Little known facts about Morocco #4623!

When you think about Morocco, you probably think great music, tagines, yellow babouche, Islamic architecture, and wonderful streetscapes. What you probably don't think about are the products that Morocco exports. Let's just check the list: Argan oil (now being sold on French television as "the secret ingredient in the best shampoo"), roses for the French perfume industry, sardines, saffron and peppers! Wait, did I just say peppers (capsicum if you are English)?



According to the website Peppers Today ( yes it really does exist) Morocco is up there competing with the big source of peppers - Spain. According to the Moroccan Association of Fruit and Vegetable Producers and Exporters (APEFEL), a total of 35,200 tonnes was exported in the 2006 campaign, whereas in 2007 the total tonnage was 34,400 in the period from October to May.

Moroccan companies face logistical problems: “Morocco has its own problems. The cost of transporting 14 tonnes of product from Agadir, in Morocco, to Perpignan, in southern France, is nearly EUR 4,000. Our production costs must be reduced in order to improve profitability.”

Morocco is ready to provide properly certified peppers to the European market, while the retailers are intransigent on control levels. Over 70% of the pepper harvest from Moroccan companies has been grown under biological control in this campaign. In the case of the Fusetto and sweet blocky varieties, several companies have applied IPM techniques to 100% of the harvest.

APEFEL added that the development of the crop benefits from Morocco’s climate, which is similar to that of Almería: “There are few countries apart from Israel that could consider growing in the winter period. The cost of the pepper shipments in the winter season has to come down, if a regular supply chain between Morocco, the Netherlands and the UK is to be established.”

Check out our earlier stories about: Saffron, Sardines, Argan Oil

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Need a break from Morocco? Try Bordeaux!

The Terrace apartment in Bordeaux

If you are looking for the perfect place to holiday in France, then think no further than the newly restored ancient heart of Bordeaux! Heart of the wine tourism region and famous for its cuisine - Bordeaux will thrill you. It is also a lot less expensive than Paris! The ancient city is mainly a giant pedestrian precinct and a great place for a holiday.

The view from the terrace

La Terrasse à Bordeaux ( The Terrace in Bordeaux) is a fully furnished apartment on the 4th floor (yes it does have a lift!) and is perfectly located and easy to find. The kitchen is superbly equipped and the large terrace is the perfect spot for drinks at sunset

Bordeaux is at the heart of wine tourism

Minimum stay is three days and lower rates apply for longer periods.

All enquiries should be emailed to: bordeauxterrace@gmail.com

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Cafe Clock - coming soon!

Cafe Clock's Chicken Caesar Salad

Recently, a plaintive note was sounded by an English tourist who said he'd wandered the medina streets looking for Cafe Clock, to no avail.

The View from Fez can report that the Cafe is due to open within weeks, and promises to be a most welcome addition to the Fez eating scene. It is a bit late (the opening party was in May), but as everyone knows who has tried to restore a house in the medina, things don't always go according to plan. But then, when you want perfection, things always take a little longer.

Last night Helen Ranger, Tamsin and Rose were guinea pigs as Cafe Mike was trying out a new chef. The Chicken Caesar Salad was fresh and delicious, with the right amount of dressing, crispy garlicky croutons and lashings of grated parmesan. It was a treat to the eye and the palate. Next came lasagne which promises to be a great dish. The finale (made by Tariq whose cakes are already famous) was banana, walnut and chocolate dessert cake, with a white chocolate sauce.

There's very little left to do on the restoration front. Lights have been installed in the street outside (Derb Magana, leading off Tala'a Kebira at the Bouanania Medersa), the kitchen is almost complete and the rooms are stacked with interesting-looking furniture and objets. The bookshelves for the library are finished, there's a great calligraphy mural on the wall, staff t-shirts are being made - it's all oh so close. We'll keep you posted.


Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

King inaugurates USD-300K social center for children

On Monday the Moroccan King, Mohammed VI, visited Fez and dedicated a USD-310,000 social centre for children, set up by the Mohammed V Foundation for Solidarity.

Located in Ghassani Hospital, the social facility hosts 80 abandoned babies and offers them a set of services through various spaces, notably four dormitories with a capacity of 80 beds and a medical check-up room.

Also in Fez last Friday the sovereign inaugurated a USD-350,000 training centre for children, set up by the Mohammed V Foundation for Solidarity.

The facility will accommodate street children as well as children from poor areas. It will provide them with pedagogical studies and training programs aimed at enabling them to have right professional qualifications to join the job market. It will also provide medical care through an emergency medical unit.

The centre includes workshops of hairdressing, electricity and aesthetics, an IT room, two classrooms, a library, an administration and a room of first aid.

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Leonardo DiCaprio films in Morocco

Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

Body of Lies

David Ignatius, columnist at the Washington Post and established novelist, wrote the novel that's currently being filmed in Rabat as Body of Lies. Leonardo DiCaprio plays a former journalist, now CIA operative, in this political thriller, who is searching for a high-profile Al-Qaida terrorist in Jordan. Russell Crowe plays his boss. The film is directed by Ridley Scott, and will be released next year.

Yassir Yaghfouri, on his blog yaghfouri.canalblog.com, reports that the good citizens of Rabat are not all that pleased to have the filming going on around them. Residents of the block where filming is taking place are annoyed by wires, bright lighting and large numbers of security forces in the neighbourhood. They’re also not that keen on the fact that Arabs are typecast as the ‘baddies’ once again. Yassir makes the valid point that it would be useful for the public to know what the regulations are regarding filming in Moroccan cities, and how much film companies have to pay for permits. Then at least we'd know how much the city is benefitting from any inconvenience filming might cause.

Shooting apparently moves on to Ouazarzate soon.



Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Important Urban Issues in Fez

In case you missed it, here's what The View from Fez reader, Girl in the Crosswalk, wrote as a comment a couple of days ago in response to our report on civil action in the face of price hikes in basic necessities:


You are probably wondering why I’ve been lurking about your blog so much. I’m taking a class on Urban Development and Issues in the Middle East and we have an assignment to write a paper based on a blog about a city. I’m going to be following your blog for the next few weeks for my paper, although I’ll probably keep following afterward because it’s very interesting and informative. I was just wondering, though, what do you feel the biggest urban issues are in Fez? (Only if you have time to answer such a question though.) I’m trying to figure out what to really look for in writing about the urban issues and what’s being done to cope with those issues in the city. I am particularly interested in the Berber culture though, so any types of urban issues that may have to do with that would be really interesting to learn about.

Best wishes,

Girl In the Crosswalk

Well, firstly Fez and Morocco are NOT in the Middle East - we're in North Africa and/or the Maghreb. That aside, Girl in the Crosswalk poses an interesting question .... what are the biggest urban issues in Fez? Here are a few ideas:
- a serious problem with falling-down architectural masterpieces in the medina, the very basis of cultural tourism in Fez. What's to be done? Should there be a national inventory of culturally important buildings and their contents so that they can be protected against vandalism and eventually restored?
- urban pollution all over the country: plastic bags are the national flower and people throw rubbish everywhere without a care (or a thought), to say nothing of the ghastly pollution that throttles Fez, from the belching buses (government vehicles at that!), the taxis and trucks and private cars with faulty exhausts to the oily black filth emanating from the potteries - where is it all to end? Can any form of recycling ever be introduced in Morocco? Would the government ever consider tax benefits for solar power users?
- Literacy - or illiteracy - is an urban problem too. How important is it that people can read and write? Does it matter if they're over 50, if all the efforts to educate people are aimed at children currently at school?

So, Girl in the Crosswalk, here are a few ideas for your paper. And The View from Fez readers are invited to put their points of view. What do you think are the important urban issues in Fez?



Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Fes Festival of World Sacred Music 2008

Always first with news of the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music, The View from Fez can confirm that the dates for the 2008 event are Friday 6 to Saturday 14 June.

While the programme has yet to be announced, the theme of the Festival will be Chemins de la Creation, which could translate into English as Pathways of Creation or Pathways of Creativity - we await clarification. But such a theme will give rise to plenty of interesting debate and form the foundation of a stimulating programme of music, culture and the arts across the spectrum.

New Director General
The View from Fez reported at the beginning of August that the Director General of the Spirit of Fes Foundation that organises the Fes Festival, Naima Tagemaouti, had resigned after less than one year on the job. Her appointment followed the resignation of the founder and first Director General of the Sacred Music Festival, Faouzi Skali, who now runs his own annual Sufi Culture Festival in Fes which will take place in April 2008. The search has been on ever since for someone to take Naima's place. Fatima Sadiqi fits the bill and was appointed in September though this has only recently been common knowledge.



Fatima Sadiqi is Professor of Linguistics and Gender Studies and has been affiliated to Harvard University since 2006. Well-known for her work on Moroccan languages and women's issues, she is also a familiar face at the Arabic Language Institute in Fez where she's a lecturer.

She's been a Fulbright Scholar at four US universities and founded the first graduate unit of Gender Studies in Morocco. Fatima founded the Centre for Studies and Research on Women at the University of Fez and is currently President and Founder of the ISIS Center for Women & Development. Fatima's husband Moha Naji runs the National Festival of Amazigh Culture. Learn more at www.fatimasadiqi.on.ma.

Gerard Kurdjian Returns to Fez

2008's Festival also sees the return of Gerard Kurdjian as Artistic Director. He held this position from the start of the Sacred Music Festival in 1996 until he was replaced in 2006 by Cherif Khaznadar. Gerard is a popular member of the festival team and is sure to receive a warm welcome.

Find further information on the Fes Festival of World Sacred Music at www.fesfestival.com and on the Fes Festival of Sufi Culture at www.par-chemins.org.

Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Morocco suffers in the search for Madeleine McCann

On 30 September, an editorial in Aujourd'hui Le Maroc newspaper bemoaned the fact that Morocco has suffered from stereotypical views in the tragic case of Madeleine McCann's disappearance.

While everyone sympathises with the horror that her parents must be going through, it was interesting to note that presumed sightings of the child in Morocco make this an international case, not just European. Morocco adds a twist of the exotic unknown, where presumably children can be abducted and never found in such a mysterious environment. Driss Ajbali of Aujourd'hui makes the point that the Rif mountains, where the latest supposed sighting of Madeleine took place, are seen as a hotbed of mafia-like networks and are known for rampant drug-trafficking. In the photographs taken by Spanish tourists, the mother of Bouchra, the look-alike child, is dressed in the traditional striped apron and pompom hat of the region, which adds to the strangeness and feeds the fear of the unknown. Ajbali also points to the hysteria caused by stereotypical thinking: as everyone knows that all Arabs have black frizzy hair, what's a little blond girl doing in Morocco - it must be Madeleine! How could it be anyone else?

This kind of hysteria is not doing Morocco any good at all. And why should Madeleine be here in Morocco as opposed to anywhere else? Sadly, as she disappeared so many weeks ago, it can only be assumed that the child is no longer alive and won't be found here in Morocco or anywhere else.




Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

New faces in the Medina - Erich Groat

Erich Groat has recently arrived from the US to join the staff of English teachers at the American Language Center. He's no stranger to Fez though, as he studied Arabic here earlier in the year. Here's what Erich has to say about himself:

"I'm a musician, a theoretical linguist (in theory, at least, anyway), and (more practically) a teacher of linguistics and the English language, now working at the American Language Center and living in the medina. I've come to Fez to escape being consumed by the ever-expanding, ever-dying Boston metropolitan area, to correspond with faraway friends, to make more music and more friends, to learn at least two kinds of Arabic, and to wander the streets of a truly living city, a place where the ancient and modern coexist and transform each other in most unpredictable and engaging ways."

Welcome, Erich. We think the students at the ALC are going to enjoy their new teacher.





Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news