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
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
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
Three profs from orient did come. West, to Tangier. Our visitors: three Algerian professors from the University of Guelma. Guelma, located in Algeria's Far East, is about as far from Tangier as you can get in Algeria. The University's name – 08 Mai 1945 – is a giveaway to its location, near the town of … Read more Maghrib Triangulation: Guelma-Tunis-Tangier
Anyone reading this blog over the last few weeks might get the idea that Morocco lives under a big rain cloud. Definitely not the case. There is a sunny side to the country, and we've been there: Marrakesh. I even groused about its tourist-trap side, though the city is much more than beads and baubles. … Read more AIMS In Marrakesh, TALIM In Morocco
I like to call it the "poor box." It's the wooden box screwed to our door, with the hope that visitors to the museum will be moved to leave a token of their appreciation. Good thing tokens don't exist anymore. Or else we'd get them, along with wooden nickels, and other useless objects. Somebody once … Read more Legation Fund Raising: Insert Money Here
It was a year ago, January 2010, that a team from the U.S. measured, photographed, profiled, and documented the multitudinous problems that haunt our historic structure. Visible to the layman are problems of water absorption and saturation, cracking, settlement, mold. To the experts who came to Tangier one year ago, these problems – and more … Read more An Historic Structure: Report Eagerly Awaited
Note to readers: December is a time when many people suffer from S.A.D., Seasonal Affective Disorder, or the winter blues. I may have identified a variant, peculiar to this corner of North Africa, called L.E.D. or Legation Enchantment Disorder. It's not quite disenchantment, but it is a bummer. This "December Report" is in the format … Read more December Diary: The Enchantment Is Elusive
With the sudden passing of Richard Holbrooke (who was Peace Corps director in Morocco from 1970 to 1972), we have not only lost one of America's top diplomats. We will also miss him when the Peace Corps marks its 50th anniversary of operations in Morocco, which will be held on Memorial Day 2012. I would … Read more Peace Corps 50th in Morocco
