Morocco: Bloggers talk about the soul of Morocco and recent bombings
Thanks to a New York Times article entitled “The Soul of Morocco”, the Moroccan blogosphere is busy debating the truth in this statement. Fez, a city of approximately 1 million, is known as Morocco's most refined city. As the home of the Qarouyine University, one of the world's oldest and prestigious, its reputation is not unearned.
However, in a country with such a rapidly changing and growing economy, many of Fez's residents have been left behind.
“Right now, today, in 2007, Fez is also a ghetto in every sense of the word and most of its inhabitants are barely eking out a miserable subsistence living,” says Everything Morocco, a foreigner living in the ancient Fez medina (town).
The Morocco Report‘s taamarbuuta questions the authenticity of Fez, saying “Fez may look like a jewel in an abyss of globalisation, but where is the authenticity in these tourist-pouncing Fassis?” (April 9, 2007, “The soul of Morocco?” to which The View from Fez rebuts with a post entitled “Fez versus Meknes – ‘tourist -pouncing Fassis?‘” and challenging local readers to visit Fez.
Liosliath, of the blog Morocco Time, takes issue with Fez being named the country's soul, saying “There’s still a lot of ‘authentic’ Morocco to be found outside the main tourist areas.”
Also on the lips of Moroccan bloggers are the recent suicide bombings in Casablanca. After one man, Abdelfattah Raydi, blew himself up in a Casablanca internet cafe, the police went after his compatriots and on Tuesday, were close to catching several when one detonated a bomb underneath his clothing. Police shot another, and a third (who turned out to be Raydi's brother, Ayyoub) detonated a bomb, killing himself and a policeman, and injuring several, including a young boy. On Saturday morning, two more men blew themselves up on Blvd. Moulay Youssef in Casablanca, where the American Consulate is located.
‘Aqoul blogger Lounsbury commends Mohammed Faiz, the owner of the internet cafe where Abdelfattah Raydi first detonated his bomb (and whose cafe is know wreckage, leaving his already poor family even more destitute), requesting that anyone with ideas contact him to facilitate a fund for Faiz and his family.
Moroccan blogger Big World Learner exclaims, “Blood, terror, mutilated bodies, young people blowing themselves up in public places!! It’s always difficult to believe that these things are happening in our country!” (April 12, 2007, “Misleading terror“)
Bo18, a blogger of the Moroccan diaspora asks concisely, “No seriously, its getting a bit out of hand. Don't you think as well?”
10 comments
On april 9, i posted arictle about Cacablanca, with pictures and video from , 2 days later these people try to screw what i did…these people they are not fighting for a cause they just are bored simply..We Moroccan have this issue we just get bored so quickly we are not happy 100% with ourselves…we like to do things quick, we like to move from place to place if we are in spain we like to go england if we are their we try to go to canada or us of we we there we like to go to the skies..same with our jobs..if i am teacher one later i wanna be princiapl leter i wanna be superattendent and later i wanna be minister …if we just do our job honestly we dont put our nose on any one one job Morocco will be one of the best places to be…but to bad we stil have along way to fix our self first before trying to impose some other ideologies on others …
superuser
http://www.marocphoto.blogspot.com
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babel really made a hit of morocco! but at the same time it brought some fear in the mind of potential tourists that it is not safe enough place to visit. still, it is not the case at the coast and the most famous cities such as casablanca or rabat. but still going in country and expiriencing something different must be tempting for every torist..
Please help find Madeleine… Possible sighting in Morocco
http://findmadeleine.blogspot.com/
This is a great article. It is unfortunate that so many Moroccans have been left behind in the fast growing economy of this incredible country. It is also unfortunate that with the growing economy comes the growing threat of terrorism from thos that would like Muslim countries to remain in the past and poor. In the last 2 years I have seen such an improvement in the lives of so many of my Moroccan friends, but others are still struggling to cope with the many chages in their homeland. Progress as we know, is a double-edged sword….but I believe that Morocco will find its balance and move forward into a new world market and be a glowing expample of the possibilities.
My Blog “MOROCCAN DREAMS” is an American’s view of how life in this region of the world is changing…and also about my personal adjustments to living in a Muslim Country. It has been the adventure of a lifetme and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Morocco is my new home and I LOVE IT!
The recent wave of terrorists activities is simply the answer to frustrations and lack of hope in the future.
The resort to violence is simply the answer to socio-economic inequities and the political exclusion,landmarks of the authoritarian regime, that rules Morocco since its independance. The alienation is so deep among young Moroccans that they are willing to copy cat anything from the outside, including blowing themselves!!
Solution: create decent jobs,fight illiteracy,promote the rule of law and definitely treat Moroccan as citizens with rights, and not as subjects to government tyranny and arbitary.