Imagine traveling to the future and finding that some countries ceased to exist,
replaced by seawater, and forgotten, several animals went extinct, ecosystems
vanished, and our fellow humans are skinnier than normal.

That could be the case if climate change continues to be prevalent. Climate change has been subject to debate for many years, and it will remain for years to come. Although its consequences are becoming more and more tangible, some still consider it not to be a threat. However, the real case is that scientists have been sounding the alarm that climate change is still the number one threat to humans and all ecosystems.

Climate change is as old as human activity. Yet, we have only come to notice it over the last century. Scientists conducted their research and concluded that earth’s temperature is gradually rising due to the greenhouse effect. As a result, many summits were held in recognition of the issue.

Climate change is a threat based on several visible and plausible negative impacts. Lately, the world has been experiencing severe heatwaves that resulted in droughts and several deaths across the world, from January through August. The most notable heatwave in 2022 is that of China; with scorching temperatures exceeding 40 °C, at least 17 provinces were affected and suffered from water shortages and crop losses. Also, warmer weather is an ideal environment for mosquitos and ticks to breed; these insects being natural carriers of disease will increase the risk of transmitting various dangerous infectious diseases, such as Malaria and Dengue fever. Moreover, climate change is causing sea ice and glaciers to melt affecting wildlife and altering normal ocean circulation. In fact, scientists predict that two-thirds of the polar bear population will go extinct by the year 2050 due to climate change.

On the other hand, some do not label climate change as a threat. They argue that climate change is a normal phenomenon that occurred at certain points in history; the ice age, for example. And, that animals, plants, and eventually humans would adapt according to the natural selection theory. Although these claims have some truth to them, but whenever climate change happens, mass extinctions and serious environmental catastrophes also take place. Not only it endangers the environment but it has also been proven that it takes its toll on mental health. That and many more repercussions qualify climate change as a threat of utter significance.

To sum up, it is hard to deny that climate change is a pressing matter with regard to the events that we have witnessed in recent years; droughts, heatwaves, typhoons, hurricanes, etc. It is not a simple issue that we can turn a blind eye to. Thus, solutions must be put forward and implemented to prevent further consequences. As American physician-scientist, Kari C. Nadeau, said: “This is in our hands to do if we don’t do anything, that would be cataclysmic.”

Wydad Madani

Semester 3, Department of English Studies

Chouaib Doukkali University, El Jadida

They say ” lack of transparency results in distrust and deep sense of insecurity”.

But they also say “Privacy is power, what people don’t know cannot be ruined”. Since the creation of the internet, classified government information is slowly leaking to the public and sites, such as WikiLeaks, reveal a darker image of governmental decisions. With that being said, some people support WikiLeaks highlighting the necessity of government transparency. While others oppose it stating that it will threaten military operations and diplomatic relations. Both sides turn out to reveal some kind of concern towards the safety of citizens, and this can be attained by creating some limits and regulations regarding the leaks of this site.

Many civil right organizations have so far openly supported WikiLeaks. The reasoning behind their support is based on the fair rules and justified functionality of democracy and civil society. If secrecy of administrative documents is used to cover the government misbehavior, there must be legal grounds to overcome formal boarders of secrecy. However, several governmental officials state that WikiLeaks harmed diplomatic relations and put the lives of staff in sensitive positions at risk, it could even threaten military operations and that may put the country in jeopardy. For example, the biggest leak WikiLeaks has ever released were some US military documents from the Afghan and Iraq war.

While the goal of those who support WikiLeaks is to achieve transparency, democracy, a civil society and also to reveal the dark truth of governmental misbehavior. On the contrary, the other side’s purpose is to protect the secrecy of governments in order not to harm the diplomatic relations. It seems that both sides are concerned about the safety of citizens as they express the need of maintaining a good relationship between the government and the public. Therefore, these two opposing views wish the best for the country but in two different approaches.

Since both perspectives care about the interest of citizens, the best solution that will satisfy them is to establish some regulations and rules concerning the leaks of WikiLeaks. For instance, it would be credible if the website created a policy regarding rumors; all information should be examined in advance. Furthermore, the leaked information should be both important for citizens still not threatening to the government. This way, the public will not be fed up with false news and the government will be safe from any crises.

Overall, as one side advocates for the government to be transparent and the other for its secrecy, one thing both have in common is the desire for a safe civil country. The way to solve that, as it was mentioned, is to create rules and regulations governing the leaks of the website WikiLeaks, which is in my opinion the best way to achieve public security and peace.

Khaoula Jraif

Semester 3, Department of English Studies

Chouaib Doukkali University, El Jadida

Because of containment measures that were taken by the government transport, many companies are suffering from certain difficulties. A return to normal is not expected before 2021, or even 2022.

The sudden cessation of several activities in Morocco and around the world, means that Moroccan exporters are faced with a new and even unique situation. All air, land and sea supply chains are influenced by the spread of the new coronavirus-Covid19.

The economic sectors that have been impacted by the COVID-19

• The exporting pharmaceutical sector suffers from a stockout in the African market, explained by the fact that each export of medicine is now subject to authorization and a study on a case-by-case basis.
• The fishing sector is itself doubly affected by two factors: first, the biological rest at the start of the year and currently, the negative impact of the virus on the supply chain of raw materials upstream, which has a direct impact on export capacities.
• The agri-food sector, has just begun to stabilize in recent weeks after several problems concerning the drop in demand, late deliveries and the cancellation of several orders.

How to overcome the Covid-19’s impact on the supply chain management

In the future, the exporters must develop  their abilities to be fast, reactive and efficient and plan for uncertainties, they  must have a flexible business model to be able to change products if necessary, target markets to focus their  efforts on a particular segment, and diversify sources of supply to reduce uncertainty.

Investors also have to secure the production chains as much as possible and reduce their foreign dependence.

All sectors must invest in research and development to study all aspects of this crisis and put in place corrective measures to overcome its consequences.

Investors must also innovate and come up with interesting plans to continue to operate and improve the country’s economy.

The Moroccan government has to support small businesses, as it had put in place strong measures to fight the pandemic; these companies suffer currently from significant losses and cannot continue to operate.

Covid-19 remains a virus that has a very significant impact on logistics activities around the world, the global economy will recover soon, if the right decisions and commercial strategies are  well implemented, to improve the performance of these various sectors.

Author

OUAHDOU Yasmine

How did Covid-19 impact the workers all around the world?

Coronavirus has impacted millions of employees around the world in a very significant way causing many issues such as the increase of unemployment and job losses. In this direction, some workers showed more flexibility and started working from home, others decided to keep the work as it is, while few already lost their jobs. Workers are not only worried about their financial and physical problems, but they are also concerned about their psychological wellbeing during this crisis. Penalized by this spread of the novel Coronavirus, more and more Moroccan companies are resorting to partial unemployment for their employees, they are stuck at home, with no work and no payment, others are obliged to opt for the Telework that has been implemented lately, but the worse is about the other category which their  companies still refuse to resort to partial unemployment, favoring  other measures such as encouraging employees the taking of leaves without pay, or part- time work, and the most serious were the employees exposed to the dismissal.

The current situation is not an easy one, and particularly critical either for small businesses that have been hit hard by the pandemic and the workers in informal employment that is estimated at almost 80% of the work force they are undeclared or precarious, lacking social protection, they fear not the Coronavirus, but how they will survive emergency measures that have cut off their livelihoods. So, with this crisis going on, Morocco, among any other countries, is forced to embrace the remote working. Many employees have to do their jobs from their homes now, as it may sound nice to stay at home not working about having to wake up early in the morning, workers from some sectors cannot do their jobs unless they go out.

As we all see that the sector of education managed to continue giving lessons from home, teachers trough many platforms like zoom, Microsoft…kept the courses going on, as well as some companies business and financial operations are done and discussed by virtual meetings, accounting offices are also starting to work from home. There’s a big chance that Covid 19 may change human resources trend permanently as employees are becoming more familiar with remote working.

So, what is it like for employees who are unable to execute their tasks with Telework?

How can the government protect those people?

In respond to this situation and in order to face and reduce the rate of people in need during this critical period, the Moroccan government has set up a number of facilities to help. The government has founded a charity fund, also known as, Corona fund, in which all the Moroccans are able, in a voluntary way, to donate to face this pandemic and help people in need; these donations will be deductible from the tax result as a reward from the general directorate of tax. The CNSS has also helped to facilitate the task of remuneration of employees who have temporarily stopped their jobs due to the pandemic, by creating a portal dedicated to them, so as to declare their temporary work stopping, in a specific deadline and with smooth procedures.

As this situation will not be permanent, it may take time, but everything will slowly get to the process of reviving their previous position, be it any business or corporation. Employees or company owners have to keep in mind that they have to take this chance to work with more dedication, spend time researching and studying about the further scopes and skills improvement. Finally, this is a message to managers and directors to make sure to get out of the normal box and do something extraordinary for their employees; for example, they should organize online teambuilding activities, send them a gift packages, and if possible organize individual video calls with employees to check and see if they’re handling the situation.

Authors

• Kenza Hsik
• Oumaima El Fadily
• Widad Guerchi
• Haimoud Amine
• Ghafir Youssef

International repercussions on the global economy and government reaction

In the Eurozone, the PMI (survey of corporate purchasing managers) saw the largest decline ever after settling at 51.6 in February. This index is constructed in such a way that a number below 50 indicates a contraction, and a number above 50 represents an expansion of activity. The scale of the crisis is also historic in the rest of the world. For example, Australia had experienced the longest period of uninterrupted growth among developed countries to date. This trend is likely to stop, with the Covid-19 likely to plunge the country into recession.

The job market in the United States is deteriorating at an unprecedented rate. The last week of March saw 6.6 million Americans jobless, double the previous week, which had already set a “record”. On average in recent years, about 250,000 Americans have been unemployed every week.

In China, industrial production plunged 13.5% in January and February 2020, compared to the same period in 2019. Such a drop is unprecedented in China since the country turned to market economy in the late 1970s.

The major economies reacted by taking vigorous monetary and fiscal policy measures. The short-term evolution of demand and activity will depend entirely on the duration and severity of the confinement of populations. Once it is lifted, the recovery will likely be gradual and uneven. Government action will need to evolve, with aid measures in the face of the pandemic giving way to measures to revive growth, with public finances still under strain.

Faced with the prospect of a severe blow to GDP, central banks reacted quickly and energetically. The Federal Reserve has cut the Fed funds to zero and launched a commercial paper buy-back program as well as high-rated corporate bonds. It also sent the message that it would “do whatever is necessary” to stabilize the market for agency treasuries and the mortgage-backed securities market. The ECB, for its part, launched a pandemic emergency purchase program (PEPP), amounting to EUR 750 billion, and introduced essential flexibility regarding the breakdown of its shopping.

The oil market is collapsing due to the COVID-19

If someone tell you “take this for free and I’ll give you 30$” you might think he’s being ridiculous, and he’ll look like a psycho in your eyes if the thing he’s proposing was Oil, yes the black gold. But trust me, that is actually happening in the era of COVID-19 pandemic; the impossible became possible and the price of oil fell to the ground, and we can say ‘underground’ for the US case. So you might be asking “how is that related to the COVID-19?”: We all know the price of any good is related to supply and demand, and in this era of COVID-19 the demand of transport fuels decreased due to the lockdown and quarantine. With that, a big amount of oil, let’s call it “unwanted oil”, in the market caused a big drop in oil price, and it turned US oil price negative to almost -40$ a barrel. This means producers will pay oil buyers just to get rid of the unwanted oil they have in hands, while the price of oil is still above zero in other countries. It’s all due to the type of crude oil. In America, West Texas Intermediate is an oil shale which costs a lot for its extraction and production (1 oil barrel costs +40$) while in Saudi Arabia, 1oil barrel is way too cheaper (1 oil barrel costs just 5 to 10 dollars) and so is Brent Crude in Russia. However, even if the international bench mark oil price (Brent Crude) is above zero with 20$ a barrel, it is a drop of two-thirds since January to 18 years lows. So the whole oil market is collapsing.

The Impact of Coronavirus on the global trading and the international commerce

 In December 2019, a new strand of Coronavirus started spreading in the streets of Wuhan in China, ever since this has turned into a global pandemic with the virus now present everywhere in the world. This rapid spread has caused governments all over the globe to put social distancing policies in place. Most countries have banned the entrance of anyone that wasn’t present in their territory before the virus broke out. No one was expecting a decrease in the amount of goods being traded in the world but this happened sooner than later, countries like China who have temporarily stopped all forms of import and export, other countries focusing on importing only essential materials and merchandise that can’t be produced nationally. This has caused many companies and factories to close up shop and put their workers to rest. Laying people off work forces countries to provide some sort of financial compensation to help the now unemployed workers, that also means less income for the state. This situation is unprecedented, and currently no one has clear and precise answers to the questions currently on hand. One thing that is definitely sure is that we need to revisit all the habits injected into our bloodstreams from consumerism and capitalism, the only way for us to survive and grow from this pandemic, if to refocus toward the human capital instead of the bottom-line.

Authors

• Imad Hamdis
• Soukaina FARTOUTI
• Ilias Bourkadi

Authors

• LAALJI Zaineb
• KHANDAFOU Laila
•  LAMNAOUAR Aya
• MEZMER Hajar

References

• https://www.wto.org/
• http://www.cnt.ma/
• https://www.airlines.iata.org/

]]> https://composition-hub.com/tourist-industry-in-the-covid-19-era/feed/ 0 https://composition-hub.com/united-states-trump-and-racism/ https://composition-hub.com/united-states-trump-and-racism/#respond Tue, 23 Jun 2020 18:49:25 +0000 http://encgj-hub.com/?p=3488 The death in Atlanta of Rayshard Brooks, was a new tragedy that revived the racism and the police in America, after the death of the Afro-American George Floyd; brutally.

As of race, Trump plays with fire like no other president has in a century. If it happened to other occupants of the White House to approach the yellow line, even the franchise sometimes, trying to play on the resentment of white Americans in a way not always very subtle, no one so openly fanned the flames, with as much insistence and frenzy, as Trump.

His attack on elected democrats occurred the same day that his government was to make mass arrests of illegal immigrants. And, a few days earlier, he received at the White House some of the most violent spokesmen of the extreme right on the Internet, and assured them that he would find another way to sort out citizens and non-citizens, despite a decision of the Supreme Court which prevented him from adding a question on citizenship to the next decennial population census to be held in 2020.

In addition Trump adopts harmful measures against the black peoples and demonstrators such as the force and excessive gas and he describe it « The beautiful Sight », knowing that this type of violence had been suppressed for several centuries.

He has been criticized by the International Association of Police Chiefs and Law Enforcement Officials across the United States for working to build trust between the police and African Americans.

The department of the police in Suffolk on Tweeter said: « we will never forgive him against these harmful measures against the demonstrators and his encouragement of abuse of treatment against the prisoners, and we will never forgive him in the future ». So will Trump access the election next November?

Author

Oumaima Nbaoui

References

• https://www.aljazeera.net/news/politics/2020/6/18/
• https://interactive.aljazeera.net/aja/Know-their-names/
• https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/31/us/george-floyd-investigation.html
• https://www.courrierinternational.com/article/etats-unis-trump-le-plus-raciste-des-presidents-americains
• https://www.aljazeera.net/news/politics/

African-Americans (also known as black Americans or more rarely African-Americans) are the ethnic group formed by citizens of the United States of total or partial descent from black Africa. The vast majority of African-Americans are descendants of “slaves” deported between the beginning of the 16th century and the beginning of the 19th century. Long regarded by white Americans as inferior beings, blacks gradually emerged from the condition reserved for them to demand equality not only theoretical, but real, in American democracy. For a long time victims of slavery, racial segregation and discrimination, post-Civil War reconstruction, desegregation and the civil rights movement are all steps towards the recognition of the rights of African-Americans.

All the attempts made highlight the difficulty of carrying out the double task of desegregation and the protection of civil rights by non-violent means, in a country where the federal authority comes up against the autonomy of the States. It will have taken decades to get white and black people admitted into the same schools and make them full voters. And still.

George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American, died on May 25th in Minneapolis after being grounded for almost nine minutes by a police officer pressing a knee on his neck. Images of the arrest, which quickly spread across the United States, sparked anger at American police accused of racism and brutality against the African American community.

The shock wave spread around the world and thousands of people took part in protests in Europe and Asia in particular. Across the country, peaceful protests are taking place, bringing blacks and whites together in protests shouting “George Floyd, George Floyd” or “Black Lives Matter!” or “I can’t breathe”, the words spoken by the victim several times during his arrest which turn out to be a murder. And at this time Donald Trump is still determined to restore order by once again resorting to the violence of his army.

Anonymous is a Hacktivist movement, particularly manifested on the Internet. It’s like unionism. It’s a form of protest; an organization without hierarchy, without representation. The group Anonymous came back on this American societal crisis with a four-minute video, published on May 29th. The narration accuses MPD of having “a horrific track record of violence and corruption,” claiming that the killing of George Floyd was “merely the tip of the iceberg.” The video goes on to claim the hackers are acting after “numerous” MPD killings in recent years.

#Justice_for_George_Floyd

Globalization is the highlight of the contemporary era, with media easily reaching most parts of the world, sharing views and ideas as well as influence in both ways became a major act in how the world is evolving. With internet being available almost everywhere, televisions and other informative ways of communication, individuals around the globe found themselves in front of a nearly infinite source of information, where anyone can freely express themselves without concrete limit. How did communication get over these limits or boundaries, how can globalization movements be this diverse but at the same time very selective and how did this evolution impact human lives on multiple scales?

Globalization, Geographic and National Boundaries

Globalization means bringing together different places of the world to make it a global world, it also refers to the promotion of flows of goods, services and individuals, as well as the development of free trade and this based on policies of deregulation. Obviously, the free movement of factors of production: labor and capital, has many advantages, for instance improving the quality of life of individuals at work by reducing costs, or even the ease of access to different foreign cultures. Yet there are several types of borders that limit territories, the reason why in this paragraph we will focus on geographic boundaries. In fact the geographic boundary has an important function because it preserves the territory in which the State exercises its power. Furthermore, this type of boundaries is characterized in particular by the existence of the airports which monitor the papers and bags in order to ensure the security of their land boundaries. Otherwise, the boundaries in Europe don’t have the same value as in the countries of other seas due to Schengen space; consequently European citizens can cross the boundary of other countries belonging to the European Union without being subject to limiting constraints since the mobility between these countries is considered internal mobility. On the other hand, controls at the external borders of the Schengen area are very strong. Truly, we immediately think that boundaries are drawn only between the States of the European Union and the States outside this Union. However, in this era of Coronavirus, we have noticed that not only the external boundaries which are closed but also the internal boundaries of the Schengen space, in other words Schengen space restriction. This action aims to avoid any threat to public health. This event shows that the geographic boundaries remain inviolable even in a globalized world, boundaries always form limits and this manifested plainly with the Coronavirus which could have closed each country its geographic boundaries.

One of the significant impacts of globalization is the forming of a new and recognizable class of people belonging to a nascent worldwide culture. As enrollment in this new global culture rises, numerous critics locate a danger to national societies, coming about potentially in the inevitable outdated nature. We consider the patterns driving the development of this recently rising worldwide culture, the procedure by which new individuals are associated into it, the qualities, or highlights, that give off an impression of being engaging of its individuals, and the effect of this culture on the outdated nature of national societies. At last, while it’s ridiculous to expect that the development of this global culture will substitute national societies, we, all the same, came to the conclusion that national societies must be adjustable and capable to highlight the captivation of their fundamental components if they aim to successfully remain pertinent.

Globalization and Political Boundaries

In political scope, globalization has created several evolutions which some of them are as follows:

Democracy

Democracy is a Greek word which derives of “kratia” and “demos”, meaning “home rule”. Mainly, there are two classes definitions of democracy :

• An outlook that argued democracy as a governance method.
• Another that argued democracy as values.

Nation-State

Some theoreticians believe that in globalization process, the concentration of supervision was transferred from national state to sub governmental, non-governmental and ultra-governmental organizations. In other words, in globalization age, the method of governance has completely changed.

New Political Actors

Another impact of globalization on politics is the appearance of new political actors in national, regional and global scopes, beside the change in location of some old and traditional actors.

To conclude, globalization  has surely had several outcomes on many distinct scopes around the world and on the history of human beings’ existence. This has undeniably restructured the world with all his continents and nations and developed their abilities to a certain degree that guaranteed the enhancement of life’s achievements, considering different domains such as economy, politics, health…
Whether we accept it or not, by any means possible, globalization was the main factor of collision and cohesion of cultures, generations, folk, religions… and will always be the leader of the global state, but also the primary reason of new issues and new challenges for humanity.

Resources

• https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-01463007/document
• https://www.intechopen.com/books/globalization-education-and-management-agendas/the-impact-of-globalization-on-cross-cultural-communication
• https://www.intechopen.com/books/globalization-education-and-management-agendas/the-impact-of-globalization-on-cross-cultural-communication
• https://theconversation.com/schengen-a-lepreuve-du-coronavirus-134267
• https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1075425303000577
• https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03637750500111872
• https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/713657031

Authors

• MADMAD LINA
• MITRAQ ZINEB
• MESTOUR SOUFIAN
• MAGUERI MOUAD
• MAJID SOUFIANE