Say it ain't so

In the midst of some Internet woes over the past few days, I came across this post on The View from Fez about the rumor that Maroc Telecom is deliberately sabotaging Skype in an attempt to force its customers (i.e. everyone in Morocco) to pay for phone services.

My guess is that this is true. But are there any (legal) actions that can be taken? (There are always illegal workarounds available for those in the know.) And (I guiltily admit this is what's most prominent in my mind right now) is this going to affect my access to Skype?

On watching TV

During our nearly 10 years of marriage, T and I have very rarely had "TV." (By this I mean that we have always had a television, but we have rarely had reception of any television channels. This is because we are too cheap to pay for TV, so we have only had it when it has been provided to us for free). Our time in Morocco is one of those rare times. And I have to say that it can be quite interesting watching television in a foreign country.

Our TV channels come in a variety of languages – standard Arabic, Darija, French, and English. A somewhat surprising amount of the television programming is American. Even the programming that is 100% French (languagewise) seems to consist largely of American TV programs dubbed in French. (I really don't understand French, but I enjoyed watching a portion of a dubbed Simpsons episode. I was very impressed by how similar the French voice actors sounded to the American voice actors. If you ever get an opportunity to watch the Simpsons in French, I highly recommend that you do so.)

The commercials are interesting, too, whether or not they are in English. When we first moved here, we frequently saw intriguing and emotionally powerful antiterrorism videos similar to this one:



But I have to say – with the caveat that this conclusion is based entirely on casual and unscientific observation – that a large percentage of commercials are for soaps and other cleaning products: hand soap, body soap, clothing soap, shampoo, etc. Paranoia-inducing commercials for Dettol seem especially prevalent.

I also enjoy the commercials for nonalcoholic beverages that are explicitly advertised like beer.



We now have fewer English language TV channels than we did when we moved into this apartment; for some reason, we keep losing channels. At any given time, though, there will be one or two English language (usually American) movies on TV. I am often amused by the choice of movies, which can range from well-known films like Black Hawk Down to weird movies you've probably never heard of like May to movies with totally culturally inappropriate content like Girl 6.

I'm especially surprised to see these channels showing movies like that last one because virtually all sexual content, including kisses, is edited out of everything shown on these Arabic-subtitled TV channels. (T and I knew we had gotten used to these new television decency standards when, one day, we found ourselves staring slack-jawed at a vigorous kissing and groping scene that, for some reason, had not been edited out of a movie on the Action channel. We were shocked the way you might be shocked if the 10 o'clock news suddenly got interrupted by full frontal nudity.)

Watching TV in a foreign country is so much more interesting than it was to watch it in my own country. Every commercial and every program feels like a cultural clue (or, sometimes, a cultural puzzle). It's also interesting to see what television programming gets exported from the United States and to reflect on how that affects the image people in the Arab world have of Americans.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go watch the latest installment of Arabs Got Talent.

Frustration mitigation

Since we moved into our downtown apartment, I have wasted hours of my time dealing with spotty Internet service. I recognize that I am in a third world country. I recognize that it's pretty cool that I have Internet at all. This does not change the fact that I need to use the Internet to do my coursework, and that I waste time dragging my school materials back and forth between here and campus on the days when our Internet unexpectedly goes out.

No more, I say! Today, I initiated my Frustration Mitigation Plan.

First, I anticipated communication problems, so I enlisted my friend JW (LW's tech savvy husband) to go with me to the Maroc Telecom office to buy a nifty USB modem. We only had to wait outside their office for about five minutes for them to open after lunch, so I was already feeling good about how things were going. We were the first people inside and didn't have to wait in line. JW, along with a random customer who spoke very good English,* discussed my options with me, and when I made a decision, he went with me to talk to the salesman.

JW started in Darija. The man answered him in English. (I called his wife later and said I was so glad that I made JW go with me to the office so he could translate what I needed into English. She pointed out that if I had not made him go with me, no one in the office would have spoken English because, you know, that's how things go.)

The process was so easy that I sent JW home and completed the transaction myself. And now I am writing this blog post (wasting more time dealing with Internet stuff) with my new, fast, reliable Internet service.

And I am also reflecting on the fact that expecting complications, which has always been a bit of a natural tendency for me, has become an ingrained habit living here. The nice thing about expecting the worst is that when things actually go smoothly, it makes me ridiculously happy.

*I'm going to write an entire blog post on this phenomenon just as soon as I have time.