Tag Archive for 'casablanca'

I’ve been to Casablanca. As in, the place in the Humphrey Bogart movie. I was there when I traveled on that cruise ship last year.

Casablanca is a weary town. The only thing I could tell for certain is that the movie, Casablanca – which features dozens of rich, white, Christian, English-speaking men sitting around a high-class lounge owned by an American and harrassed by the French – has nothing to do with the realities of modern Casablanca.

Casablanca is a major town in a poor, Muslim country. Some people there are just scraping to get by, and some of the town is really dirty and caved in – like I imagine a bombed out Beirut would have been. Other parts of the town are beautiful and majestic, especially the government buildings and palaces.

It’s difficult to find a place to eat in Casablanca that is welcoming to women. Maybe that’s not true. But it seemed true. Men dominate the cafe’s and restaurants, and although we didn’t entirely understand the customs when we were there, we got the impression that women, even western women, weren’t supposed to be in certain places.

I bring this up because there’s an image I remember from Casablanca that I’ve never forgotten, and I’ve been thinking about it lately.

I was in Casablanca with a pretty girl that worked in the spa. Unaware of what Casablanca offered, we walked up and down streets in the heat – past the palaces and the Mosques, and the grundgy neighborhoods packed with satellite dishes.

A bird shit on her head as we walked down the street. I remember it really well. A doorman saw it and brought us just inside his door and cleaned her up with a dirty rag.

And I guess that’s sometimes how life is. A pretty girl with shit on her head.