100% Moroccans 100% of the time

On an early summer day in Gibraltar I was relaxing on a hotel terrace, shaded by wisteria, looking towards Africa, Morocco, Tangier. At a table near me, I met a grizzly old American landscape architect named Herb Striet. He talked about the geography at the Strait of Gibraltar.

Why was Striet in Gibraltar?

Striet was in Gibraltar because his old-time Lebanese friend ran the bank where Striet kept his off-shore accounts. “It’s convenient,” Striet said, “I can easily go back to my Tangier if I want.” Then the conversation got weird. I couldn’t understand. He twisted. I got twisted; but I listened.

“Heh, heh,” he said, “…if… if I want.” I didn’t really get the picture. He continued. I summarize.

All the while he had been working and living in the Arabian Peninsula, Striet said he had missed the freedom of Morocco, North Africa, the Maghreb. He had missed the accessibility of the Moroccan people. He had missed the intimate human nature of their medina public realm. He had missed life in Morocco, very real, just 100% Moroccans 100% of the time–Morocco, where daily life was not flash like the oil-countries of the Arabian Peninsula. He told me his daily public realm life in the oil-rich Middle East was awkwardly filled with contracted, sad-faced expatriate service people.

At the end, I finally understood, almost, that Striet had a love/hate thing with Morocco. So nice… but…

And all this is mellowed-out by C418’s cut “Door” on his Alpha album.

Curious Tales: The Prequel is free to read on Kindle Vella at this link: https://bit.ly/3Hv6p2p

And the story behind Curious Tales is Tangier Gardens and it is available on Amazon at this link: https://amzn.to/3HLrtyv

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