Morocco

Ever since the time of cinema popularity Curtis Casablanca, I doubt that Morocco was as present in the global consciousness as these days, while the World Cup in Qatar is sliding towards the end.

Perhaps it would be more interesting to write about a cynical-virtual dimension of this event. Qatar - the area is smaller than Montenegro - but, so rich, that the glow of that great wealth obscures the view from the outside, so it makes the state of human rights, say, or the rights of immigrants, "invisible". In that light, I also see the one presented at the beginning of the championship, appealing to some, but actually quite rude "argument" of the president of FIFA Gianni Infantino that the former colonizers should remain silent at least as long as they exploited the former colonies. This is the same logic that tells us that we should put up with the stupidity of the current government, until this stupidity lasts at least thirty years - as long as the previous (bad) government lasted.

However, it is nicer to deal with those who know how to play. Local ignoramuses remain with us even after the championship is over.

Everyone's rooting for Morocco a bit these days. Even the president of Serbia Vucic, he not a little, admittedly, whose explanation for whom he is rooting for is a mini rally of Ljotić's nostalgia. That kind of hatred towards Croatia is really telling.

The right wording, not the first time, I heard from Boža K, on some sports television. He said that Moroccans "play like conspirators", and that kind of game leaves no one indifferent. They set a new continental standard. And there is no more difficult job than changing football "geography". I guess only in rugby it is more difficult.

In my non-aligned and socialist childhood, Morocco was in the background - Algeria, Egypt, Libya were much more present in the media of the former SFRY. Because Morocco was firmly with its Western allies, the monarchy, and today's Montenegrin NATO statesmen, then, as The Titos pioneers preferred Nasera i Gaddafi.

So the stories came through different and therefore more interesting channels. In Start's texts about the enigmatic (and colorful) benefactor Anto Topić Mimara, the passages devoted to interwar Tangier were spectacular, pure literature.

Then we, a little thanks Betolucia, and a bit of curiosity that was normal at that time, revealed Half Bowles and his novel “Sheltering sky”. This irresistible weirdo spent most of his life in Morocco (with his wife, also an exceptional writer, Jane Bowles). With Burroughs, was the most significant predecessor of the "beatniks". There are fewer and fewer such authors...

Morocco is actually a mix (and this always gives the best results) of Berbers (an amalgam of the old population) and the westernmost Arabs, desert warriors who came to the Atlantic.

The Moroccan from Tangier was both a wonderful traveler and travel writer Ibn Battuta, but also today's French classic (and academic) Tahar ben Zhalun. Like all such struggles, their struggle with the colonizers is interesting and exemplary. It was an eternal guerrilla in the Atlas Mountains...

Nevertheless, in my view, which for the duration of the world championship is completely focused on football and "football" interpretations of everything else - from literature to politics - one "non-football" experience also stood out.

A few days ago I received a copy of the new novel Aleksandar Bečanović - "Mountain Eagle". The author deftly uses an episode from Hitchcock's youth, as well as the "accidentally" found diary of an interesting person, would it not have written an exciting story about art and fetishism. Reading pleasure of the first order. Even with the end of the World Cup... There are fewer and fewer such authors.

There are still two games left. In the most important one, I will be a die-hard Argentina fan. It is not merit The Messiah, that fan passion is older than him.

And in the fight that bronze - as much as I admire the Moroccans, of course I will support Croatia. It's hard to miss an opportunity not to be on the same side as Vučić.