Think Forward.

Travel Diary #4: Australian east coast in a minivan 13495

Antoine, 1 y.
As I mentioned at the end of the previous article, the journey was long: about 35 hours, including two 5-hour layovers in Addis Ababa and Singapore before arriving in Melbourne. We planned to stay in a hotel for 3 nights before renting a minivan for our road trip along the Australian East Coast. In addition to the change of scenery, arriving in a modern city, when we reached the hotel, a white parrot with a yellow crest perched on a lamppost reminded us that we were still far from home. During our rest, we took the time to explore Melbourne and meet up with a colleague from nearly 10 years ago. We spent a wonderful day together visiting a museum, the library, enjoying drinks on a rooftop terrace, and, most importantly, chatting! There are some people you reconnect with after years, and it feels like you saw them yesterday... The day of our road trip departure arrived, and we took the keys to our home and transportation for the upcoming month. It was a minivan with a small bunk area, which allowed my son to have a bed. It's more expensive than a tent but far less of a hassle to set up and pack away every day. Plus, given Australia's reputation as a rather hostile environment, we figured we'd be more comfortable in the van than on the ground. The beds turned out to be very comfortable. We began by following the coast southwest of Melbourne, known as the Great Ocean Road. It truly lives up to its name. The coastline is hilly and offers stunning views of the bright blue ocean below. The next day, we got acquainted with the local wildlife during a hike at Kenneth River: koalas, wallabies, and kangaroos. Continuing along the Great Ocean Road, we visited the breathtaking cliffs of the Twelve Apostles. Next, we headed east of Melbourne for two nights at Wilson Promontory. This is a mountain by the sea in a national park. A relatively challenging 1.5 hour hike with steep elevation gave us a panoramic view of the park. The coastline alternates between mountains and beaches, providing yet another breathtaking viewpoint. We were truly spoiled. But it wasn’t just one sense that was stimulated; since the start of our road trip, the scent of eucalyptus forests has been very pleasant. After two nights in the park, we found a last-minute small bar/bistro that allowed campers to stay for free at the back of their property: the Bellbird. We had some great encounters there. The owner, Gary, and an elderly couple traveling in a caravan (the man was 78) joined us for a beer, and we struck up a friendship. On our way back to our camper to prepare dinner, they invited us to open a bottle of Shiraz 2022. It was delicious, complex, and not too tannic. We shared our travel plans with them, telling them we wanted to head toward Canberra for a wine tasting. They were at the end of their 3 months journey and were heading back to their home in the suburbs of Canberra in two days. They offered us to stay with them, and we accepted in exchange for me cooking them a meal. We had a wonderful evening together. It's a strange and pleasant feeling to be so comfortable with people you barely know. The next day, we continued towards the coast. Upon reaching Sydney, on the advice of our new friends, we set up our base camp at a campsite just outside the city. There are efficient water taxis at an unbelievably low price compared to parking fees. We arrived by boat to the city center, right next to the famous Opera House. We explored the area to the west on our first day. The next day, we returned to the city center, but the weather was less favorable. It was raining. We took advantage of the weather to visit the Hyde Park Barracks Museum, which explains how the first convicts built this building and the city's first structures and roads. We wandered through a few shops and encountered lots of people; something we weren’t used to anymore. Checking our phones, we realized it was Black Friday! After this crowd immersion, we returned to nature for a hike in the Blue Mountains northwest of Sydney. These mountains are actually more like cliffs overlooking a canyon. We enjoyed some beautiful viewpoints and watched parrots gliding through the air. We then made our way back to the coast, north of Sydney, where we spent three days along the coast, walking, swimming, and camping by the sea. We finally arrived in Byron Bay. It’s a very touristy destination, but it lives up to its reputation. Despite the slightly commercialized town center, the beaches are magnificent, surrounded by rocks that form little coves, offering protection from the various sea dangers: sharks, jellyfish, rip currents, etc. We took the opportunity to go kayaking in the hopes of meeting dolphins. No luck with the dolphins, but we did manage to ride some waves with the kayaks, which was still an amazing experience. Next, we headed to Brisbane, where we stayed for just half a day. We used the same method as in Sydney. Since a river runs through the city, a ferry service took us to the city's key attractions. Our next stop was Noosa Heads beach for a 2 hour surfing lesson. The whole family gave it a go, and we had a blast trying to stand up on the boards. One of the best nights of sleep since the beginning of our travels followed. We hadn’t planned to go much further north, but we decided to exceed our budget to visit the Great Barrier Reef. There’s a departure point in Bundaberg, which is a 3 hour drive away. From there, a small tourist plane flew us to an island called Lady Elliot. The island has just enough space for a dirt airstrip that cuts the island in half. On one side are a few bungalows and a small restaurant for those lucky enough to spend a few days there, and on the other side is a lagoon where we did some snorkeling. This is the very beginning of the Great Barrier Reef, and what a sight it was! Colorful corals and literally hundreds of sparkling fishes. To wrap up our road trip, we had three days to return to Brisbane and drop off our camper. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't on our side. It rained a lot. Still, we managed to visit a few coastal towns and swim in the ocean a few times. After all, we’ll have to get used to the humidity, it's rainy season at our next destination!
Antoine Antoine

Antoine

I am the CTO and co-founder of Bluwr. I love designing and writing scalable code and infrastructure.


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Football: When Passion Kills the Game in Impunity and Tolerance.. 517

Aziz Daouda, 2 d.
- Society - Sports -
2.7 min read.
Football (Soccer for Americans) is first and foremost a matter of emotions. By its very essence, it is an open-air theater where human passions play out in their rawest, most primal form. It generates joy, anger, pride, humiliation, and a sense of belonging. From the stands of Camp Nou to those of the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium, through the fervor of the Mohamed V sport Complex in Casablanca, the vibrant enclosures of Stade Léopold Sédar Senghor in Dakar, or even the Parc des Princes in Paris, the Vélodrome In Marseille, and the Bernabeu In Madrid, football transcends the mere framework of the game to become a total social phenomenon. But this emotional intensity, which makes football's beauty, also constitutes its danger. For without rigorous regulation, it quickly tips into excess, then into violence. Today, it must be acknowledged that the rules exist, but they are too often circumvented, stripped of their substance, or applied with disconcerting leniency. On the pitches as in the stands, excesses are multiplying: insults toward referees, provocations between players, systematic challenges, physical violence, projectile throwing, pitch invasions, xenophobic remarks, racist offenses. What was once the exception is tending to become a tolerated norm. Astonishingly, we are starting to get used to it. Recent examples are telling. In Spain, in stadiums renowned for their football culture, racist chants continue to be belted out without shame, targeting players like Vinícius Júnior. Most recently, it was the Muslim community that was insulted. And yet, Spain's current football prodigy is Muslim. An overheated crowd that has doubtless forgotten it wasn't so long ago that it was Muslim itself. Among those chanting these remarks, and without a doubt, some still carry the genes of that recent past... In Dakar, just a few days ago, clashes escalated, turning a sports celebration into a scene of chaos. In Italy, incidents involving supporters who invaded the pitch, during a friendly match, no less, endangered players and officials, recalling the dark hours of European hooliganism in the 1980s. These episodes are not isolated; they reflect a worrying normalization of violence in and around stadiums. Even at the highest level of African football, behavioral excesses are becoming problematic. The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations final left a bitter taste. What should have been a moment of celebration for continental football was marred by behaviors contrary to sporting ethics. Pressures on refereeing, excessive challenges, and game interruptions have become commonplace. When a coach manipulates a match's rhythm to influence a refereeing decision, it is no longer strategy but a challenge to the very foundations of the sport. Despite international outrage, the sanctions imposed on teams, clubs, or players involved remain often symbolic, insufficient to eradicate these behaviors. A very surprising phenomenon: rarely have clubs or federations clearly distanced themselves from such crowds. They accommodate them, and when they condemn them, it is half-heartedly, in a muffled, timid tone with no effect. The problem is twofold. On one hand, disciplinary regulations exist but lack firmness. On the other, their application suffers from a lack of consistency and political courage. Bodies like FIFA, continental confederations, and national federations hesitate to impose truly dissuasive sanctions such as point deductions, prolonged closed-door matches, competition exclusions, or even administrative relegations. Yet without fear of sanction, the rule loses all effectiveness. It suffices to compare with other sports to measure the gap. In rugby, for example, respect for the referee is a cardinal value. The slightest challenge is immediately sanctioned. In athletics, a false start leads to immediate disqualification, no discussion. Football, meanwhile, still tolerates too many behaviors that should be unacceptable. This permissiveness has a cost. It undermines football's image, discourages some families from attending stadiums, and endangers the safety of the game's actors. More gravely, it paves the way for future tragedies. History has already taught us, through catastrophes like the Heysel Stadium disaster, that violence in stadiums can have tragic consequences. It is therefore urgent to react. Regulating football does not mean killing its soul, but rather preserving it. It is not about extinguishing passions, but channeling them. This requires strong measures, exemplary sanctions against offending clubs and players, accountability for national federations, increased use of technology to identify troublemakers, and above all, a clear political will from national and international governing bodies. Football cannot continue to be this "market of emotion" left to its own devices. For by tolerating the intolerable, it risks losing what makes its greatness and its ability to unite rather than divide. If FIFA does not decide to act firmly, the danger is real: that of seeing football sink into a spiral where violence triumphs over the game, and where, one day, tragedies exceed the mere framework of sport. The long-awaited decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in the 2025 AFCON final case should confirm rigor and integrity in the application of rules, at least at this level, thereby strengthening the credibility of the pan-African competition and football in general.

April 2026 or the Certain Confirmation of the Moroccan Victory... 710

Aziz Daouda, 3 d.
- World Politics - History -
3 min read.
We are entering a decisive month of April. The international dynamic is shifting even further in Morocco's favor on the Sahara issue. April once again promises to be a pivotal moment in the international handling of the Moroccan Sahara question. This structuring diplomatic ritual corresponds to the presentation of the annual report by the UN Secretary-General's Personal Envoy to the Security Council. But this year, the context is profoundly different. The lines have shifted, balances have been redrawn, and a new dynamic is taking hold, clearly favorable to Morocco, a logical follow-up to the adoption of Resolution 2797, with strong structuring potential. The adoption of this resolution marks an essential milestone. It goes beyond simply renewing the existing framework. It consolidates a political direction initiated over several years, by enshrining the preeminence of a realistic, pragmatic, and sustainable political solution, centered exclusively on the Moroccan autonomy initiative. This resolution fits into a strategic continuity that progressively marginalizes unrealistic options, those that long relied on outdated or inapplicable references in the current geopolitical context. It also increases pressure on the parties to engage in a credible political process under the exclusive auspices of the United Nations, but in reality under strong American pressure. The United States has directly engaged in favor of the Kingdom, with the return of roundtables in Madrid and then Washington as key pivots. These meetings have confirmed a diplomatic reality that is now hard to contest. The format of the gatherings, including Morocco, Mauritania, the Polisario Front, and Algeria despite itself, is the only relevant framework for progress. It implicitly enshrines Algeria's central role, long eager to present itself as a mere observer. Its active participation, even forced, places it at the heart of the dispute, profoundly altering the reading of the conflict and redistributing political responsibilities. Madrid and Washington are not insignificant venues. They reflect the growing involvement of Western powers in seeking a resolution, with increasing convergence around the Moroccan proposal. One of the expected developments this month concerns the future of MINURSO. The time has come to redefine the mission. From its inception, it has never fulfilled the role for which it was established. A major evolution is likely emerging in support of implementing autonomy in the southern provinces within the framework of the Kingdom's sovereignty. Long confined to monitoring the ceasefire, the mission will see its name change and its mandate evolve to adapt to on-the-ground realities and the demands of a renewed political process. Such a change would be highly significant. It would mark the end of UN inertia and reflect the international community's will to move from managing the status quo to an active and definitive resolution logic. Much to the dismay of those who, for 50 years, have done everything to perpetuate the conflict through their proxy; the latter is increasingly suffering from the shifting landscape. Washington has toughened its tone and put the Polisario in its sights. Algeria is evidently feeling the effects. The introduction in the US Congress of a proposal to designate the Polisario as a terrorist organization represents a potentially major turning point. If successful, such a designation would have considerable political, financial, and diplomatic consequences. It would further isolate the movement, weaken its supporters, and reshape the balance of power. Above all, it would reinforce the security reading of the dossier, in a Sahel-Saharan context marked by rising transnational threats. This adds to a Security Council increasingly aligned with the Moroccan position. The Council's current composition clearly leans in favor of Moroccan positions. Several influential members explicitly or implicitly support the autonomy initiative, seen as the most serious and credible basis for settlement. This shift is no accident. It results from active, coherent, and consistent Moroccan diplomacy, which has successfully embedded the Sahara issue within logics of regional stability, counter-terrorism, and economic development. Algeria, for its part, faces its contradictions. In this context, the Algerian regime appears increasingly beleaguered. Its positioning, long structured around ideological rhetoric and systematic opposition to Morocco, now seems out of step with international system evolutions. Algiers' relative diplomatic isolation, including in its Sahelian environment, contrasts with its regional ambitions. Internally, economic and social challenges exacerbate tensions in a country with considerable resources but unevenly distributed benefits. Algerian populations suffer from much injustice and lack the essentials. The Sahara issue, instrumentalized for decades as a lever for foreign policy and internal cohesion, thus reveals the limits of a politically exhausted model. The trend thus confirms a historic turning point depriving the Algerian regime of its artificial political rent. All elements converge toward one conclusion: April 2026 could mark a decisive step in the evolution of the Moroccan Sahara dossier. Without prejudging an immediate outcome, current dynamics are progressively narrowing the space for blocking positions. More than ever, resolving this conflict seems to hinge on recognizing geopolitical realities and adhering to a pragmatic political solution. In this perspective, Morocco appears in a position of strength, bolstered by growing legitimacy and increasingly assertive international support. The question remains whether other actors, particularly Algeria, will adapt to this new reality or choose to oppose it at the risk of greater isolation in a world where balances of power evolve rapidly. There will undoubtedly be a before and after April 2026, and above all, the consolidation of a Moroccan position oriented toward further development of the southern provinces. The Security Council's output is awaited in this direction.

Eternal Morocco, Unbreakable Morocco: The Identity That Triumphs Over Exile... 958

Aziz Daouda, 5 d.
- Politics - History - Society -
2.1 min read.
There are affiliations that geography dissolves over time, and others that it strengthens as distance sets in. The Moroccan experience undoubtedly falls into the second category. Across generations, sometimes up to the third or fourth, a phenomenon intrigues. Women and men born far from Morocco continue to recognize themselves in it, to feel attached to it, to project themselves into it. They have left the country or never lived there long-term; they were born far away, but Morocco has never left them. How to explain such persistence? Why does this loyalty cut across social classes, faiths, degrees of religiosity, and even nationalities acquired elsewhere? How is a memory so indelible? How does it withstand the test of time, distance, and new cultural acquisitions, if not through the profound weight of national consciousness? Morocco is not merely a modern state born from 20th-century recompositions. It is an ancient historical construct, shaped by centuries, even millennia, of political and civilizational continuity. Dynasties like the Almoravids, Almohads, Merinids, Saadians, or Alaouites forged a stable political and symbolic space whose permanence transcends apparent ruptures. This historical depth irrigates the collective imagination. It gives Moroccans, including those in the diaspora, the sense of belonging to a history that precedes and surpasses them. Being Moroccan is not just a nationality. It is an inscription in a continuity, a composite identity forged by inclusion. Moroccan identity has been built through sedimentation. It is Amazigh, African, Arab, Andalusian, Hebraic. These are layers that coexist in a singular balance, complementing and interweaving without exclusion. This ancient plurality explains Moroccans' ability to embrace diversity without identity rupture. Thus, a Jewish Moroccan in Europe or a naturalized Muslim elsewhere often shares a common affective reference to Morocco, not out of ignorance of differences, but because they fit into a shared historical and geographical framework. This inclusive identity enables a rarity: remaining deeply Moroccan without renouncing other affiliations, with the monarchy serving as a symbolic thread. In this complex architecture, the monarchy plays a structuring role. Under Mohammed VI, it embodies historical continuity and contemporary stability. For Moroccans abroad, the link to the Throne goes beyond politics. It touches the symbolic and the affective, a dimension fully grasped only by Moroccans. It acts as a fixed point in a shifting world, offering permanence amid changes in language, environment, or citizenship. This transmission occurs invisibly in the family, in rituals. It is not a memory but living, sensitive memories. The diffusion and transfer also manifest in cuisines with ancestral recipes, in music and sounds, in living rooms echoing with Darija, through summers "back home," gestures, intonations, moussems, or hiloulas. Moroccan identity is transmitted less through discourse than through sensory experiences: tastes, smells, rhythms, hospitality. Thus, generations born abroad feel a belonging not formally learned, an active loyalty blending affection and claimed will. The diaspora does not settle for abstract attachment. It acts. Financial transfers, investments, public commitments, and defense of Moroccan positions internationally bear witness. This operational patriotism extends affection into action, a duty to the nation, a Moroccan loyalty. Moroccans may be exiles, but never uprooted. For the Moroccan diaspora, attachment transcends oceans. Even in political, economic, or academic roles abroad, Moroccains carry their country of origin explicitly or implicitly. The otherness of host societies reinforces this identity. The external gaze consolidates this sense of belonging to a culture so distinctive that it crystallizes, is claimed, and magnified. This phenomenon, intense among Moroccans, compels us to name what went without saying in the homeland: a continuity at a distance. Neither frozen nostalgia nor mere inheritance, this relationship is a profound dynamic. Morocco is not just a place; it is the bond that spans generations, adapts without diluting, reminding us that exile does not undo all affiliations. Morocco is in our daily lives, in a perennial, solid, and unyielding memory that defies borders and time.