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Morocco Week in Review
February 16, 2013
Govt, Morocco Plan Future for Students
Tuesday, 19 February 2013 Antigua St. John's
The dilemma that forced almost a score of Antiguan students to abandon tertiary education in Morocco has been addressed, and a way forward established. Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Scholarship Committee Maurice Merchant said a formal announcements would be made later this week. The government held discussions with Moroccan officials on February 5 after the premature return of half of the Antiguan students from the North African state. Merchant would only say on Monday that a formal report would be released soon.
Among the complaints raised by some of the returning students was that they had been denied the opportunity to pursue studies of their choice, along with their general living conditions. Attempts to secure a comment from Salem Khouly - head of the Mission of Morocco in Antigua – were unsuccessful.
The Moroccan entourage had planned its visit to Antigua long before news broke about the students’ discomfort in the French-speaking state, but the education issue was already on the agenda. Executive Secretary of the Board of Education D Gisele Isaac said this particular issue does not concern her office, since the scholarships were handed out directly from the Prime Minister’s Office. She also assured that an update from the Board of Education’s scholarship programme would be forthcoming.
Read more: http://www.caribarena.com/antigua/education/201-education/103180-govt-morocco-plan-future-for-students.html#ixzz2LMNVlrPO
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A TEENAGER will spend his half term working with orphans and street children in Morocco. Justin Farrance, 17, contacted Original Volunteers to offer himself as a volunteer in their orphanage in Marrakesh and also to help get young people off of the city streets.
Justin, a pupil at Southend High school for Boys, has funded the £800 trip himself through savings from his part time job at Debenhams and also fundraised to cover costs. He said: “I visited Morocco once before when my family were on a cruise, we only had a day there but it really stayed with me how poor it was, so I decided one day I’d go back.
“I’ll be working in the orphange and caring for the babies, which will be a new experience, and then spend time working to provide activities like sport and literacy lessons to give the teenagers something to do. “It’s simple things like being in a football team gives them a sense of purpose. It gives structure in their life. It sounds basic to us but helps them.”
Justin, who hopes to study law at university, leaves today (mon) for his eight day trip. He will stay in a house with other volunteers from the UK
He said he was inspired to help others after his mum Gülin Farrance was diagnosed with breast cancer last year. Mrs Farrance, a business manager at The Appleton School in Benfleet, has finished her treatment.
Justin, of Ashurst Avenue, Southend, said: “I saw how much charity helped my mum particularly with information and support. It gave us all a renewed look of life. This is my way of helping others. “I’m anxiously excited about it. It will be a new experience.” http://www.southendstandard.co.uk/news/southend/10232201.Teenager_to_fly_to_Morocco_to_help_orphans/ ----------------------------------------------
MAP, IRCAM to launch two portals in Amazigh
Yacout Info - MAPTuesday, February 19th 2013
The Moroccan Maghreb Arabe Presse (MAP) news agency and the Royal Institute for the Amazigh Culture (IRCAM) signed, Friday, a memorandum of understanding to launch two news portals in the Amazigh language.
The first portal will address the public, while the second will adress news professionals using this language.
The agreement was signed by MAP managing director Khalil Hachimi Idrissi and IRCAM director Ahmed Boukouss.
http://www.yacout.info/MAP-IRCAM-to-launch-two-portals-in-Amazigh_a5296.html
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$130 million loan will support the reform of the solid waste sector so that Moroccans gain more equal access to collection and disposal services in urban areas and create up to 70,000 jobs in waste recycling activities. The Third Municipal Solid Waste Sector Development Policy Loan, approved by the World Bank Board of Directors today, will also improve accountability through regular monitoring and ensure that waste management is environmentally safe.
For the first time in Morocco, citizen report cards will be introduced allowing people to provide direct feedback on quality and coverage of solid waste services in their cities. The program will also increase transparency by giving citizens access to policy information and disclosure of contracts with private companies.
"Morocco is engaging in a promising and ambitious agenda to bring about practices aimed at preserving the environment and promoting sustainable development," said Simon Gray, World Bank Director for the Maghreb Department. "The World Bank is mobilizing its expertise and financial support to help Morocco manage this important municipal challenge and ensure that citizens can speak-up and provide their feedback on policy and quality of services provided."
The growing rate of waste generation in Morocco is putting significant pressure on environment and natural resources. This underlines the need to develop disposal practices that are safe and inspected regularly in line with environmental norms and standards. The reform of the sector is key to helping Morocco achieve its objectives of having 20 percent of its waste recycled and ensure that all municipal solid waste is collected and disposed of in sanitary landfills by 2022.
"This program is the third of its kind since 2009 and will contribute to the sustainable transformation of solid waste sector by providing reliable services in a transparent way," said Jaafar Sadok Friaa, World Bank Lead Urban Specialist and the project's team leader. "This timely support will help create up to 70,000 jobs over the next decade, particularly through the development of waste recycling activities."
The completion of the first phase of the National plan was supported by the first two World Bank Development Policy Loans for the management of solid waste in 2009 and 2010. The two programs helped put in place the basic legal framework governing the sector, supported public-private partnerships, and improved the effectiveness of the Environmental Impact Assessment system. They also contributed to an increased rate of professional solid waste collection, up from 44 percent in 2008 to 76 percent currently, and helped bring landfill control up to standard while rehabilitating open dumpsites.
http://www.yacout.info/World-Bank-Supports-Good-Governance-and-Environmental-Practices-for-Solid-Waste-Management-in-Morocco_a5292.html
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Morocco's consumer price inflation was flat at an annual 2.6 percent in January, the same rate as in December, the High Planning Authority said on Wednesday. Food price inflation eased slightly to 4.2 percent from 4.5 percent in December. Communications expenses fell 16.0 percent while education rose 6.1 percent. On a month-on-month basis, consumer prices rose 0.2 percent in January. Seafood prices rose 6.5 percent but vegetable prices dropped 8.0 percent.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/20/morocco-inflation-idUSL6N0BK3KH20130220
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Focus key for 300 hectare greenhouse grower Delassus
CEO Kacim Bennani-Smires: “When it comes to tomatoes, everybody's thinking about it 24 hours a day.” Delassus, the Moroccan grower and shipper behind the well known Duroc cherry tomatoes, started supplying citrus in the 1980's and though they've grown into a company that now deals in flowers, grapes and cherry tomatoes, their focus on a few products has served them well. That focus and exclusive attention to detail, according to Delassus' President, Kacim Bennani-Smires, has been their key to success.
“The idea for us has been to use our focus to be strong and professional,” said Bennani-Smires. “When it comes to tomatoes, everybody's thinking about it 24 hours a day.” They've been growing tomatoes year-round in greenhouses for five years now, and Bennani-Smires noted that, because they only focus on cherry tomatoes, the quality of their product has been very good.
The biggest part of Duroc's tomatoes are being grown for the UK market. "The customers in the United Kingdom require the highest quality and food safety levels," said Benanni-Smires." So that is one of the biggest drives for us to keep up with the latest growing techniques and certifications."
Aside from food safety and quality, innovation is also an important aspect for Duroc. "We have our own research and development department that work closely together with leading seed breeders to select the best varieties. This ensures that the crops we grow are custom fit to our companies philosophy and the customers requirements."
“We do about 25,000 tons of cherry tomatoes a year on about 300 hectares,” he said. Those 300 hectares are spread out over 10 growing sites of 30 hectares each, with each plastic greenhouses that are established with modern hydroponic closed loop growing systems that recover the excess of water. This recovered water is reused after analyses. However, the set-up is only part of the growing equation, and Bennani-Smires heaped praise on the workforce whose singular focus remains growing top-quality tomatoes. "Everyday, over 3000 workers are spending a lot of attention to the production, without them we could never gain such high quality."
“Because we grow 12 months of the year, we are able to train and keep a steady labor supply,” he said. That means they can invest in their workers and retain that talent in order to secure good output. But, in the end, it ultimately goes back to what, according to Bennani-Smires, makes them a great company: their focus.
“We stay focused, and that's been our key,” he said. “We're one grower focused on one product that we do all year long, so we know what we're doing.”
For more information: Fatiha Charrat Delassus Group Tel: +212 665 186 868 fatiha@delassus.com www.delassus.com
http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=106165#SlideFrame_1
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On the Road to a More Progressive Morocco.
By Peter Fenn February 20, 2013
I just returned from a trip to Morocco sponsored by the State Department and Legacy International. No, this is not a travelogue. And I didn't ride on camels or play tourist.
My Republican colleague, Rich Galen and I met with political leaders, new women members of parliament, young activists and social service organizers. We had a wonderful dinner with Sam and Sylvia Kaplan at the ambassador's residence in Rabat and met with embassy staff and the Consul General in Casablanca. We met with business leaders, went to a shelter for unwed mothers, and visited new business startups.
In our 10 days we came away with a myriad of impressions. But, first and foremost, it is hard to escape how important a developing and evolving political system is to a successful future in North Africa and throughout the Middle East.
If there is a testament to the main thesis in the important book, Why Nations Fail, it is that continued political progress, ownership, and transparency will have serious positive repercussions. A nation's success is due less to their climate, inherent wealth of natural resources, access to ports or even leaders but, rather, the stability, openness, and democratic nature of their political system.
On the positive side, King Mohammed VI moved very quickly after the Arab Spring exploded in 2011. He gave a strong address to the nation in March, announced a new constitution and new elections. Morocco was already making progress, encouraging more participation by women and young people. In the 2009 local elections 3,400 women were elected, about 12 percent. In the November 2011 elections a quota system was instituted for women and they now hold 67 seats out of 395 in Parliament. Although the voter turnout was about 45 percent and the rate of illiteracy exceeds 50 percent, progress was made.
The key, of course, is to ensure that the legislative, judicial, and executive branches have real power to impact the nation. This is an ongoing process, combining the concern for stability as well as change, maintaining a growing economy, and improving the lives of the people.
Rich and I spoke at the new Mundiapolis University just outside Casablanca to several hundred students and faculty. We had a several hour discussion with a very impressive group who were pushing for greater power and responsibility, more involvement in decision-making, and a jump-start to education, insuring a more civil society.
The king is popular and the strong Muslim bond has been a key to a stable nation. But there is no question that change is sweeping across these countries and the continued progress with government, from local to national, will be critical.
Involvement by others from around the world to encourage further democratic reforms will continue to sow the seeds of responsible change. It was a pleasure and honor to be a part of the program.
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/Peter-Fenn/2013/02/20/the-importance-of-democracy-in-north-africa
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At a ceremony last Wednesday marking the end of the restoration of a 17th Century synagogue in Fez’s Old City, in a message read by Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane, King Mohammed hailed Morocco’s “spiritual wealth and diversity” and its “values of coexistence, tolerance and harmony between the different components of the nation.”
These statements were reassuring for a regional political climate that is often turbulent, and suggests that Morocco offers a new – yet in fact very old – paradigm for inter-communal relations, and particularly Arab/Muslim-Jewish relations. In the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict, “Jewishness” and “Arabness” are often positioned as mutually exclusive; Morocco seems to exemplify important ways of reconciling these identities.
I received this impression too when I travelled to Morocco this winter with a group of students, consisting of Americans, Israelis, Amazigh (a non-Arab ethnic group from North Africa) and Christians, Jews, and Muslims. Not only did Morocco offer a fascinating mosaic of religions and cultures, languages and landscapes. But for me, as a Jewish Israeli, it offered important insights and renewed hope.
Jews have lived in Morocco continuously for more than 2000 years, and have played a vital role in the country’s social, political, cultural and economic life. Most Jews had left by the 1960s after the founding of Israel, but a few thousand still remain, occupying various niches in society. Throughout history many were merchants or local craftsmen, while others served as government ministers and advisers to the King.
Most Moroccans we met – from taxi drivers in cities to camel riders in the Sahara, and from academicians to tour guides – were welcoming, and unashamedly highlighted Jews’ positive role in Moroccan society. Jewish cemeteries and places of worship were well kept and protected. Morocco’s new constitution, adopted in 2011 against the backdrop of the Arab Spring, recognises the country’s Jewish heritage as part of Morocco’s national identity.
Importantly, we met with members of Mimouna Club, an NGO founded by Muslim Moroccan students dedicated to learning about the history of Judaism and Jews in Morocco. Such an organisation is rare in the Arab world. All these were encouraging examples that highlight the acceptance of Jews as integral to Morocco.
Einat, an Israeli Jewish participant in our group, was the first from her family to visit Morocco since her grandparents’ departure in 1952. She was welcomed in “her country” by most everyone she met. As she uncovered layers of her family’s past and of her own identity, she shared her personal journey with the group and with friends and family in Israel. Her story, while unique, reflects experiences of many Jewish Israelis from the Arab world.
Einat’s family’s documented history in Morocco dates back to the 5th Century. When her grandparents departed Morocco for Israel, they left behind their homes and belongings, and the graves of their ancestors. In Israel, Einat’s family spent their first few years living in “transitory camps” as refugees. Like most Jews who immigrated to Israel from Arab and Muslim-majority countries, they were marginalised and disenfranchised by the state’s structures and hegemonic culture, which were mostly European and Ashkenazi, Jews who trace their origins to the Middle East via Europe. Moreover, they often had to suppress the “Arabness” of their identities.
As an Ashkenazi Jew growing up in Israel, the predicaments and nuances of Moroccan Jewish identity were largely invisible to me, as their experiences were largely marginalised by, or absent from the local narrative. Morocco enabled me to see and better understand some of these. Though things have changed in the last several decades, in Israel, being an Arab-Jew came to be viewed by most as a contradiction in terms. Yet, Jews in Morocco saw little, if any, contradiction between the Arab, Amazigh, and Jewish dimensions of their identity.
Positive attitudes towards Jews do not necessarily imply acceptance of Israeli policies. Nevertheless, as Israel struggles to define its identity and its place in the region, and as its neighbours challenge its existence and legitimacy, Morocco offers a pertinent example that defies traditional “East-West” categories, and re-contextualises the Jewish experience in the region. By embodying possibilities for reconciling “Jewishness” and “Arabness,” Morocco offers ways for Arab-Jews to understand their own identities in a new light. And as the Arab-Israeli conflict persists, Morocco reaffirms historical examples of coexistence.
Dr. Adina Friedman teaches Conflict Resolution/Peacebuilding and Middle East courses at American University’s School of International Service and at George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. She has taken students to Israel/Palestine, Morocco, Jordan, and the Balkans.
http://www.eurasiareview.com/20022013-morocco-an-emerging-model-for-muslim-jewish-relations-oped/
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Morocco targets rural job creation
2013-02-19
Morocco's newest job-creation initiative focuses on entrepreneurship and youth employment in rural areas, Au Fait Maroc reported on Monday (February 18th). The first edition of the Young Entrepreneur Forum is set to open May 16th at the Palais des Congrès in Marrakech. According to Young Entrepreneur Foundation (FJE) head Rida Lamrini, the two-day event will address "long-term programmes in all regions of the Kingdom, without exception".
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2013/02/19/newsbrief-06
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IPFW Students to do Market Research in Morocco
InsideINdianaBusiness.com Report
February 22, 2013 News Release Fort Wayne, Ind
Fifteen hand-picked Indiana University¨CPurdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) business students and three faculty are spending their spring break in Casablanca, Morocco, to launch market research on behalf of two northeast Indiana companies: Annie Oakley Perfumery of Ligonier and OFabz Swimwear of Churubusco.
Ahmed Rachdi, the instructor of D490 Special Study in International Business and a native of Morocco, is first taking the students to Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane (AUI), an American-style university in the middle Atlas Mountains. While they are there, the IPFW students will work jointly with teams of Moroccan students enrolled in a marketing research course taught by Professor Addelhamid Bennani of AUI.
The IPFW students have already ¡°Skyped¡± with their Moroccan counterparts, and the AUI students are sharing Blackboard-based team collaboration spaces. The IPFW and AUI students will be running marketing research focus groups together to gather data for the client firms. ¡°We are all extremely excited about the opportunities this collaboration creates for deeper understanding of our respective cultures and ways of doing business,¡± said Rachdi.
The IPFW students will visit Fes and Meknes, and spend several days in Casablanca visiting multinational corporations such as Hewlett Packard and Procter and Gamble, local Moroccan companies, and the American Chamber of Commerce.
Students going on the trip are:
¡ñChristopher Bach, Fort Wayne
¡ñChadi Braish, Fort Wayne
¡ñ Melissa Browning, New Haven
¡ñ Kelsey Gabbard, Marion
¡ñ Tara Hunt, Goshen
¡ñ Seyong Kim, South Korea
¡ñ Ashley Pierce, Harlan
¡ñ Joshua Queen, Fort Wayne
¡ñ Rodrigo R-H Gonzalez, Lima, Peru
¡ñ Lynsey Saylor, Hamilton
¡ñ Stephen Skillman, Fort Wayne
¡ñ Josanna Stern, Columbia City
¡ñ Tamara Taylor, Fort Wayne
¡ñ Kyle Walls, Fort Wayne
¡ñ Thomas Williams, Fort Wayne
Faculty going on the trip besides Rachdi will be Myeong Hwan Kim, assistant professor of economics, and Kathy Pollock, assistant professor of accounting and finance. Kim, Pollock, and the students will leave March 5 and join Rachdi in Casablanca March 6. They will return to Fort
Wayne March 18.
The trip is funded in part by Bill Lawson, prominent Fort Wayne businessman and former owner of Franklin Electric.
Source: Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne
http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?ID=58102
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Morocco is working to fight corruption while expanding social services in an effort to soften the blow of rising prices. With the cost of food, fuel and other basic goods on the rise in Morocco, members of Parliament last week raised the issue with Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane.
Prices have continued to climb without any measures put in place to protect the purchasing power of citizens, National Rally of Independents member Hassan Bouhrize said during the February 11th session. "The indicators are worrisome and we note an increase in the unemployment rate. A large segment of society lives below the poverty line. Many people who have taken micro-loans cannot pay them back," Bouhrize said.
The same alarm was rung by the chairman of the parliamentary bloc of the Authenticity and Modernity Party, Abdellatif Ouahbi. He argued that the real problems were unemployment and limited incomes. He accused the government of lacking a clear vision with regard to the economic problems facing society.
Urgent measures must be implemented to address the high cost of living and to avoid a negative impact not only on ordinary citizens but also on the viability of domestic firms, according to Socialist Union of Popular Forces (UFSP) MP Abdelhadi Khairat. "In the face of higher prices, more and more people resort to smuggled goods from China and Turkey, which affects negatively Moroccan firms," he said.
For his part, Prime Minister Benkirane noted the efforts by the government to maintain price stability, particularly through grants from the Compensation Fund, the fight against speculation, and market control.
But citizen Samiha Ferkhani said the premier was trying to downplay the situation. "In eight years, the cost of my market basket has tripled. Everything has gone up, the prices of vegetables, fruit, housing, and education... The situation must be corrected," she said.
One thing Morocco is doing to tackle the problem is work to root out corruption. Parliament is currently discussing a bill to create a new anti-graft agency with expanded powers.
The Central Authority for the Prevention of Corruption (ICPC) was established in 2007, but as per the latest constitutional amendment, the body will become "The National Commission for Integrity, Prevention, and the Fight against Corruption". "Corruption is a form of terrorism conducted against the community and there should be a system to deter corruption, due to its risk of threatening the entity as a whole," commented Lahbib Choubani, the minister in charge of relations with Parliament. "There should be concerted efforts by journalists and politicians to subdue corruption through the logic of law and the rule of the state," he continued. Choubani added that Morocco needs a new generation of reforms that serve the overall security of the simple citizen and make them feel protected from various types of corruption.
One of the main problems for the ICPC is independence, agency chief Abdesselam Aboudrar said. "The authority became convinced of the need to clarify this concept, draw its limits, and conjure its implications," the ICPC head said. "This put us before the inevitability of establishing requirements related to the legal functionality of the National Independent Authority, its position as an institution, its financial control, and the mechanisms of appointments. There was also the question of representation as far as diversity and balance of members are concerned," Aboudrar added.
Though the large task of combatting corruption is prevention, it should not be limited to one institution, Research Network of Anti-Corruption Agencies (ANCORAGE-NET) Director Luís de Sousa said. "Establishing a multitasked institution does not guarantee an exhaustive inventory of all the varied and many problems of corruption," de Sousa added. http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2013/02/19/feature-02
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Soultana and her band won Morocco’s biggest amateur music competition a few years back and promptly became the most recognized female rap group in Africa. Soultana’s hit single “The Voice of Women” is her anthem. “She gave him money, love and life,” Soultana raps. “He gave her lies and violence. This is the Moroccan woman. This is one of a million.”
Soultana raps about the challenges facing women in this North African country: illiteracy, poverty, domestic violence, and daily harassment on the street.
Soultana’s real name is Youssra Oukaf and she’s 27. She walks a fine line, calling for change in Morocco without criticizing the King.
Other Moroccan rappers have ended up in jail for crossing the line but Soultana says she loves the King. She implores him to improve life for his people—especially young people like her. “We need jobs, we need education, we need health, we need a lot of things. We sing that we need change. I want to see all of my brothers and my sisters in Morocco working, have jobs,” she says.
http://www.theworld.org/2013/02/soultana-the-voice-of-women-raps-in-morocco/
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In Push For Tolerance, Morocco Inaugurates Restored Synagogue
By Hassan Alaoui LE SOIR/Worldcrunch FEZ
It had served over the years as a prison, a carpet factory and a boxing gym. But last week, the building in this ancient Moroccan city's central medina was officially returned to its original incarnation: the Slat-al-Fassiyine synagogue was inaugurated by King Mohammed VI after a long-anticipated restoration.
Rare in the Arab world to see political leaders shower so much attention on the reopening of a Jewish holy place, many top government officials were on hand to inaugurate the 17 th century synagogue in the ancient Fez quartier that is classified as a World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.
The event was a reminder of how important Judaism is in the history of Morocco, and was the latest effort by the country's leaders to promote religious tolerance. King Mohammed was the driving force in the event, and gave a speech before leaders of Morocco's Jewish community, as well as representatives of the German government, which helped finance the restoration.
“It’s precisely this Jewish specificity that constitutes today, following the kingdom’s new constitution, one of the timeless sources of national identity," the King said. "This is why we call for the renovation of every Jewish temple in the kingdom, so that they won’t simply be holy places, but also spaces for cultural dialogue and renewal of the founding values of this land.”
The Judeo-Moroccan Patrimony Foundation's President Serge Berdugo noted the "message of peace and tolerance" in the restoration.
"Slat-al-Fassiyine teaches us a beautiful lesson. It represented the past, bound to disappear," Berdugo said. "Its restoration process anticipated the future, and that future is now. Moroccan Judaism’s time has come. It’s a motherly community, aware of its history and full of projects for the times to come. This community is part of the Moroccan reality. It can fully enjoy its civic rights, religious freedom and full conscience of its responsibilities.”
All rights reserved ©Worldcrunch - in partnership with LE SOIR Crunched by: Leo Tilmont
http://www.worldcrunch.com/culture-society/in-push-for-tolerance-morocco-inaugurates-restored-synagogue/morocco-jew-synagogue-inauguration-jewish/c3s10946/
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World Bank grants USD 130 million to Morocco
12 : 02 PM - 17/02/2013 Rabat: Feb. 17 –- (BNA)
The World Bank's executive board approved a USD 130 in loan to Morocco towards rectification of its solid waste sector, according to a statement issued by the Washington-based World Bank. In a statement quoted by the Moroccan News Agency, the third development policies loan for the solid municipal waste sector was approved by the Bank's executive directors in order to boost citizens' capacity to obtain garbage collection and elimination services in urban areas.
The World Bank emphasized that the importance for rectification of the sector of solid waste by recycling 20% of municipal waste and ensuring collection of all solid garbage and its elimination in hygienic landfills by 2022. The first phase of the nationwide project received assistance from the World Bank through two initial loans regarding development policies for management of solid waste in 2009 and 2010. Both loans boosted the average rate of solid garbage collection in compliance observable professional standards from 44%in 2008 to 76% now.
http://www.bna.bh/portal/en/news/546730
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As Moroccans, in nearly every aspect of our lives, we carry cultural traditions and practices in approaching life situations. Helas, some of these traditions have destructive ramifications. Let’s take the case of the marriage of men in Morocco and the perceptions of their mothers.
In Morocco, when a man, for instance, prepares to get married, many of his female relatives including the mother, regurgitate details about the woman chosen by the son. From hindsight, curiosity would seem normal in such a situation. However, what is unbearable is the extent of involvement in the process by female circle before the proposal day which may cause frictions in the dynamics of the marriage. Surprisingly, Moroccan mothers feel happier seeing their daughters get married than seeing their sons get married.
“I am afraid the new woman may take my son’s heart,” a Moroccan mother wonders. “Beware! The new woman may make your son fall under her spell and therefore spoil your life, “aunts warn the mother.” Once married, your son will no longer take care of you as he used to do,” some women tell the mother. In some way or another, Many Moroccan mothers develop a pre-disposed assumption against their future daughter in law. Some maintain this apprehension towards the daughter in laws, while others overcome it. Nowadays, this sort of hatred which breaks up families is growing more and more rampant.
In this respect, the perception that Moroccan mothers must get rid of is the illusive threat sons’ wives pose to them, and the same is true of wives towards the mothers of their husbands. What so many Moroccan families forget to bear in mind is that Islam which orders men to treat their mothers in the best manner imaginable is the same religion that orders men to get married the soonest possible, especially for fear of temptations.
“You must wait; why are you in a hurry for marriage?” mothers tell their sons. Doubtless, the mother’s love is irreplaceable. We all take this for granted. Yet, the question that comes to mind is why mothers don’t say the same thing to their daughters. “You should get married as soon as possible!” mothers advise their daughters.
Put simply, it is for the simple reason that daughters are married to men, not women, whereas sons are married to women, not men. In other words, when women are the strangers, many mothers feel there is a threat, and when men are the strangers, mothers feel there is comfort. In some mothers’ eyes, a man is a blessing to the family, while a woman is a looming threat.
Needless to say, there are exceptions that serve nothing but prove the rule. Here, we must make it clear that Moroccan mothers are not being attacked in any way here. Simply, they are being reminded of a perception that they may showcase towards their daughter in law and which could bear a negative connotation on the dynamics of the family unit .
In a Muslim home, Islam never considers a wife as a threat to the mother nor a mother as a threat to a wife. Some couples have broken up because of their parents. Others have divorced because of a row between the mother and the wife. It is high time mothers and wives went on well with each other. It is also high time some mothers and wives dispel their complexes.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Morocco World News’ editorial policy
© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed
Used by permission by Friends of Morocco
http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2013/02/78368/mother-in-law-in-moroccan-society-a-protagonist-in-the-family-unit-dynamics/
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The winds of the 'Arab Spring' were channeled by Morocco to expand and consolidate democracy and accelerate the pace of political reforms. His Majesty,The King Mohammed VI, announced in March 2011 a profound constitutional reform, which was largely supported by the Moroccan people through a referendum.
By consolidating the principle of separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary, the new constitution gives wider powers to the Head of Government, appointed by the King from the party which wins elections, and to strengthen the provisions relating to the control of the government by the two chambers of Parliament. The new constitution has also paved the way for the organization of new legislative elections in November 2011.
By choosing the way of the evolution of political institutions of the country, Morocco has pursued the reforms undertaken in the 1990s. Needless to say, the Moroccan monarchy has a historical and religious legitimacy and has always been the symbol of the state's continuity and the guarantor of national unity and stability.
In this respect, the democratic process was launched two decades back when the late King, His Majesty Hassan II, had initiated a series of reforms in the political and economic fields, opening the door for a new era of democratic transition. This concerned, among other things, many steps for the promotion of human rights and the protection of freedom of expression and, mostly, the decision to establish a new government of 'alternance', led by parties from the opposition.
Since the enthronement of His Majesty The King Mohammed VI in 1999, Morocco has witnessed a movement of unprecedented reforms in all areas.
In this regard, the reform of the 'Family Code', which revolutionized the status and empowerment of women in Morocco, introduced a range of measures that enhance women's equality in terms of marriage, divorce and taking care of children and impose strict legal restrictions on polygamy. Moreover, the launch of the National Initiative for Human Development (NIHD), aimed at the development of disadvantaged regions and the fight against social exclusion, marginalization and poverty. Many actions have been taken to support income-generating activities and improve access to services and basic infrastructure (education, health, roads, water and sanitation, environmental protection, etc.).
The dynamics of reforms does not end here. Other key reforms are underway and new ones will certainly be considered in future if need be. For instance, there is the project 'advanced regionalization', which will allow Morocco to build a new model of territorial governance and establish a new relationship between the central government and regional entities. Also, the reform of justice aims primarily at consolidating independence of the judiciary, modernizing its regulatory framework, upgrading its structures and improving legal certainty.
Thus, what makes the Moroccan model distinctive is it has always made 'evolution within continuity' a guiding principle of its political practice.
Since its independence, the Kingdom of Morocco has made the irreversible choice of political pluralism and economic liberalism. The right to property and freedom of initiative are part of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
The Moroccan economy is an economy characterized by a large opening towards the outside world. Since the early 1980s, Morocco has adopted a policy of economic and financial openness. The main goal of that policy is to strengthen the liberalization of foreign trade, to help for greater integration into the world economy, and to contribute to the consolidation of the multilateral trading system.
In recent years, the priority has been given to modernize and diversify the economy to be more competitive, to build world-class infrastructure and to improve the business and investment environment. A vast program of industrialization has been conducted to make Morocco one of the leading countries in promising and value-added sectors, like automobile, electronics, and aeronautics. This policy has contributed in attracting important investments by major multinational companies, such as Renault, Bombardier, Tata and Dell.
During the last decade, Morocco has launched large-scale projects aimed at elevating its infrastructure to international standards. Among these projects are the Tanger-Med Port (one of the largest ports in the Mediterranean region and in Africa), a modern highway network connecting all the major cities, 15 international airports (largest airport hub in the region) and the ongoing construction of a high-speed railway project (from Tangiers to Marrakesh).
The major economic reforms undertaken together with the ongoing implementation of several ambitious mega-projects and sector-based strategies have started to give good results, especially with the continuous increase of the GDP.
(17-02-2013-Larbi Reffouh is Morocco's Ambassador to India. The piece is an extract from an address at a conference on Maghreb and India. He can be contacted at larbireffouh@hotmail.com)
http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/2013/02/17/71--Arab-Spring-and-Maghreb-Morocco-s-distinctive-model-Comment-.html
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Sexual Harassment and the Question of Educational Responsibility: The case of Morocco.
By Abdelouahed Oulgout Morocco World News Tinjdad, Morocco, February 20, 2013
Sex is one of three forces affecting human life beside money and power. If joined together, the three constitute a giant triple that can boost human energy or blow it out in a wink of an eye. Both men and women can be subject to such forces, yet sex appears to be the most serious one, because it has to do with the two wings of the same bird: men and women.
At the age of puberty, both boys and girls embark on a new phase of their lifetime, enduring significant changes in their physiological and psychological status. The transition from childhood to adulthood is not only accompanied with the maturity of one’s sexual organs and the appearance of secondary traits like a considerable increase in height and weight…etc, but it also results in emotional and behavioral ups and downs. During this age, sex functions like a magnet, attracting men to women and vice versa. Such attraction is natural and normal because we are endowed with it and go through it during adulthood; yet a balance must be truck between the power of sexual attraction, and the demands of self-safety and socio-cultural stability. Otherwise, men and women, families and societies will be subject to all forms of decline, crimes, and moral degradation.
Among those undesirable, behavioral aspects of sex in Morocco is sexual harassment or abuse. It’s the outcome of the gap between the power of sex and the power of morality. Bridging such a gap is a special task of education, yet I am afraid that nothing serious is done to fill in this gap with the appropriate education. Who is to blame? And how can such immoral behavior be defeated?
No one has the right to harass the other, and sexual harassment is broader than what most people think of. The men intruding upon women here and there have no excuse to act so abusively, and the same thing is to be said about women harassing men. Yes, women harassing men?! Sexual harassment comes up from both sides, and everyone is to blame: the individuals (men and women), the family, school, civic associations, and the government. When men or women harass each other, it’s because they didn’t acquire, to say not learn, the necessary ethics to respect each other. Schools and families aren’t doing their job in educating children as far as the co-sexual relationships are concerned. The government also is doing nothing special to integrate such issues into our system of education, to which the media is a part. The latter is supposed to raise people’s awareness about sexual harassment and the importance of sexual education within our frames of culture and morality. Yet mass media programs today, loaded with large, explicit or implicit sexual content, decide to play with the spectators’ sexual lusts instead of illuminating how the youth should cope with the conflicts inside them and redirect their energy and potentials toward creativity, scientific research, and the making of a knowledge society.
Men are harassing women through their constant, scanning gazes and sexually harassing words and phrases. Women, in turn, are seducing men via their daily semi-nude appearance, body language, and sexy expressions, both verbal and non-verbal. Each one has his or her own way of drawing attention, and that can be with one’s intention or no intention, conscious or unconscious. Both men and women like to be adored and respected, yet very few know that a sexy wink, a smile, or a word might lead to the most awful experience in their life: a glimpse, then a dating, then an illegal, sexual intercourse.
Within our Moroccan, Islamic context, that would be the Big Crunch of a person. Yet for girls and guys within the western culture, where most countries are celebrating the “Sexual Revolution,” such experience might be the nicest night in their life; and if not, one might feel guilty that day and go back to the drawing board the following day.
How can such immoral behavior be defeated?
Sexual harassment, if we are to defeat it, we must define it according to a common, philosophical background. And because it has to do with sex, then the first step to illuminate the situation is to agree on a common perspective and regulation about sex and sexual relationships. Here comes the role of religion and ideology. Are we really willing to embrace Islam as a comprehensive criterion by which we understand and manage our public and private affairs? Or do we prefer to keep Islam aside and adopt the western ideology of sex and “Sexual Liberation”? Let’s first cast an eye over the two perspectives.
To start with, Islam adopts a moderate vision about sex and sets plain guidelines for safe, sexual relationships. It admits that sex, as a feeling and a mutual relationship, is a very part of human nature. Allah the Almighty says:
And among His signs is this, that He created for you mates from among yourselves, that ye may dwell in tranquility with them, and He has put Love and mercy between your (hearts), verily in that are signs for those who reflect. [The Quran, Ar-Room 30:21]
So males and females are like the two wings of the same bird. They both constitute one part as they are created from the same, human self. So it’s no wonder that both men and women in Islam tend to get closer to one another, for Allah has bestowed them with love and mercy; and that is one of His signs and proves for those who negate and deny His existence and Godhead.
In other words, neither men nor women can exist and live in isolation, for they were created to live together in love and tranquility, and that is a must for the survival and continuity of the human kind. Yet, the devil also exists, and Islam doesn’t deny the predisposition of Man to go astray and behave wildly like a devil or erotically like an animal. Therefore, Islam has set a preventive, moderate doctrine to meet Man’s sexual needs in a way that guards his human essence, dignity, and supremacy over other creatures; and sustain his social stability, safe co-sexual relationships, and positive, societal integration. For instance, Islam prohibits and criminalizes any sexual relationship outside marriage and sets mandatory punishments, which might reach death penalty, against the adults going into that with their pure will and intention. That is why Allah warns Muslims of pursuing any step leading to adultery. Allah the Almighty says:
And do not approach Zina (unlawful sexual intercourse). Indeed, it is ever an immorality and is evil as a way. [The Quran, Surat Al-'Isr?'17:32]
The steps to adultery may begin with a sexy gaze or eye-contact targeting the other’s naked or embodied sexual properties, especially those of women; it begins with sexy words and chats between boys and girls; it starts from homes equipped with dozens of media stuff such as pornographic novels, TV shows, video clips, films, the net…etc. When boys or girls are accustomed to such things, they are likely to become inside a magnetic field where adultery, sexual harassment, and any other form of sexual relationships are likely to pull them on.
That is why Islam teaches us to purify our environment of any sexual, implicit or explicit, content; to avoid getting isolated with a non-mahram woman; to busy yourself doing what is good for you, now and in the hereafter; to lower your gazes and wear according to the Islamic philosophy and Shariah [i]; to keep pious and protect your chastity; to get married and enjoy sex legally within marriage, inside your bedroom and out of others’ sight, as the only way to meet one’s sexual needs. And if one went beyond that or chose another way instead of the way of Allah, that would be a wrong way. Allah the Almighty says:
Your wives are a place of sowing of seed for you, so come to your place of cultivation however you wish and put forth [righteousness] for yourselves. And fear Allah and know that you will meet Him. And give good tidings to the believers. [The Quran, Surat Al-Baqarah 2:223]
But, Allah the Almighty says:
“Whoever seeks beyond that, then those are the transgressors. [The Quran, Surat Al-Mu'min?n 23:7]
As for the modern, western ideology of sex, men and women are free to do whatever they want with their bodies. It’s free for a man and a woman to have sex outside marriage if they both agree and are satisfied; and no one has the right to interfere in their business. Thus, the institutions of prostitution are welcomed as far as they don’t force people to join them. Abortion is also on the way to be legalized throughout the west as it goes with the philosophy of “Sexual Freedom”. People are also free to dress the way they want, arrange their hair as they prefer, and even marry to their same sex (homosexuality), lawfully and publically. After the “Sexual Revolution” in the west, people have substituted God with sex and money, and so you can find sex everywhere, even inside homes and churches, embodied in the form of nude statues and images, showing and glorifying human, sexual properties. Women in the west are, therefore, embracing any new fashion or makeup that can excite men and boost their sexual lusts and desires.
Unfortunately, women have not only become a subject of sexual exploitation, but also an object of adornment and decoration. A woman, a sexy and a nearly nude woman, is always present in western media [ii], advertisements, and celebrations as a sexual stimulus for the public. Morocco, having opened the doors wide to the west, is enduring this turmoil in every corner. With the absence of a common philosophical criterion and a shared conceptual repertoire and vision, Morocco looks like a carriage driven by four horses toward four, opposite directions; the carriage can’t move anywhere, for it just ruptures and breaks into parts. That is the case of Morocco.
[i] It’s very important here to note that the purpose of women’s wear in Islam according to Shariah is not to look sexy and exciting, but to cover their awrah- that is, a woman’s whole body except or with the face and the hands. Such wear shouldn’t be narrow or transparent. It should cover all her sexual ups and downs so that her whole physical portrait is not sexually touching.
[ii] By « the west » and « western » I refer to the whole ideology-and not the geographical location- that conflicts with religion and morality, and glorify « sexual freedom » and “liberalism” in the whole human affairs. Thus, the Arab states following the percepts of this philosophy are but western as their patrons.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Morocco World News’ editorial policy
© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed
Used by permission by Friends of Morocco
http://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2013/02/79124/sexual-harassment-and-the-question-of-educational-responsibility-the-case-of-morocco/
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Morocco offers a paradigm for good ties with Jews
February 22, 2013 By Adina Friedman The Daily Star
At a ceremony recently marking the end of the restoration of a 17th-century synagogue in Fez’s Old City, Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane read a message from King Mohammad VI hailing Morocco’s “spiritual wealth and diversity” and the “values of coexistence, tolerance and harmony between the different components of the nation.”
These statements were reassuring in a regional political climate that is often turbulent, and suggests that Morocco offers a new – yet in fact very old – paradigm for inter-communal relations, particularly when it comes to Arab-Muslim-Jewish relations. In the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict, “Jewishness” and “Arabness” are often positioned as mutually exclusive; Morocco seems to exemplify important ways of reconciling these identities.
I received this impression too when I traveled to Morocco this winter with a group of students, consisting of Americans, Israelis, Amazigh (a non-Arab ethnic group from North Africa) and Christians, Jews and Muslims. Not only did Morocco offer a fascinating mosaic of religions and cultures, languages and landscapes. But for me, as a Jewish Israeli, it offered important insights and renewed hope.
Jews have lived in Morocco continuously for more than 2,000 years, and have played a vital role in the country’s social, political, cultural and economic life. Most Jews had left by the 1960s after the founding of Israel, but a few thousand still remain, occupying various niches in society. Throughout history many were merchants or local craftsmen, while others served as government ministers and advisers to the king.
Most Moroccans we met – from taxi drivers in cities to camel riders in the Sahara, and from academicians to tour guides – were welcoming, and unashamedly highlighted the positive role of Jews in Moroccan society. Jewish cemeteries and places of worship were well kept and protected. Morocco’s constitution, adopted in 2011 against the backdrop of the Arab Spring, recognizes the country’s Jewish heritage as part of Morocco’s national identity.
Importantly, we also met with members of Mimouna Club, a non-governmental organization founded by Muslim Moroccan students dedicated to learning about the history of Judaism and Jews in Morocco. Such organization are rare in the Arab world. All these were encouraging examples that highlight the acceptance of Jews as integral to Morocco.
Einat, an Israeli Jewish participant in our group, was the first from her family to visit Morocco since her grandparents’ departure in 1952. She was welcomed in “her country” by most everyone she met. As she uncovered layers of her family’s past and of her own identity, she shared her personal journey with the group and with friends and family in Israel. Her story, while unique, reflects experiences of many Jewish Israelis from the Arab world.
Her family’s documented history in Morocco dates back to the fifth century. When her grandparents departed Morocco for Israel, they left behind their homes and belongings, and the graves of their ancestors. In Israel, Einat’s family spent their first few years living in “transitory camps” as refugees. Like most Jews who immigrated to Israel from Arab and Muslim-majority countries, they were marginalized and disenfranchised by the state’s structures and hegemonic culture, which were mostly European and Ashkenazi, Jews who trace their origins to the Middle East via Europe. Moreover, they often had to suppress the “Arabness” of their identities.
As an Ashkenazi Jew growing up in Israel, the predicaments and nuances of Moroccan Jewish identity were largely invisible to me, as their experiences were largely marginalized by, or absent from the local narrative. Morocco enabled me to see and better understand some of these. Though things have changed in the last several decades, in Israel, being an Arab-Jew came to be viewed by most as a contradiction in terms. Yet Jews in Morocco saw little, if any, contradiction between the Arab, Amazigh, and Jewish dimensions of their identity.
Positive attitudes toward Jews do not necessarily imply acceptance of Israeli policies. Nevertheless, as Israel struggles to define its identity and its place in the region, and as its neighbors challenge its existence and legitimacy, Morocco offers a pertinent example that defies traditional “East-West” categories, and re-contextualizes the Jewish experience in the region. By embodying possibilities for reconciling “Jewishness” and “Arabness,” Morocco offers ways for Arab-Jews to understand their own identities in a new light. And as the Arab-Israeli conflict persists, Morocco reaffirms historical examples of coexistence.
Adina Friedman teaches conflict resolution, peacebuilding and Middle East courses at American University’s School of International Service and at George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. THE DAILY STAR publishes this commentary in collaboration with the Common Ground News Service (www.commongroundnews.org).
Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Opinion/Commentary/2013/Feb-22/207427-morocco-offers-a-paradigm-for-good-ties-with-jews.ashx#ixzz2LdfTRlW7
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
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Morocco dropped by. I wasn't expecting a North African kingdom, but company is always welcome. Especially such charming company — those cinnamon-warm spices, those lush stews and that habit of pressing savory against sweet. Intoxicating.
And no longer rare. I keep running into Morocco. The cook shop is stocked with couscoussiers and saffron threads. The chic home poses in Berber rugs, Moorish floor tile and low-slung couches.
Out to dinner recently I met bastilla (also known as pastilla, bisteeya or b'stilla), a sweet and savory pie stuffed with chicken and egg and wrapped up in sugar-dusted pastry. It's a delicious mouthful of contrasts charged with opening many a celebration in Morocco.
an unorthodox version, using roast chicken, fresh ginger, cilantro and phyllo. It's more of a riff than a re-creation, tangy and tasty.
I keep meaning to crisp a platter and serve them to friends, but everyone's so busy fluffing couscous and polishing their tagines. Which I get. It's a delicious world to explore.
Chicken-and-egg pies
Prep: 1 hour
Bake: 25 minutes
Makes: 40 little pies
Ingredients:
5 eggs
1/2 cup green onions, finely chopped
1/4 cup each, finely chopped: parsley, cilantro
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
1 teaspoon each, ground: cinnamon, cumin
Kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
4 cups cooked, shredded chicken*
1/2 stick unsalted butter, cubed
2 1/2 cups sliced almonds
2 cups ground almonds
1/4 cup sugar
20 sheets (about 1 pound) phyllo dough, defrosted
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, melted
Mix:
Crack eggs into a large mixing bowl. Whisk briefly. Stir in green onions, parsley, cilantro, ginger, cinnamon, cumin, 1 teaspoon salt and both kinds of pepper. Add chicken. Mix gently with a fork.
Toast:
Melt cubed butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add sliced almonds and toast, shaking now and then, until golden, about 7 minutes.
Toss:
Stir together ground almonds, sugar and 2 teaspoons salt.
Paint:
Slice phyllo dough in half the short way, making 40 sheets, each about 9 by 13 inches. Cover with a damp kitchen towel. Set one sheet on a work surface. Paint with melted butter. Scatter on 1 tablespoon ground almonds. Fold dough in half the long way, forming a strip 4½ by 13 inches. Paint again; scatter on 1 tablespoon sliced almonds.
Fold:
Scoop 1 tablespoon chicken into one corner. Fold up, flag-style, into a triangular packet. Brush with butter. Sprinkle with a little salt. Set on a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet. Chill. Fold remaining pies.
Bake:
Slide into a 375-degree oven and bake until hot inside and golden outside, about 20-25 minutes. Enjoy.
Provenance:
Inspired by Moroccan bisteeya, a sweet and savory chicken pie.
*Make your life easy: Buy a rotisserie chicken, shred meat, discard skin and bones. One 3-pound chicken yields about 4 cups shredded meat.
Leah Eskin is a Tribune Newspapers special contributor. Email her at leahreskin@aol.com.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/food/sc-food-0215-eskin-moroccan-chicken-20130217,0,3958499.column
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Ever made couscous? That's the fluffy pasta from North Africa used as a main or side dish. Couscous goes with any number of ingredients, but my taste buds go wild from couscous mixed with harissa and potatoes.
Harissa is a hot chili paste also from North Africa. It can be red or green, depending upon the chilies used. Other seasonings reflect the origins of the recipe — or the chef's creativity. My version comes out more like a sauce and is faster and easier to create. Traditional dried chilis need time-consuming boiling and soaking. I recommend fresh peppers that require no special attention.
Tip: Leftover harissa can be served as a sauce for another dish, or to flavor oil to enhance any vegetable or grain.
Saffron, mint couscous with harissa potatoes
Prep: 30 minutes
Cook: 28 minutes
Servings: 5
Ingredients:
2 cups water
1 cup veggie broth
2 cups whole-wheat couscous
1 1/4 teaspoons sea salt
6 small red potatoes
1 teaspoon olive oil
Harissa sauce:
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 serrano peppers, seeded, chopped
½ cup olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 ½ teaspoons orange zest
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon caraway seeds
½ cup packed mint leaves, chopped
3 green onions, halved lengthwise, chopped
1 teaspoon saffron mixed into 1 teaspoon hot water, optional
1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat the water and veggie broth to a boil in a large saucepan. Add couscous and 1 teaspoon salt. Cover the saucepan; lower heat to a simmer. Cook until all water is absorbed, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat; leave the pot covered.
2. Toss potatoes on a baking sheet with the olive oil and 1/4 teaspoon salt; bake until soft, about 25 minutes.
3. For the harissa sauce, pulse garlic and serrano peppers in a food processor until minced. Add olive oil, lemon juice, orange zest, salt and caraway seeds. Blend until thick and creamy. Transfer mixture to a bowl.
4.Spoon couscous into a large bowl; fluff with a fork. Mix in mint, green onions and saffron in water.
5. Slice potatoes into bite-size pieces. Stir 1/4 cup harissa sauce into the potatoes; mix into the couscous.
Nutrition information:
Per serving: 522 calories, 12 g fat, 2 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 88 g carbohydrates, 13 g protein, 937 mg sodium, 7 g fiber.
Kay Stepkin is a vegetarian cooking instructor. Email her at foods@tribune.com.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/food/sc-food-0215-veggie-couscous-20130220,0,5102691,full.story
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Morocco’s dismal diplomatic performance on the international scene seems to have changed little during Saad Eddine Othmani tenure as Morocco's first political appointee Foreign Minister. Moroccan diplomats, lacking a grand plan to promote their country’s diplomatic agendas, keep stumbling on the face of a more “ideologically”driven Algerian schema.
The European Parliament (EU) latest resolution denouncing Morocco’s human rights “abuses” in the Moroccan Sahara and the Socialist International Council communiqué critical of Rabat are two too many setbacks added to an ever-expanding list of diplomatic and political disappointments.
Although the Socialist, Green and Communist Members of the European Parliament who drafted and passed a baised anti-Morocco resolution were ideologically motived, Moroccan diplomats inability to muster their allies to counter draft a bill exposing Algeria’s double game is ominous of on going serious dificenccies at Morocco’s Foreign service.
The EU criticism comes on the heels of confirmation by Malian officials of links between terrorist groups in the Sahel and Western Sahara separatists Polisario fighters. Yet, Moroccan diplomats in Strasbourg and Moroccan Socialists in Portugal could not make a case for an open and unrestricted access to Sahrawi refugees in Tindouf, Algeria. The EU “plea” to the Moroccan authorities for “the protection of fundamental rights of the people of Western Sahara, including freedom of association, freedom of expression and the right to protest” is reprehensible given the fact that thousands of Sahrawis are living under Algerian rule in deplorable, inhuman, and merciless conditions in the unforgiving desert. Moroccan Sahrawi initiatives to advocate for the rights of their brothers in Tindouf have been inadequate.
Rabat’s inability to mount a sustained and relentless diplomatic campaign to highlight the plight of thousands of Sahrawi civilians forcibly warehoused by the Algerian military in the Algerian deserts and to denounce Algeria’s continues refusal to let independent human rights organizations access refugees on its soil is indefensible and unacceptable. The Moroccan public has the right to assess and critic the diplomatic performance gap of Moroccan embassies in Brussels, Paris, Madrid and Rome.
The Moroccan diplomacy has been ineffective in utilizing the Malian crisis to underline Algeria and the African Union’s double standards on applying the concept of “self-determination”. As the EU appealed for "a just and lasting settlement of the conflict based on the right of the Saharawi people to self-determination in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the United Nations,” Moroccan diplomats in Strasbourg should have been busy making a case for Malian and Algerian Touareg’ right to self-rule.
The most “embarrassing” aspect of the EU’s adopted text is not the pro-Polisario language but rather the absence of wording on the deplorable conditions in the Western sahara Separatists Tindouf camps and Algeria’s obstructive and unconstructive role hampering the United Nations effort to resolve the Western Sahara conflict.
The Moroccan public finds the absence of an aggressive and coherent diplomatic campaign to denounce the conditions in the Sahrawi refugee camps inexcusable. Past Moroccan campaigns to denounce the Algerian backed Polisario guerilla’s oppressive policies were ineffective, incompetent and unimpressive.
The lack of credible and competent Moroccan diplomatic initiatives is discomforting given the pool of gifted Moroccan talents around the world. Morocco’s weak and spotty performance as a member of the United Nations Security Council and Rabat hesitant role in the Mali crisis are two missed occasions for our timid diplomats. Even though criticism of the Moroccan diplomacy is common and “cyclic” in the Moroccan press, failures such as the EU resolution on the Western Sahara should not go unnoticed at a time when the amount of dollars and infrastructure the Moroccan government has put forward to defend its territorial integrity are considerable and mounting.
http://www.moroccoboard.com/viewpoint/68-hassan-massiki/5808-morocco-weak-diplomatic-performance
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Marrakech is a strange carnival, says Victoria Lane
Fleeing streets of slush, we touch down in a north African spring, where we are driven through the desert scrub outside Marrakech, passing dusty ochre expanses filled with old plastic containers and half-built hotels and the odd donkey before turning down a track which runs alongside a walled garden. Tantalising green fronds poke above the wall. The gates open (someone is posted to look through a gap in the wall to time it right) and reveal a lush complex of grass, palms, roses, figs and orange trees around a T-shaped pool.
This hotel is one of a handful to have popped up a short way away from the clamour of the city. It’s peaceful — there is a view of the Atlas mountains in the distance — but you can get to the souk whenever you want. The architecture is modernist north African. Inside, it’s cool and comfortable, with lots of polished concrete.
First things first, it’s time to boost our sugar levels. Trays of biscuits, sweet mint tea and syrupy fruit cocktails are brought out, and from here on it’s a festival of sweetness. Morocco is a diabetic’s nightmare. Even the chicken pastillas have a dusting of icing sugar on them.
The sun emerges, exuding gentle warmth, so we have lunch outside, with the sparrows flitting about the bushes and sometimes venturing into the bar — some are nesting in the pelmet, and peck about the carpet for crumbs. It’s so pleasant, this mildness, after the vicious winter. You can feel yourself unfurl.
Lunch over, we receive word to get into our robes and gather at the newly opened spa. First up, it’s the hammam, which is incredibly hot — it sears my soles. The lady has to arrange a stream of cold water over the bench to make lying down bearable. There’s a scrub-down and then the instruction to lie in a recliner and relax. So lovely, being told to relax. Contentment prickles my scalp. Next, a massage. Then more enforced relaxation.
Back in my room, someone has got creative flinging rose petals around the bed and arranging towels with wild abandon. As the sun sinks, the sky fades to the same colour as the desert. When darkness descends it’s time for a drink in the bar, all grey velvet and high dangling lamps, and then dinner, which is a delicious sweet tagine of lamb with apricots and walnuts. The couscous is criss-crossed with cinnamon.
The next morning we head into Marrakech, where our first stop is Yves St Laurent’s garden, Majorelle. We pay our dirhams through a hole in the wall and enter: that moment of hush as you move from honking streets to secluded greenness. Fountains trickle. Before YSL bought the estate, it was owned by the painter Jacques Majorelle, and in the corner the little art deco house is brightly painted in Majorelle blue, a vibrant cobalt. The garden is small but immaculate; a gardener is raking the pink sand in a zen-like fashion. We pass through an Asian section, dense with bamboo; a central area with more open, Mediterranean planting; and by the house, an amazing desert scene with cactuses, agave and twisting succulents.
Lunch is in a rooftop restaurant in the medina, the Café Arabe, where I am brought an immense plateful of salad, delicious chopped and pickled vegetables and mezes, before discovering with dismay that it was just a starter when a chicken and olive tagine is placed in front of me.
Next, the souk. Through the alleys of caves offering wooden camels, brass knockers, coloured glass, leather slippers. ‘What are you looking for?’ comes the soft question from every doorway: ‘Slippers? Spices?’ Impossible to judge what is nice. For some reason I can’t stop buying slippers, though the haggling is boring and I’m no good at it. ‘Give me your final offer, I give you friend price,’ says the third shopkeeper. It’s the usual opener.
‘It’s too tiring,’ I tell him. ‘I just want to buy them without it taking an hour.’
‘OK, we do it quickly. Give me your final offer.’
In the enormous Jemaa el Fna square, a boarded-up section in the corner is a reminder of the bombing in 2011 which killed 15 people. We pass the orange juice sellers. They scowl. Nearby, a dozen black cobras are coiled and swaying. Unthinkingly I take a picture with my phone, and one of the djellaba’d young men is there in an instant, hand out, gesturing for dirhams.
A grey plug of cloud materialises over the city, and in the absence of sun there is a strong chill. All around swirl cars and scooters and people and noise. Women trying to daub you with henna. Crippled beggars on skateboards. Chained baboons, their humans pimping them for photos. On another stall, tiny chameleons and baby tortoises in boxes, and chipmunks running back and forth. A pair of well-behaved horses, hitched to a tourist trap, rub their heads together as they stand waiting for custom. In the huge, low square, this carnival of humanity seems suddenly unreal.
Maybe it’s a reaction to the bizarre contrasts. There are cool new restaurants and bars opening every week in Marrakech. There is La Mamounia, one of the most fabulous hotels in the world, packed with plutocrats. You can shop till you hate yourself. But here is another kind of Morocco, with some uncomfortable truths, and it’s hard to square the two.
For all that, it’s only three hours away by plane, perfect for a long weekend. By mid-February, there is the prospect of a bit of sun; you can stay in wonderful places and eat lovely food; and you can come to Jemaa el Fna square and know you’re definitely not in Europe.
Victoria Lane stayed at the Sirayane Boutique Hotel & Spa; tel 00 212 525 118880.
This article first appeared in the print edition of The Spectator magazine, dated 23 February 2013
http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/8846831/dreaming-the-medina/
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Visit magical Morocco with photographer John Gordon.
Published: February 22, 2013
Experience the Magic of Morocco at the City of Langley Library. On Saturday, March 2, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. photographer John Gordon will present a pictorial tour of the ancient trading city of Marrakesh.
Audiences will visit the fishing port of Essaouira with its Portuguese ramparts, crafts and unique street life and cross the high Atlas mountains by bus to the desert city of Quarzazate.
Gordon has a wealth of eye-catching photos from his trip to Morocco to share.
For more information or to register, call the library at 604-514-2855.
The Langley photographer has a number of presentations coming up throughout the month of March, including a new exhibit of bird photographs which he will show on March 4 in White Rock.
He returns to Langley on March 6, with a display of photos from the United Kingdom at Brookswood Library. http://www.langleytimes.com/entertainment/192609481.html
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I went to Ifrane because I had never heard of Ifrane. I was in Morocco for something else – a music and surfing festival several hours’ flight south in the Sahara in Dakhla, concocted by the King in order, I suspect, to put his brand on the otherwise disputed area sometimes known as Western Sahara — but since I was going to be in the neighbourhood, I figured I should look around a bit.
In Casablanca, I watched Casablanca on a loop for hours in a bar called Rick’s American Café, stayed in the Royal Mansour hotel in Marrakech where my room came with a 19-year-old butler named Mohammed who kept asking, with the most Benny Hillish overtones, whether there wasn’t something else he might do for me, anything at all, while positioning himself well within my personal space. And I spent an afternoon in the medina in Fes, where I learned that the fee you pay a guide to lead you through the most labyrinthine ancient market anywhere in the world is actually just a down payment on a purchase he will suggest, with a contempt veiled imperfectly in a niqab of self-abasement and Sidney Greenstreet-style ingratiation, that you buy something from his cousin’s carpet/spice/leather/wooden-box store.
It was all more than enough to make a Moroccophile of me. But none of it matched Ifrane, a town of about 15,000 in the Middle Atlas mountains, for the sheer force of what I’ve come to call juxtapositional irony. Like finding one of my favourite cocktail bars in San Antonio, or having my most epiphanic art gallery moment in Doha, stumbling on one of the most transcendent winter scenes of my life in a country that includes a big chunk of the Sahara Desert is precisely the sort of thing I get the biggest travel kicks out of.
The architecture of the Michlifen Ifrane hotel, where I stayed, is redolent of a Banff- or Jasper-style CP hotel, all big but finely hewn hunks of wood crafted into charming bars and surprising spas. I’d been told it sometime snowed up here, which is why I came, but also that there was really no telling when it would. It was the middle of February, and I’d been there for two days. I was leaving the next day, and had just turned off the light to go to bed around midnight when I looked out the window, where I saw my first, and quite possibly last, Moroccan blizzard.
I saw my first, and quite possibly last, Moroccan blizzard
The mountain-side vista — 1,665 metres (5,500 feet) above sea level — that I’d been enjoying on my balcony on previous evenings disappeared behind sheets of snow, covering gazebos, the pool-side bar and carpets festooned with those perforce non-representational Muslim patterns in what very quickly became a thick blanket, remaking a formerly typical Moroccan scene into something that looked like Disney’s Aladdin re-imagined by Rankin/Bass. The closest I’d come to this was spending a late December in Valetta once, where the streets ere lined with Christmas greetings and blessings in Arabic script. But there was no snow. And I love snow.
I’ve been corrupted by a Montreal upbringing into believing snow to be winter’s great justification. Sure it’s cold, and your boots get digested by salt and a not insignificant number of people die each year in voracious urban snow banks as if our cities are auditioning for space in Stephen King’s imagination. But look how pretty. Snow angels, Christmas gooses, Magic Carpets, presents under trees and abominable snowmen brought back from the brink of damnation with tough love and a little amateur dentistry. In the pagan pastiche that my childhood Catholic faith has mutated into over the years, snow has become a sort of meteorological Jesus, swooshing away our sins each year with his purifying superhero cape of pure crystallized love moisture.
I got dressed and ran downstairs and outside to play.
After throwing some snowballs I meandered down the short road into town. Narnian streetlights illuminated the suddenly Swiss-looking town and the few other folks who were walking around, bundled up in coats that looked positively Canadian. I wandered around for an hour or so, meditating on global similarity and difference, climatic cultural determination, and possible sharia punishments for pee-writing.
It was all still there when I woke up the next morning, and according to the concierge, probably would be for a few more days yet. I’d heard there were ski hills up here, so though I was leaving that afternoon, I got some information for you, gentle readers, which you can find at the bottom of this story. Truth be told, I don’t like skiing. Though they do offer a variation of it here, at Michlifen Station and nearby Oukaïmeden, known as mule skiing, where a mule takes you up the hill and you ski down that sounds half interesting.
The hills are not steep, and if you’re a veteran skiier who sniffs at blue hills, you may not enjoy the Moroccan pistes. But if you see wintersports the way golfers see their sport, as an active way of seeing the world, crossing off increasingly outlandish courses they’ve done as they expand their global horizons and tote up stories and memories, skiing in Morocco is, in degree of exoticism and on the hierarchy of bragging rights the rough equivalent of heli-golfing.
Though I knew nothing about it, Ifrane is a popular year-round weekend getaway for Moroccans. In the summer, they drive up from Fes (66km away), Meknès (ditto) or the seaside capital of Rabat (200km) to get a 10-to-15-degree break from the heat. And in the winter, it’s their Banff, their Mont-Ste-Anne, their Blue Mountain. Like boating on China’s West Lake or tobogganing in Switzerland’s Valais, wintering in Ifrane is a mostly domestic experience that’s practically unknown to foreigners, and as such offers a healthy helping of tourist-tailored service without the usual side order of kitsch.
You could go to the Swiss Alps this year, or the Chilean Andes, or Vale, but the stories you tell when you get back will sound pretty familiar. For what it’s worth, I recommend building a snowman in Africa.
http://life.nationalpost.com/2013/02/22/skiing-in-morocco-welcome-to-the-snows-of-africa/
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Morocco's weakened reform movement hopes to rebound.
Morocco's 20 February movement feel political isolation following the 2011 uprising that led to the amendment of a constitution and election of a new Islamist government
AFP , Wednesday 20 Feb 2013
Morocco's 20 February movement, born during the Arab Spring uprisings and increasingly marginalised in the two years since then, is hoping to rebound amid rising discontent against the Islamist government. Tens of thousands of Moroccans took to the streets in the kingdom on February 20, 2011 after protests had already overthrown dictatorships in Tunisia and Egypt.
But since then, a new constitution and government have been put in place, and the number of people affiliated with the movement has dwindled. In recent months, its demonstrations have struggled to gather even a few hundred people.
The movement celebrates its second anniversary on Wednesday with a rally in front of parliament at around 1700 GMT. "Politically the February 20 movement does not exist," said Baudouin Dupret, director of the Jacques-Berque Centre in Rabat, as he talked of the "chilling impact" of the outcome of the revolutions that erupted in neighbouring countries.
The movement's influence was undermined to a large extent by the adoption of the constitution by an overwhelming majority in the second half of 2011 -- giving enhanced powers to the government -- and the historic victory for the Islamist Justice and Development Party.
Sanae Metaich, a 20 February coordinator in Rabat, said that "after the adoption of the constitution we talked less about ourselves in the media and then we had a party that took power using our slogans" of anti-corruption and pro-democracy. "The movement was also deprived of a large part of its troops," as those from the powerful Justice and Charity party, which is tolerated but officially banned for its opposition to the monarchy, withdrew from the demonstrations.
Samad Ayach, another 20 February coordinator, said: "The regime has played the card of the constitution and elections on one hand and repression on the other."
About 70 activists were behind bars at the end of December, according to a coalition of Moroccan human rights groups.
Metaich said there has also been a change in the methods of repression. "Before, they were arrested for participating in unauthorised demonstrations. Now it is for violence against law and order forces and drug trafficking."
Heavy penalties have also sometimes been imposed on activists, with one in Al-Hoceima in the north sentenced to 12 years in prison in October. "Activists are not sacred people," said Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane when asked about such sentencings. "The majority of reforms have been carried out. You don't see 20 February anymore. Okay, there are some who want to resurrect it. We will see," he said.
But the movement questions the extent of progress made over the past two years and calls for "genuine democracy". "We don't have a real organisation, a real political strategy and communication with the people at the grassroots level. We need to be more effective," acknowledged Ayach.
The movement is now hoping to ride on what it sees is rising discontent against the government amid a slowing economy. "Citizens will realise that they need a new change," said Metaich.
But Dupret says that, until then, "February 20 will never be able to convert a contested political disorder into social protest." "There have been parallel social protests" by unemployed graduates, "but the connection was never made." http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/65182/World/Region/Moroccos-weakened-reform-movement-hopes-to-rebound.aspx
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Read it here: http://alhayat.com/Details/485405
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The King’s Eyes and Ears in the Moroccan Provinces
The latest revision of the Moroccan constitution is supposed to provide more power to the representatives of the people and reduce the Monarchy's prerogatives. Still, the monarchy remains unchallenged, having created a system that essentially controls virtually everything, directly and through the so-called Makhzen system. Among the front-line defenders of the monarchy's dominance over Moroccans are 17 men, no single woman, who were appointed to administer the provinces. They were not voted in nor selected by the people, nor were they appointed by the semi-autonomous Prime Minister. In fact, they were appointed by the powerful Interior Minister who reports directly to the King. ….
Continue here: http://www.north-africa.com/premium/issues/230.htm
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"THEY call me Hammou Le Philosophe," he laughs, as the sun rises over the hill town of Tafraoute and we head south towards the plateau. The argan trees are deep green under lucent sky, the morning as tranquil as any these mountains can have known in their 300 million years. The way to explore them is to walk: for many people here, walking is both a way of life and a way of changing life.
My guide, Hammou Amechghal, and I are embarking on three expeditions in the Anti Atlas: a downhill stroll and a flat walk will be preparation for a two-day hike in the Ameln Valley and up the red-gold ramparts of Jebel L'Kest. We go quietly - we are both incomers.
Hammou came from near the Algerian border, and walks here because this place altered him. "Women, kif (cannabis), alcohol, two packs of cigarettes a day - I committed all my follies before I was 40! Then I came here and changed."
He raises his chin to the high chameleon peaks of Jebel L'Kest, which overlook Tafraoute from the north, their colours shifting with the play of light through spectrums of ochre-pink. "This made the difference. A place where you can breathe."
He smiles the mischievous smile of the semi-retired sinner. "The Prophet says, as long as you change by age 40, you're OK."
Negotiation with norms, their adaptation and, sometimes, outright rejection are characteristic of the area. The Anti Atlas is Berber country. The populace descends from Morocco's indigenous inhabitants: with the arrival of Islam in the seventh century, the mountains became fortresses of Berber ways.
Many Berber people call themselves Imazighen, or "free people" - and they're not to be underestimated.
They resisted Roman and Ottoman attacks across north Africa, converted to Islam in the ninth century, and in the 11th formed the body of the Almoravid dynasty, which ruled an empire from Ghana to southern Spain and Portugal. The last successful invaders were French colonialists, who used Tafraoute as their headquarters.
Today the Anti Atlas is less remote in geography - only a two-hour drive from the city of Agadir - than it is in time and tradition. The approach road is a narrow, twisting ascent, occasionally blocked by livestock.
In the centre of Tafraoute, sheep make their way up a dry stream bed. Market traders busy themselves manufacturing babouches - leather shoes, locally regarded as the only footwear worth wearing - and a young businessman veers, horrified, around a drunken snake charmer.
--- A stroll en route to the Sahara
Down the gorge at Ait Mansour: 6.5km; 2 1/2 hours The potentate of this region is the Sahara. The desert to the south gives the Anti Atlas its exalting light, its star-clear nights and blazing noons. A Berber story says that the desert was once a green place of running water and bird song. All men and women were honest and kind.
Then, one day, someone lied. It was only a small lie, but God drew the people together and said: "Because someone lied, I'm going to drop a grain of sand on the world."
The people thought, well, that's not much.
But God said: "For every lie, I'll add another grain."
The reason there are oases, the story says, is that some people are still honest and kind.
In Ait Mansour gorge, the paradise of the story endures.
Beyond the plateau south of Tafraoute there is a fissure in the granite escarpment. At the bottom is a stream bed thick with palms, their dates clustered like golden bees. We walk under pomegranates, olives and figs. The walls of the canyon are dusty orange and paprika. Driss, a farmer, sells five kinds of dates. He has more than a hundred palms.
"But my daughter is in England, my sons away in the cities. No help for the harvest. The young people go away," he says. It is a part lament, part boast.
I walk on down the gorge, listening to the bird song and the chergui, the Saharan wind, which shushes like a ghost river through the palms. It is Friday, mosque day, and the day for ma-harouf: charity to travellers. As the palms give out and the heat swells, I long for shade and succour.
In the village of Agerd Amlalen, at the foot of the gorge, 30 women gathered in a yard beside the mosque are absolutely insistent that I must come in, wash and feast. They serve a delicious thick-grained couscous, with eggs, garlic and lentils.
The women will take no payment - the food is given "fi sabilillah", to honour God.
Amid the woodsmoke, the chatter and the squeals of children, the atmosphere is as high-spirited as a hen party.
As I leave, waved off with blessings, it is as though I had journeyed through that Berber tale, to a place where people were honest and kind.
--- A circular walk, via the Blue Rocks
Route starting and finishing in Tafraoute: 6.5km; four hours "You know why the flies are smaller here, on the plateau?" Hamou asks, on my second trail - our "philosophical" walk in the environs of Tafraoute. "Because they are interns. The professionals go to town."
The sly humour of this lies in the reference to depopulation, which makes the area so beguiling to walk in, but perhaps melancholy to inhabit. Everywhere people say, "the young go away, to the cities". If they return, they build modern houses near roads, leaving the fort-like villages to decay into the mountainsides.
Not that those left behind are outwardly mournful. Two Berber women beside the path are securing large bundles of firewood. Hammou rushes to help one hoist her load. The weight staggers him. The lady takes the strap around her forehead, derides his weakness and plunges off into the bush, singing.
Intern flies are the favourite prey of the grey-backed shrike - a burst of pied-wing beats among the green of the argan trees. Known as the tomb-bird, the shrike makes a larder of insects, impaling them on thorns. Hammou pauses by a leafless argan and snaps one of its silvery twigs. "See? It's alive - this is a very patient tree. It sleeps through drought."
Argans are indigenous to western Morocco. Their nuts are hand-ground in a stone mill to produce a nourishing oil. The trees are also living hayricks for Berber goats. A farmer herds them using sling-shot stones, driving them up into the branches, which the goats climb easily.
Our walk takes us past peach-coloured tors of granite, many with local names. There is Napoleon's Hat, a sphinx and a tortoise, and here a collection of bright blue mushrooms. Around us are huge boulders painted pink, green and grey, as well as the dominant lapis blue.
They are the work of Jean Verame, a Belgian artist who enlisted the help of the fire brigade for his project in 1984. "He did it to please his wife," says Hammou. The blue rocks are a favourite site for picnics and parties on summer nights. Their main artistic effect, on this limpid morning, is to highlight nature's effortless superiority over man as a sculptor and manipulator of light - perhaps that was Verame's point.
We circle past a red-painted mosque at the village of Aday and arrive at one of the few Berber houses in the region that is still occupied. The owner, Mahfoud Idihi, has eschewed the pull of the cities. "I want to keep our heritage alive," he says. "Our patrimony. I am the last generation of our family to live here. Please, come in."
The architect Le Corbusier once said "a house is a machine for living in". The traditional Berber dwelling is a miraculous, integrated and embracing device. Built like a miniature fortress, it has separate entrances for animals, family and guests.
We stoop through low passages which spiral around the heart of the machine: the kitchen. A hole in the floor means organic waste can be dropped to the animals below. They function both as central heating, in winter, and as a recycling centre. "Smoke from the cooking fire protects the ceiling from insects," says Mahfoud. "Notice that the kitchen is raised up a big step to stop babies coming in. There will be 10 or 11 people living here, lots of children. The house is designed for all of them."
Mahfoud shows me the granary. "We keep treasures in here, hidden under the wheat."
After that, the women's sleeping quarters, the passages which double as nurseries, the roof where they sleep in summer and the space for drying dates. Built of earth, stone and palm, the Berber villages decay gracefully, returning themselves to the earth.
Walking through them is an eerie experience - they are teachers as much as memorials, offering a model of existence in harmony with the environment; something the most advanced architects of our time struggle to achieve.
Near Mahfoud's house is an ancient rock carving of a gazelle. Two schoolgirls have climbed up to the ledge above it and are dancing to music played from a mobile phone. They wave and giggle. Morocco's prehistory and its future side by side.
The girls' lives will be entirely unlike those of generations of women before them, Aisha Taboudrart explains, when we join her for lunch after the walk. Aisha inherited her father's argan-oil business, which she has supplemented with a convenience store. She also offers traditional meals to visitors. As we eat a rich couscous with argan oil, eggs and honey, Aisha tells me, "A few years ago, I could not even have walked to market in Tafraoute without a husband or some male relative. Now I can go wherever I like. I travel to Agadir, to Casablanca, on business."
--- A hike along an old drovers' path
Tafraoute to Tagoudiche and back: 24km; two days, with an overnight stop If the best walks are the oldest - the pilgrim trails and the ancient ways - then the most delightful of all are the drovers' paths, their contours forgiving, their prospects timeless.
My two-day hike follows a drovers' road north from Tafraoute, into the Ameln Valley and up the escarpment of Jebel L'Kest, along the track farmers use to bring barley, livestock and oil to market in Tafraoute.
We bear northwest out of town, crossing rising ground towards a low escarpment, as Hammou shows me the tracks of porcupines and places where wild boar have foraged. We pass a giant boulder, its top piled with thousands of stones. "People add one for good luck on their way to market," he explains.
We breast the pass and descend into the Ameln Valley.
We follow irrigation channels out of the valley floor, up towards the mountain. In the palm groves below the village of Tamalokt is a cistern, a place of utter peace, where scarlet dragonflies skid above the water and the tops of olive trees sway against cerulean sky. We lunch on tinned sardines, digest and set off.
The first ascent is a hot scramble as we cut upwards across screes of rock, aiming for the track which goes up to Tagoudiche, our destination, a village at 915m.
When we reach the piste, the valley falls away below us, receding towards the west. In the heat and the haze, the view could be another earth, African-ochre, vast as God's hands cupped. As we go higher, we pass terraces baized with fine green. Now there are pallid swifts sowing the air with their soaring, and two falcons - and higher still we startle a covey of partridge.
A horizon of vast, hunched mountains south of Tafraoute is visible now, while ahead are rock strata bent like tusks, whorled like ears, bared like teeth. Here the phrase "as still as stone" makes no sense: the mountains are as alive as stone, as fluid and as mighty as geological force and time.
At sunset we arrive at Tagoudiche, a village in the crook of the mountain's arm, with one street, one shop, seven women gossiping, one black cat, a mosque and a feeling of eternity somewhere above its rooftops.
Our hostess is Fatima Monhi, a tiny woman, delicate as a kestrel, who has been providing bed and breakfast to hikers for 20 years. Her house is a natural stop-over for the climb up to Jebel L'Kest, 915m above us. For her, Fatima says, walking is pilgrimage.
"Yes, I go up Jebel L'Kest sometimes," she nods.
I can scarcely believe it. Her legs are not much longer than my arms, and my legs are aching.
"Oh yes. A marabout - a holy man - is buried there. I go to consult his spirit. Lots of women do," she says. "I ask for rain, for good business, for peace. "Five days ago I went up and asked for food and health. And look ... "
She spreads her hands at the steaming chicken tagine. "It is granted."
After supper, I stand on the rooftop terrace of Fatima's house and take in the silence of the mountain night under a downpour of starlight. As constellations within constellations of stars blink and glitter, it seems as though the holy man of Jebel L'Kest has granted me something that I had not yet thought to ask for.
My walks in the Anti Atlas have led me to something celestial and eternal, infinitely peaceful, so distant and yet - just there.
--- Horatio Clare is a writer of travel and fiction. In his upcoming book, Down to the Sea in Ships (Chatto & Windus) he sails the oceans in the company of seafarers and their cargo.
-- Copyright Lonely Planet Traveller magazine. Words: Horatio Clare. Pictures: Simon Urwin. First published February 2013
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/travel/world/search-for-lost-oasis-in-morocco/story-e6frfqai-1226578791381#ixzz2LkJdJLMS
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More than 200 CWA members from across the state have gotten into the Moroccan spirit at the University of New England. The annual International School was a three-day event where CWA women from as far as Canberra and Wagga Wagga delighted in the flavours of Morocco – the nation of choice this year.
With the Moroccan ambassador and guest speakers in attendence, acclaimed Sydney chef Hassan M’Souli gave the women a hands-on food demonstration with some of the native cooking instruments and flavours.
On sale were his own cooking books which were a sell-out.
There was also a raising of two flags – the Australian and Moroccan – and the respective nations’ anthems were sung back-to-back.
Armidale CWA president Emmie Forge said many women brought in artefacts from visits to Morocco which all added to the cultural exchange.
“When we do this kind of thing we send word around to all the branches if they have any artefacts from the featured country,” she said.
“It’s amazing how many people have been to these countries.”
Jan Donaldson from the Namoi CWA branch said it was “one of the best weekends of their lives” for many of the members.
“They were so generous and the lecturers were absolutely amazing,” she said. “The chef cooked a beautiful chicken dish and cous cous, and the fashion design that was featured was out of this world.”
Despite the renowned spicy taste of Moroccan food, Mrs Donaldson said it didn’t burn any tongues. “It’s spice without the fire,” she said. http://www.northerndailyleader.com.au/story/1294486/cwa-gets-into-flavours-of-morocco-in-armidale/ ##########################################################
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