My Proficiency class had no syllabus this semester--I made up the curriculum as I went along. A benefit of this set-up was that I could write my own final. I chose to make the combined score of their final presentation and their last essay count as their final grade, thus freeing up our last class session. So instead of meeting the last session, we went to a local cafe to chat in English.
The entire experience was very encouraging for me. After a number of discouraging events and encounters recently, it was great to talk with highly educated, highly motivated Moroccan youth.
One of my students, who speaks English very well and who also, incidentally, wears the head scarf, told me her goal is to eventually become CEO of an important Moroccan company. Another wants to go to France or the US for graduate studies. One student, in her essays and her speeches, has outlined what Morocco needs to do to improve the situation of women. Another has spoken eloquently about the beauty of Morocco and the pride all Moroccans should feel for it...and what that pride should entail in their daily life.
One thing I found a bit strange about our weekend coffee was the meeting place. I asked them where they wanted to meet, and the consensus pick was the local supermarket complex. This surprised me. There are dozens of excellent cafes in Meknes, but my students wanted to go to a cafe above the supermarket, filled with shabby green chairs and dirty tables.
I asked them why they wanted to meet there, and they told me that it was the most comfortable for the girls in the class. All the traditional cafes are filled with older men or couples. The environment created by the Western setup made it more friendly to a group of young individuals, male and female.
It's a similar story with McDonalds. In these places, designed with Western standards, there is a space for non-traditional interactions between the genders. More and more Moroccans grow up with an expectation that these sort of interactions and relationships are possible...but only in certain spaces: Western restaurant chains, supermarkets, and malls.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
A Trip to the Bank
"Peace be upon you."
"And upon you be peace."
"I will travel to Europe and I need to change dirhams to euros. How many is it possible to exchange?"
"Oh, about 2000 euros. Do you have your papers."
"I have my passport."
"No, I need your residency card."
"The government still hasn't given it to me."
"I'm sorry I can't help you."
"But I applied for it over five months ago. The government is just slow."
"I'm sorry. I cannot help you. Next."
"And upon you be peace."
"I will travel to Europe and I need to change dirhams to euros. How many is it possible to exchange?"
"Oh, about 2000 euros. Do you have your papers."
"I have my passport."
"No, I need your residency card."
"The government still hasn't given it to me."
"I'm sorry I can't help you."
"But I applied for it over five months ago. The government is just slow."
"I'm sorry. I cannot help you. Next."
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
TIME on Moroccan Expulsions
It appears that TIME is the first mainstream American media to devote significant coverage to the recent expulsions here.
They dare to ask a question that most media outlets, Moroccan as well as foreign, have refused to ask.
The attachment of a video from the day of expulsions seems a bit tacky. I wonder who is filming and what they hoped to capture when they started recording. We don't see much at all. Really, we just hear the cries of children in the background. It is only three minutes from the few hours before the families were forced to leave and the editing jumps around.
The article itself focuses mainly on an ideal of "tolerance" that Morocco supposedly embodied more in the past but does so less now. In very broad terms, this is perhaps true. But it over-simplifies things a great deal.
Even appeals to human rights seem a bit suspect in my book. After Guantanamo Bay, secret renditions, and other excesses in the "War on Terror", the United States hardly has the moral ground to make any sort of accusations about human rights violations.
The Village of Hope deportations are part of what appears to be a widespread crackdown on Christian aid workers in Morocco. An estimated 40 foreigners — including Dutch, British, American and Korean citizens — have been deported this month, including Broadbent and his colleagues. Among them were an Egyptian Catholic priest in the northern city of Larache and a Korean-born Protestant pastor in Marrakesh who was arrested as he led services in his church. And this past week, authorities searched an orphanage founded by American missionaries in the town of Azrou called The Children's Haven.
They dare to ask a question that most media outlets, Moroccan as well as foreign, have refused to ask.
According to the Moroccan government, the deportees all broke the law, using their status as aid workers to cover their proselytizing. "They are guilty of trying to undermine the faith of Muslims," Interior Minister Tayeb Cherkaoui said in a press release.
But were they?
The attachment of a video from the day of expulsions seems a bit tacky. I wonder who is filming and what they hoped to capture when they started recording. We don't see much at all. Really, we just hear the cries of children in the background. It is only three minutes from the few hours before the families were forced to leave and the editing jumps around.
The article itself focuses mainly on an ideal of "tolerance" that Morocco supposedly embodied more in the past but does so less now. In very broad terms, this is perhaps true. But it over-simplifies things a great deal.
Even appeals to human rights seem a bit suspect in my book. After Guantanamo Bay, secret renditions, and other excesses in the "War on Terror", the United States hardly has the moral ground to make any sort of accusations about human rights violations.
Continued Moroccan Coverage of Christian Expulsions
Two weeks after the expulsions of a number of missionaries and also of orphanage workers from Morocco, the Moroccan media has produced a number of more nuanced reports on the events.
The first few accounts parroted the government's line and involved no further investigation. When they did go further, like Aujourd'hui Le Maroc in their 12-14 March 2010 issue, they interviewed Moroccans who made inflammatory comments against Christians and foreigners. In one interview, Najia Adib insinuated that foreigners living in Morocco were very likely evangelists or pedophiles and that Moroccans must be suspicious of all of us.
Most coverage used the government's terminology when referring to the individuals expelled. They operated in "cells", bringing to mind terrorist cells. And the orphanage workers were "missionaries" by definition, despite 10 years of unproblematic existence and their protestations to the contrary. The media repeated the claim that they had stashes of proselytism material, CD's and tracts. The materials have never been produced and the local media has not questioned the claim (until now).
In the case of television coverage, this first coverage from the Moroccan state owned channel 2M is about par for the course. Christian books, almost all of them written in English and obviously not intended for Moroccans are laid out as if they were drug paraphernalia. Some, such as "The Schizophrenic Church" can hardly be considered positive about the current state of Christianity, let alone material for proselytism. Christian music CD's and hymnbooks from the "bust" are on display. At one point, a long shot on a page of the secular Christmas song "Jingle Bells" makes for a laughingly ridiculous argument against the orphanage families. Of course, to Moroccans it all looks threatening.
In a change from this original coverage, the periodicals that came out at the end of last week bore a more nuanced take on the situation. L'observateur du Maroc carried a series of editorials, articles, and interviews that gave time to all involved. It began with an editorial by Ahmed Charai that criticized Western governments defending the orphanage workers and remarking that "Freedom of worship does not mean open door to proselytism", all without actually engaging the actual claims of the orphanage workers themselves.
The next article, written by Salaheddine Lemaizi, focuses on the misery of Ain Leuh, where the Village of Hope was found and quotes a few locals, particularly the local imam. He alleges that the directors of The Village of Hope encouraged the local prostitutes to have children and paid them generously. On the next page, Herman Boonstra, director of the Village of Hope refutes that claim in an interview, saying, "We never had contact with the world of prostitution. Moroccan men were the ones who had contact with the prostitutes, not us."
Two points of conflict appear to be four Moroccans who converted to Christianity and the religious education of the Moroccan children by the orphanage families. Boonstra says that the two anonymous individuals M.A. and M.K. converted to Christianity on their own and not because of The Village of Hope.
The rest of the coverage includes a profile of another foreign orphanage at Ougmas, reactions from various religious and political leaders, and a profile of those "Fools for Jesus" evangelicals. Of course, like so many media outlets, it engages in typical bait and switch argumentation. They take Pat Robertson as an example of evangelicals and then use statistics about money and conversion among all evangelicals to make it appear as if the ideas of Robertson are much more widespread than they actually are. Once again, Moroccans not knowing any better, read this information and feel under siege by a radical foreign religious ideology. It is hardly surprising that attacks have occurred against Christian institutions in good standing.
The coverage in this week's Nichane and Tel Quel is much more critical of the government. The two magazines are run by the same editor, but Nichane is in Arabic and Tel Quel is in French and their stories are not exactly the same.
They begin with an editorial by the editor Ahmed Benchemsi entitled "Shameful!" It takes the Moroccan authorities to task for depriving poor Moroccan children of the love and care they otherwise would never have received. Benchemsi points out the decade-long existence of the institution and the agreements made about religion. He also points out the blatant hypocrisy in the allegation that the state had the children's best interests in mind. In very strong language, he argues that Morocco moves further and further from being a country with the rule of law.
An interesting aspect of this week's Tel Quel coverage is the relationship between the main article and the coverage of The Village of Hope. The main article gives a profile of the new Minister of Justice Mohamed Naciri, the man who ordered the expulsions. We learn that he is a pious rich man at the end of a long career as a lawyer for the royal family. In one notable event he successfully took on the influential French newspaper Le Monde for negative comments it made about a member of the royal family. However, at no point in the profile does it mention The Village of Hope nor the recent crackdown on Christians.
Turn the page, though, and the next article is about the orphanage family expulsions. Like L'observateur du Maroc, Tel Quel goes to Ain Leuh to interview locals. However, they find individuals much more friendly to the orphanage. An educator says that everyone knew the families were Christians and it was never a problem. She further adds that the families never tried to convert the locals and even observed Ramadan out of respect for them. According to Tel Quel's sources, the accusation of proselytism originated with the imam a few years ago and some locals became convinced.
The coverage ends with a discussion of the alleged CD's and tracts that provide evidence of The Village of Hope's malfeasance. As I have pointed out before, the government has not produced any evidence of materialism for proselytism beyond a book of children's stories about Jesus in Arabic and an Arabic/English Bible seen in the 2M coverage. While likely illegal, they are far from a strong case against the orphanage.
The first few accounts parroted the government's line and involved no further investigation. When they did go further, like Aujourd'hui Le Maroc in their 12-14 March 2010 issue, they interviewed Moroccans who made inflammatory comments against Christians and foreigners. In one interview, Najia Adib insinuated that foreigners living in Morocco were very likely evangelists or pedophiles and that Moroccans must be suspicious of all of us.
Most coverage used the government's terminology when referring to the individuals expelled. They operated in "cells", bringing to mind terrorist cells. And the orphanage workers were "missionaries" by definition, despite 10 years of unproblematic existence and their protestations to the contrary. The media repeated the claim that they had stashes of proselytism material, CD's and tracts. The materials have never been produced and the local media has not questioned the claim (until now).
In the case of television coverage, this first coverage from the Moroccan state owned channel 2M is about par for the course. Christian books, almost all of them written in English and obviously not intended for Moroccans are laid out as if they were drug paraphernalia. Some, such as "The Schizophrenic Church" can hardly be considered positive about the current state of Christianity, let alone material for proselytism. Christian music CD's and hymnbooks from the "bust" are on display. At one point, a long shot on a page of the secular Christmas song "Jingle Bells" makes for a laughingly ridiculous argument against the orphanage families. Of course, to Moroccans it all looks threatening.
In a change from this original coverage, the periodicals that came out at the end of last week bore a more nuanced take on the situation. L'observateur du Maroc carried a series of editorials, articles, and interviews that gave time to all involved. It began with an editorial by Ahmed Charai that criticized Western governments defending the orphanage workers and remarking that "Freedom of worship does not mean open door to proselytism", all without actually engaging the actual claims of the orphanage workers themselves.
The next article, written by Salaheddine Lemaizi, focuses on the misery of Ain Leuh, where the Village of Hope was found and quotes a few locals, particularly the local imam. He alleges that the directors of The Village of Hope encouraged the local prostitutes to have children and paid them generously. On the next page, Herman Boonstra, director of the Village of Hope refutes that claim in an interview, saying, "We never had contact with the world of prostitution. Moroccan men were the ones who had contact with the prostitutes, not us."
Two points of conflict appear to be four Moroccans who converted to Christianity and the religious education of the Moroccan children by the orphanage families. Boonstra says that the two anonymous individuals M.A. and M.K. converted to Christianity on their own and not because of The Village of Hope.
The rest of the coverage includes a profile of another foreign orphanage at Ougmas, reactions from various religious and political leaders, and a profile of those "Fools for Jesus" evangelicals. Of course, like so many media outlets, it engages in typical bait and switch argumentation. They take Pat Robertson as an example of evangelicals and then use statistics about money and conversion among all evangelicals to make it appear as if the ideas of Robertson are much more widespread than they actually are. Once again, Moroccans not knowing any better, read this information and feel under siege by a radical foreign religious ideology. It is hardly surprising that attacks have occurred against Christian institutions in good standing.
The coverage in this week's Nichane and Tel Quel is much more critical of the government. The two magazines are run by the same editor, but Nichane is in Arabic and Tel Quel is in French and their stories are not exactly the same.
They begin with an editorial by the editor Ahmed Benchemsi entitled "Shameful!" It takes the Moroccan authorities to task for depriving poor Moroccan children of the love and care they otherwise would never have received. Benchemsi points out the decade-long existence of the institution and the agreements made about religion. He also points out the blatant hypocrisy in the allegation that the state had the children's best interests in mind. In very strong language, he argues that Morocco moves further and further from being a country with the rule of law.
An interesting aspect of this week's Tel Quel coverage is the relationship between the main article and the coverage of The Village of Hope. The main article gives a profile of the new Minister of Justice Mohamed Naciri, the man who ordered the expulsions. We learn that he is a pious rich man at the end of a long career as a lawyer for the royal family. In one notable event he successfully took on the influential French newspaper Le Monde for negative comments it made about a member of the royal family. However, at no point in the profile does it mention The Village of Hope nor the recent crackdown on Christians.
Turn the page, though, and the next article is about the orphanage family expulsions. Like L'observateur du Maroc, Tel Quel goes to Ain Leuh to interview locals. However, they find individuals much more friendly to the orphanage. An educator says that everyone knew the families were Christians and it was never a problem. She further adds that the families never tried to convert the locals and even observed Ramadan out of respect for them. According to Tel Quel's sources, the accusation of proselytism originated with the imam a few years ago and some locals became convinced.
The coverage ends with a discussion of the alleged CD's and tracts that provide evidence of The Village of Hope's malfeasance. As I have pointed out before, the government has not produced any evidence of materialism for proselytism beyond a book of children's stories about Jesus in Arabic and an Arabic/English Bible seen in the 2M coverage. While likely illegal, they are far from a strong case against the orphanage.
Scenes From Morocco: A Destroyed Cross
This is the place where a cross used to hang in Meknes' medina. The Catholics who teach Moroccans languages and career skills in this building do not engage in proselytism but have caught up in the anti-Christian sentiment following the recent expulsions of Christians. Last week, the cross was knocked down and beaten into pieces.
On a positive note, Moroccans who have benefited from their services have volunteered to reconstruct the cross.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
U.S. Congress Supports Moroccan Plan
Morocco and Algeria have been at loggerheads over Western Sahara for decades now. Algerian supported rebels in the Polisario movement are regarded as completely evil by most Moroccans, who don't understand why the Western world is tricked into viewing them as your typical run-of-the-mill separatist movement.
Last week, a number of United States Senators have asked Hillary Clinton to support Morocco's limited autonomy plan for Western Sahara in a significant diplomatic victory for Morocco.
Last week, a number of United States Senators have asked Hillary Clinton to support Morocco's limited autonomy plan for Western Sahara in a significant diplomatic victory for Morocco.
Nevertheless, such explicit letter of approval coming from the major foreign policy decision makers in Washington is a notable win for the Moroccan diplomacy and a significant defeat to the Algerians. The Algerian government has been the chief sponsor of the Polisario separatist movement that has been fighting the Moroccans over for the control the Western Sahara. Algeria has made the Polisario and its row with Morocco as the corner stone of its foreign policy spending billions of dollars in arming and financing the Polisario.
The Two Sides of Development
After a few months in Morocco one gets used to the stark contrasts. But every once in a while, the gap between the parts of the same city that we might called "developed" and those that are not stands out.
Daniel and I went to the medina to eat bisara, a delicious chickpea soup topped with olive oil. Near Bab Jdid we sat down at a dirty plastic table to eat a bowl of the soup which costs 5 Dh (less than a dollar). We also received bread, served in a shabby pink plastic basket not well-shaped to hold bread. The basket fell over immediately, so I tried several times to stand it right-side up without success.
In front of us, trash littered the dirt street. To the left, a man with no feet sat begging. Another man had laid out a piece of cloth with 10 or 12 items on it, including dirty plastic parts, a tape, and a Holy Bible in English. He had no potential customers. None of them seemed to have seen a razor in the past few days, and their clothing didn't seem to have seen a washing machine in the recent past.
A few hours later I found myself in a posh office with colored tiles and glass doors. I was discussing the printing of my business cards with a woman sporting a gigantic diamond ring and dressed in a fancy pink version of the traditional Moroccan jelaba. When she left the well-lit office complete with the newest hi-tech HP printers to go downstairs to check on pricing, I tried to use my Darija with her office mate, a well-groomed man in his 30's: "Lots of colors." I pointed to the clean tiles in red, blue, yellow, and green.
He replied, "It's great, isn't it? Excellent for working."
Daniel and I went to the medina to eat bisara, a delicious chickpea soup topped with olive oil. Near Bab Jdid we sat down at a dirty plastic table to eat a bowl of the soup which costs 5 Dh (less than a dollar). We also received bread, served in a shabby pink plastic basket not well-shaped to hold bread. The basket fell over immediately, so I tried several times to stand it right-side up without success.
In front of us, trash littered the dirt street. To the left, a man with no feet sat begging. Another man had laid out a piece of cloth with 10 or 12 items on it, including dirty plastic parts, a tape, and a Holy Bible in English. He had no potential customers. None of them seemed to have seen a razor in the past few days, and their clothing didn't seem to have seen a washing machine in the recent past.
A few hours later I found myself in a posh office with colored tiles and glass doors. I was discussing the printing of my business cards with a woman sporting a gigantic diamond ring and dressed in a fancy pink version of the traditional Moroccan jelaba. When she left the well-lit office complete with the newest hi-tech HP printers to go downstairs to check on pricing, I tried to use my Darija with her office mate, a well-groomed man in his 30's: "Lots of colors." I pointed to the clean tiles in red, blue, yellow, and green.
He replied, "It's great, isn't it? Excellent for working."
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