Think Forward.

For once, the PJD is proposing to set up a national sports council 7112

Aziz Daouda, 4 mon.
- Politics - Society - Sports -
3.5 min read.
It's not customary, but this Sunday, April 6, 2025, the article is about sports. I don't usually like to talk about it unless I'm forced to. It's paradoxical, given that I've dedicated my life to sports and made it my profession. Many are convinced that it's very difficult to make changes, as mediocrity is deeply rooted, good intentions are disrupted, undesirable skills are present, dedication is not valued, and honesty is perceived as questionable. The opportunity arose due to two political parties, as it's not common for both parties to show interest in sports within a week. The PJD and the FFD have done so. I found this very interesting because usually, parties only address the subject after unacceptable results. Then, succumbing to emotion, they take advantage of the situation to question the government and, for a while, take a stand, criticizing the responsible minister and blaming the federations. This was the case recently following the disappointing results at the Paris Olympics. Afterwards, there was complete silence. During the preparation of electoral campaign programs, some parties, though rare, mention sports in simple narratives that are generally devoid of meaning; just to say it's important, without specifying why or how they plan to address it once in parliament or government. This quickly translates into a lack of vision in the inaugural speeches of prime ministers, now chiefs of government. We settle for a few phrases picked up here and there to say that sports are not forgotten. From memory, I can cite a few exceptions that confirm the rule. The Ittihad Addoustouri, in its program at its creation, dedicated a good chapter to sports. I contributed significantly to it. The USFP, during the last elections, also invited me to a reflection that served as the basis for the party's program. I also remember participating in similar work a long time ago with the Istiqlal under the impetus of Si Belmahi, the valiant president of the FRM cycling federation. This time, it's the PJD that has taken a stand by proposing, according to the press, a bill to create a National Sports Council in place of the current responsible department, namely the small sports department under the Ministry of National Education, Preschool, and Sports. The structure of Si Akhanouch's Government and its revised version continues to astonish, reducing sports to a simple department without prominence among the prerogatives of a ministry bogged down in endless reforms, without us seeing the end of the tunnel. Since independence, national education has been in perpetual reform. The latest one dates back to just last week. Let's hope it's not the last. Since this attachment, the two ministers in charge seem not to have time for sports. The PJD has come boldly with this project, which is not new. The first sports conferences in the early sixties already mentioned it. Since then, sports have experienced at least 14 or 15 upheavals, going from an independent department to being attached to youth, national education, passing through a secretariat attached to the prime minister. It was even attached to labor during the time of the late Arsalane El Jadidi. Sports will continue on its path with more or less success, but mostly repetitive failures. The only time it experienced some stability was during the time of the late Abdellatif Semlali, who still holds the record for longevity as a sports official. His tenure as Secretary of State and then Minister lasted eleven good years. We talked then about a sports takeoff. It was a relatively happy period that saw a restructuring of the sports field with sponsorship, the second round in the World Cup, the creation of the National Athletics School, and a resurgence of youth in more than one sport discipline. The PJD, which led the government, didn't it realize the malaise that sports were experiencing during its ten years of glory? Better late than never. Moving to a sports management system that escapes political time is a necessity. It's an evident demand made by many specialists for a long time, without the political world following up. Sports time is longer than political time. Preparing high-level athletes requires 7 to 8 years of continuous and linear work. Sports performance requires time and stability. The number of ministers in charge of sports who have succeeded each other in a short period shows how much we need this stability, and that's one of the flaws, but not the only one. Due to ignorance of this history, some say that the project is inspired by what happened in France with the creation of an agency to handle sports. This is completely false. The demand in Morocco is much older. For about forty years, it has been discussed. Already during the government of Driss Jettou, it was on the table but did not succeed for many reasons, including a certain resistance that does not want this highly promising sector to leave the political sphere. National sports can only thank the PJD for this bold move, even if it doesn't have much chance of succeeding, given how things are going in the current parliament. The PJD, being largely in the minority and without real support from its partners in the opposition, will have at least succeeded in opening the debate in the right direction. The supporters of Si Benkirane rightly refer to the royal letter of 2008. They cite the law 30.09 without saying that it was catastrophic for national sports. This could be the subject of a future article. The second party that raised the issue of sports did so just yesterday. It is the Front of Democratic Forces. The party, under the leadership of Si Mustapha Benali, has brought back to the forefront the discussion of public sports policies with an extremely wide and varied panel of specialists and sports leaders, and in the presence of representatives from political parties of the same persuasion. The debates were of very good quality with a broad consensus around solutions that seem obvious and the surprise that they are not being implemented. This kind of debate is as necessary as it is urgent. Morocco, which makes sports and football in particular a driver of development, cannot wait any longer, lest it see its colossal efforts wasted and thus dangerous for its near and distant future.
Aziz Daouda

Aziz Daouda

Directeur Technique et du Développement de la Confédération Africaine d'Athlétisme. Passionné du Maroc, passionné d'Afrique. Concerné par ce qui se passe, formulant mon point de vue quand j'en ai un. Humaniste, j'essaye de l'être, humain je veux l'être. Mon histoire est intimement liée à l'athlétisme marocain et mondial. J'ai eu le privilège de participer à la gloire de mon pays .


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Confiscated Freedoms: El Harrach and Tindouf, Two Faces of the Same Oppression... 126

Aziz Daouda, 14 h.
It was while reading, moved, the heartbreaking letter from Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, addressed ultimately to everyone, that the idea for these few lines came to me. In this letter, written from El-Harrach prison, Sansal fiercely denounces the political repression and arbitrary incarceration imposed by the Algerian regime. This denunciation quickly made me think of the tragic situation of the population confined by the same regime for nearly fifty years in the Tindouf camps in Algeria. My thoughts wandered randomly between the zealots who are there, like my high school friend Sadati, bearers of a chimera; those who stay there without even knowing why; those who have aged there; those buried there; and those born there. It is on these last that my thoughts particularly lingered. The Tindouf camps shelter a few thousand young people born in exile, rather exposed where their parents ultimately did not choose to be, under extremely harsh conditions. For many, they are not even originally from the coveted lands nor bear any claim. They mainly depend on humanitarian aid, live in total precariousness, and see their well-being deteriorate, while those living just a few miles away enjoy abundance, comfort, and rights. They did not ask to be there and dream, like all their peers, of a better life, which truly exists on the other side. Unlike a traditional prison with visible walls, like El Harrach, the Tindouf camps are an open-air prison, a constrained space where these youths are held without trial, without hope of freedom, nor any possibility of returning to their homeland—not by their own choice, but that of their jailers. The common point between El Harrach and Tindouf: the sordid game of a military regime from another era. This prolonged situation strikingly evokes the deprivation of freedom suffered by the detainees of Tindouf and the Algerian political prisoners Boualem Sansal describes in his letter. Both embody the same silenced voice, the same hope confiscated by the whims of officers who only carry the name, and by a military caporalism that, since 1962, continuously invents enemies, uses torture, repression, and deprivation of fundamental rights to maintain its grip on one of the richest countries in the world. This regime has stifled all democratic expression, from annulling election results to the spectacular assassination, broadcast live on television, of President Mohamed Boudiaf, sending a message of terror to the whole people. Recently, it brazenly repressed the peaceful Hirak protests and imprisoned their leaders. This regime no longer hesitates to mistreat even its most loyal servants. Randomly, prime ministers, ministers, high dignitaries, businessmen, generals, and journalists, even foreigners, find themselves subjected to quick trials where only the voice of their master resounds. They end up in the same prison, the famous El Harrach. In his letter, Sansal expresses the physical and moral pain of a man imprisoned for having evoked history, dared to defend justice and dignity. His words carry the voice of all those whom the regime seeks to silence. This captive voice painfully echoes the fate of the youngsters held in Tindouf, also deprived of their most basic freedoms and condemned to endless waiting in a desert environment, hostile and hopeless. Far from being a mere analogy, this comparison reveals a universal reality: whether behind bars or in the vast inhospitable desert, deprivation of freedom, forced exile, and broken hope remain the instruments of relentless political oppression. For these youths, the "march through an endless desert" is both a physical ordeal marked by extreme poverty, scorching heat, and isolation, and a metaphor for their quest for identity, dream of regaining their freedom, and joining the motherland. Beyond denunciation, in his letter, Sansal makes a solemn appeal to France, asking it not to sacrifice its values on the altar of mercantile contingencies. The same appeal is addressed to the international community, on behalf of the young detainees of Tindouf, so that human rights principles are not sacrificed on the altar of geopolitical interests. This appeal is all the more relevant facing the situation of these youths, many of whom are not even originally from the Moroccan Sahara but are still imprisoned in a situation of exile and oblivion. Thus, behind two different walls, a prison cell and undocumented, unrecognized refugee camps, lies the same tragedy: human beings reduced to waiting, to deprivation of liberty, and to a silent struggle not to disappear. This convergence highlights the urgency of strong humanitarian and political action to end these imprisonments so that freedom of thought, of living, and of deciding one’s own destiny is never again captured by an oppressive political machine, devised and implemented by an anachronistic military staff. Thank you, sir, for awakening in me this fiber of compassion, even pity, for young people who deserve to live a better future. I take here again Boualem Sansal’s words, which I address to the youth imprisoned in Tindouf: *"Fear is a prison larger than the one where I find myself, and it is harder to break. But I know that one day, the wall will fall. Dictators always end up falling."* Youth of Tindouf, You will break the barbed wire, you will cross the checkpoints to return home by the strength of your character and the power of your will. Your country, that of your ancestors, the Kingdom of Morocco, awaits you; the future opens its arms to you; life will smile upon you for eternity, you will taste freedom there, the joy of living, of building yourself and of ensuring a happy future for your children. Your dreams will come true there and your ambitions will be realized. You will be the continuation of your ancestors in a diverse and powerful nation as it has been for centuries. You will help enrich humanity by your knowledge, your creativity, your genius. You just have to dare.

The Seven Chakras: A Metaphysical Anatomy of the Soul 807

Tupan, 3 d.
Throughout the ages, esoteric traditions, yogic sciences, and mystical philosophies have described the human being as more than flesh and bone—as an energetic organism with subtle centers of power, perception, and spiritual potential. Among these systems, the doctrine of the seven chakras stands as one of the most refined and symbolically rich models of inner transformation. These chakras—meaning “wheels” in Sanskrit—are vortexes of energy located along the body axis, each responsible for specific aspects of consciousness, physiology, and spiritual evolution. From the densest energies of survival to the most ethereal states of divine union, the chakras form a ladder of ascent, guiding the soul towards enlightenment. The Root Chakra (Muladhara), located at the base of the spine, is the foundation of the entire energetic system. It governs physical survival, grounding, and the instinct for self-preservation. Associated with the element earth, it links the individual to the material world and the ancestral lineage. When balanced, it grants stability, trust, and a strong connection to one's body and environment. When blocked or deficient, it manifests as fear, insecurity, or disconnection from the physical plane. Spiritually, Muladhara represents the coiled energy of potential—the kundalini—awaiting its ascent through the higher centers. The Sacral Chakra (Svadhisthana), situated just below the navel, is linked to creativity, sexuality, and emotional fluidity. Associated with the element water, it reflects the soul's capacity to feel, to relate, and to generate life—physically, artistically, or spiritually. It is the seat of desire, pleasure, and procreation, and its energy is relational, connecting the self to others through intimacy and shared experience. When in harmony, it allows the free expression of emotion and creative force. When imbalanced, it may result in emotional instability, guilt, or addictive tendencies. Svadhisthana is where passion and refinement meet. The Solar Plexus Chakra (Manipura) is the center of personal power, will, and self-definition. Aligned with the element fire, it is related to transformation, ambition, and the assertion of the individual will. It is through Manipura that one develops a clear sense of identity and the strength to act upon purpose. When balanced, this chakra radiates confidence, motivation, and integrity. An excess may produce domination or pride, while deficiency results in passivity or low self-worth. Spiritually, Manipura is the alchemical forge where ego begins to be disciplined and transmuted into conscious intention. The Heart Chakra (Anahata) is the gateway between the lower and upper chakras, and the center of unconditional love, compassion, and spiritual empathy. Associated with the element air, it expands the sense of self to include others, fostering connection, forgiveness, and inner peace. An open Anahata transcends personal desire and embraces unity, allowing one to love without attachment and to serve without self-interest. Imbalances may manifest as emotional coldness, grief, or over-dependence. Spiritually, this chakra is the sacred rose of divine love, unfolding toward the eternal. The Throat Chakra (Vishuddha) governs expression, communication, and the power of the word. Linked to the element ether (or sound), it represents the capacity to speak truth and to manifest thought into form through language. It is also the seat of inner listening and alignment between inner truth and outer expression. When open and balanced, Vishuddha enables authentic speech and artistic expression. When blocked, it may result in silence, dishonesty, or miscommunication. At the spiritual level, it is through this center that the magician, mystic, or initiate learns to wield the sacred word—the logos—as an instrument of transformation. The Third Eye Chakra (Ajna), positioned between the eyebrows, is the seat of inner vision, intuition, and higher perception. It transcends rational analysis and opens the gates to symbolic insight, dreams, and clairvoyant awareness. Associated with the light element or pure mind, it integrates the polarities of logic and imagination, allowing one to perceive patterns, archetypes, and spiritual truths. A balanced Ajna chakra produces clarity, insight, and an awakened inner compass. Imbalance may cause delusion, fantasy, or disconnection from reality. Mystically, Ajna is the eye of the soul, through which one perceives the invisible architecture of the cosmos. The Crown Chakra (Sahasrara), located at the top of the head, is the highest center of consciousness, representing union with the Divine, cosmic intelligence, and spiritual liberation. Unlike the other chakras, Sahasrara is not governed by an element but by pure consciousness—chit—itself. It is symbolized by a thousand-petaled lotus, forever unfolding into infinity. When this chakra is fully awakened, the individual transcends ego and merges with universal will, experiencing profound bliss, silence, and liberation. Imbalances may manifest as spiritual disconnection, nihilism, or excessive intellectualism. At its highest vibration, Sahasrara is not a center of power but a doorway to the return to the Source. Together, the seven chakras form a living mandala of human potential. They are not merely energetic centers but evolutionary thresholds, each inviting the soul to purify, awaken, and integrate aspects of the self on its path toward unity with the divine. When harmonized, these chakras become a ladder of light—a sacred ascent from survival to transcendence, from matter to spirit. The awakening of the chakras is thus not an end in itself, but a means of returning to wholeness, where the human becomes a conscious expression of the infinite.