ARRIVING IN MOROCCO
By Bob Van Leer

  (CASABLANCA, MOROCCO, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2001) - Our cruise ship, Pacific Princess, docked here this morning after a two-day trip from Tunisia.

  Casablanca is Africa's second largest city with a population of 3-4 million. The whole country had an estimated population of 28 million (1994) and is slightly larger in area than California. About 60% of the population is Berber, the original inhabitants, and about 38% Arab, who moved in starting in the seventh century.

  Betty and I took a bus tour to Rabat, the capital of the country, about 60 miles northeast of Casablanca. We were on a modern freeway, but rarely out of sight of the Atlantic Ocean.
The trip was slow as buses are limited to 48 miles per hour. This is a maritime nation and our guide said the country has 3500 miles of coastline (which seems a bit high). Morocco borders on both the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea.

  We noticed the women here wear more Muslim-style dress than women did in Tunisia.
There were women dressed in western clothing, but they were a minority.

  Our guide said there are three main legs to the economy: export of phosphates, agriculture and fishing. A wild card is the recent discovery of oil offshore. The fishing industry alone employed more than 100,000 people (1994), according to the U. S. Department.

  Tourism is the number four industry and our guide said most tourists were from Europe, but more are now coming from the U. S. and Japan.

  The area we drove through seemed rather prosperous with rolling green farms. A jar on the landscape was a few shanty towns. Our guide said this was people moving into the city from the country and not enough housing was provided.

  Mohammad VI is the king, a member of the Alaouite dynasty which has ruled Morocco since 1649 and claims descent from the Prophet Mohammad.

  Morocco managed to keep its kingdom during the French protectorate which lasted from 1906 to 1956. The country is now independent with a king and parliamentary democracy.
Curiously, the U. S. has its longest, unbroken treaty relationship with Morocco. Morocco recognized the United States in 1777, and negotiated a treaty of peace and friendship in 1787. The treaty was renegotiated in 1836 and is still in force.

  The population is very young, a Government of Morocco fact sheet said (1994) that 37% of Moroccans are under 15 years and 65.6% are less than 30. The country is rapidly urbanizing but not enough jobs are being created in the cities. Unemployment is estimated at 23% and 24 and 26% for university degree-holders.

  Many of those on board took a bus tour to Marrakech today, a four-hour ride each way.
We would have gone but we were there seven years ago with daughter and son-in-law Molly and Jim and Molly's boys, Rob and Chris Johnson. It is an interesting place and well worth visiting.

  The ship got underway this evening for an overnight trip to Agadir in southern Morocco.

  This is a change in the original itinerary because of political unrest in Ivory Coast, a formerly-scheduled stop.