Morocco is a land of contrasts. The old and the new exist side by side here, as well as Jew, Muslim and Christian. It is a country of Sahara desert, lunch green valleys and land which is dry in summer and green when finally nourished by rain.
Here there are the 16,500,000 youth getting free education while so many of he older people are illiterate. The belly dancers expose parts of their bodies that others keep covered when not at home. The women's garments with only the eyes exposed, burqa, worn by some women are in sharp contrast to the western type clothes of some of the younger people, especially in Casablanca.
There is wealth is Morocco. Just outside Tangiers and in Casablanca, there are areas with homes costing 5-6 million Euros, while several kilometers down the roads are slums that will be demolished when the high rise housing nearby is completed.
In the Medina in Fes and throughout the countryside donkeys are the main mode of transportation for many families. In Casablanca, however, the city contains many multinational companies which have set up headquarters there. Car manufacturing is one of them.
Also in medinas of Fes and Marrakech for example, every part of the animal is sold and eaten. In the more industrialized Casablanca, the fast food restaurants of the west line the road by the beach and are frequented by locals.
The people love their King, who can trace his ancestry back to the prophet Muhammad. He married a young woman who was an orphan from the Medina in Fes. He is taking his country forward into the twenty-first century, socially and economically. It will be interesting to see how much of the old ways are retained as Morocco comes of age.
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