This one has ribbons!

I got another one! Yippee! Sorry, but I just never got over the whole “it’s a present” mentality. From Mama Zen the above pink ribbon award for being Nice. I love that. I really like that about me. I am nice. It’s fun; it is one of my best things. Thank you Mama Zen and my three nominees are:

Welshcakes
Jmb
And James (I don’t know if there is one with blue ribbons m’lord, but I think you are man enough to wear the pink!)

“This award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world.” I think these three fit the bill.


Ah yes I recommend it for everyone, chaps included, a trip to a fabulous (has to be fabulous or it won’t work) spa when your brain is overloaded or just gone dry! I was at my Souissi office at the Mega Mall. Last week we had noticed the spa on the third floor, the Franck Provost of Paris, Rabat. I checked to make sure they take credit cards, not everyone does here, so I won’t have to carry all that cash. I worked for three hours and then headed upstairs. When I make a good decision, I make a great decision! I was met at the desk by Rajaa, who is the manicurist and salon interpreter for the English crowd. She is a typical Moroccan beauty with the sparkling deep brown eyes and silky, long black hair that curls down her back. She has a mischievous smile that appears often and makes you feel both welcome and like an old friend. I had timed it just right and they took me right away into have my hair washed. Not so much a washing as an incredible scalp massage. Rajaa had to shake my shoulder to get me to move!

“You are very relaxed?’ This asked as I am almost asleep from the combination of foot massage and having my hair “brushed” Rajaa raised her eye brows then grinned as I opened my eyes and gave the thumbs up that is universal for outstanding. She was massaging my feet into butter, and Halima, who is so tiny she could be an elf, was “brushing” my hair to shinny perfection. This is after the gifted fingers of Hafida had massaged my scalp to a fair the well during the shampoo, I almost fell asleep then.

My instruction to Halima was “make it very straight” (curly headed women will understand, black women will nod vigorously). When she turned me to face the mirror I was thinking, “Where were you ten years ago?” It was perfect!

Then came the manicure from heaven. I thought the foot massage was great, but the hand massage relaxed my entire back. The manicure became incidental. Not to say my feet and nails don’t look fabulous, they do!

When we were all done the credit card machine “is not working now”. Get this, the lovely woman at the desk (whose name I am sorry I did not get) said why don’t you go have some lunch and then come back? “It will be working at five?” I asked.
“Oui.” And I left! I love Morocco. At five when I returned, the machine was indeed working.

To add to the great day when I went back downstairs to work, the beautiful (really the only word) young man who works at the XO café spent five minutes flirting outrageously with me, then came by my table later to “make sure it is bon”. I love Morocco.

Then I saw THIS.

New York Times, 15 August, “U.S. Weighing Terrorist Label for Iran Guards”

But in recent months, there has been resurgent debate within the administration about whether the diplomatic path is working, with aides to Vice President Dick Cheney said to be among those pushing for greater consideration of military options

Cheney won’t sit still until the world is afire? Now understand, I am a pro-military conservative liberal. This threat/push to label the military forces of a sovereign nation, Iran, as a terrorist organization carries several connotations, but the blackmail Rice is using, no other word for it, is unconscionable.

Senior administration officials said current plans called for the declaration to be made this month, but cautioned that it could be put off, and that the effort could still be set aside if the Security Council moved more quickly to impose broad sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program.

So is what the U.S. administration saying is that if the rest of the Security Council does what they want and passes the additional sanctions the Revolutionary Guard is no longer a terrorist organization, and by the same logic if they do not enforce policy in the United Nations dictated by the American White House they are? Explain that to me.

When Bush attempted to glazed over the work and money Iran has spent in helping the government of Karzai, America’s boy, he raised some hackles in Kabul. So no one can assist Afghanistan but the U.S.?

Karzai, …during a visit to the White House this month. He said that Afghanistan and Iran were “brothers” and that both the United States and Iran were helping reconstruct his country.

Apparently Mr. bush and Mr. Cheney’s xenophobia is being applied to International policy for the U.S. and now “difficult to believe” constitutes hard fact instead of the use of concrete intelligence.

In June, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said the volume of weapons reaching the Taliban from Iran made it “difficult to believe” that the shipments were “taking place without the knowledge of the Iranian government.”

And here President Bush is attempting (I live in a country where the press is only sort of controlled, in Iran it is a bit more severe) to dictate to a foreign nation the need for what can easily be construed in this part of the world as uprising, revolution, coup - pick a word. I’m sure he meant elections…

President Bush addressed the Iranian people directly. “My message to the Iranian people is, ‘You can do better than this current government,’ ” Mr. Bush said. “ ‘You don’t have to be isolated. You don’t have to be in a position where you can’t realize your full economic potential.’ ”

In theory, the threat or imposition of embargoes and sanctions would appear to be a powerful leveraging tool in the conduct of foreign relations between countries. In practice, no state sponsor of international terrorism against which the U.S. has enacted an embargo or sanctions has renounced its role of sponsorship or denounced terrorism as a tool of its foreign policy. Nor has any state once placed on the state sponsors list ever been removed. This is from Bruce Hoffman at the Rand Think Tank.

So if it doesn’t work, why do it? Is the U.S. trying to provoke a confrontation with Iran? Are they trying to justify another invasion? I don’t know but from where I am sitting it looks not only suspicious but also dangerous for anyone living in this part of the world. Do these chaps just not READ history?

Ciao