Wandering Thoughts, Vol.14
And the random thoughts are back again! these posts are usually an opportunity to blog about other topics, more superficial and definitely not related to the otherwise tedious and lengthy tantrums about how and why the Moroccan economy isn’t doing well, how and why more progressive policies need to be implemented. These are the posts that bring together The Thick Of It, The West Wing, Dita Von Teese, John Le Carré, Peter Mandelson and Francis Urquhart (not necessarily in that order or exclusively)

Maroc Web Awards - 2012 Edition
But seriously though, the Maroc Blog Awards are up again this year, this time with a radically different branding, renamed Maroc Web Awards; the Best Blogger category has been retained, and I am hoping this time I’d get the nomination and win the award, too. So let me put the word out: go on their website and nominate this author as best Moroccan Blogger for 2012 (or not…) it is quite simple:
1/ go on http://marocwebawards.com/nominer/
2/ Choose “Blogueur de l’année” (you might need to sign in with a twitter/facebook account to do so however)
3/ Type in https://moorishwanderer.wordpress.com/
And thank you kindly; Every vote matters!
Now, apart from getting hammered on non-parametric statistics and econometrics (yes, education at my Alma Mater did not rise to expectations on a few things…) I have finally managed to catch up with some of the movies released lately: The Ides Of March, “The Guard” and Captain America! The perfect mix: bits of politics, dark humour and comic books fond child memories.
“Kingfish” Huey Long was a Louisiana Governor, a populist figure who inspired the character of Willie Stark in “All The King’s Men” by writer Robert P. Warren, and his book is going to be next on my reading list – The few things I’ve read about Huey Long and the New Deal Coalition are interesting enough to understand how a progressive set of policies and ideals needs a broad support from often contradictory interests to find its way up to the greasy pole of power. The closest thing I could come up with to compare it to Moroccan politics was the coalition Abdellah Ibrahim built around him (but quickly fell apart) during his premiership.
ربما الآن لدي الفرصة لتدوين بعض الكلمات حول ما أهتم به، أو ما لا أعيره إهتماما، أو ربما ما يجب الإهتمام به. التدوين بلغة أو بأخرى لا يهمني شخضيا، زعما حيت العربية كيقراوه المغاربة أكثرصافي خاص كولشي يكتب بالعربية؟ في نظري هناك وقاحة كبرى للتدوين بالعربية، كمحاولة لإستقطاب عدد قراء أكبر، خصوصا وأن مدونا ما ليس صحفيا، وبذلك يجب ربما الإعتدال في الطموح والمبتغى.
هل جميع مستعملي الأنترنيت المغاربة يستعينون باللغة العربية للبحث عن ما هم مهتمون به؟ ربها. لكن هذا لا يعني أن كل من لم يدون أو لم يعبر عن رأيه على الشبكة بلغة الضاد هو، كما يقول صديقي الباذخوا، “فرنكوفوني حقير”، أو مستعمرا ثقافيا كما يلمح المدون على موقع بلا فرنسية.
وإذا ما قمنا فعلا بنبذ كل ما لا هو “مغربي”، فما هو إذن الفرق بين العربية المستوردة من الشرق مع عقبة بن نافع، والفرنسية القادمة مع الحماية و المقيم العام ليوطي؟ أليس المدافعون على العربية مستعمرون فكريا كذلك؟ ثم التشبت بلغة واحدة عوض الإهتمام بشتي اللغات الأخرى هو رمز ضعف، بل هو عربون على الخوف من الإبتعاد عن المألوف ورفض إعتناق الجديد والمختلف.على أين، أحي المدوينيين بالعربية و الفرنسية، و كذا الزملاء المدونون بالإنجليزية، ولا ننسى أن هنالك من يدون بلغات أخرى عار علينا أن نستصغر مساهماتهم في إغناء البلوغوما،الهولندية و الإسبانية مثلا. هذا التعصب اللغوي لا يبشر إلا بإنغلاق قومي، وإبتعاد عن ما يكتب و ينشر في العالم. وأعتذر عن أخطاء النحو، مدى وقت طويل منذ أن كتبت فقرة بالعربية
Human Rights Swatch & MBA Awards
Warning: This is an MBA-related post. the Maroc Blog Awards are up, and well, One has to turn on the charm and tone down a bit the nihilist frenzy. After all, some of our most prestigious jury members will be selecting the lucky blogs, and well, it always pays off when there’s a proper decorum going on. So, for the benefit of my vanity and indeed what can be perceived as an inherent lack of self-confidence and a desperate seeking of peer approval, I’m a devoting this piece to get into the good graces of the MBA’s patrons. I’ve almost forgotten: I would appreciate if you’d vote for me.

Tucker's endorsement: "Vote for the Moorish Fucker. I know he is fucking retarded, but if you don't vote for the twat, he will put his balaclava on, and he is going after every sad fuck who popped in, break their shin bone and stab them to fucking death."
The topic at hand is somewhat depressing. Perhaps the word is not adequate: hopeless would be more to the point. It certainly fits for those I am claiming to expose for what they are. Setting aside those with islamist -hardcore, not the PJD wets- sympathies, many of those shaping our intellectual future are definitely drawn to hopeless causes. Human Rights for one. Human Rights are the nihilists’ “Ligne Rouge“, as in the one thing all of the motley lot will not compromise upon, and could even go as far as state them as paramount to anything else. It belongs to a whole mystic of human rights as the cornerstone of democracy, the shield of human dignity. It is all honourable, and I do subscribe to this alacrity in defending the case; I really do. In facts my criticism is about the way it is carried out, not the struggle itself. So even if it does sound like a caustic criticism of its inanity, there is a need to defend human rights, and it should not distract attention from the fact that they remain at the heart of principles the organic intellectual in Morocco should not compromise upon; As far as I am concerned, there is just a miss in terms of the specific rights involved here, and the way the message is conveyed.
Truth of matter is, the common man does not give a flying monkey for abstract ideas of freedom of speech, religious belief and sexual orientation. Harsh truth, but some activists and advocates of the UN Universal Declaration of ’48 look and behave as though it is the cardinal thing to spend time and resources on. Human Rights activists include individual with outstanding academic and intellectual standards, the flower of the western bloc of our future leaders, and these are in the danger of becoming, when the time comes, disconnected leaders with superficial, pre-conceived ideas of how to manage a country they certainly cherish. Bright and public-service spirited indeed, but utterly at odds with the majority of their people.

One of MALI's ringleaders. Cute, but not really representative of the Moroccan youth
Let us take a look at the MALI group. Not because I want to target them -there are after all some nice dear ladies among them- but they offer the cheap opportunity for me to focus my criticism on something more or less organized. The most committed members are likely to be, in a couple of decades’ time, part of the governing elite. It is a quasi-law of nature that the Makhzen -or their surviving heir- institutions are very good at absorbing their former dissidents, and so, weakening any future would-be maverick careers. It is the case nowadays with the former left-wingers that explicitly acknowledged their yielding to the Royal power by publicly endorsing specific initiatives, making speeches on the need to emphasise “citizenship” values, and at times, stifling dissent they were in some three decades ago. If thing remain the same, it is very likely some of these heralds of individual liberties would rejoin the Makhzen side, and though they would keep to the libertarian tone, signalled loyalty to the monarchy become more and more obvious. By seemingly harmless twists of words, individuals like Khadija Rouissi still portray themselves like a left-wing figure, but subtle references do disabuse the ingenuous: as Ibn Kafka once stated, these can be labelled as “touche pas a ma bière et a mon commandeur des croyants“. Are the MALI people likely to go down the same road? If hardcore, committed and former political prisoners yielded after these years, what chances do young libertarians stand to stray from their initial claims. Some of them are from well-to-do backgrounds, and so there are limitations for/on their actions on Ramadan and the freedom to fast or not. This is not about individual liberties. Libertarian issues are not the ones common individuals care about. Their activism is not just about Ramdan, far from it. They tried -unsuccessfully- to stage a protest against sexual harassment, too.
Another noble and worthy cause, but hopeless because Moroccans, even of the female population do not consider the issue as part of their thrust for liberty (if they have had any). Even feminism is out of fashion, and some circles once progressive, view it as subversive. In times of economic hardship and a locked political spectrum, libertarian activism looks pointless. Not just on the fasting, but also on sexual harassment, sexual liberty and more broadly individual liberties. The way things are carried out, the background of the prominent advocates and the way messages are channelled are running high chances to end up being labelled “rich-spoiled-kids’-cause”. Unless they are assured of blitz-style political and moral superiority to state their claim, bottom line is, they are just damaging it. And it is a shame: I’d love to live in a country where individuals are not forced into submission because their preferences differ from those conventional in our society. Surely one way not to alienate support is to think of a different strategy other than constant confrontation and mindless provocation.
What’s the lambasting for? Perhaps this irritable claim that civil society can achieve more without any political platform. The libertarians might not know about it, but they do act on behalf of some political agenda; inadvertently, they do act as a sort of a Guy Fawkes for the conservatives, to the Makhzen’s benefit. It is indeed a wicked game, for those believing in the Makhzen theory, that is. It now more or less an openly stated policy that Morocco should and eventually will move towards a more open-minded society. People like MALI could perhaps in a couple of years’ time, switch back and deliver some fulsome support for the regime’s projects. Beyond MALI, many libertarians do operate as franc-tireur, with an obvious apolitical stand, something that harms the cause more than it helps it. The other point was exactly that: the lack of political appeal, or the lack of political ambition, in the short term, beneficial for their cause. On the longer run -and indeed, a year is a short time in politics- it delivers a weak message of an agitate group of people. By focusing only on individual liberties without a structuring project that would conciliate these and the imperative of policy-making, it does look, and I am sorry to point it out, as a rebel phase of rich, spoiled kids.
On the other hand, I’d love to join if they need someone to shape up their claim into policies. I’m just saying.
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