Paradoxical & Beautiful Marrakech

How a short break to a wonderful city highlights issues of animal welfare and human suffering.

If you've never been to Marrakech, you should!  What an amazing, beautiful, dilapidated, friendly, hostile, hectic yet tranquil place; it's so full of paradoxes that your head will literally spin - all in the hot, make that very hot, sunshine :)

If you fancy a run whilst there, I certainly recommend you go first thing in the morning when it's cool and quiet.  Running is always the best way to explore and get a feel for a new city.

A warm evening spent in the main Jemaa El Fna Square, listening to the call to prayer penetrating the background noise of city life, is something never to be forgotten.  Sipping mint tea from the safety of an overlooking balcony before diving in amongst the street vendors, food stands, entertainers and other tourists is fabulous.  Life is colourful, loud and very, very busy.  It's all very entertaining, especially when you can finish the day and head off to a luxurious Riad hotel for some well deserved pampering and relaxation afterwards.

The sights are wonderful and will take your breath away - mosques, markets, gardens, palaces and museums, all with the ever present pot mint tea available to help you recover when you fancy a little breather.  You will especially need a moment to recover if you've spent a few glorious hours getting totally and utterly lost in the myriad of stalls and alleyways that make up the Souk.  That is certainly a lifetime memory right there!

 

However, when you look, really look, you see life's struggles all being played out before your very lucky tourist eyes. Whether it's the street cats - numerous, cute, adorable yet largely uncared for and so thin all you want to do is feed them - or the donkeys pulling hugely overloaded carts through chaotic hot streets, or the hard working street vendors trying their very best to sell some clearly counterfeit goods, you realise just how lucky you are.  Look through the crowds and past the tourist sites and you will see real Marrakech - people making do, doing their best, working hard and just trying to get by.  It's heart-breaking, humbling, uplifting and soul destroying all at the same time - another paradox Marrakech has on offer for you, if you want to look.

A good start to helping the animals in Marrakech is to support charities such as SPANA, you can donate here; we should always do what we can to look after helpless animals.

I think it was the street vendors that really made me stop and think - good natured West African males selling sunglasses, watches and electrical goods.  It would be all too easy to try and ignore their approaches, or be rude in your retort, focusing merely on the goods on offer rather than the people themselves.

People, we are all people, we all have struggles and hardships, we all try to do the best we can.  The street vendors are the same and it is only due to the fickle finger of fate that our roles aren't reversed; remember that, if you can.

Migration is an extremely important and polarising issue of current times and unfortunately many opinions on the subject are largely based on the very unhelpful 'them' and 'us' attitude.  This is all so sad, many folks forget it is about people, not numbers, not 'them' and 'us', just normal everyday people having difficulties.  As you can see from this great link, it's not a new phenomenon either - some folks just think it is!  And this link, showing refugee movements across the globe, is stunning.

In 2013, the IPPR released a report concerning the  THE MYTH OF TRANSIT: SUB-SAHARAN MIGRATION IN MOROCCO.  It may be rather long, but it is worth reading and may change your views on the 'looky looky' men that are so often ridiculed and berated.  Many just want a better life, and why shouldn't they, so they travel - not to seek fortunes and fame or wallow in luxury, but simply to try and earn a living, avoid injustice, escape famine or evade war.  Often they support their families back home who were unable to make the journey themselves; a traditional route to Europe is through Morocco.  Even travelling across Western Africa to get to interim destinations like Marrakech can take months or even years, and is far from safe.  Getting to Europe is harder and more dangerous than ever nowadays and many poor folks end up being stranded mid way through their journey - unable to afford to go on, go home or get by.  They are in a foreign country, without papers, protection, prospects or money and end up being exploited and manipulated, all through no fault of their own.

An extract from the IPRR report could well have regarded one of the street vendors I saw, who knows...

Another, a Malian, paid 5,000 dirhams to be taken to Spain from Algeria but was abandoned in Morocco. A Senegalese migrant, having paid 4,000 dirhams in return for a job and accommodation in Morocco, was also scammed. The man who helped us to emigrate was a Senegalese married to a Moroccan from Marrakech, he was accompanied by a Frenchman, it was he who had the van in which we [travelled]. We gave him 4,000 dirhams each to ensure that we travelled with a contract of employment and occupations, and for food and accommodation too, but we found nothing of what he had promised. We travelled with the van holding a Senegalese passport; we paid 50 euros each at the border of Mauritania and 50 euros at the Moroccan border. We spent four days of a tiring journey with financial difficulties, and when I arrived in Morocco I had only 100 dirhams left.’  Senegalese migrant, male, 33 

So, next time you see a street vendor (or 'looky looky' man), please try and see through the counterfeit goods on offer and past the inconvenience of being disturbed whilst on your well deserved holiday, to see the person.  A person who is unlikely to be doing what they had ever dreamt of, a person who is just trying to get by, a person who deserves our respect and dignity if nothing else.

The migration problem is huge and significant - here's a great link showing the scale of the issue.




Anyways, Marrakech is amazing and definitely worth a visit - enjoy the hustle and bustle of the markets, good natured haggling and drinking plenty of mint tea.  There are some great places to eat too - I'm a pescatarian and thought I'd struggle with the food, but I had some of the most delicious meals imaginable whilst there.  Oh, and I would certainly recommend an early morning run if you can!

More information about Morocco can be found on the StoryMap below: