Rabat- American celebrity Khloe Kardashian has posted an angry message on Instagram directed at “haters” objecting to her romance with Moroccan-born hip-hop star French Montana.

French Montana and Khloe Kardashian’s romance has been getting more and more controversial since Montana has been the subject of ongoing rumors and harsh remarks. In an attack on the couple, some said the rapper is only dating Khloe for the fame. But it seems that nobody can stop their ongoing romance.

Recently, it was rumored that Khloe’s family is very skeptical of the Moroccan-born rapper. Some US magazines claimed that her family made bad remarks about French, and said “being with Khloe means everyone knows who French is now….so he's getting a lot out of it."

Responding to this rumor Khloe Kardashian posted an Instagram image with a message reading: "You're still going to be criticized, so you might as well do whatever the f--k you want."

Following Khloe’s post, Hollywood Life magazine reported that Khloe Kardashian has made it clear that “she is no longer concerned with what people think of her, and she’s taking to — where else? — Instagram to prove it! Khloe is happily dating French Montana, and she’s sick of hearing friends, family, and fans tell her how worried they are about her new relationship.”

Earlier this month, Montana slammed detractors on Twitter: “There will always be haters. The more you grow the more they hate; the more they hate the more you grow.”

French Montana, originally named Karim Kharbouch, was born in Morocco on November 9, 1984. He is a rapper and CEO of Cocaine City Records. He grew up in Morocco, where he enjoyed football and rapping. At the age of 13 he immigrated with his family to the United States and settled in the Bronx, in New York. He married Deen Kharbouch in 2007, but the two have since split. There have been rumors he is dating Miami rapper Trina.

Khloe and the rapper began dating in December 2013. The couple were spotted together everywhere, from Miami to South Africa, until they made their romance public in Toronto, where the couple co-hosted the official after-party for the Muchmusic Video Awards.

Edited by Timothy Filla

Kenitra - This paper (in three series) argues that meaning and values in contemporary society can be best apprehended and constructed through everyday life interactions enabled by the social networking services like Facebook.

Far from being the realm of the trivial and the habitual, everyday life, as portrayed through the social networking sites, is an ongoing lived and shared experience through which the self can attribute meaning and values to its life and surroundings. The interaction of the self with the other provides a surplus of vision that makes it possible to actively construct the practical meaning of the social life and its values, as opposed to the meaning and values brought to our life from external value spheres like religion and philosophy.

Drawing on the works of Bakhtin on the prosaic and the carnivalesque and the works of some sociologists on the intrinsic value of everyday life, this analysis examines how meaning and values are actively shared, contested, negotiated and constructed through the use of different comic forms of dissent and criticism on the Facebook. The intermedial character of the representations (posted as status updating) not only adds effect to the use of the comic, irony, wit, humor and parody but becomes, as it were, a condition sin qua non of the production of the carnivalesque laughter and the expression of the prosaic imagination on the social networking sites. These sites have become the privileged space, albeit considered "virtual", for the practical spontaneous being and the construction of a new form of philosophy, no less reflexive, to use sociological terminology, than the theoretical idealist form of thought.

Redefining Concepts

Before we can analyze the different ways Facebook users produce comic status updates that are critical of the social and political reality, we need to redefine certain concepts related to the everyday and the prosaic. This redefinition aims to bring to light a counter-tradition that has emerged in the Anglo-American culture, established by cultural studies, feminism, media studies and postmodernism, and which stresses the "quotidian and non-formalized aspects of social interaction" (Gardiner, 3).

1-    Everyday life, meaning and values

Mainstream interpretive approaches view the everyday as the realm of the ordinary and the banal that is almost never defined, nor examined systematically. This perspective has periodically marked the history of Western (as well as Islamic) thought. The bodily lived experience has always been rejected as a form of structured and organized knowledge. From Aristotelian poetics to Saussurian structuralism, knowledge has been organized in theoretical centripetal constructions that smother the "concrete particularity of everyday life" (Gardiner, 60), unify the social world by suppressing its constitutive differences and contradictions, and create a unified form of language - made basically from the language of the educated elite - that has the status of official language. This has created a hierarchy between the official language and other speech types found in the marketplace, the public square and in the street which are considered to be low and illegitimate.

The Books of Bakhtin on the folk-festive culture of the people and the postmodern tendency to undermine the distinction between high and popular culture, have highlighted the intrinsic value of the everyday whose banality turns out to be, to cite Maurice Blanchot, " what is most important, if it brings us back to existence in its very spontaneity and as it is lived" (Cited in Gardiner, 1). The spontaneous escapes form and structure and reflects, thus, the social life in movement, hence the value of the everyday in sociology, cultural studies and postmodernist theories. In effect, the everyday is a decentered space that defies reductionist totalization, where differences and contradictions are allowed to exist, and meaning and values emerge organically out of the lived experience.

The everyday is a contingent world where people interpret the reality and create meaning in terms of and with reference to the values they hold. These values are created or adopted in response to the demands of this contingent world and have, as it were, crucial survival significance. This means that the values a person or a group of people hold are compatible with their beliefs, desirable goals and interests. Therefore, values are not merely cultural ideals that people use as transcendent guiding principles but they reflect, actually, individual or collective contingent interests. When people act in pursuit of any values, they involve themselves in an ethical relation to the other. The process of value-creation can't be accomplished, then, outside the contraposition of self and other.

2- The Prosaic Imagination, Intersubjectivity and Dialogism

Bakhtin has insisted on the rich and irrepressible potentials of prosaic human experience where the self is an embodied, dynamic and creative entity that strives to create meaning and value in a shared world where the other provides an external additional perspective that Bakhtin calls the "surplus of seeing" (or vision) or else the " borrowed axiological light of otherness" (Bakhtin, 1990, 134). From this perspective, the self is profoundly social and intersubjective and its words, with the meaning and values they articulate, are locked in an intense relationship with the words of the other. The dialogic living word, "by its nature wants to be heard and answered" (Bakhtin, 1984, 300) and it is the flow of the intersubjective living words that expresses the shades of meaning within everyday life. Dialogism rejects the imposition of theoretical abstract schemas on the concrete sociohistorical world and it is, to cite Rick Bowers, "a refusal of closure, a celebration of difference, an insistence of socially-inscribed discourse" (Bowers, 1994, 569).

What I am trying to highlight here is that the everyday should make a good starting-point for any inquiry that aims to probe into the real meaning and values of the concrete socio-historical world. One reason for this is that the everyday represents the lived immediate experience expressed through a language that holds the trace of the flesh-and-blood personality, or what Roland Barthes calls "the grain of the voice" (Barthes, 179). Another reason is that it is dialogic in that it gives voice to what is usually suppressed by what Michel Foucault has described as the disciplining of the lifeworld through the technologies of social control: the different, the prosaic, the heterogeneous, the bodily. Besides, the everyday life incorporates "a form of depth reflexivity" (Gardiner, 6), whereby people develop an insider knowledge or a heightened understanding of their circumstances that can be used to alter repressive social and political conditions.

The Choice of a social networking site as a substitute for the real life in the streets and the public squares has been made in terms of the emerging forms of communication that people use themselves as a substitute for face-to-face communication and with regard to the diversity of media used in this type of communication.

3- Intermediality and Social Networking

People enjoy using Facebook because of the wide range of creative communicative practices it can afford to represent their lives. According to the statistics (2009-2010) reported in Carmen K. L. Lee's article on status updates on Facebook (Thurlow, 117), in 28% of the status updates, participants talked about their day-to-day activities, and in 25% the participants revealed beliefs about themselves and others. This shows that Facebook communication is basically centered on everyday concerns and on the informal expression of attitudes, opinions and judgments. After the Facebook prompt has been changed from "What are you doing now?" to "What's on your mind?", Facebook users have gradually shown keen interest in the expression of opinions and attitudes towards everyday matters.

In addition, people have grown into the habit of forming groups or social networks that are as important as those formed outside the internet. What is striking about these groups is the fact that they develop a certain type of social order based on the everyday interactions of their members; this social order looks like the one described by the French sociologist Michel Maffesoli as "Sociality" (Maffesoli, 1996), which is the product of the social interactions of everyday life, as opposed to the "social" which is an economic and political order imposed from above. People join each other in groups to survive the collapse of the "social" and manage their own "sociality" until a new system is put in place. What has happened for the last five or six years in the Arab world is a case in point of the emergence of "sociality" and the parallel emergence of what Maffesoli calls neo-tribalism, which refers to these new interest-based collectivities or enthusiasts of various sorts. It is worth noting that these groups can become more committed to political change and redemption, and form thus a parallel order that challenges the existing political order. This shift from interest-based group behavior to a more social and political activism took place during the 2011 uprising in the Arab world.

The importance we place here on the everyday life as portrayed through the interactions on Facebook will be highlighted through the analysis of the status updates we have collected for this purpose. This analysis will focus mostly on the comic modes of criticism susceptible of producing different forms of laughter, from the carnivalesque and the universal to the reduced. What makes this laughter different from the Bakhtinian type is its intermedial and multi-modal character. The status updates studied in this paper combine at least two media (verbal (text)/ visual (image)), which makes them overtly intermedial. Nevertheless, there is no dominance of one medium over the other as the integration is so complete that the comic effect disappears once one medium is left out. The visual and the verbal are complementary, which makes intermediality a condition sin qua non for the production of both the comic and the critical effects of the status updates.

To be Continued ...

© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed

By John Horniblow

Fez - The Fez Photography workshop brings professional, semi professional and advanced amateurs to Morocco to advance their storytelling and photography skills through an active, experiential weeklong workshop immersed in Moroccan culture.

Now in its second year, its original founders were photographers John Horniblow and David Bathgate. The backdrop is Fez, undoubtedly the symbolic heart of Morocco and its intellectual and spiritual center. Set in a historical cross roads adjacent to the Rif and Atlas mountains, Fez is the city of former and great imperial Moroccan dynasties, all of which have left their permanent mark in the city's makeup. It is a city of stories, people and culture. The medina, Fez el-Bali, is the largest living medieval city of the Arab world and also the world’s largest pedestrian city. Narrow, winding alleys and covered bazaars, intricate and detailed in their design, are awash with brilliant colors and buzzing with a lively pedestrian hubbub of the Fassi daily business and life, making it an ideal and fascinating location to photograph.

The colors shapes, sights, and sounds of this jostling city and its lively labyrinthine medina create an exhilarating environment for photographers. From the dye makers, artisans, wood and metal workers, leather merchants, spice pyramids, tanneries, old palaces belonging to merchants, royal courtesans and viziers, the medersa, the homes of historic university scholars, traditional tradesmen, ancient and remarkable Fassi architecture, muleteers and mule teams and bustling souks; Fez, its secrets, and inhabitants provide an endless variety of interest and opportunity for photographing stories that go beyond the tourist view of the city. What lies behind the doors of the medina’s riad houses and old palaces are people's stories against a backdrop of stunning and intricately decorated interiors inherent to Fassi style.

Fez also has a tradition, lasting centuries, of being an inspirational home for writers , painters, artists and intellectuals. In more modern times, the city has added an inquisitive character inviting the craft of the photographer’s eye. In its more recent history, many of Fez’s former influential families and patrons of the arts moved to the bigger and more modern cities of Casablanca and Rabat. Despite this, there is a new artistic culture developing in the city. The Fassi pride of maintaining the very essence of the city’s traditions is very much alive, inspiring activities such as the Sacred Music Festival (which included a fringe arts festival for the first time this year) bolstered by a small but growing number foreigners living and working in the medina, drawn to it by its cultural appeal. As a result, Fez is slowly attracting arts-driven foreign writers and photographers through workshops and encouraging the passing on of these skills to Moroccan artists through cultural exchange.

This year the Fez Photography workshop opened a scholarship for young Moroccan photographers living and working in Morocco who are looking to further their storytelling, image composing skills and camera technique in a stimulating and expert environment. Abdelali Elkassas, a 25-year-old, graduate student of English studies from The University of Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah, Fez was selected from a small number of applicants for the Emerging Moroccan Photographer scholarship. As a Fez local, Abdelali brought with him an intimate knowledge of the medina and a unique perspective. Abdelali is a passionate photographer and one of the first members of ALC ALIF Photography Club run by Omar Chennafi, one of Fez’s local photography talents and an official photographer for the Fez Sacred Music Festival. Abdelali focused on a conceptual photography project, the temporal and fluid movement of people through the timeless and majestic spaces of the ancient city, a project he commenced and refined in the workshop and one which he will continue to produce over time.

Other stories produced in the workshop have included work on documenting the city’s artisans and craftsmen and using large format black and white film to reproduce a century old style of photographic portraits reminiscent of bygone era. Other stories include a series on Moroccan hospitality shot within Fassi homes and a former ice factory, street photography portraiture, works on the Fez tanners and their work , and a series on the Red Dragon martial arts club in the Ville Nouvelle .The workshop also looks for editorial stories that are not only prevalent in Fez but contribute to cultural preservation through new interpretations of Fassi culture. Resturant numero 7’s recent opening offered such an opportunity this year for the workshop to photograph world renowned chef, Jerome Waag, working as 7’s invited resident chef. The project captures his interactions with local farmers and producers, and interprets Moroccan cuisine through his own culinary philosophy in the traditional "beldi" kitchen. The workshop also travels into the outlying region of the Middle Atlas to add a new perspective to the workshop experience. With the excitement of a fantasia at a mossem in Seffrou or the bustle of weekly, mountain Berber souk in Azrou just beyond the city, who wouldn’t want to also photograph these unique features?

Photography by the individual photographers. Edited by Sahar Kian

© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed

By Wafa Idmessaoud

Agadir - Born during a drastic famine in the Rif in 1935, Mohamed Choukri migrated with his parents to the city of Tangiers in 1942 where he lived most of his life. He held a variety of jobs—such as a shoe shiner, a smuggler, a greengrocer, a male prostitute, among others—to supplement his tyrannical father’s weak income. In 1955, at the age of twenty, Choukri managed to procure a place at a school in the town of Larache, where he finally decided to take up reading and writing. Accordingly, he managed to pull himself out of the vicious circle of dehumanization and ended up becoming a teacher at a high school in Tangiers. Later, he became one of the most well-known and widely-read writers in Morocco and overseas. His early experiences provided him with material for his first and successful project: Al Khubz Al Hafi (For Bread Alone), which was written in 1972 but not published in Arabic till 1982.

During the last year of his life, Mohamed Choukri suffered from throat cancer, which compelled him to spend several months in Rabat’s military hospital. Nevertheless, he continued to embrace the company of his colleagues, such as Kamal Al Khamleeshi, Hassan Najmi, and Ahmed Berish, till the end of his life. This is apparent through his telling them tales and spreading a mood of joviality and optimism, even on his deathbed. On his last night, Choukri suffered an onslaught of pain causing an internal hemorrhage that took his life on December 13, 2003.

He passed away after composing a splendid collection of novels initiated by his masterpiece: Al Khubz Al Hafi (For Bread Alone, 1972), Zaman Al Akhtaa (Time of Mistakes, 1992) and Al Souq Al Dakhili (The Inner Market, 1985); two collections of short stories: Majnoun Al Ward (Madman of the Roses, 1979), Al Khaima (The Tent, 1985); a play: Al Saada (Happiness, 1994); a series of his reflections on literature: Ghiwayat Al Shahrour Al Abyad (The Temptation of the White Blackbird, 1998); and his delightful accounts of his encounters with foreign writers, namely Paul Bowles, Jean Genet, and Tennessee Williams.

As an eminent Rifain writer, Choukri lived to tell a tale that many people would rather not hear: in particular, those who are not accustomed to the type of outrageous truth in the Moroccan literary field. Due to this, the author was accused of being pornographic, delinquent, and homosexual. Al Khubz Al Hafi was banned shortly after its publication in many countries where there are restrictions of freedom of expression. In fact, that autobiography made Choukri the Moroccan writer most subject to attacks and negative criticism. Still other critics refuted the accusation that the work is a “succès de scandale.” For example, Mohamed Berrada considers Al Khubz Al Hafi an “important achievement in the field of Moroccan literature because it concretely shows a lot of issues which constitute common concerns for writers and critics.” Likewise, Najib Mahfoud assumes that autobiographies are given a certain value through the degree of reality they aim to impart to the reader, and any work of art should be estimated on the basis of artistic norms, not by ethical ones.

More provocatively for many disagreeing critics, Choukri tends to break deep-rooted taboos and unveil the unspoken truth without regard to masks of language, social traditions, or habits and values of religion. Obviously, Al Khubz Al Hafi implicitly shows that ignorance, impoverishment, marginalization and the lack of moral principles are all factors leading humans to street life and delinquency.

Edited by Katrina Bushko

Agadir - This is Tquawt or Sellou or Slilo or Sfouf or Zmitta. It has so many different names but each name refers to the same nut-based paste, known as energy paste or brown mixture. This is a unique Moroccan specialty made of an amazing mixture of almonds, sesame seeds as well as other spices and flavorings. Sellou does not only leave a lasting visual impression but does wonders to your taste buds too!

Although Sellou might seem complicated to make, it is surprisingly an easy recipe if you have the right tools and ingredients. Most Sellou recipes contain two basic nuts (almonds and sesame seeds), which are blended along with regional and traditional spices into a thick rich paste. Though Sellou is one of several traditional dessert treats, served at weddings, newborn ceremonies and other special occasions, it is particularly consumed during Ramadan for Ftour or Iftar (the meal before the break of dawn and the evening meal that breaks the day-long fast respectively), as it is exceptionally nutritious and gives instant energy. Actually, this quality has made Sellou synonymous with Ramadan.

Traditionally, Sellou is considered a natural dietary remedy and is recommended for nursing mothers as it has been known to increase lactation. In fact, Moroccan nursing mothers consume this nutritious and fortifying paste for at least 30 days after childbirth.

Sellou is no exception to other Moroccan recipes as it widely varies from one region to another. Furthermore, each family has its own secret recipe that includes the best fresh nuts and spices to make the tastiest and most energy-inducing paste. Sellou recipes remain controversial when it comes to the discussion of the ingredients. Some recipes call for additional fresh nuts, apart from sesame seeds and almonds, and different spices or flavorings for health benefits. Others use pure olive oil or argan oil and honey instead of clarified butter and icing sugar, which is much healthier. Some use roasted flour, whereas others do not. Despite the traditional and official recipe, Moroccans and cooks everywhere use various ingredients, but the result is undisputed; a rich and tasty energy paste where flavors build and melt together creating an outstanding dessert!

Sellou is a sweet treat that typically tastes better with age. Traditionally, it is prepared one to two weeks before the start of Ramadan, and is supposed to last for the duration of the month. In some cases, there is enough to stretch out over a couple months (most freeze well, though it is not necessary to freeze Sellou). This explains the preferred use of clarified butter in the traditional recipes given its long-lasting freshness.

As you may know, there are several versions as well as adaptations of Sellou from all parts of Morocco that seem confusing. In general, there are four variations of Moroccan Sellou:

1-Sellou or Slilo or Sfouf: This version calls for roasted white or wheat flour as the main ingredient aside from the basic nuts and spices. The flour should be roasted in the oven or in a heavy, ungreased skillet or pan until golden, stirred every few minutes to prevent it from burning. Your kitchen will smell just like one of the many Moroccan bakeries just around the corner.

2-Tquawt: This is the flourless version of Selou. Basically the same ingredients in Sellou are used except for roasted flour. (My mother used to make this version, and it was so delicious it was to die for!)

3-Zamita or Toummette or Bssisse: Its preparation also varies from one region to another.

In the South, Souss region, there is a sweet and a savory version: the sweet version is made by mixing roasted barley flour with argan oil, adding pure honey and a pinch of salt to the mixture resulting in a crumbly consistency. The savory version requires boiled water, a pinch of salt and argan oil. In some regions, where argan oil is not available or too expensive, pure olive oil is used instead. In Mekness and Taza, Sellou is called Zamita. The word Zamita in these regions refers to the Sellou variation known in Casabalanca, Fes, Rabat, etc... The Meknassi variation includes toasted peanuts along with other special regional ingredients.

4-Taquenta: This is the Sellou version of Oujda. It is easy to make and mainly made of flour browned with salt and oil. Honey is added for sweetening.

Traditionally, Sellou is presented by mounding the mixture into a pyramid on a plate, decorated with toasted almonds. Then Sellou is placed on individual plates and served to each person, just like cake (See picture below)

© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed

Even as I surrender and fall

I admit I loved in you the things I dislike

For you my dear I gave it all

Even the things I had at stake.

Spare me the scourge of war

For I’ve drowned my swords in the lake,

She may now inhabit your ill-fated soul

Persist the loving she excels to fake.

Whence she came I do not recall

But your heart she may now take;

Your hopes, dreams, and all

For to you my love I’ve built a dyke,

An unreachable sky-scraping wall

Railed off with shattered glass and spike.

So when I desert, trouble not to call

Do not caress where my heart ache,

I shall now surrender without a brawl

Soothe this aching pain to wake,

In a lifeless, miserable world I shall

Hear the sound of Music and read for Blake.

© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed

Marrakech - Richard Hamilton has worked for the BBC World Service as a broadcast journalist since 1998, including being a correspondent in Morocco, South Africa and Madagascar. He also reports for BBC TV, radio and online. While living in Morocco, he co-authored the Time Out Guide to Marrakech and has written throughout his career for magazines and newspapers such as Conde Nast Traveller and The Times. He has an MA in African Studies from SOAS. Richard’s first book, The Last Storytellers: Tales from the Heart of Morocco, was published in 2011.

MWN: How can the traditional oral story telling culture survive in Morocco?

Richard Hamilton: When I first researched my book, my initial thoughts about the fate of storytelling were very pessimistic, for a number of reasons. First of all, modern technology has provided Moroccans with more immediately accessible forms of entertainment and distraction. In the old days you would have had to walk to the Jemaa el Fna, muscle your way into the audience or halka and sit down for an hour or so to listen to a story, and probably felt obliged to pay the storyteller a few coins. You might have to come back the next day if you wanted to hear what happened in the story. But now without even having to leave your room or move your rear end from your armchair, at the simple click of a button you can download movies, tv programs, and interact on social media with people from all over the world who tell their stories in bite-sized form. You can also of course turn on your television or rent a pirate DVD.

In North Africa and the Middle East, the story telling tradition started to decline from around the 1950’s with the advent of radio and television. Now it is the internet's turn to speed up this process. People's concentration spans have become so fragmented that the chances of them wanting to listen to a long epic tale are very small. Secondly the spread of literacy, while a good thing, has had a huge impact on oral culture. Other parts of the world have seen the same phenomenon; as people are taught to read, they no longer need someone else to read to them. This happens on a microscopic scale within every family; when a child learns to read, he or she is not dependent on mummy or daddy reading to them anymore. This is a sad loss for the parent but perhaps it is inevitable. There are however grounds for greater optimism now. For example the storytelling project at the Café Clock in the Kasbah in Marrakech is starting to gather momentum. In many developed nations too, I sense there is a real appetite to revive oral culture, perhaps because we feel we are missing something. In France for example there are now several hundred storytelling festivals every year.

MWN: How can it best be preserved?

Richard Hamilton: Of course you can record stories in audio form, or you can collect them and transcribe them, as I have done, in the form of a book. While this is a good thing, it is no substitute for the living breathing experience of listening to a folk tale in the flesh. The Native American folklorist Joseph Bruchac put it very well: "the story lives with the storytellers breath." The danger is that manuscripts, collections, exhibitions, museums of folklore and so on are not alive, they are just archival projects, like putting butterflies inside a glass cabinet. They are frozen in time. I think there is still room for both the recorded version and the live performance. For example, people listen to recorded music, but they also still like to go to concerts to feel the vibrancy and uniqueness of that experience.

MWN: How can young story tellers be initiated into the art of storytelling and can they find an audience?

Richard Hamilton: Again the Cafe Clock is a good example of how to involve the young generation. Here master storytellers are transferring their knowledge to young apprentices. It may be a fairly small venue with a limited audience but it is at least a start. I would like to see the Moroccan authorities doing a bit more. For example the Ministry of Education could include storytelling on its curriculum or even create an academy of storytelling. I also think that international organisations like UNESCO have to show a bit more gumption. They need to demonstrate that they are more than just talking shops and actually do something concrete. In the past, storytellers have visited schools to tell stories to young children. I understand that there was a lot of enthusiasm for this among the pupils, but I am not sure it was done on a big enough scale to make a real difference.

MWN: Would videos and YouTube be a good way to preserve story telling?

Richard Hamilton: I think the internet has huge potential to come to the rescue of the storytelling tradition. Although, as I say above, modern technology is killing off traditional culture, it could also paradoxically hold the key to its survival in the future. Some years ago Moroccan national radio recorded some of the great epic Islamic tales told by the storytellers, and still has the archive recordings in its vaults. In the same way I think it would be wonderful if young people across the globe could have access to these fantastic narratives via YouTube. But again, it is not quite the same as the real thing. In the end we can only hope and pray that storytelling will somehow survive.

© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed

Like ghostly melodies,

Travelling the air,

Caressing the souls,

Yet none can ever see them.

****

Whirling in a glare,

Wings unseen to mortals,

She pierces all the portals,

Of a heart I never sealed.

****

Yet of bones and flesh she's made,

And like all of us she'll fade,

Leaving nada for a heir,

But a sour tune that'd allayed.

****

But until then,

A net none shall toss at her,

A row none shall aim at her,

Her harp's tunes I still need,

For a soul that’d always bow to her.

© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed

Paris - Moroccan novelist and essayist, Fouad Laroui was awarded the Great Medal of the Francophonie, an annual award established by the French Academy in 1986, according to the recipient.

In a statement to MAP, Mr. Laroui said he was very "touched" by the award which "honors all Moroccans."

"It highlights the linguistic and artistic diversity of a country that is open to all cultures and all trends. We must protect this diversity and be proud of it," he said.

The Great Medal of the Francophonie rewards the work of French-speaking persons who contribute to the promotion of the French language in their countries or at the international level.

Fouad Laroui received Goncourt prize in 2013 for his novel "The Strange Case of the pants of Dassoukine"

Taroudant, Morocco - The Moroccan Agency for Development and Rehabilitation (Ader) announced a €30 million renovation program for the "medina" of Fez (the old city of Fez),  according to the Moroccan Website Le Nouvel Observateur.

The renovation of the medina of Fez, one of the oldest imperial cities of Morocco, targets its nearly 4,000 inhabitants.

Announced on the 25th anniversary of the establishment of Ader, the project aims to renovate 3,666 houses in danger of collapse, 143 of which will be destroyed and rebuilt, according to MAP.

Listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in the early 1980s, the medina of Fez is home to very old historic monuments, including Al Karaouine University, which is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest degree-granting university in the world.

In the Middle Ages, the University of Al Karaouine played a significant role in the exchange of culture and knowledge between Muslims and Europeans. The University dates back to 859 AD.

"A short visit to the old medina of Fez is enough to understand the deteriorating condition of the houses that hosted most of the prominent figures in the history of the kingdom," said Mohamed, a resident of the old city of Fez.

“Many old buildings in medina are in ruins. It is high time the government and the city council took action,” said another man from the medina.

In 2013, a ceremony, attended by the Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane, was held to celebrate the end of the long renovation of the synagogue "Slat Alfassiyine" of the Jewish community of Fez, which was until the last century one of the largest in the country.

it is worth noting that some regions of the Kingdom have already benefited from an Ader renovation program.

However, many historical sites, old Kasabahs, and old buildings in different regions and cities in Morocco are in miserable condition and need the care of an architect.

Edited by Timothy Fill

© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed

By Abdellatif Zaki

Rabat - Attending music rehearsals is always a privilege. And when a group that is about to set a trend is in the critical stage of formation of a new culture, the privilege is all the more precious.

Six Moroccan musicians, singer Nabyla Maan, Tarik Hilal, professor of music, fine guitarist and composer, the brilliant musicians Nor Eddine Bahha on piano, Xavier Sarazin on drums, Hamza Souissi on bass, and Mohammed Amrani on percussion, are rehearsing for a concert to be performed on July 18, 2014, in Rabat that will very probably be a landmark in Moroccan music.

The upcoming concert is the outcome of a long academic endeavor involving research into Morocco’s musical heritage, exploring the music of the world, and experimenting with many styles and genres of music. Both the singer and members of the band have an outstanding record of performing various genres of Moroccan music, western classical music, jazz, and other music of the world.

The current project will celebrate Morocco’s heritage of both Andalusian and local traditions by marrying them into other music genres to reach the highest scale of universality to make the music available to a wider community. Jazz has been chosen as the natural partner to carry the Moroccan experience and to converse with other musical heritages. Removing frontiers from the realm of music and bringing all styles, types, and forms together and learning to listen, understand, reach and speak to one another is a challenge the team has taken up, recognizing what the monumental task means and what it entails. Obstinate habits, resistance, and skepticism — for whatever reasons, and sheer ignorance are but a few hurdles the band is well aware of and ready to face.

In Morocco, other experiments have tried with varying degrees of success to meld different forms of music. The experience at hand, however, does not seek to reestablish, rehabilitate or strengthen any kinship or sibling relations among the heritages that are being drawn upon.  Rather, it addresses genres that have always been assumed to be too distant even to lend themselves to exchange, let alone marry. Bringing them together will be by itself an achievement.

Attempts to establish dialogue among different musical and cultural heritages suggest, on the one hand, the vitality of individual cultural traditions, and on the other hand, a desire to take them to their full potential as vehicles of change and renewal. Moroccan culture — the arts in particular — is going through an intense time of change and renewal. Young artists are grappling with the issues of how to survive the process, advance into modernity, capitalize on their heritage, while avoiding slipping backwards. This is exactly what Nabyla Maan, Tarik Hilal and their fellow musicians are pioneering. The band’s July 18th concert is expected to be the launch of a new tradition.

© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed

By Sapha Bouamara

Rabat - During the first six months of this year, the value of investments in foreign films in Morocco reached up to MAD 502 million, with a total of twenty-two foreign movies and TV productions filmed before the end of this past month.

Morocco has been always known for its great and big landmarks, like the Kasbahs of Ouarzazate, the exotic monuments in Marrakech or Tangier’s breathtaking scenery. Many famous movies have been filmed in Morocco such as Babel, a multi-narrative Drama directed by Alejandro González and written by Guillermo Arriaga and starring Brad Pitt or Rock the Kasbah an American comedy film directed by Barry Levinson, with many film stars including Bruce Willis, Bill Murray and Kate Hudson.

These past few years, the cinema in Morocco has grown. According to the Moroccan Cinematographic Centre, just in this past six months more than MAD 500 Million, ($61 Million) was invested in the production of movies in Morocco. The whole of last year, the investment was only twenty-four million dollars.

Morocco had more than 20 movie sets, nine of which are American movies, four French and some from different countries like Germany and Canada. And last May, the German movie producer and director Tom Tykwer filmed some of his movie, "A Hologram For The King," in Moroccans cities like Laayoun, Tata and Ouarzazate studios.

Earlier this year, the movie Queen of The Desert directed by Werner Herzog, a German producer and actor, took place in Marzouga, Marrakesh, Arfoud and Ouarzazate, Morocco. The move gathered big and well-known actors and actresses like Nichol Kidman, James Franco, Robert Pattison and about 50 Moroccan actors and more than 1000 extras and 65 Moroccan technicians who helped during the filming.

Morocco hosted over 50 movies that were entirely or partially shot in different cities. Some of them are famous movies like The Mummy, The Hills Have Eyes, Body of Lies and even some shots from Inception starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

1 United States Dollar = 8.25 Moroccan Dirham (MAD). Edited by Ann Smith

Casablanca - In 2014, Morocco will host the annual Global Spa & Wellness Summit meeting on wellness and spa tourism at the Four Season Resort in Marrakech. 

The eighth annual Global Spa & Wellness Summit sessions will take place on September 10-12, 2014 at the Four Seasons Resort in Marrakech. Morocco’s Agency for Tourism Development is the key sponsor of the event and aims to promote Morocco as a world-recognized wellness destination.

Senior delegates from around the world working in diverse sectors including hospitality, tourism, health and wellness, beauty, finance, medicine, real estate, manufacturing, and technology will attend the annual event. Furthermore, Morocco’s Minister of Tourism, Lahcen Haddad, will use this opportunity to introduce Morocco’s new visions and plans for its national tourism development.

The Summit is the world’s most well-known gathering of travel, spa industries, business, government, and academic leaders in wellness. The atmosphere between leaders from different countries is cooperative rather than competitive.

For this reason, delegates from over 40 countries work hand in hand to develop strategies on how to cope with industry challenges and seize more and more opportunities in the sector of wellness tourism.

The two-day event will be held by the Global Wellness Tourism Congress (GWTC) to give better insights on how the international wellness and spa tourism market is moving forward.

 According a recent study by the GWTC, the Moroccan market alone is expected to see 14.7% annual growth, creating many jobs, ranging from executive positions like hotel and spa managers to skilled work as masseuses, customer service representatives, and fitness specialists.

Equally important to note, in Africa, Morocco ranks second behind only South Africa in annual expenditure by visitors traveling for spa and wellness tourism, and third in the Middle-East and North Africa behind the United Arab Emirates and Israel.

The Global Wellness Tourism Congress is an international organization that meets with its member countries in a different host country each year to discuss and learn about economic development concerning the spa and wellness industries worldwide. This year’s meeting and workshops will focus on Morocco’s culture and customs, intending to strengthen its tourism dominance.

© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed

Manama - The ministry of culture has announced that Bahrain will attend, as a guest of honor, the International Cultural Moussem of Assilah, August 8-22, with an exceptional program.

The Bahraini Minister of Culture Sheikha May Bint Mohamed Al Khalifa met, on Tuesday in Manama, with the founder of the Moroccan festival Mohamed Benaissa to coordinate the participation of Bahrain in this event. Bahrain has planned a varied program featuring mainly art exhibitions, painting workshops and short films screening highlighting the Bahraini production, in addition to a book fair and a cultural café.

According to the Ministry, the Kingdom of Bahrain will be present in Morocco with its cultural and human heritage through various activities, notably a parade of traditional outfit and music concerts.

Safi, Morocco

This isn’t the last of the hugs,

There will be even more

Like this one, those of before

Under time and death’s eyes

And life’s booming cries,

In a world torn into slit rugs.

This is not the last hug,

The moment when life succumbs

And when it powerlessly comes

To an agreement with death

Saying nothing, holding its breath,

Waiting for a little soul to rise

Under its vain, sorrowful cries

And death taking delivery of it;

Time has another page to edit

On the rejoicing of its company

To the extremes of its destiny

Until the threshold of heaven,

in a life where everything’s even;

There,*Dorra’s waiting as an angel,

A martyr on who time had to tell;

Now it can memorize very well

That hug, that bleeding farewell

Of Dorra’s similar extinction,

And others needless to mention,

Other hugs in such a beastly scene;

In such inhuman rage with no vaccine.

Death, despite its hard assimilation,

Makes of another hug, great salvation.

Tinejdad, Morocco- During the Holy Month of Ramadan, Muslims around the world reach into their hearts, spending more time in personal reflection and devotion to God. However, it is also a time for festivity and an opportunity to prepare special dishes to share with all members of the family in a jubilant atmosphere.

The wife of Morocco's Ambassador to the Kingdom of Bahrain, Fawzia Belqaedi, talked to the Bahrain News Agency (BNA) about the cultural aspects of Ramadan in Morocco.

“Every Moroccan woman is keen on preparing her domestic version of spices ahead of Ramadan,” Mrs. Belqaedi said.

Two or three weeks before the Holy Month, Moroccan families prepare the best food they can afford to be servedduring this month.

Large batches of sweets, such as sellou (Zmita) and chebakia, are traditionally prepared in advance for use throughout the holy month.

Belqaedi told BNA that the Moroccan Iftar meal during the Holy Month of Ramadan is served in two parts or courses.

“The first course immediately follows the muezzin call for Maghreb (i.e. sunset) prayer, comprising"hareera", "chebakia", pastries, dates, figs, boiled eggs, yoghurt, and fruit juices,” she said.

The wife of the Moroccan ambassador to Bahrain added that the second course, which “follows Taraweeh prayers, is the main course of Iftar.”

 "We habitually invite family members and friends to join the Ramadan Iftar banquet. All of us eat together," she said.

Dakar -  A donation composed of batches of the holy Quran, issued by the Mohammed VI Foundation for holy Quran publishing, was handed, on Friday in the Senegalese capital, to the Tijanes association in Dakar.

The donation, put at the disposal of the Moroccan embassy in Senegal by the ministry of endowment and Islamic affairs, is made on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan.

This action is part of a global donation of batches of the holy Quran for the different Senegalese brotherhoods and religious families.

Rabat -Belgian midfielder of Moroccan descent, Marouane Fellaini has shaved off his famous Afro hairdo, despite his team’s failure to advance past the quarter-final stage at the World Cup.

Before the World Cup, Fellaini had said that if Belgium manages to win, he would cut off his afro.

"If we win the World Cup I'll shave my head. Am I sure about this? Yes, absolutely. We have a deal," Fellaini promised, after Belgium made it to the World Cup quarter-final.

The Red Devils were eliminated after a rather limp performance against Argentina in the quarter-finals.

On Thursday,  a picture of Marouane Fellaini with JYB Cosmetics went viral on social media. Based on the photo, some have even speculated that instead of chopping off his curly locks, he may have just braided them.

Rabat - In the cultural realm, the events of September 11^th have created what is called “the theory of the clash of civilizations.”

In order to counter the rising of such theories, UNESCO adopted the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity in 2001, in an attempt to create coexistence between cultures, guarantee the survival of humanity, and prevent segregation and fundamentalism.

Britain and the United States have made achievements in racial and ethnic diversity. These achievements are mainly the results of the massive immigration that the two countries underwent in the 1950s, which played an important role in the course of their historical and political events, and gave rise to what we know now as “multiculturalism.”

In addition to its rich cultural components (ethnic groups), Morocco has also experienced a massive immigration over the last few years—especially from Sub-Saharan Africa. Morocco, being the closest African gate to Europe, has always tempted many immigrants to enter Europe illegally via sea routes. With the reinforcement of European laws regarding illegal immigration, many of these immigrants found themselves stuck in Morocco. However, instead of going back to their original countries, those immigrants have decided to stay in Morocco, which presented a good alternative with a growing economy.

However, is this enough to say that Morocco is multicultural? Probably not. In order to reach such a conclusion we must take some things into consideration, and we cannot move forward if we are still stuck in the realm of racism. Indeed, the many social problems that Morocco has, such as poverty, lack of job opportunities, and corruption have not been really solved, and the succession of incapable governments has created in a feeling of depression and mistrust in the state. Unfortunately, this situation has negatively affected Sub-Saharan immigrants who are now seen as intruders and considered to be another burden on Morocco.

These views also concern legal Sub-Saharan immigrants; but the question is, “why?” Why are they the only involved? Why are they unwelcome? Are they the only immigrants Morocco has? Certainly not.

In the wake of the world economic crisis, many Europeans have decided to settle in Morocco. They come here for studies, for business affairs, or for other reasons, and many of them reside illegally in Morocco. However, by comparing these European illegal immigrants with both legal and illegal Sub-Saharan Africans immigrants, we find that favoritism exists for one group while the other is rejected.

Some would argue that criminals, drug traffickers, and beggars represent a large portion of Sub-Saharan immigrants, but it is unacceptable to think this way. Unfortunately, such arguments are based only on stereotypes, and many of these immigrants actually respect the laws of their host country, just as Europeans (and maybe even better than some Moroccans) do. However, we cannot deny that an increasing minority is causing different troubles. Was this their intention when they first came to or decided to stay in Morocco? Again, no. And the culprits are none others than us, Moroccans.

Indeed, by thinking that our mode of living and values are superior to these immigrants, we are producing a discourse of hostility and reproducing the ethnocentrism that many anthropologists expected to disappear with globalization and cultural awareness. Therefore, it is normal to witness situations of conflicts, discrimination, and violence.

Morocco does not need diversity in the current circumstances; rather, what it really needs is pluralism. The two terms are different, although they seem similar: diversity is a multiplicity of cultures, people, or communities without any interactions or relationships in the society, and we consider this a burden. However, pluralism is found when these different cultures engage to create a common society.

Sending these immigrants back to their countries will not solve the problems that Morocco has. We must understand that pluralism enriches our country in the sense that it gathers differences for creation, innovation, and exchange of ideas. Additionally, if we are unable to accept the other, we will not be able to live peacefully with many ethnic groups of the same country.

Morocco will never be compatible with multiculturalism if inequalities, discrimination, and lack of tolerance exist. Before we can think about policies of immigration, let us not forget that we are all human, we are all citizens of the world, and that we must think as humans about other humans, and not only pretend to do so.

Edited by Katrina Bushko

© Morocco World News. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten or redistributed