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FOM Newsletter November 2001

 Calendar information about cultural and community events in Morocco.   Events in Rabat, Casablanca, Fez, Tangier and throughout Morocco of possible interest to readers are included.  Updated weekly each Thursday.  Compiled as a community service by Carol McCreary.  Contact Carol to be included on the mailing list.

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    11/24 Week in Review:  News clips from Morocco
    11/17 Week in Review:  News clips from Morocco
    11/10 Week in Review:  News clips from Morocco
    11/03 Week in Review:  News clips from Morocco
    10/27 Week in Review:  News clips from Morocco

Compiled weekly by Mhamed El Kadi in Morocco and posted each Saturday on this site

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    No Time to Be Shortchanging Foreign Aid  Judy Mann Washington Post  Nov 14, 2001

Susana de la Torre was a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco from 1987 to 1989. On the evening of Sept. 11, the first e-mail she received was from her Moroccan "family." They knew that her husband worked for the Department of the Army and that the family lived near the Pentagon.  "They had tried for several hours to call me by phone," de la Torre told me, "but had been unsuccessful and then resorted to e-mailing. I simply cried when I got their e-mail, and I was moved -- though not surprised -- at the depth of their caring for me and my family. They contacted us way before many family members ever did to inquire about our safety."  MORE

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Elizabeth Nash  29 October 2001

It used to be mainly hippies or France's designer élite who relished the technicolour hedonism of Marrakesh. Now French and British entrepreneurs are snapping up magnificent town houses ("riads") in the old centre and restoring them as havens of discreet luxury for a wider public. The change has stiffened laidback Marrakesh, adored by Yves Saint Laurent and celebrated in the movie Hideous Kinky, with a sharp business edge.

Sunday November 4, 2001  The Observer

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While the US worries about terrorism and the burgeoning war in Afghanistan, it has not overlooked the continuing world effort to coordinate an approach to climate change. The largest American presence since The Hague conference a year ago is expected in Marrakech at the end of the month, underlining Washington's continuing interest in, if not commitment to, the climate change talks

  Morocco sets up Berber cultural heritage body
 
RABAT, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Morocco's King Mohammed set up a Berber cultural heritage body on Wednesday, meeting one of the long-standing demands for the preservation of the language and history of the North African nation's ethnic Berbers.

Berbers, who also are known as Imazighen (free men) and whose language is Tamazight, represent the majority of Morocco's 30 million people, according to independent sources.

Berbers lived in North Africa before the Arab invasion of the seventh century but the Moroccan constitution recognises only Arabic as the official language.

"By establishing the Royal Institute for Amazigh Culture, we want...to recognise the whole of our common history and our national cultural identity," the king told a ceremony attended by government officials in the northern village of Ajdir, in the Berber province of Khenifra, 300 km (190 miles) from Rabat.

The Amazigh culture "which is deeply rooted in the Moroccan peoples' history belongs to all Moroccans without exception and cannot be used for political purposes," the king added, according to the text of his speech carried by the MAP official news agency and broadcast live on state-run television.

The king's mother, Lalla Latifa, is a Berber and daughter of a well-known nationalist Berber tribesman in Khenifra province.

"This is a good decision," said Ilyas Omari, a leading Berber activist, "but what we want to see next is Tamazight recognised by the constitution as official language."
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Staying in the Marrakesh medina is no longer hideous or kinky, says Jeremy Seal. The renovated riads are oases of comfort and calm

Ensconced in a courtyard guesthouse, Jo Knowsley savours a retreat from the chaos of Marrakesh.

Hidden in the High Atlas are some of Morocco's most tempting hotels, where guests seeking a retreat from the cities are entertained in style, says Barnaby Rogerson

THE SEA WAS a calm black sheet that summer night when Ghali Hacen and his two comrades stood on a Moroccan beach, stripped down to their underwear and began a three-hour swim toward their dream.

Deadly Journeys: One in a continuing series. Illegal migrants risk death to cross from Africa to Europe. Hidden under trucks and aboard ferries, clinging to rickety boats or detouring through a former penal colony in North Africa, thousands of border-crashers set off from Morocco in search of better lives in Spain and beyond.

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The bodies of 13 illegal immigrants who drowned while attempting a clandestine trip across the Straits of Gibraltar to Spain were washed up on a Moroccan beach yesterday, as the search began for 46 others believedto have died after their boat overturned.

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The king of Morocco, Mohammed VI, has responded vigorously to criticism by Spain that his country is not doing enough to control the hundreds of migrants entering Europe illegally from Morocco.

   The Ode to Morocco: A Globe-Trotting Couple's Color-Drenched Apartment Inspired by Exotic Locales.

By Annie Groer, Washington Post Staff Writer. Thursday, September 6, 2001; Page H01

They wanted color. They wanted drama. And they wanted their Dupont Circle co-op to evoke Casablanca. So it was that after a dozen years spent overseas in the exotic precincts of Tehran, Istanbul, Cairo and Moscow, foreign correspondents Geneive Abdo, 41, and Jonathan Lyons, 43, came to Washington and went wild with paint.

Like "Wild Reeds, " the essential story is a triangle, though the sexual and personal dynamics have been altered. Serge (Stephane Rideau) is a truck driver who imports cloth to Morocco and delivers high priced, stylish luxury clothes to France. The movie opens with his return to Tangiers, where he succumbs to the seductive criminal subculture, dangerously agreeing to smuggle hashish out of the port city.

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   Slight progress in Western Sahara talks in Wyoming

By Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 30 (Reuters) - A Western Sahara independence movement on Thursday apparently agreed to study U.N. proposals for autonomy within Morocco after insisting it would settle for nothing less than an independence referendum, the United Nations reported.

Three days of sensitive talks, conducted by James Baker, the former U.S. secretary of state, at his Pinedale, Wyoming, ranch ended with vague commitments to consider new approaches to settling decades of conflict between the indigenous people of the Western Sahara and Morocco, which has annexed the territory.  More

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   Local man to race across the Sahara: Runner trains in city's late-summer heat.

With the sun high over his head, Edward Dramberger is in training for a marathon unlike any other he's raced in before. This time, his object isn't to win. "It's to finish the race," the 37-year-old said. "I live for goals." With temperatures in the high 90s, Corpus Christi is the perfect place to get ready for a150-mile race across the Sahara Desert. Race organizers say runners may experience 110 to 125 degree temperatures.

Morocco's King Mohammed VI has ordered his government to tackle worsening poverty in an attempt to curb the growing shanty towns around the country's main cities.

What everybody's doing here revolves around the throb and rattle of Gnaoua music. Gnaoua is an old sound, with a history that parallels that of Western Hemisphere blues, jazz and reggae, so the idea of reuniting the continents isn't that artificial. The ancestors of the modern Gnaoua brotherhood came to North Africa as sub-Saharan slaves in the 1500s, around the same time that African tribespeople were first kidnapped and shipped to NewWorld auction blocks.

Fez is the most daunting city in Morocco, its French-induced schizophrenia marked to an extreme degree. The old and new cities are two separate and contradictory worlds, each a riposte to the other. The new, French-built town is notable for its enormous tree-lined avenues, grand colonial statements that could only have been built with parades in mind. As an individual, you feel inadequate; you'd have to be part of an army to really feel at ease there.

Henna tattoos can cause months of pain and discomfort and may lead to a lifelong allergy, a skin expert has warned. Bjorn Hausen of the Dermatological Centre in Buxtehude, Germany, says the temporary "tattoos" can cause contact dermatitis in some people, making the skin swollen, red and itchy.

    When a passing fad leaves a lasting scar: Madonna made them desirable. But, henna tattoos can be with you for longer than you planned.

When Madonna was launching the single "Frozen" from her album Ray of Light in 1998, she scanned around, as she always does, for a completely new look. It was an important release for her, the first in a few years out of the public eye.  She turned to the East for inspiration, and the accompanying video featured a windswept Madonna, clad all in black, flapping around in the Mojave desert. The emphasis wasn't on her cleavage or her pout, as has so often been the case. This time it was her hands - each one painted with an intricate henna tattoo spiraling up her arm.

Some henna tattoos could cause a lifelong allergy to a common chemical found in dyes, warn scientists.

   Vanishing Tribe: Despite centuries of harmony, Morocco's Jewish communities are an endangered species.

   The Road Less Traveled: An eccentric Brit traces medieval wanderer Ibn Battutah's route from Tangier to Constantinople

They call themselves Amazigh, the proud raiders. But most people know them as Berbers.  For millennia, the Berbers of North Africa fought against Roman, Arab and French invaders. And, despite a history of colonisation, they have managed to preserve their language and culture, and have defended their land.

King Mohammed VI of Morocco has promised to set up a body to preserve the language and culture of the country's Berbers, who make up a majority of the population.

   King launches charm offensive: Desire for change could turn into overt political opposition.

King Mohammed VI of Morocco has launched an apparent charm offensive to win over critics to mark the second anniversary this month of his accession to the throne.

By David Bamford in Rabat  Wednesday, 25 July, 2001 on the BBC

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Mohamed Azzaoui wants to get more citizens involved in Morocco. The founder of a non-governmental organization that supports local development efforts in Morocco came to the heartland on Thursday to see how volunteers and the government work in harmony.

Published Friday, August 3, 2001 By Mike Bockoven. mbockoven@theindependent.com

   Morocco's Future:  Arab, African, or European?

By Bradford Dillman in Foreign Policy Magazine

Commenting on the late King Hassan II's determination to bring Morocco into a free-trade zone with the European Union (EU), a Moroccan newspaper editor asked, "Where else can we look? To the south there is famine. To the east there is slaughter. To the west is the ocean. The north is our only horizon." As Morocco redefines its place in the world in the new millennium, will it lean more toward Europe, weakening its roots in the Arab world and disassociating itself from the troubles of sub-Saharan Africa? Globalization will pull the country toward its liberal, industrialized neighbors across the Strait of Gibraltar. Nevertheless, this kingdom at the crossroads of many civilizations will continue to orient itself in many directions at the same time. Its future identity will depend on how politicians and citizens respond to global pressures for democratization, economic reform, and human resource development. By balancing and absorbing the cultural, political, and economic influences from surrounding regions, Morocco may remain one of the most peaceful, stable, and pluralistic countries in the Arab and African world.  MORE

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22.07.2001 The New Zealand Herald/ Wednesday July 25, 2001

On the taxi ride from Marrakesh airport to La Palmeraie, Morocco is as I remembered it. Drunk with fatigue, prickling uncomfortably in the humid night air, we drift through an eerie, biblical landscape that reeks of rotting garbage, bonfires and abject poverty.

July 28, 2000. Agence France-Presse Claude Juvenal

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