IBALINE EL HACHMI Posted 2009-08-17

This is an indignant and incendiary way of approaching begging as an evil. It does not need simple observations to come up with an interpretation and quickly end by making conclusions. Its blackened colour, which taints the victim and his family, needs to be studied from its childhood stages so as to permit us to cut it off at the roots with education. In primary school, morals are brought into awareness, dignity is established and, inversely, aggression, lying, begging, refusing to listen and read are also given rise. In my opinion, this comes in big numbers (for an era when people, big and small, count on and are obsessed with numbers!) When, for example, we show our children through special methods that a poor man who sleeps is better esteemed than a rich ignoramus, as is an honest, courageous man more esteemed than a cowardly liar, we are pushing him to not bow down before others and extend his hand to ask for anything! But, alas, we are far from all these most elegant theories when, even in the most elegant of societies, parents are asked to partake in corruption to give their children in a better rank! From here, we improve all of the qualities that constitute the child's surrounding milieu. As always, the future proud man had grandparents who ate grass without begging or stealing during the time of the two world wars. The mobilisation of the population through theatres and other means of communication against this scourge is also contributing to and may perhaps remedy the unsettling state of things. As such, it is likewise desirable to sensitise those who give alms directly to beggars so that they renounce this act!

Moroccan Patriot Posted 2009-08-18

Do Govt. Ministers and heads of corporations like RAM and Maroc Telecom qualify as beggars or are they just out right theives? Beggars get 6 months of jail for begging for food and these big criminal heads of the laregest companies in Morocco don't spend a single day in jail? How about the owners of Bel Vie? Meditel? These are the criminals... and the ministry employee's who steal the money that is supposed to be used to help the poor? Where is their jail cell?

IBALINE EL HACHMI Posted 2009-08-21

To the best of my modest knowledge, rare are the Moroccans who take to begging or other indignant activities near their neighbourhoods or douars, where they are known. This points to the reality that the beggar in question (or even an aggressor) feels disdain for his own part towards this sort of activity. If he does take to it, then it is because on the first day he gets involved he is most certainly facing constraining needs and poor social conditions to which he is not accustomed. The latter have made him lose all his wit and reason. This comes directly by way of drugs or indirectly under another experienced beggar, who has already been ruined by the profession! These beggars, who can be counted by the hundreds or even thousands, no longer need what they are asking for with hands extended an sombre faces. They want to forget that they have gone off the right path. So as to succeed, they need help - help that comes from others without their knowing. This is psychological help alone, first and foremost, as they and the little aggressors on the street have been sharpened by their shameful occupations ever since they were at home in their neighbourhoods, listening to their parents! The proof of the above is noted in the degree of their discontent and discolouration of their bodies. In spite of getting what they need food-wise, surplus-wise and money-wise, if it were any different, they would preserve the same appearance as those of their race in honoured professions. It also seem that in order to deal with this sort of alienation, it is not enough to identify the beggars, as is automatic, but to analyse and treat them in order to inject them just like a vaccine into the same sickness they were once afflicted with.

Long-time resident Posted 2009-08-23

As a long-time resident in this country, it seems to me that beggars can be divided into roughly two groups: the mentally handicapped who roam the streets because they receive no medication and have no place else to go; and, secondly, widows, other elderly with no income, wives of the unemployed, and young unmarried mothers. If these groups are unable for various reasons to be gainfully employed, and the state provides no benefit, what are they to do? Quietly starve to death becauce of lack of help? I realize Morocco is a developing country, but until something is changed in this equation, beggars will continue to be a part of Moroccan public life.

IBALINE EL HACHMI Posted 2009-08-31

The title of this article begins with the term "strategy", which makes no sense unless it is renovating the current method. Fighting this scourge requires a lot of effort, since some planning that would include technical assistance to filter out the rich beggars from those who are starving, breathless and dirty in spite of themselves in order to isolate the scammers and filthy beggars. And, with the help of an improved strategy, we would easily manage to put an end to this scourge while also having the strategy fund itself, transplanting its hair, as the old Moroccan saying goes, "he who makes a sleeve out of his own beard".