Final Night of Mawazine Festival

The 11th annual Mawazine Festival, "Rhythms of the World", has once again been a huge success. Despite sniping criticism from the far right conservatives, the festival has drawn enormous crowds to Rabat to celebrate music, peace and tolerance.

The Festival director, Aziz Daki, was quick to claim victory. "This huge spectator attendance is a very clear sign of victory of the values of openness and tolerance of all other "edgy"ideas over those who want to marginalize the festival."

Countering criticism that state subsidies fund the Mawazine Festival, organisers vowed that the event would no longer use public money but continue to secure performers of the same high standard. "This is the only festival in Morocco – and possibly in the world – which does not receive any subsidies from the city which hosts it," Aziz Daki said.

Mariah Carey performing at Mawazine

A number of styles of music have been represented through performers including: Cheb Khaled, Asalah Nasri, Abdallah Al Rowaished, Vigon and the Dominos, Evanescence, Nancy Ajram, Pitbull, Yolanda Be Cool, Scorpions, Mariah Carey, Lenny Kravitz, Fadel Shaker, Dounia Batma and more.

The four main open-air stages designed to accommodate crowds of 15,000 to more than 100,000 have been packed with people, organisers said.

Mariah Carey and son Moroccan

A capacity crowd is expected for the final concert tonight with Mariah Carey. She arrived in Rabat yesterday.

Algerian singer Cheb Khaled, the "Prince of Rai"

More than 175,000 music lovers turned out to see headliner Cheb Khaled, the "Prince of Rai" drape Moroccan and Algerian flags around his neck as he sang songs calling for harmony between countries.

During a press conference Khaled stressed the need to create a united Maghreb, along the lines of the European Union, based on brotherhood. "It would be a great source of strength," he said.

Cheikhi Brahimi, who brought his son Mohib to listen to Khaled's performance, said: "This is a symbol of brotherhood between the peoples of the Maghreb, despite their political differences. Art unites the Maghreb."

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Rabat - Winner of Smarter Cities Challenge

As part of the IBM Smarter Cities Challenge grant program, a team of five IBM experts  has arrived in Morocco. For the next three weeks, they will help devise a plan for a more efficient and better integrated transportation system in the greater metropolitan area of Rabat, including Sale and Temara.

Rabat beat 140 other cities around the world to become one of IBM's Smarter Cities Challenge winners this year. Launched in 2011, the IBM initiative is a three-year, 100-city US$50 million competitive grant program and is IBM's single-largest philanthropic initiative.

Winning cities get the benefit of some of IBM's most talented employees who examine critical top priority urban issues such as transportation, health, housing, economic development and public safety. The IBM team then creates a comprehensive plan of creative solutions which they present to the city's leadership addressing each top priority issue.

Rabat, as the administrative capital of Morocco, hosts all government ministries and embassy headquarters, and has a rapidly growing metropolitan population of 1.8 million people. As a result, Rabat faces increased demand for public transport. As part of the Moroccan National Urban Transport Strategy, transforming the area's transport system has become a priority to help improve the city's efficiency and demonstrate the sustainability of urban transport for the rest of the country.

In collaboration with the Moroccan Ministry of Interior, the Municipality of Rabat, the Bouregreg Valley Development Agency, Stareo (Greater Rabat Bus transportation Management Company), The National Commission on Urban Transport (NCUT) and The Casablanca Urban Transport Planning and Management Agency, the IBM team will provide insights and recommendations on:

Governance of the urban transportation sector

Integration of the various transportation modes (Tramway / Bus / Taxi)

Implementation of a sustainable economic model for public transportation

Conducting and implementing change

"IBM is strongly committed to helping cities improve themselves and through this initiative will provide its best talent and expertise to help the city of Rabat develop smarter solutions for urban transport," said Abdallah Rachidi, IBM Morocco Country General Manager.

This is the third IBM team that IBM has sent to Morocco on a pro-bono basis. Earlier this year, a team from IBM's Corporate Service Corps program was involved in several other projects:

At the Ministry of Agriculture, the IBM team helped design systems to help farmers increase revenue. This included a system that automatically disseminates market prices using phone texts and speech recognition technology. The team also provided advice on establishing international food exchanges and an irrigation advisory system that uses analytics technology.

At the Ministry of General and Economic Affairs and the Department of Social Economy, a team of IBM employees proposed a national strategy to implement the "Badawi Souk" to increase the revenue of rural entrepreneurs.

At the ARDI Foundation, the IBM team recommended marketing methodologies for market segmentation and product design, including tactics such as client surveys, word-of-mouth advertising, and an incentive system.

At the Moroccan Women Network for Mentoring, the IBM team developed a two-year plan to help the organization develop a charter, training manual, blog, social networking guidelines, and web advertising strategy.

Africa is a key priority for IBM's skilled problem-solving efforts. Since its launch in 2008, IBM's Corporate Service Corps has deployed more than 500 IBM employees on approximately 44 teams to South Africa, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, and Egypt. All told, across 30 different countries, IBM has sent 1,500 employees and executives coming 50 countries on more than 150 team assignments throughout the world via its Corporate Service Corps.

For more information on IBM Corporate Citizenship, please visit www.citizenibm.com

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Morocco's Equestrian Week 2012

The twenty-seventh edition of the equestrian week is been scheduled to take place in Rabat from May 28th to June 24th.

The 27 edition of the equestrian week has been scheduled to take place in Rabat from May 28 to June 24. The competition is organized under the auspices of HM King Mohammed VI and the Moroccan equestrian sports federation (FRMSE).

The programme includes the Hassan II trophy of traditional equestrian arts to take place from May 28 to June 10

For more details visit: FRMSE

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Fez Festival of World Sacred Music - Medina Nights

The 2012 Fez Festival of World Sacred Music is only a couple of weeks away. This is a timely reminder to make sure you have purchased your tickets. (See full programme here: Programme du Festival de Fès des Musiques Sacrées du Monde 2012)

« Cette roue sous laquelle nous tournons est pareille à une lanterne magique. Le soleil est la lampe ; le monde l'écran ; Nous sommes les images qui passent. »
"This wheel in which we turn is like a magic lantern. The sun is the lamp, the world a screen, and we are the images that pass. " - Omar Khayyam

Between June 8 and 16, in the riads and narrow streets of the Fez Medina,  Morocco's former imperial capital, the chants of Egyptian mystics and Pakistani Sufis will mix with orchestras from Hungary and Italy, Berber rappers, gypsy and Occitan music, soul as well as  blues from Archie Shepp and folk music from Joan Baez. There will also be some  big names from the world of Arab music such as Wadi El Safi and Lotfi Bouchnak.

The festival's inspiration this year is drawn from the writings of Omar Khayyam (1048-1131), a Persian astronomer, mathematician, poet and philosopher to whom the Festival will pay tribute in its 18th edition. The words of Omar Khayyam will resound in an event directed by the Frenchman Tony Gatlif and performed by a troop of actors from around the world". The events staged during the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music include a number of exhibitions in the most evocative parts of the city and the Fes Forum (June 9-12); a talk-fest for comparison and reflection on the profound causes of ideological, political and social change in the world.

THE MEDINA NIGHTS

A special part of the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music is the journey into the heart of the medina over three successive evenings. Amidst the architectural heritage of Arab-Andalusian culture the concerts are held deep in the labyrinthine alleyways of the Fez Medina.

Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat

On Monday 11, Tuesday 12 and Wednesday 13 June you'll find the Following artists at the Batha Museum, and Dar Dar Adiyel Mokri: Mahsa Vahdat & Marjun (Iran) & the Amana Rmiki Ihsan Al Wasi Ensemble (Morocco); Mory Kouyaté Djely and Jean-Philippe Rykiel (France-Guinea), Rabbi Haim Louk and the Arab-Andalusian Ensemble of Fez directed by Abderrahim Souiri; Chérifa (Morocco); Nour Ensemble (Iran-France), Ibn Arabi Ensemble (Morocco); Terra Maire (France), The Song of Songs and a Tribute to Mahmoud Darwish by Rodolph Burger.

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Solar Powered Flight To Arrive In Morocco Next Week

Solar Impulse is ready for the first ever solar powered intercontinental flight From Switzerland to Morocco. The trip will coincide with launch of construction of largest ever solar thermal plant in Morocco's southern Ouarzazate region.

Solar Impulse will be welcomed by Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy

The Swiss sun-powered aircraft Solar Impulse will on Thursday attempt its first intercontinental flight, travelling from Switzerland to Morocco without using a drop of fuel, organisers said. If successful it will be the longest journey to date for the craft after an inaugural flight to Paris and Brussels last year.

Organisers announced at the end of March that the 2,500 km (1,550 mile) trip will coincide with the launch of construction of the largest ever solar thermal plant in Morocco's southern Ouarzazate region.

The plane is scheduled to take off from a military airport at Payerne in Switzerland at 06:45 am (0445 GMT), piloted by Andre Borschberg, who is expected to land in Madrid at around 2:00 am on Friday for a stopover.

Pilot and CEO of Solar Impulse Andre Borschberg    Photograph by: Michel Euler

Bertrand Piccard will pilot the second leg on to Rabat, scheduled to leave Madrid on Monday at the earliest, organisers said.

In Morocco, Solar Impulse will be welcomed by the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy (MASEN).

The trip would be a rehearsal in the run-up to the plane's round-the-world flight planned for 2014.

The high-tech aircraft, which has the wingspan of a large airliner but weighs no more than a saloon car, made history in July 2010 as the first manned plane to fly around the clock on the sun's energy. It holds the record for the longest flight by a manned solar-powered aeroplane after staying aloft for 26 hours, 10 minutes and 19 seconds above Switzerland, also setting a record for altitude by flying at 9,235 metres (30,298 feet).

The Flight Route

The aircraft will took-off today (24 May 2012) from the Payerne airfield (Switzerland) crossing the border via the Jura in the direction of Pontarlier (France) ascending to an altitude of 3’600 meters. The aircraft will then fly over the Massif Central and proceed in the direction of Toulouse before crossing over the Pyrenees at an altitude of 8’500 meters. The prototype is expected to land in Madrid-Barajas airport sometime around 02:00AM (UTC+2) at Madrid-Barajas airport avoiding the peak of international air traffic. Bertrand Piccard will then take the lead and take-off some days thereafter crossing the Gibraltar strait and will land in Rabat in the evening.

Solar Impulse is expected to land in Rabat on Monday or Tuesday.

Follow the flight on line

During the Crossing Frontiers Flights, each flight can be tracked live on www.solarimpulse.com as well as via Twitter (for André or Bertrand), Facebook and via the Smartphone app “Solar Impulse Inventing the Future”, available free on Appstore and Androïd Market. The airplane’s position, altitude and speed will be shown live and cameras fitted inside the cockpit and at “Mission Control Center”, the mission’s nerve center, will allow you to experience the adventure live.

LIVE FEED



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Video of Fez Steinbeck Lecture

The ways in which famous American author John Steinbeck has been influential on Arab authors was the topic of a recent lecture at the American Language Centre in Fez by Hamid Mountassir. There is now a video of the lecture courtesy of Jamal Morelli.

Delivered on May 3 as part of the 32nd Steinbeck Festival, Mountassir spoke on how Steinbeck’s writing about people on the margins of society had influenced contemporary authors such as Mohamed Choukri.

“He (Steinbeck) was trying to experience life as it is,” said Mountassir. ”He is the model when it comes to writing short fiction and novels.”

To see Jamal Morelli's video of the lecture CLICK HERE.

Here are a few tips from Steinbeck about writing your own novel:

1) Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.

2) Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material.

3) Forget your generalized audience. In the first place, the nameless, faceless audience will scare you to death and in the second place, unlike the theater, it doesn’t exist. In writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person—a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one.

4) If a scene or a section gets the better of you and you still think you want it—bypass it and go on. When you have finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave trouble is because it didn’t belong there.

5) If you are using dialogue—say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.


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