April 29, 2008

Casa Fires

Last Saturday, a fire blazed through a mattress factory in Casablanca, killing 55 people and injuring dozens of others. The exit doors had been locked by the owner, who stated he did so in order to prevent theft of materials. He is now under arrest. Today comes news that another fire broke out in a different part of the city, in a carpet factory, killing 3 people. Inna lillah, wa inna ilayhi raji'oun.

Everyone knows that the law is regularly and spectacularly flouted in industrial outfits in the city. It remains to be seen whether measures will be taken or whether bribes will change hands. I'd say the latter, wouldn't you?

April 03, 2008

What Freedom of Speech?

I have not seen much attention in the English-language press to the trouble that Rachid Niny, one of Morocco's most popular columnists, finds himself in at the moment. The facts of the case, as far as I can tell, are that Niny alleged in one of his articles that a prosecutor in Qsar el Kebir attended a gay wedding held in the house of a trafficker (there was no wedding, but a video purporting to show one landed on YouTube and created quite a ruckus.) The town's four prosecutors took Niny to court in the capital of Rabat and the judge found Niny guilty of slander, fining him 6 million Dirhams (approximately $850,000.)

All right. Time to pick your jaw off the floor.

This the largest fine ever in the history of libel judgments in Morocco. Undoubtedly, Niny ought not to have printed something for which he did not have proof. But let's face it: newspapers in Morocco indulge in rumors and blind items on a daily basis. This was a blind item, not a direct claim. What makes this affair murkier is that Niny was recently mugged at the train station in Rabat, and robbed of his cell phone and laptop. Coincidence? Of course not. In addition, Judge Alaoui, who presided over this case, is the same judge who found against Boubker Jamai last year, against the magazine Nichane, and several other journalists. The judgment is clearly meant to crush Niny's newspaper, Al Massae, which has become the largest in Morocco.

(Oh, and don't even get me started on why these prosecutors think it an insult to be called gay.)

I am baffled as to the thinking here: What is the point of it? Niny will simply leave the country, and go write for a magazine that is bigger and more powerful than Al Massae. I myself don't like his columns, except the satirical ones, and I think he is be a bit too cavalier with personal freedoms. The irony now is that he will need the help of all those freedom of expression activists he wasn't always so keen on. I hope they prevail, and that he will be able to continue to write and work in his own country.

March 18, 2008

Fouad Mourtada is Free

Rumor has it that Fouad Mourtada, the young engineer who created a fake Facebook profile of the crown prince of Morocco, and as a result was sent to jail for three years for "identity theft," has been pardoned. He is a free man tonight. (I have not seen confirmation of this news in the mainstream media yet.)

I don't think this is a a victory for human rights, because, as usual, the courts have not done their job, but the pressure on the part of bloggers and human rights activists in Morocco and around the world seems to have worked. It is an immense relief to know that Fouad has been freed. Happy Eid el Mawlid, everyone.

For background, see this, this, this, and this.

February 28, 2008

Protest @ The Moroccan Embassy

Regular readers of this blog will likely remember the name of Fouad Mourtada, the young engineer who was arrested and allegedly tortured by the Moroccan government because he created a fake profile of the crown prince. The charges are not under question; what is under question, however, is the legal process by which this young man was arrested, tried, and sentenced for a youthful prank. If you live in D.C., here is a chance to make your voice heard. A protest will be taking place in front of the Embassy of Morocco this coming Saturday, March 1st:

Location: Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco
Time: Saturday, March 1st. 2:00pm - 5:00pm
Address : 1601 21st Street, NW, Washington DC 20009
Directions: Yahoo Maps

There is also a Facebook link. (I bet the irony will go unnoticed by Mourtada's jailers.)

February 25, 2008

Aboubakr Jamaï @ UCR

As a reminder: Tomorrow, I will be hosting Moroccan journalist Boubker Jamaï at the University of California, Riverside (HMNSS 1500, 11:00 am) for a talk on democratization. The talk is free and open to the public, so if you're in the Southern California area, please come.

February 22, 2008

'The Fake Prince of Facebook'

I have an opinion piece up at The Nation website about the imprisonment of Fouad Mourtada in Casablanca two weeks ago. Here is how it begins:

On the morning of February 5, plainclothes officers in Morocco picked up Fouad Mourtada in Casablanca, blindfolded him, and took him to the police station, where they reportedly tortured him until he lost consciousness. His crime: He had created a Facebook profile of Crown Prince Moulay Rachid, the King's brother.

Mourtada is 26. He did what millions of other people his age do every day--create profiles, real or fake, on social networking websites. There are fake profiles on Facebook for everyone from Brad Pitt to Mother Teresa, from King Abdullah to Osama bin Laden. There are 500 profiles for George W. Bush. Mourtada did not appear to think he was committing any crime. Indeed, despite being a computer engineer, with a degree from the prestigious École Mohammedia des Ingénieurs, he did not use a proxy server to protect his identity. Nor did he derive any profit, monetary or otherwise, from the Facebook profile. It may have been a youthful prank or a twenty-first-century homage, but either way it landed him in jail.

You can read the entire piece over at The Nation. The court is due to reconvene today, and I can only hope that cooler heads will prevail.

Updated to say that Fouad Mourtada has been sentenced to three years in prison.

February 20, 2008

Aboubakr Jamaï @ Riverside

Next Tuesday, I will be hosting Moroccan journalist Boubker Jamaï at the University of California, Riverside, for a talk on democratization. Here are the details:

The talk is free and open to the public, so if you're in the Southern California area, please join us for a lively discussion. Those of you who are unfamiliar with Jamai can read this (poorly titled) article by Jane Kramer in the New Yorker.

February 19, 2008

Free Mourtada

Two weeks ago, a computer engineer by the name of Fouad Mourtada was arrested by Moroccan police in Casablanca for creating a fake Facebook profile of Prince Moulay Rachid, the king's brother. Mourtada's family found out about his arrest through the news, and had to wait a week to be allowed to see him. Mourtada says he was tortured when he was taken into custody. There are thousands of fake profiles for politicians, royals, and celebrities, but Mourtada has been charged with identity theft and risks up to five years in prison. Several Moroccan bloggers, including this one, are maintaining radio silence today. You can visit the Mourtada family website here.

February 11, 2008

Cyber 'Crime'

A Moroccan man by the name of Fouad Mourtada has been arrested and put in jail because he created a fake Facebook profile for the king's brother, crown prince Moulay Rachid. The official Moroccan news agency MAP did not even bother with the presumption of innocence:

Les services de sécurité marocains ont procédé à l'arrestation, mercredi à Casablanca, pour pratiques crapuleuses d'un individu qui a usurpé l'identité de Son Altesse Royale le Prince Moulay Rachid sur le site Internet www.facebook.com, a-t-on appris de source policière.

The accused is referred to as having "villainous practices." The release has since been taken down from the site, but you can read its Google cache. It's unclear how the police found the man, and whether Facebook released his IP address.

Just the other day, a New York Times reporter called to ask me about blogging in Morocco, and the relationship between new media and traditional media. The Moroccan government has so far--and wisely--left bloggers alone, but if someone can get put in jail for something as silly as a fake Facebook profile, then bloggers should be worried.

For your amusement: Facebook profiles for George W. Bush, Tony Blair, King Juan Carlos, and King Abdullah.

(Via Larbi.)

February 05, 2008

Morocco's Shame

A recent World Bank reports finds that the Arab World is falling behind other regions in terms of education. And the worst performers? Read this:

The region had not seen the increasing literacy and school enrollment witnessed in Asia and Latin America, they said.

Djibouti, Yemen, Iraq and Morocco were ranked the worst educational reformers.

Iraq had to contend with a U.S. military invasion. What, exactly, is Morocco's excuse?

December 10, 2007

Rockin' the Fowler

This past weekend, the UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies hosted a conference on the work of Clifford Geertz, the famed anthropologist who wrote extensively about Morocco (and Indonesia.) The conference was organized by Susan Slyomovics and Lahouari Addi, and featured conversations between anthropologists from around the world. Unfortunately, I was working on a new piece, so I wasn't able to attend any of the panels, but I managed to get away on Saturday night to attend the musical performance that took place at the Fowler museum.

The Aza music ensemble played Tamazight-language songs that fused indigenous Moroccan beats with modern sounds. They used the oud and qraqeb, but also the guitar, tabla, clarinet, and banjo. I don't speak a word of Tamazight, but the music touched me and their rhythms made me want to get up and dance. I took a photo of them with my phone, but as you can see I was a bit far from the stage. You can listen to some excerpts from their music here. Aza was co-founded by two Moroccan-Americans from Santa Cruz, Fattah Abbou and Mohamed Aoualou, and includes four talented artists from the area as well.

Afterwards, the municipal orchestra of Sefrou took to the stage, accompanied by two guest artists from the Los Angeles area. The featured vocalist was the amazing Abderrahim Souiri, who performed an array of Andalusian songs; he was joined on stage by the equally amazing Raphael Skouri, who I believe is the cantor of the Baba Sale synagogue. Souiri and Skouri alternated singing verses in Arabic and in Hebrew, and their voices complemented each other beautifully, culminating in a rousing rendition of the late Abdessadek Cheqara's "Bent Bladi." It was nice to have an evening in which so many different components of the Moroccan music scene were present. The lyrics were in Tamazight, Arabic, and Hebrew, and were sung by Arab and Berber, Muslim and Jewish, male and female musicians.

(Here's a post-show photo. I'm standing with Raphael Skouri and UCLA's Nouri Gana.)

November 12, 2007

Trampling Marrakesh

The New York Times has a travel piece on Marrakesh, which I fear will result in even more tourists crowding the city. When we were there last spring, I saw a moronic British tourist sticking his ass out of one of the windows of the Ben Youssef Medersa. The floors of the seminary's student rooms were damaged by all the activity, and one of the guides kept touching the exquisite plaster work in the inner courtyard with his bare hands. (The photo above gives you a small idea of what you'll see on any given day at the famous medersa.) The tile floors at the Bahia palace were completely falling apart, and people had no regard for the artifacts. The Menebhi palace was also starting to show signs of wear. Sad.

November 05, 2007

Hip Hop in Morocco

Jennifer Needleman and Joshua Asen's documentary film I Love Hip Hop in Morocco, which screened this past weekend at the Arab Film Festival in Los Angeles, and at the Casablanca Film Festival in Morocco, is a rare treat: A film that shows the country in all its complexity. The picture follows several hip hop bands (H-Kayne, Fnaire, DJ Key, Bigg, Brown Fingazz, and Fati Show) as they attempt to set up a hip hop festival in three big cities: Meknes, Marrakesh, and Casablanca. They try to get funding and sponsorship, they rent space, they get permits, they print flyers, they rehearse, and as we follow them through this journey we get a rich portrait of these artists. We visit with DJ Key at home and hear about how he abandoned his work in an architecture firm to focus on hip hop. We hear about the choices they make in their lyrics. For example, the members of Fnaire refuse to use the word 'fuck' ("We don't talk like that") while solo rapper Brown Fingazz defends his use of the epithet 'nigga' to refer to himself and his friends in the medina. They share their struggles, particularly with freedom of speech and with logistical support. They talk about their private lives. The only woman rapper in the film is a young high school girl in Fez, whose parents are extremely supportive, but who has to win the crowd when she goes on stage during the festival. If you have a chance to see this film at the festival near you, don't miss it.

Clip: "Issawa Style" by H-Kayne.

October 16, 2007

New Moroccan Government

Following the legislative elections of September 2007 in Morocco (which, while generally transparent, had low levels of voter turnout) the new government has been announced. The new Prime Minister is Abbas El Fassi, of the Istiqlal Party.

Mr. Abbas El Fassi is perhaps best remembered by the young people of Morocco as the man who, in his capacity as Minister of Employment in 2002 was responsible for the Al Najat fiasco. At least one person has committed suicide in the aftermath of that scandal. Abbas El Fassi is also the man who, earlier this year, was quoted in Tel Quel magazine as saying that the efforts to promote Darija Arabic in Morocco are part of a conspiracy by the francophone elite to hurt the unity of the Arab peoples. (Rien que ça? one is tempted to say.)

Several ministers have no party affiliation (Chakib Benmoussa, Taieb Fassi Fihri, Ahmed Toufiq, et al.), and are technocrats chosen for their experience in the private sector, and in that sense the country will continue to be managed as it has in previous iterations.

This new government is quite remarkable, however, for its record number of women ministers: Ms. Amina Benkhadra (Energy & Mines); Ms. Yasmina Baddou (Health); Ms. Nawal El Moutawakil (Sports); Ms. Nouzha Skalli (Family); Ms. Touria Jabrane (Culture); Ms. Latifa Labida (liaison to National Education); and Ms. Latifa Akherbach (liaison to Foreign Affairs).

September 28, 2007

Favorite Headline of the Day

It comes from Le Matin, of all places: The Spanish discover the existence of blondes in Morocco. It's about the response in Europe when it was discovered that the blond and blue-eyed girl photographed riding on her mother's back is not Madeleine McCann, but two-year-old Bouchra Benaissa. Photos here.

September 26, 2007

Specter of 1981

Protests over a 30% hike in the price of bread quickly degenerated into full on riots in the town of Sefrou, and ignited several other demonstrations around the country, including in Rabat. (A loaf of bread or a baguette normally costs 1.20 dirhams. The new price would have been 1.56 dirhams, which is outrageous, especially considering the importance of bread and bread products to the Moroccan diet, particularly among the poor.) Yesterday, the Moroccan government announced it was canceling the hike, probably out of fear they would end up with a repeat of the bread riots of 1981 in Casablanca, which left several hundred people dead.

September 10, 2007

Election Results

The legislative elections in Morocco came and went, and the much hyped Islamist tsunami never materialized. As I suggested here on Friday, the PJD (Party of Justice and Development) failed to win a majority of seats--which would have been nearly impossible anyway, thanks to recent electoral reforms--or even to come in first place. They ended up in second place with 47 seats. The pre-election hype about a possible PJD win did serve the Makhzen well, however, presenting the monarchy once again as a bulwark against Islamists of all stripes, even moderate ones. Meanwhile, press and civil freedoms continue to be eroded.

What is surprising, however, is that Istiqlal, the conservative party whom many would have written off as a group of has-been politicians from Fes, took the lead, with 52 seats. The USFP, whose leftist credentials have long been forgotten, were big losers, coming in fifth place with 36 seats. The 2002 elections ushered USFP to power, and they had formed a coalition with Istiqlal in order to keep PJD in check. Now comes news that, in the wake of the 2007 elections, Istiqlal plans on creating a coalition with USFP. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

September 07, 2007

Moroccan Legislative Elections

Moroccans will be going to the polls today, electing their representatives in the lower house of parliament. You may have come across a couple of alarmist pieces in the Western press saying something like "Oh my God, Oh my God, the Islamists are going to win!" (At least it seemed that way to me when I was in Casablanca: a cover story in Le Point every other week on the topic.) But I think there is little chance of that happening, given recent changes in electoral laws and electoral districts. And in any case, the real question ought to be about what elections really mean in a country where there is no system of checks-and-balances and no accountability to the voters.

The elections will put 325 representatives in parliament, and of these 30 are guaranteed to be women (via national lists). In what is billed as a historical event, the Parti du Centre Social has picked a Jewish Moroccan for its national list, Maguy Kakon. But of course, this is not the first time that Moroccans of the Jewish faith have taken part in the legislative process.

By the way, even though I have dual Moroccan and American citizenships, and even though the constitution provides for the voting rights of MREs (or Moroccans Residing Abroad) I am not able to vote in these elections, because no procedures have been put in place for absentee ballots. Voters must be present at their precincts. More than 3 million Moroccans are thus excluded from the democratic experiment.

August 05, 2007

Department of WTF

It's really disheartening to have to write yet another post, about yet another problem in the Moroccan press, but it seems the wheels of censorship never stop. Over the weekend, the government ordered all issues of Tel Quel and its sister publication Nichane seized from points of sale. The magazine's editor in chief Ahmed Reda Benchemi was heard by police on Saturday, and was back at home on Sunday, according to this Reuters report.

July 25, 2007

Wash, Rinse, Repeat

Last week, journalist Mustapha Hormatallah and editor in chief Abderrahim Ariri, both of Al Watan Al An newspaper, were held in police custody for 96 hours, three days after the publication of a July 14 cover story on "Secret reports behind the state of alert in Morocco." The article reproduced classified information, and a police raid on the paper's offices allegedly turned up classified documents.

In the course of investigative work, journalists the world over try to get access to classified information, so the idea that obtaining these documents is a crime in itself is a little bizarre. An independent court system might have helped Ariri and Hormatallah regain their freedom, but don't hold your breath. The case is likely to be influenced by politics.

Yesterday, a Casablanca court decided to charge but release Ariri on bail, while Hormatallah was taken to Okacha prison. The first hearing is scheduled for tomorrow; they risk prison terms of one to five years. The journalists have received support from their colleagues and from human rights organizations across the board. You can send the paper a note of support here.

June 13, 2007

Asleep At The Editorial Desk

Over the last few years, Moroccan requests for visas to go to Mecca for the Hajj pilgrimage have consistently outnumbered the quotas set by the Saudis, so the Moroccan government has been forced to set up lotteries for prospective pilgrims. More than 32,000 applicants will get a chance to win one of 7,700 spots. Such news, of course, makes local headlines, as you can see below from this scan of La Vie Economique. Now notice the ad accompanying the article.

Link via the indispensable Larbi.

June 04, 2007

Haiha Evening: Hoba Hoba Spirit

Having completed a new draft of my novel, I am finally re-emerging from my apartment and going out on the town a bit. Last Saturday, for instance, I saw Hoba Hoba Spirit in a small concert in Casablanca. If you're unfamiliar with this band, you can check out some of their music here, or, better yet, visit their website. They mix traditional instruments like the bendir or the qraqeb with electric guitar and bass, and the music they play fuses gnawa with rock, or ska with chaabi. One of the highlights of the evening was their cover of Nass El Ghiwane's "Fin Ghadi Biyya Khoya," which they managed to modernize without losing anything of its spirit. Mostly, though, Hoba Hoba played original music, and what strikes me about those songs is that they have that rare quality of capturing a particular moment in Moroccan history, with lyrics that speak of life as we know it, of a country in the middle of great changes.

Photo credit: Hoba Hoba Spirit

May 29, 2007

YouTube Unblocked

Thanks to all those who spread the word and signed the petition. YouTube is now available again on Maroc Telecom.

May 28, 2007

YouTube Blocked

The big news over the weekend was that video-sharing site YouTube is no longer accessible through Maroc Telecom in Morocco. There has been no official statement, which means that no reason has been given, and no explanation provided. But since about Friday, Maroc Telecom users (of which I am one) cannot access the site, while customers who use rivals Wana or Meditel supposedly can.

I should point out that the vast majority of Internet users here go through Maroc Telecom, and that the bandwidth of the two rival ISPs is smaller. So in effect YouTube has been censored. It's worth pointing out that Maroc Telecom is a subsidiary of Vivendi, so if there is censorship at the behest of the government, it is carried out by a multinational company.

The ban, of course, is completely useless. Bloggers have already begun sharing addresses of proxy servers, or suggesting the use of Dailymotion, which has many of the same material on Morocco as YouTube. And because the ban makes people curious, the offending material--whatever it is--will undoubtedly pop up on another web site.

Update: Please sign the petition asking Vivendi and Maroc Telecom to stop censoring YouTube.

Another update: YouTube is back on. Yay! Thanks to all those who spread the word out about this.

May 25, 2007

UNHCR Office Closes

The United Nations has closed its HCR office in Rabat, due to what it claimed were violent protests by refugees.

The UNHCR says there are some 600 registered refugees in Morocco, along with some 10,000 illegal migrants. Some 30 people who are camped outside the UNHCR office denied using violence during Saturday's demonstration.

They also want the right to work and say that those from Arab countries receive favourable treatment. UNHCR said they closed the building because they could not work under the threat of violence which was intolerable.

It also said it does not provide refugees with financial assistance anywhere in the world.

Paulin Kuanzambi, an Angolan refugee who is the president of the Collectif des Réfugiés in Morocco, pointed out in an open letter that this is not the first time UNHCR closes its doors in Rabat. He called on the Moroccan government to uphold the rights of refugees under the Geneva convention. Let's just say there's a long, long road to go before that becomes a reality.

May 21, 2007

R.I.P. Driss Benzekri

Some sad news today: Driss Benzekri, the political dissident who was imprisoned and tortured under King Hassan, and who later became the head of Morocco's Equity and Reconciliation Commission, has passed away. He was 57.

(via.)

April 18, 2007

Department of WTF

The Los Angeles Times obtained a copy of the budget for the 2005 action film Sahara, which starred Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz, and which is considered a financial disaster for the studio that produced it. What I found interesting about Glenn F. Bunting's article was this tidbit, which describes the shoot in Morocco: the work involves paying out bribes, interfering with government development projects, and the removal of trees:

Although portions of the movie were shot in Britain and Spain, most of the filming was done in Morocco, a country in North Africa that has become a popular site for U.S. filmmakers. "Babel," "Syriana," "Black Hawk Down" and "Kingdom of Heaven" all have benefited from Morocco's welcoming environment, favorable exchange rate and cheap labor. An "assistant propman" on "Sahara," for example, earned a weekly salary of $233, the equivalent of one day's pay for a U.S. prop worker. In one impoverished village, a "Sahara" crew acquired household items at a bargain price. "We actually bought all the dressings from this person's house at a very inflated rate, which was probably about a dollar," Eisner said on the "Sahara" DVD. Producers had little reason to worry about red tape or paperwork because in Morocco a single permit provides access to the entire kingdom.

Cold cash came in handy. According to Account No. 3,600 of the "Sahara" budget, 16 "gratuity" or "courtesy" payments were made throughout Morocco. Six of the expenditures were "local bribes" in the amount of 65,000 dirham, or $7,559. Experts in Hollywood accounting could not recall ever seeing a line item in a movie budget described as a bribe. "It's a bad choice of words in a document, but it's a perfectly normal and cost-efficient way of getting a film made in a place like Morocco," said David A. Davis of FMV Opinions Inc., a Century City financial advisory firm.

The final budget shows that "local bribes" were handed out in remote locations such as Ouirgane in the Atlas Mountains, Merzouga and Rissani. One payment was made to expedite the removal of palm trees from an old French fort called Ouled Zahra, said a person close to the production who requested anonymity. Other items include $23,250 for "Political/Mayoral support" in Erfoud and $40,688 "to halt river improvement project" in Azemmour. The latter payment was made to delay construction of a government sewage system that would have interrupted filming. Putnam, Anschutz's lawyer, said the "local bribes" reflected line items that were budgeted but not actually spent. He said the payments on location in Morocco were reviewed after "Sahara" executives were contacted by The Times.

Honestly, I started to laugh about all this, until I got to the part where palm trees are being taken out and river improvement projects that benefit Moroccans are halted in order to accommodate films, and then I wanted to cry.

The rest of the article describes, in painstaking detail, all the movie's expenditures, which included a payment of $72,800 to McConaughey's hair colorist for 90 days' work. Yes, those numbers are correct.

April 16, 2007

Terror, Banalized

We were having our second cup of coffee on Saturday morning when we heard a loud, whooshing sound, followed by police sirens. An hour later we found out that a suicide bomber had blown himself up in front of the American Language Center, which is about a mile from our apartment. The man had tried to gain access to the ALC (which, by the way, is privately owned and is not in any way affiliated with the U.S. government) and the security guard asked for an I.D. card. The bomber then walked away, and blew himself up, killing no one but himself. A few seconds later, another bomber detonated his explosives, a few meters away from the U.S. consulate. There were no other fatalities.

Police arrived on the crime scene and chased after suspected fugitives. The evening news anchor said that the police had arrested the gang leader, the man responsible for the foiled attack of March 11, and his second-in-command on Thursday night, along with other members of the group. It's unclear why the police didn't announce these arrests right away, but it's possible that they were not sure they had caught all the members of the cell, and indeed the acts of Saturday would seem to confirm that theory.

The footage on TV showed plainclothes and uniformed cops with bulletproof vests, guns drawn. Morocco does not have a gun culture so the sight of the weapons on the streets of Casablanca certainly gave me pause. Sometimes I feel like I don't recognize the country I grew up in (just as, in the wake of the Iraq war, I felt I no longer recognized the country I moved to.) Everyone is shaken, revolted, and worried, and already citizens have called cops on someone who was acting 'suspicious'. (It turned out to be a false alarm.)

For other perspectives:
Lounsbury in Casablanca. Lounsbury on the aftermath. Najlae. BO18. Red@blog. And, via Red@blog, this clip from rap group Fnaire, a song written post-May 2003: Matqich Bladi.

April 11, 2007

Edens, Here and There

We were walking in the Marrakech medina last week when we came across this old movie theater, just a stone's throw away from the historic Jamaa El Fna square. Such cinema houses are now a rarity in Morocco--most of them closed down in the last twenty years, due to the relentless competition from pirated films. According to this recent article on Magharebia, the number of movie theaters in Morocco has gone from 280 in 1980 to just 85 by the end of 2006. In addition:

Director Saad Charaib explains that when the government worked out the details of its policy to support film production ($3.5 million annually), it failed to create a parallel policy to expand the broadcasting and cinema operation sector. He says that the total number of cinema-goers in 2000 was 13 million, whereas now the figure has dropped to 5 million. In his view there are several reasons, but chief among them is piracy, which draws many Moroccans away from cinemas. They would rather buy a film for ten dirhams than pay 30 dirhams to watch it at the cinema.

I was talking to one of my uncles about this--he used to be a movie nut when I was a child, so I wanted his opinion. He said he couldn't remember the last time he had been in a theater. And of course he missed seeing a movie on the big screen, but he also missed the social aspect of going out to the movies, and interacting with friends and acquaintances rather than staying cooped up at home, watching a pirated film whose quality is so bad you can't even suspend disbelief long enough to lose yourself in the story. I was also struck by the name of the theater in the Marrakech medina. Maybe if there were more Edens right here, young men would not be looking for Edens elsewhere.

Here We Go Again

Thirty days after the foiled March 11 attacks, Moroccan police have tracked and neutralized 3 members of the same terrorist cell, which they say numbers up to 12 people. In a pursuit that started at 5 am in the Hay Al Farah neighborhood and ended not far from there at 4 pm, three suicide bombers blew themselves up, one policeman died of his wounds, and another was slightly injured. The bombers were allegedly companions of the March 11 bomber, Abdelfettah Raydi, and had been under police surveillance for some time. This morning's papers all lead with the story, except for the pro-government paper Le Matin, which placed the news below the fold. No one I've talked to is entirely surprised, but everyone is extremely upset and terribly worried. There is also a lot of public support for the family of the police inspector who died in the line of duty.Llah yehfed w yester.

April 03, 2007

R.I.P: Driss Chraïbi

I was in Marrakech for the weekend, so I did not hear the terrible news of Driss Chraïbi's passing until yesterday. Although Chraïbi is probably not as known in the West as Tahar Ben Jelloun, he certainly remains one of Morocco's best writers. In Le Passé Simple, he wrote of the clash between the old generation and the new, during the years of French occupation. In Les Boucs, he portrayed the hardships of Moroccan immigrants in France. In La Civilisation, Ma Mère, he drew a loving portrait of a Moroccan housewife who emancipates herself. For La Mère du Printemps, he went back to his Berber roots, drawing a historical portrait of the Aït Yafelman tribe. In short, he wrote about all the things that mattered to his countrymen. He was widely read, always interesting, and enormously influential (I am thinking, in particular, of Fouad Laroui). A part of me feels that, with his passing, a whole era of Moroccan literature is also dead.

Related: Driss Chraïbi Turns 80.

March 27, 2007

Suspicion

I was walking back home through a small street where kids from a nearby high school often gather to smoke, hang out, or chat each other up. It was six o'clock, and it was already getting dark. I was thinking about my novel and not paying too much attention, when I saw two cops drive their motorcycles, tires screeching, right up in front of a teenager standing by an electricity pole. He was tall and lanky, wore jeans and a jacket, and seemed entirely harmless. One of the cops got off his bike, and told the teenager to turn out his pockets. The boy refused; the cop slapped him.

Almost instantaneously, a handful of the teenager's friends moved away to the other side of the street. I heard someone yell out loud--from a safe distance: "So this is democracy?"

When the pat-down didn't reveal anything, the policemen told the teenager he could go. Just as he started walking away, they made him turn around and walk in the opposite direction--for the hell of it. And then they sat on their motorcycles and watched.

March 12, 2007

Foiled Attack

A suicide bomber blew himself up and injured three other people at an internet cafe in the neighborhood of Sidi Moumen, here in Casablanca. According to the BBC:

The blast happened after the man began a dispute with the cafe's owner, who refused him access to jihadist sites. Another man, with the bomber at the time of the blast, fled after the explosion but has now been arrested by police, reports say.

"The man used to come to view jihadist websites and the dispute was prompted by the internet cafe owner's decision to prevent him this time from viewing such propaganda material," one official told Reuters. Police say it is unclear if the device was detonated by design or went off by accident during the argument between the two men.

The attack took place on the anniversary of the Madrid bombings. Several news sites have put forth the theory that the bomber was at the internet cafe in order to get instructions about his target as it seems inconceivable that he would aim at a place in the slum. The investigation is still ongoing. Last week, Moroccan police arrested a suspected terrorist by the name of Saad Houssaini, who is alleged to be the "chemist" of GCIM.

March 08, 2007

March 8

On this International Women's Day, I want to pay homage to all the Moroccan women who have worked for so long, under difficult circumstances, to bring about gender equality, justice, and progress for their country. This post is in remembrance of our ancestors and grandmothers, our pioneers: Fatima Al Fihriya, who built the world's oldest university in Fes, Al-Qarawiyyin; Touria Chaoui, who flew her plane over occupied Casablanca in order to distribute independence tracts; Malika Al Fassi, the only female signatory of the Independence Manifesto; Saida Menebhi, who died in prison for her political ideals; and all the female victims of the Years of Lead.

With admiration for the work and sacrifices of, and examples set by, Leila Abouzeid, Ghita El Khayat, Aicha Belarbi, Aziza Bennani, Fatima Benslimane, Bouchra Bernoussi, Rahma Bourquia, Zakya Daoud, Fatna El Bouih, Aicha Ech-Chenna, Nawal El Moutawakil, Nezha Hayat, Dr. Hakima Himmich, Latifa Jbabdi, Najat M'jid, Fatema Mernissi, Soumaya Naamane Guessous, Zoulikha Nasri, Halima Ouarzazi, Badia Skalli, Hinde Taarji, and all the other activists whose names do not appear here.

With respect for the men who have joined in the fight for gender equality: Mouhcine Ayouche, Abdelkader Ech-Chenna, Aziz El Ouadie, Moha Ennaji, Chakib Guessous, Lahcen Haddad, Yusuf Madad, Lekbir Ouhajou, Noureddine Saoudi, and Ahmed Zainabi.

And with hope, for the new generation.

February 27, 2007

Cinémathèque de Tanger Opens

Regular readers of this blog may be familiar with photographer Yto Barrada's work, which I have mentioned on several occasions. I finally had the chance to meet her in person this past weekend, when I traveled to Tangier to attend the opening of the Cinémathèque de Tanger, a project that Barrada has been working on for several years. Barrada bought the old Cinéma Rif, which is located on the historic Gran Socco plaza, in 2001 and, after years of planning and fund-raising, closed it down in 2004 for renovations. The Cinéma Rif has now reopened, and has been completely modernized, with new seats, new screen, new projection equipment, but all the charm of the original metalwork on the box office window, the original lamps in the café area, the movie posters--and the same staff. In addition to the main theatre, Barrada also conceived of the place as a cinematheque, and has added a small theatre, which will be used for retrospectives as well as workshops, a library, a videotheque, and an editing room. (You can view many candid photos of the opening, and of other CDT activities, here.)

Barrada chose to inaugurate the new Cinéma Rif with the work of a Moroccan filmmaker, the lovely and amazing Farida Benlyazid, whose latest film, Juanita de Tanger, has been making the festival rounds. (The picture is based on the novel by Angel Vasquez, La Vida Perra de Juanita Narboni.) Benlyazid was quite emotional when she took the stage: She remembered coming to the then-dilapidated theater to watch Abdel Halim films back in the sixties, and she spoke of what this new theater will mean for her hometown. In the audience was another original patron of the place--Tahar Ben Jelloun. It was a Tangerine evening.

February 15, 2007

The Lamalif Years

Years ago, when I was a junior in high school, one of my younger uncles came to visit us, a copy of Lamalif tucked under his arm. "What's this?" I asked, and pulled out the magazine. I started reading it then and there and was instantly hooked. I was seventeen, and didn't completely understand the significance of all the articles, but I loved it, and would always buy it or borrow it. Back then, our newsstands in Rabat were dominated by the shrill, partisan press, which didn't really speak to me, or by French publications, which didn't speak to me either.

Lamalif was different. The magazine was a form of challenge (the title comes from the Arabic letters lam and 'alif, which together spell out the word "No"). It was the expression of a homegrown movement. It had amazing art covers. It was ours. Under editor Zakya Daoud (and her husband, Mohammed Loghlam) it published high-quality articles on politics, art, and culture. Its contributors were seasoned journalists, intellectuals, and, more often than not, university professors. It was informed and informative, and I have often wondered what it would be like today if it had survived as a publication. (Constant pressures by the government forced the magazine to shut down in 1988.)

So imagine my delight when I found out that the Casablanca Book Fair was hosting a discussion on "30 years of journalism in Morocco 1958-1988: The Lamalif years." The panelists were Zakya Daoud herself, Mohammed Jibril, Mohammed Tozy, and Ahmed Reda Benchemsi. Aboubakr Jamai was unable to attend, but Driss Ksikes stepped in for him. The best way to describe the mood is to say it was made of emotion, pride, and quite a bit of regret. Emotion because those present--contributors to the magazine as well as those who were their readers--have fond memories Lamalif. Pride because it did amazing work (it was to the 70s and 80s what Souffles/Anfas was to the 60s). And regret because there really is nothing like it around anymore.

Zakya Daoud apologized that the book she had written about the magazine, Les Années Lamalif (Tarik Editions, 2007) was not ready in time to present at the fair, but she gave an outline of it, describing the early years of enthusiasm (1966-1968); the years of hard work and disappointment (1968-1972); the Sahara years (1973-1977); the years of calling everything into question (1978-1985) and the end (1985-1988). The difficulties of publishing--including meetings with the redoubtable Minister of Information of the time, Moulay Ahmed Alaoui--were hard on her, but there was also plenty of joy and laughter. "I have turned the page, and that is how I was able to write the book. Lamalif's story is my story, it's our story, and, beautiful or not, it's our history." Mohammed Jibril briefly talked about what set the magazine apart from other publications of its time: Lamalif, he said, was attached to its ethical values and it had professional rigor, something which few publications can boast. Several past contributors (Salim Jay, Najib Boudraa, and others) said they were proud to have been a part of the adventure; some said they regretted now that Lamalif had been so serious--perhaps it needed some humor from time to time.

Then it was the turn of the "new guard" to speak. Ahmed Reda Benchemsi revealed that when he wanted to start his magazine, he had originally wanted it to be called Lamalif, and he had talked to Zakya Daoud about possibly buying the title from her, but it didn't work out, and he ended up starting Tel Quel. Generally speaking, he said, the press situation now is very different from what Daoud and her contemporaries went through. But he also pointed out that while the "red lines" in the 1980s were very clear, they are more blurred now, so that it becomes nearly impossible to know whether something will run afoul of the system.

Ksikes, meanwhile, felt that the current press in Morocco does not exist in a continuum, but in cycles. Regarding the more liberal press environment, he said, "We may have opened the windows, but now we've started to put shutters on them." For him, the difference betwen the Lamalif years and the present is that there used to be a greater dialogue and collaboration between university professors and journalists; now there is little, and sometimes he sees the reverse, in the sense that some in academia lead the charge against independent magazines.

My one complaint (as usual with these sorts of events) is that the moderator did not leave enough time for questions, and we had to vacate the room so the next panel could be set up.

For those who are curious: The entire archive of Souffles magazine is now available online, through Swarthmore and Lehman colleges. Someone should try to do the same for Lamalif.

February 12, 2007

Fair Photos

I went to check out the Casablanca book fair yesterday--the fee for getting in is an extremely reasonable 5 dirhams and there's tons to see and do. Among the exhibitors were publishers from many Arab and European countries, but also Moroccan university presses, literary magazines, small and large publishers, and--oh, joy!--booksellers and bouquinistes. So one could browse through the rare or used books from, say, Rabat's Bouquiniste du Chellah here in Casablanca. The most popular booths seemed to be those that catered to children's literature and YA, which I suppose is a good thing. Maybe in a few years' time the fair will be able to attract as many interested adults. I noticed a couple of English-language publishers, but they carried mostly classics that are used at colleges and universities. The French publishers and the Saudi government, on the other hand, had a massive presence. Unfortunately, the official program that is available online is not comprehensive. There's a lot more to see at individual booths, and you pretty much have to go in situ to know what each exhibitor has planned.

February 09, 2007

Casablanca Book Fair Opens

The Casablanca Book Fair opens today at the Foire Internationale, with 615 exhibitors from 58 countries. The guest of honor this year is Belgium, and there are many round tables and panels on Belgian literature or by Belgian authors. In addition, of course, there will be readings and/or discussions by many Moroccan poets, writers, historians, and journalists, including Abdelkrim Ghallab, Abdellah Laroui, Fatema Mernissi, Abdellah Taia, Mohammed Barrada, Ghita El Khayat, Aboubakr Jamai, and many others. Among the highlights of the ten-day fair is a reading by Adonis at the Mohammed VI Theatre in Roches Noires on Saturday night, and another reading by Mahmoud Darwich at the same venue. Be there.

You can see the full cultural program of the fair here.

January 19, 2007

Back Home

I came back home to Casablanca to news of Aboubakr Jamaï's resignation from Le Journal Hebdo. Could things get any worse for the press in Morocco? Wait. Don't answer that.

January 16, 2007

Nichane: Update

Last month, I mentioned that the magazine Nichane had been banned, and its editor-in-chief and one of its journalists put on trial, all for a cover story on jokes deemed "insulting to Islam." The case went to court in Casablanca on January 8th, and the verdict was pronounced yesterday: Three years' probation for editor Driss Ksikes and journalist Sanaa Al Aji, a fine of 80,000 dirhams each, and a punitive ban of two months, meaning that the magazine would only be back on newsstands at the end of February.

This is very harsh. And it's frightening that, compared with the verdict the prosecution was seeking -- five years' prison time; complete ban of the publication; ban of its journalists from practicing their profession -- it sounds downright magnanimous. Still, the verdict is yet another wake-up call for those who thought that the tangible progress we witnessed in terms of press freedom over the last few years was a permanent gain. This hastily prosecuted case is a strong signal that there are still "red lines" (Islam, the king, the Sahara question) that cannot be crossed.

The magazine plans to appeal, but in the meantime the verdict is a Sword of Damocles hanging over the journalists' heads. Any false step, any perceived insult, and all that needs to happen is for someone to sue them before they'll find themselves at risk of firm prison time. Perhaps that's exactly what the government wanted--putting them, and all the other journalists, on notice. In addition, the government gets to play the card of "protector of Islam," thus defeating religious conservatives at their own game. But this is a dangerous game, because conservatives will only escalate the situation, attacking anything they perceive as offensive. It's a sad day.

Related: Twenty Moroccan writers and intellectuals have signed a petition in support of Nichane; Fadoua Benaich and Jesse Sage have an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times; popular blogger Larbi continues to offer a forum for discussing the issue.

December 21, 2006

Nichane: Banned

The Arabic-language weekly magazine Nichane was banned yesterday by the Moroccan authorities, by order of the Prime Minister's office. Nichane's issue #91, dated December 9th to the 15th, had a cover story on "Jokes: How Moroccans Make Fun of Religion, Sex, and Politics." It included a long article, written by Sanaa Al Aji, describing the cathartic role of jokes, and sharing a few juicy ones with readers. The jokes that were deemed particularly offensive were the ones dealing with religion. There were seven in total, ranging from the subversively funny to the unfunny or downright offensive, but these are jokes that readers could just as easily have heard at work, at school, at home or at the café, and therefore they're nothing new.

But their publication in Nichane was enough to prompt the Guardians of Morality ™, specifically members of the religious right, the Party of Justice and Development and others of similar sensibilities, to start a campaign against the magazine, and against the journalists, who have already been accused of being "apostates." What makes this campaign against the free press particularly troubling is that its fomentors include journalists, people who should at the very least know something about freedom of the press and show some solidarity for their fellow writers, editors, and reporters.

For instance, conservative journalist Mohammed Lachyab posted a long tirade on his blog, not just against the article, but against the magazine, and against its sister publication, the Francophone Tel Quel, accusing them of persistently insulting the "religious and national" feelings of Moroccans through their "editorial line." Lachyab also attacked Nichane's use of Moroccan Arabic, saying that "the secret goal" behind such a move is "the destruction of the Arabic language, after the failure of the Francophone magazine in that role." (Journalist and conspiracy theorist, all in one!) Lachyab followed this post with a long list of contacts and asked his readers to make their opinions heard. The list included not only the email address of the magazine's director, Driss Ksikes, but also those of the Prime Minister's office, the Minister of Waqf and Islamic Affairs, and even the theology school.

This veritable witch hunt resulted in the ban of Nichane. A lawsuit has been filed against Driss Ksikes, the magazine's director, and Sanaa Al Aji, the writer, for "insult to the Islamic religion" and "publication and distribution of writings that are contrary to the morals and mores" of the country. The trial is set for 8 January 2007, and they risk prison terms of 3 to 5 years. It should also be pointed out that, while the ban looks like (and will be interpreted) as a win for the PJD and its ilk, the magazine has not endeared itself to the government with its articles on corruption, the economy, party financing, etc.

As of this morning, the Nichane website appears to be down, so you cannot access the article in question. Ironically, the only place I can find the "incendiary" material is ....on the website of the very people who claim to be offended. They have scanned the jokes and you can see them there.

Related:
Reporters Sans Frontières condemns the ban. Popular blogger Larbi offers his support to the magazine, as does Mohammed Said Hjiouij.

December 19, 2006

A Muslim Santa

One of the more unfortunate legacies of colonialism in Morocco is a certain obsession with, and mimicry of, all things French. If you walk into a fine store in the Racine neighborhood (I mean, look at the neighborhood's name, for God's sake) the clerk is likely to address you in French, even though you are not French, and neither is she. "Bonjour madame, est-ce que je peux vous aider?" she'll ask. In the beginning, I would answer, somewhat irritatedly, in Moroccan Arabic (Darija) just to make a point. But then a strangely condescending look would appear on the salesperson's face, intimating that perhaps I couldn't afford to shop at the store, and the service would mysteriously drop to lower standards. So now I don't even bother anymore, I just go with the flow.

There is still, fifty years after independence, a persistent association of anything French with "better." People are driving themselves into the poorhouse trying to send their kids to French lycées. A few department stores and private schools here in Casa also throw Christmas celebrations, complete with trees, trimmings, and multicolored lights. It's bizarre.

This morning, while I was reading the paper (a French-language one, I know, I know), I stumbled on this advertisement for LG Electronics. It shows an old man with a white beard, wearing a jellaba and a tarbouche, merrily riding a sheep-drawn carriage full of refrigerators, microwaves, and other assorted kitchen appliances. The message above says, "Aïd Moubarak Saïd."

I suppose someone at the ad agency thought that the mix of the Eid El-Kebir, the Muslim commemoration of Abraham's sacrifice, with Santa Claus, a folkoric addition to the Christian holidays, might somehow be conducive to shopping sprees. Maybe it just means that consumerism is finally winning the battle of Muslim holidays--via Christian ones. Let's shop, fellow Moroccans, just like the French do!

December 18, 2006

Café, Anyone?

You can't really have a bad cup of coffee in Casablanca. We've been to several different places since we arrived, and the espresso was amazing everywhere. Traditionally, the coffee house was the ultimate male space, where men got together to smoke, play chess, read the paper, catch up with each other and, I imagine, complain about their womenfolk. In contrast, the ultimate female space was the home, where women threw elaborate parties, listened to music, danced, traded gossip, and enjoyed a good glass of tea. But of course all of this has changed over the last ten to twenty years, and the coffee houses are being firmly and steadily desegregated. The picture above is from a Maarif cafe, which is so popular that it has been turned into a chain. At least it's a homegrown chain. There are no Starbucks here. Yet.

December 14, 2006

WWW

The talk of the town is Faouzi Bensaïdi's new film, WWW: What A Wonderful World, which just opened this week at the Megarama. It's about the intersecting lives of a contract killer (played by Bensaidi himself), a policewoman, a hacker, and a prostitute, and it's all set in Casablanca. WWW premiered at the Venice Film Festival, and was also shown a couple of weeks ago at the Marrakech Film Festival. I hope to catch it this weekend...

December 07, 2006

How To (Not) Set Up Your DSL Connection

Day 1
Because I depend on the Internet for much of my work (contact with my editor, my agent, etc.), one of my primary concerns when I arrived in Casablanca was to get a DSL connection, and get it fast. So I went to a Maroc Telecom office on my first day in town, exhausted and jetlagged. I was helped by M., a prematurely balding, slightly overweight man, who was a little grumpy at first, but loosened up after I made a couple of jokes. I asked about getting a phone line set up and a DSL connection working, and was told it would take 48 hours for the former and up to 15 days for the latter. But, M. assured me, in most cases, customers are connected within a day or two.
"Fine,” I said. “I'd like to sign up today."
M. picked up several forms, a couple of which were in triplicate, and lined them up neatly on the desk between us. "First, we need to prepare your contract."
"Contract? What contract?"
"For receiving your service. It's for two years."
"A-sidi, I'm only here for nine months, to do research. Can't you just bill me month to month?"
"No, that’s not possible. But you can sign up for one year if you like."
Of course, it was significantly more expensive to sign up for the one-year contract than the two-year contract, not to mention buying a telephone and a modem. But even the one-year contract posed problems for me. "What do I do after my stay is over? I’m going to be vacating my apartment and can’t bloody well leave the phone and Internet behind for the next person.”
"I’ll tell you what you can do. You can file a change of address form and put down the address of a family member, and then they can have the Internet. When the remaining 3 months are completed, the contract is over."
"And how do I transfer service to another address?"
M. proceeded to give me an explanation that made my head spin: I could already see that I would have to fill out more forms, in triplicate, and wait in line for hours, at God knew what other agency in town. I looked at the numbers again. I must have looked quite stricken at the choices before me, because M. began to chuckle lightly. "I have a feeling that I am swindling you,” he said.
Ah, finally, something on which we could both agree. "I have the feeling that I am being swindled."
He laughed again. I did not. I was so desperate that I decided not to worry about what would happen at the end of my nine months here. I just wanted to deal with the problem at hand, so I gave him the money. Instead of giving me my 10 dirhams in change, he suddenly turned to me and asked, “Do you know about the annual campaign for solidarity? We're selling these yellow badges for them. It’s a very good cause--the fight against poverty."
I couldn't say no to that. "How much is it?"
"Only 10 dirhams."
"Fine," I said. I took the badge from him. And then I noticed that he did not set 10 dirhams aside for the charitable donation I had just been forced to make. My contribution may well have gone to his personal fund. After we finished all the paperwork, M. finally went to the stock room to get me my DSL modem. I noticed that the box didn't say whether the modem had an ethernet port, so I asked him if it had one. "Don't worry," he said, "it has everything you need to connect." I thanked him and left.

Day 2
A technician from Maroc Telecom called my cell phone while I was out, to see if he could come and install the phone line. I called him back at his number several times that afternoon. No one answered.

Day 3
The technician called again, and this time I picked up. He arrived at our apartment after lunch time, looking sweaty and tired. I offered him some tea, but he turned me down, he was in too much of a hurry. He got started with the phone jack, opened it up, connected the wires, and did the same with the other outlet in our bedroom. Then he installed a DSL filter. I was so thrilled at the thought that we could connect to the Internet soon, that I gave him a nice tip, which he accepted.

Alex and I opened our DSL modem box, and, predictably enough, there was no ethernet port. So we went back to the Maroc Telecom office, together. As luck would have it, I was again sent to M.'s desk. I told him the modem he sold me wouldn't work because it didn't have an ethernet port, which I needed in order to hook up multiple computers (mine and Alex's). He seemed a bit lost, but then he regained his composure, disappeared into the stock room, and came back with another, bigger box. "This modem," he explained, "is what you need. We sell it to people who open cyber-cafes."
"But I'm not opening a cafe with 20 computers. I just want something for 2 computers."
"..."
"Okay, look, here's the list of modem equipment you're selling, and I can see that a couple of them have ethernet ports. Can you tell me which line on this list corresponds to the box you want to sell me?"
"I think it's this one," he said, pointing, a little hesitantly, to one of the lines.
"And how much is it?"
"1,900 dirhams."
"Look, I can't spend that kind of money and then find out it's not the right modem."
"Let me check."
He turned to his colleague, a helpful young woman named S. She said she thought it was a completely different line on the form. So now I had two opinions from the Maroc Telecom agents, and no idea which modem they were trying to sell me, or whether it did indeed have an ethernet port. Alex joined the conversation at this point, and we had a four-way, three-language discussion for a few minutes, and still no solution. Finally, S. called someone she knew, a young man who owned a cyber-cafe. "Having lived in the States for many years," she explained, "he will know what you two need." Great. We thanked her, and went outside to wait for the man, who arrived in his car about two minutes later. We climbed in, and he drove us to his office, where we explained what we needed. He found us the right wi-fi DSL router, and said he'd even come and install it.

Day 4
S. arrived mid-afternoon and installed our new router. We tested the connection, and it appeared to work. Disappointingly, however, it seemed quite slow. Later that night, it went down.

Day 5
We still couldn't connect, so I called the help line. The man at the other end was hurried, but very polite. "Madame, I see that you connected this morning at 8:46 am, so from my perspective it seems like everything is fine." I checked my computer. Yes, it looked like we had been connected between the time I picked up the phone and the time I was helped.
"When did you install your DSL connection?" he asked.
"Day before yesterday."
"They might not have finished setting you up, hence the complications. I would wait a day or two."
We stayed connected for about 30 minutes, and then the connection went down. I called the help line again. This time, I got a very angry young man, who barked at me that everything was fine.
"It's not," I said. "Our connection is unstable. It's up for half an hour at a time, and even when it's up, it's not fast." The angry young man told me to check my connection speed by clicking on the appropriate icon of my Menara software, and then hung up. Big help that was.

Day 6
Problems continued. We could not connect, or when we did, it was at a speed of 32k. I called the help line, and the young woman at the other end wanted me to click on some icon on my desktop that I did not appear to have. "If you installed your software right, you should have 4 icons."
"I have 2."
"Then you need to reinstall."
It didn't occur to her to ask me whether I was on a PC or a Mac. On my Mac, I only had the two icons. But I didn't back down. "Look I don't think it's an installation problem. Can you please just send someone?"
"All right, Madame. Someone will be there within 72 hours."

Days 7 and 8
We attempted repeatedly to connect. Whenever we did, it was at the ridiculous speed of 32k.

Day 9
The technicians showed up just after lunch time, looking very grumpy and impatient. I tried to explain our problems, but they barely listened. They seemed to be following their own script for how to deal with customers. "You need a filter," they announced within seconds.
"The one I have there," I pointed out, "is the one that your colleague at Maroc Telecom installed."
"He's not our colleague. You need a filter."
They rummaged through my modem box and found a different filter, which they plugged in. We tried to connect, but failed. Return to Start. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200. They asked if we had any PCs at home. "No," I said. They heaved a sigh, and pulled out their laptop PC from their bag and tried to connect. They managed to get on the Internet, but at the speed of 32k. Then one of them picked up our phone and made a long-distance call to the Rabat office to complain about the connection speed. While he was on the line with them, the connection went up to 1meg. He hung up. "It's fixed," he announced, and then they left hurriedly. The connection stayed up for about 3 hours after that, then went down.

Day 10
By Day 10, I had resigned myself not to have a fast, reliable internet connection. I took my coffee into the living room and started to read the newspapers, having decided that I'd rather slit my wrists open than deal with a 32k connection. But Alex kept testing and trying to figure out what the problem was. After about an hour, Eureka!, he found that whenever the phone is off the hook, we can get a stable, 1 meg connection. Whenever we hang up, we are back down to 32k, or we get disconnected. This was why it was so hard to replicate the problem for all the agents and techies. Armed with this knowledge, we went back to the Maroc Telecom office one last time, and told them that we could only get connected if our phone is off the hook. They said they would send a tech. That was a week ago. So I am not holding my breath, I'm just keeping the phone off the hook. Don't call me, people, I'm on the Internet.

December 06, 2006

To Do On Thursday

Driss C. Jaydane will present his debut novel, Le Jour venu, at the Carrefour des Livres here in Casablanca. Set in the 1980s, Le Jour venu is described as the coming of age story of a young bourgeois from Casablanca. Having the reading in a Maarif bookstore is quite à propos, then.

Write-ups in the local press have been quite favorable. See, for instance, the article by Driss Ksikes in Tel Quel or the review by Kenza Sefrioui in Le Journal. Details:

Driss C. Jaydane
Le Jour venu
Thursday, December 7
7 pm
Carrefour des Livres
Angle des Landes et rue Vignemale
Casablanca
022 23 46 65

Be there!

Marrakech Festival

The Marrakech International Film Festival takes place this week, and needless to say there is much coverage of the events by star-struck journalists on radio, television, and in print, here in Casablanca. The jury this year is composed of the irrepressible Jamel Debbouze, actors Sandrine Bonnaire and Paz Vega, and directors Yousry Nasrallah and Pan Nalin, among others. The president is Roman Polanski. The festival opened with a tribute to national treasure Mohammed Majd (The Messenger, Ali Zaoua, Syriana, Le Grand Voyage, etc.). He received a standing ovation, and appeared emotional as he gave the customary acceptance speech. Majd is, with Amina Rachid and Amidou, one of only three Moroccans to have been so honored since the festival started in 2001. (The other honorees include Omar Sharif, Claude Lelouch, John Boorman, David Lynch, Francis Ford Coppola, Claudia Cardinale, Sean Connery, Youssef Chahine, Abbas Kiarostami, and a whole bunch of others.) In any case, the interesting bit is that Mohammed Majd was quoted in the 22 November issue of the newspaper Assahifa as saying, "It would be a mess if the organizers of the Marrakech film festival were Moroccans." The quote was reprinted by a couple of magazines, but without anyone really disagreeing or taking offense. Although the festival staff is largely Moroccan, the director and several of the top organizers are French--part of the continuing attitude in this country to leave the direction of larger projects to foreigners. Pretty sad.

December 04, 2006

The View From Casablanca

At the prospect of living in Morocco again after fourteen years abroad, I felt a whole range of emotions--happiness, excitement, worry --but I couldn't really sort through these feelings because I was exhausted all the time. I did a lot of traveling in the fall, for readings and lectures and conferences, and whenever I was not on the road, I was packing a bag, or moving a box, or disconnecting a service, or canceling a subscription. It wasn't until the plane landed at Mohammed V Airport in Casablanca that the move here began to seem real.

Several of my friends expected me to have reverse culture shock, but I haven't found that to be true at all. My sense of disorientation, if you can even call it that, is more subtle. I was born and raised in Rabat, and living in Casablanca has already brought a few surprises--dialectal, to begin with. I asked our doorman for directions, and it took me three tries to figure out the name of a street based on his pronunciation. And then the driving here is so much worse than in Rabat--if that is even possible. If you've ever been curious as to how one can accomplish a left-hand turn from a right-hand lane, this is the city for you.

The other thing that strikes me every time I come back to Morocco is the light. It's different here, and I'm not sure I can explain how. It seems to hit trees and plants and buildings and even people at a different angle, bringing out more contrast in colors. Our apartment has large windows, so I spend a lot of time holding things up to the light to see how new they look.

There's a certain kindness in the way that people speak to each other here--the many polite rejoinders, the jokes, the helpfulness. I missed all of this so much, and it's of course wonderful to witness it again. And yet at the same time there is also a hardness that comes from living in a large, overcrowded, dense, polluted city. I was on my way to Ittissalaat Al-Maghrib (Maroc Telecom) to get a phone line set up, and the cab driver who took me grumbled about a change in the law that made him ultimately responsible, in case of accident, for any pedestrian injuries. "Were it not for this law, I would just have hit that guy," he said, pointing to a kid who was crossing without looking, "and teach him a good lesson. Once he's in a wheelchair, he'll learn to look before crossing." Given the driver's anger, I thought it best not to point out that he was speeding--and that he was on the wrong lane. I was just happy to arrive at the phone company in one piece. When my turn finally came up at the counter, the clerk spent more than half an hour with me, walking me through the process, and waiting very patiently for me to make up my mind about all the services. And then he sent me home with good wishes for my health. (I only wish it meant our DSL worked properly. It doesn't. But more on this long, tortuous odyssey in a later post.)

The picture above shows the King Hassan mosque in all its artistic glory, at sunset. (Credit: Henk Meijer.) The photo below shows what the mosque looks like from my bedroom window, during the daytime, with the smog above, the apartment buildings below, and the sea of satellite dishes around.

October 23, 2006

Benali Profile

There's a great profile of Dutch-Moroccan writer Abdelkader Benali in the Daily Star. The article covers his work as a novelist and playwright--as well as his more recent foray in literary reportage. (Benali was living in Beirut during the Israeli bombing, and wrote about it for Dutch audiences.) One tidbit that resonated with me:

Benali views his job as being to creatively undermine his assigned role.

"In Holland it's all about belonging to clubs - a running club or a sewing club. I don't belong to any club," he says. "People expect me to speak as a Muslim or a Moroccan yet I'm giving you my own opinion. I use my tricks, my language skills, to undermine the role they've assigned me.

"The problem is that everything's connected to Islam. It never really becomes an intellectual discussion because that would invite argument and people don't want that. Whenever journalists want the 'Muslim Dutch perspective,' they never go to an intellectual. They find some old man at a mosque.

This doesn't surprise me one bit. I was invited to a panel recently, with the express purpose to give "the Muslim perspective." I said there is no such thing. I can only give my perspective. That didn't go over so well.

October 16, 2006

'Like Mercurochrome On A Wooden Leg'

The October 16 issue of the New Yorker has a profile by Jane Kramer of Aboubakr Jamaï, founder, publisher, and editor of the Casablanca-based weekly magazine Le Journal Hebdo. The article is unfortunately not available online, so I can't link to it. You should check it out, though. It's generally well researched and quite readable, and gives a good background on Jamaï (or Boubker, as he is known.) Boubker's magazine has created waves in Morocco for its daring reporting on the three taboos of the press (the king's private life, Western Sahara, and separation of church and state). His work has cost him several trips to the courthouse, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. The quote in the title of this post is from an unnamed source in Kramer's article who says, "I tell Boubker, 'Your editorials about the King are like Mercurochrome on a wooden leg.'"

Although I enjoyed the article, I had a couple of problems with it. For starters, the title is "The Crusader." (I mean, seriously, what was the editor thinking?) And then Kramer adds occasional orientalist comments like: "The King at forty-three is not a statesman, despite a French education." (Excuse me? So in order to be a statesman one needs a French education?) And when she mentions the women's rights reform that took place in 2004, she states that Islamists staged a huge demonstration against it in Casablanca, but neglects to add that there was a demonstration in Rabat in favor of the reform. The effect is that one gets the impression that the only political actors on the scene are the king and the Islamists, which is not quite the case.

September 29, 2006

Rendition to Morocco

The Moroccan Human Rights Association is asking the government to come clean about rendition in the kingdom. The BBC reports:

Abdelhamid Amine, who is their chairman, said both the Moroccan government and Washington had to come clean.

"The United States, which declares itself a democratic country, must recognise that these so-called black sites exist and that torture goes on there," he said.

"The United States justifies all this in the name of its war against terrorism. But we, as the defenders of human rights in Morocco, cannot accept that in the name of the war on terror you can also violate human rights or practice the terrorism of torture."

Predictably, the Minister of Justice denies the existence of any CIA prisons, etc.

August 17, 2006

Angolan Refugee Deported

According to the Arabist, Paulin Kuanzambi, an Angolan refugee in Morocco who now works with a local NGO, has been kidnapped by Moroccan secret service agents posing as journalists. He was allegedly driven to the border with Algeria, along with Marcel Amiyeto. Kuanzambi is a legal refugee, recognized as such by the UN High Commissioner, so there is absolutely no excuse or legal basis for his summary deportation. It's unclear whether UNHCR will act on his behalf.

August 01, 2006

Moroccan Takes

Moroccan writer Abdelilah Beleqziz contributes an impassioned op-ed in An-Nahar about the Qana massacres of 1996 and 2006.

Meanwhile, three lawyers and human rights activists, Abderrahim Jamaï, Khalid Sefiani and Abderrahmane Benameur, have filed a lawsuit in Rabat against the Moroccan-born Israeli Minister of Defense, Amir Peretz, for war crimes in Qana.

'Magical Marrakech'

Over at Slate, a series of photos showing 'Magical Marrakech.' One of them looks like it's straight out of an Ingres painting.

July 26, 2006

Morocco's Female Imams

Earlier this year, and with great fanfare, the Moroccan government announced that it had just completed the training of the first class of 'murchidates,' women religious leaders, at Dar Al-Hadith Al-Hassania, a seminary normally reserved for males. The women of the class of 2006 will be assigned to mosques. Their tasks will be to answer religious questions, help with literacy programs, provide legal guidance on the recently-reformed family law, the Moudawwana, and so on. They will not, however, be able to lead prayer (this is why they are not called 'imamat,' but 'murchidates', i.e. 'guides.') As has been pointed out in a million and one press releases, the appearance of official, state-sanctioned murchidates is a first in the Arab world.

This is a good step forward. I support the training of these women, and hope, someday very soon, that they, too, will be allowed to lead prayers. (Let the hate mail begin.) There are, however, a number of questions that arise from this move, including: Why the government decided to do this, why do it now, how do the religious parties view this move, what the women hope to achieve, how their male classmates react, etc.

Some of these questions were addressed in a Wide Angle documentary that aired on PBS last night. The film, "Class of 2006," was produced by Charlotte Mangin and directed by Gini Reticker, and it was shot during four brief weeks in May, in time for its July 2006 airdate. Visually, I found it slightly uninspired. For example, I didn't recognize my hometown of Rabat, where Dar Al-Hadith is located. There were far too many shots of the stereotypical Morocco: turbaned men, crowded souks, tall minarets, old monuments, the medina, the tannery in Fez, the desert at sunset, even dromedaries (the first time I saw a dromedary was on the back of a Camel pack of cigarettes; the second was at the zoo. But somehow, every movie about Morocco features them.)

But beyond all the tourist clichés, there were some very interesting segments and some stunning contrasts between the women featured in this film. The main character was Samira Marzouk, a twenty-nine year old woman who had always been interested in religion and, when she was told by her father about the program, jumped on the opportunity to enroll. She had just gotten married the year before, and her husband looked on very proudly during the interviews and the graduation ceremony. Marzouk seemed full of energy and eager to start her tenure at the mosque she had been assigned to, but she was gently chastised by a Moroccan TV journalist for being 'naive,' for not understanding that the government was using her. I think, though, that Marzouk does realize the PR aspect of this, but somehow prefers to stay focused on what she can achieve through her own work of counseling at mosques.

Dr. Rajaa Naji El Mekkaoui, a tenured professor of law at Université Mohamed-V, was one of the most articulate and thoughtful of the people interviewed. Dr. El Mekkaoui is the first woman to deliver a religious lecture before the king as part of the Ramadan lecture series broadcast on TV. She is also one of the women who was brought in to train the imams and murchidates, and encountered some resistance from the male students. She had to convince them, through her own work and scholarship, that there is a basis for the training of their female classmates.

Fouzia Assouli, a feminist activist who has been involved with women's rights for quite some time, was also a great interview subject. She currently serves as secretary general of the Ligue des Droits de la Femme, and has spearheaded literacy and legal rights training programs. Assouli has seen the work of organizations such as hers become more difficult as Wahhabi ideology gained ground in Morocco. Because she was one of the few women interviewed who had no direct connection with the program (either as a student or as a teacher), she provided a more dispassionate perspective on things. One point she made was that when she and her colleagues pushed for reforms they were often rebuffed and told they were trying to import imperialist deas.

Nadia Yassine, the spokesperson for the islamist group Justice and Charity, made precisely this point, unintentionally of course. For example, she derided the literacy programs that the government and NGOs have been conducting with older women, saying (I am paraphrasing here): "They teach them to read A, B, C. What is that? That's just enough to know how to read 'Coca-Cola' and go buy it. This is an imperialist move." She then went on to say that, in her view, women in their 40s and 50s and 60s should be sacrificed, and the focus should be on the younger generation. There can be no argument, of course, with the idea that Morocco needs a wide, grass-roots campaign for literacy. But deriding those programs that target older people was really quite troubling. I wonder if the women who are benefiting from such programs (some of whom were interviewed as well) share Yassine's view that they should be "sacrificed." I should also point out that one of Morocco's greatest writers, Mohamed Choukri, was illiterate until the age of 20, and by the end of his life had written several novels and become the chair of the Arabic department at his college in Tangier. Such a man would have been "sacrificed" under Yassine's plans.

I have more to say, but I really have to cut this short. I just wanted to give those people who had missed the documentary an idea about what it was like. I think it will be available for streaming on the program's page very soon. You can also read an online conversation at the Washington Post with the producer and director of 'Class of 2006'

July 17, 2006

Driss Chraïbi Turns 80

Last Saturday marked the eightieth birthday of novelist Driss Chraïbi, one of the most prominent and talented figures of Moroccan literature. Born on July 15, 1926, in El Jadida, Chraïbi is the author of such classics as Le Passé Simple ('The Simple Past'), Succession Ouverte ('Heirs to the Past'), La Civilisation, Ma Mère ('Mother Comes of Age'), and of course the Inspector Ali series.

Because of the dearth of children's literature by and for Moroccans, most of the stuff I read when I was very little was, for the most part, in--and about--the French. I read and re-read Astérix et Obelix, Tintin, Boule et Bill, Lucky Luke, anything in the Bibliothèque Rose, the Bibliothèque Verte, the entire works of de Ségur, etc. So it wasn't until I was about twelve or thirteen, when I had begun to read adult literature, that I came across novels by Moroccans, about Moroccan characters, dealing with their lives, their loves, their dilemmas, and so on. For me, that's what Chraïbi represents: The man who made it possible to see my own culture, in words. I haven't read him in years, and I am afraid to revisit some of his books, lest the memory turn out to be much better than the reality. And I want to cherish the memory.