Hospitals & Asylums
Rocks of Gibraltar HA-25-12-05
By Jay Scelza
Just
writing a quick (not so quick) hello from a cafe in a little mountain village
of Chefcheauon, Morocco to send best wishes and seasonal greetings! (forgive
the grammatical errors, it’s a French keyboard and a 3rd world connection]
So far we have spent 3 nice, although busy and
expensive, weeks in Europe visiting Sharon’s Family and friends in the
Netherlands, where we biked a lot in cold wet weather among other
things, and then visited a friend in Portugal, exploring the
west coast beaches and flora (she’s an ethno-botanist) from her house in Lagos,
Portugal. From there we headed by car to southern Spain, Donana National
Parque and on to climb the highest, rocky peak of
Grazalema where we had views of the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and our
destination to the south... Morocco and the °rock of Gibralter°.
On this hike we ate fruits
of a relative of madrone (here also called madrona; whick looked like a
spiny red grape, and tasted like a pear-peach... gritty, but sweet; and picked
some hedgehog ( Dentinum sp very similar to D. umbillicarium)
mushrooms that we never fully verified, and so didn’t end up eating.
We had
an interesting time fighting our way through the line to customs at
the Moroccan border, and made our way through the gauntlet of hustlers on the
other side, who spoke English, and 5 or 6 other languages, an obvious
upper-hand and were very persistent, but we eventually made it to
a °grand° taxi (named because a °grand° total of 8 people must
squeeze inside this 30 year old Mercedes, before the driver will
depart) and at last we found a good deal on a bad hotel.
It was
only today after arriving here in Chefcheauon that we realized we paid double
the price for it from our °friend° who insisted on guiding us there and
probably pocketing half the cash. Oh
well it’s all in good fun, and still half the cost of any European hostel.
Needless
to say we will not get bored here as here is always something new to see,
smell, taste, hear and to keep us on our feet. we will stay here
for a few days within the colorful walls of the medina, the old town with the
narrow, labyrinthine alleys and souqs (outdoor shops) full of vendors
selling anything Morroccan.
There
are very few other tourists here and less so as we travel south, so the
sights and sounds are fantastically different than anything I could have
imagined. For example, we get awakened in the
morning around 6am by a call to prayer where Arabic chanting
comes crackling over a far off megaphone.
So I
hope this finds you all in a festive mood, healthy, and most
important...happily well fed and possibly comatose from rich holiday food.
Hope to hear from you all soon (I hardly get enough email from you, you know
who you are). Shallom, salam allakum, feliz navidad, peace, merry christmas,
happy new year, bon natal, joy noelle, etc, etc....and see you in
2007....Jay Scelza
Here are
a few photos to keep your interest...,enjoy.
1.
Torréon Peak overlooking Africa, Spain
2. Rock Climbing with Rue and Joanna in Lagos, Portugal
3. Zahara, Spain lake with tree
4. Santa climbing balcony in Seville, Spain
5. Church in Algodonales, Spain
6.
Christmas lights in City Center
The French colonized Morocco,
Mauritania, Libya, Algeria and Tunisia from 1860-1962. The Ottoman Turks ruled Egypt from 1517 to
1882 when Britain seized control of the government ostensibly to protect their
investments and paid allegiance to the Ottoman Turks until the end of World War
I, at the end of World War II Egypt was granted its independence. Members states are striving to create a
joint Border that upholds the 1991 Agreement on Tariffs
of the Union du Maghreb Arabe (UMA). Thanks
to membership in the African Union, the Arabic language, Islam and a fairly
equal standard of living the North African states have consolidated their
economies into a Common Market, or Amah, called the Union du Maghreb Arabe (UMA)
with the Traite Instituant
L’union du Maghreb Arabe signed in 1989 in Marrakech. The objective of the Union is to join the
Arab economies. A number of treaties
have normalized agriculture,
tariffs
and banking
between member nations since 1991.
A total of 153 million people
live in 6,009,590 sq km in 7 North Africa states, including Western Sahara that
needs a referendum to gain independence from Morocco. North Africa is 99% Arab Muslim.
All 7 North Africa states have a combined GDP of $656.8 billion with a
regional per capita income of between $1,900 in Mauritania and $7,600 in Libya.
Total North African government revenues totaled $74.8 billion. Total North
African government expenditures totaled $74.2 billion. Exports amount to an estimated $52.9 billion
a year, about half of this is petroleum however the region is an important
manufacturer of metal, chemical and petroleum products and textiles and an exporter
of many specialized agricultural products.
North Africa imports an estimated $51.8 billion a year, the primarily
food products, communication technology and industrial machinery. Total
military expenditure is $9.36 billion. The
UMA conducts most of its business in the French and Arabic languages. English
Speaking Arab Egypt remains aloof from the organization. Regional government
founded upon peace, free market principles and transparent and open borders
throughout North Africa offer to promote good governance and individual
economic performance through the region.
Are Sharon and Jay planning on
traveling around the Mediterranean with a destination in Greece where they can
reportedly work for room and board? Our cousin, Sarah Horowitz, is reportedly
living in Israel, maybe she could show you around. The Israelis and Palestinians have been so well behaved lately
maybe you would even want to spend some time working on a kibbutz or other
industrious communities in the region.
I’ll be sure to submit these photos to the Move On photo petition
campaign for peace. I’ve been to two of
their meeting and find them much safer than the World Bank’s unverifiable
conference in Morocco sometime at the end of January. I have written a 56 page Chapter on the region
you should at least read my abstract on the Middle East and Central Asia (MECA).
Edited by Anthony J. Sanders