The final count down

Just a few hours are left before the name of the new president of the world United States is announced. I might be lucky to be in the US during such a decisive moment of it history, although I know that I am unable to see the complete image, being a current resident of Michigan, a state known for its Democratic inclinations.

This image though has been a bit nuanced by the fact that, in Michigan, there are some fervent supporters of the Republican Party like those who lifted signs supporting McCain on the day of Obama’s speech here at MSU. But there are also a few encounters I made recently that made me see things from a different perspective.

Some of these people I am talking about are Americans, and some are foreigners, including some of Middle Eastern descent. What they believe is that the Republican policy is what is needed in the Middle East. It’s not that they are happy with the situation there, but that, according to them, the problem with Democrats is that they are “flexible”, and that solving some problems, like the Syrian presence is Lebanon and Saddam’s rule (both of which ended during Bush’s presidency) need “firm actions”, like those the Republicans, rather than the Democrats, are able to take.

On the other hand, other people from Middle Eastern origins and even some Americans still think that no matter what problems any country might have, the solution should come from the inside, and that the contribution of foreign countries, including influential ones like the United States of America, should take the shape of diplomatic efforts rather than military action, which only creates more violence and hatred.

In all cases, none of the two candidates can be said to be the absolutely perfect solution for the challenges facing US internal affairs and foreign policy, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Obama though, the candidate I personally think is more likely to make the right decisions...

In about 24 hours, a new four-year era will start, and the world will have to deal with it no matter who the new president is.

Meanwhile, have fun watching the Homer Simpson trying to exercise his right to vote :)

Driss Ksikes, Jaouad Essounai... et "IL"

L’écrivain Driss Kisikes, le metteur en scène Jaouad Essounani et la troupe Dabateatr nous invitent à découvrir la nouvelle pièce: « Il/Houwa ».

La première aura lieu Jeudi 30 Octobre à 20h, à la salle Bahnini, Rabat.
Casablanca accueillera la pièce le Mardi 4 novembre à 20h, à la salle Touria Sekkat.

"IL/Houwa" est interprétée par la grande Amal Ayouch, et les talentueux Amine Ennaji, Fatim Zahra, Fayçal Azizi, Jamila El Haouni, Abdelghani Kitab et Abdenbi Bennioui.

Une chose est sure : C’est à ne pas rater!!

Communiqué de presse :

Dans le monde des uterriens, univers gris et souterrain, un mur se dresse - de toute sa hauteur - devant des personnages voûtés,pliés en deux. Voués à la soumission ? Les uterriens eux-mêmes ne le savent plus et tentent de tromper l’ennui en accédant à
leur propre vérité. Ce qu’ils sont et font est invariablement lié à l’existence d’Il, cette force ubiquiste qu’ils essayent tant bien que mal d’approcher.

S’accrochant d’abord aux mots de son messager, Ilan, les Uterriens finissent par se replier entre eux et miment le jour où ils ne courberont plus l’échine. Le jour où ils s’élèveront au dessus de l’Utérus de la terre, le jour où ils troqueront leur U
contre un vide qui fera d’eux des terriens.

Mais est-ce vraiment ce qu’ils veulent ?

« Il », pièce de théâtre écrite par Driss Ksikès et mise en scène par Jaouad Essounani, jongle entre questionnements absurdes et distraction verbale. Mais elle ne s’enferme ni dans le divertissement, ni dans la réflexion. Portée dans le geste par Jaouad Essounani – aujourd’hui résident du Royal Court Theatre et fondateur de la troupe Dabateatr-, la pièce prend vie dans les répliques d’acteurs aussi talentueux qu’Amale Ayouch, Amine Ennaji, Fatim Zahra, Fayçal
Azizi, Jamila El Haouni, Abdelghani Kitab, Abdenbi Bennioui.

Le projet « Il » est avant tout la collaboration d’un écrivain et d’un metteur en scène. Deux entités créatrices qui cohabitent pour donner naissance à une pièce qui décrit ploiement et soumission, avec la volonté de ne pas la définir. Cette dualité se veut grandissante, se projette sur le long terme et annonce une complicité artistique à suivre de près.

La première de la pièce aura lieu à Rabat, le Jeudi 30 Octobre à 20h, à la salle Bahnini.
La première représentation casablancaise, elle, sera donnée le Mardi 4 Novembre à 20h, salle Touria Sekkat.

Soyez nombreux.

Obama at MSU!!! (2)

Yup, I made it!! My Integrated Campaigns class was cancelled on Thursday so that we all manage to attend Obama’s speech at MSU’s Adams Field. The event was huge and thousands of people started lining up as early as 8:30 am, while the speech was due to start at 2:30 pm!!

Because of an earlier class and a workshop, I joined the line at 1:30 pm… and reached the gate half an hour later… and I, it goes without saying, was not the last one in line. Just a few minutes after I joined, hundreds were behind me.

After security check, I and my friends from Kazakhstan and Taiwan entered the field, and got that feeling of being lost in an ocean of people. Later I read in the newspaper that the number of students and local residents who gathered there was estimated at 20,000! So this explains why all we could see when we got there was… the backs of the people in front of us… and the heads of those in front of them at the best of cases.

Honestly we played unfair a little bit and started sneaking a few meters ahead… as long as people were not reacting negatively, we kept moving ahead: D After losing our Taiwanese friend in the crowd, I and the Kazakh student reached a place from where we still could see only backs and heads… but where my beloved camera, when lifted very high and zoomed, could catch the speaker’s place :D So when Obama was finally on stage, we spend most of the time watching him on the screen of my camera :D:D:D

I cannot tell you how loud and passionate the crowd was when Obama showed on stage. You would think that all MSU and the surrounding area are only made up of Democrats. But that’s not a hundred percent true. There must be people who came there just out of curiosity, others who, like me and my friends, can’t even vote but came to be part of the event, and those who are in fact Republicans, and were there to know what McCain’s opponent had to say. Talking about these, it was fun to see that at the entry of the field, some McCain supporters had lined up lifting signs supporting their candidate... although, ironically, McCain’s campaign officials declared late Thursday that he has given up on Michigan State!!

Now what was the speech about? It was mainly about economy. This issue addressed the residents’ main concern given the current economic crisis in the US and the whole world, and more than that, given that Michigan is one of the states that cannot boast a strong economy. (This state has the highest unemployment rate in the US: 8.9%).

Obama also presented some broad lines of his agenda: Fixing the deficient health care system, creating new jobs, developing the quality of education, AND a point which perfectly matches the spirit of our green university: investing millions of dollars to develop sustainable energy (wind, solar…) AND … ladies and gentlemen: end the US dependence on foreign oil. Even if these two last points were the only things Obama would achieve during his mandate, I would pray day and night for him to be president of the USA, because this would avoid a lot of calamities around the world.

Anyway, I don’t know what would be the impression I get if I attended a similar speech given by McCain. (Hmmmm although I’ve got an idea about that when I watched his September 26 debate with Obama…). But what I can say for sure is that Obama is definitely a good speaker… and seems to be a serious, hardworking person… that is if enough Americans trust him next November and give him the chance to prove it!

Sweet visions...

The color of my tea this morning was not echoed by brownish Moroccan crepes and cookies. Instead, I have had some colorful M&Ms and guess what... Sushi for this Eid :)

I have enjoyed my special meal today... keeping in the back of my mind the sweet vision of a warm Moroccan cup of tea, lighted by the smiles of those I love...

Eid mubarak said :)

Obama at MSU!!

So, it seems that I will get the chance to see Obama speaking live here at MSU!!  The presidential candidate is scheduled to speak next Thursday at 2:30 pm  at Michigan State University's Adams Field. 

I am not an American citizen (which implies that I have no voting power here), but being a "world" citizen is enough for me to be interested in the way these presidential elections are going and in who will be the next resident of the White House.  

Now remains one problem: I have class Thursday at that time!!  :(  I'll give it a try today and see if the professor would agree to make next session and exception!  We'll be learning there, won't we? :D

More will be coming soon!!

  

 

Large-scale confusion!

Last Friday was one of the longest days I had since I came here – although I am supposed to have no classes on Fridays! From 9 am, meetings and workshops followed one another, including an exhausting 4-hour workshop on SPSS that left my head spinning for the rest of the day. The last thing on my crazy agenda was a work group meeting that went from 6 to 8 pm, leading me to break my fast on the library’s exit stairs :)

But that day was one of the longest also in terms of the distance I walked. Those who know me would know that I’m not a big fan of walking. But when you study in a 21 km² campus, you do have to learn to love walking, or you will end up hating yourself! Of course I didn’t have to walk across all the 21 km², and will never have I guess/I hope XD, but I do have long walks though to go from a building to another (5 or 6 different places they were that day).
Talking about long and short walks, I always wonder why globalization only touched - and blatantly unified - important things like traditions, tastes and life styles - whole identities, but left out a few annoying things like the units of measurement in some countries like the United States!

Since the day I set foot here, I've been trying (not always hard though) to get the sense of what it means when somebody says that I have to walk “2 miles” to reach a place, or when they say that the university’s secondary campus in Detroit is 75 miles from East Lansing. Does that mean close or far? You will tell me that all I need to do is convert those units into meters and kilometers. Yes I can. But it’s really annoying – although funny sometimes – when you have to stop every time somebody describes a distance and ask yourself “Euuuh wait, does this mean that I can walk or should I take the bus?”

Weight and volume units are also misleading me here. When I go to the market, the prices posted simply don’t mean anything to me. What do I learn when I see that Goodrich’s sells apples for $3 lb, or green beans for $1.49 lb? Is that cheep or expensive? Euuuh and what does it mean to buy a 2-gallon milk bottle?

And I’d rather not talk about the weird numbers I would get if I try to know my weight or my height here. Oh and mind you, I’ve experienced 80-degrees hot days here … of course Fahrenheit not Celsius – otherwise I would have melted - literally!! (Ugh!!)

Anyway, I guess that this is part of that “adjustment” period all new comers here have to go through. I should probably start looking for, and concentrating on the bright side of things to be able to survive. Here at least, where I have trouble with units of measurements, all I need is time (and some quick brain calculations) until I get used to them. The bright side of it is that the risks I’m taking because of this (like walking a long distance instead of taking a bus) are nothing compared to a more serious (and not funny at all) risk I would have had if I were in England for example: getting hit by a car simply because I’m used to look to the right not to the left before I cross the road!!

Ramadan this year

A dozen-hour flight, or simply an ocean away from home, Ramadan feels so special this year.

It feels weird not to hear adhan announce iftar time, weird not to see restaurants close during the day, weird not to see totally empty streets at sunset, and not to see drivers lose their minds a few minutes before sunset, trying get home before Iftar. .

But it feels so special though to see one meal bring together people from all over the world. Pakistanis, Indians, Sudanese, Egyptians, Kuwaitis, Kazazkhs, Maleisians… and a Moroccan gather in one place these days, share their first meal of the day, and the joy of learning things about each other .

To all Muslims around the globe I wish a blessed Ramadan.

Aren't we one after all?

Differences, faces, colors, names, sounds, questions and answers, smiles, meaningful sometimes, meaningless most for the time. Intrusions, apologies, misunderstandings, understanding, fake at times, real at others.

Respect, gazes, stereotypes, silenced or masked. Languages, reflections, tastes, traditions, religions, habits, so different sometimes, so alike some others.

But aren’t we one after all??

Back home... somehow :)

I’ve been quiet for a long while...

So quite that a squirrel didn’t mind posing for my camera :)

Feels so good to be back here :)

Six choses PAS importantes sur moi

SABA et Najlae m'ont tagué , donc à mon tour de vous dire 6 choses PAS importantes sur moi:

1. Je ne peux pas dormir dans un endroit ou on entend les tic tac d'une horloge...), et maintenant que je commence à conduire, je me rends compte que le son des clignotants de changement de direction me dérangent aussi :s (Bien que je sois réveillée au volant :D)

2. Je suis une grande consommatrice de fromage, de chewing-gum et de kleenex.

3. Une chose qui pourrait me déranger? Que quelqu'un déplace une chose que j’ai mise quelque part et que j’aie du mal à la retrouver. « Touche pas à mes affaires » :p

4. Mon humeur peut changer d’un extrême à l’autre plusieurs fois le même jour ! (Non, je ne suis pas folle… à ce que je sache !)

5. Il m’arrive souvent de parler toute seule ! (Voir remarque précédente :D).

6. Je vois le monde d’une manière un peu… microscopique. Je ne peux pas m’empêcher d’imaginer les bactéries et les microbes qui se baladent dans les cuisines et les salles de bain… et j’ai envie de me laver les mains à la seconde même où je touche un billet de banque par exemple. (Regardez la série Monk et vous verrez ce que je veux dire lol)

Puisque c'est la règle du jeu, je passe le relais à: Anaconda, Troubadour, Issam, euuuuuuuuuh les autres ont tous été tagués!

Open your eyes, you spammer!

This probably is something most people don’t do, but I am one of those who take a few seconds to read the titles of bulk messages before clearing the box. The reason why I developed this habit sounds logical. Sometimes emails which should normally go to your inbox are somehow sorted out as bulk messages and sent to the spam file. This explains why all email boxes have a “not spam” button which allows you to prevent this kind of mistakes to happen in the future with emails coming from the same sender.

But there’s another (rather crazy) reason why I read the titles of my junk emails before deleting them. The reason is that some of them make me laugh! There’s first that so silly kind of titles which is supposed to attract you like “your check is waiting” or “I have a secret to tell you”, and which seem implausible from the outset, especially that they are coming from names you never heard of before.

But sometimes coincidence helps those spammers a bit. Today for example, my bulk file included an email sent by someone called “Dr. Susanne”. So when I read this name, I stopped a little longer because I do know a Dr. Susanne, whom I met in a professional context and with whom I did have some slightly personal conversations. But our conversations could never have reached the stage that would make her send me an email saying: “This is why you’re fat”! lol

And then, the funniest of all are those endless male-oriented commercials about Viagra (and other related issues – I spare you all the other details :p). These emails don’t stop landing in my email box, although I am a woman!!!! Junk emails are sent randomly I guess, but the huge numbers of similar emails I receive make me wonder if it has anything to do with my name which presents no female sign. An “A” at the end of my name for example would officially announce, especially for non-Arabic speakers, that this kind of emails has nothing to do in my email box!

If advertising people ;) spend hours considering nuances of communication devices they use, trying to make them as perfectly adapted to the target audience as possible, then spam commercials are brilliantly… missing the mark!

Could Cupid explain that??

Scene 1:

She: Why do you complain about such occasions? We are the ones who have trouble finding good presents for you. It’s never been an easy task for me to find a present even to my father.

He: On the contrary, it’s men who find it difficult to think about suitable presents for women.

She: Come on, there's plenty of things you could buy to a woman and make her happy.

He: Like what?

She: Well anything! A jewel, a cosmetics product, flowers, or something practical she needs… You could also invite her for dinner in a nice place, make a good surprise... But what about men?!

He: You could buy something traditional, a belgha (Turkish slippers), material for djellaba, this is the kind of things your father would like to receive.

She: (Stops short of asking what a man –other than a father- would like to receive for a present).

Question 1: Will that mystery about “what women want” and “what men want” ever be solved?

Scene 2:

He: Has the woman on the radio said that they’ve been talking about love for an entire week? Weird choice! What’s going on?

She: Yes! Well it’s Velentine’s day!

She2: Don’t you know about it?!

He: (A bit surprised, laughs) Lucky you!

She: What do you mean "lucky you"? Valentine’s day is everybody's business!

He: No... We celebrated our Valentine's Day a long time ago. Now it’s your turn.

She: Love has no age! (Playfully) Come on! Why do you men keep coming up with pretexts to ignore this kind of occasions? Just to avoid buying presents? :p Why don’t buy a present to your wife after work. She’d be happy about it.

He: (Laughs, addressing He 2): We have women’s movements here.

Question 2: Why are men too proud to admit that they do care about such things as love!?

Boss, shoof, Masr bte3mel eh!

(Picture: BBC Sport)

They play fair, they play with devotion, effort and love, and that’s what has made of them the best African football team for the sixth time. The Egyptian football team won the 2008 African Cup of Nations yesterday in Ghana, and with it the respect of millions around the world!

Compared to many other teams – and I wouldn’t exclude the Moroccan national team – the Egyptians have proved that mastering the game itself is not the only prerequisite for a squad to become champion. Nor is it the abundance of financial resources. The team spirit that reigns has a real magic effect. Look how respectful they are towards each other and towards their coach and how united they are even in the way they thank God after each goal.

And then look how ruthless they are during the whole match. The way they play makes you feel that they truly care! I am not writing poetry here, but I did see the Egyptian legendary “namoutou namoutou wa ta7ya Masr” (we would die to give life to Egypt) dominating the game during yesterday’s match.

Thinking about all this, I can’t help wondering what’s wrong with the Moroccan national team. What’s wrong can’t be financial. We all know that huge sums are made available to offer our players the best conditions compared to other teams during this cup and any other championship. Nor can the problem be the efficiency of the players themselves. The great majority of Moroccan national team players are part of well known international teams which wouldn’t pay them millions if they’re not real masters of the game.

Then what? Morocco has just changed the coach again, a coach who, despite his clear mistakes, has faced us with the painful reality about the management of sports in Morocco. Officials criticised Henri Michel’s remarks and dismissed them as utter nonsense, but, on the other hand, didn’t answer that big question haunting all Moroccans: What has made such an ironically renowned team a complete failure! Well if it’s not the money, and not the players, then what can it be except management?!

Anyway there are certainly lessons to be learned from this cup, and there are new challenges coming soon. All I hope is that something will be done –very soon – to avoid our team becoming a specialist in qualifying to international championships and disqualifying from the first round!

Ok, let’s go back to the happiness the Egyptian squad offered us yesterday (and, by the same occasion, smile at the thought that football does succeed in what politics and economy fail to fulfill: creating for real that legendary Arab union whole nations have been dreaming of).

Abu Treka, Zidane, El Hadary, and all their friends, led by “El Me’alem” Shehata, have done a great job, and do deserve the Cup. So hey, enjoy the amazing goal that made Egypt the winner of the 2008 African Cup of Nations 1-0 against Cameroon:

And the winner is... ?

It’s a special night for Moroccan bloggers. At these moments in Casablanca, the bloggers elected the best in the Moroccan blogsphere for 2008 must be receiving their awards.

I couldn’t attend the ceremony, but I did vote for my favourite bloggers, and hope they will win ;)

A big bravo to very active Agadir bloggers who had the bright idea, and made the great effort of organising the competition and all the activities related to it (a well made website, interesting goodies, etc).

Let’s wait for the results, and for what the bloggers who attended the ceremony will tell us about it! Good luck to all! :)