A Moro in America reports that King Mohammed VI is the 7th richest royal in the world - while I am left here wondering who the first 6 are, the Moroccan monarch’s salary blows my mind, but not as much as the amount he apparently spends daily on clothes and car repairs: $960,000.
King of the poor my left arm.
Recently, Fatima Sadiqi of the ISIS Center in Fez and Professor of Linguistics and Gender Studies sent me some of her articles. Although we have not met, I contacted her to find out more information on the conference at which Laila Lalami was reading last month, and ever since, she has kept in contact, which I find utterly flattering.
Anyhow, her work is fantastic for anyone interested in language, gender or women’s studies in Morocco.
Unbelievable. Moroccan authorities just jailed 72 year old activist Mohamed Bougrine for supporting prisoners jailed for “attacking religious values in the Islamic kingdom” (Morocco is not, by title anyhow, an “Islamic kingdom”).
So wait a minute. This guy, Bougrine, who had been to jail before during the days of the protectorate, is apparently just a supporter of these prisoners…he didn’t actually attack religious values (whatever that means). So now it’s a crime to have an opinion?
US says terror threat, anti-Americanism growing in North Africa (AP)
A senior U.S. State Department official said a growing threat from terrorist groups in North African countries is matched by a rise in animosity toward the United States in the region.*
Testifying at a congressional hearing on North Africa, Assistant Secretary of State David Welch also said the United States views a recent proposal by Morocco to solve its decades-old conflict in the Western Sahara as a positive step toward greater regional stability…
* I don’t deny the idea, but isn’t it strange how you don’t really feel it?
Talks are slated to begin on June 18 between Morocco and the Polisario over the Western Sahara Autonomy Plan.
Personally, I just want them to come to some sort of agreement that stops the violence and allows them to stop fighting like little girls, but can we expect either side to ever let that happen?
While I’m sure nothing in this BBC article was meant to be humorous, did they have to end it with this sentence: “It reflects the huge gap between rich and poor in Morocco: some people live in luxury, others live literally in a toilet?”
The article focuses on a family in the Sale area who have been living in the toilet where the father is attendant. After complaining about the conditions, the toilet was blocked up with concrete, leaving the family homeless.
The gap here between rich and poor is unbelievable. I mean, there are the the wealthy, which I don’t need to describe. Then there’s the middle class, which actually encompasses quite a range - those with nice cars and new apartments, those with old cars and new apartments that they’ll be paying off for the rest of their lives, those with old houses and no car but enough money for new clothes and new gadgets like computers (this would be many of my students) - I find the latter most sensible, honestly.
Anyhow, after that there’s the poor. Not a whole lot of in-between. The poor sometimes live in the medina homes their families have owned for literally hundreds of years, usually without modern plumbing, sometimes iwhtout electricity. Other times they live in shanty towns or slums, with corrugated metal roofs held down by rocks. And then there are the homeless.
Makeshift home over the fence from Chellah, Rabat
This particular story by BBC News contained an interesting quote from the family. The father said “I think I may find a boat in Tangier and take my wife and children away. Maybe we will die in the middle of the sea. Maybe it will take us to a place where it is easier to get something to eat. But we would find it hard to leave Morocco, because we are proud of it.”
To be that poor yet still remain proud of your country must be a difficult thing. That, if for no other reason, is why it’s so important for Morocco to take care of its own. While HRM the King is signing agreements with Saudi Arabia for big projects and Princess Lalla Salma is talking with Queen Rania of Jordan about stopping child labor (read more), it is my hope that this family, ignored for so long, also benefits.
Photo by Jillian York
The Journal of Turkish Weekly (can someone please tell me why Turkey’s English press is so advanced compared to Morocco’s?) put out an article today entitled “Empower Moroccan youth” promoting the idea of youth groups in the kinds of poor neighborhoods that seem to have become breeding grounds for Salafist ideas. The idea is that youth groups would provide mediation for young people in addition to giving them hope for a better society.
While I don’t disagree with the idea at all, I don’t think anyone from those communities is going to magically find hope without action. First, electricity, then hope.
It seems that yesterday’s “Blog for the Maghreb” was largely succesful, at least in terms of getting Maghrebi bloggers together for one cause. Although I didn’t read every blog on the following list, I appear to be the only non-Maghrebi person on the list! How nifty.
The list of participants yesterday from Hou-Hou Blog :
المغرب العربي : الحق في الحلم par Dreamer
Célébrons le Maghreb - Comme une bouteille jetée à la mer! par Larbi
Ma Version du Maghreb par Tarek Cheniti
Maghrebin jusqu’à la moelle par Adam Bouhadma
Tous Pour Un Maghreb Uni par Fadoua
Je blog pour la liberté au Maghreb par Khanouf
C’était dit pour un Maghreb uni par Angelic
Blogging for the Maghreb Union par Taamarbuuta
Un seul et grAnd Pays par Missarchi
My take on the Maghreb par Maghrebi
Maghreb Union par Myrtus
فرض اتحاد المغرب العربي الكبير pat Mosaab
Etre Maghrebin par Antikor
UMA : geste symbolique de la blogosphère maghrébine par Agora
Union du Magreb Arabe par Reda
1 juin : Je blogue pour le Grand Maghreb Uni par Ahmed Chergaoui
Maghreb : la Mauritanie un exemple à suivre par Algy
1 juin : Je blogue pour le Grand MaghrebUni par Amine
Ah le Maghreb… par Amina Talhimet
Tous pour un Maghreb uni ! par Nabil
Maghreb Puni par Yellow
Maghrébin, Parce que je le vaux bien! par Stupeur
Je blogue pour mon Maghreb. par Antar
Pour un Maghreb d’amour et de respect par Emma Benji
Maghreb Uni… dans l’humour! par Massir
PPF…MAGHREB ARAB.. par Diana MagaZine
Le Maghreb des dictateurs par Houssein
Je rêve une jour d’un Maghreb par Dj Louka
Maghreb : I have a dream ! tous les projets commencent par un rêve par Ounormal
Je Blogue pour Nesma TV par Sam
أدوّن لتونس، ضدّ المغرب الكبير، أو الصغير par Sami Ben Gharbia
J’ai hésité par Kaiser
Maghreb Force One par Amaryllis
Un Maghreb… au coeur par Joy
Le 3ème Mehdi du Maghreb Réuni par Mirage
الدعوة إلى الوحدة الكبرى par Hmaied Mourad
Blogger pour le Maghreb? par Karim Ben Amor
في يوم التدوين لمغربنا الكبير : وحدتنا في زنزانة par Yugurta
Rapports Culturels Maghrébins par Bouha
برجولية فدتوني بالمغرب العربي par Mochekes
Une union, c’est d’abord une volonté par exipestien
Le marocain est un berger.. par Infinity
Je blogue pour le Grand Maghreb par Habib Bouhlila
Le 1 Juin : Ma contribution par M0ntassar
كتاب تفاعل البلوغوسفير مع اكذوبة المغرب العربي الكبير par Hannibal
Aujourd’hui: Je blogue pour le maghreb par Hayy
كان يا مكان … المغرب العربي par Hicham
Politiquement Correct par At’m
Le Maghreb: Une opportunité évidente par Samsoum
Maghreb Union Blogging Day par Youssef
مقاربة “المغرب الكبير” ضمن إشكاليات مجتمع المدونين par Tarek Kahlaoui
أنا أدوّن من أجل المغرب العربي par Adam
Ma note sur le Maghreb Uni par Aymen Chakroun
أنا من أجل مغرب ديمقراطيته “كبيرة par Mahéva
Maghreb Monamour par Kenza
Quel Maghreb je pourrais défendre? par Nadia
Je blogue pour le Maghreb par Mokhtar Yahyaoui
Mon Afrique du Nord à moi pat Loula
Comment je pouvais pas rater une journée à blogger pour le Maghreb par Zaz
Je suis Maghrébine par Blue Angle
Je Blogue pour un Maghreb qui se chante par Oussama Benjelloun
Uma invite les colombes par Naufrage
Je veux mon Grand Maghreb! par Big Trap Boy
لماذا أريد الإندماج المغاربي par Big Trap Boy
Although not Maghrebian in any way, I too committed to blogging for the Maghreb Union today. And having just finished working on a translation post for Global Voices with Hamza on the subject, I feel I’m a bit more knowledgable than I was well, yesterday.
The hope for Maghreb Arab Union started in 1956, after Tunisia and Morocco gained independence, but it wasn’t until 1988 that the first summit for the union came to fruition, and nothing was signed until the following year. However, the UMA has largely been a failure, mainly due to (as Youssef put it) bitch-fighting between Algeria and Morocco.
While I have only lived here for two years and don’t feel qualified to espouse on the Maghreb’s readiness for such a union, it is the fighting between Algeria and Morocco that makes me most sad. You see, I don’t like Algeria much. And I don’t like the way they’ve manipulated the issue in the Western Sahara. It is not my place to speak for the people who live there, the Saharouis, and what they want - at this point, they may very well wish only to be free. It is Algeria and the Polisario to which I direct my irritation; Algeria, seeing the conflict between Mauritania and Morocco for control of the Western Sahara, stuck its little nose in to assist the Polisario.
But regardless, Morocco’s refusal to hear a referendum on independence has been a fault as well. And all this fighting, for what? So that families from Oujda who want to see their relatives across the border have to fly out of Fez to Oran for a trip that might otherwise take 30 minutes? So that Algeria can sink even deeper into violence as they have for the past thirty years?
And so it is that I support at least some semblance of a Maghreb Arab Union. If only for the reopening of the Algerian-Moroccan border. If only for a resolution on the Western Sahara.
MoTIC is urging readers to continue signing petitions against Morocco’s internet censorship. Although YouTube is back, Livejournal and Google Earth are still blocked, without explanation. The petitions are:
Petition to Counter Internet Censorship in Morocco (Fr)
Stop-Censure (Fr)
Unblock Youtube (continue signing anyway!)
The Maroc IT Blog also urges readers to denounce the censure, pointing out a satirical article by La Gachette du Maroc (fr). A Moroccan in Washington DC is questioning who blocked YouTube in the first place, saying:
People behind the blocking of Youtube in Morocco have to be reprimanded in proportion with the damage caused from ban. The news has made its way to BBC,New York times, Washington Post and a plethora of other news outlets in the world causing an unwanted negative advertising of a Kingdom that seeks to replenish its image and join the club of modern and free societies. Consequently, the ban on a high profile such as Youtube has tarnished the image of Morocco,a country in a democratic transition.
Additionally, here is another good piece by Omar El Hyani for Open Source.
Magically, Moroccan bloggers are all beginning to post bits in English, which is nice considering how many more readers English blogs seem to garner here.