Cartoline da Anfgou
Ad Anfgou, villaggio berbero incastonato nel cuore dell’Atlante, le giornate si ripetono una identica all’altra. Mentre un vento fresco spazza la strada polverosa che separa le case dal ruscello, i bambini aiutano le madri nelle faccende di casa. Provvedono al rifornimento dell’acqua potabile, lavano i panni sporchi vicino alla sorgente e si prendono cura dei lattanti.
Le donne avvolte in vestiti e foulard colorati, raccolgono legna da ardere nei dintorni del piccolo borgo. I geli dell’inverno, da these parts, do not discount anyone. In 2007 thirty-three people, almost all under ten years old, died from cold and hunger. The whole was touched by the tragedy and Morocco, for a few weeks, the tiny town lit up the media spotlight. Even the king went to the place, to inaugurate the construction of new infrastructure (road, electricity supply, a clinic and a mosque was never completed), ensuring its commitment to promote the development of the area. But, after the initial drama and emotion, so much as the public authorities have quickly turned the page. The village has fallen so in complete isolation and the residents have resumed the pace of the harsh daily life, without that nothing has really changed.
. .. between the land planted with barley on the bank of a river, a girl gather what remains of the harvest. It should have sixteen or seventeen, but he looks about thirty. Skeletal, his face already wrinkled, his eyes tired and dull, is followed by three kids. His children. He works from morning to evening and eats little. At the age of twenty, already has five or six children. For Anfgou no contraceptive strategies, as the State, which should promote them, is simply absent. And NGOs? The feminist associations? The real foundations, princely, and so on? No, Anfgou and villages is not a priority for these actors. Do not arouse interest. From here the girls are married early and often they do it with relatives. After the children now become mothers with several children. For Anfgou, in short, there is a teenager ... "Taken from
"Anfgou a year and a half after the visit of the King" , Brouksy Omar, Le Journal Hebdomadaire No 411, 3-9 October 2009.
Here is the translation of the report
THE STOLEN TREASURE ATLAS
published by Beatriz in Mesa Periodico de Catalunya July 6, 2010.
The people of Anfgou, Morocco, barely surviving the local mafia, while enjoying the benefits millionaires products from the largest cedar forests of the Mediterranean.
In a remote corner located in the middle of the Atlantic, it seems that nothing can disturb the tranquility of the mountain people who inhabit these hills for centuries. It seems one of those places where nothing can go out and instead of the ordinary here, almost three thousand meters high, anything goes. Anfgou to a thousand people trying to survive with few resources available, media a few goats and a small vegetable garden, not worrying too extreme poverty that surrounds them. In January 2008 the village was up on everyone's lips, in Morocco and abroad, the death of thirty-three children caused by cold and hunger in one of the harshest winters of that has been recorded here. For Anfgou, where not everyone has electricity and almost no one has running water at home, the Mafia continues to take advantage of the vulnerability of a population almost entirely illiterate. But the area is one of the wealthiest in the country. The forests of cedars that surround the village are the largest in the Mediterranean. They are the gold Moroccan Atlas.
Exploitation Cedar turnover of 10 million euro each year. According to the 1976 law, 80% of the proceeds should be reinvested in the development of the region, roads and schools to remove from dehumanizing poverty those people who work their forests without receiving anything in return. But here there is not even an ambulance, and infant mortality reached appalling levels. Nearly one in five children does not reach adulthood, often for the lack of assistance on site and the lack of transport to the hospital (the nearest is located in Errachidia, 180 km away). In many cases a simple injection would be enough to save his life.
Complaints silenced
around the forests of cedars has built a network of local corruption and injustice that no one is more capable to cope. Who has tried has been thrown in jail. Atau, a young forest expert, had decided to break the silence that conceals the falsification of documents to the illegal exploitation of the resource. He wanted to expose and denounce those responsible for irregularities. Accused of "undermining the values \u200b\u200bof the Kingdom", was sentenced to two years in prison.
His action, at least had the merit of revealing the gears of the tissue of the Mafia. The network is managed directly by the president of the council, including the complicity of friends and family shots bribes. The clan also exercised pressure and influence on the local population, for re-election of the head at the time of elections, distorted by blackmail and threats, to continue the speculation. All this while to Anfgou people do not have to wear that dress either.
Every day dozens of men in single file, date from the mountainside above the village. Penetrate deep in the forest to cut logs of precious cedar. "For every cubic meter of wood can be obtained up to 800 euro," says Asif, in his fifties, the most active opponents of the mafia networks that handle exploitation. "The smugglers carry out the night, not to attract attention. If the cut will continue with the wild rhythm achieved in recent years, the forests will disappear and we have no more wood not to build our homes, "she confides Asif worried. "I wanted to create a cooperative to take control of forests and its resources from the hands of these people. I filed the dossier to the Ministry for more than a year, but until now I did not get answers. " Asif makes us way into his home. The walls of the dimly lit living room are covered with lime, but sprouting from the ceiling of cedar beams supporting the roof. To expect in the middle of the table a hearty tajine still hot.
Anfgou just wants to live with dignity. But perhaps we should wait for a new tragedy for the villagers, in addition to the antenna for mobile phones, may have finalmente di un ambulatorio e delle medicine di base.
