Princess Bella&Prince Amor
05/12/2008 04:11 par likoli-nass
What Love Means!
09/12/2008 19:21 par likoli-nass
|
What Love means to a 4-8 year old . . .
Slow down for three minutes to read this. It is so worth it. Touching words from the mouth of babes. A group of professional people posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds, 'What does love mean?' The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined . See what you think .
'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. 'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.' 'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.' 'Love is what makes you smile when you're tired.' 'Love is when my mommy makes coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure the taste is OK.' 'Love is when you kiss all the time. Then when you get tired of kissing, you still want to be together and you talk more. 'Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.' 'If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend 'Love is when you tell a guy you like his shirt, then he wears it everyday.' 'Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.' 'During my piano recital, I was on a stage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. 'My mommy loves me more than anybody 'Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.' 'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.' 'Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day..' 'I know my older sister loves me because she gives me all her old clothes and has to go out and buy new ones.' 'When you love somebody, your eyelashes go up and down and little stars come out of you.' (what an image) 'Love is when Mommy sees Daddy on the toilet and she doesn't think it's gross.' 'You really shouldn't say 'I love you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People forget.' And the final one |
Another Point of View
09/12/2008 19:17 par likoli-nass
Dear Mr. Minister, First of all I would like to express my appreciation and gratitude for your continued interest in and support for Moroccans living abroad. After witnessing your appearance on 2M TV on Thursday, October 16, 2008 I was appalled at your comments about the immigration of young Moroccans, part of it sir was that, “Moroccan young people living abroad should know that their country is a paradise. Our government is doing big efforts to convince them to comeback to their origin country, put hand in hand and help in its development.” True, Morocco is our beloved home, and that great country spends big amounts of money to educate us and we should not leave it but serve it and assist in its development. But the high unemployment rates among educated workers in Morocco is a serious issue. “Morocco's third-quarter unemployment rate was unchanged from a year earlier at 9.9 percent, as growth in urban job creation offsets weak activity in rural areas, official figures showed on Thursday” (Pfeiffer). If Morocco experienced a growth of 5%,the country could hire 1/4 million citizens per year. This number is above what is needed to offset the unemployment problem. So, the availability of workers in Morocco should not be seen as a problem that every government has to address and tackle as a national problem; it is a national asset. Look at Europe who is enlarging itself to just solve its decline in population and it’s still not enough; so they look at poor countries for more people. Europe needs another 6 million workers from these countries to pay for the retirement of their aging population. It will be sad if Europe feels that they can have these poor workers any time they want. Morocco too should have enough projects of investments to say, “No, we need these hands.” We both know, Mr. Minister, that almost three million Moroccans living abroad represent around 10 percent of the country's resident population, but I’m not sure if you know that many of them left Morocco because they were not given the chance to be productive and to help. Many Moroccans can help if the human resources are looked at in Morocco as a solution and not a problem. Let’s see India for example. It always suffered from the same problems Morocco is suffering from now: an elite educated which had access to education, wealth, and good schools and they ruled the economy and the vital sectors of that country. But, with 1 billion citizens, India had to re-build its human infrastructure before its roads and airports because when Intel decided to open a plant in India it considered the human potentials before any facilities that India may offer for such investor. Morocco must, and is, on its way to re-investing in its citizens in order to become effective, competitive, and attractive to high-end investors. There ought to be a policy in keeping the educated and to add more each year to showcase that talent to Intel, Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, and other companies that look for countries with intelligent population. And, of course, to show off the rest of their qualifying formulas such as low taxes, close to the west, good infrastructure and political stability. I understand when Your Honor said that there is a real desire to develop the Moroccan person, and that the government is trying to boost sluggish economic growth by enacting investment-friendly reforms and making the banking sector more robust to cut lending rates. I also understand the high-value industrial exports that are being nurtured with free trade deals and heavy transport infrastructure investment to reduce the economy's reliance on drought-prone agricultural. I applaud this initiative and I hope that it will bring us the results that we so desperately need. But I am a believer in developing the citizen first before we build highways and first class apartments, this is a winning bet for any country to advance. We see in Morocco a mass exodus of the educated young population, mainly to US and Canada, and we need these people to run things in Morocco because the country spends big amounts of money to educate them to turn around and send them to US or Canada. This is the best gift a country could offer to another one, its brains. I interviewed some Moroccan people that I know here the in US regarding your statement , “We want our Moroccan citizens living abroad to return and increase their investment in their country of origin..”. Let’s start with Mohammed, 33 years old, engineer, master’s degree, “I have worked in Morocco after I got my engineer diploma for many companies but I couldn’t stand the way everybody acts: corruption, stealing money, illegal hierarchical system, and if you do not participate with those people and do just like them, they’ll do their best so you’ll get fired. And in addition, it is not good pay. Here in America I have a good salary, I bought a house, I got married and I’m happy thank God. Going back to Morocco ? Maybe, I’m not sure.” Hicham, 40 years old, professor, PhD, “I was a university professor, I’ve done a small business in Morocco but I got stolen and I had to pay the damages of what happened, so I’ve chosen to come back to America and work at universities. It’s good pay, I got married and my wife is here.” Ossama, 30 years old, bachelor degree in economy from a Moroccan university, “I came here and I started working in restaurants, shops, and also in house constructions, and now with my experience I work in real estates. I have 2 houses and a good salary. Morocco ? I don’t think so! I got married with an American, I have kids and my life is here now. Morocco is just for vacation and to visit my family.“ My last example for you sir, is myself, 29 years old. I was a French teacher for more than 8 years and I always was against the idea of immigrating to another country - just like you Mr. Minister-.but that job was never enough to help myself or my family financially. Most of my money was spent between the transportation and the necessities to do the job. I got a job assignment 600 miles away from my family and the local delegation of education supposed to provide a free apartment to me by the school where I am supposed to teach. But I had to live in one of the unused classrooms just because I had no connection, I was not from a rich family, I refused to give corruption and my uncle was not the president of that delegation. Mr. Minister, it should not be a difference between who you are and what you have when it comes to human capacities. A poor person who is given a chance could be the next Moroccan Einstein, or Edison, or any one with an idea that will work for Morocco. If you are rich and you go to "better schools" to be hired by your uncle's friend, to me you are not any better than the unemployed graduate. Morocco needs qualifications not connections. Beside that, Many Moroccans living abroad say they are put off starting a business by complex administrative procedures, the risk of long delays in getting the right documents, and a perception that you need powerful contacts in business and government. With all these complications it‘s hard to believe that your statement will be easy to realize and makes me doubt about the statement of Mr. Taji Eddine el Houssaini, an economics professor at Mohammed V University in Morocco’s capital, Rabat. When he said to The National magazine, “Now the tide is turning, Moroccans abroad are deciding to come back. And these people bring their money and experience” (Thorne). Despite that, the Moroccan Diaspora will continue to boost the Moroccan economy and give it more vitality with unconditional financial support while the government sees this commitment as a one-way flow. But soon or later the government abroad transfer to Moroccan banks are only one part of their contribution, they also contribute to the development of non- governmental organizations to help the unprivileged and the remote areas which alleviate the burden of directly investing in these areas from the government. They also contribute with other forms of patriotism which is worth more than any hard currency, their art, sports, and philanthropy. So Mr. Minister, we will all go back to our great country -as you are requesting- as no one likes to leave his origins and his loved ones and live abroad as a stranger, one day, but not in the soon future. The day we will feel that the Moroccan government starts progressing a democratic and fair society, the day Morocco starts depending on qualifications not just connections, and the day when you as administration will focus on development of citizens before development of first class understructure. That’s the day we as Moroccans living abroad will all start thinking about going back to our country and investing every cent we have over there. I cant wait. With all my respect. Montacer Belfancha USA Works Cited Pfeiffer, Tom. “Morocco third-quarter jobless unchanged at 9.9 pct.” Reuters. 6 Nov. 2008. 15 Nov 2008 <http://www.africa.reuters.com/country/MA/news/ usnL6163520.html>. Thorne, John. “Moroccan expats return as economy grows.” The National. 9 Nov. 2008. 15 Nov 2008 <http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081109/FOREIGN/ 529946388/1002>.
Princess Bella&Prince Amor
05/12/2008 04:11 par likoli-nass
Happy Birthday Cassie..!
27/11/2008 08:04 par likoli-nass
-
.JPG)
Happy Birthday Cassie..!
27/11/2008 08:04 par likoli-nass
I’d Rather Pick my Life From the Sky! (A Part of my Memoir)
23/11/2008 06:19 par likoli-nass
-
I’d Rather Pick my Life From the Sky! (A Part of my Memoir)
23/11/2008 06:19 par likoli-nass
According to Hmong folklore, babies live in the sky, flying among the clouds until they see a family that they would like to
be born into and decide to come down to earth. Kao Kalia Yang stated "They teach us that we have chosen our lives. That the
people who we would become we had inside of us from the beginning, and the people whose worlds we share, whose
memories we hold strong inside of us, we have always known."(The Latehomecomer).
Unfortunately, it was not the case for me. I did not get the same chance as these Hmong babies to watch the world from
the sky and choose the life I wanted to live. My decisions were always rejected and my life was never under my control.
No one knew that Montacer, the quiet guy, who does not like to argue a lot with the other people would finally speak up
and try to decide the life style he always wanted to live. Since my childhood the one rule I have learned at home and at school
is that both the Arab culture and the Islam religion says that we should always obey our parents and follow whatever they ask
us to do except if it’s against the religion. It never made sense to me but I had to do it anyway. Even my teaching job it was not
me who decided to do it, it was my parents who chose it for me. But after eight years in the teaching field I just loved it and
loved being around my students and teaching them French.
My parents were known as a conservative family. I always though that my dad was affected by his military job and liked
playing the sergeant role who loves to give orders and watch the steps of his soldiers. That’s what my dad always did and
sometimes my mom too. She was a good house wife and you could never tell her a secret, because the next day you will find
that secret with my dad. She never hid anything from him! I remember when I didn’t do my homework or if I had a bad score at
school I knew that I was in big troubles with my dad. Maybe all the kids went thruogh this period of their parents punishing
them for doing a bad things, but since my childhood and until I was twenty five years old I never could pick up something that I
liked. That was my main problem during my whole life, to always be directed by my parents and never do what I wanted but
what they wanted me to do. I grew up doubting if my parents ever loved me. I mean, I know they love me and we are a very
close family but growing up they were just always mean to me. I think that is why it is not easy for me to express my self
talking to my friends or anybody around me, and that is why I could not resist my family pushing me to break up with my ex-
girlfriend Amal whom I spent more than 5 years with. They always had to find something negative about her to make me
leave her, just because they didn’t like her. It never made any sense to me. I never believed what they were telling me about
her and I resisted during the five years that I spent with that girl until I could not resist any more. It was just too much
pressing on me. It is true I was never proud of the way my parents raised me, and there is no way I will use the same way
with my kids, but I do love them anyway.
When my parents got married they lived in Kenitra and my dad was working with the army. At that time Morocco had a
war in the south Sahara with “Polissario”, a group supported by Algeria. Two months after I was born my dad was called to go
support the Moroccan troops in the south Sahara, a thousand miles from Kenitra, so my mom and I had to move with my dad.
We spent almost two years over there. We lived one mile away from the Moroccan military base. My mom told me that it was
easy to hear the guns and shooting from the place where we lived. One night my parents and I were sleeping and my dad
heard some noises in the front yard. He looked through the window and saw some people with “Polissario” uniforms holding
their guns and attempting to enter our house. My mom and I woke up with my dad’s hands closing our mouths to not make
any noises. We went out through the back door and my dad was holding me on his chest. They had to keep running to the
Moroccan military base where it was safe. I cant imagine that these guys were about to kill us if my dad had not acted fast.
When I look at my dad’s pictures with his Kalashnikov and his dark green and white army uniform, I think about all the stories
my mom used to tell me. She told me that after that incident my dad refused to keep us with him because it started to get very
dangerous over there, so a helicopter took my mom and me back to Kenitra. My dad followed us six months after that, when
he finished his mission in the south Sahara. One year after that, my dad got a new military post at the city of Marrakech, one of
the most beautiful cities in all Africa with it very attractive historical monuments, cute palm trees, and the most beautiful
square in the world called “Djamaa El Fna”. In fact, some people compare Marrakech to Paris. That was a big move, from the
guns and shooting voices to the magic and the beauty of Marrakech. I don’t remember anything about our experience in the
south Sahara besides what my mom told me from time to time, but I do remember growing up with the wealth of the
Marrakech culture and its people.
The only place my family and I spent our summer vacation was the city of Kenitra, four hundred miles away from
Marrakech, because both my mom’s and my dad’s family lived over there. My mom’s family lived in the city and my dad’s
family lived in the countryside, so we split the vacation between my grandma’s farm and my other grandma in the city. I loved
spending time at my grandma’s farm because she’d have fresh peanuts, fresh fruits, and fresh air too. I loved waking up at
five AM to enjoy the smell of the fresh earth and help my cousins with their farm activities. I loved giving food and water to the
cows and the best part was giving a bath to the horses and riding one of them every morning. I also liked spending time with
my other grandma in the city because she lived by my favorite place to spend my time, which is the beach. I always
liked my grandma’s traditional food too; it was very tasty.
May 21st 2004 was a lucky day for me. I wasn’t working that day so I spent most of the day sleeping at home. My dad was
about to go to his job and he found a big yellow envelope by the door written in English. He saw my name on it so he woke
me up and gave it to me. If he knew that envelope would take me overseas I’m sure he would have hidden it from me. I was
the only one that spoke English at home, I saw the envelope came from Kentucky, USA and it said that I was one of the
luckiest people that the computer chose to get a U.S. visa! It took a couple months to convince myself and decide to accept
that visa, and another month to convince my parents that this opportunity will be good for me. For the first time they decided to
let me do what I really wanted to do. It was like they finally understood that I had grown up enough to decide for myself. My dad
bought a huge black bag for me to make sure I took everything I needed with me to U.S . When I look at that bag I see the blue
Toyota car that my dad rented to take us to the airport. He drove the whole two hundred miles to the airport and I was sitting in
the passenger seat; my mom, my brother and my sister were sitting on the back seats. The car smelled so fresh but I
enjoyed more the smell of the green fields on the side of the road. I asked my dad to stop many times at the rest areas just to
enjoy some Moroccan food and my favorite tea with mint leaves, who knows when will be the next time I will enjoy this food
again! When we arrived at Casablanca International Airport it was past midnight and there were just few families and us over
there even if that airport was kind of big. After discovering the place a little bit I went to the little mosque inside the airport to
pray some and ask God to send some luck and blessing with me to the new place where I’m moving. When the boarding
time arrived my mom started crying and gave me the last hug. She whispered in my ear “Stay away from troubles, avoid
staring at the blonde girls over there and the bad American habits that we see in their movies, and avoid eye contact with bad
people because they may shoot you.” Everybody looked worried about my new adventure, so I tried to reassure them that I‘ll
be ok and I‘ll make them very proud of me. It was the first time I took an airplane. I felt like I was flying in the air and I was not
scared at all. I was looking through the window the whole flight and I could make the difference between Spain’s buildings
with their green light, France’s buildings with their blue lights and New England’s buildings with red lights. I was very relaxed
staring at this incredible scene and I had butterflies in my stomach.
By starting my new life in U.S, one thing I have found to be true is that if a dishwasher wants to be a nurse or engineer
there is many encouragements that can help him realize that wish.
I always wondered what the word “Democracy” means, and here I found a simple sense for it. You choose the way you
want your life to be. All the doors are open and it’s just more perfect to be true. I wish there was democracy like this all over
the world, where the doors are open for everybody, where each person can decide the life he wants to live, sort of like the
Hmong babies. If that were true, nobody would leave his country looking for opportunities somewhere else and have to leave
his family behind.
Montacer
Pic's from my last vacation
04/06/2008 08:17 par likoli-nass
U made my Birthday so SPECIAL this year..
18/05/2008 06:27 par likoli-nass
3alamat sa3a..
29/04/2008 09:41 par likoli-nass
On m'a dit q le Maroc se develope..! Ca se voit bien!!!..
28/04/2008 07:11 par likoli-nass
Mais qu'est ce qui se passe au Maroc..??!!!!!!
23/04/2008 19:12 par likoli-nass
Dernierement qd tu cherches "Maroc" sur "youtube" la premiere chose que tu trouves c'est les videos -presque- SEXUELLES des filles marocainnes..!!! ACH W93 LIKOM ABNAT LMAGHREB, BGHIT NFHM! 3LACH HAD CHOUHA KAMLA..?!! Je veux comprendre koi?! C'est po bien ts ca..!