BO18

Head over to "The View from Fez" for a superb photo-diary of the Sidi Ali ben Hamdush moussem (festival held in honour of a saint)

The photos show a part of Morocco which you usually don't see in non-moroccan newspapers or holiday-brochures.
I kept on watching and stuyding the pictures during worktime. They're really amazing.

Thank you View from Fez!

Part 1 and Part 2 of the photo-account

Copyright Photo: Suzanna Clarke

Starting next Thursday (March 1) an old radioshow will be broadcasted again (from the ZBS foundation) called Moon over Morocco, a Jack Flanders tale.

As you kind of guessed, the story is situated in Morocco. Jack Flanders travels to Morocco in search of natural magic and en route discovers the sounds and culture of Morocco (and more but you just have to listen)
One of my teachers had the cd's and forced us to listen to the whole story. I thought it was actually quite nice. But my teacher thought otherwise, according to her it was another example of "how we westerners have a distorted view of North Africa".
I think she never knew of the existence of pop-culture or "hippie-culture".

Anyhow, the sounds are very nice. And according to BoingBoing the music was recorded by the legendary Paul Bowles! I didn't know that, so an extra incentive to listen.

Anyhow it will be available as podcast. The first show is on the 1st of March. And then everyday, 7 weeks long.
The podcast will be available here

(via BoingBoing)

When I still lived with my parents, every summer used to be hell.
It was the time to plan our travels to Morocco. 2 of the children would go by airplane and the other 2 would go by car with my parents. 2 or 3 days long jammed in a car and sleeping in cheap roadside hotels. (I really feel sorry for the ones who slept in their car. Brrrr). Especially the hotels in southern spain were horrendous. That area of Spain is seriously still underdeveloped, they still use squat toilets!! But they have Cola Cao chocolate drink so I forgive them.

So anyhow, besides sucking up to my parents and begging to travel by plane, we also endured the countless shopping trips of my parents.
We received a shopping-list from family-members in Morocco and off we went buying everything they wished.
Cars(!), dryers, playstations, mayonaise, peanut-butter, dutch cheese, curry gewürz, H&M -jeans, everything you can imagine.
And it was not that they were poor and we bought these products for them as a present. No they paid everything back. Most of my remaining family-members in Morocco are actually better off than my parents in the Netherlands! Seriously, 2 houses, 2 cars, 2 well-paid jobs. Just upper-middle-class.
We were 1 house, 1 car, 1 job, lower middle-class.

No, we bought this stuff because of this very weird and stupid myth that goes around in Morocco.
The myth that everything that comes from Europe is of a better quality. There is this idea in Morocco that everything whats sold in Morocco is of a bad quality.
So the Sony-VCR sold in Marjane or Metro and the Sony VCR sold in the Dutch Makro are both made in China. But due to some mysterious technique the one sold in Morocco is of a lesser quality, simply because its sold in Morocco.
I seriously didn't know where they got that idea from.
I mean, most of them are well-educated. So they should know how a product is being produced, assembled and sold in the globalized market.
They can't be that stupid right?


I thought for a while that it might be about status. A European product marks your upward climb in the social ladder. But you cant see if a dvd-player was bought in Marjane-Casablanca or Carrefour-Marseille. And I never heard of people really bragging about where there appliances come from.
Of course status plays some role in the whole story. But the idea that Moroccan-sold products are inferior plays a bigger role (and actually triggers the status-part)

This way of thinking captivated me. I thought it kind of resembled the widespread inferiority-complex of the Moroccan society.
But is that really so? Is the Moroccan society, as a whole, really that stupid to believe in the superiority of European-sold products?

I'm afraid it is. This whole idea of product-superiority is part of the way of thinking in North Africa. And to some extent, in other parts of the developing world.
Products purchased in the developed world simply have a better image.
Developing countries are developing (duh). Consumers in those countries still don't trust products assembled/sold in their own country. This distrust developed when the industries were largely controlled by the state. And state-products are most of the time just "crappy".
The consumers already experienced the products made by/sold in developed countries due to emigrated family and friends.
And even if the same products start to penetrate the own market, they still have a stigma as "Moroccan" products. They might be more expensive than locally produced products but eventually they're both sold in Morocco.

I'm maybe wrong and Moroccan consumers don't pay attention anymore to where the product was sold/bought. So correct me if I'm wrong.
But I noticed this a lot of times. Not only in my family but also in others who have family or friends in Europe.
And it is actually very sad. It shows that they still struggles with their inferiority-complex, while they dont need to.

The American photographer Spencer Platt has won the prize for the best World Press Photo of the year 2006.

This is the award-winning photo:

A group of young Lebanese driving through a devastated neighborhood in South Beirut.

I have been thinking lately about my "Moroccanness" , yes thats a word!
As a young, 2nd generation immigrant in Europe thinking about your "somethingness" (thats a word as well) is quite normal.

I started evaluating my Moroccanness. Do I still speak Moroccan/Darija properly? Do I still know how to make briouat and am I still able to gossip Maroqui when I meet up with fellow distorted Moroccan..er..hipsters?
I know that these points above aren't exactly a good basis for the evaluation. But there were other points as well. Like guilt/shame etc. Let's say that there are a lot of points. OK?

So I decided to meet up with some fellow distorted Moroccans in Maghrebtown (Notting Hill Road and surroundings, Moroccans are quite upmarket here in London hehe)
I, or we, came to the shocking conclusion that my level of Moroccanness plummeted in recent years.


I was thinking that I can hardly call myself Moroccan anymore. I dont know how to make briouat anymore, my Darija is lousier than that of a baby and gossip Maroqui irritates me (gossip maricón is still ok)
Besides that I just don't feel really Moroccan.
I havent been to Morocco for 6 years, I shunned it for its ignorance and other reasons.
My reckless idealism decided to play tricks on me and telling me that I should shun Morocco for its backward culture and politics. So I did.
Let me clarify the "backward culture" stance. I regard every culture or state as backward when religion and modern conservatism are playing a major role.
And sadly in Morocco, modern conservatism is on the rise (from hear-say that is)

And besides that, I lived in the Netherlands (NL) until a while ago. And I never saw any resemblance between my family and that of most other Moroccans in NL.
Now I have to say, and this may sound quite snobby, that my family's position both in Europe and in Morocco isn't like that of most immigrant-families. Especially my mothers side. We're quite westernized if I may say so.
My mother always told us that most Moroccans in NL are "so3ian" and "kleb" (dogs). My family in Morocco used to say the same thing about Moroccans in Morocco.
I know very bad, but I can't hardly change their position on it.
My fathers side of the family are from the Rif mountains, so I wont elaborate on that. Thats kind of pretty clear.

So the "Westernized" family combined with me being even more "Westernized" has led to a failing Moroccan identity.
Now most of the time I dont have any problems with that. I always doubted the validity of a national identity.
I mean we all need passports and so on, but it is the feeling that I always questioned.
I regard it as dangerous and as a prelude to ignorance.

I'm all pro global and globalized culture. But we all know that the globalized culture is failing somehow. We're still global but regional global. We all, eventually, fall back to "our" region.
In my case that would be both Morocco and the Netherlands, like all other second generation immigrants.
But as you kind of guessed, it would be like that but it isn't.
In my case its nothing. I'm regionalless (thats a real word as well and thats a fact!)
Another sign that my "Moroccanness" is failing.

And you know what? I'm actually proud of it. It takes alot of practice and time to dispose yourself of the cultural shackles.
Its just that you feel naked afterwards, but I don't have problems with feeling naked.

This is quite interesting.
The British Library, the best place to hangout in London, has an online collection of old manuscripts and books that you can browse and study online.
The project is called "Turning the Pages"

You can choose between 15 masterpieces. Leonardo da Vinci's sketches, Jane Austen, the oldest printed book, a 700yr old Quran and a Hebrew prayer book.
All very interesting.

Go and see!
Turning the Pages

This is is so cool!
A soundboard with different sounds form China . From women inmates in Bejing to a Goddess ceremony in Meizhou island.
Just click on the map.

Listen & enjoy! I know I did:P

The UK is spellbound by the alleged racism on Celebrity Big Brother (CBB)
CBB is a show were minor "celebs" can regain their old 5 minutes of fame.
It is raunchy, stupid and uninteresting. Usually.

Because now, all of the UK wonders if 3 of the contestants are racist or not.
The 3 are Jade Goody (fat cow that participated in BB3), Danielle Loyd (who?) and Jo O'meara (who again?)
The person being "racially attacked" is Bollywood-star Shilpa Shetty.


The 3 minor "celebs" constantly make fun of Shilpa's Indian background, her accent and the Indian culture.
Some of the comments:
O'Meara: "Indians are thin because they are always ill, due to undercooked food."
Danielle Lloyd: "don't let her touch your food. You never know where her hands have been, because all Indians eat with their hands"
Lloyd: "She's a dog"

And she has been called Paki, a presumably offensive word in the UK.
The mother of Jade (who has been voted out of the house) constantly referred to Shilpa as "the Indian"
Shilpa was also accused of wanting to be "light-skinned" when she was just applying some face-cream.

Jade Goody is famous because of her BB3-appearance and her stupidity. She thinks that East-Anglia is an actual country. Tactical is being pronounced as tictactical.
She wonders if they speak English in the USA.
And more famous quotes:

"Do they speak Portuganese in Portugal? I thought Portugal was in Spain."

"Rio de Janeiro, ain't that a person?"

"What's asparagus? Do you grow it?"

Don't you ever mess with anti-war protesters. Usually they're smarter then you.
Not always but usually.

Take Brian Haw for instance. The UK's most famous anti-war protester. He has been "protesting" in front of the Parliament for 6 years now.

Recently his massive 40m display was reduced to a mere 3m display with anti-war placards.
Every time I walk by, I keep on thinking that he is defeated by the government. (the placards are tiny and silly. Hilarious actually)

Not anymore now. Tate Britain came to the rescue and an exact replica of the 40m. display is now exhibited as art in the museum. And it is all legal.
According to some freakish law, people are not allowed to have unauthorised demonstrations or raise placards within 1km distance of the Parliament.
The exact spot where the replica is situated, is also the border of that 1km zone.

I told you they were smart!

Every now and then you buy book that you know is just pulp and too commercial (as in written for housewives)
But you still buy it, and thats what I did last weekend when I bought "Muhajababes" by Allegra Stratton.


It was quite a nice book actually. The main topic is youth culture in the Middle East. In 277 pages the author tries to discover and understand the everyday life of the arab youth.
The main items that keep on coming back in her book are Haifa Wehbe videoclips, Amr Khaled, prince Alwaleed and satellite tv.
According to the writer these are the factors that influence the local youth cultures. These factors also led to the rise of the so-called Muhajababes. Veiled youngsters who dress like the singers in the videoclips.
These Muhajababes are the product of religiosity, islamic tv-evangelism, commercial culture and western influences.

The book gives you a little insight in the everyday life of middle or upperclass girls and boys.
And thats also one of my issues with this book. It is a nice little guide if you want to know more about the middle class and up. But it doesnt cover the youngster who live in slums, poorer urban areas or the countryside. While the youngster there form the biggest part of the young arab population.

So the book felt lacking somehow. But it is still a nice book to read. I dont know if I'll recommend it to someone, but if you dont know what to do with £8 you can buy this book.
It will keep you busy for a little while.

THE VIEW FROM FEZ has found an interesting site about the old Morocco.
Its called MarocAntan and it includes audio, postcards and photographs of the old Morocco.
Expect to see beuatiful girls in traditional clothes and that kind of stuff.

The site is in French but it provides a English translation button on the right.
Enjoy!

MarocAntan