Nice piece in the Sunday Telegraph about our fine city with a few slightly distorted facts from yours truly, I really wish the reporters would send a proof before printing as I really dont recall saying searches on a property can take a year. Or maybe I did as Mike and I were blathering on at a rate of knots but it would be good to confirm certain elements before they are set down as gospel truth but its a minor quibble all good publicity, hey.
Took another one of my scenic observational walks the other day and the stand out attraction hands down was the renovation of the Jnan Sbil Gardens, this is a monster sized public park undergoing massive reconstruction. Situated at the far end of Boujloud square opposite the Kings Palace it covers several hectares and though locked to the public at present peering through the gates i could see an incredible centrepiece fountain being built flanked by plants and subsidiary sister fountains. Also throughout the park as far as I could tell there was pruning, planting and landscaping being carried out and it will very soon look sensational.
Coming back through Boujloud square the workers are now renovating the INSIDE of the ramparts and soon we will not recocognise this area as proposed demolition of the triangle of old buildings to your right as you come out of the Boujloud gate is on the cards. This will open up that whole view into one gigantic open space so of course eventually this will be Fes answer to Marrakech's Jamaa el Fna.
The other highlight was on the walk back from a visit to my friend Monique at Riad Norma to console her as her latest project has over run, overspent and under finished, I passed by Riad Mokri, no not Palais Mokri that is a different beast. This is a worthwhile stop not only because it is a beautiful house but unusually for Fes in the Medina it boasts a 2000sq m landscaped garden on several levels which is an oasis of calm and some incredible mature fig, olive, date, orange and palm trees and at the bottom of the garden a zelliged working well on four zelliged pillars.
As this is blog post number 100 I raise my glass to whoever is reading and wish to get political for a moment. We are all aware of the cost of oil going through the roof and the effect of carbon emmisions on climate change, witness the flooding of dear old Blighty and there is now a big push for the use of flexfuel or ethanol based products. Going back to my old mate Brazil did you know they are not oil reliant at all(but they can always borrow from neighbour Chavez) and that 70 per cent of the cars there run on ethanol, so it can be done America pay attention. Actually America through a Bush mandate is surging ahead with ethanol production BUT at what cost.
As ethanol can be made from wheat, sugar and even straw you would think that it is a healthy ecofriendly alternative but it could actually increase world hunger quite easily. If overstetched farmers have to divert their wheat crop say to produce ethanol this lessens the amount of wheat that is used for food product, less availability, price of wheat goes up, who pays the consumer of course. So you are driving a flexfuel car, doing your bit for the environment driving to the shops to put a down payment on a loaf of bread. Its the downside of an ethical equation, but it will happen. So what do you do, well buy shares in sugar and wheat now if you are speculative, but basically be aware of the conundrum this will happen in our lifetime.....so maybe I'll pop over to Brazil to see how they manage..anyone want to sponser me????
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5 comments:
Congratulations on your 100th observation, Louis. They're always fascinating and well worth following. We felt we were restoring your house with you during the earlier ones.
Congrats on reaching a hundred, old boy!
On the ethanol front there seem to be many problems: the energy required to produce it, the pollution caused by it's production and use (I have seen reports recently here in Canada suggesting that the ethanol blends don't produce any less pollution than the regular petrol), the land required to produce crops for conversion (let's cut down the rain forest!), the diversion of food production to energy production, subsidies for energy production rather than food production (already in the States fruit and veg farmers get little subsidies but corn, soy and wheat farmers do, perfect for producing the sugar and oil to make cheap junk food) and on and on.
Looks like we've got ourselves into another fiine mess. And instead of figuring out how to consume less (does anyone remember the energy crisis of the 70's and those smaller cars?), we figure out how to build bigger vehicles that use alternate fuels in greater quantity (bio-diesel Hummer? how does that help Arnold?).
On yer bikes everyone!
(Sorry for the rant.)
Ok this is a bit weird. But all my life I thought that I was the only Louis McIntosh in the world. Ah well, c'est la vie...
so theres another louis Mcintosh out there and I thought there was only me as well well welcome lets start a club....
Are you sure you've not been in Fez in the sun too long and are talking to yourself?
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