The Iraqi government launched a nationwide campaign to rid the streets of its cities of the mentally disabled, the beggars, and the itinerants whose numbers reached phenomenal levels as a result of the ongoing sectarian violence. This Interior Ministry initiative came not as an attempt to social reform, but as a strategy to somehow strengthen its already tenuous national security. The Iraqi government fears the insurgency and Al-Qaeda will resort to using this unwanted, isolated, and vilified fringe of the Iraqi society as unwitting suicide bombers. It took two suicide attacks by two women who apparently suffered from Down syndrome to draw attention to this social flaw. The two attacks resulted in the killing of nearly 100 people most of whom were children. The task to round up these social dejects is delegated to the police who, needless to say, are complicit in the violence plaguing the country today.
What would it take for Morocco, a country which, according to a survey conducted by the department of Social Development, Family and Solidarity in 2007, is host to 195, 950 beggars and itinerants, to seriously address the issue? Another study conducted in 2005 by the Moroccan Child Protection League in conjunction with the ministry of Health indicated that close to 500.000 people live in beggary and survive solely through charity in Morocco. 
Presently, the weathered men and women chasing tourists through the streets of Morocco’s most modern cities and in its souks beseeching their generosity are nothing but a petulant nuisance. Their tatter dressed children huddled on the floor are robbed of the most elementary of rights: education. Their malnourished and unvaccinated babies crawling on the dirt crusted pavements are photo opportunities to European weekenders visiting for their humanitarian fix.
How are we preparing these upcoming generations for the future? Why isn’t the Moroccan government looking at this social problem from a national security perspective? It may not seem like it is now, but It will be 20 years from now.
