Nowadays, all the time, everywhere, we are faced with someone who smokes; consequently, they get a few undesirable impacts on their lives. On the other hand, smoking conveys numerous bad effects on individuals and society. So what are upsides and downsides of smoking?
Smoking cigarettes can cause maladies including: coronary episode malignant growth, maternity sicknesses, asthma, and others. These days heaps of individuals have passed away, since they smoke. In Belgium, smokers spend billions on smoking cigarettes. When investigating this model, it's self-evident that smoking offers dangers to singular life. Clearly, many difficulties can be brought about by smoking. In any case, many individuals believe that cigarettes have numerous advantages. The essential prize is salary that is much is bolstered by it towards the administration from taxes. Since numerous individuals smoke it, the legislature can procure a great deal of money. For instance, in Indonesia, the state gets billions from a cigarette tax. While thinking about this occasion, there is no uncertainty the administration acquires a lot of salary from smokers. At cigarette association, many individuals work other than this. For instance, thousands of individuals in Malaysia work in various tobacco firms. With the goal that they could live joyfully, they get a significant pay from their firms. Besides, agents get a lot of salary from cigarettes once they are traded by them. This gives us for the conclusion that these both have focal points for people. In short, I firmly accept that smoking's dangers are crueler, contrasted with the benefits of smoking. Thus, I encourage smoking to stop. Ikram Kabbaj Intermediate Three
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(Editor's note: It's important to be aware of the Coronavirus, but not to panic. The recommended way to protect yourself is to wash your hands frequently and to avoid touching your face.) The human being is a part of nature, but he is distinguished from other components by his brain, which makes him able to control, manage, and dominate nature.
Currently, human faces an uncontrollable situation and his life is threatened by a tiny living being, invisible to the naked eye, which testifies to the strong power of nature: the Coronavirus. This little virus has caused the total destruction of China after all its progress, and despite scientific progress, humans have failed to control the spread of this virus that disturbs the peace of people around the world. Currently, everyone's concern is to protect themselves from the attack of this monster that devours people every day, because just like animals, humans have the instinct of survival, so they attach themselves to life at all cost. This nightmare that we are living makes us aware of the importance of life and the value of the dear people around us, whom we can lose at any time. This virus can be a clear message from nature; since we can not hear it, it chooses to address us in its own way, to make us think about all our acts of neglect and selfishness towards the environment and people around us. It indirectly invites us to savor life, to be happy with what we have and to be respectful to everyone. In short, causes of death are varied and no one is immune to this end. Certainly, no one can determine his own longevity but surely, we can choose the way of living. It's time to say goodbye to our pessimistic way of thinking and to try to consider ourselves happy, because life is short and we can never relive a day gone by. Douae Rahim Intermediate Three As we all know, feelings are a huge part of us all. Everyone has different feelings and it's very common for a person to experience different feelings and emotions during the day. This essay is about sadness.
Yes, sadness! Everyone feels sad, just like everyone can feel joyful, angry, proud, and plenty of other emotions. In other words, everyone has feelings and those feelings are always changing. Sometimes we feel happy and sometimes we feel sad, such as when we have trouble at home, at school or at work or when we move home, when we lose a loved one or a friend, and when we are ill or caring for someone who is ill. Anyway, whatever the feeling, it's real and a part of life. So briefly, sadness is a natural part of life, like happiness is. As humans, we will have to taste every flavor of life, whether we like it or not. And if anyone tries to escape from any flavor, he will not get to enjoy his favorite feeling. The question in your mind now is "Since sadness is an important part of life, what's good about it?" Well, a negative emotion like sadness may even help you. Our world focuses on happiness and treats unhappiness as a useless feeling. But sadness can slow you down and make you really think about your life, your feelings, and people around you. It can help you to keep sight of your relationships and dreams. In other words, being sad doesn't mean you are not coping with a situation. Rather, it helps you come to terms with that situation and move on. It's also an important feeling that can help you adapt, accept, focus, preserve, and grow. So, don't forget that the recipe of life is incomplete without sadness, to give flavor to the recipe, we need to put all the emotions on the plate of life including sadness. In addition, the word happiness will lose its meaning if it isn't balanced by sadness. When you're feeling sad, don't try to fade away this sadness, just live it, cry and show your sorrow, take your time and accept the truth that sadness is as much part of life as happiness and other feelings are. In brief, be sad when you feel so, cry when you need to, speak and let words flow with your emotions, stay quiet when you feel the need, love yourself for the times you feel proud of being you, hate yourself for the times you are ashamed of your abilities. Feel fear, hope, pleasure, love and everything because we have been given only one life, one chance to experience everything. Wiam Akdim Intermediate Three (This article was previously published in 2012.)
I had made so many efforts to be in graduate school. Indeed, I was so involved in my studies that I had forgotten to make the “most” of this period of youth and be carefree. I’ve lived in hope to have a job and be materially independent and useful for my country, which had done a lot for me, including a free education. However, once at work, (and after having a hard time finding it), armed with a vision of the future and the point of view of a young, dynamic executive, I’ve bumped into an unbelievable world of labor, where any ambition is reduced to nothing. Things that come first in this world are personal interests, (promotions, bonuses, a raise in salary), which each one asserts by using their influences or their physical assets as an advantage. In fact work, especially that of a bank, which I am dedicated to, reduces your ambition to nothing. Your interests and values, your opinions, and sometimes even you dignity as a human being, are degraded. You are here for accomplishing tasks and complying with bank rules and proceedings. The fact of being confined to repetitive and already-prepared tasks makes you unable to think deeply and condemns you to adopt superficial reasoning. The worst is that you feel like you are drowning in the stream of people, whose worries are totally different from yours, and whose attitude you adopt without even realizing it, which in turn challenges those principles you trust. All things considered, working in the financial sector teaches you that you must keep your opinions, your critics, your initiatives, and your creativity. In any case, if you risk or venture to express anything of this nature, you are immediately called to order, and if you demonstrate some resistance, you will be marginalized forever. It’s a no win attitude from leaders of an economic sector, which is a source of all the actual pains and difficulties of the economic world. So, first we live in hope of working, (exit and outcome of studies), and are confident we will carry out what we have learned and what we have been taught. Then we are confronted with a bitter reality, which fills you with disillusion and hopelessness. Finally you feel that you’re suffering a defeat of not being able to “blossom” and be happy in your job, which is taking over life and the majority of your time. Nonetheless, this failure is only relative, because working for a Moroccan woman is already a great success and victory, for by doing so she has gained material independence and modest liberation from the guardianship of Moroccan men. (This article was previously published in 2012.)
Mohamed (peace upon on him) said: “Heaven is under mothers’ feet.” He clearly knew and valued mothers’ roles. A mother is a real heroine for every son and daughter. Also, being a mother is a woman’s dream. One's mother is the most important person in everybody’s life. She is the one who has carried you inside her body for nine months. Even though you were heavy for her weak frame, you were kicking her, and you were making her body look unfeminine with a big belly. She was enjoying every moment with you and was impatiently waiting to hold you in her arms. After several months of care, service, and love; you thank her by making her suffer, scream, and bleed. However, when she sees the baby, there is something in her eyes that you will never see in anybody’s eyes. She will forget all the pain once she touches you. Personally speaking, I am grateful to my mother for giving me her time, emotions, and care. I do thank her a lot for raising, guiding, and protecting me. I do respect her for suffering for years; yet, she has been patient and sacrificed for us. Now, I am more determined to make her proud of me and never regret all the painful years. Not only do I have a wonderful mom, but I also want to be a great mother. Motherhood is what every woman wants to experience. Having a child from your own blood is just a miracle. No matter whom the woman is no matter what culture she belongs to, no matter how much success she has achieved; one day she will desperately desire to be a mother. This is just a fact like day and night. In short, having a mother is a gift that every child should be aware of. Moreover, being a mother is a noble job that every woman should care about. For me, being a good daughter is what my mother deserves. And if it happened to me to be a mother, I will make sure that my children will have the best one. Ghizlane Iguere Writing Club (This article was previously published in 2012.)
What is the purpose of life? Is it to become happy? Wherever people live, they all have the same deep desire to be happy. In our life, we constantly experience happiness and unhappiness, but we are still quite ignorant of what happiness really is. Nowadays, if we ask people what happiness is, I’m sure we’ll find different answers and a lot of ideas. Happiness for an old man doesn’t look like happiness for a child, and happiness for a woman is never the same as for a man. So to support my belief I decided to ask people about their perception of happiness. I asked a young friend of mind and she said, “For me happiness is when I get good marks on an exam.” I asked another girl and she said, “I will be happy when I get married.” For her, happiness is only to be found in marriage. But looking at married people, we see that sometimes it doesn’t guarantee happiness. For others, happiness is something else. When our teacher asked us what makes us happy, one of my classmates said that he would be happy if he could go abroad. He thinks that he would find paradise in a foreign country. For me, happiness is not having money, getting married, or going abroad. It is not life without problems. Happiness is to be able to solve our problems and enjoy life, because there is no need to cry or be sad. We should create a world without fear, and together we will cry happy tears. What things take away your happiness?
What can you do on a daily basis to be happy? A – Start your day by being grateful for all the things you have B – When you wake up, think of the things that please you C – Walk on the beach, swim, or watch the sunrise D – Plan your day; celebrate every happy moment E – Make friends, meet new people, and enjoy good company F – Believe in yourself and your capacities G – Read poems, book, and articles H – Feel happy all the time because “happiness is a habit – cultivate it” Writing Club (This article was previously published in 2012.)
A good teacher is someone who is knowledgeable, has a good pedagogy and possesses a set of good values. At first, the teacher should be able to have a good understanding of the lessons for transmitting information. It’s very important to adopt new teaching methods and be creative. In the past, the teacher was the know-it-all in class; he just wrote the lesson on the board and students learned it by heart. Students did not have any right to voice their opinions. They experienced fear, humiliation, and disappointment. Nowadays, most teachers share ideas with their students and they give them the opportunity to develop and create their own ways of collecting new ideas. Secondly, it’s important to have humor in class. Good teachers use their sense of humor to make learning enjoyable and fun. They are also helpful and tolerant with all the students. They do not make any discrepancy between them. Moreover, they are supportive and sympathetic with all their students so that everyone in class feels that the teacher cares for everyone, and thus everyone is safe. To sum up, a good teacher is someone who provides an environment where students can not only study to get good grades but also acquire some social and life skills to be ready to face the possible challenges in life. Raja Krimi Intermediate Two (This article was previously published in 2012.)
In 1960, I remember a city which was basically divided into two areas… One district was confined to “Meknassis” of Moroccan origin, (Muslim and Jewish), whose activities were strictly traditional, (handcrafts, carpentry, tapestry, small shopkeepers). Its markets were abundant with vegetables and fruits, working farms surrounded the city, and gardens known as “jnanat” were located within the town. The other district was created by the French protectorate and exclusively reserved for foreigners who worked in Morocco. Meanwhile, the state of Morocco had been working to have trained staff in every field. This new part of the city was organized and had architecture which reminded you of a European town. In fact, the main avenue was emphasized by a row of a variety of trees whose leaves were always green, and on each spotless edge we found bookstores with books and school supplies, bakeries that gave off a smell of baked cakes, musical instrument stores, car dealers, and above all a central market which sheltered grocer’s shops with tidy displays of products, all out of reach for the Moroccan budget. Even the high school where I had studied, Lalla Amina, which was an all-girls school and directed by a team of French people, was a real jewel. Its play area was filled with flowers, students were dressed in uniforms to hide social classes, and classrooms were filled with the necessary equipment needed for each subject. Nowadays, the city of Meknes is a reminder of a city of those years. It’s reduced to a standard Moroccan town and all what was bequeathed by the settlers is now replaced with tasteless things and crumbling buildings. And all that was connected to knowledge has quite simply disappeared, (a number of libraries and cinemas have been closed). Apart from shops whose windows display cheap, tasteless clothes, there are cafés, and as way, “between one and one there is one.” All of them are overflowing with Moroccan men. In addition, the educational establishment which I referred to earlier looks like a prison, with its wild hedges and enormous gate made of iron. The poor conditions of the windows that overlook the street reveal the state of the inside of the classrooms. Moreover, the students are dressed in accordance with their social status, and sometimes with regard to their humor and point of view. In short, change has touched all the angles of life in this city, and in my point of view, that change has been made in the wrong way. Saadia Adli Intermediate Four (This article was previously published in 2012.)
Racism is a sociological problem grown within cultures in countries all over the world. So what does racism mean? Why do some people believe in it and how? When do people suffer racism? What are the reasons for this problem? And in the end, what are the solutions? Racism includes the belief in racial differences, and discrimination which denies people their religion, culture, name, color of skin, or their ethnic group. This means that they can’t accept others whoever they are. It can happen when someone is treated worse than in the same position. Many people may suffer discrimination at work, at school, college or even in public places. In Morocco for example, there is discrimination against black African people who come to the country even if they come to study. People don’t treat them well, and they look down on them. In the past history of the USA, white Americans were more privileged by law than African-Americans in matters of literacy, immigration, voting rights, citizenship, and much more. Many American immigrants also suffered discrimination in the American society. In my opinion, I hate discrimination and I don’t believe in it, because if we avoid communication with others because of their beliefs or religion, we can’t convince them to believe in our religion for example. A lot of foreign people say that Muslim people are completely racist; however, the main problem can be the absence of communication between them and other people. So to sum up we can say that with modern technology, which helped the world to be like a small village, racism should not exist anymore. All men are the same now, benefiting from the same services and facilities. Education has also shaped the way people think and behave because people are open to different cultures and ways of life. So let’s hope that future generations will walk hand in hand to face difficult challenges. Salima Ben El Hamel (This article was previously published in 2012.)
Meknes is one of the fourth imperial cities of Morocco and was founded in the 10th century. Its name derives from the founding tribe “Zenete Meknassa,” which means warrior. History In the 11th and 12th centuries the city was fortified by two different tribes which started to build important mosques, hammams (Moorish baths), and kasbahs. In the 13th century, lots of monuments were built by Abou Youssef and Abou El Hassan. This dynasty made Meknes a real North African city with a Spanish touch. After this period, the city began to lose its importance until the end of the 17th century and the advent of the second sultan “Alaouite,” when the city became the first of the imperial cities. Moulay Ismail, who was the “building” type, made a glory of the city thanks to the money obtained from the resell of Christian seafarers captured in the sea and kept in the immense underground prison that we can still visit now. Moulay Ismail also built edifices, gardens, monumental gates, ramparts, a gigantic wall of 40 km in length, and a multitude of mosques with beautiful minarets. This is why Meknes is called “a hundred minarets city.” Nowadays, the medina of Meknes is classified as a world patrimony site of UNESCO, which has caused many of its sites to be restored. Monuments and Interesting Sites Through the old remains and thick walls, the city of Meknes reveals its beauty and majestic history:
Geography and Climate Meknes is situated on the plateau of Saiss in the Atlas Mountain region. It’s generally rainy in the winter, mild in the spring and autumn, and hot and dry in the summer. With a Mediterranean climate, its average temperature is about 25 degrees Celsius, making it a great place for vacation Population The population of Meknes consists of varying groups of people with different backgrounds, ranging from the High Atlas to Berbers of the south. They speak the nation-wide dialect of Darija, with their own accents and variations, while Berbers still tend to speak their native, tribal language. Recommendations To urge you to visit Meknes and its surrounding areas that are abundant in hot springs and magnificent views, we invite you to research our city on the internet to see the different attractions, and learn about local hotels, which can welcome and accommodate a large number of guests. This city also has camping, youth hostels, and riads. Riads are for those who want a total immersion into Meknessi culture and civilization. By being in the ancient houses of natives who had a high social standing, you can learn about the different aspects of life for the Meknessi people. Saadia Adli |
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