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| About | Membership | Volunteer | Newsletters | Souk | Links |
Almanac:
Calendar
information about cultural and community events in Morocco. Events
in Rabat, Casablanca, Fez, Tangier and throughout Morocco of possible interest to readers are included. Updated
weekly each Thursday. Compiled as a community service by Mark
Parkison of AMIDEAST. Contact Mark to be included on the mailing list.
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09/28 Week in Review: News clips from Morocco
09/21 Week in Review: News clips from Morocco
09/14 Week in Review: News clips from Morocco
09/07 Week in Review: News clips from Morocco
08/31 Week in Review: News clips from Morocco
Compiled weekly by Mhamed El Kadi in Morocco and posted each Saturday on this site
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Marrakesh
rides the movie express
Monday September 23, 2002
Morocco's second film festival took place last week, attracting Hollywood stars and its share of controversy. David Gritten reports ........
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Local
female leaders aid effort to elect women in Morocco.
PATRICK CONDON THE OLYMPIAN
Kathy Kreiter will climb aboard a plane Tuesday to embark on a trip that will take about 24 hours to deliver her to her final destination -- Morocco. It's the culmination of nearly two years of work by a group of female political advisers from Washington who have traveled to the country in North Africa to advise and train female candidates on the ins and outs of running for elected office and joining government service.....................
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Guide
to Morocco's legislative elections
Wednesday, 25 September, 2002,
Moroccan voters go to the polls on 27 September to vote in general
elections. They are the first since King Mohammed VI came to the throne in 1999 amid local media coverage that spoke of hope for a new era of openness and democracy......------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, 27 September, 2002
A dizzying array of 26 parties are standing, ranging from former Marxist
revolutionaries to the one legal Islamist party...........------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, 3 August, 2001,
Morocco's reforms are paying off but the country needs step up the pace of
economic growth to deal with poverty and unemployment, according to the International Monetary Fund......------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morocco's
bid to win back its people.
By Eileen Byrne, In Casablanca
Monday, 16 September, 2002,
Mohammed Khatiri looks every inch a Euro-Moroccan yuppie as he sits in a stylish Casablanca café. Five months ago he returned to the country he left as a child in 1970, to run a local building renovation business he had acquired with his brother........................
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Hollywood
heads for Marrakesh.
Wednesday, 18 September, 2002,
By Stephanie Irvine , BBC, Morocco
The second Marrakesh international film festival opens on Wednesday in Morocco's southern city. Leading Hollywood film directors Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola....
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Saturday 21 September 2002
Morocco or Tunisia? Suddenly it has become a tough choice, but visitors who love one have always assumed that they would loathe the other. They're in for a surprise, says Sophie Roberts
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Moroccan
migrant tide swamping Canaries.
September 02, 2002 From David Sharrock in Madrid
THE latest wave of illegal African immigrants to arrive on the shores of Spanish territory is threatening to overwhelm the authorities and aid agencies in the Canary Islands......
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By Harry Marks
Wednesday Sept.4th, 2002, September 04 20
Stimulating, mystical and steeped in ancient history and Islamic culture, the North African nation of Morocco tantalizes all who visit its wonders...................
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By Michale Carr October 4, 2000
"Psss!" the men hissed conspiratorially, or, "Excuse me! Excuse me!" and "Come see. Only today!" I threaded my way through alleys clogged with hundreds of tiny markets. Canvas tents like those of Berber nomads shielded them from the sun.......
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February 21, 2001
Joe Kuhl, a former Peace Corp volunteer in Morocco, teaches English and linguistics at the University of Georgia............... The old man across the aisle, a shamali from the north, he figured, by the brown-and-white-striped djelleba and the yellow rizah...............
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August 1992 by Robert D. Kaplan
For Jack McCreary, it was a moment of sweet satisfaction. A self-described "child of the sixties," who had spent nearly two decades of his life in the Arab world, McCreary was the U.S. embassy's press and culture officer...............
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Karim's
Bistro "Beach Bistro Offers Taste Of Morocco."
By Mary D. Scourtes of The Tampa Tribune Published: September 4, 2002
TREASURE ISLAND - Whether there's a radiant sunset or the pyrotechnics of a summer storm outside, Karim's Bistro, with its Gulf-side vista, offers a cozy environment................
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Spellbound by Morocco: Dan
Neil immerses himself in the fantasia of Marrakech and Fès."
Khalid the herbalist stumps in a circle, pivoting on his withered leg, lecturing. "Cumin, good for stomachaike; sweet curry, for headaike..." We are in his herboristerie on the Derb Zaouia, a narrow stone alley in the medina, the old city of Fès (also spelled Fez), where the ancient buildings lean on one another like.............................
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The
Restaurant Owner: He has no taste for hate, even when he's a target of it.
By Laura Coleman Noeth noeth@gomemphis.com
September 11, 2002
When you have the kind of outlook that Aimer Shtaya has, hatred's venom loses some of its sting. Even when it's directed at your religion and spray-painted on your restaurant wall, as it was Shtaya's Morocco Cafe shortly after terrorists attacked the United States a year ago today....
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By Geoffrey Moorhouse
August 25, 2002,Sunday BOOK REVIEW DESK TRAVELS WITH A TANGERINE: A Journey in the Footnotes of Ibn Battutah.
By Tim Mackintosh-Smith. Illustrated by Martin Yeoman. 351 pp. New York: Welcome Rain Publishers. $30.
THERE'S little doubt that Ibn Battutah was, and remains, the greatest traveler of all time. He left his home in Tangier (whose inhabitants are, as the title of Tim Mackintosh-Smith's new book reminds us, called Tangerines) in 1325, at the age of 21, and over the next 29 years journeyed some.......
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Bigger
Peace Corps, Paltry Effort
By Mark Shahinian
Tuesday, August 20, 2002; Page A13
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- President Bush has proposed doubling the size of the Peace Corps -- to help, he says, "spread the good story" of American values and ideas to the Muslim world. From my perspective as a Peace Corps volunteer in a Muslim village in Africa, the plan seems whimsical at best.......
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01.08.2002 - By PHILIP GAME
From the fiery brick-red of Marrakech to the lemon tints of Meknes, Morocco's older cities seem almost to be colour-coded.. The sleepy Atlantic port of Essaouira is a huddle of whitewashed cubes, trimmed in Mediterranean blue, an arresting yet restful combination and reward enough for the two-hour journey from bustling Marrakech.
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Morocco Embraces Dialogue With
West.
Posted July 29, 2002
By James P. Lucier
According to local lore the name "Marrakesh" comes from two ancient Berber words meaning "Get out of here fast!" But in the thousand or so years that desert caravans, warriors, tourists and international diplomats and leaders have been coming here to find an excuse to linger in cool gardens and pleasant, earth-red edifices that sprawl inside and outside the ancient walls, they have found no need to worry about ambuscades of brigands that once made the oasis notorious in forgotten history.
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Friday, August 02, 2002 -
Jean Godden / Seattle Times staff columnistCASABLANCA, Morocco - I flew into the Casablanca airport two weeks ago with Jessie Israel of the University........Jessie, fluent in French after her Peace Corps years in Ghana, explained about the T-shirts and mugs....
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Morocco's
'invasion' has the world guessing.
July 20 2002
Moroccans are bewildered by the decision of their new king, Mohammed VI, to choose the night before his wedding to prove his manhood on the battlefield. A few hours before the long-delayed nuptial ceremony last Friday, Rabat dispatched its troops to plant Morocco's Star of Solomon flag on the barren island of Parsley........
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Speech
of HE The Ambassador to
the “FRIENDS OF MOROCCO” at
residence in Celebration of 40+1 years of Peace Corps on June 21, 2002
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In
pictures: Moroccan marriage celebration.
Saturday, 13 July, 2002, 06:33 GMT 07:33 UK
In Morocco's first public celebration of a royal wedding, thousands of well-wishers from all over the kingdom thronged the streets to congratulate King Mohammed VI on his marriage to 24-year-old
Salma Bennani.....
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Morocco positions
itself as Mecca for film-makers.
Opening up to the world's movie moguls has elicited a rewarding response
Nicole Choueiry Special to The Daily Star
Marrakesh: What do Lawrence of Arabia, Othello, Star Wars, Tea in the Sahara, Hideous Kinky, Spy Game and Gladiator have in common? The answer is that they were all shot in Morocco.......
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Royal
revels to mark King's marriage.
Saturday, 13 July, 2002, 02:13 GMT 03:13 UK
By Stephanie Irvine BBC correspondent in Rabat
The festivities to mark the king's marriage began with the Royal Guard, mounted on horseback and in white robes and turbans. They led a procession from one of the old gates in the city walls, past the crowds lining the central streets, and into the grounds of the Royal Palace. .....
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The
Evolution of Food Patterns of a Migratory Moroccan Population is the study
of an Anthropology student who is seeking Moroccan informants
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I
lost my heart in... Essaouira.
John Mortimer, writer
Interview by Tim Wapshott Saturday June 29, 2002 The GuardianWhy? It is the most incredibly beautiful town. It has white walls, bright
blue doors, a huge, sandy beach, and the little coloured fishing boats look just like a Van Gogh painting......-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, July 10/ 2002
B'NET MARRAKECH, "The women of Marrakech", are of Berber origin, from the villages near Taroudant, southeast of Marrakech. ........
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Wednesday, 12 June, 2002,
By Eileen Byrne In Rabat
It sounded too good to be true. When Saed, 25, heard on the grapevine that Gulf-based Al-Najat Marine Shipping wanted to hire 30,000 Moroccans to work on cruise ships, it was a chance not to be missed.............
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Morocco arrests
Saudis' wives in maritime terror plot.
From combined dispatches
RABAT, Morocco - Morocco has dismantled a group that has been linked to al Qaeda and suspected of preparing suicide attacks on U.S. and allied warships in the Strait of Gibraltar, government and security service sources said yesterday........
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You
have to take your hat off to the Fez festival.
(Filed: 15/06/2002)
The medieval city offered ritual chants, brass bands from Harlem and an astrophysicist from Vietnam. Allah be praised, says Peter Culshaw..........
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Nicole Choueiry Special to The Daily Star
RABAT: It took the lady in veil and djellaba exactly three minutes before she began swaying to the sound of the band's drums. She wasn't the only one. Her four trailing youngsters and husband shook their hips as they tried to imitate the frantic movements of the bare-bellied dancer on stage.....
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Guide to the Morocco
Legal System.
By Dahmène Touchent
Published May 15, 2002
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By Calrisa BenComom, Research in the Children's Rigths division of the Human Rights Watch.
Madrid, May 7, 2002) Moroccan migrant children in Spain are frequently beaten by police and abused by staff and other children in overcrowded, unsanitary residential centers, Human Rights Watch charged in a report released today.......
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By Driss Benmhend
After months of hesitation, I finally decided to write this small contribution to explain to those who are not aware of what it would take for a MREU (Marocain Resident aux Etats Unis) to get one of their most fundamental and basic rights.....
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The Origin of the Clash of
Civilizations.
By Reda Benkirane
Among the many reflections on the events related to September 11, two of the most profound insights come from Christian thinkers who have focused their analyses essentially on the cultural aspect of the crisis.......
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Rekindling
the magic of marriage.
Sarah Sands gets into the rhythm of Marrakesh. Marrakesh in May is about 77F (25C). It is also the month when the roses are in bloom, outside the mosque, in the gardens and floating in stone troughs in hotel courtyards. The riad concept suits the hidden glories of Morocco. ......
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I am in Morocco to see, and perhaps cross, the Western Sahara. Throughout history, there have been but a handful of land routes connecting the Mediterranean coast to western Africa. In the east, there is the Route du Hoggar,
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Bush Gets
Moroccan View of the Middle East
Nora Boustany Washington Post Wednesday April 24, 2002 A18
After postponing his wedding and planned public festivities this month as a
gesture of sympathy for the recent loss of life in the West Bank, Morocco's King
Mohammed VI arrived Sunday on a state visit to Washington without his intended
bride.
He lunched at the White House yesterday with President Bush, who sounded out the 39-year-old monarch on an Israeli-proposed Middle East peace conference. Bush plans to hear the views of other U .S. allies when Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah visits Crawford, Tex., this week and when Jordan's King Abdullah arrives in early May, Moroccan sources disclosed. MORE
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President
Calls for Free Trade Agreement with Morocco.
Office of the Press Secretary April 23, 2002
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Nick Trend returns to Marrakesh and is surprised to find courses that are not only beautiful but empty.
Golfing in Marrakesh
Wednesday April 17, 2002. The Telegraph.
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April 19, 2002
By Doris H. Gray, THE WASHINGTON TIMES
When Morocco's King Mohammed VI arrives in Washington this weekend, he will not be received as the dashing "king of hearts".....
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Hardworking Upper
Darby senior living his American dream with football honors.
Posted on Wed, Feb. 27, 2002
Rachid Stoury, an immigrant from Morocco, said his family taught him how to succeed.
By Shannon Ryan, Inquirer Suburban Staff, The Philadelphia Inquirer
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Mirror to a
Culture: a Bustling Market in Marrakesh, Morocco.
By Barbara McClatchie Andrews . The world and I
The sun has not yet crested the Atlas Mountains. In Café Toubkal, men huddle over their early morning coffee and croissants. A couple of scruffy cats idly weave through the forest of their legs. The men absentmindedly observe......
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Runners
take on African desert.
By the BBC's Stephanie Irvine in Morocco
Sunday, 7 April, 2002, 07:41 GMT 08:41 UK
When the sun rises on Sunday morning over the sand dunes of Ouarzazate in southern Morocco, a group of over 600 people will rouse themselves from their Berber tents and prepare to set off on this year's 'Marathon of the Sands', one of the most grueling foot races on earth............
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Thursday, 4 April, 2002, 09:38 GMT 10:38 UK
After running six marathons in costume to raise money for Save the Rhino - three in New York, three in London - this seemed like a natural progression..........
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Mariam
Cooke : An American Arabist focuses on Arab women issues.
Syria, Culture, 3/23/2002
Mariam Cooke, the American Arabist writer recently visited Damascus and on March 17 has a presentation for her book " Hayati: My life " at the Damascus university........
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Passover in Morocco: A story of East meets West.
By Linda Morel
NEW YORK, Feb. 26 (JTA) -- "When most Americans think of Morocco, they envision Casablanca," says Dani Moyal, discussing the mix of Muslim and French cultures among Jews in her homeland.....
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On
Morocco´s mountains, elderly Jew watches the shrine of his holy rebbe.
By Bryan Schwartz
OURIKA VALLEY, Morocco, March 7 (JTA) - Hananiyah Elfassie is the last Berber Jew in the Ourika Valley of Morocco´s High Atlas mountains, two hours by bus from Marrakech. He used to have visitors during Passover - pilgrims.......
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Crafting
a legacy in Morocco: Jews, officials share same goal.
By Peter Ephross
CASABLANCA, Morocco, March 24 (JTA) -- On a recent sunny day outside the Jewish elementary school here, Boris Azran watches as his two oldest children join hundreds of others colorfully celebrating Purim festivities......
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Moroccan playboy king's wedding marks a new era.
By Philip Jacobson in Rabat (Filed: 24/03/2002)
WHEN Moroccans opened their newspapers last Thursday, they could hardly believe their eyes. Across their front pages were large photographs of the striking young redhead who that afternoon would become the bride of their monarch, King Mohamed VI, at a low-key family ceremony behind closed doors in the Royal Palace in Rabat.....
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Morocco
seeks tourism revival.
By Eileen Byrne
Monday, 18 March, 2002,
Tourism chiefs in the Moroccan city of Fez are seeking to win back lost trade from holidaymakers who were put off travelling by the events of 11 September........
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Thursday, 7 March, 2002,
he Kingdom of Morocco is the most westerly of the North African countries known as the Maghreb........
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Safi (Buda Musique/Tinder) by Matt Cibula
PopMatters Music and Books Critic
Tyour Gnaoua is not a person -- it is a performance collective based in Morocco. Like all gnaoua (or gnawa) groups, it consists of musicians, dancers, fortunetellers, and their students -- all the descendants of former slaves from all over the sub-Saharan region........
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Memories
of Morocco: For Sephardic Jews, Passover means luscious scents and flavors.
By Maria C. Hunt
FOOD WRITER
March 20, 2002
In spring, the breezes that blow through Morocco are warm and dry and laden with heavy perfume from the many Seville orange trees that are in bloom.........
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March 20, 2002
Roasted Lamb Shoulder, Passover Fava Bean Soup, Danielle's Roasted Bell Peppers etc.....
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King
of cool loses his touch with the common people.
By Harry de Quetteville in Rabat
(Filed: 21/04/2001)
MOROCCO'S King Mohammed VI is more celebrity than monarch. Young, good-looking and fashion conscious, he prefers sharp suits and wrap-around sunglasses to flowing robes and a fez.
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Tuesday, March 05, 2002
TASTING the excitement of a Moroccan bazaar has been made easier with the opening of a new shop in Wellingborough..........
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Commentary, by John Aravosis. First in a series
I have to admit even I was nervous about visiting Morocco earlier this month. I wondered whether it was safe to visit a Muslim country just now, not to mention getting on a plane heading hassle of visiting a place where everyone was going to hate me. I'm here to say I not only survived the trip, but was absolutely astonished by what I found......
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Moroccan
Women Press For Change.
allAfrica.com , INTERVIEW, February 18, 2002 Posted to the web February 18, 2002
Washington, DC
Earlier this month, the Africa Center for Strategic Studies organised a Senior Leader Seminar which brought together military and civilian leaders from all over Africa to discuss issues related to security. Nouzha Skalli Bennis, member of the PPS, Morocco's former communist party, and municipal counsellor from Casablanca, represented the Democratic Association of Moroccan Women at the conference.he spoke with allAfrica.com about her work.........
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Morocco
hopes services will stem migration.
By James Drummond in Rabat
Published: February 19 2002 17:28 | Last Updated: February 20 2002 05:29
The village of Ben Guemmoud in the rural Souss Massa Draa in the south of Morocco is a showcase for the efforts of the Moroccan government to bring water and otherservices to previously neglected rural communities........
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The
spirit of Morocco: Passion for cooking shows in Aziza's soulful, delicious food.
Michael Bauer, Chronicle Restaurant Critic
Sunday, February 17, 2002
A warm feeling infuses Aziza that can't be duplicated by most restaurants. It starts with the name, which honors the owners' Moroccan mother, .......
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Morocco:
Dealing with Street Hustlers.
National Geogrpahic
Turning down the road toward the village of Aït Benhaddou, our car was approached by a young boy frantically waving for us to........ stop.
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A traveler finds beauty in the desert of Morocco, from the changing light on its sands to the kindness and curiosity of its people. ..
By GRAHAM BRINK, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times published February 10, 2002
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11 FEB 2002 AAP
MOVIE classic Casablanca has been named the most romantic film of all time, a British Valentine poll reveals.
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Royal
progress stirs Morocco reform.
Incentives for investors highlight the constraints placed upon the democratically elected government, writes James Drummond
Published: February 11 2002 20:37 |
One-stop investment shops are rarely the subject of political controversy. They are widely viewed as "a good thing", easing the paths of investors through the tangled undergrowth of developing countries' bureaucracies.
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By SHANE GALLOWAY/ Special to The Enterprise
April 9, 1998
Morocco's not a place you tell Mom that you're going to visit. Mine had heard the tales of tourist terror: killings at the hands of desperate thieves and white slave trade and the good Lord only knows what other tall talk. It's enough to send any mother worth her salt off to weeknight prayer meetings.
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CDP
Capital: A New US$30-Million Fund for Morocco
MONTREAL, Jan. 28 /CNW/ - CDP Capital has partnered with the Caisse de Dépôt et de Gestion du Maroc (CDG) and other major Moroccan institutions to create a US$30 million fund for Morocco. This venture capital fund, known as Accès Capital Atlantique SA (ACASA), will invest in Moroccan manufacturing- sector SMEs involved mainly in telecommunications, information technologies, agri-business, fishing and tourism.
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By Gerry George, International Editor / Transmission & Distribution World, Jan 1, 2002
The Moroccan government launched the Global Rural Electrification Program (PERG) in January 1996. This program is the most popular and federative project of the Office National De l'Electricite (ONE) that aims to provide electricity to all of Morocco's rural areas.
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Bid to bring
Arabs closer to Americans.
Dubai |By Bassam Za'za' | 31-01-2002
The Dubai Press Club (DPC) hosted a symposium yesterday on 'Arab-American Relations in the Light of the September 11 Incidents'. Richard Fairbanks, Counsellor, and Edward M. Gabriel, Visiting Fellow Middle East Studies Programme (MESP), and Judith Kipper, Director of MESP, all representing the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), also addressed a press conference at the club. Gabriel, a Former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco,
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Under a New
Regime, Moroccans Search for Truth And Justice.
October 2001. Special Report By Marvine Howe
Ahmed Marzouki remembers everything about Tazmamart-18 years in the tiny concrete cell, the stifling heat and Siberian winters, the isolation and absence of light, the stench of disease and filth, scorpions and mosquitoes, miserable rations of bread, chickpeas and vermicelli, sadistic prison guards. Of the 58 military officers and men implicated in unsuccessful coups against the late King Hassan in the early 1970s..
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EXOTIC
MOROCCAN FULL OF FUN, CULINARY THRILLS.
By CYNTHIA KILIAN January 20, 2002 --
Now adventurers come seeking culinary thrills. If they say the nouvelle Moroccan food's as good as sex, that's an amusing coincidence.....
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Morocco
bans historical conference.
Saturday, 19 January,
By David Bamford in Rabat
The Moroccan authorities have stepped in to block a conference being organised by a campaign group which alleges that the Spanish army used toxic gas to quell a Berber uprising in the 1920s.
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Growth
strategy for North Africa: A regional approach.
By IMF Research from International Monetary Fund. 01-08-2002
By Paul Chabrier, Director of the IMF's Middle Eastern Department.
Although the North African countries made significant progress toward achieving financial stability under IMF-supported programs during the mid-1980s and the 1990s, growth in these countries has remained below potential.....
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Extending
an olive branch: Importer hopes food will nurture appreciation of his native
Morocco.
By Providence Cicero Special to The Seattle Times.
Dressed in a crisp blue shirt and silk tie, Mustapha Haddouch welcomes a visitor into his chilly ElliottAvenue warehouse.......
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In a Time of Sadness,
Moroccans Lend a Hand.
by Susan Kostrzewa. September 11, 2001
It was a quiet afternoon in Essaouira, Morocco. My husband Cris and I were sipping mint tea in a café on the square, watching children play and looking forward to a stroll through the market after dark. Gulls called overhead. A warm sea breeze enveloped us. It was the most relaxed we had been on the entire trip. The date was September 11. An ocean away, an American Airlines plane was crashing into Tower 1 of the World Trade Center. ...
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Paul Mansfield, Electronic Telegraph. Saturday 12 January 2002
On my way to see the herbalist about a miracle cure, I popped into Khayar's for a shave. In his tiny shop, under magazine photographs of chubby Moroccan starlets, Khayar lathered my face and shaved it with a cut-throat razor .....
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Author Michael Kerr. DATE: 13 Oct 2001
Since September 11 many travellers have come to regard all Islamic countries as dangerous. Last week, we went to see whether their fears are justified. Michael Kerr reports from Morocco plus updates from Egypt, Dubai, Israel, Tunisia and Turkey.....
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Morocco:
Magic - except for the carpets
Author Joanna Symons. DATE: 26 Mar 2001
Taking the children away for Easter? You don't need to head for the beach. Joanna Symons sees her sons bowled over by medieval Marrakesh. THERE'S no better place to teach your children the importance of sticking to the Green Cross code than in the Djemaa el Fna square in Marrakesh....
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Cycling
in the Atlas Mountains: Stephanie Debere bikes with the boys in Morocco.
Author Stephanie Debere. DATE: 13 Jun 2001
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Wed
to a traditional way of life.
Author Jack Barker. DATE: 15 Aug 2001
Jack Barker attends an unusual Berber marriage ceremony that takes place each year in a remote 'Moroccan' mountain village....
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Bald
ibis faces Club Med threat.
Author Brian Unwin. DATE: 04 Aug 2001
A UNIQUE tourist attraction is threatened by plans to build a Club Méditerranée holiday complex on Morocco's Atlantic coast. Tifnit village....
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Sounds
of Morocco: Simon Broughton chooses the best music from this diverse country.
THE appeal of Morocco lies in its colour, history and exoticism - and it's all there in the music, which has enticed musicians such as Paul Bowles, Jimi Hendrix, Ornette Coleman and, of course, the Rolling Stones.
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- Jogi Januschowsky, MountainZone.com Correspondent
Story Translated by Christina Kettman
The thick snowflakes fall from the African sky. A Berber emerges from the fog. He seems to come from eternity, and approaches us slowly. Very slowly the rhythm of life flows through the deep valleys of the high Atlas..
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Morocco bound:
Tangiers bid to host Tests as the game goes global.
Kevin Mitchell reports from North Africa's new venue.
The Observer , Sunday January 6, 2002
On Rue de Liberte, removed from the chaos of Tangiers, is the warm and eccentric El Minzah Hotel, where you can smell the nostalgia even above the pungent aroma of the Friday-night markets. It is a place made for a Charles Boyer entry, to a Charles Trenet soundtrack.
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Morocco welcomes Polisario's
release of POWs
RABAT, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Morocco welcomed on Friday the imminent release of 115 of its soldiers by an Algerian-backed movement seeking independence in the Western Sahara and asked for the freedom of about 1,400 others. The 115 men were captured by the Polisario Front 25 years ago at the start of its guerrilla war.
The Polisario said on Wednesday it would hand over the soldiers in a goodwill gesture, but did not give a date. The handover has been arranged in collaboration with the Spanish Red Cross and the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The Moroccan Foreign Ministry said it had been following with great interest European Union efforts to free all Moroccans "held on Algerian soil in Polisario's prison cells." But in a statement carried by the official MAP news agency it added: "Moroccan authorities deeply regret that only 115 prisoners of 1,477 still held in Algeria benefit from this recent announcement despite the positions clearly expressed on this issue by the international community." The ministry said 1,028 Moroccan soldiers had been held by the Polisario for more than 20 years, including some now in poor health.
"Morocco calls on the international community, mainly the U.N. Security Council and all concerned bodies, to exert all relevant prerogatives to ensure their release, without precondition and further delay," the ministry said. The Polisario said the latest handover would bring to 900 the number of Moroccan prisoners it has released since 1997. A 10-year-old U.N.-brokered plan to give the population of the Western Sahara the choice between independence or integration with Morocco has reached deadlock.
A new solution aimed at regional autonomy for the territory under Moroccan sovereignty has been proposed instead, but has not been finalized Morocco claims and controls most of the Western Sahara, a sparsely populated area which has a 1,500-km (945-mile) Atlantic coastline with accompanying fishing rights, and a wealth of phosphates and other minerals.
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Friday 4 January 2002
We had been in Morocco for three days and I had made every mistake there is to make. I had fallen for the "I'm a starving student, let me be your guide" scam. I had been lured into a carpet shop and came away with a $250 woven memory (retail value: $50 on a good day). And I had persuaded my two companions to board a 10-hour train to Fes, ....
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Wives of Arab diplomats 'Mosaic' society in Washington for defending the Arab
image.
Regional-USA, Culture, 12/27/2001
The name " mosaic" is derived from a Middle Eastern Arab art in which huge number of fine stone are used to create one homogenous and elegant design. The official objective of this non- political society is to raise money and funds for serving women issues. However, it non- official objective is fighting passive monotonous concepts concerning Arab culture, the Islamic religious values and matters relating to the Arab women.
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US justice department issues discrimination brochure in Arabic.
12/22/2001
The Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice announced the publication of the Federal Protections Against National Origin Discrimination brochure in an additional ten languages including Arabic.
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The
Future of the Medina: Rethinking the Lessons of the Past
By Tom O'brien Tuesday, February 18, 2003
I
was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Missour in the TEFL program from 1986 to 1989. In September 1995, after completing a Masters Degree in Urban and
Regional Planning, I returned to Morocco as a Fulbright Scholar.
The aim of my six-month research was to build upon an architectural and
urban design study begun in the spring of 1995 by the Aga Khan Program for
Islamic Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
This study sought to develop a reconstruction plan for the Essaouira
medina, in particular the mellah. I
was interested in determining how plans for its reconstruction might consider
the importance of traditional urban form to the life of the city's inhabitants.
I also wanted to obtain responses to initial reconstruction plans from City
residents, addressing such issues as the appropriateness of designs for the
region's climate and the needs of the resident work force. MORE
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Morocco
acts on human rights.
Monday, 10 December, 2001,
King Mohammad of Morocco has announced the creation of a human rights
ombudsman. The announcement was delivered in a message read by his
brother, Prince Moulay Rachid, to mark international human rights
day. The prince said the new post was part of efforts to offer support
to other bodies working to redress injustice and protect liberties.
On Saturday, the Moroccan Human Rights Association published the names of more
than 40 senior officials and officers whom it accused of responsibility
for the disappearance of political activists during the1960's and 1970's.
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Sweet
Spot: If there's a problem with the menu, it's that nearly everything on it
looks great.
BY GREG HUGUNIN
sfweekly.com | originally published: December 12, 2001
To dine at Aziza is to experience a rare brand of luxury that leaves no sense
untouched. Step inside and you'll encounter dusky cobalt walls, dramatic
arches painted with blue and white stripes, and the soft, twangy lilt of
Moroccan music.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morocco
may change its telecoms rules.
By James Drummond in Cairo
Published: December 12 2001
Planned legal changes to Morocco's telecommunications administration threaten to
end the independence of the telecoms regulator and may hamper future investment
in the sector, senior Moroccan political officials said on Wednesday.
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Going
without at Ramadan.
-At the beginning of the Muslim fast, a traveler decides to do as the
Marrakeshans do.
BY EMILY ZUZIK
I am not a pious woman. I didn't go into Ramadan with a long history of
restraint. In fact, the most I knew about fasting was from my Catholic
childhood during Lent, where you went without some chosen item for 40 days.
There were also meatless Fridays, but you still got a good fish sandwich from
the church that night.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A
chasm between cultures: Bowles illuminates Western-Arab differences.
By Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times book critic / Sunday, December 02, 2001
For most Europeans and Americans," an elderly American writes from Morocco in the mid-1980s, "the word terrorist is unqualifiedly pejorative; while to the people here, it suggests a patriot. Thus, actions some consider criminal and contemptible are to others heroic. How can the two ever see eye to eye?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
distinct flavor of Ramadan in Morocco.
01 December 2001
In the continuing examination of Ramadan traditions around the Islamic world, The Star spoke with Raja' Alawi, the wife of the Moroccan Ambassador in Amman, about the different traditions found her in native country.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Peace
Corps Deserves Better Than GOP Deadwood.
By Judy Mann
Friday, November 9, 2001; Page C08
At a time when the United States needs friends abroad more than ever, President Bush has nominated to head the Peace Corps a discredited California party hack whose principal public achievement to date has been to help bankrupt the richest county in his state.
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ENVIRONMENT:
ACTIVISTS LAMENT MEAGER RESULT OF CLIMATE TALKS.
MARRAKESH, Morocco, Nov 12, 2001 (Inter Press Service via COMTEX) -- After two weeks of hard bargaining, representatives from 167 countries hammered out an accord that paves the way for the ratification of a treaty aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but activists dismissed the deal as "meager".
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No Time to Be Shortchanging Foreign Aid
Judy Mann Washington Post Nov 14, 2001
Susana de la Torre was a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco from 1987 to 1989. On the evening of Sept. 11, the first e-mail she received was from her Moroccan "family." They knew that her husband worked for the Department of the Army and that the family lived near the Pentagon. "They had tried for several hours to call me by phone," de la Torre told me, "but had been unsuccessful and then resorted to e-mailing. I simply cried when I got their e-mail, and I was moved -- though not surprised -- at the depth of their caring for me and my family. They contacted us way before many family members ever did to inquire about our safety." MORE
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Morocco's
'king of the poor' reveals selfish face.
Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Sunday November 4, 2001 The Observer
Once he was known as the King of the Poor, but when Morocco's King Mohamed VI arrived in the Western Saharan town of Dajla last week he needed four Hercules transport aircraft to carry the sumptuous trappings of his royal household.
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Morocco
wedding breaks royal rules.
Sunday, 14 October, 2001,
By BBC North Africa correspondent David Bamford
The kingdom usually keeps out of the king's private life. The announcement of King Mohammed VI of Morocco's wedding early next year breaks a series of royal Moroccan traditions.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author/s: Daniel J. Schroeter Issue: Spring, 2001
Published by the American Jewish Congress, July 02 2001
IN THE SUMMER OF 1997, OUR RESEARCH THREESOME reached the village of Tillit in the Dades
Valley, on the southern side of the Moroccan Atlas Mountains. My group included Joseph Chetrit, an Israeli scholar of Moroccan origin from Haifa, and Abderrahmane Lakhsassi, a Moroccan Berber scholar from Casablanca. It was the first of four summers of fieldwork at sites in rural Morocco that Jews once inhabited.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Waiting
for Maroc.(Moroccan foods and beverages)(Recipe)
Author/s: Issue: Summer, 2001
It's no secret, women rule the kitchens of Morocco. Because of extremes in poverty and wealth, those who work in the kitchen greatly outnumber those who don't. As such, Moroccan cuisine is born of a subculture. Moroccan cuisine has emerged and been passed down through generations of women. The executive chefs of elite hotels may not be female, but rest assured, a vast majority of the meals prepared are by Moroccan women. "The law of abundance" rules culinary etiquette.
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Morocco
sets up Berber cultural heritage body
RABAT, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Morocco's King Mohammed set up a Berber cultural
heritage body on Wednesday, meeting one of the long-standing demands for the
preservation of the language and history of the North African nation's ethnic
Berbers.
Berbers, who also are known as Imazighen (free men) and whose language is
Tamazight, represent the majority of Morocco's 30 million people, according to
independent sources.
Berbers lived in North Africa before the Arab invasion of the seventh century
but the Moroccan constitution recognises only Arabic as the official language.
"By establishing the Royal Institute for Amazigh Culture, we want...to
recognise the whole of our common history and our national cultural
identity," the king told a ceremony attended by government officials in the
northern village of Ajdir, in the Berber province of Khenifra, 300 km (190
miles) from Rabat.
The Amazigh culture "which is deeply rooted in the Moroccan peoples'
history belongs to all Moroccans without exception and cannot be used for
political purposes," the king added, according to the text of his speech
carried by the MAP official news agency and broadcast live on state-run
television.
The king's mother, Lalla Latifa, is a Berber and daughter of a well-known
nationalist Berber tribesman in Khenifra province.
"This is a good decision," said Ilyas Omari, a leading Berber
activist, "but what we want to see next is Tamazight recognised by the
constitution as official language."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
by Barbara Kingstone
The writer bares all in the steamy confines of the Moroccan hamman.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jo Foley stays at the Amanjena in Marrakesh
Saturday 6 October 2001
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marrakesh:
Be cool in the souk.
Staying in the Marrakesh medina is no longer hideous or kinky, says Jeremy Seal. The renovated riads are oases of comfort and calm
Saturday 6 October 2001
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hidden in the High Atlas are some of Morocco's most tempting hotels, where guests seeking a retreat from the cities are entertained in style, says Barnaby Rogerson
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Journey
to limbo, by way of hell
Sandro Contenta
MIDDLE EAST BUREAU. CEUTA, Spain
Sep. 9, 02:10 EDT
THE SEA WAS a calm black sheet that summer night when Ghali Hacen and his two comrades stood on a Moroccan beach, stripped down to their underwear and began a three-hour swim toward their dream.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sandro Contenta, Middle East Bureau
Sep. 9, 03:40 EDT
Deadly Journeys: One in a continuing series. Illegal migrants risk death to cross from Africa to Europe. Hidden under trucks and aboard ferries, clinging to rickety boats or detouring through a former penal colony in North Africa, thousands of border-crashers set off from Morocco in search of better lives in Spain and beyond.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
9
illegal migrants feared drowned off Spain.
Giles Tremlett in Madrid, The Guardian
Monday September 10, 2001
The bodies of 13 illegal immigrants who drowned while attempting a clandestine trip across the Straits of Gibraltar to Spain were washed up on a Moroccan beach yesterday, as the search began for 46 others believedto have died after their boat overturned.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morocco's
king hits back at Spain.
By the BBC's David Bamford in Rabat. Tuesday, 4 September, 2001,
The king of Morocco, Mohammed VI, has responded vigorously to criticism by Spain that his country is not doing enough to control the hundreds of migrants entering Europe illegally from Morocco.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
Ode to Morocco: A Globe-Trotting Couple's Color-Drenched Apartment Inspired by
Exotic Locales.
By Annie Groer, Washington Post Staff Writer. Thursday, September 6, 2001; Page H01
They wanted color. They wanted drama. And they wanted their Dupont Circle co-op to evoke Casablanca. So it was that after a dozen years spent overseas in the exotic precincts of Tehran, Istanbul, Cairo and Moscow, foreign correspondents Geneive Abdo, 41, and Jonathan Lyons, 43, came to Washington and went wild with paint.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Malika
Oufkir: the American Making of a Moroccan Star.
By Mokhtar Ghambou
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Local
man to race across the Sahara: Runner trains in city's late-summer heat.
By Stephanie L. Jordan. Published by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.
Monday, August 20, 2001
With the sun high over his head, Edward Dramberger is in training for a marathon unlike any other he's raced in before. This time, his object isn't to win. "It's to finish the race," the 37-year-old said. "I live for goals." With temperatures in the high 90s, Corpus Christi is the perfect place to get ready for a150-mile race across the Sahara Desert. Race organizers say runners may experience 110 to 125 degree temperatures.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morocco
launches 'war on slums'
by David Bamford in Rabat Tuesday, 21 August, 2001,
Morocco's King Mohammed VI has ordered his government to tackle worsening poverty in an attempt to curb the growing shanty towns around the country's main cities.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rhythm
& Belief: African America calls across the water.
by Greg Burk, August 24 - 30, 2001
What everybody's doing here revolves around the throb and rattle of Gnaoua music. Gnaoua is an old sound, with a history that parallels that of Western Hemisphere blues, jazz and reggae, so the idea of reuniting the continents isn't that artificial. The ancestors of the modern Gnaoua brotherhood came to North Africa as sub-Saharan slaves in the 1500s, around the same time that African tribespeople were first kidnapped and shipped to NewWorld auction blocks.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Brendan Bernhard.
Published March 27 - April 2, 1998 . Los Angels Weekly
Fez is the most daunting city in Morocco, its French-induced schizophrenia marked to an extreme degree. The old and new cities are two separate and contradictory worlds, each a riposte to the other. The new, French-built town is notable for its enormous tree-lined avenues, grand colonial statements that could only have been built with parades in mind. As an individual, you feel inadequate; you'd have to be part of an army to really feel at ease there.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Up
Above the World: Remembering Paul Bowles.
An interview with Paul Bowles
by Phillip Ramey. Published May 15 - 21, 1998
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 15 August, 2001,
Some henna tattoos could cause a lifelong allergy to a common chemical found in dyes, warn scientists.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
They call themselves Amazigh, the proud raiders. But most people know them as Berbers. For millennia, the Berbers of North Africa fought against Roman, Arab and French invaders. And, despite a history of colonisation, they have managed to preserve their language and culture, and have defended their land.
Monday 23 April, 2001, on the BBC
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morocco
considers Berber rights.
King Mohammed VI of Morocco has promised to set up a body to preserve the language and culture of the country's Berbers, who make up a majority of the population.
Tuesday, 31 July, 2001, on the BBC.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
King
launches charm offensive: Desire for change could turn into overt political
opposition.
King Mohammed VI of Morocco has launched an apparent charm offensive to win over critics to mark the second anniversary this month of his accession to the throne.
By David Bamford in Rabat Wednesday, 25 July, 2001 on the BBC
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Moroccan
visitor learns about volunteerism in Grand Island.
Mohamed Azzaoui wants to get more citizens involved in Morocco. The founder of a non-governmental organization that supports local development efforts in Morocco came to the heartland on Thursday to see how volunteers and the government work in harmony.
Published Friday, August 3, 2001 By Mike Bockoven. mbockoven@theindependent.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22.07.2001
The New Zealand Herald/ Wednesday July 25, 2001
On the taxi ride from Marrakesh airport to La Palmeraie, Morocco is as I remembered it. Drunk with fatigue, prickling uncomfortably in the humid night air, we drift through an eerie, biblical landscape that reeks of rotting garbage, bonfires and abject poverty.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Moroccan
woods hide Africa's lost souls.
July 28, 2000. Agence France-Presse
Claude Juvenal
BEN YOUNECH, Morocco, July 28 (AFP) - Within the green woods that lie inland from Morocco's northern coast, there are signs of life barely visible from the surrounding hills. They are all that can be seen of the illegal immigrants who, in the course of their journey to Europe's promised land, have lost their way in the scrubland.
Marrakesh
rides the movie express
Monday September 23, 2002
Morocco's second film festival took place last week, attracting Hollywood stars and its share of controversy. David Gritten reports ........
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Local
female leaders aid effort to elect women in Morocco.
PATRICK CONDON THE OLYMPIAN
Kathy Kreiter will climb aboard a plane Tuesday to embark on a trip that will take about 24 hours to deliver her to her final destination -- Morocco. It's the culmination of nearly two years of work by a group of female political advisers from Washington who have traveled to the country in North Africa to advise and train female candidates on the ins and outs of running for elected office and joining government service.....................
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Guide
to Morocco's legislative elections
Wednesday, 25 September, 2002,
Moroccan voters go to the polls on 27 September to vote in general elections. They are the first since King Mohammed VI came to the throne in 1999 amid local media coverage that spoke of hope for a new era of openness and democracy......
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Friday, 27 September, 2002
A dizzying array of 26 parties are standing, ranging from former Marxist revolutionaries to the one legal Islamist party...........
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Friday, 3 August, 2001,
Morocco's reforms are paying off but the country needs step up the pace of economic growth to deal with poverty and unemployment, according to the International Monetary Fund......
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morocco's
bid to win back its people.
By Eileen Byrne, In Casablanca
Monday, 16 September, 2002,
Mohammed Khatiri looks every inch a Euro-Moroccan yuppie as he sits in a stylish Casablanca café. Five months ago he returned to the country he left as a child in 1970, to run a local building renovation business he had acquired with his brother........................
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hollywood
heads for Marrakesh.
Wednesday, 18 September, 2002,
By Stephanie Irvine , BBC, Morocco
The second Marrakesh international film festival opens on Wednesday in Morocco's southern city. Leading Hollywood film directors Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola....
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Saturday 21 September 2002
Morocco or Tunisia? Suddenly it has become a tough choice, but visitors who love one have always assumed that they would loathe the other. They're in for a surprise, says Sophie Roberts
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Moroccan
migrant tide swamping Canaries.
September 02, 2002 From David Sharrock in Madrid
THE latest wave of illegal African immigrants to arrive on the shores of Spanish territory is threatening to overwhelm the authorities and aid agencies in the Canary Islands......
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By Harry Marks
Wednesday Sept.4th, 2002, September 04 20
Stimulating, mystical and steeped in ancient history and Islamic culture, the North African nation of Morocco tantalizes all who visit its wonders...................
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Michale Carr October 4, 2000
"Psss!" the men hissed conspiratorially, or, "Excuse me! Excuse me!" and "Come see. Only today!" I threaded my way through alleys clogged with hundreds of tiny markets. Canvas tents like those of Berber nomads shielded them from the sun.......
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February 21, 2001
Joe Kuhl, a former Peace Corp volunteer in Morocco, teaches English and linguistics at the University of Georgia............... The old man across the aisle, a shamali from the north, he figured, by the brown-and-white-striped djelleba and the yellow rizah...............
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August 1992 by Robert D. Kaplan
For Jack McCreary, it was a moment of sweet satisfaction. A self-described "child of the sixties," who had spent nearly two decades of his life in the Arab world, McCreary was the U.S. embassy's press and culture officer...............
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Karim's
Bistro "Beach Bistro Offers Taste Of Morocco."
By Mary D. Scourtes of The Tampa Tribune Published: September 4, 2002
TREASURE ISLAND - Whether there's a radiant sunset or the pyrotechnics of a summer storm outside, Karim's Bistro, with its Gulf-side vista, offers a cozy environment................
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spellbound by Morocco: Dan
Neil immerses himself in the fantasia of Marrakech and Fès."
Khalid the herbalist stumps in a circle, pivoting on his withered leg, lecturing. "Cumin, good for stomachaike; sweet curry, for headaike..." We are in his herboristerie on the Derb Zaouia, a narrow stone alley in the medina, the old city of Fès (also spelled Fez), where the ancient buildings lean on one another like.............................
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The
Restaurant Owner: He has no taste for hate, even when he's a target of it.
By Laura Coleman Noeth noeth@gomemphis.com
September 11, 2002
When you have the kind of outlook that Aimer Shtaya has, hatred's venom loses some of its sting. Even when it's directed at your religion and spray-painted on your restaurant wall, as it was Shtaya's Morocco Cafe shortly after terrorists attacked the United States a year ago today....
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By Geoffrey Moorhouse August 25, 2002,
Sunday BOOK REVIEW DESK TRAVELS WITH A TANGERINE: A Journey in the Footnotes of Ibn Battutah.
By Tim Mackintosh-Smith. Illustrated by Martin Yeoman. 351 pp. New York: Welcome Rain Publishers. $30.
THERE'S little doubt that Ibn Battutah was, and remains, the greatest traveler of all time. He left his home in Tangier (whose inhabitants are, as the title of Tim Mackintosh-Smith's new book reminds us, called Tangerines) in 1325, at the age of 21, and over the next 29 years journeyed some.......
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Bigger
Peace Corps, Paltry Effort
By Mark Shahinian
Tuesday, August 20, 2002; Page A13
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- President Bush has proposed doubling the size of the Peace Corps -- to help, he says, "spread the good story" of American values and ideas to the Muslim world. From my perspective as a Peace Corps volunteer in a Muslim village in Africa, the plan seems whimsical at best.......
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
01.08.2002 - By PHILIP GAME
From the fiery brick-red of Marrakech to the lemon tints of Meknes, Morocco's older cities seem almost to be colour-coded.. The sleepy Atlantic port of Essaouira is a huddle of whitewashed cubes, trimmed in Mediterranean blue, an arresting yet restful combination and reward enough for the two-hour journey from bustling Marrakech.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morocco Embraces Dialogue With
West.
Posted July 29, 2002
By James P. Lucier
According to local lore the name "Marrakesh" comes from two ancient Berber words meaning "Get out of here fast!" But in the thousand or so years that desert caravans, warriors, tourists and international diplomats and leaders have been coming here to find an excuse to linger in cool gardens and pleasant, earth-red edifices that sprawl inside and outside the ancient walls, they have found no need to worry about ambuscades of brigands that once made the oasis notorious in forgotten history.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, August 02, 2002 - Jean Godden / Seattle Times staff columnist
CASABLANCA, Morocco - I flew into the Casablanca airport two weeks ago with Jessie Israel of the University........Jessie, fluent in French after her Peace Corps years in Ghana, explained about the T-shirts and mugs....
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morocco's
'invasion' has the world guessing.
July 20 2002
Moroccans are bewildered by the decision of their new king, Mohammed VI, to choose the night before his wedding to prove his manhood on the battlefield. A few hours before the long-delayed nuptial ceremony last Friday, Rabat dispatched its troops to plant Morocco's Star of Solomon flag on the barren island of Parsley........
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speech
of HE The Ambassador to
the “FRIENDS OF MOROCCO” at
residence in Celebration of 40+1 years of Peace Corps on June 21, 2002
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In
pictures: Moroccan marriage celebration.
Saturday, 13 July, 2002, 06:33 GMT 07:33 UK
In Morocco's first public celebration of a royal wedding, thousands of well-wishers from all over the kingdom thronged the streets to congratulate King Mohammed VI on his marriage to 24-year-old
Salma Bennani.....
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morocco positions
itself as Mecca for film-makers.
Opening up to the world's movie moguls has elicited a rewarding response
Nicole Choueiry Special to The Daily Star
Marrakesh: What do Lawrence of Arabia, Othello, Star Wars, Tea in the Sahara, Hideous Kinky, Spy Game and Gladiator have in common? The answer is that they were all shot in Morocco.......
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Royal
revels to mark King's marriage.
Saturday, 13 July, 2002, 02:13 GMT 03:13 UK
By Stephanie Irvine BBC correspondent in Rabat
The festivities to mark the king's marriage began with the Royal Guard, mounted on horseback and in white robes and turbans. They led a procession from one of the old gates in the city walls, past the crowds lining the central streets, and into the grounds of the Royal Palace. .....
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
Evolution of Food Patterns of a Migratory Moroccan Population is the study
of an Anthropology student who is seeking Moroccan informants
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I
lost my heart in... Essaouira.
John Mortimer, writer Interview by Tim Wapshott Saturday June 29, 2002 The Guardian
Why? It is the most incredibly beautiful town. It has white walls, bright blue doors, a huge, sandy beach, and the little coloured fishing boats look just like a Van Gogh painting......
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Wednesday, July 10/ 2002
B'NET MARRAKECH, "The women of Marrakech", are of Berber origin, from the villages near Taroudant, southeast of Marrakech. ........
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, 12 June, 2002,
By Eileen Byrne In Rabat
It sounded too good to be true. When Saed, 25, heard on the grapevine that Gulf-based Al-Najat Marine Shipping wanted to hire 30,000 Moroccans to work on cruise ships, it was a chance not to be missed.............
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morocco arrests
Saudis' wives in maritime terror plot.
From combined dispatches
RABAT, Morocco - Morocco has dismantled a group that has been linked to al Qaeda and suspected of preparing suicide attacks on U.S. and allied warships in the Strait of Gibraltar, government and security service sources said yesterday........
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You
have to take your hat off to the Fez festival.
(Filed: 15/06/2002)
The medieval city offered ritual chants, brass bands from Harlem and an astrophysicist from Vietnam. Allah be praised, says Peter Culshaw..........
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nicole Choueiry Special to The Daily Star
RABAT: It took the lady in veil and djellaba exactly three minutes before she began swaying to the sound of the band's drums. She wasn't the only one. Her four trailing youngsters and husband shook their hips as they tried to imitate the frantic movements of the bare-bellied dancer on stage.....
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Guide to the Morocco
Legal System.
By Dahmène Touchent
Published May 15, 2002
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Calrisa BenComom, Research in the Children's Rigths division of the Human Rights Watch.
Madrid, May 7, 2002) Moroccan migrant children in Spain are frequently beaten by police and abused by staff and other children in overcrowded, unsanitary residential centers, Human Rights Watch charged in a report released today.......
------------------------
By Driss Benmhend
After months of hesitation, I finally decided to write this small contribution to explain to those who are not aware of what it would take for a MREU (Marocain Resident aux Etats Unis) to get one of their most fundamental and basic rights.....
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Origin of the Clash of
Civilizations.
By Reda Benkirane
Among the many reflections on the events related to September 11, two of the most profound insights come from Christian thinkers who have focused their analyses essentially on the cultural aspect of the crisis.......
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Rekindling
the magic of marriage.
Sarah Sands gets into the rhythm of Marrakesh. Marrakesh in May is about 77F (25C). It is also the month when the roses are in bloom, outside the mosque, in the gardens and floating in stone troughs in hotel courtyards. The riad concept suits the hidden glories of Morocco. ......
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I am in Morocco to see, and perhaps cross, the Western Sahara. Throughout history, there have been but a handful of land routes connecting the Mediterranean coast to western Africa. In the east, there is the Route du Hoggar,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bush Gets
Moroccan View of the Middle East
Nora Boustany Washington Post Wednesday April 24, 2002 A18
After postponing his wedding and planned public festivities this month as a
gesture of sympathy for the recent loss of life in the West Bank, Morocco's King
Mohammed VI arrived Sunday on a state visit to Washington without his intended
bride.
He lunched at the White House yesterday with President Bush, who sounded out the 39-year-old monarch on an Israeli-proposed Middle East peace conference. Bush plans to hear the views of other U .S. allies when Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah visits Crawford, Tex., this week and when Jordan's King Abdullah arrives in early May, Moroccan sources disclosed. MORE
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President
Calls for Free Trade Agreement with Morocco.
Office of the Press Secretary April 23, 2002
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Nick Trend returns to Marrakesh and is surprised to find courses that are not only beautiful but empty.
Golfing in Marrakesh
Wednesday April 17, 2002. The Telegraph.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 19, 2002
By Doris H. Gray, THE WASHINGTON TIMES
When Morocco's King Mohammed VI arrives in Washington this weekend, he will not be received as the dashing "king of hearts".....
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hardworking Upper
Darby senior living his American dream with football honors.
Posted on Wed, Feb. 27, 2002
Rachid Stoury, an immigrant from Morocco, said his family taught him how to succeed.
By Shannon Ryan, Inquirer Suburban Staff, The Philadelphia Inquirer
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mirror to a
Culture: a Bustling Market in Marrakesh, Morocco.
By Barbara McClatchie Andrews . The world and I
The sun has not yet crested the Atlas Mountains. In Café Toubkal, men huddle over their early morning coffee and croissants. A couple of scruffy cats idly weave through the forest of their legs. The men absentmindedly observe......
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Runners
take on African desert.
By the BBC's Stephanie Irvine in Morocco
Sunday, 7 April, 2002, 07:41 GMT 08:41 UK
When the sun rises on Sunday morning over the sand dunes of Ouarzazate in southern Morocco, a group of over 600 people will rouse themselves from their Berber tents and prepare to set off on this year's 'Marathon of the Sands', one of the most grueling foot races on earth............
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 4 April, 2002, 09:38 GMT 10:38 UK
After running six marathons in costume to raise money for Save the Rhino - three in New York, three in London - this seemed like a natural progression..........
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mariam
Cooke : An American Arabist focuses on Arab women issues.
Syria, Culture, 3/23/2002
Mariam Cooke, the American Arabist writer recently visited Damascus and on March 17 has a presentation for her book " Hayati: My life " at the Damascus university........
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Passover in Morocco: A story of East meets West.
By Linda Morel
NEW YORK, Feb. 26 (JTA) -- "When most Americans think of Morocco, they envision Casablanca," says Dani Moyal, discussing the mix of Muslim and French cultures among Jews in her homeland.....
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On
Morocco´s mountains, elderly Jew watches the shrine of his holy rebbe.
By Bryan Schwartz
OURIKA VALLEY, Morocco, March 7 (JTA) - Hananiyah Elfassie is the last Berber Jew in the Ourika Valley of Morocco´s High Atlas mountains, two hours by bus from Marrakech. He used to have visitors during Passover - pilgrims.......
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Crafting
a legacy in Morocco: Jews, officials share same goal.
By Peter Ephross
CASABLANCA, Morocco, March 24 (JTA) -- On a recent sunny day outside the Jewish elementary school here, Boris Azran watches as his two oldest children join hundreds of others colorfully celebrating Purim festivities......
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Moroccan playboy king's wedding marks a new era.
By Philip Jacobson in Rabat (Filed: 24/03/2002)
WHEN Moroccans opened their newspapers last Thursday, they could hardly believe their eyes. Across their front pages were large photographs of the striking young redhead who that afternoon would become the bride of their monarch, King Mohamed VI, at a low-key family ceremony behind closed doors in the Royal Palace in Rabat.....
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Morocco
seeks tourism revival.
By Eileen Byrne
Monday, 18 March, 2002,
Tourism chiefs in the Moroccan city of Fez are seeking to win back lost trade from holidaymakers who were put off travelling by the events of 11 September........
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thursday, 7 March, 2002,
he Kingdom of Morocco is the most westerly of the North African countries known as the Maghreb........
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Safi (Buda Musique/Tinder) by Matt Cibula
PopMatters Music and Books Critic
Tyour Gnaoua is not a person -- it is a performance collective based in Morocco. Like all gnaoua (or gnawa) groups, it consists of musicians, dancers, fortunetellers, and their students -- all the descendants of former slaves from all over the sub-Saharan region........
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Memories
of Morocco: For Sephardic Jews, Passover means luscious scents and flavors.
By Maria C. Hunt
FOOD WRITER
March 20, 2002
In spring, the breezes that blow through Morocco are warm and dry and laden with heavy perfume from the many Seville orange trees that are in bloom.........
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March 20, 2002
Roasted Lamb Shoulder, Passover Fava Bean Soup, Danielle's Roasted Bell Peppers etc.....
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King
of cool loses his touch with the common people.
By Harry de Quetteville in Rabat
(Filed: 21/04/2001)
MOROCCO'S King Mohammed VI is more celebrity than monarch. Young, good-looking and fashion conscious, he prefers sharp suits and wrap-around sunglasses to flowing robes and a fez.
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Tuesday, March 05, 2002
TASTING the excitement of a Moroccan bazaar has been made easier with the opening of a new shop in Wellingborough..........
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Commentary, by John Aravosis. First in a series
I have to admit even I was nervous about visiting Morocco earlier this month. I wondered whether it was safe to visit a Muslim country just now, not to mention getting on a plane heading hassle of visiting a place where everyone was going to hate me. I'm here to say I not only survived the trip, but was absolutely astonished by what I found......
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Moroccan
Women Press For Change.
allAfrica.com , INTERVIEW, February 18, 2002 Posted to the web February 18, 2002
Washington, DC
Earlier this month, the Africa Center for Strategic Studies organised a Senior Leader Seminar which brought together military and civilian leaders from all over Africa to discuss issues related to security. Nouzha Skalli Bennis, member of the PPS, Morocco's former communist party, and municipal counsellor from Casablanca, represented the Democratic Association of Moroccan Women at the conference.he spoke with allAfrica.com about her work.........
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Morocco
hopes services will stem migration.
By James Drummond in Rabat
Published: February 19 2002 17:28 | Last Updated: February 20 2002 05:29
The village of Ben Guemmoud in the rural Souss Massa Draa in the south of Morocco is a showcase for the efforts of the Moroccan government to bring water and otherservices to previously neglected rural communities........
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The
spirit of Morocco: Passion for cooking shows in Aziza's soulful, delicious food.
Michael Bauer, Chronicle Restaurant Critic
Sunday, February 17, 2002
A warm feeling infuses Aziza that can't be duplicated by most restaurants. It starts with the name, which honors the owners' Moroccan mother, .......
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Morocco:
Dealing with Street Hustlers.
National Geogrpahic
Turning down the road toward the village of Aït Benhaddou, our car was approached by a young boy frantically waving for us to........ stop.
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A traveler finds beauty in the desert of Morocco, from the changing light on its sands to the kindness and curiosity of its people. ..
By GRAHAM BRINK, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times published February 10, 2002
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11 FEB 2002 AAP
MOVIE classic Casablanca has been named the most romantic film of all time, a British Valentine poll reveals.
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Royal
progress stirs Morocco reform.
Incentives for investors highlight the constraints placed upon the democratically elected government, writes James Drummond
Published: February 11 2002 20:37 |
One-stop investment shops are rarely the subject of political controversy. They are widely viewed as "a good thing", easing the paths of investors through the tangled undergrowth of developing countries' bureaucracies.
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By SHANE GALLOWAY/ Special to The Enterprise
April 9, 1998
Morocco's not a place you tell Mom that you're going to visit. Mine had heard the tales of tourist terror: killings at the hands of desperate thieves and white slave trade and the good Lord only knows what other tall talk. It's enough to send any mother worth her salt off to weeknight prayer meetings.
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CDP
Capital: A New US$30-Million Fund for Morocco
MONTREAL, Jan. 28 /CNW/ - CDP Capital has partnered with the Caisse de Dépôt et de Gestion du Maroc (CDG) and other major Moroccan institutions to create a US$30 million fund for Morocco. This venture capital fund, known as Accès Capital Atlantique SA (ACASA), will invest in Moroccan manufacturing- sector SMEs involved mainly in telecommunications, information technologies, agri-business, fishing and tourism.
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By Gerry George, International Editor / Transmission & Distribution World, Jan 1, 2002
The Moroccan government launched the Global Rural Electrification Program (PERG) in January 1996. This program is the most popular and federative project of the Office National De l'Electricite (ONE) that aims to provide electricity to all of Morocco's rural areas.
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Bid to bring
Arabs closer to Americans.
Dubai |By Bassam Za'za' | 31-01-2002
The Dubai Press Club (DPC) hosted a symposium yesterday on 'Arab-American Relations in the Light of the September 11 Incidents'. Richard Fairbanks, Counsellor, and Edward M. Gabriel, Visiting Fellow Middle East Studies Programme (MESP), and Judith Kipper, Director of MESP, all representing the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), also addressed a press conference at the club. Gabriel, a Former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco,
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Under a New
Regime, Moroccans Search for Truth And Justice.
October 2001. Special Report By Marvine Howe
Ahmed Marzouki remembers everything about Tazmamart-18 years in the tiny concrete cell, the stifling heat and Siberian winters, the isolation and absence of light, the stench of disease and filth, scorpions and mosquitoes, miserable rations of bread, chickpeas and vermicelli, sadistic prison guards. Of the 58 military officers and men implicated in unsuccessful coups against the late King Hassan in the early 1970s..
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EXOTIC
MOROCCAN FULL OF FUN, CULINARY THRILLS.
By CYNTHIA KILIAN January 20, 2002 --
Now adventurers come seeking culinary thrills. If they say the nouvelle Moroccan food's as good as sex, that's an amusing coincidence.....
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Morocco
bans historical conference.
Saturday, 19 January,
By David Bamford in Rabat
The Moroccan authorities have stepped in to block a conference being organised by a campaign group which alleges that the Spanish army used toxic gas to quell a Berber uprising in the 1920s.
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Growth
strategy for North Africa: A regional approach.
By IMF Research from International Monetary Fund. 01-08-2002
By Paul Chabrier, Director of the IMF's Middle Eastern Department.
Although the North African countries made significant progress toward achieving financial stability under IMF-supported programs during the mid-1980s and the 1990s, growth in these countries has remained below potential.....
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Extending
an olive branch: Importer hopes food will nurture appreciation of his native
Morocco.
By Providence Cicero Special to The Seattle Times.
Dressed in a crisp blue shirt and silk tie, Mustapha Haddouch welcomes a visitor into his chilly ElliottAvenue warehouse.......
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In a Time of Sadness,
Moroccans Lend a Hand.
by Susan Kostrzewa. September 11, 2001
It was a quiet afternoon in Essaouira, Morocco. My husband Cris and I were sipping mint tea in a café on the square, watching children play and looking forward to a stroll through the market after dark. Gulls called overhead. A warm sea breeze enveloped us. It was the most relaxed we had been on the entire trip. The date was September 11. An ocean away, an American Airlines plane was crashing into Tower 1 of the World Trade Center. ...
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Paul Mansfield, Electronic Telegraph. Saturday 12 January 2002
On my way to see the herbalist about a miracle cure, I popped into Khayar's for a shave. In his tiny shop, under magazine photographs of chubby Moroccan starlets, Khayar lathered my face and shaved it with a cut-throat razor .....
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Author Michael Kerr. DATE: 13 Oct 2001
Since September 11 many travellers have come to regard all Islamic countries as dangerous. Last week, we went to see whether their fears are justified. Michael Kerr reports from Morocco plus updates from Egypt, Dubai, Israel, Tunisia and Turkey.....
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Morocco:
Magic - except for the carpets
Author Joanna Symons. DATE: 26 Mar 2001
Taking the children away for Easter? You don't need to head for the beach. Joanna Symons sees her sons bowled over by medieval Marrakesh. THERE'S no better place to teach your children the importance of sticking to the Green Cross code than in the Djemaa el Fna square in Marrakesh....
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Cycling
in the Atlas Mountains: Stephanie Debere bikes with the boys in Morocco.
Author Stephanie Debere. DATE: 13 Jun 2001
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Wed
to a traditional way of life.
Author Jack Barker. DATE: 15 Aug 2001
Jack Barker attends an unusual Berber marriage ceremony that takes place each year in a remote 'Moroccan' mountain village....
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Bald
ibis faces Club Med threat.
Author Brian Unwin. DATE: 04 Aug 2001
A UNIQUE tourist attraction is threatened by plans to build a Club Méditerranée holiday complex on Morocco's Atlantic coast. Tifnit village....
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Sounds
of Morocco: Simon Broughton chooses the best music from this diverse country.
THE appeal of Morocco lies in its colour, history and exoticism - and it's all there in the music, which has enticed musicians such as Paul Bowles, Jimi Hendrix, Ornette Coleman and, of course, the Rolling Stones.
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- Jogi Januschowsky, MountainZone.com Correspondent
Story Translated by Christina Kettman
The thick snowflakes fall from the African sky. A Berber emerges from the fog. He seems to come from eternity, and approaches us slowly. Very slowly the rhythm of life flows through the deep valleys of the high Atlas..
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Morocco bound:
Tangiers bid to host Tests as the game goes global.
Kevin Mitchell reports from North Africa's new venue.
The Observer , Sunday January 6, 2002
On Rue de Liberte, removed from the chaos of Tangiers, is the warm and eccentric El Minzah Hotel, where you can smell the nostalgia even above the pungent aroma of the Friday-night markets. It is a place made for a Charles Boyer entry, to a Charles Trenet soundtrack.
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Morocco welcomes Polisario's
release of POWs
RABAT, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Morocco welcomed on Friday the imminent release of 115 of its soldiers by an Algerian-backed movement seeking independence in the Western Sahara and asked for the freedom of about 1,400 others. The 115 men were captured by the Polisario Front 25 years ago at the start of its guerrilla war.
The Polisario said on Wednesday it would hand over the soldiers in a goodwill gesture, but did not give a date. The handover has been arranged in collaboration with the Spanish Red Cross and the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The Moroccan Foreign Ministry said it had been following with great interest European Union efforts to free all Moroccans "held on Algerian soil in Polisario's prison cells." But in a statement carried by the official MAP news agency it added: "Moroccan authorities deeply regret that only 115 prisoners of 1,477 still held in Algeria benefit from this recent announcement despite the positions clearly expressed on this issue by the international community." The ministry said 1,028 Moroccan soldiers had been held by the Polisario for more than 20 years, including some now in poor health.
"Morocco calls on the international community, mainly the U.N. Security Council and all concerned bodies, to exert all relevant prerogatives to ensure their release, without precondition and further delay," the ministry said. The Polisario said the latest handover would bring to 900 the number of Moroccan prisoners it has released since 1997. A 10-year-old U.N.-brokered plan to give the population of the Western Sahara the choice between independence or integration with Morocco has reached deadlock.
A new solution aimed at regional autonomy for the territory under Moroccan sovereignty has been proposed instead, but has not been finalized Morocco claims and controls most of the Western Sahara, a sparsely populated area which has a 1,500-km (945-mile) Atlantic coastline with accompanying fishing rights, and a wealth of phosphates and other minerals.
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Friday 4 January 2002
We had been in Morocco for three days and I had made every mistake there is to make. I had fallen for the "I'm a starving student, let me be your guide" scam. I had been lured into a carpet shop and came away with a $250 woven memory (retail value: $50 on a good day). And I had persuaded my two companions to board a 10-hour train to Fes, ....
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Wives of Arab diplomats 'Mosaic' society in Washington for defending the Arab
image.
Regional-USA, Culture, 12/27/2001
The name " mosaic" is derived from a Middle Eastern Arab art in which huge number of fine stone are used to create one homogenous and elegant design. The official objective of this non- political society is to raise money and funds for serving women issues. However, it non- official objective is fighting passive monotonous concepts concerning Arab culture, the Islamic religious values and matters relating to the Arab women.
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US justice department issues discrimination brochure in Arabic.
12/22/2001
The Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice announced the publication of the Federal Protections Against National Origin Discrimination brochure in an additional ten languages including Arabic.
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The
Future of the Medina: Rethinking the Lessons of the Past
By Tom O'brien Tuesday, February 18, 2003
I
was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Missour in the TEFL program from 1986 to 1989. In September 1995, after completing a Masters Degree in Urban and
Regional Planning, I returned to Morocco as a Fulbright Scholar.
The aim of my six-month research was to build upon an architectural and
urban design study begun in the spring of 1995 by the Aga Khan Program for
Islamic Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
This study sought to develop a reconstruction plan for the Essaouira
medina, in particular the mellah. I
was interested in determining how plans for its reconstruction might consider
the importance of traditional urban form to the life of the city's inhabitants.
I also wanted to obtain responses to initial reconstruction plans from City
residents, addressing such issues as the appropriateness of designs for the
region's climate and the needs of the resident work force. MORE
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Morocco
acts on human rights.
Monday, 10 December, 2001,
King Mohammad of Morocco has announced the creation of a human rights
ombudsman. The announcement was delivered in a message read by his
brother, Prince Moulay Rachid, to mark international human rights
day. The prince said the new post was part of efforts to offer support
to other bodies working to redress injustice and protect liberties.
On Saturday, the Moroccan Human Rights Association published the names of more
than 40 senior officials and officers whom it accused of responsibility
for the disappearance of political activists during the1960's and 1970's.
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Sweet
Spot: If there's a problem with the menu, it's that nearly everything on it
looks great.
BY GREG HUGUNIN
sfweekly.com | originally published: December 12, 2001
To dine at Aziza is to experience a rare brand of luxury that leaves no sense
untouched. Step inside and you'll encounter dusky cobalt walls, dramatic
arches painted with blue and white stripes, and the soft, twangy lilt of
Moroccan music.
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Morocco
may change its telecoms rules.
By James Drummond in Cairo
Published: December 12 2001
Planned legal changes to Morocco's telecommunications administration threaten to
end the independence of the telecoms regulator and may hamper future investment
in the sector, senior Moroccan political officials said on Wednesday.
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Going
without at Ramadan.
-At the beginning of the Muslim fast, a traveler decides to do as the
Marrakeshans do.
BY EMILY ZUZIK
I am not a pious woman. I didn't go into Ramadan with a long history of
restraint. In fact, the most I knew about fasting was from my Catholic
childhood during Lent, where you went without some chosen item for 40 days.
There were also meatless Fridays, but you still got a good fish sandwich from
the church that night.
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A
chasm between cultures: Bowles illuminates Western-Arab differences.
By Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times book critic / Sunday, December 02, 2001
For most Europeans and Americans," an elderly American writes from Morocco in the mid-1980s, "the word terrorist is unqualifiedly pejorative; while to the people here, it suggests a patriot. Thus, actions some consider criminal and contemptible are to others heroic. How can the two ever see eye to eye?
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The
distinct flavor of Ramadan in Morocco.
01 December 2001
In the continuing examination of Ramadan traditions around the Islamic world, The Star spoke with Raja' Alawi, the wife of the Moroccan Ambassador in Amman, about the different traditions found her in native country.
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Peace
Corps Deserves Better Than GOP Deadwood.
By Judy Mann
Friday, November 9, 2001; Page C08
At a time when the United States needs friends abroad more than ever, President Bush has nominated to head the Peace Corps a discredited California party hack whose principal public achievement to date has been to help bankrupt the richest county in his state.
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ENVIRONMENT:
ACTIVISTS LAMENT MEAGER RESULT OF CLIMATE TALKS.
MARRAKESH, Morocco, Nov 12, 2001 (Inter Press Service via COMTEX) -- After two weeks of hard bargaining, representatives from 167 countries hammered out an accord that paves the way for the ratification of a treaty aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but activists dismissed the deal as "meager".
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No Time to Be Shortchanging Foreign Aid
Judy Mann Washington Post Nov 14, 2001
Susana de la Torre was a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco from 1987 to 1989. On the evening of Sept. 11, the first e-mail she received was from her Moroccan "family." They knew that her husband worked for the Department of the Army and that the family lived near the Pentagon. "They had tried for several hours to call me by phone," de la Torre told me, "but had been unsuccessful and then resorted to e-mailing. I simply cried when I got their e-mail, and I was moved -- though not surprised -- at the depth of their caring for me and my family. They contacted us way before many family members ever did to inquire about our safety." MORE
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Morocco's
'king of the poor' reveals selfish face.
Giles Tremlett in Madrid
Sunday November 4, 2001 The Observer
Once he was known as the King of the Poor, but when Morocco's King Mohamed VI arrived in the Western Saharan town of Dajla last week he needed four Hercules transport aircraft to carry the sumptuous trappings of his royal household.
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Morocco
wedding breaks royal rules.
Sunday, 14 October, 2001,
By BBC North Africa correspondent David Bamford
The kingdom usually keeps out of the king's private life. The announcement of King Mohammed VI of Morocco's wedding early next year breaks a series of royal Moroccan traditions.
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Author/s: Daniel J. Schroeter Issue: Spring, 2001
Published by the American Jewish Congress, July 02 2001
IN THE SUMMER OF 1997, OUR RESEARCH THREESOME reached the village of Tillit in the Dades
Valley, on the southern side of the Moroccan Atlas Mountains. My group included Joseph Chetrit, an Israeli scholar of Moroccan origin from Haifa, and Abderrahmane Lakhsassi, a Moroccan Berber scholar from Casablanca. It was the first of four summers of fieldwork at sites in rural Morocco that Jews once inhabited.
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Waiting
for Maroc.(Moroccan foods and beverages)(Recipe)
Author/s: Issue: Summer, 2001
It's no secret, women rule the kitchens of Morocco. Because of extremes in poverty and wealth, those who work in the kitchen greatly outnumber those who don't. As such, Moroccan cuisine is born of a subculture. Moroccan cuisine has emerged and been passed down through generations of women. The executive chefs of elite hotels may not be female, but rest assured, a vast majority of the meals prepared are by Moroccan women. "The law of abundance" rules culinary etiquette.
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Morocco
sets up Berber cultural heritage body
RABAT, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Morocco's King Mohammed set up a Berber cultural
heritage body on Wednesday, meeting one of the long-standing demands for the
preservation of the language and history of the North African nation's ethnic
Berbers.
Berbers, who also are known as Imazighen (free men) and whose language is
Tamazight, represent the majority of Morocco's 30 million people, according to
independent sources.
Berbers lived in North Africa before the Arab invasion of the seventh century
but the Moroccan constitution recognises only Arabic as the official language.
"By establishing the Royal Institute for Amazigh Culture, we want...to
recognise the whole of our common history and our national cultural
identity," the king told a ceremony attended by government officials in the
northern village of Ajdir, in the Berber province of Khenifra, 300 km (190
miles) from Rabat.
The Amazigh culture "which is deeply rooted in the Moroccan peoples'
history belongs to all Moroccans without exception and cannot be used for
political purposes," the king added, according to the text of his speech
carried by the MAP official news agency and broadcast live on state-run
television.
The king's mother, Lalla Latifa, is a Berber and daughter of a well-known
nationalist Berber tribesman in Khenifra province.
"This is a good decision," said Ilyas Omari, a leading Berber
activist, "but what we want to see next is Tamazight recognised by the
constitution as official language."
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by Barbara Kingstone
The writer bares all in the steamy confines of the Moroccan hamman.
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Jo Foley stays at the Amanjena in Marrakesh
Saturday 6 October 2001
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Marrakesh:
Be cool in the souk.
Staying in the Marrakesh medina is no longer hideous or kinky, says Jeremy Seal. The renovated riads are oases of comfort and calm
Saturday 6 October 2001
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Hidden in the High Atlas are some of Morocco's most tempting hotels, where guests seeking a retreat from the cities are entertained in style, says Barnaby Rogerson
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Journey
to limbo, by way of hell
Sandro Contenta
MIDDLE EAST BUREAU. CEUTA, Spain
Sep. 9, 02:10 EDT
THE SEA WAS a calm black sheet that summer night when Ghali Hacen and his two comrades stood on a Moroccan beach, stripped down to their underwear and began a three-hour swim toward their dream.
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Sandro Contenta, Middle East Bureau
Sep. 9, 03:40 EDT
Deadly Journeys: One in a continuing series. Illegal migrants risk death to cross from Africa to Europe. Hidden under trucks and aboard ferries, clinging to rickety boats or detouring through a former penal colony in North Africa, thousands of border-crashers set off from Morocco in search of better lives in Spain and beyond.
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9
illegal migrants feared drowned off Spain.
Giles Tremlett in Madrid, The Guardian
Monday September 10, 2001
The bodies of 13 illegal immigrants who drowned while attempting a clandestine trip across the Straits of Gibraltar to Spain were washed up on a Moroccan beach yesterday, as the search began for 46 others believedto have died after their boat overturned.
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Morocco's
king hits back at Spain.
By the BBC's David Bamford in Rabat. Tuesday, 4 September, 2001,
The king of Morocco, Mohammed VI, has responded vigorously to criticism by Spain that his country is not doing enough to control the hundreds of migrants entering Europe illegally from Morocco.
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The
Ode to Morocco: A Globe-Trotting Couple's Color-Drenched Apartment Inspired by
Exotic Locales.
By Annie Groer, Washington Post Staff Writer. Thursday, September 6, 2001; Page H01
They wanted color. They wanted drama. And they wanted their Dupont Circle co-op to evoke Casablanca. So it was that after a dozen years spent overseas in the exotic precincts of Tehran, Istanbul, Cairo and Moscow, foreign correspondents Geneive Abdo, 41, and Jonathan Lyons, 43, came to Washington and went wild with paint.
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Malika
Oufkir: the American Making of a Moroccan Star.
By Mokhtar Ghambou
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Local
man to race across the Sahara: Runner trains in city's late-summer heat.
By Stephanie L. Jordan. Published by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times.
Monday, August 20, 2001
With the sun high over his head, Edward Dramberger is in training for a marathon unlike any other he's raced in before. This time, his object isn't to win. "It's to finish the race," the 37-year-old said. "I live for goals." With temperatures in the high 90s, Corpus Christi is the perfect place to get ready for a150-mile race across the Sahara Desert. Race organizers say runners may experience 110 to 125 degree temperatures.
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Morocco
launches 'war on slums'
by David Bamford in Rabat Tuesday, 21 August, 2001,
Morocco's King Mohammed VI has ordered his government to tackle worsening poverty in an attempt to curb the growing shanty towns around the country's main cities.
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Rhythm
& Belief: African America calls across the water.
by Greg Burk, August 24 - 30, 2001
What everybody's doing here revolves around the throb and rattle of Gnaoua music. Gnaoua is an old sound, with a history that parallels that of Western Hemisphere blues, jazz and reggae, so the idea of reuniting the continents isn't that artificial. The ancestors of the modern Gnaoua brotherhood came to North Africa as sub-Saharan slaves in the 1500s, around the same time that African tribespeople were first kidnapped and shipped to NewWorld auction blocks.
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By Brendan Bernhard.
Published March 27 - April 2, 1998 . Los Angels Weekly
Fez is the most daunting city in Morocco, its French-induced schizophrenia marked to an extreme degree. The old and new cities are two separate and contradictory worlds, each a riposte to the other. The new, French-built town is notable for its enormous tree-lined avenues, grand colonial statements that could only have been built with parades in mind. As an individual, you feel inadequate; you'd have to be part of an army to really feel at ease there.
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Up
Above the World: Remembering Paul Bowles.
An interview with Paul Bowles
by Phillip Ramey. Published May 15 - 21, 1998
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Wednesday, 15 August, 2001,
Some henna tattoos could cause a lifelong allergy to a common chemical found in dyes, warn scientists.
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They call themselves Amazigh, the proud raiders. But most people know them as Berbers. For millennia, the Berbers of North Africa fought against Roman, Arab and French invaders. And, despite a history of colonisation, they have managed to preserve their language and culture, and have defended their land.
Monday 23 April, 2001, on the BBC
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Morocco
considers Berber rights.
King Mohammed VI of Morocco has promised to set up a body to preserve the language and culture of the country's Berbers, who make up a majority of the population.
Tuesday, 31 July, 2001, on the BBC.
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King
launches charm offensive: Desire for change could turn into overt political
opposition.
King Mohammed VI of Morocco has launched an apparent charm offensive to win over critics to mark the second anniversary this month of his accession to the throne.
By David Bamford in Rabat Wednesday, 25 July, 2001 on the BBC
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Moroccan
visitor learns about volunteerism in Grand Island.
Mohamed Azzaoui wants to get more citizens involved in Morocco. The founder of a non-governmental organization that supports local development efforts in Morocco came to the heartland on Thursday to see how volunteers and the government work in harmony.
Published Friday, August 3, 2001 By Mike Bockoven. mbockoven@theindependent.com
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22.07.2001
The New Zealand Herald/ Wednesday July 25, 2001
On the taxi ride from Marrakesh airport to La Palmeraie, Morocco is as I remembered it. Drunk with fatigue, prickling uncomfortably in the humid night air, we drift through an eerie, biblical landscape that reeks of rotting garbage, bonfires and abject poverty.
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Moroccan
woods hide Africa's lost souls.
July 28, 2000. Agence France-Presse
Claude Juvenal
BEN YOUNECH, Morocco, July 28 (AFP) - Within the green woods that lie inland from Morocco's northern coast, there are signs of life barely visible from the surrounding hills. They are all that can be seen of the illegal immigrants who, in the course of their journey to Europe's promised land, have lost their way in the scrubland.
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