This week’s issue of TelQuel, the popular Moroccan weekly, features a cartoon on the cover of Moroccans running after their paychecks with the headline “Enquête sur une hystérie collective” or “Inquiry into a mass hysteria,” which I find to be a well-deserved description of payday here.

Inside the magazine are the usual in-depth articles (including one on fantastic DJ Key, no doubt in promotion of the Maghreb Music Awards) until page 65 and then wait! What is this? Arabic? Could it be? Holy crap, it’s Nichane, back from the dead!

At the top of the page, it is explained: “En attendant le retour de Nichane le 17 Mars, TelQuel accueille son equipe dans une section hebdomadaire” (While waiting for the return of Nichane on March 17, TelQuel will accomodate its readers with a weekly section).  Sample headlines in the Nichane section:

• After the Hurricane (Surveys the aftermath of the Nichane case and concludes that although it was bad, it could’ve been much worse)

•  Cold, Poverty, and Government (Discusses the 27 children recently killed by cold in Khenifra and the government’s prohibition on journalists from visiting the area until presented with a photo op when government agencies visit with blankets and heaters)

• The Death Penalty: When Will It Go? (Discusses the decision to abolish the death penalty in Morocco and its opposition from the PJD)

Interestingly enough, in the short list of Nichane’s contributors, I found:

إدريس كسيكس

and

سناء العلجي