Every now and then I get bored and want to change the theme. Feel free to complain/suggest/compliment – but please note that I included the donkey!
I’ve also never used a dark theme – I think they’re harder to read – but it doesn’t hurt to experiment, I suppose.
Global Voices was kind enough to link to this blog, but the sub-heading made me pause – “They Blog In English.” For those familiar with American sci-fi, this brings to mind such classics as “They Came From Outer Space,” “They Live,” and the ever-popular “They.”
It also made me consider something – most of the Moroccan blogs are written in French or fus’ha, not darija. I know, I know, darija’s not a written language, stop ranting already. However, since I’m a blogger who writes in my native language, English, I wonder if I have a freedom of expression that Moroccan bloggers miss out on. Since they’re fluent in French and Arabic, it’s not my intent to accuse them of being less than eloquent – but how different would it be if someone blogged in Darija? Or Tamazight? Would the colloquial terms and slang make it more interesting? Would they feel more relaxed in their writing style? Just food for thought, I could be completely off-base – and if anyone knows of blogs written in darija, please let me know!
Morocco jails German for trying to convert Muslims
Reuters
Wednesday, November 29, 2006; 12:40 PM
RABAT (Reuters) – A Moroccan court jailed a German tourist for six months for attempting to convert Muslims in the southern resort of Agadir, officials said on Wednesday.
The court in Agadir, Morocco’s main tourist destination, found the 64-year-old man guilty of trying to “shake the faith of a Muslim,” they added.
The court also fined him 500 dirhams ($60) in its verdict issued late on Tuesday.
Court officials named the German of Egyptian origin as Sadek Noshi Yassa, who was arrested last week as he was distributing books and CDs about the Christian faith to young Muslim Moroccans in the street, the officials said.
Under Moroccan law “anyone who employs incitements to shake the faith of a Muslim or to convert him to another religion” can be jailed for up to six months and fined.
The verdict came after local media reports that some Christians had launched a clandestine campaign to convert thousands of Muslim Moroccans to Christianity.
There are about 20,000 expatriate Christians in Morocco, most of them living in Rabat and Casablanca, according to estimates by European diplomats.
Since returning to the States in June, I think I’ve gained back every bit of weight I lost in Morocco. This process has been repeated several times over the past four years, since there are factors on each side that contribute.
States
Morocco
Even after submitting my Fulbright proposal, I was still tossing around the idea of applying for the Peace Corps. Sure, it seemed to be a requirement that all female PCVs communicate in “upspeak,” but I thought I could get past that. On a closer review of the PC application, however, I noticed one critical point – if you’re married, your spouse has to provide a notarized letter stating that they give their permission for you to participate in the program. Excuse me? I understand the sentiment behind it, but this is ridiculous.
Upspeak : “…where a person makes a question out of a sentence that isn’t a question (or more simply speaks “up” at the end of a sentence)”