Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Renovations in Progress
Wherever you go in Morocco, you'll see work
in progress. Massive infrastructure projects
are improving the transport network; signs an-
nounce new women's artisan associations in
mountain hamlets; a mosaic
mâalem
(master
artisan) hunkers in a niche in a palace wall
with a tiny chisel, tapping out a zigzag shape
to match a gap in the
zellij
(tilework). Devel-
opment schemes, self-help organisations and
economic liberalisation are attempting to
move the country on from cycles of poverty
and official censorship of expression - or as
Driss ben Hamed Charhadi described it in his
1964 book of the same name, 'a life full of
holes'.
Social rifts are not easy to fill. While eco-
nomic growth sits around 3% to 4%, unem-
ployment hovers around 45% for youth, and a
2011 cafe bombing in Marrakesh's cosmopol-
itan Djemaa el-Fna tragically underlined eco-
nomic and cultural tensions. Two popular
magazines were forced to cease publication in
2010:
Nichane
after a mildly irreverent article
about Moroccan humour, and
Le Journal Heb-
domadaire
after publishing a poll citing only a
91% approval rating for the king.
Yet as you can tell from the centuries-old
stone minarets and remarkably intact mud-
brick castle towers that dot its rugged land-
scape, Morocco has already weathered adverse conditions over the past millennium
without crumbling. With all available means - vibrant local organisations, plucky media,
resilient senses of humour, a tiny chisel if necessary - Moroccans are fashioning a modern
society on the foundations of an ancient one.
Best on Film
Casanegra
Nour-Eddine Lakhmari's film
about growing up and confronting the
darker side of Casablanca.
La Grande Villa
Latif Lahlou's tale of a
couple relocating from Paris to Casab-
lanca.
A Thousand Months
Faouzi Bensaïdi's
family epic. Winner of the 2003 Premier
Regard at Cannes.
Marock
Laïla Marrakchi's film about a
Muslim girl and a Jewish boy who fall in
love. Winner of the Un Certain Regard at
Cannes in 2005.
Best in Print
The Sacred Night
Tahar ben Jelloun's tale
of a Marrakesh girl raised as a boy won
France's Prix Goncourt.
Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem
Girlhood
Fatima Mernissi's memoirs of
1940s Fez blend with other women's stor-
ies.
The Polymath
Bensalem Himmich's novel
about 14th-century scholar and exile Ibn
Khuldun.
Welcome to Paradise
Mahi Binebine's
novel exploring the promise and trauma of
emigration.
