Dear reader in the appropriate form of salutation!
First of all I want to wish a happy Aid Al Fitr to all Muslim Brethren in Arabic language, today we celebrate Aid Al Fitr in Morocco, the end of the holy month of fasting.
I am very honoured and happy to speak on behalf of all Brethren from Morocco and to speak to all members of the Confederation of Grand Lodges of Europe and Mediterranean in this particular digital meeting, because we are all in total or partial lockdown.
This year 2020 started with a calamity which affected humanity by the appearance and the meteoric spread of the “SARS-Cov2” virus, which unfortunately kills hundreds of thousands people which were added to the other diseases and disasters which affect humanity every year (Seasonal flu, Cancer, Famine, HIV, Malaria, Cholera, road traffic accident and the list is long), this health situation has forced more than 3.5 billion people to undergo lockdown, as you know, this situation causes to several millions of people around the world, to lose their jobs, and the global economy is sinking ; Certain human values have definitely changed, especially for us as Freemasons and Mediterranean people, we are tactile and kinetic people and this is what makes the particularity of our common culture, certain gestures of tenderness towards our brothers, children, elders and parents suddenly became banned, we are forced to tell them, that it is because I love you, I shouldn’t kiss you, hag you, or shake your hand, it is unfortunate!, I’m very sad.
As for us in Morocco, to date deplores 198 deaths, this pandemic put us to the test and all Moroccan people have pleasantly discovered certain facets of Morocco that we did not know, and I would like to share them with you.
- Let us start with Morocco’s the development of the country requires, and those resulting from calamities and from natural catastrophes”. Full stop. All biggest companies ( Banks first) contributed to the creation of a “CoVid-19” fund to help the underprivileged, mployed and small companies, restaurants, and milk bars which closed more than 2 months ago and they lost their turnover business and they mostly have unpaid credit maturities, that the banks have been willing to defer repayments of these credits.
- The decision taken by his majesty the king of Morocco to requisition the entire stock of Choloroquine in mid-March to treat patients with coronavirus, it was a very courageous decision, Morocco was the first country in world to use the “Choloroquine/Azitromycine” protocol.
- Lockdown in Morocco started very early (Marsh 20th), and the wearing of face mask was quickly adopted (first April) for people who were allowed to go out, so the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of the Interior worked hand in hand to ensure the implementation of all decisions to protect citizens.
- extile companies quickly converted for the manufacture of face masks, the national production reached 8 million face masks per day, part of these articles is made available to Moroccan citizens at the price of 8 cts of Euro (0.08 Euro), the other part was exported to France and Spain.
- The Moroccan government has paid compensation for Marsh, April and May to underprivileged people, to who have lost their jobs or those who are in a difficult situation to allow them to be confined in good conditions.
- All ministers and parliamentarians donated their salaries (Marsh, April and May) to “CoVid-19” fund, also citizens who are in comfortable financial situation made transfers to the “CoVid-19” fund.
- The royal army forces set up a hospital with a capacity of 700 beds in enclosure of the international fair at Casablanca in record time so as not to clutter more hospitals ; Several companion hospitals were built in remote regions to ensure the setting – in – quarantine of patients without having to move them to main hospital centres.
I will stop at the 7th point which symbolizes masters to close on a positive symbolic aspect, praying and hoping that the whole earth will wake up on a better day.
So said I…
Hassan El Azhari
Granmaster
Moroccan Grand National Lodge
