la edil, proponiendo por tanto que “se tramite con carácter de urgencia una ayuda directa en material y alimentos al pueblo saharaui a través de la delegación saharaui en Madrid“.

Sáhara en Madrid

Según datos del Gobierno municipal, el Ayuntamiento “tiene una trayectoria continuada de prestación de ayuda humanitaria a la población saharaui refugiada afectada por el conflicto del Sahara Occidental” que se canaliza principalmente a través de la Asociación de Amigos del Pueblo Saharaui-Madrid, la ONG madrileña más especializada en ayuda humanitaria a la zona, que a su vez trabaja con la Media Luna Roja Saharaui.

Esta entidad se encarga desde 1975 de recabar y coordinar la ayuda humanitaria destinada a la población saharaui que habita en estos campamentos y, desde 1996, ha recibido fondos del Consistorio por importe de 1,37 millones euros para la realización de trece proyectos de cooperación al desarrollo y de ayuda humanitaria con destino a los campamentos de refugiados.

En 2007, se concedió una nueva subvención de 60.000 euros para que la Asociación adquiriera, transportara y distribuyera ayuda alimentaria básica para atender las graves necesidades de alimentación en los campamentos de refugiados saharauis. Los programas de ACNUR y el PMA no alcanzaban a cubrir las necesidades de alimentación.

Plan Baker

Tanto el Grupo Municipal Socialista como el Popular votaron a favor de la propuesta, si bien la delegada de Familia y Servicios Sociales, Concepción Dancausa, reprochó a los socialistas que, tras criticar las políticas populares en esta materia, sea su partido el que “ha roto el cumplimiento del acuerdo Baker“, el enviado especial de la ONU en el Sáhara, que tras intentar seguir adelante con el Plan de Paz para elaborar un censo previo a un referéndum de autodeterminación, puso después sobre la mesa su propio plan.

Este Plan, presentado a principios de 2003, consistía en elegir a una autoridad autonómica para el Sáhara antes de organizar, al cabo de un periodo máximo de cinco años, un referéndum de autodeterminación, pero con un censo teóricamente favorable a Marruecos. Rabat descartó esta solución que, en cambio, Argelia y el Polisario aceptaron.

Pese al apoyo por unanimidad del Consejo de Seguridad de las Naciones Unidas, la necesidad de instar a las partes en conflicto a colaborar en su puesta en práctica no hizo que Marruecos diera ningún paso en esta dirección. En junio de 2004, James Baker dimitió de su cargo.

Fuente original: http://www.diariodirecto.com/autonomia/madrid/2008/11/28/madrid-ayuda-saharaui-675823390483.html

El atentado del Cruz del Mar cumple su 30 aniversario

Lanzarote sigue recordando a los pescadores fallecidos en el “Cruz del Mar”. Este viernes se cumplen 30 años de los angustiosos momentos vividos por la tripulación del barco pesquero, donde un total de siete marineros lanzaroteños fueron asesinados a manos de unos asaltantes que abordaron la embarcación en aguas saharauis, provistos de ametralladoras. Sólo tres pescadores lograron volver con vida y contar lo sucedido. Año tras año, el 28 de noviembre, la sociedad conejera rinde un emotivo homenaje en recuerdo de los fallecidos.

Ese fatídico 28 de noviembre de 1978, un grupo de asaltantes abordó la embarcación pesquera “Cruz del Mar” y asesinó a siete de los diez pescadores que faenaban en aguas saharauis. Entre los tres pescadores que salvaron la vida aquel día, se encuentra Miguel Ángel Rodríguez, que forma parte de la Asociación Canaria de Víctimas del Terrorismo (ACAVITE).

Qué ocurrió aquel 28 de noviembre en aguas saharauis es todavía hoy, treinta años después , una incógnita resuelta a medias. Las causas no están claras. Mientras Marruecos culpaba al Frente Polisario arguyendo que pretendía evitar la explotación de la pesca en zonas que consideraba de su propiedad, el pueblo saharaui aseguraba que este asesinato fue preparado y ejecutado por Marruecos para boicotear el entendimiento de España con el Frente Polisario. Por otra parte, las víctimas siguen denunciando que el Gobierno español no llegó a investigar los hechos de forma detallada.

Sentido Homenaje

En memoria de los fallecidos, y con el afán de que el suceso no caiga en el olvido, el organismo social canario Titeroygakat ha organizado un año más diversos actos para conmemorar el trigésimo aniversario de la tragedia. Un homenaje póstumo a la memoria de las víctimas del Cruz del Mar convocado a las 17:30 horas en la cruz centenaria ubicada en el Islote del Francés y, posteriormente, una misa funeral y una ofrenda floral servirán para recordar la tragedia que en 1978 conmocionó a la sociedad lanzaroteña, más directamente a la barriada de Valterra, que sintió el drama como propio. El dolor, la rabia y la impotencia se mezclaron aquellos días y muchos son los conejeros que pretenden que este suceso no se olvide.

El Partido de Independientes de Lanzarote que considera los hechos como terroristas, asegura en un comunicado de prensa que los pescadores del Cruz del Mar no fueron los únicos que entre 1976 y 1985 fueron asaltados en aguas saharauis, ya que un total de 17 pescadores fueron asesinados en parecidas circunstancias. Además, desde el PIL hablan de “trato discriminatorio” hacia los ciudadanos canarios, ya que aseguran que las víctimas no recibieron ni la atención, cuidado o estima por parte del Estado que aseguran “sí han gozado los ciudadanos víctimas del conflicto en el País Vasco”.

Fuente original: http://www.lavozdelanzarote.com/spip.php?article22860

LAS CONTRADICCIONES DE ARISTEGUI

Marruecos condecora a Gustavo de Arístegui por promover las relaciones bilaterales

MADRID.- El reino de Marruecos premia a Gustavo de Arístegui. El portavoz de Exteriores del Partido Popular en el Congreso de los Diputados recibirá posiblemente a finales del mes de octubre en Rabat el ‘Wisam Alaui’, el galardón de mayor distinción del país —una especie de Príncipe de Asturias—.

Así se lo ha hecho saber por carta el Embajador de Marruecos en España, el ex ministro de Justicia Omar Azziman, quien detalla en la misiva que el premio reconoce la permanente promoción de las relaciones de amistad-hispano marroquí a lo largo de su trayectoria política.

Gustavo de Arístegui considera un punto de inflexión el hecho de ser el elegido: “Soy del PP, que no siempre ha sido bien visto en Marruecos. Además, he defendido la españolidad de Ceuta y Melilla, que me lo concedan pese a que he expresado mis divergencias, es un síntoma positivo”, dijo a elmundo.es

Según explica, siempre ha apostado porque España y Marruecos tengan una relación fluida y estrecha y no acepta eso de que por ser vecinos “están condenados a entenderse”. Considera que una de las claves para haber sido galardonado reside en su permanente reconocimiento a los avances sociales, políticos y económicos de Marruecos.

Sin embargo, en algunos sitios de Internet de contenidos islámicos e información sobre el Magreb y el mundo árabe en general han aparecido críticas a esta condecoración. Ven en ella la manera en que Marruecos “agradece” el apoyo de Arístegui a su Plan de Autonomía para el Sáhara. Él matiza: “Siempre he defendido que las dos partes del conflicto tienen que renunciar a sus maximalismos para llegar a una solución satisfactoria para ambos. Esto Marruecos ya lo ha hecho, con su Plan de Autonomía que aunque es claramente insuficientes, es un paso“.

“Cada país tiene que defender sus aspiraciones legítimas, y éstas deben estar en el marco de la legalidad internacional y de las resoluciones de las Naciones Unidas”, apunta.

El político, que cuenta con una carrera diplomática de años en varios países árabes, se defiende además de las acusaciones de islamófobo —”En todo caso soy islamistófobo”, bromea—. Sobre Marruecos dice que valora su modelo de integración de un islam moderado y el rechazo al extremismo.

Insiste en que islam e islamismo no es lo mismo y asegura que las primeras víctimas del islam radical son el resto de musulmanes que no piensan como ellos. “Quien lea con atención lo que yo escribo sabrá que no soy para nada islamófobo. Defiendo y admiro el islam moderado, que además es el que practica la aplastante mayoría de los musulmanes”. añade.

Fuente original: http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2008/09/24/espana/1222293581.html

MARTA DOMÍNGUEZ, MECENAS DE LA PRESENTACIÓN

MARCA, con el Maratón del Sáhara

MARCA El miércoles se presentó una nueva edición del Maratón del Sáhara en Rivas Vaciamadrid, en las afueras de la capital de España, un Ayuntamiento muy cercano a las causas sociales. El Maratón es una carrera solidaria a nivel internacional, en apoyo a la lucha llevada a cabo por el pueblo saharaui y que tendrá lugar el próximo 23 de febrero en los campamentos de Tinduf.

Esta iniciativa que une deporte y aventura por un fin humanitario justo constará, además del clásico recorrido del maratón, de pruebas con distancias de 21 kilómetros, 10 kilómetros, 5 kilómetros y una carrera infantil. Además, habrá un dorsal cero para que todos los interesados puedan realizar voluntariamente una aportación económica para la causa.

En la presentación estuvieron presentes la atleta Marta Domínguez, considerada la mejor de la historia de España, y Juan Manuel Bueno, redactor jefe de fotografía de MARCA y que en la pasada edición realizó un impresionante reportaje de este interesante evento

Abdelaziz acusa a Marruecos de ser un país “productor y exportador” de droga

Escrito por EFE

jueves, 27 de noviembre de 2008

El presidente de la República Árabe Saharaui Democrática (RASD), Mohamed Abdelaziz, acusó ayer a Marruecos de ser un país “productor y exportador de droga” y aseguró que “no aceptarán de ningún modo” que los territorios que controlan en el Sahara Occidental sirvan al tráfico de estupefacientes. Según la agencia saharaui SPS, Abdelaziz subrayó durante un discurso de apertura del año judicial que el Frente Polisario “no admitirá que los bienes y la dignidad de los saharauis se vean amenazados por quienes buscan rendimientos con el comercio de la droga u otros fenómenos”. “Somos responsables a nivel de los aparatos directivos y ejecutivos de la protección y la seguridad de nuestros ciudadanos”, dijo y recalcó que no aceptarán “el tráfico o el comercio de droga por parte de sus capataces activos en Casablanca o en otras ciudades marroquíes”. Asimismo, Abdelaziz expresó su solidaridad con los “presos políticos saharauis que se encuentran en las cárceles marroquíes” y exigió su liberación “inmediata e incondicional”. En este sentido, destacó que el premio Robert Kennedy de Derechos Humanos, concedido recientemente a la activista saharaui Aminetu Haidar, es “el resultado de los sacrificios de los defensores de los derechos saharauis en los territorios ocupados, al sur de Marruecos y en las universidades marroquíes”. Aminetu Haidar, calificada como la “Gandhi saharaui”, recibió el pasado 13 de noviembre durante una ceremonia en el Senado de EEUU el Premio de Derechos Humanos de la prestigiosa Fundación Robert Kennedy. Haidar, de 41 años, sufrió varios años de prisión en las cárceles marroquíes, y obtuvo el galardón “por su activismo en pro de los derechos humanos y la autodeterminación del Sahara occidental”.

Una experta destaca que la desigualdad es el principal motivo de emigración en Marruecos

La profesora Nadi Nair, de la Universidad Abdelmalek Essaadi de Tetuán (Marruecos), ha destacado en Ceuta que la desigualdad es el principal motivo que empuja a las mujeres marroquíes a buscar un futuro mejor en Europa y ha defendido la libertad de las mismas para usar el velo islámico.

La experta ha efectuado esta reflexión con motivo de la presentación de la ponencia “Las mujeres emigrantes en Europa: un largo camino hacia la ciudadanía” presentada anoche en el “VI Congreso Nacional de Inmigración” que se inauguró en la ciudad ceutí.

La experta, que es responsable de la asociación Unión de Acción Femenina, ha dicho a los periodistas que “las causas que llevan a la inmigración de las mujeres marroquíes son la pobreza, porque cada vez existen más desigualdades entre norte y sur, entre países desarrollados y países en desarrollo”.

Ha indicado que la inmigración de las mujeres “es un fenómeno nuevo por el que las mujeres de países musulmanes migran con un proyecto propio, no a partir de un hombre, ya no hablamos de migración pasiva, sino activa”.

La causa de este cambio ha sido que “se asiste a una feminización de la pobreza a nivel internacional y también por el problema del desempleo, porque aunque tengan muy buena formación, son las principales afectadas por el paro”.

También ha indicado que “el esquema tradicional es que el hombre es el que tiene que mantener a la familia pero la realidad es distinta porque el 20 por ciento de las familias marroquíes están encabezadas por mujeres”.

Nadi Nair ha considerado que “prevalece la migración masculina pero se ve que las mujeres, últimamente, tienen más facilidad de acceder al trabajo cuando salen a Europa, sobre todo, en el trabajo doméstico que es un sector precario pero se les presenta esa oportunidad”.

Fuente original: http://www.diariometro.es/es/article/efe/2008/11/26/748482/index.xml

Marruecos y Sáhara protagonizan una intriga diplomática en Dinamarca - Basándose en información del Ministerio de Defensa de Marruecos, cuatro medios de comunicación en Rabat informan de que la representación del Sáhara Occidental en Copenhague ha sido cerrada por orden del gobierno danés. “Tonterías”, dicen fuentes danesas, añadiendo que la información falsa llega como una respuesta a las informaciones aparecidas en medios de comunicación daneses sobre un escándalo sexual en la Embajada de Marruecos.

afrol News, 26 de Noviembre

‘ASM’, una publicación emitida por el Ministerio marroquí de Defensa, fue el primer medio de comunicación en Rabat que a comienzos de esta semana anunciaba que “el Gobierno de Dinamarca” ha tomado la “decisión” de “cerrar la representación del Polisario en Copenhague”. El Frente Polisario, el movimiento de lucha por la descolonización del Sáhara Occidental desde la década de los 70 y que forma gobierno en el exilio de este país miembros de la Unión Africana (UA), tiene relativamente buenas relaciones con Dinamarca y otros países nórdicos, en el sentido de que su expulsión supondría un golpe mediático para los saharauis.

A lo largo de la semana, también los periódicos marroquíes ‘Le Point ‘y’ Le Soir’, próximos al gobiernos pero que gozan de cierta credibilidad, informaban sobre el cierre de la representación del Polisario en Dinamarca. Por último, el día de hoy, el más radical ‘Le Matin du Sahara et du Magreb’ celebraba la “noticia” como “una importante decisión” por parte del Ministerio danés de Asuntos Exteriores, debido a la “excesiva agitación política” de los saharauis en el país nórdico.

Sin embargo, ni el Ministerio danés de Asuntos Exteriores, ni la prensa danesa han informado acerca de cualquier decisión de cerrar una “representación del Polisario en Copenhague”. De hecho, la periodista danesa Ingrid Pedersen, que ha seguido de cerca el conflicto entre Marruecos y Sáhara Occidental, dijo hoy a afrol News que las informaciones difundidas por la prensa marroquí son “puras tonterías”.

Pedersen explica que el cierre es imposible, “porque de hecho el Polisario no tiene ninguna oficina [acreditada] de representación en Dinamarca. Cuenta con un representante que vive en un piso de dos dormitorios en la isla de Amager”, a las afueras de Copenhague. “El Ministerio de Exteriores no tiene nada que ver con sus asuntos, salvo que él tiene permiso para residir y trabajar en Dinamarca”, añade.

El representante del Polisario en Dinamarca, Abba Malainin, también negó las informaciones difundidas por Marruecos, puntualizando a afrol News que “la representación del Polisario sigue trabajando como de costumbre en Dinamarca”. Las historias han sido originadas por “la maquinaria de propaganda marroquí”, añadió.

Ante la pregunta de por qué los medios de comunicación controlados por el gobierno marroquí publicarían una historia así en este momento, varias fuentes independientemente en Dinamarca coinciden en explicar a afrol News que este asunto parece estar relacionado con una “venganza por la divertida historia” que el diario conservador ‘Jyllands-Posten’ en Dinamarca publicó sobre un escándalo sexual en la Embajada de Marruecos en Copenhague.

Raddad el Okbani, cónsul en la Embajada fue denunciado por acoso sexual y corrupción por parte de ciudadanos daneses-marroquíes, y alrededor de 200 personas salieron a la calle el pasado 15 de noviembre para exigir su dimisión. Los manifestantes declararon a ‘Jyllands-Posten’ “la forma en que el Cónsul en repetidas ocasiones había pedido sobornos y servicios sexuales para obtener su firma en documentos oficiales. También denunciaron que Okbani había tomado fotografías de los visitantes a la Embajada, amenazando con represalias en Marruecos si sus demandas no se cumplían.

El cónsul ha sido destituido de la Embajada de Marruecos en Copenhague, probablemente, habiendo sido enviado a Rabat. Pero los manifestantes aún exigen acciones legales contra Okbani.

Pedersen, en particular, sostiene que puede haber una conexión entre las dos historias diplomáticas. La historia del cierre de la falsa oficina del Polisario fue publicada “para dejar de centrar la atención” en el escándalo de la Embajada marroquí, defiende. El representante del Polisario, Malainin, está seguro de que son los funcionarios marroquíes quienes han difundido esta falsa historia “para atraer la atención de la opinión pública de la escandalosa vergüenza en la Embajada de Marruecos en Dinamarca”.

Pero, añade Malainin, la historia inventada es también una reacción por parte de Marruecos ante los relativos éxitos que está cosechando el Polisario en Dinamarca y otros países nórdicos, donde incluso algunos partidos políticos están ahora a favor de reconocer el Sáhara Occidental como un estado soberano, en consonancia con la Unión Africana. “El sistema marroquí se preocupa por la toma de conciencia y solidaridad de la justa causa del pueblo saharaui … en todos los países escandinavos”, opina. “Este aumento de sensibilización y solidaridad ha llegado a un punto que el sistema de propaganda marroquí no puede influir en él”, añade Malainin.

Fuente original: http://www.afrol.com/es/articulos/31828

BRAHIM DAHANE, ASOCIACIÓN DE VÍCTIMAS DE VIOLACIONES DE LOS DD HH

Sahara Occidental: “La situación es crítica: los jóvenes quieren la guerra

Fuente original: http://www.diagonalperiodico.net/spip.php?article6877

Un consejero real insiste en reclamar Ceuta para Marruecos

Abás Jirari invita a su país a redoblar los esfuerzos para liberar la ciudad

El consejero real Abás Jirari invita a su país a redoblar los esfuerzos para liberar la ciudad marroquí Abás Jirari destacó ayer la importancia de la ciudad autónoma española de Ceuta en la historia de Marruecos e instó a redoblar los esfuerzos para “liberar el presidio ocupado”.

Durante su intervención en la conferencia internacional “Los eruditos de Ceuta en la historia de Marruecos y las relaciones entre la ciudad y Fez”, inaugurada en esta última ciudad, Jirari subrayó el papel de Ceuta en tanto que origen de una pléyade de intelectuales que marcaron su huella en el país y en el mundo árabe.

“Recordar las aportaciones científicas, culturales y religiosas que impulsaron el resplandor de esta ciudad en el mundo árabe e islámico durante siglos no puede más que ser parte de la justa percepción del anclaje de Ceuta en su identidad marroquí”, indicó Jirari en declaraciones recogidas por la agencia MAP.

“La gloriosa historia arábigo-islámica de esta ciudad debe ser puesta de relevancia para oponerse a los intentos de alteración de su identidad y de su patrimonio cultural, que desdeñan sus realidades históricas y geográficas”, agregó el consejero, que instó a redoblar los esfuerzos “para liberar el presidio ocupado”.

La conferencia, que finalizará mañana, está patrocinada, entre otros, por el Consejo Regional de Ulemas (doctores del Islam), y se enmarca en los actos conmemorativos de los doce siglos de la fundación de Fez.

LA POBREZA NO ENTIENDE DE TITULOS

En la mayoría de los países pobres, la sabiduría y la formación, por desgracia, no son sinónimo de éxito laboral. La tragedia ocurrida el pasado día 17 en el puesto fronterizo de Barrio Chino (Melilla), en la que una mujer de 30 años falleció en una aglomeración, puso de manifiesto esta realidad, ya que la víctima era licenciada en Derecho y no encontró otra forma de ganarse la vida que a través del denominado comercio atípico al sostenimiento de la economía melillense.

Madrid.-  La novena edición del Maratón del Sáhara, prueba de carácter solidario que tendrá lugar el 23 de febrero en los campamentos saharauis de Tindouf (Argelia), se presentó en Rivas Vaciamadrid con el apoyo de Marta Domínguez, doble campeona de Europa y subcampeona mundial de 5.000 metros, que se mostró partidaria de “ayudar a la gente que sufre”.

La prueba, que apoya el proyecto de independencia del pueblo saharaui, espera contar con más de 500 participantes, por lo que superaría el récord alcanzado en 2007, en su mayoría atletas españoles e italianos.

Para todos aquellos atletas que no deseen completar la prueba de 42 kilómetros, tienen la opción de completar las distancias de 21, 10 y 5 kilómetros.

“En apoyo de estas iniciativas te sientes más persona. Como deportista de elite piensas que te encuentras en el mundo de “Alicia en el país de las maravillas”, pero al ver estas cosas te das cuenta de que hay gente que te necesita y que tienes algo que hacer. Hay que ayudar a la gente que está mal. Estas iniciativas me atraen y algún día iré, espero que pronto”, dijo la campeona palentina.

Fuente original: http://www.soitu.es/soitu/2008/11/26/info/1227723810_790899.html

El pueblo saharaui no cuenta con reservas de alimentos

Las últimas inundaciones han afectado a 1.500 viviendas de adobe y a 60.000 personas · La Federación Andaluz de Asociaciones Solidarias con el Sahara ha presentado la campaña ‘Caravana por la Paz 2009, alimenta una esperanza’

El presidente de la Federación Andaluza de Asociaciones Solidarias con el Sahara, Francisco Guerrero, ha manifestado hoy que los refugiados del Sahara Occidental viven en situación precaria tras las últimas inundaciones y que no cuentan con reservas de alimentos. “No tienen perspectivas de futuro”, ha señalado en rueda de prensa, en la que ha dicho que se debe a la “dejadez” de las administraciones y de las autoridades, que no actúan y no cumplen con sus obligaciones al enviar el cincuenta por ciento de lo que les corresponde.

“Las inundaciones de octubre han afectado a 1.500 viviendas de adobe y a 60.000 personas”, ha informado Guerrero, que ha determinado que las autoridades internacionales “deben” actuar para “restaurar” la deuda histórica que tienen con este pueblo.

Por este motivo, el presidente de la Federación ha presentado hoy en Málaga la campaña “Caravana por la Paz 2009, alimenta una esperanza”, que espera recoger más de un millón de kilogramos de arroz, azúcar, aceite o harina, que serán transportados en cincuenta camiones desde Andalucía hasta esta zona, situada al Suroeste de Argelia.
“Esperemos que sea la última caravana de alimentos”, ha destacado Guerrero, que ha explicado la dificultad de informar sobre un conflicto que es “invisible”.

Por su parte, el vicepresidente segundo de la Diputación de Málaga, Miguel Esteban Martín, ha declarado que la situación de estas personas es “extremadamente dura”, por lo que desde la provincia de Málaga se espera enviar el “máximo” posible de alimentos y que se de una salida “pacífica” al conflicto. “Presentaremos este asunto en pleno, e instaremos al Gobierno a que respete al legitimidad de esta población”, ha apuntado Martín, que ha manifestado que desea que se libere a los presos saharauis de las cárceles marroquíes “que no merecen estar allí”.
Fuente original: http://www.malagahoy.es/article/malaga/288968/pueblo/saharaui/no/cuenta/con/reservas/alimentos.html