Looking For Love in All the Wrong Places

I watched a fascinating documentary on the Ceeb's news channel last night. (You can catch it again tonight). It deals with a phenomenon that is apparently quite common--Canadians going abroad to exotic (that is, Third World) countries, hooking up with someone who they think is out for love and marriage but who's really looking for a ticket out of nowheresville and into Canada. the love-starved, credulous Canuckis then find themselves having to pay the scam-artist's bills for years and years after he/she (it's usually a he) has acquired legal resident status and promptly scoots out the door. (That's the real crux of the film: we're meant for feel sorry for the Canadian "victims" of these bamboozlers.)

One of the hot spots for lonely Canucki chicks to find a "mate" is Morocco. The doc followed the romance of several of these couples, the men young (in their twenties) and devoutly Muslim; the women generally much older and/or having some physical issue (one was quite hefty, another quite meeskite) that renders them less appealing/marriageable back at home. (The hefty chick, a blowsy redhead from Vancouver, is studying the Koran in preparation for her "reversion" and asks her "husband"--they've been married in an Islamic ceremony in Morocco--to buy her a Jilbab to wear next time she visits Marrakesh):

True Love or Marriage Fraud? The Price of Heartache touches on the stories of other victims, including men who have been used, dumped and even threatened by foreign women. It also tells the stories of two women who have married foreign men, believe they are truly in love, and are willing to take the risk of sponsoring them. Viewers watching may be suspicious, considering the men are substantially younger.

Roxanne, 40, has a child, lives in a B.C. suburb and has fallen in love with Abdel, 26, a Moroccan who likes city life. Stephanie is also older than her new husband, Abderrahim, who waits in Morocco to join his wife in Canada. Both women know the risks — including the fact that, even if their spouse leaves them, they’ll be on the hook to pay back any social assistance he may receive from the government — but they’re willing to take a leap of faith. Time will tell what will happen to these relationships.

The writing is on the wall, I think, and it doesn't say "happily ever after."