A very interesting meeting took place last week in Paris between Moroccan and French industry groups. MEDEF, the French employers association, welcomed its Moroccan counterpart CGEM for a round table under the rubric of "Reforms and Growth: Where Does Morocco Stand?" Six Moroccan ministers attented. But what was especially interesting for readers in Tangier was … Read more Your Choice: Electricity, Food, or Shelter
WeatherOnline gives a great description of Tangier's crazy wind called the chergui. Crazy, in that it blows in over the waters of the Strait of Gibraltar, laden with desert sand. Figure that one out. Crazy, in that sometimes, like yesterday, it blew low towards the west, while up above the wind from the Atlantic Ocean … Read more Blame It On the Chergui
Wildlife in the medina of Tangier Actually, the French Consulate General isn't in the medina any longer (the old French Legation was in a historic building – Dar al Niyaba – that once housed the Sultan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the International Zone era). Now it's at the center of the modern city, la … Read more Legation Lions & Les Oies du Consulat
For years, it has been hanging in the courtyard of the American Legation in Tangier. The red, white, and blue are now faded, dirty. Poor Old Glory. The courtyard is, after all, subject to the desert dust of the chergui as the Moroccans call the East wind off the Sahara. When it's the Atlantic wind, … Read more Moroccan-American Relations: Photo Interpretation, Please
At left: American Consul in Tangier, James De Long, circa 1861 (Click on photo to enlarge to full-size pop up). Thanks to Tangier native and Parisian pediatrician (and author) Philip Abensur, we have this photo of the Civil War era Consul James De Long. De Long, who served from September 1861 through March 1862, might … Read more Topic In Search of Historian: The US Civil War in Tangier, Morocco
They were handing out red roses to (some) women at Tangier's Ibn Battuta Airport on International Women's Day. Nice gesture. Just like some organizations – websites, news media, governments, private industry – mark the day, until they get to the next de rigueur event, like Earth Day. Points on the calendar. Check. What happens the … Read more International Women’s Day – All the Days After
We are very excited about our latest project: establishing a new blog, "The Music of Morocco by Paul Bowles." It is still under construction, but readers can already listen to the first podcast. Readers of TALIMblog's previous posts on the Paul Bowles Centenary will know that TALIM commissioned the digital remastering of Bowles' recordings of … Read more New Blog Dedicated to Morocco’s Music Recorded by Paul Bowles
MRE – to some Americans familiar with the military, that stands for "Meals Ready to Eat," the food for soldiers in the field. But we're talking here about the French acronym for Marocains Résidants à l'Etranger, Moroccans living abroad. The travails of MREs in Libya were profiled here in SOS Marocains en détresse, from Info … Read more MREs From Libya Return to Morocco
Some people, when confronted with terms like "branding" and "logo" think crass commercialism. Well, there is an aspect of that in what I am trying to accomplish: I would like the Tangier American Legation Institute for Moroccan Studies to better "sell" its "products." Here they are: – Only US National Historic Landmark outside the United … Read more Rebranding TALIM Starts With Its Logo
Don't worry: Teddy Roosevelt and his gunboat diplomacy have not made a reappearance on the Strait of Gibraltar. Whatever happens down the coast in Libya, the USS Olympia of the Great White Fleet (image: ModelShipMaster.com) is safely moored in its Philadelphia museum home. Here in Tangier, we don't expect any battleship-assisted hostage rescue attempts à … Read more The Great White Fleet Returns to Tangier
