You never know what those International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) people will get up to. At Saturday's gathering in Mdiq (a northern Moroccan seaside town between Tetouan and Ceuta) of alumni from the US Embassy's various scholarship and visitor programs, the introductions were supposed to address the question "what do you miss most about your … Read more Skydiving In a Hijab: the Wonders of Exchange Programs
Algerian scholars Amina Leghima and Lila Chabane, 2011 AIMS Maghribi Grantees at TALIM's Ambassador Joseph Verner Reed Library I hope not; I hope this is not the end of a small, effective scholarship program. I hope that someone in a position to do something – say a senior US Government Executive Branch official – will … Read more The Last of the Maghribi Grantees?
Lucy Melbourne, American writer on Morocco, Fulbright scholar, and comparitive literature professor has done us a singular honor, with the publication of her poem "TALIM" in MLM – Le Magazine Littéraire du Maroc. It's in the Autumn 2011 issue. As Lucy says, it's further proof that English has become a language of literature in Morocco. … Read more A Poem Entitled TALIM
1961… Fifty years ago, a modernist architectural edifice in "New Tangier" replaces the Gift of the Sultan. [T]he Tangier Legation was an exception. Before 1821, and for a long while after, the United States owned no property abroad… [In the 1950s and 60s] Projects such as Tangier… designed by young "stars" such as Hugh Stubbins, … Read more The Modernist Tangier American Consulate General
You have to be dedicated, or perhaps suffering jet lag, to get up to watch Michael Singh's excellent documentary at 08:00 on a Sunday morning. The time was a function of the setting: this was the annual conference of MESA, the Middle East Studies Association, and Valentino's Ghost was making a debut showing. It's all … Read more Valentino’s Ghost: Hollywood & TV Imagine Arabs
Party poster show, Election Day minus 4 UPDATE 11/26/2011: Checking international media sources, it appears that the moderate Islamist PJD is claiming victory in yesterday's parliamentary elections in Morocco. And it looks like voter turnout, though slightly higher than in 2007, is still below half the electorate – the result no doubt of a vigorous … Read more Following Morocco’s Elections From Afar
The organizers, with sold-out table Many websites that provide step-by-step guides to "starting your new tradition" are semi-commercial. With yesterday's first edition of what might well become an annual event, our intent was strictly charitable, but then charity does start at home. Saturday's Tangier American Legation Open House and Christmas Market was a roaring success, … Read more Legation Open House & Christmas Market
No qualitative or political inference to my post title – it's just a phrase, usually denoting the kind of people who show up at international conflabs like Davos and Aspen. That said, MEDays brought an impressive array of people from all walks and regions to Tangier, for the 4th consecutive year. It was a Davos … Read more MEDays 2011: Tangier Welcomes the Great & Good
Today Morocco celebrates Independence Day. "The View From Fez," a fine English-language blog, has some photos from King Mohammed V's return from exile, the date of which determined Morocco's Independence Day. I know what they say about reading the telephone book, but there is great value in leafing through the 1956 Tangier Anuario Telefonico, reprinted … Read more Moroccan Independence: November 18, 1956
There have been Shahs in Morocco. Of Iran, and of Afghanistan. We speak of the latter. Tahir Shah (official site) In Arabian Nights: A Caravan of Moroccan Dreams (Bantam, 2008) Tangier holds a special place in my heart. It was there that my grandfather lived, then died, knocked down outside his villa on the steep … Read more A Shah’s Triumphant Return To Tangier
