When I read articles about Fes being a car-free city, I reflect on my experience in Fes last summer. I stayed at the wonderful Riad 20 Jasmines. Located only a short walk from Batha Place, I quickly learned how to navigate my way back to the taxi stand so I could catch a ride to the modern part of town and attend the Moroccan Business Forum conference.

The sounds at night were a surprise to me. Dogs, people – those sounds I had expected. But the diesel sounds of motorized vehicles caught me by surprise. From the tiny, barred windows of my room I couldn’t look down and see what was going on in the medina alleyway below. But more than once I saw motorcycles being driven somewhat recklessly though the pedestrian and animal filled walkways. I can’t say I recall seeing anyone riding a bicycle.

The medina of Fes is a car-free city because it is an ancient place inconsiderate of cars. The truth is people use cars whenever they can. If you create environments where the car is inconvenient you can change behavior.

My own suburban town in the States was modeled on the car. It is basically a six-lane strip of road that widened over the years. Even when I want to walk to the store, the sidewalks and traffic deter me. What would my city be like if it were more of a city?

In Batha Place, I scanned the taxis to decide which one to hire. In one car the driver is smoking with the windows rolled-up. I chose another. As we start driving, the driver lights a cigarette. I shrug and light my own. “C’est interdit!” he tells me and laughs. It is a phrase overused. Everything and nothing is interdit (forbidden) in Morocco. I can still clearly picture the smiling gap-toothed cab driver nodding and laughing in the review mirror.

Up river some boys rinsed gold tea pots with an acid finish. Down river, a group of men pound animal skins in the water. The river that runs through Fes serves many purposes. None smell or look particularly beautiful.

Maybe that will change soon.

Reading about top sustainable construction projects in From The Nation Business, I was happy to see mention of the river in the Fes medina, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

“A youthful and international project team led by architect Aziza Chaouni ( Morocco ) and urban planner Takako Tajima ( USA) are remediating the heavily-polluted river Fez to revitalize the ancient heart of the city. The approach includes a series of interventions to renovate traditional tanneries, create public spaces and pedestrian zones, and restore wetlands as well as biodiversity.

The jury applauded the scheme for creating a chain of recovery projects to enable future sub-projects to be added – and for addressing the economic and social life of the city together with the ecology of the river. “This is a multi-sited, multi-functional project organized around the recovery of the river. Core components rehabilitate the architecture of this historic Medina , creating a functional and viable urban precinct,” stated the jury report.

The project authors formed NGO Sauvons Oued Fez (Save the Fez River ) after winning the regional Holcim Awards Gold 2008 Africa Middle East. The NGO is a network to advance the sub-projects of the remediation and encourage community involvement. ”

Interesting blog post on Gurney’s Journey, a daily weblog for illustrators, et al. Includes photos of the artists sketches of Bab Boujeloud in Fes as well as YouTube video of Fes pedistrian life.

Gate into Fes.

I wish I knew about the “double barrel mint nostril device” when I went to Fes. Luckily (?) each time I’ve been to Fes my sinuses were so congested that I couldn’t smell anything.

Note how the price of a lantern dropped from 80 euros (over $100 dollars) to 200 dirhams (closer to $20). In other words, shopping in Morocco takes time.

“This pattern is called ‘The Spider’” our guide said excitedly while gesturing towards a zillige-covered wall. “The Prophet Mohammad was hiding in a cave from his enemies when a spider came and built a web over the entrance. His enemies believed he couldn’t be in the cave because the web was unbroken. This is why it is haram (forbidden) to kill spiders and why this pattern is called named after the spider.”

I’m not sure when I first heard the story of the cave and the spider web. This time the story was told to me on visiting a 14th century medrassa in Fes. I was happy to learn the name for a zillij pattern. And I was intrigued to find another instance of the symbolism of eight within Moroccan design.

The symmetry of eight, according to Keith Critchow, is central to the genius of Moroccan pattern. Even though I read Critchow’s book “Islamic Patterns” I wanted more information on the role of symmetries of eight in Moroccan design, which is why I researched and wrote about the origins and meanings of the eight-point star.

The story of the spider web covering the cave isn’t in the Koran. That story is included in a hadith, stories covering the life events of the Prophet. The Koran includes 114 chapters (surah) including ones named after bees, ants, and spiders. In the Spider, it is written:

“The likeness for those who take to themselves guardians instead of God is the likeness of the Spider who buildeth her a house: But verily, frailest of all houses surely is the house of the spider.” (source)

In the hadith story, it is the fraility of the spider’s house that makes the enemies of the Prophet certain he couldn’t have entered the cave without breaking the web.

So what is the symbolism of the spider pattern? Strength? Fragility? Protection?

Stories of the mystical spider webs occur in multiple cultures. Just as the symbolism behind the eight point star is not uniquely Moroccan, I think the symbolism of the spider pattern is something more primal. The number eight helps us make sense of our world, like a compass with the eight familiar directions: north, north east, east, south east, south, south west, west, north west.

(You’re right, Gene. I posted the wrong photo but added the correct image to the beginning of the post. Others – the old photo is below.)

I found myself in a SUV driven by an American who was touring Morocco with his girlfriend from Chezh Republic. I assumed they were married and asked how long. “They aren’t married” my tour guide whispered “that’s why he laughed when you asked the question.”

We talked as we drove towards the Merinid tombs. “Moroccans sure like their walls, don’t they?” the man asked rhetorically. “They have walls around nothing. He told me” the American said in reference to our guide “that the holes in the walls are for birds.”

“Seems to me they would be for guns.” I responded.
“That’s what I said!” the American exclaimed excitedly.
“No, I told you they’re for birds.” the guide said with exasperation.
I replied that it seemed like a lot of work to do just for the birds. “And the guns would offer protection, which is the point of the exterior wall, right? Protection?”
“Well, you know Morocco. Nothing is done just as-is. Everything has to be beautiful.” the guide added as justification.

That almost seemed true. Morocco is visually ornate. But, Morocco is not ambitious. I can’t imagine a craftsman would complicate building procedures of an exterior wall just for the birds.

Detail of Bab Mansour in Meknes.

Later in Meknes, I began to appreciate the holes as bird homes. I watched mosquitoes fly in spirals in a sun beam in the garden. They nipped my ankles as I ate my lunch. They left marks along my daughter’s arms which she scratched until bleeding. As I watched birds fly in and out of the holes in wall around Bab Mansour I wished them a hearty meal of flies and mosquitoes. I thought of the owl, bat, and bird houses that were installed in my Maryland neighborhood to attract predators to control the mosquito and rodent population. Perhaps the holes were just for the birds?

“The holes are left when they remove the scaffolding used to construct the wall” the owner of Riad Safir later explained to me.”

Well, the holes in the wall are practical, even if not used for firing guns. As a by-product of construction procedures, they do make very functional and welcome bird houses.

Riad 20 Jasmins is the reason why I skipped half of the Morocco Business Forum. I left the conference early on the second day to take a much needed nap. My room, the smallest and, ahem, least expensive room in the house, was towards the front of the building. I could hear medina life at all hours of the day and most of the night. People watching was off limits. My room’s window was above the alley, so all I could see was the small garden where black birds made a ruckus in the morning just after the morning call to prayer. Instead of napping I enjoyed the quiet of the riad when all other guests exhausted themselves with tours of the medina. I essentially had the salon to myself, wireless Internet access, and excellent examples of zillige tesselations, borders, and stars to contemplate.

The Riad 20 Jasmins, known by the locals as Riad Yasmine, is a short walk from Batha Place. Hotel staff can arrange a tranfer for you from the Fes train station all the way to the front door. After a few trips to and from the riad, you will have no problem finding it on your own. Hotel staff are wonderful and can arrange and English-speaking guide for you to help you navigate the extensive medina. The food is some of the best I’ve ever had. Enjoying a glass of wine on the back patio after dining on a selection of Moroccan salads and the world’s best pastilla is a great way to unwind. Or, if you can steal some time for your self, stay in for a day. Staffing is limited, so don’t expect them to serve lunch, although you could request it in advance. Read a book in the garden or on the sofas in the salon, where you can rest your eyes on beautifully restored architecture between chapters. Or, relax in the reading room where you can browse through their collection of books on Islamic art or regional children’s stories.

I regret that I missed parts of the Morocco Business Forum, but I don’t regret a moment I spent at Riad 20 Jasmins. You can view photos of the riad on my flickr photostream. The pictures alone are enough to inspire. The riad’s website is at www.au20jasmins.com.

And God fashioned man out of clay, like pottery…

I had a chance to observe artisans creating pottery and mosaics at a ceramics factory in Fes. You can see products and request estimates through the factory’s website at www.artnaji.net. The site also has information on the production process. If you click on the photo above, you can view my flickr photostream, which has more photos of the factory.

My guide tells me that the color of Fes is blue, but I say its grey. The color of Fes is grey like the clay used to make Fasi pottery and tiles; the grey of pollution and plaster work; it is the grey of the crumbling medina walls. It is a particular shade of grey that is more a complex taupe than a simple mixture of black and white. The color of Fes is the color of creative inspiration. With 50,000 artisans and 15% of the population working in the craft trade, Fes is a specialized source of human creative energy. It is amazing what can be made with Fasi grey.

The grey of Fes is transformed into tiles, which will
be colored and used for zillij, geometric mosaics.

There is no shortage of color in Fes. Colorful geometric mosaics, bright silk textiles, and glimmering metal work delight the eye. But there is no shared understanding of the symbolism of color use in Morocco. Whereas textile artisans may agree on the proper way of processing vegetable silk threads, the meaning of the colors used in their work escapes common definition.

The earliest examples of zillij, geometric mosaics common to Morocco, use a limited color palettes, usually two (black and white) to five (black, white, ochre, green – these four are most traditional – and eventually blue) colors. As a wider range of colors were made available, artisans quickly introduced a multitude of colors into their work. For this reason, I am not convinced that the limited color palette of early zillij and pottery had a particular symbolic value, but was a matter of availability.

However, my guide points to a zillij spider pattern on the wall at Medersa Bou Inaniya, which was built in the mid-fourteenth century, and explains: “The blue is for the sky, which is meant to inspire viewers to think of heaven. The yellow is for gold, which represents spiritual wealth, not monetary wealth. Green is the color of Islam. White is purity. Black the depth of life.”

Later, we stop by an embroidery shop in the medina. Two women work diligently on the table cloth designs. The man has his assistant show me some napkins soaking in bleach. “You cannot bleach the color out of these threads” he explains to me. This fact alone motivates me to buy. When showing me samples to chose from, he states “Blue is the best; it is the color of Fes.” When I ask why, my guide repeats that it represents the sky and heaven. The shop-keeper offers another interpretation: the blue represents water. Indeed, the location of Fes is at the edge of the Middle Atlas Mountains and the rivers that result from the flow of water from nearby mountain tops. The natural bounty of the location certainly must have been a motivating factor to its founders, who established Fes in the ninth century. The stunning public water fountains found in the medina speak of the cultural importance of water. Water and flowing steams are the necessary components of life and are part of the Islamic vision of Paradise. (In Rabat, during a tour of Oudaiya the guide told me the blue used to paint the walls was representative of the ocean and that it also functioned as a mosquito repellant since “mosquitos only like yellow.”)

I offer another interpretation. I read in a guidebook that the city of Chefchaouen, famous for the blue-painted walls of its medina, was green, the color of Islam, until the Jews arrived with a supply of and preference for blue pigment. Couldn’t it be the case with Fes, which boasted a large and often politically-connected population of Jews, that the blue color was inspired by the Jewish community? The men hum to themselves and acknowledge the possibility.

What do I know about color symbolism in Judaic culture? Exactly nothing. I believe it takes us back to the begining; back to the sky. And so it is with studying symbolism in Morocco. Not only is everything open to interpretation, but there exists such strong and diverse cultural traditions that you can quickly find yourself researching Judaic culture or the art history of Mesopotamia for the answer to a question that seemed to be a local one.

But I can appreciate Moroccan art without fully being able to pin-down its meaning, the origins of which is locked in pre-history. I purchased a round table cloth and six napkins decorated to with blue embroidery common to the Fasi style. Yes, it is amazing what comes from Fasi grey.

The day began with a presentation by Rick Ortez, a Foreign Service officer with the US Commercial Service who participated in reconstruction efforts in Baghdad and worked in Jordan during the implementation of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The essence of his presentation can be summarized by one statement he made: “It shouldn’t be called a Free Trade Agreement. It should be called a Very Challenging Trade Agreement.” The establishment of a FTA with Morocco doesn’t mitigate the challenges of doing business between the two countries, it merely adds an incentive for both parties to work together to overcome those challenges.

Ortega echoed the concerns about energy in Morocco that were raised by the US Ambassador the first day. “If you haven’t experienced brownouts this year, you may next year. The grid is operating at capacity.” He cited opportunities for US businesses, such as energy, waste management, water sanitation, and medical devices.

For more detailed information about the FTA with Morocco, such as opportunities for American businesses in Morocco, visit www.export.gov. The site requires registration with a US address to access market reports.

Since the role of the US commercial service, which is funded by US tax payers, is to help generate American exports, his presentation did not cover opportunities to export Moroccan products to US markets. There was a presentation done the first day of the forum by a representative of the Fes regional investment center (CRI). However, the establishment of regional investment centers in Morocco is relatively new and has a way to go before it catches up to the services and research done by the US Commercial Service. The website www.invest.gov.ma has information about investment opportunities and services in Morocco.

The Moroccan auditing and consulting firm ABEL made a presentation on business best practices and answered some questions about taxes and American investment strategies. They noted that Moroccan tax law is documented, but that there is controversy over interpretation of tax law and accounting practices. They are currently participating in an effort to document tax law interpretation so that the accounting industry can be standardized. As anyone who has read IRS documents can attest, tax documentation makes for dense reading material. In Morocco, the documentation is a work in progress. ABEL advises finding a trustworthy partner in Morocco. They didn’t offer any particular advice on how identify trustworthy partners. Partnerships with Moroccan businesses require investments of time and face-to-face interactions. As with all successful business partnerships, the parties must find they share common ideal and values as well as common goals.

ABEL had some good advice for American businesses. In planning a business, they advised settle on a business structure and find a location before doing the business paper work. They advised allocate enough time for real estate research and acquisition because the process of gaining a lease or plot of land in Morocco is particularly cumbersome. They advise professionals work with a notary to make sure they get what they pay for. They also advised businesses plan for a laborious administrative process in terms of completing necessary paperwork.

A representative from the CRI stated that efforts are underway to facilitate the business start-up process and bring administrative procedures online. Parliament recently enacted a law on e-payment procedures to require property security measures for online payments. However, these efforts are still in a testing, development, and implementation stages.

The pay-off for setting-up a business in Morocco is that the business will be tax exempt for five years and have a 50% tax reduction for the life of the company. So, if you plan on being in Morocco for the long term, it may be worthwhile to structure your organization as a Moroccan business. The inverse is that as a US company importing products into Morocco you will pay a 10% value added tax, which the US government will credit to you on your years tax return as part of the FTA with Morocco. Successful Moroccan-based businesses who have been able to tap into US markets include Zid Zid Kids and Mustapha’s Fine Foods of Morocco.

Morocco has specific laws governing how Americans can de-invest from Morocco. American businesses must complete necessary paperwork to show transparency of the funds they invest in Morocco. Establish the intent to do business in Morocco is crucial. For example, if one has a desire to establish a boutique hotel in Morocco, one must establish and document that intent from the beginning if they later want to convert their investment back to US dollars. If you buy a house in Morocco as a purchase without establish and documenting the intent to later convert it to a maison d’hotel you will encounter difficulties getting your investment out of Morocco should you chose to do so.

Morocco has a long tradition of doing business with Europe. It is an attractive location for establishing an operation center for businesses interested in tapping into other North African markets. However, Morocco doesn’t have a lot of experience doing business with American companies. American companies have experience doing business world-wide, so they are more apt to take advantage of the benefits of a FTA. For example, a California almond producer shipped the quota of almonds to Morocco the day after the agreement was implemented. It is indeed surprising the amount of food imports and agricultural products into Morocco. There is lots of opportunity to improve agriculture in Morocco.

Moroccan businesses suffer from a lack of marketing, quality control, and order fulfillment. Whereas the American entrepreneur is driven by a desire to change the world, I see the Moroccan businesses person fairly content with the world the way it is. Finding a shared desire for change will be important in establishing business ties between the US and Morocco. While Morocco in itself is a powerful brand, they must compete with suppliers from India, China, and the rest of the world.

More coverage of the 2008 Morocco Business Forum:

• Interview with Forum’s Founder
• Day One
• Day Two
• Day Three