Morocco, Chefchaouen--Palestine, Gaza /5

I will have a lot more to say about the people I met, especially Bernard, Genevieve, Irene, Cecile, Martine, Yildiz and or course, my friend and comrade Francois the Corsican. We had long discussions about research and life and the necessity to always challenge, disagree, oppose and dissent from the establishment. These are well established researchers who have a lifetime of experience and of work on linking research with action. I salute them. They are my peers. And I say this because I will writ later about the peer reviewing system that was recently introduced into the French academic research system, which was copied from the US system with all its flaws in addition to the fact that these are French, not US researchers. This is the Empire at work, with its acolytes in Europe and its comprador in the developing nations. More about this later.

I want to write a bit about food. I found what we were given to be rather unimpressive, especially that we were at a terroir conference. Most food was bland and expectable, except the bastila, a fabulous sweet and salty patty made with almond paste, pigeon (or chicken) and honey, sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon, and presented with a sprig of mint and a slice of orange: delicious! I also tried the orange salad, which is made with peeled orange slices sprinkled with cinnamon, also very yummy. Cinnamon is a great spice, and the people from Chefchaouen know that.

During the last day, I went around the city with Omar, who is from Chefchaouen. I took many pictures which can be seen in this picasa album. I met one of the local bakers, Abdulrahman, who was jovial and let me take a picture of the typical bread being baked in the traditional wood-fired oven. I asked him if this bread had a name and he said "khobz". I asked "yes but what kind of khobz?" he said: "just khobz," and he looked at me as if I was a weirdo.

Here are a couple of the photos of the old city.