Can the cat be belled and who bells it

Par : Pali Lehohla Statistician-General, South Africa

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Programme Director,

I am honoured to be addressing this august gathering that deals with matters of measurement yet I am humbled to be doing so in the prestigious Kingdom of Morocco, Al Mamlakah al Maghribiyah, in local dialect. I wish to salute the ancient dynasties of Almoravid, Almohad and Marinid who have created Marrakesh, which we, present day statisticians have come to epitomise in the development of statistics. It is in the Marrakesh Action Plan that we capture why statistics. If you allow me Programme Director, it is equally befitting for me not to forget mention of the illustrious Ahmad al-Mansur, who has not only given rise to the Alaouite dynasty, but who played a self-liquidating catalytic role by whilst growing Morocco to its zenith through conquest and astute diplomacy also caused its demise under the weight of debt and military  over-reach in foreign lands. 

In Africa, Morocco provides the most strategic geographic location ever, linking Europe and Africa in the midst of the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea and the Straight of Gibraltar. As King Hassan II once put it:

"Morocco is like a tree, whose roots lie in Africa, but whose leaves breathe in European air."

Given Morocco's geographic position, it still surprises many scholars and historians how the sultanate maintained its independence for centuries, also surviving being swallowed into the then powerful Ottoman Empire in the neighbourhood.