When I came to Morocco in 2010 I restarted a subscription that I last had as a postgrad in the 1980s, to a magazine called MERIP – the Middle East Research and Information Project. It’s a useful and interesting quarterly magazine published in Washington DC, a left-of-centre counterweight to US political and foreign policy orthodoxies. … More Culture and the Arab Revolts
A day in Marrakech for TEDx, the local franchise of the TED conference, run by Vanessa Branson at her lovely Riad al-Fenn. It’s not a format that I’m familiar with, and the rapid-fire, pump-action delivery of ideas is invigorating, dazzling and kaleidoscopic. Writing in the first break, I’m digesting with my coffee contributions by the … More TEDx in Marrakech
Links to a couple of interesting articles. Prospect’s September issue has several pieces on the economic challenges after the Arab Spring, including Claire Spencer (Reform, Round Two) highlighting the unfinished business of the Spring revolutions themselves. Job creation and SME-building are the real challenges for countries with massive youth unemployment, and the economies of Egypt … More Economic Challenges and February 20th
It’s the end of August, the rentrée approaches, and I am halfway though my four-year term as Director of the British Council in Morocco. I’m beginning the new academic year with a new blog, in which I shall try to find interesting things to say about Morocco, the Middle East, the books and journals that cross my desk – and, … More An Elephant in the Room, or Un Fiil dans the bayt
Martin Rose 