New York  / Morocco Board News   There are some policies that are hard to phase out and look for new things to consider. Taxation is one among others.
In Europe and in the US, where political organization had acquired a level of sophistication that would benefit Moroccan democracy, liberals and radicals are systematically labelled: ‘tax and spend‘. But in Morocco, that tax thing is yet to be addressed.

Foreign embassies based in Cairo, are on a war footing in order to help their nationals. Morocco has set up special phone numbers for Moroccans in Egypt.
The tension rose a notch last 48 hours in Egypt. Faced with the biggest revolt that hit the country since independence, the regime of Hosni Mubarak has decided to appeal to the army. The police had disappeared from the streets in major cities, chaos reigns. Egyptian citizens have organized themselves to ensure the defense of their businesses, and their neighborhoods. Foreigners living or visiting Egypt for their part remain in limbo. Turkey has dispatched no fewer than five aircraft today, Sunday, Jan. 30, to repatriate some 750 Turkish nationals living in the country.

  President Hosni Mubarak yesterday Friday extended the curfew to the entire region of Egypt, soon after a previous order imposing a curfew in the cities of Cairo, Alexandria and Suez, according to Egyptian television.
    •    The army forces have invested the streets of the capital in a setting reminiscent of Tunis a few days ago. Following a previous decree, the armed forces commander has decided to extend the curfew to all governorates in the country, said on television.

Emad Mekay
 Cairo, Egypt --- A few points from events on the ground in Cairo as protest continue here:
1-Some government media figures appear to be joining ranks with the protestors. Mahmoud Saad, a talk show host in the Egyptian state-run TV, has announced that he will no longer appear on TV starting tonight after he came under pressure from top government officials to report “untruths” about the protests. Mahmoud Saad, a opular TV host, has told other journalists that his disappearance from his daily show, Masr El-Naharda (Egypt Today), comes in protests against pressure to defame protestors as rioters “destroying the country”. The state is clearly starting to launch a media campaign against the protests. My guess is that they will try to scare off the rest of Egyptians from joining the protests in the future by labeling protestors “saboteurs”.

Sinan Ülgen

For decades, the European Union (EU) has focused its policy in North Africa¹ on economic and political development, driven by immigration and security concerns. However, the Jasmine Revolution—the series of protests in Tunisia sparked by economic concerns that brought down the country's president—make clear that many fundamental challenges remain unaddressed in the Arab world, even in a country previously considered by many to be the region’s most advanced.

New York  / Morocco Board News    When the political parties in Morocco devise policies, they do sketch some feeble argument, it is so diluted that if it ever was put into practice, they wouldn’t know where to start first. On the other hand, policy-makers in Morocco lead the charge with formidable support from McKinsey-style consultancy firms. The trouble is, a country like Morocco cannot be run like a corporation. And even if it is so in the minds of the young fellows running the show, the corporation is certainly not run in the best interest of its shareholders, but for the board’s benefit.

MAHMOUD SEDDIK
Moroccans are keeping abreast of the recent uprising that toppled Tunisia's president-for-life Ben Ali. Several factors that have triggered Tunisians' rebellion are also present in Morocco: Soaring unemployment among educated youth, sweeping corruption, nepotism and monopolization of the country's wealth by a minority.