Marhaba bikoum (Welcome)! This blog is intended for the Portland Metropolitan area and the greater Northwest Region, and all those wishing to learn about Morocco.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Moroccan-American Friendship
When the 13 separate states of America declared themselves the United States, the Morocccan Sultan Sidi Mohammed was the very first sovereign to recognize the new American nation.The greatest heroes of American early history were the strongest proponents of friendship with Morocco. The Treaty of Friendship between our nations was urged on Congress by Benjamin Franklin, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, signed by John Adams and affirmed by George Washington in a letter to the Sultan. The Treaty of American-Moroccan Friendship is the oldest American treaty of its kind still enforced today.The oldest property owned by America on foreign soil is one of the most beautiful buildings in Tangier, Morocco. A gift to America from Morocco.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
The American Fondouk Animal Hospital: An Oasis for Animals in North Africa
An amazing gesture...it's really hard to imagine how much difference this animal hospital makes in the daily lives of hundreds of Moroccan families, the ones who need the most help. The animals treated in the hospital are more than just companions, they are partners in life.
The American Fondouk was founded by Sidney Haines Coleman, former President of the American Humane Association, in the 1920s. The Fondouk is a full-service animal hospital treating 50 to 100 animals a day, more than 18,000 annually. The hospital is staffed by a resident veterinarian, a blacksmith, and 8 other employees. An onsite laboratory helps with diagnosis and a small surgical facility handles routine procedures.
www.Fondouk.org
Watch a video about the Fondouk
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Cheap flights to Morocco from Europe
You can fly to Morocco from France or Beligum as cheap as $20, $30, $50 or $60.
There are other options as well check the websites.
www.jet4you.com
http://www.atlas-blue.com/en/index.php
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Festival of Love
Imilchil is the incarnation of the Moroccan version of Romeo and Juliette.
Imilchil is a big marriage festival where tens of young couples from different tribes in the region get married every year. The legend behind this very old festival goes as follows:
Imilchil is a big marriage festival where tens of young couples from different tribes in the region get married every year. The legend behind this very old festival goes as follows:
Isli and Tislit were in love… each a member of enemy Berber tribes, their parents would not let them marry…
The broken hearted lovers sat each on top of a hill and cried until they died…their tears are what created the two neighboring lakes named after the two lovers…
Say it with a Rose...
What’s better than to express oneself through a rose…
The Valley of the Roses is the Valley of Dades, where the festival of roses takes place every year in Morocco for a longtime now…
Kelaate Meggouna hosts this event every year. Rose water is a very unique ingredient that Moroccans use for cooking and perfumery.
Kelaate Meggouna smells like heaven all year round. Rose farmers gather to make this event a big celebration.
Tons of petals are used to make rose oil and other ingredients. Rose petals are everywhere, it feels like it’s raining petals…
Kelaate Meggouna people prepare this event with love, to host love covered with love and celebrated in love…
The Valley of the Roses is the Valley of Dades, where the festival of roses takes place every year in Morocco for a longtime now…
Kelaate Meggouna hosts this event every year. Rose water is a very unique ingredient that Moroccans use for cooking and perfumery.
Kelaate Meggouna smells like heaven all year round. Rose farmers gather to make this event a big celebration.
Tons of petals are used to make rose oil and other ingredients. Rose petals are everywhere, it feels like it’s raining petals…
Kelaate Meggouna people prepare this event with love, to host love covered with love and celebrated in love…
The closing ceremony is the election of the Rose Beauty Queen.
Moto Morocco
"Morocco is one of the best countries in the world for Motorcycling…..it’s got everything from snow capped mountains and breathtaking passes, deep gorges, forests, beaches and some of the best biking roads we’ve ever seen.
In between these are great Imperial cities, buzzing bazaars, sights and smells that will leave a huge impression on you…from the souks of Marrakech to the tanneries in Fez, the Cedar forests of Khenifra with its wild monkeys and the vast desert planes of the Sahara …..Morocco is a wonderful destination and we can promise it’ll be a trip you’ll never forget"
In between these are great Imperial cities, buzzing bazaars, sights and smells that will leave a huge impression on you…from the souks of Marrakech to the tanneries in Fez, the Cedar forests of Khenifra with its wild monkeys and the vast desert planes of the Sahara …..Morocco is a wonderful destination and we can promise it’ll be a trip you’ll never forget"
Gnawa Festival
The Gnawa music inspired a number of great musicians such as Jimmi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and others. Gnaoua music is a pentatonic music very similar to Blues music because both are rooted in the heart of Africa.
Jimmy Page and Robert Plant went even further to create No Quarter in 1994. No Quarter is a fusion between gnaoua music and rock, following the steps of Randy Weston who was the first musician to fuse his jazz music with gnaoua in the 60's.
The Gnawa) Festival takes place in Essaouira - The Wind City - that hosted the hippy movement in the 70's. Essaouira is a very vibrant place to be from its rich culture and history to its beaches and weather that makes it a heaven for windsurfers.
"Gnawa are the descendents of slaves originating from Black Africa who established brotherhoods throughout Morocco. They are made up of master musicians (maâlem), metal castanet players, clairvoyants, mediums and their followers.
They are at the same time musicians, initiators and healers, blending African and Arabo-Berber customs. Despite being Muslims, the Gnawa base their ritual on djinn (spirits) straight from the the African cult of possession.
The most spectacular and important ceremony is the Lila, whose function is essentially therapeutic.
During the celebration the maâlem and his group call on the saints and supernaturel entities to take possession of their followers who fall into trance."
They are at the same time musicians, initiators and healers, blending African and Arabo-Berber customs. Despite being Muslims, the Gnawa base their ritual on djinn (spirits) straight from the the African cult of possession.
The most spectacular and important ceremony is the Lila, whose function is essentially therapeutic.
During the celebration the maâlem and his group call on the saints and supernaturel entities to take possession of their followers who fall into trance."
Gnawa Festival
Medi 1 - Radio Méditerranée Internationale
Radio Méditerranée Internationale also known as the Greater Maghreb Radio is an excellent media source for international news as well as the Mediterranean and North African regions, areas little covered by the media.
This bilingual radio (Arabic and French) also provides a great diversity of musical genres for all tastes and languages. It hosts experts in the political fields to comment upon world issues.
Medi 1 also has a rich cultural programming: "Points de Vue" of various international literary icons without forgetting cuisine recipes provided on a daily basis.
The friendly and lovable voices of the hosts, the carefully limited time for advertising (no ads after 6 PM) and its fine content makes it most listened-to radio in Morocco.
In short, it is the utlimate radio!
To listen online to Medi 1 click here: http://www.medi1.com/ and click on Play to the bottom left where it says "Nous écouter."
Monday, September 10, 2007
Rallye Aicha des Gazelles
This rallye is not about speed, it is about navigation, (no GPS, only a compass and a map) the winning team is the one that finishes with the least mileage; which allows our Gazelles to enjoy the scenery on their way through this unique adventure.
The Biggest CousCous in the World!
It is in the Guiness Book of World Records. It was made in Agadir south of Morocco...how many spoons do you think we need?!
Scheherazade Goes West - A Must Read
“For Western men, the very word harem typically provokes voluptuous sexual fantasies in which men have their way with vulnerable women who are happy to satisfy their needs, observes Mernissi, feminist sociologist and Koranic scholar. In Islamic culture, by contrast, the harem is seen as the site of a dangerous, sexual power struggle in which powerful women resist male domination. The mythical Scheherazade, who recounted enough tales to fill One Thousand and One Nights, models this female power, Mernissi (Beyond the Veil) argues. In a cerebral rather than physical seduction, Scheherazade recounted complex tales to her king, using her nutq her ability to penetrate a man's brain by using the right words. So subversive was that power that her stories were published in Arabic only a century after appearing in French, and they remain a target of Muslim censorship. Using a wide range of Islamic sources etymology, art, religious law, cultural history Mernissi develops a nuanced analysis of the sexual power of Islamic women. By probing Western representations of Scheherazade in ballet, Hollywood movies, painting she also reveals the West's tendency to misconstrue the harem.
Unfortunately, Fatima Mernissi concludes that Western women are as tyrannized by the pressure to be a size 6 as Islamic women are by the veil. Additionally, Mernissi's stream-of-consciousness style of storytelling can be irritating. More troubling, she never returns to her initial mission to understand the Western image of the harem.”
- Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
“The contrasts Mernissi discovered between East and West were not as simple as one might imagine. In Berlin, for example, she leafed through pornographic German photo books of "harem women," produced for an eager audience of Western men, and in Paris, she accompanied a male friend on a walking tour of his favorite odalisques, from Ingres to Matisse, while he explained how comforting an insecure man found these nude, silent women. While the medieval caliphs tended to prize intelligence and erudition among the women of their harems, Western writers have lauded beauty over every other quality; as Kant put it, a learned woman "might as well even have a beard." In deceptively light prose, Mernissi introduces the sexual politics of Islam to a Western audience, while pointing out the inconsistencies and illogic in the Western tradition.”
- Regina Marler
Unfortunately, Fatima Mernissi concludes that Western women are as tyrannized by the pressure to be a size 6 as Islamic women are by the veil. Additionally, Mernissi's stream-of-consciousness style of storytelling can be irritating. More troubling, she never returns to her initial mission to understand the Western image of the harem.”
- Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
“The contrasts Mernissi discovered between East and West were not as simple as one might imagine. In Berlin, for example, she leafed through pornographic German photo books of "harem women," produced for an eager audience of Western men, and in Paris, she accompanied a male friend on a walking tour of his favorite odalisques, from Ingres to Matisse, while he explained how comforting an insecure man found these nude, silent women. While the medieval caliphs tended to prize intelligence and erudition among the women of their harems, Western writers have lauded beauty over every other quality; as Kant put it, a learned woman "might as well even have a beard." In deceptively light prose, Mernissi introduces the sexual politics of Islam to a Western audience, while pointing out the inconsistencies and illogic in the Western tradition.”
- Regina Marler
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Fes Festival of World Sacred Music
Time and space, space for the self, space for others. The vital energy of place: to integrate, to open, to open oneself to the world more and more. It’s this vital contact, this link with the past, this journey within the soul and the profound essence of place, that allows us to welcome the future, to awaken ourselves to the wonders of the world, to say, as Jalaludin Rumi did eight centuries ago,
Come!
Come, whoever you are …
Even if you have fallen a thousand times,
Come!
Come, whoever you are.
This is not the door to despair.
Come!
Just as you are.
Fes Festival of World Sacred Music - "Essence of time...Spirit of place..."
"2007 marks the 800 th anniversary of the birth of the great Islamic sage, poet and spiritual guide Jallaludin Rumi. The wisdom, insight and beauty of Rumi’s heritage are celebrated in concerts and ritual throughout the festival programme. His vision charges the essence of our times. It is as relevant today as it was in the 13 th century, because Rumi teaches universal love and community."
Mint Tea Imports - "Personal Importers of Fairly Traded, Handcraft Goods from Morocco"
Mint Tea Imports is a store specializing in Moroccan imports. You can find Moroccan tea pots, carpets, and a lot more. The owner is Moroccan very knowledgeable of the quality of the articles he sells.
Mint Tea Imports
2306 Main Street
Vancouver, WA 98660
360-699-4991
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)