My entry for Simply Moroccan's competition:*
wili, wili, wili
3mra rasi fi khnona; j'ai vraiment mal à la tête.
wa fi kershi, farasha.
tbeeb qrzâz, ma ataynish doua;
bghreet nmshi el maghreb fi el babbor,
but now my vacation is ruined,
and I will only see Morocco on the Internet.
*Sponsored by SpeakMoroccan.
Michael Van Der Galien argues that full democratization in Morocco is a bad idea because
A large part of the Moroccan people is uneducated and socially extremely conservative (read strict, strict Muslims). They barely know how to take care of their own family. Should people like that be allowed to determine the fate of an entire country?
Strict, strict Muslims? not in my experience, at least not in comparison with many other Muslim countries. Anti-Western? Most Moroccans were pretty welcoming to me. Barely know how to take care of their own family? The tight-knit social and family structure in rural Morocco as I knew it demonstrated an effectiveness in caring for one's family on limited resources that some in America would do well to emulate. Really, such a libel makes it hard to take the rest of the argument seriously. Contrast The Moderate Voice.
I do not mean to paint Morocco through rose-colored glasses. There is a lot of poverty and lack of education and many people are quite religious. Frankly, however, I would trust some of the poor, uneducated, religious Moroccans I knew with the ballot much sooner than some of their so-called betters, particularly those who have bought into the police state. And Van Der Galien's implicit assumption that the right to vote should be limited to an educated elite runs counter to the modern democratic experience, especially in the United States, where the long term trend for two centuries has been to expand the franchise.
My acquaintance with Morocco is mostly cultural and experiential, and I normally know enough to know that I don't know enough to comment intelligently on Moroccan politics. (I find it hard enough to follow American politics.) I do think, however, that if progress toward democracy in Morocco stagnates or retrogresses, as it has with the recent crackdown on the press, that the outcome will ultimately be bad for the country and for the monarchy.
UPDATE: Shadi Hamid in a further exchange of views with Michael Van Der Galien.
It was a refreshing surprise to see my local Congressman, Chris Van Hollen, come out in support of exiled Moroccan journalist Aboubakr Jamai. The Committee to Protect Journalists quoted Van Hollen in a press release deploring the limiting of press freedom in Morocco.
Al Jazeera reports that a Moroccan Court of Appeals has handed down only slightly reduced sentences for reporter Mustapha Hurmatallah and editor Abderrahim Ariri of Al Watan Alaan. The pair were originally charged for publishing allegedly secret information related to heightened government security in response to an anticipated Al Qaeda attack. At present Hurmatallah faces seven months in jail, and Ariri a five month suspended sentence; both are being assessed 1,000 dirham fines.
In general, in a free society the dissemination of information by the press is not subject to criminal sanctions. (Illegal dissemination of information by a member of the government or armed forces is another matter.) For a narrow range of offenses -- primarily libel and slander -- the press like anyone else should be at least theoretically subject to monetary penalties, but in the United States even these are very unlikely to be assessed for defamation of any public figure (George Bush included). (The United States is ranked 53rd on Reporters Without Borders' ranking of countries by the freedom of their press; Morocco is 97.)
Morocco will never be a free society so long as journalists are being put in jail for doing their jobs.
Only someone who has experienced Ramadan can appreciate the camaraderie of breaking fast together at the end of the day over harira, dates, and shebekia. And for Jews, today marks the beginning of the New Year, traditionally celebrated with sweets for a "sweet" new year. Ramadan karim, happy Rosh Hashanah, and may we all live more harmoniously together as we celebrate our differences in the coming months and years.
MarocAntan offers old photographs and historical commentary on the Morocco that was.
Eatbees offers a trenchant analysis of the Moroccan election results, including the significance of Istiqlal's limited victory, the PJD's dramatic fade at the finish line, and the bottling up of any hope of reform for five more years. As Eatbees sees it, the only winner was the Palace.
Post calls election for Istiqlal with 52 seats; PJD trails with 47 in provisional results.
The Washington Post interviewed Saad Eddine el-Othmani of Morocco's Party of Justice and Development on his party's predicted gains in the Moroccan elections today. El-Othmani had little to say about Islam but quite a lot about the economy. The Post drew the the inevitable comparisons to Turkey, mostly not in Morocco's favor.
Samira and Sabah's hot new cooking blog makes me hungry every time I read it!
Lest my last post give the misimpression that Morocco is somehow an unusual hotbed of vice, the New York Times reports that back in the U.S. of A, police and prostitutes are playing a high tech game of cat and mouse on Craigslist. Prostitutes are using Craiglist to set up rendezvous in distant cities and then flying in for multiple trysts. Police are using advertisements to track sex workers and bust them.
At a time when U.S. Senators are listed in call girl telephone records and caught cruising men's rooms for sex, it should come as no surprise that a sex tourist should have the air of a sophisticate. Nevertheless, it was with a decidedly queasy feeling that I read the reprint of one such tourist's purported escapades in Morocco on Morocco Travel Information. Written in the chatty tone of a typical travelogue, the piece discourses on the cultural life and history of Morocco: its Arab language and Berber ethnicity. The article's raison d'etre, however, is a comparative analysis of where best to procure the services of Moroccan prostitutes. One notes with a certain schadenfreude that the "tourist" is relatively unsuccessful, and a certain shock that, consistent with his overall behavior, he recklessly disregards safe sexual practices.
Not that prostitution is uncommon in Morocco. One of the biggest surprises for me during my stay was how common prostitutes were in rural villages, when I had expected that they would be found primarily in the big cities. But I was periodically reminded that for a divorced woman, there were often few alternatives to either domestic service or prostitution, since most other occupations remained closed to any women without an education or a family.
The underside of prostitution only becomes fully apparent in the work of such organizations as SOS Morocco, which strives to prevent the exploitation of children in the sex market.
The Washington Post showcases Taste of Morocco's bastilla.
A message of hope from the Morocco Foundation.
Driss Basri, formerly head of the Ministry of the Interior and chief architect of political repression during the "Years of Lead," has died in Paris at the age of 69. Via Laila Lalami. (Morocco Time reprints a popular joke about Basri's demise.) The BBC has more.
More on Peace Corps Bloggers in Morocco.
A free press is a more delicate creature than people in America might suppose. Supported by the First Amendment and buttressed by a strong history of liberal Supreme Court decisions, the press in America is in an enviable position. Even here, however, the Plame prosecution, the AIPAC spy scandal, and recent free speech rulings of the ultra-conservative Roberts Court suggest that that the press cannot take its position for granted.
Just how dependent press freedom is on strong laws to curb the power of the government is evident in the recent struggles of the Moroccan press to maintain its independence in the face of harsh prosecutions by the government. Magharebia reports, however, that the press is using the law to fight back, as it contemplates a suit against Communications Minister Nabil Benabdallah for his role in trying to manipulate public opinion over the investigation of journalists for Al Watan Al An accused of illegal possession of classified documents. In an interesting legal twist, the two journalists were prosecuted under the criminal law for illegal possession of the fruits of a crime rather than under the press law for publication of state secrets.