Today's the 32nd anniversary of the Green March

Lame. I learned that from a Time article about Spanish-Moroccan tensions, via of commenter and Western Sahara associate Justin Knapp. Harassed Moroccan journalist Ali Lmrabet is quoted as thinking the Ceuta and Melilla saber-rattling isn't that big of a deal:

Still, Lmrabet is skeptical about the brouhaha. "This isn't about foreign policy — it's for domestic consumption," he says. In his view, the Moroccan government gains something from the ongoing tension with its neighbor across the Mediterranean. In September parliamentary elections, only 37% of eligible voters went to the polls. The low turnout — the worst in the country's history — was widely interpreted as a sign that voters felt irrelevant to the political process. "It's not unusual for Morocco to whip up nationalist sentiment when it wants to create a distraction from the country's real problems, says analyst Amirah-Fernández. "But it's not a good sign."