Tonight, at about the same time I did it last year, I'll offer a brief passage on the Anniversary of the suicide bombings in Casablanca on May 16, 2003. Last year I wrote about the sites and mentioned the Italian restaurant Positano, owned by Moroccan Jews, that had been one of the targets. I was invited to the re-opening of Positano, two weeks later - they were determined to lose no time in getting back to business. I vividly remember the evening - a great crowd of people. I particularly remember Abderrahim Harouchi, ex-Minister of Health and a founder of AFAC, an NGO promoting "civism", social responsibility. He is now a government Minister in the same capacity. Maria Naciri, a wonderful singer, entertained with haunting Jewish and Moroccan songs of peace and tolerance. Among the guests was one of the security guards who'd been wounded, confined to a wheelchair, permitted to leave the clinic for a few hours to attend the party. The party was so uplifting, and I left in a positive mood. I left the party and walked to a main street to look for a cab - it was about 11:30pm. Cabs seemed to be filled or going in the opposite direction. I didn't have far to go if I went on foot to my apartment on Mohammed V, and it was a warm, balmy night. Without one ounce of fear I started walked home - the city was so quiet and the walk was another opportunity to reflect on the sense of safety one has in Morocco. A month later I was to have dinner with a friend in from the U.S. and booked a table at what was the most popular restaurant in town - before I started my project and stopped going out. I called to say we'd be a bit later than out 8:30 reservation time, more like 9pm. No problem, I was told. When we arrived, at 9:15, we were the first table! I was shocked. My friend Nadine, the owner of the restaurant, said after May 16 people in Casablanca stopped going out in the evening. And I recalled the night I walked home alone after Positano reopened. When I opened Rick's 9 months later, people in Casablanca told me, "Thank you for giving us a reason to go out at night again." Tonight, at Rick's, we're having a great time...a group of 80 French bankers upstairs, many regular customers, Casablanca residents, downstairs. It's a date that is embedded in Moroccan history now, but life - finally - goes on. |
