Introduction

But you got cheated and lost your business as a result. Yet it's still great?

And you weren't "the one who introduce the Indian cuisine First time in Morocco, ". The excellent India Palace in Casablanca has been open for at least 20 years.

I do wish you well in your new venture, but I can't help worrying about your naivety. You are in a culture where lying and cheating, especially in business, are culturally acceptable. If you continue to believe that the majority of people you are dealing with commercially are totally honest, you are already on your way to losing another restaurant and, presumably, another large sum of money.

Good luck in your endeavours Kumar but be careful ;-)

I actually laughed out loud when he said "they r very helpful and honest". No wonder he lost his business.

But I agree with him. It's still a nice country, and even though, like him, I was cheated, that doesn't make it a bad place to live, it's was our naivety and inexperience to blame.

well we can not make the land of morocco look bad by bunch of cheaters , Morocco is one of the greatest country to live (weather, atmosphere, friendly people, food etc.. you name it we have it ))).
Every country has such bunch of cheaters and Scammers , so we need to be careful anywhere in the world these days as there is no such perfect country, people are people wherever you go , so do your home work before making a plan or take any decision.

Well 4 million living abroad, and ever more wanting to join them, tells me it isn't particularly very great.

if we have to go by your statistics mate , then ask your self how many spanish people outside spain ?? how many english people out of great britan , most of them go to nz australia  canada and usa ??  your statistic has nothing to do with it mate ..immigration is part of human nature.... Morocco is lovely country and should not be judged by closed minded or on base of incident that can take place anyhere in the world. i am well travelled person and i have visited more than 35 countries world wide and i have lived in different continent so my experience tells me what ever you go theyre are good people and bad people , its who you associate with and what you precuation have you taken before making any plans ....sometimes accident heppens and we cant help it ...AND I LOVE MOROCCO !!!!!!!!!!!

Both Spain and Britain have high positive net migration. On the other hand, Morocco has a negative net migration, and near the bottom of the net migration list.

this is your own statistic and opinion if believing it make you happy then good luck lol

It's a fact my friend. Far more people leave the country, than enter:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co … ation_rate

london76 wrote:

this is your own statistic and opinion if believing it make you happy then good luck lol

First of all, I'm not particularly interested in the opinions of someone who is on the thread simply to make money out of expats and not to help them.  I note your frantic posts to rent out flats and your description of yourself as a "real estate agent".

Secondly, it's unwise in these days of the internet simply to make assertions when anyone can refute them within seconds.

I don't think the business culture, which is what we are talking about, is necessarily something that makes Moroccan people want to leave. However, that business culture, where lying and cheating are accepted facts of life  is something that it is very difficult for foreigners to deal with. It is deeply ingrained in the culture.

You say you know Morocco. How many times have you been quoted an inflated price for goods and services? Moreover with a wide-eyed look of innocence. Well, it's even worse if you are in business. Unless you know exactly what you are doing you will get ripped off, the vegetables will be of poor quality, the rice won't be basmati, the meat will be poor cuts, or whatever, for your Indian restaurant.

I think that you are confusing personal relationships and commercial ones. Many personal relationships do not necessarily involve cheating unless it's an exclusive one, such as a marriage and the foreigner is in Morocco simply to conclude formalities. Most of these marriages fail. However, friendships made in the context of normal social intercourse are often not susceptible to exploitation; it depends who you make fiends with! I except those approaches by (usually) young men in cafés and so on which often end up with a "please give me some money for my Mum's scanner in Rabat", "my brother's roof has fallen in" or similar. Clearly, no one should ever give money at all after such a plea even if the friendship is a longtime one. After all, they'd get the money somehow if the foreigner weren't around. We are not the Banque Populaire!

The problem is the inequality of wealth. There is a small rich class, a somewhat larger middle class (which would be characterised as low income in the UK even though they might be comfortable in Morocco because of their buying power due to the lower cost of living) and the rest are poor even by Moroccan standards. So, any relationship between a foreigner and these latter is immediately unequal. Who buys the beers? Who pays for a meal out? If the foreigner does, how do we look at this? Is it exploitation? Is it buying friendship? I think that if the expat sees this, it's not a problem. What is a problem is when there is a relationship that demands an unceasing flow of money towards the local. Often, but not always, this involves an older expat and a younger Moroccan.

Everyone has their own limits. Mine are that I might buy drinks or meals on occasion, but the few pleas from friends to pay for major alleged "disasters" have been met with a firm "No". This hasn't broken the friendship, as one might assume. It's a try-on. Even poor families have jewellery to pawn or know a rich relative or even a money lender.

I don't think anything that I or the other poster (zayn?) have said is untrue. I think you need to clear up your terms.

((((laduqesa))))
I have read all your post , if you think negatively of Morocco , why are you still living in it?
I could list you many negative things about each country worldwide but my mind tend to look for the positive side and how to connect with other people instead of trying to dig in bad things due to personal experience perhaps.
if you read carefully my text i mentioned ( it is who you associate with)  and sometime accident happens like every where.
i had things happened to me in the past in different countries but i am not going to stereotype all those citizen of those countries are the same !!! its very wrong to do so.
Reread my text , i wrote about how great morocco is as country to live due to his weather atmosphere people food etc.. and if you disagree with that then perhaps you want to lighten me up why is ur profile says el jadida still? what are you doing here????and when are you going back home??

london76 wrote:

((((laduqesa))))
I have read all your post , if you think negatively of Morocco , why are you still living in it? [...]
and when are you going back home??

I don't think negatively of Morocco and I don't think I said anything in my post for you to be able to say that. I have explained this very carefully. I enjoy it here. I have friends, I have a little money for some treats and I can afford things I couldn't afford in the UK. I am aware of the culture here and the differences in purchasing power between me and even some of my "middle class" friends. Did you not read my post?

I don't want to continue this discussion. I don't want to be accused of flaming the thread, which is about opening an Indian restaurant, after all. However, in response to your question about "when" I am going to leave, I say to you, "Mind your own business".

Couldn't of put it better myself. Well said.

Also I would like to add, a country's greatness isn't judged by it's "weather, atmosphere, friendly people, food", london76. You're mistaking it for tourism. Yes, when it comes to tourism, those things are important factors in deciding whether to travel there, which explains why Morocco is a popular tourist destination. However, the greatness of a country is judged on how it looks after it's citizens. Education, healthcare, welfare system, social services, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, equality, job opportunities, and so on. Unfortunately since it lacks in many of these things, so it certainly isn't great, which explains why many choose to relocate abroad.

Yes u r right but it's my mistake,because i beleve on them and didn't, do any legle paper work. It mean I was lazay about my work.if u planing to do something in Morocco u must to do legle paper work.and keep these document with u till time u r in Morocco.any way End of the day Morocco and Morocian are Great.
Thanks
Regard

------Laduquesa,-----

After reading your post here , you seem to attack lot of members of this site with your own negative thoughts een though those member are free to express their opinion and you try to get them to agree with you even you know that you are totally wrong.
like i said in my previous post they are bad things happen in morocco but this is same as everywhere and UK is not heaven free from bad things ....i lived in the uk for 10 years and i know that it has its own good same as its own bad things.
In morocco we have issues too , but majority of those issue if you associate your self with scammer  or fraudsters perhaps you have met them in the street and you dont know anything about their backgrounds... dont we have fraudsters and scammers in the uk as well????
also they are some expact that get themselves invovled in drugs , so what you expect to happen in those areas of drugs??? get treated with luxuries???
other exapcts get involved in searching for sex with young men or young women under age , even some pedofiles come to abuse and rape children here in morocco , what you expect to happen in this area????  by the way the government is waking up to this and they are hunting for them.
What happend in el jadida durng the summer??? many older western go there to chase after young men and women under age or same sex which is ilegal in this country any way ....and once they get themslees invovled in this and find themselves in akward situaiton and they had to pay money to those victims , later on the abusers and pedofiles claim to be victim ....
In colcusion mate, they are problems both sides here and there and focus on positive things rather negative things , and search how to connect with other people and not what divided you with other people ,

I SAY AGAIN  MOROCCO IS LOVELY COUNTRY EITHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT.

PS: learn from Kumar , he has bad things happened to him and he admitted that was his mistake of trusting bad example that he met through his own personal experience but he still lovesmorocco and he did not stereotype their citizen by buch of scammers...

I got tricked more times in a space of a week in Morocco, than in over 2 decades in England. Says a lot really.

Hi all,

I suggest we stay on topic and avoid personal attacks from now.
We won't hesitate to moderate any inappropriate post.

Thanks
Armand
Expat.com Team

Thank you Armand for being here!!

I agree Armand. Unfortunately some people can't handle the truth and resort to being off-topic with their ridiculous posts. I have since forgiven them for the eyesore they've caused on this thread. I hope you have too. 

Hi Kumar,

I must say you are brave to continue with indian restaurant business and didnt get demotivated by one loss. I am indian too and spend few years there. I found strange that indian food is extremely popular all around the world but is not the case in morocco. I would suggest you to just tone down the level of spices, customize it as per moroccan taste. I remember when i cooked traditional indian spicy food for my moroccan friends, tears came out of their eyes, they couldnt believe there could be so much spice in indian food. You are already in this business so you know best. All the best and yeah Morocco is a place which is hard to get out from mind and soul ..Peace.

Indian food isn't popular in my country either. I wouldn't say it's popular all over the world!

I made a curry for a couple of Moroccan friends last night. I'd been careful to "tone down the spiciness", but one of them commented on how "hot" the food was. The other guy likes going to the Indian restaurant with me in Casablanca, so it was fine for him.

It's odd, as there do exist some dishes in Morocco which are hot and spicy and even more so in Tunisia.

Thanks Dear for ur suggestion