Where's Obiter Dicta?

I was wondering that, too. Great post, btw, can't wait for part two.

Obiter dicta has kicked the bucket, joined the choir invisible, wrung down the curtain, etc...

More prosaically, the webhost, blog.ma, who never had any technical support nor any contact person, has apparently ceased its activities or failed to pay its Internet dues. I am therefore not the only blogger to have lost all the contents of my blog without any forewarning - we are apparently a few hundred in that same situation. However, since the webhost has always been unreachable, and since our blogs were hosted for free, I cannot think of a practical way to send those responsible the customary bloody horsehead...

Eerie,

how about giving Ibn Kafka his own (French) journal here?

I disagree with Ibn Kafka's communist take on life, but his redeeming qualities are rare enough to make it worth having him owning a place over here... I'm sure there are plenty of his fans in withdrawal symptom out there.

It will take a bit of time, maybe this weekend?

(Matthew will kill me if I don't do the Infidel review first)

Ah, now I understand. I thought you had been ditched. Well, I like the idea of welcoming a bit of Obiter Dicta here, has my support.

Thanks for the offer, it would be a honor, although you have to admit that for a Communist, I am a bit on the renegade/revisionist side...

Eh mate the advantage of having ultra-liberqle hosts and friends is we believe strongly in unorthodoxy. Hakada, marhaben bik akhaouia.

Well, Moroccan communists are renowned for their unorthodoxy - Ali Yata was probably the lone communist party leader to publicly hold royalist convictions...

As someone said at the time of mai 68, "je suis marxiste tendance Groucho"... although I personally prefer Chico, with his Italian accent...

Though it's clear he isn't a neocon, I never noticed that Ibn Kafka was a Communist. If it's true, Ibn Kafka, maybe you should work on your ideological underpinnings a bit harder...?

To sum up what you said in this article, I like to say that the King is Beckham, Zidane and Ronaldinho, as well as the referees, FIFA executives and the owner of the team....

What this has to do with Islam is beyond me. Doesn't Islam insist there is no authority but God?

Come to think of it, I've got a question I hope you'll address in your follow-up posts. Are any of the political parties running in this year's elections advocating repeal or revision of this infamous Article 19? Has any political figure besides the Yesines dared to call for that openly?

To sum up what you said in this article, I like to say that the King is Beckham, Zidane and Ronaldinho, as well as the referees, FIFA executives and the owner of the team....

If anyone is Beckham, it has got to be that media-savvy prince Moulay Hicham who went off to the States. But who is Posh?

Are any of the political parties running in this year's elections advocating repeal or revision of this infamous Article 19?

How about the tiny far-left group al-Nahj al-Dimuqrati (ex-Ila al-Amam)? They're contrarian in every other aspect, pro-Polisario and much else, so why not republican too.

"(Matthew will kill me if I don't do the Infidel review first)"

Hitmen are being interviewed as we write....

eatbees: I usually those quiz tests that are offered before elections, where you answer a dozen of questions and are therefater branded a liberal, conservative, socialist or whatever. The last time I did that before the Swedish elections I was given the answer "there's no party corresponding to the answers you gave. The one least distant from your set of opinions are X, Y and Z" (I don't actually remember them, except that one was on the right and two on the left. But I'm happy to be labelled a commie by such a neo-con stooge of imperialism, jacobinisme, zionism and colonialism as Shaheen. ;-)

eatbees: the PSU and the PADS are on record as asking for exactly that kind of revision of the constitution.

alle: well, Nahj, despite controlling the AMDH, the largest human rights organisation in Morocco, is so extreme in its views that it's hardly on the political map - but true, they are also in favor of constitutional reform (if reform is in their vocabulary, which I doubt)...

The last time I did that before the Swedish elections I was given the answer "there's no party corresponding to the answers you gave.

Funny, that's how I felt right before the elections...

the PSU and the PADS are on record as asking for exactly that kind of revision of the constitution.

I see these two groups have joined together to form a united front in this year's elections. In a recent reader poll on larbi.org, they collectively registered about 20%. My guess is this number is higher than their support among the general population. So among which social groups and in which parts of Morocco do these parties find their strength? Have they been able to leverage their desire for constitutional reform to attract support in any meaningful way? Or is this an issue, as many would argue, that interests mainly "a small Casablanca elite," with the average Moroccan concerned more immediately with food, housing and jobs?

Have similar calls for constitutional reform been made by elements within the PJD? I don't suppose there's any chance of a majority of parliamentarians, from both left and right, being able to come together around an agenda of expanding their own power at the expense of the King. Especially not with Fouad Ali Himma leading the next government....

Finally, about political loyalties, I recommend the test at politicalcompass.org, which uses two axes, authoritarian-libertarian as well as the traditional economic left-right. I fall in the same quadrant as Gandhi and Nelson Mandela (collective libertarian), while pretty much all the world's political leaders fall in the opposite quadrant (authoritarian free market), with Bush about as far towards authoritarian as any "mainstream" leader can get. I feel happy to be so far from Bush, but I'm discouraged that there are no politicians to represent my views, perhaps because people like me don't believe in a State enough to want to lead one....

alle: still, I closed my eyes and voted - in vain, alas - to keep the bourgeois coalition where it belongs - in the opposition...

eatbees: 20%? They'd be happy to get that in a campus cafeteria. A more realistic figure would be around 5% at best - the OADP, the largest component of the PSU, which is a coalition of left wing parties and splinter groups, had 2-3% in 2002 if I'm not mistaken. Since I'll vote for them, I certainly hope they'll get more than that - the best Moroccan economist, Najib Akesbi, is on their ranks.

I happen to have a lot of non political relatives and friends, and no one's ever brought up article 19...

Yes, the PJD is an interesting matter. The centrist leadership around Saadeddine Othmani, Lahcen Daoudi & Abdallah Benkirane has not favored putting the constitution on the list of priorities, thinking - correctly - that the average voter is more interested in jobs, corruption, health, education and the rest. Mustapha Ramid, leader of the more radical wing of the PJD, apparently very popular among the militants, is very outspoken indeed, and is closer to the PSU/PADS line on article 19. My bet is on the Othmani line to prevail, if the PJD comes first, as it rightly should if the elections are anything close to being honest. If the PJD is outmanoeuvered, it could become more radical.

As regards the prospects for constitutional reform of article 19, they are non-existent. Members of parliament may ask for a reform of the Constitution, but it has to be ratified by a referendum, and any referendum must be initiated by the King, who has a monopoly on that instrument.

I'll try the political compass test, and I'll let you know...

I never noticed that Ibn Kafka was a Communist

Said tongue in cheek... Wooley-headed tree-hugging pot-smoking hamster-loving kumbaya-hippy lefty is more like it.

But I'm happy to be labelled a commie by such a neo-con stooge of imperialism, jacobinisme, zionism and colonialism as Shaheen

Now that caricature isn't remotely resembling...

ibn kafka -- still, I closed my eyes and voted - in vain, alas - to keep the bourgeois coalition where it belongs - in the opposition...

Ah, that just goes to prove that not even the most committed idealist can stop the dialectical progress of social history -- Marxism always wins, even when it loses. But hold on, maybe I'm terribly late to something here, or misunderstand: you hold Swedish citizenship? Do you live around here too?

On Morocco, PJD: how big would they win, assuming a fair election? If I remember correctly, there was a poll from the International Republican Institute (?) some time ago that gave them good figures, but well below 50%. Have there been any other reliable polls?

Not on Morocco: the political compass test gave me a 3-something for economics, and a minus 8 or so for personal freedoms. So, slightly right-of-center in economics, all-out liberal on social issues. That's pretty accurate. Some weird questions, though, and hard to answer out of the US context. (Do rich people pay to much taxes? Well, maybe, but in which country?)

IRI, yes, that was the outfit sponsored by US Gov. Got declared persona non grata, I understand.

Re that political compass, it despite pretensions remains very US centered.

As for any political party touching the constitution, they'd be insane. Where is the upside? Who is going to back them.

Bread and butter issues are the domestic concerns, security the outsiders (US, EU). Lose, lose.

Shaheen: the best caricatures are the outrageous ones... I knew you'd like the reference to jacobinisme...

alle: I'm Swedish, but live in the plubopaysdumonde...

As for the PJD, I'd sau around 40-50% would seem a fair figure, according to the different poll figures I've read.

Lounsbury: IRI wasn't declared persona non grata, the Moroccan authorities wouldn't dare declare any American legal or natural person persona non grata. Even evangelists are allowed to roam around freely, provided they hold the right passport. I totally agree with your conclusion btw. No party will win the election on constitutional reform alone, unfortunately.

ik -- Oh, cool. I didn't realize that. Då måste jag förstås fråga, which party DID you vote for in the end?

I've always voted fp, but I've been so sickened by their populist shenanigans from 2002 onwards, that in the end I panicked and split my ticket, giving the parliamentary vote to c instead...

On Morocco/PJD, 40-50% okay. But what are the chances they will be allowed to get that good a score? Maybe that's being discussed in Part III? Hope so.

Eh mate, my understanding is the American staff was told to pack off. Might have been an exaggeration, but I know that the chica who was running the thing had to leave. Met her once or twice at the English club, then suddenly... Of course I am not in town often enough to nail these things down.

In any case, constitutional reform is a loser and I don't see the point. More trouble than its worth, as it would only provoke a lash-out by the Makhzeni types. Better to work on incremental gains.

Alle: Fp? Stureplanscentern? Fy f...! Nej, jag röstade på Mp, för andra riksdagsvalet i rad. Har dock röstat på M och Fp tidigare, men det är preskriberat.

As for the PJD, I really think that the Palace is in a quandary: it cannot afford to have too strong a PJD, but if its results are not good enough the whole electoral process will be seen as fraudulous. I think that they'll let the PJD scrape through as the largest, barely - if they have any common sense in them, which is a big if...

Lounsbury: then you're more knowledgeable about it than I am. I also agree with your advice - this is exactly how parliamentarism won the day in Sweden, but I acknowledge the slight differences between the political situation in these two countries...

article 6 de la constitution: "l'Islam est la religion de l'Etat qui garantit le LIBRE EXERCICE DE TOUS LES CULTES"

And?