Driving to Morocco...

I'm leaving Sunday at midnight with François by car to Marrakech!
I will get to see my beloved Ahlam(!) and of course the Dance festival that Anania dance company (see photo) organizes for the first time in Morocco!
François will help with the stage management and I will do some filming. I'll be back around the 30th.
See info HERE!


Photo : Hassan Hajaj, asst. Abdel Benbadreyef

Mother...Christmas?

That "father Christmas" story irritates me:
let's stop treating children as if they’re idiots...
We all know secretly that Father Christmas today is a big money making concept and nothing else (...anymore!).
My girlfriend's daughter leaves in Morocco and is traditionally Moslem but is becoming crazy about Santa Claus and "his"...presents.
My tradition is Greek orthodox and although I do not adhere to my church (or any other!) I'm conscious that my moral background is based on that tradition...
For me S. Claus symbolizes today the spoiling of western kids but also the need for warm hearted spirituality. Unfortunately buying and selling toys has nothing to do with warm heartedness...And religion usually separates people. Especially when certain toys are being manufactured by...kids for minimal salaries.

Let's create new myths and leave ancient saints alone!
Let's teach children to give the present of life to disappearing animals or give them the present of saving energy...
Above all let's respect children and find ways to stimulate their intelligence without spoiling them.

An excerpt from an interview with Patti Smith in The Sun Magazine :

Patti Smith : It hasn’t always been this bad in Washington. I remember
that when Jimmy Carter was president, he actually inspired
me. He asked the American people to sacrifice. He asked us to
bring down our thermostats, to use less energy, to buy fewer
material things. He asked us to strip away a lot of what we
didn’t need and in that way to help our environment. He also
asked us to develop ourselves spiritually and mentally.
But what happened is that people found his requests offensive;
they didn’t want to sacrifice. Then Ronald Reagan
said to the people — and I’ll never forget this — he said that
American children deserve a bicycle in every garage. He wasn’t
talking about a chicken in every pot, or an education for every
child. He was saying that we deserve certain material possessions.
That made a big impression on me. All the way through
the Clinton era, people embraced this idea that we deserve
certain material things, that our children have to have them,
and if they don’t have them, then they’re deprived. This has
really hurt our country, the fabric of ourselves, our network
as human beings.
Greg King: After 9/11, George W. Bush told Americans to go
to Disney World, to keep buying things..."

The Mafia wants our food!!!

Friends of the Earth International Chair Meena Raman said in Hong Kong : "The WTO should not force anybody to eat genetically modified foods. The WTO is the wrong place to be deciding what we eat and how we protect our environment. It is time for the WTO to get its hands off our food! "
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Music or...music industry???

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Beautiful mix...

Here
you can download a beautiful,
moody mix by DJ Snej!
To be enjoyed by the river,
by the sea,
by the fire....
Welcome the winter!