Thanks mate. Yeah it's a piss take. One of the poorest areas of Morocco and most of the houses there were built with local permissions that now mean nothing in law, so the folk have zero rights to appeal. I don't know if there's any compensation schemes up and running, but knowing how things work out there, it will be a pittance whilst local officials will have had their palms greased by the developers in order to get permission to build their complex. Imsouane was nothing but a little fishing village, it's the locals who've turned it into a thriving beach town that brings in tourist money. They built all of the houses, guesthouses, cafes etc. And as you can imagine, it's a very unique ramshackle little town with loads of character. Greedy ****ing corporates have seen the $$$ and knowing the folk there have no deeds or agreements with banks and solicitors etc, they've decided to send in the bulldozers. ****s
This is Tifnit, down the coast near Agadir. Last week it was raised to the ground to make way for new development. Same thing, local businesses were given 24 hours notice. People were trying to take out doors and windows to save them in order to try and rebuild again somewhere else. Watch this space, because Morocco is co hosting the 2030 world cup and Agadir is hosting some matches. There will be loads of these sneaky demolition jobs going on to make way for expensive hotels and resorts on the beach.
Not shocked tbh…. corporations will take anything it wants if the general public turn a blind eye on the folks that need support……most have witnessed how quick people back down over their own oppression when they realise that no body cares……Covid was a massive test of the public’s heart and moral standing when it came to pushing boundaries and sadly for some of of us most complied without question or logical reasoning or critical thinking sadly the masses are too busy watching the cults tv box or showing off their indulgences to fill in their time to care what’s going on outside the door anyway least we forget ps signed the petition as fruitless as it is sadly https://www.herald.wales/north-wale...flooded-to-supply-an-english-city-with-water/
Morocco is unfortunately one of those places where corruption and back handers are rife. There's an Arabic word Baksheesh, which translates as 'tipping' but in practice has come to mean bribery or leverage. It happens all over the place. When I was in there some years ago, we clubbed together to buy my friend (and host) Khalid a digital camera (this was when they were relatively new still). Now Khalid has a past, for low level drug dealing, which the local copper knows about. When I asked him one day if he'd taken any pics on his new camera he said the local copper had seen it, told him his daughter would very much like one of them and taken it as Baksheesh. If he'd refused, the copper had the power to make his life difficult because of his past. Really ****ed me off that, but there was nothing I could do about it. Khalid explained to me that this sort of stuff goes on all of the time and it's better to keep the local police onside with small bribes than to **** them off.
If successful is this protest going to mean it takes me longer to drive around Morocco if I go there?
Not really, but it means you'll be paying European prices for your accommodation and food in some bland identikit hotel and food hall. Instead of paying a few quid for a hearty Lamb Tagine cooked on charcoals by a local family.
I went out to South Korea to a ship builders for a project kick off a handful years ago, and the place was immense in scale, but every morning and 8 bells, an alarm sounded and they played some tunes and the whole place, no matter what, simply downed tools and did 10 minutes exercise. Thousands of them. It was very surreal to witness.
first encountered it many years ago in Norther Nigeria. A quick ‘dash’ would get better tickets at football, restraint tables, parking….. expected it to be similar all over Africa. Going SA for first time early Feb for work, will get some small value change sorted
Yeah, seen this in Busan in the south for SHI yard. just watched them and tried to struggle through the hangovers and jet lag.
