Moroccan Photo Contest Update #3

IMPORTANT ! To date we have received more than 1000 votes in the people's choice awards. Thank you to those who voted. Voting will close next Tuesday October 19. The judges have also made their decisions.

The winners will be announced in Fez at Cafe Clock (exact day and time to be announced).

Please get your final votes in!

Opinion -The death of "Nichane" is a win for Islamists

The news that Morocco's favourite liberal magazine Nichane (Arabic for "straight ahead") has closed, has been greeted with dismay across the country and overseas. While Nichane pushed the boundaries, it should have been supported by the establishment as a fine example of modern Islam. Yet, the magazine has closed, not by court order, but by a boycott by advertisers, prompted by some in the establishment. Ibn Warraq reflects on the events.

The forced closing of Nichane is a major miscalculation by those in power, and it is to be hoped that they come to their senses and realise that Nichane was a tremendously good example to the world of just how progressive Morocco has become. Social reforms have been extremely positive, but closing Nichane is not just a bad look, it is a step backwards. Morocco should be mature enough to embrace total press freedom.

The reaction around the world has been swift, strong and critical. Even the mild mannered Guardian weighed in with a major article that points out that the boycott was "absurd to the point of hilarity." However the editor of Nichane, the respected journalist Ahmed Benchemsi, is not laughing.

For Benchemsi, the real loss is his prominent platform for spotlighting some of the Middle East's top young liberal journalists. Nichane – one of very few Arabic-language publications broaching such topics as gay rights and religious freedom – offered average north Africans a powerful cultural counterpoint to growing Islamist forces. The real winner from Nichane's untimely demise is thus the very Islamists the Moroccan monarchy claims to hold at bay. Perversely, autocrats and Islamists share an interest in silencing the liberal voices that threaten their respective power bases: the state apparatus and the "Arab street".

Benchemsi might seem a provocateur who overstepped the boundaries of his "native culture". But it bears noting that he launched his publishing venture the same year Osama bin Laden launched the September 11 attacks. Middle Eastern "culture" remains up for grabs, with both Islamist and liberal voices vying for market share. To defeat extremism, the west must help nurture genuine liberals like Benchemsi, who offer their audiences authentic alternatives to both the Islamists' poisonous ideological brew and the autocrats' stifling vision of modernity without freedom.

A Fez Challenge

If you are a visitor to Fez, then see if you can find where our friend Eberhard Hahne took this photograph. And yes, it is a bird market !

Jazz in Riad Festival in Fez

The Fez Jazz in Riad Festival begins on Friday 8 October and promises some fun on the streets and in concert venues in the Medina.

PROGRAMME
Friday 8 October:
19h00: Roller Brass Band - jazz/festive funk on rollerblades - a show through the medina streets to the Batha Museum

21h00: Opening concert at Batha Museum: Louis Winsberg Septet Marseille-Marseille (jazz/Arab-Andalous/Flamenco)

Saturday 9 October:
10h00: Exhibition at Batha Museum (free entry): L'arbre du Jazz (Tree of Jazz)

11h00: Film screening and debate at Institut Francais: Autour du Violon: film by Didier Lockwood who interviews Moroccan and African musicians (free entry)

14h30: Roller Brass Band through the medina to the Batha Museum

16h00: Concert at Batha Museum: Monica Passos (Lemniscate - Jazz Brazil)

21h00: Concert at Batha Museum: The Golden Gate Quartet Le must du Gospel

Sunday 10 October:
11h00: Film screening and debate at Institut Francais: Assikel - Voyage de Bali a Baly by Tania Mouracade with Steve Shehan (free entry)

14h30: Roller Brass Band through the medina to the Batha Museum

16h00: Concert at Batha Museum: Hadouk Trio (ethno-jazz-world music)

21h00: Closing concert at Batha Museum: Keltic Tales Quintet (jazz-world music)


Concerts at 16h00 cost Dh50, and evening concerts cost Dh100. Tickets at the door.

For more information, see www.fesjazz.com or phone 0535 740 535.

Moroccan Photo Competition Judging : Update #2

There is just over a week left in which any of our readers can help judge the Moroccan Photography Competition.

So far the response has been amazing with just over 700 votes cast ! There is still no clear winner and only a small number of votes will swing the balance one way or the other between the top ten or so photographs.

There are 102 finalists in the competition and we ask you to vote for three (3) photographs in order of your preference. You may only cast your vote once!

To find out more see the voting rules and link to the 10 pages of wonderful photographs.

Go here: Moroccan Photo Competition.

POSTCARD FROM LARACHE

The View from Fez Postcard Series Continues as our intrepid team heads to... 

LARACHE

Today we're in a town little visited by tourists outside the holiday season. Larache is situated on the southern banks of the Loukkos river estuary and has a long history of Portuguese and then Spanish occupation before the French.

The central square, Place de la Libération (also known as Plaza d'Espana) is large and planted with palm trees. Main roads fan out from it, full of early 1920 Mauresque buildings. The town retains a strong Spanish influence and many people speak Spanish as a second language.

Ruins of Portuguese fortifications (see above) can be found along the seafront, and you can sit at a pavement café on the square and see the sea.

Spanish investment in the town has meant that many of the beautiful old buildings are disappearing in favour of bright shiny apartment blocks. The Spanish influence is also found in the food - sardines and paella compete with the preponderance of pizza joints. Restaurants close around 10pm, but in season stay open much later.

LIXUS

We stopped off at Lixus on our way from Asilah to Larache.  Phoenician  settlement of this area dates back more than 2000 BCE. Much older than Volubilis.  Lixus sees fewer visitors, has been less well-researched and is quite overgrown. The resident guide, El Mokhtar El Hannache, will point out the later Carthaginian buildings, and the much later Roman constructions on top of them. Lixus was a maritime city, but these days the sea is 4km away.

There are the remains of a temple to Neptune on the site as well as an amphitheatre (the only one in Morocco), baths, houses, Carthaginian rainwater collection pits (the Romans abandoned these), other temples and a forum. The inhabitants made olive oil and a preserved fish paste much revered in Rome. Today the few olives are wild and only for the birds.

The views of the serpentine Loukkos river are superb from the top of the site. Salt beds, a view of distant Larache and fishing vessels at sea complete the scene.

On the northern side of the estuary, a beautiful beach stretches for miles. There's a large modern development, Port Lixus, with hotels; apartments and even a  marina, that's fortunately not visible from Larache. For now; the town relies on fishing and seasonal tourism and seems a world away from both squeaky-clean Asilah and the major cities of Tangier and Rabat.

See all The View from Fez POSTCARDS HERE.

Life expectancy in Morocco

Back in the 1960s Life expectancy at birth in Morocco averaged around 62 years. Now it has made a leap to 73.1 years.

The number of 60-year-olds and over has moved from 833,000 to 2.4 million over the intervening decades, an annual rise of 2.3%. Incidently October 1 is celebrated in Morocco as the International Day of Older Persons.

It is forecast that the number of older persons will grow by 3.5% yearly between now and 2030, compared to 0.9% for overall population, and will reach 5.8 million by 2030. This will make that older age group 15.4% of the population as against 8.1% now.

One interesting cause for the demographic shift is that the average number of children per woman declined from 7.2 to 2.4 between the start of the 1960s and 2010.

Moroccan Photography Competition Judging Update #1

The response to the invitation for our readers to help select the "People's Choice" award has been overwhelming. In the first 24 hours we have had almost 400 votes cast. Anyone can vote by emailing their first secobnd and third choices (you must vote for three photographs). First choices get 3 points, second choice two points and third choice 1 point.

At this stage there are absolutely no clear winners, with the votes almost evenly spread across all 102 entries.

What has been particularly impressive is the number of photographers who did not vote for their own photographs! There are even two professional's who declined to vote seing that they were participants.

Please Vote !

If you have not voted, follow the link to learn how voting works : VOTE NOW

Preview of new riad in Fez

Michel and Catherine Biehn opened the doors of their beautiful riad last night to celebrate the end of the construction phase of the project.

Le Jardin des Biehn is a large estate of around 2500sqm situated on Aqbat Sebaa in the Fes Medina. There's a beautiful garden (pictured above) with trees, flowing water and fountains. The guesthouse will have nine rooms arranged around the garden and is due to open within a month or so.

Michel Biehn

The house has been restored with care and decorated with flair and elegance, but retains its simplicity. M Biehn is a well-known antiquarian, decorator and collector specialising in fabrics and old costumes, and has published several books.

So far, only one room has been furnished, and it gives us an inkling of what's to come:




One end of the garden will house the Fez Cafe which will be open to the public. It will specialise in flavours of the orient - not only Morocco, but other countries such as Lebanon and Turkey - and will offer a daily menu of soup, salad, pasta, all marked up on a blackboard. As M Biehn has published some cookery books, we have high expectations! The Cafe has wonderful lighting and features the ubiquitous star image found all over the house.

There's even a football table, as Frederic Calmes discovered:

At the entrance to the riad is a gallery, where M Biehn intends to mount various exhibitions. Here are some of his own pieces on show at the moment:

We wish the Biehns every success and look forward to the opening of their exquisite riad.

All photographs: Sandy McCutcheon