Morocco Savvy

What’s the measure of a country’s welfare? In Morocco, economic indicators are up, but new anxieties are looming.

Economic growth stood at 8.1 percent in 2006, the Finance ministry says. The unemployment rate dropped below 10 percent for the first time. The all-shares index at the Casablanca stock exchange gained over 70 percent in value.

Foreign investment is up, and Moroccans are buying more cars, mobile phones and broadband internet subscriptions - to name just another few random markers.

But I believe that the true measure of a country’s well-being are its worries.

Moroccans (and their government) used to agonize over unemployment, inflation, the trade deficit, illiteracy - and all the rest of us looked warily at press freedom, democracy, and human rights. The big issues.

So it’s a bit of a surprise that Morocco has now reached the point of well-being where it can afford to worry about noise pollution.

Health has been on the country’s agenda for a while. But again, the big issues ruled, like the infant death rate, access to health care and to drinking water. Never, it seemed, the ailments of modern life.

Now, though, Moroccan daily Libération sounds the alarm bell over “the blare of drills, the zoom of aircraft, the rattling of trains, the honking of car horns” and other sounds that torment Casablanca every day.

“A phenomenon we should take seriously,” the paper writes, outlining the risks to the city’s inhabitants.

Today, Libération adds burn-out and depression among students to the new health risks facing Morocco. In a study to be published in March, researchers from El Jadida university followed 2,000 students over a two-week period.

Until now, psychological problems have been “neglected enormously”, one researcher says. “There’s a taboo surrounding the issue. People are interested in physical diseases and overlook the psychology.”

It’s a sign of Morocco’s growing prosperity, if you ask me.

• There’s some tips about health issues for tourists and for their children over at the Morocco FAQ

This entry was posted on Friday, February 9th, 2007 at 3:32 pm and is filed under Health and safety, Lost and found, Trends. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.