The 1942 movie CASABLANCA which was entirely filmed in studios in Los Angeles became a cult movie and to this day continues to be considered a special movie.
I remember when I saw it first.
I had arrived in the USA to do some undergraduate courses at Columbia University and students were offered free movies.
I remember it well
I was so enchanted about this love story which was purported to have happened during the World War II.
Paris entered my life, the city of lights and philosophers much later and is still present in my life.
Casablanca appeared and its presence also becoming secure in my heart, even though I am much more inclined towards Marrakech and Essaouira ..
WE WILL ALWAYS HAVE PARIS
On a recent visit to the City of Lights and Philosophers (I liked very much Foucault, deleuze and Derrida, while I was reading Anthropology in London), my alter ego, Maqroll El Gaviero Judio, was seen walking along Pont Neuf dressed as a travel agent, confusing the passers by, greeting them in a dialect of Judeo-alsatian which had disappeared a very long time ago.
Le Pont Neuf
you are always a wishful thinking
of might have been or what it was in the imagination
you can return to your life, in cities and countries
where there are no lights and no philosophers
but people selling whitening creams and long stockings.
Le Pont Neuf will wait for me, unlike you,
too busy packing bags for no destination
a cafe with a gentle breeze avec mon cafe allonge
is Paris enough for me ..
I will always have Paris..
Of Ernest Hemingway Of Gabriel Garcia Marquez
of James Baldwin Of Nina Simone
of countless others who left behind their adolescences
in countries of their birth, tainted with medieval thoughts
rifles and strong ropes made of cotton ..
Tonight, is a special night in the Yogic calendar but I am thinking of hundreds and thousands of brave people in an east european country, shielding themselves from shards of glass and piercing noises. The women hold the children close, the men clean their rifles and bring the Molotov cocktails their mothers and sisters made for them..
While the Rasputin of the east crawls slowly towards the ancient city of Kiev
I think of you, all my friends, all over Ukraine, be strong, may the spirits bless you and take care of you, spare you harm .
Felt sad all day
and then I thought about Paris . It was an escape from that sadness.
I can escape but my friends cant. so I give my heart to them, my thoughts are for them ..
