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Wed 3 Aug, 2005 09:34 am
Let me start by saying that I love Morocco. I've been there a few times in the last 6 or 7 years and have become familiar with its people and customs and geography and unique challenges. Each time I've visited, I've noticed immense, fast-paced progress, both economically and socially.
Since my first visit there a network of well-built highways has been built, enabling european and internal tourism and commerce to flourish. I've witnessed cell phones come on the market and virtually explode. High speed internet is available. House building and land development is through the roof. Agricultural technology has taken off and enabled farmers to be profitable and efficient, as well as increasing the availability of affordable food to all Moroccans.
My aim for this thread is to periodically discuss new developments and economic initiatives in Morocco as they come about in the news, as well as any other news that is deemed curious or interesting. I'll start.
Your perception of Morrocco is very different from mine freeduck, I would advise westerners to avoid it like the plague, it is like all other islamic states a country to be avoided at all costs.
FreeDuck, you're just not going to believe my first thought upon reading about the exploding cell phones.
I'm interested in Morocco. I know there are some cells there of folks who want to cause havoc but that is presumably not the whole population. The country has seemed attractive to me for years. At the least, I am interested in hearing more about it.
Don, could you be more specific about why Morocco is to be avoided?
This all reminds me of myself sitting at a train station in italy at about 5:30 a.m. one morning. My husband and I wandered in after buying our train tickets to get cappuccini and dolci before the ride... and shared a table with two tourists from the US. On my right was a table of what turned out to be moroccan laborers. My xhub and the tourers were talking away about something and I glanced over at the (moroccans) and we started talking in poor italian, which is how I found out they were from Morocco. Very polite sleepy early morning nice conversation.. I turned to the others and the lady said, "dear, you musn't talk with them, they are dangerous." I can't remember what I said, but it was short, succinct.
That was a long time ago. Not every immigrant from far away lands is the devil in disguise, and neither are all of us.
roger wrote:FreeDuck, you're just not going to believe my first thought upon reading about the exploding cell phones.
Ha ha, perhaps I should choose my words more carefully.
Don1, I am also interested to know what exactly is to be avoided about Morocco.
Osso, that's a great story. There are many Moroccans in Italy. I know one man who has been there so long he even has started to look Italian and talks with a Napoleon accent.
I don't know if Morocco would be less pleasant to someone who is travelling there without a guide or without friends who are Moroccan. I imagine maybe so as it's not so fun to be the tourist (read, mugging target) in any foreign country.
Aside from the possibility of actual physical danger, I would not go to Morocco if I had a tendency to stereotype its people as all dangerous. What a lousy visit that would be.
Well said, JLN! I haven't been there myself but my 3 sons and a friend went a couple of years ago. They said a) it was one of the most beautiful places they had been and b) it was the place in the world they had been most hassled and cheated. I think, too, that as 4 young men travelling together, they were looked upon as a challenge by local youth. They said there was fighting amongst kids in the street and this seemed to be normal and tolerated. So it is a society with a very male testosterone-rich style. The shops run by women were altogether less hassly, more friendly. One thing they found particularly hard to deal with was other young men attaching themselves to their group and being undislodgeable (a nwe word and it's only 9 am!). My eldest who is especially friendly and tolerant tried to make friends with these people but in the end they all wanted something. That can be dispiriting for the open-minded and open-hearted.
But they enjoyed their stay generally, would certainly not avoid it in future.
As for lumping all Islamic countries together as a no go area - what complete nonsense! As we're going to Turkey and Syria at the end of this month, and expect to have a wonderful trip as independent travellers, I am definitely making a political statement - I do NOT lump all Muslims together, and believe that 98% are friendly to travellers. Most are undoubtedly anti-American and anti-Bush, but that is not a sentiment confined to the Islamists.
That's interesting, Clary. Do you know where in Morocco your sons travelled? If I had to guess I'd say Marrakech and Tangier and possibly Agadir?
When we visit, we visit family mostly in and around Rabat (the capital) but we have done the tourist thing and during those times it was very helpful to have at least one Moroccan handy to tell the "attachers" to get lost. Also, we Americans are not so used to haggling to buy something whereas it's a way of life there. I was told that you always take the price given and cut it in half and go from there.
But Morocco is a very diverse place and things that might be true in one region might not be true in another. Kind of like America, I guess. If someone visited the US and went to LA they might have a different perception of the US than someone who visited and went to New Orleans.
I've never seen fighting in the streets, at least not physical fighting. Moroccans are a bit like Italians when they get excited.
But regardless of tourist experiences, I am still very happy with the progress being made there. Every day it's something new.
They went right into the desert, very near the southern border hired a car and driver I think, and also to the rather hippy town - Meknes? Fez? I have a notoriously bad memory for places I haven't been! Agadir they found expensive and touristy. Don't think they went to Tangier. Casablanca was a disappointment too, I think. Like many English, they preferred fewer crowds and more ethnicity.
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