Moroccan Anti-Doping Agency: We can't wait for a second caravan...
342
It is not my intention to define doping, or to talk about doping techniques, or to list the consequences, or even to dwell on the techniques or procedures for combating this phenomenon, which no longer taints elite sport in particular but has become a social phenomenon, given the fact that many young people resort to certain products in order, they believe, to accelerate the effects of training on their musculature and physical appearance.
Others do it much better than I do.
Doping is not a new phenomenon. Some say that it has accompanied mankind for as long as sporting competition has existed. The first proven case in modern times dates back to 1865 and since then doping has never ceased to exist.
Doping in sport has been tolerated for decades, no doubt because of a lack of knowledge of its consequences for health, a lack of awareness of its immorality, and the fact that it has long been the basis of sports policies for certain powerful states with the means to do so, but above all with a mastery of certain techniques, the underpinnings of technology and other advanced scientific aspects.
Nowadays, things are clearer, and the international community is all on the same side. It condemns doping. It has criminalised it and set itself the goal of eradicating it.
All the countries of the world and all the international and national sporting bodies are united in their determination not to accept the phenomenon of doping and to fight against it.
There is now an international body to which everyone has subscribed and to which they refer. It sets the course and dictates to everyone the path to follow. Many countries, including Morocco, have gone even further and criminalised doping by making the use of and trade in so-called doping products part of their criminal law, with heavy penalties.
Every country in the world has set up independent bodies whose sole mission is to combat doping. Better still, governments and national Olympic committees are obliged to fund, support and guarantee the total independence of national anti-doping agencies.
Testing techniques have evolved to such an extent that no-one can escape punishment. The international sporting community has gone so far as to preserve samples taken from athletes for a very long time, only to return to analyse them years later, using techniques that are becoming more sophisticated and more precise every day. Today, athletes are convicted of doping and penalised on the basis of samples taken eight years earlier. Others are sanctioned on the basis of abnormal variations found in their biological passports.
In other words, the fight is total.
The only thing that is easy to do is to tackle doping among well-known and recognised sportsmen and women. They are identified and within reach of the agencies. What remains is the possibility and effectiveness of the system among the young and not-so-young, who are neither registered with a club affiliated to a federation nor have the ambition to take part in any kind of competition. Many use doping products or simply food supplements that may be contaminated with doping molecules.
The Moroccan agency AMAD had the brilliant idea of organising an awareness-raising caravan aimed at the general public and young people. It visited all twelve regions of the country. For more than a year, its teams and staff, accompanied by experts and sports personalities, were constantly informing, reminding and raising awareness, not just of the legal aspects, but also of the harmful effects and consequences of the use of certain products, supplements or food supplements, on the health of the individual and therefore on a public health level. The aim was to make young people aware of the catastrophic consequences of doping on their physical and mental health, on their life in society, and on their reputation and that of their country in the case of sportsmen and women. I'm sure that everyone understands this.
But the understanding and support of each individual in his or her own little corner is not enough. Our sportsmen and women and all our sports leaders, PE teachers and sports coaches must all contribute to the Kingdom's tireless fight against doping. They must act as relays to counter what is said and done here in their clubs, schools and neighborhoods.
While it is not proven that any product can make you a great champion, it is certain that doping automatically damages an individual's health and leads to criminality. It can even make you a disgrace to your family and tarnish your country's reputation.
The Moroccan National Olympic Committee is sparing no effort to contribute to this innovative drive, which is now taking shape and developing. Our mission as citizens is to be present, alongside the Royal Moroccan Sports Federations, the Ministry of Sport and, of course, the national anti-doping agency, AMAD.
Morocco is now a model in this fight. It has a strong legal arsenal and an effective, competent anti-doping body, and we welcome this. Morocco's experience is watched with interest, and its cooperation is sought by many African countries, among others. As a result of this confidence, WADA President Dr Fatima Abouali recently won the confidence of her African peers, who elected her President of the African Union of Sports Medicine (UAMS).
Doping is the enemy of us all, and those who practise it, trade in it or encourage our young people to resort to it are deliberately placing themselves on the fringes of society.
Above all, sport is about honesty.
Doping means condemning yourself to dishonesty. We will never allow one of our own to be dishonest. We can't wait for a second caravan…
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Cultivating an environment that welcomes ideas spontaneously.
531
TL;DR:
Ideas used to frequently pull me away from reality, to the detriment of my relationship with those around me. I learned to communicate my intention based on my need to write down my ideas spontanously, and invited my family to criticize it while still maintaining that it would happen. This gave them more control over the situation and dissolved all tension and frustration. Now the actively contribute to the process and my ideas coalesce more naturally into finished projects.
----Ideas are slippery and sneaky creatures if you allow them to be
An unfortunate element of my reality is that I tend to have my best ideas in the worst possible moments for having ideas. My mind does its creative boogaloo when my body runs on auto-pilot. Examples of this include, but are not limited to: showering, driving, kids' bedtime, and eating any meal of the day.
This is a two part problem, since ideas tend to come and go very quickly. They pass through my mind almost as if trying to avoid being detected, all while being the center of attention. Like mobs in a Tower Defense game. So by the time I get my body off of cruise-control, I'm already focusing on moving on to the next thing and the idea successfully evaded me.
The bonus third part of this two-part problem (and really the main reason that any of this situation is even a problem) is that I simply can't recall my ideas when I make time to be with them. Song lyrics, image rough sketches, game concepts, ideas for youtube videos on one of my multiple channels, clarifications and improvements for existing rules in games I already made, philosophical concepts and random epiphanies (I'm a big fan of r/showerThoughts)... Just so many mind-blowing things, and they disappear into the obscure corners of my mind as soon as I get around to writing them down.
----Moving on though, I've had to find ways to work with myself as opposed to against myself, but it took me quite long to realize that I'm not the only factor in this equation. My immediate environment (and the people in it) being the other major factor, and I ended up experimenting a lot with what degree of influence I have over said environment to cater to the randomness of my brain. Believe me, I tried lots of different ways to get this to work with low-to-moderate amounts of success, which isn't enough. Too many ideas leak through, only to come back in the next wave during the while I'm at work, or when I'm trying to get to sleep, or meditating.
Cutting to the chase a bit: the best solution that I've found is to simply observe the impulsive and spontaneous nature of my mind, and accommodate it as such.
Solutions come by themselves after that crucial first step:
- I have one of those classic "Ideas" notebooks, with bookmarks and categories that I carry around with me semi-constantly.
- I record myself on my phone when I can't stop to write, I setup it up so I can begin recording in one-touch.
- I have specific moments planned in my week dedicated to keeping things organized and transcribing my recordings.
- The most important one: I have been very transparent about everything to my partner and kids, and openly invited them to criticize my spontaneous scribbling notes at the dinner table, and sudden my interruptions when they are talking to me.
----Let's unpack that last one, because it is rooted in one of the main blockers for this sort of thing.
What makes this a blocker is my tendency to obsess over the objects of my passions and interests (yet another mind-goblin I had to wrestle with before ultimately accepting as a part of me). It took me lots of mental gymnastics to admit in a self-accepting way that I tend to think "screw the rest, THIS is the most important thing right now" and just mentally disappear from reality, resulting in the stereotypical "zoned-out dad at the dinner table". I don't want to fit into any stereotypes, so I was quick to force myself to stay locked in on reality, which ultimately made me shake off lots of ideas and thoughts that were important to me, that I can't simply recall when I have time for them.
The first time I tried to regularly allow my spontaneous ideas to freely claim my full attention, I ended up being frequently and suddenly unresponsive, unavailable, and overall kind of an a-hole. So I made the obvious ego-centric mistake of prioritizing my own head-space above my IRL living-space and its well-being, which incidentally includes my favorite humans. I hate making obvious mistakes and falling into obvious traps. Felt_bad_man.jpg
----"Stop trying to control everything and just let go. LET GO."
Ultimately, what helped was my ability to communicate my intention based on my need and, the most super important element of this recipe, invited my family to criticize it while still maintaining that it would happen. This gave them a fair amount of control, which in turn let them let me do my thing, lovable bunch that they are.
The end result of all this, now that it's more comfortably established, is that my ideas have a place to call home in my notebook, and the guilt and frustration of "mentally disappearing" are no longer present. My family even helps me sometimes by hitting "record" when I'm driving, and sometimes we discuss my ideas and they help move things forward or connect dots. This is a great feeling for me personally, to be able to connect with them on this matter which initially I thought was something that was initially isolating and segregating.
But more generally speaking, my ideas now tend to mingle amongst themselves in my brain and in my notebook, as opposed to dodging each other or arguing for the spotlight like they used to, and they coalesce into greater concepts and better games. There is a bit of a wholesome full circle thing going on that I haven't quite put my finger on, but it's definitely there.
Cultivate your environment to spontaneously welcome your ideas, and include the people in your life in the process, and you'll enter a new paradigm.
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Bluwr New Moon Report
685
I'm very pleased to share here the statistics achieved by my posts on Bluwr during the month of January.
Proud to be part of the Bluwr family, thanks to our readers for their trust.
I'd like to take this opportunity to invite readers who don't yet publish to take the plunge. They certainly have a lot of interesting things to share.
Your Bluwr New Moon Report
Dear Aziz Daouda,
We thank you very much for writing on Bluwr. Bluwr was born on a new moon and hence we decided to do things differenlty by sending monthly reports on new moons.
Please find attached this monthly report on the activity of your articles on Bluwr. If you would like more detailed information, you can head to your analytics page on Bluwr.
With our sincere thanks,
The Bluwr team.
Number of views this month
43495
This month top article by views
2024, kenyans on top of the world in number of world records
2909
Number of articles written this month
12
Number of bluws this month
6
Writer points for this month
Curator points for this month
Number of all time views
95372
All time top article
Achraf Hakimi is not the 2024 African footballer... CAF disowned?
4316
Number of all time written articles
104
Number of all time bluws
6
All time writer points
5000
All time curator points
33.333333333333336
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