More surprising still is the fact that Morocco’s oldest winery, Celliers de Meknes, has made a brisk business of selling booze in a country where 98 percent of the population is forbidden to drink alcoholic beverages.
Wine brings the state millions in sales tax, even though Islam appears to be on the rise politically.
I would like to explore that tension which I left out of my writings; that which pushes and pulls between Islam's haraam or forbidden view on wine and one of the largest wine producing countries of the Muslim Maghreb. The idea that 25million of 30million bottles of wine are sold in Moroccan borders is interesting. There are 5 wine regions in Morocco and 14 plots that adhere to Appelation d'Origine Garantie standards. In other words, the wine industry is organized, and from what I've read French colonialism only encouraged a people with viable vineyards.
Morocco has always been an object of intrigue to me (and that has been a source of anxiety for my parents), and now that intrigue is more than a whim: I can speak one of the main languages of Morocco, I have a basic drive to work on the vineyards, and a curiosity for the organization of a predominately Arab country. I want firstly to figure out the tensions that I will be playing with so far as I’m aware.
For one, I’m aware of the tension in asking for a job that is otherwise available to the unemployed people of Morocco. Secondly, I’m aware of the tension of a wine industry operating in an Islamic arab society. I’m aware of how my the title, “Western American woman” will introduce me before I give my name. If the motivation to destroy an American stronghold in world economics is viable and raw then a posit to ask for work in a foreign country as a representative of such stronghold is potentially offensive, ignorantly inappropriate, and naive.
These are the areas I foresee to require the greatest defense. So what offense do I have to offer? I want to be a field hand on a vineyard in Meknes, Morocco during such a time as to challenge al-Qaeda in the reorganization of the global system. To be clear, I'm working under the influence of 2 articles today, one from al Jazeera and the other from NPR. With little time divested between the two, I gathered one claim: Al-Qaeda's ideology stems from the dialect and distress of food shortages and unemployment in Egypt circa Sadat; brutalized for 3 years in Egyptian prison for collaborating in Sadat's assassination, Ayman al-Zawahiri learned of his impoverished reality, how it was sustained, and was radicalized by this discernment to oust oppressing/corrupted/occasionally-western authority.
My questions
If the current Egyptian revolution to overthrow a regime responsible for catering his people with poverty is an amplified-albeit more peaceful-echo of the 80's, does it pose a greater threat to destroy the American stronghold in the region than Al-Qaeda could through jihad? If the United States' stronghold is economic-based, is this a more direct hit?
(In the margins... if reorganizing the global system has the same end-effect shared between the two groups, does this basic line of reasoning--Al-Qaeda emerged as a resolve to an unhappy, impoverished Egypt years ago--drain into the fears for the emerging Muslim Brotherhood? --or, is that blanket a little too generous?)
That basically puts forth the idea that the peaceful revolutions of Egypt, in particular, pose a threat to the current "global system" that Al-Qaeda has vowed to destroy. Al-Qaeda seeks the same reorganization of economics through jihad. If the United States is hesitant to support or ignore the democratic desires of the revolutions currently underway in North Africa and the Middle East because of their threat –however non-violently it may be–to the American allegiances in the region then I want to personally experience its happening. I relish the idea of carrying this experience into a piece of fiction. Ayn Rand is my favorite author for her stories and her ability to weave theory through her tellings. I'm exhausted with theories after researching for my senior project, and would be grateful for the manual labor. I would like those both in hand when I pick up a pen again.
(In the margins... if reorganizing the global system has the same end-effect shared between the two groups, does this basic line of reasoning--Al-Qaeda emerged as a resolve to an unhappy, impoverished Egypt years ago--drain into the fears for the emerging Muslim Brotherhood? --or, is that blanket a little too generous?)
That basically puts forth the idea that the peaceful revolutions of Egypt, in particular, pose a threat to the current "global system" that Al-Qaeda has vowed to destroy. Al-Qaeda seeks the same reorganization of economics through jihad. If the United States is hesitant to support or ignore the democratic desires of the revolutions currently underway in North Africa and the Middle East because of their threat –however non-violently it may be–to the American allegiances in the region then I want to personally experience its happening. I relish the idea of carrying this experience into a piece of fiction. Ayn Rand is my favorite author for her stories and her ability to weave theory through her tellings. I'm exhausted with theories after researching for my senior project, and would be grateful for the manual labor. I would like those both in hand when I pick up a pen again.
I recognize the violent contradiction of the statement: to be an American looking to be apart of the ousting of American presence; and that, simply acknowledging that contradiction will not defend me against violence. This is where I am. This is what I want to work towards.
Update: Instead, [the Gulf Cooperation Council, in light of its recent consideration to extend membership to Morocco and Jordan,] seems to be evolving into a club for Sunni Arab monarchs -- the institutional home of the counter-revolution, directed against not only Iran but also against the forces for change in the region.
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