today we have so many investments going on here in tangier thanks to our king. investors are here. tourists are attracted. but the most important part of it is we should keep the old parts of the city intact. the kasbah, the medina. that s what s hard to do because when you have a european purchasing power coming over here to tangier they come like we come. we embrace it. other people want to come. and then we throw up. we ll, will tangier s unique character survive? i hope so. i really hope so. tangier is morocco.
tangier, it s morocco. but from 1923 through 1956, it was loosely governed by the major powers, an international zone. for years, it seemed, everything was permitted. nothing was forbidden. at the northern tip of africa, a short ferry hop from spain, tangier was a magnet for writers, remittance men, spies and artists. if you were a bad boy of your time, you liked drugs, the kind of sex that was frowned upon at home and an affordable lifestyle set against an exotic background, tangier was for you. matisse, genest, william burroughs. many have come this way, staying a while or hanging around. but no one stayed longer or
became more associated with tangier than the novelist and composer paul bowles. in works like the sheltering sky he created a romantic vision of tangier that persists even today, a dream that s become almost inseparable in the minds of many from reality. i m here to find that dream city. the place burroughs referred to as interzone. tangier like i said was a city of ex-pats people with pasts, people who simply didn t like where they were and craved
always was morocco. and recently the country s leadership seems to have embraced it. in all its ill reputed glory. the days of predatory poets in search of literary inspiration and young flesh are probably over for good. hippies can just as easily get their bong rips in portland or peoria. but the good stuff, the real good stuff, the sounds and smells and the look of tangier, what you see and hear when you lean out the window and take it all in, that s here to stay.
mayo. french fries within the sandwich. this is delicious. by the way. the bread here is very good. you work in magazine journalist? yes. i m not a journalist but i own an urban magazine here in tangier to inform moroccans we are living in a place that s pretty special. it is not a place for burroughs or paul bowles or other people came to tangier. the city has something which makes it different from other cities. what about young artists, young writers, young musicians? do they come here expecting this romantic paul bowles wonderland of the 50s? some were. some weren t. too bohemian. too bohemian? yeah. they thought that coming and being an artist is going to be enough? is going to be enough. today it is not enough. most of them pack their bags. right.