Post-Revolutionary Egypt: What's Next? Part 4

Politics & Religion:

One would hardly conceive consulting a chapter on state reforms without having separate rooms for religious and political analysis and recommendations, yet with an elected president formed and nurtured under the auspice of the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt, it is becoming harder to distinguish between political agendas and religious commandments even though glorious empires and successful state management has once been led by fervent prophets and religious apostles.

Political Islamism nowadays has bridged the divide between state management and religious theology, and the Muslim brotherhood fashion has embodied such philosophy following the recommendations of its founder AlBanna. A legacy which, though inspired revolutions and ignited incidents, is still at the center of interrogation by both the public opinion and the centers of powers worldwide. Far from being compared to the Turkish Gullen movement who advances an Islamic agenda through education and business, the Muslim brotherhood embraces a full political approach directed towards the control of key positions inside the government, thus implementing its vision through state organs.

This being said, the mischievous game of politics can easily put the current government under stress and recurrent test, especially that the social, religious and geographical features of Egypt allow malicious schemes to take effect without much planning. Whether a plot to blow up a church, or a furtive attack on border patrols near the Rafah crossing point, the blames of state mismanagement or blind and reckless compassion with Hamas are  common currency in Pharaoh’s land, a currency too easily manipulated by the political lack of regulation.

The Egyptian government needs to act quickly and efficiently to reverse the power flow and to assert the will of the public opinion as main source of legislation instead of induced and forced actions prompted by the Military council and allies of the former regime. This can be achieved through greater representation, active engagement of the civil society and formation of key political alliances. The greater representation has already been upheld by president Mursi when nominating Coptic Christians in key positions in the government, yet the increase of the female representatives in the government has not been as much secured. Nominating females for senior posts in the state will not only draw support and appreciation from the public opinion, but will also clear the doubts about the approach of the Muslim brotherhood indoctrinated president about women rights and representation.

Moreover, representation ought not only to give justice to women, but also to the generation Y without which a revolution could not proceed. The inclusion of the young individuals in the ministerial cabinet and state offices is a priority and an ethical imperative to pay tribute to the effort of the grassroots youth movements who came to the streets and scarified lives and wealth for the nation’s welfare. With a 71% literacy rate and a an almost 63% of population aged 15-64[1], the young generation is not only abundant, but is also educated and well-endowed to uphold responsibilities in the political spheres of the country. Relevant fields of state legislations cannot be competitive, visionary and innovative unless under the guidance of a young official. Such fields comprise the ministries of new technologies and higher education and scientific research.

On another note, political alliances are crucial for healthy political performances both due to its effectiveness in channeling efforts towards consensual goals and preventing political confrontation which undermines state efforts in most cases. The political offspring of the Muslim Brotherhood, the freedom and justice party, ought not to indulge in ideological quarrels with the secular and liberal movement in order not to alienate itself amid a growing critical base in the Egyptian street. The alliances can be policies-specific and thus would neither endanger the ideological integrity nor identity of the Muslim Brotherhood representatives. The policies pertinent to the nations’ economy, for example, can be drafted in coordination with the liberal movement which abides by the market oriented principle of economy. Their inclusion in the process of establishing a liberal, market oriented vision for Egypt will indeed strengthen the image of the current government as an inclusive institution meant to represent the entire ideological and political spectrum in an effort to incrust a political democratic offset to the leading Freedom and Justice party.

Finally, sound state management in a democratic society ought to empower the civil society and uphold it as a crucial partner in elaborating the domestic policies. The civil society in Egypt has proven to be an illuminated establishment with unequal human resources, yet the attention required to recognize the work of the numerous associations and equip them with the necessary financial and logistical needs has been overlooked. Joining the different NGOs in state building is not only a matter of democratic exertion but is a point pertinent to national security concerns. Several NGOs in Egyptian and foreign territory acquire funding and expertise from foreign government to promote an agenda which sometimes threatens Egyptian interests. Given the political circumstances which put Egypt on a sensitive position in the world chess board, and the disturbances which populate the relationship between Egypt and several governments amongst is Israel, allowing the civil society to be infiltrated by foreign agendas because of certain political alignments or plain negligence is a fatal error which endangers the homeland security at the highest levels.

This being said, these set of recommendations and opinions are to be observed and implemented, and timing in state management is a crucial feature which alone can determine whether a government can indeed succeed or fail dramatically regardless of the nature of its policies. Egypt is in a historical turnout, and recalling the losses in human and financial resources makes it clear that enough has been suffered and scarified, and time has come to do the right things at the right moment.

Mohamed Amine Belarbi

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[1] The CIA World Factbook, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/eg.html

How can individual rights be secured in the Mideast’s new reality?

 How can individual rights be secured in the Mideast’s new reality?

The Arab World has gone through a tempestuous period where regimes have been toppled and new social orders were established. What some observers advanced is the idea of the emergence of a new Arab World Order built upon ideals and values of democracy, liberalism and social solidarity. This new Arab World order, which rightly has been pinpointed as the catalyst of several world uprisings taking place in settings as different as the US, Spain, Kuwait and Greece, has shown to be a philosophy expanding beyond physical borders and cultural boundaries. It is indeed a mindset for people to adopt In order to make their voices heard, and bring about a change they see as necessary not only for social prosperity and political survival, but most importantly for justice and equity in rights and duties attribution. This essay attempts to draw and define the typical political, social, economic and religious features of this new Arab World Order, features which are critical for the development of an entrenched and efficient understanding and protection for individual rights of the citizen in the Arab World.

1.     Political

Politics is undeniably one of the main factors without which an Arab Spring couldn’t have seen light. Political dictatorship and totalitarianism has made it possible for a small elite of privileged politicians and businessmen to form an oligarchy of hidden actors who enjoyed pulling the strings of the political scene in the Arab world.  Making it a personal fantasy or an enjoyable chess game, these oligarchs not only drowned in their pleasure for power and control, but also forgot to dress an efficient strategy to sustain their grip on power when dark clouds pop from above. Decades of rule can be seen as a triumph for the political elite, but the servile subjects of yesterday are no more among the masses, instead giving place for a new social power to emerge with unconventional thoughts and defying opinions. The Youth has indeed been the unexpected factor in the equation of the Arab spring, a youth who managed to turn political consciousness and intellectual assiduity into an organized movement. The precedent generations, crumbling under illiteracy and poverty, have been unable to discern the blessings of an alternative system of power with just and fair attitude towards its people, yet the fully knowledgeable generation Y of today, geared up with liberalistic, democratic and socialist thoughts, made the unprecedented step of thinking outside what is available. “If it ain’t break, don’t fix it” was not good enough for High school and college graduates who wanted to construct a society striving for the best and asking nothing but social justice and advance. Now that it is clear for the Arab citizen and the world that the new rising power is the generation Y, it is big time to invest in it as the prominent agent of change. Youth have the potential to get involved in the political management of their respective nations now that the barriers of the deceased regimes are gone. Youth involvement or influence in politics can be a paradigm shift in our understanding of the role of the young generation in the socio-political spectrum. This can be achieve through various means ranging from political affiliation and activism among pre-constructed organisms such as parties, or through a more efficient engagement in the civil society which is a key player in sculpting the public opinion and the political arena of the country. Think tanks, though still not flourishing in the Arab World, can be the conciliatory bridge the youth have been looking forward to during the time of repression and autocracy. Being in the heart of decision making doesn’t necessarily require being part of the political game; it can instead be feasible through influence and through the power of suggestions and recommendations. Think tanks not only offer a platform for the young generation from where to have an impact on how the country is run, but also a template to stand on as the forefront of a social defense mechanism preventing the citizens’ rights to be coerced or alienated.

Youth have been side lined in favor of a closed and elitist branch of the Arab society, thus having no say in how the country operates or what the government priorities should be in the different social, economic and political domains. It is time for youth, however young and inexperienced they are, to expose their ideas and ideals on an open forum, and make from these opinion and recommendations a raw material able to be processed by the authorities in such a way that it becomes politically, socially and financially applicable. This way, the political individual rights of the youth are duly considered and the civil liberties of the citizen in the field of cooperative management of the nations’ affairs is taken care of.

2.     Socio-Economic

No one can disregard the power of the socio-economic conditions of a certain nation in influencing the observance of individual rights of the citizen. Not to fall in the trap of the economic determinism of the thinker Karl Marx, the socio-economic state of the Arab world have had a partial role in reversing the course of history in this part of the world. How can individual liberties be respected when people cannot provide for their keen and for themselves the resources to survive and live with dignity. A life without dignity is a life whose owner has nothing to lose, thus being prone in acting immorally toward society as a whole. Governments can turn the people servile through degrading socio-political conditions, yet it has always proven to be a short term policy as demonstrated by world regimes throughout history. Turning tough socio-economic conditions into a governance tool for decades is foolish strategy for regimes which aspire to eternal existence. A win-win situation imposes itself under the realm of the famous kingdom of Realpolitik: Let the government enrich itself, yet making sure that the people gain enough to not question the authority of the state. As bad as it may seem, it is unthinkable under the premises of the system of politics to imagine a government ideal enough to sacrifice its privileges for the sake of its people, especially that in the Arab political scene, as it is for the world political scene, most government officials are graduates of the economic university of life rather than matured products of strong political currents.

As Henry A. Wallace wisely stated: “Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.”

This is in conventional politics, yet, what we are seeing in the Arab world may turn out to be a redefinition of the principle of governance, and a way to sustain a vision of a government concerned with social welfare must be a process which involves the social spectrum side by side with the state. Here comes the economic and social vision for the Arab world: Social Entrepreneurship.

Social Entrepreneurship is the fuel for social advance and individual as well as social flourishing of the citizen. Allowing your subjects to locate and identify the problem, cure it and monetize it while benefiting the society alleviates the hardship the state has to face in order to solve the nations’ issues. Startups and businesses owned and operated by creative and brilliant youth in the Arab world can not only provide employment for society, but as well secures the individual rights of the citizen in owning properties, making money and generating revenue well spent and well invested for the sake of the individual and its social circle.  This strategy prevents the catastrophic emergence and creation of monopolies managed by the state or state empowered agents, thus preventing the economic welfare of the citizen from being targeted and sold for parties concerned by profit more than by the citizen satisfaction and well-being.

3.     Religion

What the Arab spring has shown to the entire world audience is that religion can indeed be the cement to consolidate society’s ranks rather than the fire which burns the social order down. Religion can be a tool for individual rights advance if approached strategically as it ought to. Structuring a political and social system which secures the religious rights of all its components can add credibility and trust to the usually strained relations between the state and its citizen. Youth come in the frame again as the torch bearers for religious understanding and interfaith respect. The Arab world, though mostly Muslim in essence, has been through the Arab uprising due to the engagement of all its religious constituents in one single vision: A future Arab world where rights protection prevail. There is nothing that can install cohesion and mutual respect in a society better than common difficulties which align everyone for a shared goal and conviction. The safety of the society, of the nation and of the individual far outweighs the religious differences that might arise, and thanks to the enlightened youth engagement in constructive cooperation regardless of religion affiliation, a new mindset has been conceived, a mindset that the new Arab reality ought to consolidate through the prioritization of individual rights protection mechanisms set and operated by progressive youth who believe in the appreciation of differences and the celebration of variances without which a dynamic society is doomed to collapse.

Mohamed Amine Belarbi

Cofounder: Arab Institute for Youth Policy Making                                                                               Founder: Moroccan Institute for Youth Policy Making

(Morocco)

KONY 2012: When institutionalizing an idea leads to its demise

KONY 2012: When institutionalizing an idea leads to its demise

When you get your Facebook and email flooded with the KONY2012 videos and articles, you realize shit has just got serious. Massive posts and sharing of the KONY2012 short documentary has indeed stirred countless responses, mostly favorable, yet a frantic minority has been calling out for a conspiracy.

Follows the video widely widespread on the net and massively shared on Facebook:

The message is clear, concise and appealing, making full use of the influence and persuasion technics of any media campaign. Yet, any propaganda opts for the same mechanisms of propagation and massive distribution, making more than one raise an eyebrow as to what are the real incentives behind the KONY2012 organizational and promotional group.

Why questioning? Well, the numbers speak for themselves! Millions of dollars channeled throughout the globe through donations and purchases of different solidarity kits and gadgets, ranging from bracelets, to shirts and posters.  These millions of dollars are fueling the efforts which made the KONY2012 such a successful social media offensive, yet the virtual nature of the campaigns main feature brings to the spotlight several critics concerning the budget allocation and spending.

I will quote here the website http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/:

“Last year, the organization spent $8,676,614. Only 32% went to direct services (page 6), with much of the rest going to staff salaries, travel and transport, and film production. This is far from ideal for an issue which arguably needs action and aid, not awareness, and Charity Navigator rates their accountability 2/4 stars because they lack an external audit committee. But it goes way deeper than that.”

The budgetary management is far from being a regulated financial source and the lack of transparency and audit further advances the theory of mal practice and financial frauds.

Yet, financial opacity is not the key concern raised about the KONY2012 campaign. The political implications are far outweighing any financial considerations indeed. A US military intervention, be it through logistical support, military advisory personnel or through actual ground intervention with American troops, stirs enormous concerns on the incentive behind a military participation and the potential implications of such acts on the US interests.

The Political profile of the supporters of the KONY2012 campaign inside the corridors of the congress can easily be drawn. The video displays the 12 political figures the campaign intends to motivate towards a military intervention, and not surprisingly, the republicans are at the forefront of the little congress battalion ready to fight for a humanitarian intervention, as they did in Iraq and elsewhere.

Occupy IAM!

A lot of tumult has been raised concerning the outraging initiative Itisalat Al Maghrib, the leading telecomunication company, undertook in the last period.
The provider of internet decided to cut the VoIP services and thus thousands if not million of Moroccans are unable to use softwares using this service such as Skype and others.

Steming from a protectionist policy meant to safeguard the earnings of the company against any competition, IAM has shown a coward attitude towards its consumers and towards the worlwide softwares using the VoIP technology, and thus lost respect and allegiance from a wide array of local consumers ranging from the old grandma who used to talk to her grandson in Europe, to the businessman holding his meeting through Skype conferences with international partners, passing by the usual student who needs to pass a Skype interview with the admission offices of the US universities.

What makes the problem doomed to persist is the probable interference of the government in such matters, knowing that our lovely intelligence officers have a hard time tracking and monitoring our conversations which bypass the conventional phone lines.
The intelligence networks spread out accross the country have all to win from such measures prompted by IAM, and the lack of a governmental initiative to tackle the problem and restaure the citizen's right to enjoy the internet services wouldn't come with much surprise.

Whether it is to blame on IAM or on the old grumpy intelligence officers, the necessity to act is more than pressing in a society where the citizen strives to show that he is aware of his rights and is ready to fight for them.

Let us boycott IAM, shame it publicly through a staunch media campaign against it, and let us write petitions to Skype and other companies using the VoIP services prompting them to remind the government of its responsibility to assure a free internet where no company nor government can interefere and imped the rights of its users.

Let us Occupy IAM offices around Morocco!

Follows a video post concerning the matter:

IAM response: Deny everything as expected!

Viber Response to the consumer complaints about the VoIP problem: Source: 

http://www.demainonline.com/2012/02/23/voip-maroc-teh-lecom-dement-la-censure-mais/

Mohamed Amine Belarbi

The New Gulf Vision for International Education

An NYUAD future undergrad insight 

On the request of a friend, I'll be writing this post on a subject loosely related to politics, specifically on the New York University of Abu Dhabi, with a modest approach to the Gulf politics, just so to keep the writing line of the blog present...

It is quite unique to observe a new trend in Education, sourcing in the Gulf countries, namely Qatar and the UAE... students around the world have noticed the fierce advertising of a new "kind" of Universities who, strange enough, bear US brands while being located in the middle of the oily arabian deserts.
Quite an explosive cocktail one would say, especially that the Middle East was never recognized for being the harbor of US Universities with great caliber. (Some even still think of the Middle East as an empty desert populated by bedouins...)

After the invasion with tanks, Fighter jets and ground troops, the Arabian peninsula is now living the era of intellectual incursion, and incursion one would argue which benefits the locals more than it offers a fruitful ground for brainwashing and Westrn conditionning for propsective Arab leaders.

As I am heading to the New York University of Abu Dhabi to be part of the 2016 class, I believe an insight on the new educational fashion promoted by the wealthy Emirates from my part would be highly appreciated, as some of my countreparts evoked.

The first impression that most of us would have is the stereotype of the wealthy fat sheiks and how a University planted in the Gulf would ultimately enjoy the many financial benefits of the area...and indeed it turns out to be true!
The logistics, infrastructure and budget of the US Universities out there, or at leat the ones I know (NYUAD and Georgetown University in Qatar) are virtually limitless! Ranging from Luxurious dorms to 3D TVs, passing by scholarship packages which include countless benefits and Filipino servants clearing your plates, this new Gulf/US branded universities have the primary weapon to drag the brightest students who are more than willing to study for free and get pocket money over it.

Another prominent feature of these Gulf branches of imminent US Universities is the outstanding faculty they manage to gather in their campus corridors. Draging top professors from Yale, Harvard, Oxford and numerous prestigious institutions, the head hunters don't go easy in selecting a stunning panel of teachers to make the University stand out internationnally, with of course fat paycheques being thrown left and right.
More impressive, the University I am attending in a couple of months welcomes the NYU president John Sexton bi-weekly so that he can teach his famous course (Government and Religion) to both the NYUAD students and an Emirati selected group, raising concerns about the costs of such journeys without mentionning the fury it starts among the environementalists who would get pissed off when it comes to the presidents' carbon footprint...

From personal experience, I can totally confirm the luxury these Universities afford to their students, especially after a journey I undertook to Abu Dhabi as part of a candidate weekend (part of the selection process).
Bringing 70 students from around the world to the UAE and bearing all the costs of travel, stay in a luxury hotel with on the top fancy activities in the desert and in the 7 stars hotel Emirates Palace(fancy dinner in Emirates Palace. pic down), this is what one would call hardcore advertisement!

And indeed it is one of the most powerful tools to expand the influence of the University, making the students go crazy over how fancy the trip to AD was and spread the word about the institution among their fellow coyears...(Bear in mind that not all the students got admitted at the end, though they were brought from the end of the globe to take part in sample courses and undertake a campus tour among others...)

It is indeed impressive that the Arab Gulf countries are heading in this new educational road where new perspectives and revolutionary vision are being drawn alongside the tall skycrapers which burst in the deserts of Arabia!
John Sexton  didn't spare words when describing the vision he sees taking place in NYUAD, a vision which reflected the eagerness of the UAE to take over the global leadership in the domains of Education, Business and Technology.

The UAE is a country which is still building and shaping itself, and the efforts of nation-building undergone in the oil rich emirates are to be met with an equivalent effort by the international community in order to foster peace and prosperity in times where wars are waged, ignorance is spread and hunger is a valuable currency in world marketing.

Coupled with the limitless financial capabilities made possible by the oil revenues, the new world vision taking place in the Gulf is to be taken on serious grounds, especially that the economic uncertainties in the West and the shifting of geopolitical centers to the East makes the emergence of centers of power in the Gulf a certain outcome. A clear display of such ground breaking changes is the shining of the star of Qatar in the last Arab Uprising where the tiny country unblocked huge funding ans tactical moves which threw it on the front line of those benefiting from the advantages of regime removals.

From organized protests in Qatari studios to political and logistical support to rebels, without forgetting the highly trained media staff which organized the unfolding of the revolutions in Aljazeera corridors, Qatar has shown that the determination of the Gulf countries to enclench its fist and grab the torch of leadership is not an ephemer fantasy, but a true vision for a New World Order where the rules of the global gameplay are drawn differently.

Heavy International investments are no more than a small fraction of what the Gulf has to offer, yet, the era of subordination and passive politics is now gone. Turning from the receiver to the active player, the Sheiks of Arabia have learned the lesson and are ready to make drastic changes (relatively ;) in order to channel the power of oil into palpable holdings in politics, business and education.

The conventional is not welcome in the Gulf of the 21st century, and so is the idea behind hosting US campuses while boosting their capabilities to make them outsmart their mother institutions back home. Give them money, give them logistics, give them buildings, internships, stunning faculty, countless research opportunities, study abroad programs, trips, conferences, evenings with top world personalities, luxury in its most mindblowing forms, and collect the results!

It is still an experimental process which found many supporters and critics, yet the fact that there is a genuine willingness to move the Gulf forward and make it a new hub for intellectual, political and economic leaps brings hope and faith in the Middle East as a whole, especially that it doesn't lack capabilities to bring real change to the ground, provided the West allows such re-emergence and sees it as a collaborative advance rather than a potential threat to the US and EU predominance in the global scene.

Mohamed Amine Belarbi

Europe: What future in the light of the crisis? (1/2)

Europe as meant to be

Europe has been struggling for centuries to come up with a unifying trend which could gather all Europeans around common values and ideals. Be it through wars, diplomatic approaches or economic alliances, Europe is still thriving with a single goal in vision: A unified Europe for a true European citizen. This approach didn’t encompass only the European geographic and demographic extension but expanded itself into a universal idea of union and prosperity which would serve the humanity as a whole.

The geographic expansion of Europe towards Eastern European nations has proven not only the success of the European unity which appealed even to former soviet countries, but also displayed to the international community that even though different as we are, we are still sharing a lot in common, and the basics of the European principals proved to cover these common ideals we are looking up for.

But what are these European values and what makes them so unique? A quick glance at the many aspects on which lies the European union will reveal these ideals on a practical basis and not only as a set of theoretical and utopian precepts.

Good governance

What set apart the West and the European Union in general from the rest of the world are the good governance and the intelligent affair’s administration. Europe now is one if not the most democratic political body which sets the standards to follow for the rest of the world. This achievement should be regarded not as a regional achievement but as a multicultural and global movement’s success in bringing politically, socially, economic and demographically different nations to agree to a set of regulations and policies which take into account the respect for the national sovereignty of the member states while at the same time building a comprehensive network which knits a unified European strategy for the whole members community.

As an article in the guardian expressed the concerns over the divers body forming the European Union and the threat of such diaspora to the unification efforts:

“…the union now contains countries that are geographically distant from one another, and which have experienced very different histories. To some extent geography determines interests. Historical experience also shapes perceptions of national self-interest. Thus in a broader union it may become harder for the member-states forge common policies and approaches.”[1]

Cultural understanding

It is in indeed amazing how the cultural values Europe stands for shaped the mutual understanding which allows so diverse communities and nations to live side by side in a tightly knit union. In a world which is torn apart by the many differences our religions, cultures, social mixture and political systems experience, the struggle for global peace and understanding is becoming more pressing than ever. But looking at the successful integrative policy Europe led throughout the past, we can easily notice how well the immigrants, Romas, Gipsies, Muslims, Africans and Asians managed to coexist in total respect and consideration. The providing of institutions, political and social bodies as well as comprehensive policies is an example of how the bridges of understanding can be built if the political wiliness is present.  

International peace promotion

Not only the European values and ideals are meant for local consumption, they are also a product exported all over the world which tries to give others the taste of global success and peace Europe world hard to implement. The many events where European intervention proved to be crucial in order to draw the world attention to conflicts, suffering and oppression attest of the significant place humanitarian efforts are granted in Europe’s foreign policy. A successful nation or Union cannot be judged solely on its internal achievements, but should be taken accountable for a greater role outside geographic borders. Europe proved to be an active fighter and promoter of international peace and global well-being, and this genuine interest in the world rather than the selfish self-centered policy several political entities promote reveals much about the nature and essence of European values which are truly universal ideals.

Economic prosperity

Another striking power of the European values is the way the economic prosperity is fostered through caring mechanisms which allow a certain financial flourishing of businesses and individual richness. Creating a common market and allowing the flow of goods and merchandises freely in the European geographic spot not only served as a driving force for the Economic financial status, but rooted the principles of joint cooperation and mutual help in order to boost peace and unity through economic cooperation. As one of the major pillars for self-satisfaction, economic needs of the European are tightly observed and secured, as a mean to fight the social diseases which find their roots in poverty and social disadvantage.

 These aforementioned values –which are the same values I see as indispensable for well-being and prosperity-, are to be considered in whatever endeavor started and which tries to promote and incorporate a productive union which works equally on the financial prosperity as on the immaterial flourishing of societies. Peace promotion, cultural understanding, economic prosperity, social care and the sense of global citizenship are true core values of the European well-being system, values which are to be secured and protected for a better Europe and a better world.

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[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/mar/25/whyvaluesmatterinawidere 19:10 on the 29/10/11 

The new revised constitution: The people say NO!

The answer of the people didn't take that much time to reveal itself after the so called constitutional reforms proclaimed by the King and the policy makers.

The 19th of June, after a call from  the 20th February movement to rally in the streets in order to shout the national disaproval of the referendum over the revised constitution, people gathered in all major cities to express again their social demands and to confirm their stance on the new constitution, rallies which didn't receive as much attention as the made up and government led gatherings where some people shout their support of the refrendum and claim highly their satisfaction with the modification the constitution was subject to.

If the people do go in the streets against the refrendum, it is mainly because of the non-democratic process which led to the birth of the new constitution, a constitution people believe has been subject to a cosmetic make up rather than a reform of the root core of the text's content, which changes every decade in number of clauses while the controversial paragraphs remain untouched.

Yet after the unprecedented campaign promoted by the authorities to make the people vote positively in the referendum, part of the Moroccan society still call for the boycott of the voting process which doesn't fulfill the requirements of a democratic transition in a country which has been drowning in political dictatorship and social injustice for so long.

Follow are videos of rallies in several Moroccan cities where people went out to the streets to shout high their opposition to the revised constitution along social demands:

Tanger

New Constitution: It's not an overall agreement we have there!

The King of Morocco, Mohamed VI, appeared on TV last night to give a speech to the nation in light of the new changes in Morocco concerning the constitutional reforms.

Benchemsi, a Moroccan Journalist and researcher in Stanford University, appeared on Aljazeera English TV Channel to shed light on the many weaknesses and anti-democratic aspects of the new constitution unvieled by the Moroccan policy makers and the King himself in a yet again "historical" speech (The 27th historical and unprecedented speech! How many histories do we have?).

The King, who asked the nation to vote YES for the new revised constitution, left no choice other than following his royal choice for a people who don't even know the content nor the new changes made to a documment they don't even understand.

Constitutional reforms or cosmetic operation to a document which still give the King ultimate power over the country, that's what people are confused about since the whole thing is still unclear and the promised democratisation of the countrie's institutions and policies remains so far a set of words nobody have seen their materialisation on grounds.

Follow if the video of the full speech made by the King:

Highlight of the year: A great combat between the monarchy and its institutions against the people's will. It's all about a YES or NO!

Location: Morocco

Date: 1st of july

Let the show begin!

Mohamed Amine Belarbi

Mouvement du 20 Février : Le besoin d’adopter de nouvelles perspectives est inévitable ! (1/2)

Partie 1

Les demandes de réformes ont été et sont toujours criés aux quatre coins du Maroc, que ce soit par les Islamistes, Communistes ou autres, et ce n’est pas aujourd’hui que l’on dira  que le Maroc s’est réveillé de son long sommeil juste à cause d’un mouvement réformateur qui s’autoproclame leader des demandes sociales au niveau national.

Le mouvement du 20 Février, qui a devancé la scène publique ces derniers mois, a prouvé à ses débuts qu’il était en mesure de communiquer les demandes du peuple à la supposée élite qui nous gouverne, une élite qui depuis l’acquisition de notre indépendance ne cesse d’ignorer a quel point l’opinion publique en a marre d’être asservie par cette stratégie de pacification et d’abrutissement des masses menées en grandes pompes par le tristement célèbre Makhzen.

Bien que sa création soulève nombre de controverses, reste que le mouvement du 20 Février a été la seule option proposée à un peuple assoiffé de changement et inspiré par la vague réformatrice du printemps Arabe.

Pas besoin d’énumérer les défauts du groupe ni son cadre organisateur défaillant, car prise hors de son contexte socio-politique, on ne peut qu’admirer la faillite totale du mouvement dans les champs de l’organisation, de la synchronisation, de la gestion des ressources humaines et de la planification.

Si j’écris cet article maintenant, ce n’est pas pour critiquer le mouvement mais plutôt pour soulever certaines questions et propositions pour remédier à cette défaillance ‘technique’ et stratégique dont souffre le mouvement du 20 Fev.

Tant que l’on n’a pas d’alternative, il faudra essayer de faire avec ce qu’on a, en d’autres termes fortifier le mouvement avec une nouvelle vision plus apte à répondre aux aspirations du peuple et des jeunes plus précisément : garder la forme mais modifier le contenu en somme.

Avec l’ascension de l’influence de groupes opportunistes –citant entre autres Al Adl Wa Al Ihsan et autres partis politiques ainsi que des groupes radicaux de tout genre- les tentatives d’englober le mouvement du 20 Février sont de plus en plus alarmantes, car suivre un trajet pour pervertir le but du mouvement, le transformer en une filière d’un certain parti politique ou en un porte-parole d’un groupe spécifique doté d’une idéologie précise revient à signer l’arrêt de mort du mouvement populaire en faveur du conditionnement socio-politique tracé depuis des décennies par le Makhzen, une sorte de carte-route pour tout mouvement anticonformiste contestataire de la suprématie de l’autorité et de l’élite  sur le peuple oppressé...

Mohamed Amine Belarbi

Refugee Camps diary

I am a Moroccan student going to Tindouf! Yet being the one going, I spent much more time in digesting this idea than the time of my whole trip. Was I a fool or a suicidal to do so, a traitor conspiring with the enemy maybe? No, I was a freeman with a free conscience and free will, looking for something beyond conventional ideas and opinions channeled to me through different mediums.

With only a backpack full of clothes, a laptop without battery and a newly acquired camcorder, I sailed toward an unseen destination, a place lying somewhere in the desert which has witnessed so many events that it ultimately shaped the history of my country as I see it today.

Chapter ONE

When I went into the aircraft and finally found my seat, something strange and interesting happened, pushing me to start a long period thinking and wondering about the essence and nature of my trip to the refugee camps.

Once seated, the first thing I thought was: ‘Awesome, I got the seat next to the window, I’ll have the chance to contemplate the wonders of the view from above!’, and indeed I saw an interesting thing, but the only difference was that we didn’t need to fly over the skies to gaze at the terrific landscapes.

The thing I saw was simply a sentence written on the wing of the plane “Do not walk outside this area”.

Astonishingly, I made a direct connection between the sentence and what I was up to, overlooking the literal meaning of the notice. I was indeed walking outside a specific area; I was getting out of that delimited box which has been shaped for me for so many years. Whether calling it a leap of intellectual freedom or a reality prison-break, it was at the end something beyond the conventional standards almost every Moroccan was abiding by.

A ‘normal’ Moroccan, being generally defined as a nationalistic and patriotist  citizen, would have never dare explore the idea of challenging the official story about the Western Sahara, to critically think about the information we are asked to ingurgitate every day, without wondering about its nature, source and level of veracity.

Whether to refute or to strengthen the pre manufactured opinion every citizen jealous over his national integrity has, my trip was far beyond the simple detective work aimed at modeling a certain political stance over the Sahara issue.

My main purpose was to adopt a new perspective in dealing with issues I had an opinion about, yet never experienced. Hearing about international crisis and throwing shiny statements and speeches in the air, with the only justification of working toward the resolution of the conflict is totally pointless if we have never worked toward analyzing first hand data and direct interaction with the parties involved in the problem.

Media has so long been discredited, and the biased coverage of international events is widely recognized as a political tool to serve specific agendas and parties.

Independence and objectiveness are in nowadays lifestyle myths frozen in the past centuries, or even in the past millenniums since no historical transcripts or documents can testify of a fair and transparent information processing in ancient civilizations where no outside force has intervened to deviate the truth for a certain purpose.

Once I set foot in the college, I knew that a new period of my life has begun, a period characterized by dynamism and action, thing which would push my interaction with the outside world to become full of tension and highly instable.

This tension clearly appeared in the behavior my family had toward my trip and the project I was involved in. As a Moroccan son of a Moroccan family, the fact of intruding the world of officials and political figures, of disturbing the area of the grown-ups who deal with international affairs and sensitive dossiers with my little stubbornness to prove something no-body cared about, was a serious challenge for me and a lifetime battle to definitively trace my path: A conventional obedient citizen or a stubborn troubles seeker rebel.

My choice was clear and not subject to any change or remodeling.

For the simple purpose of gaining self-satisfaction and fulfilling the personal defiance I set to myself, I would have chosen to be the rebel, but my choice was motivated by factors which are far more pure and intellectually high-standardized than to fall into the childish decisions or rushes of revolutionary anti-social needs, typical of all teens who are fed up with social and parental control.

Now that I am writing these lines, I already started feeling the righteousness of my decision. The life of tension and electrical situations, the seeking for adrenaline and spy-agents-like rush of emotions was emerging from the imaginary scenes I used to appreciate during my free-time day-dreaming slot, to the real life situation I was bored of living few days ago.

The flight from Paris to Algiers was quite fast, and before ending up my small play inside my head where I was arrested for spying in the camps and other weird stuff, I found myself in the passport check area, with armed police forces and serious Algerian officers behind the desk, all in uniforms.

The moment I got to talk to the officer charged of the passport inspection, things turned like the endless scenes spinning restlessly in my mind. The officer took a more serious position, hardened his features and asked me what I was attempting to do in Tindouf, as specified in my traveling form. Quite hesitantly I started formulating words about the purpose of my travel, and my shaking hands put several documents on the desk, papers testifying of the cause of my trip, ranging from recommendation letters to written invitations from Saharawi organizations.

The guy seemed oblivious to me for a while, not paying attention to the papers or to my confused speech. Before ending my talk, the officer turned and asked some other people to call a certain ‘Mohamed’. Meanwhile, I was asked to step aside, and the officer sank again in his mechanical work, dealing with the rest of the passengers who seemed to flow constantly.

After few minutes, the supposedly named Mohamed showed up, and from the bits of conversation I got, they were talking about ‘that Marroqui who is screwing something in Tindouf’, a conversation cut short after Mohamed mentioned something about certain ‘people who came in the morning and the Marroqui was with them’. They both looked back at me, smiled and asked me to take my passport and go ahead.

Quite surprisingly, I managed to focus on what was happening after a period of total confusion, since I had no idea about who were those people who came in the morning and with whom I was apparently with, and why I was suddenly freed to leave with no questions or further administrative procedures.

That was how ended a long journey of expectations, fears and excitement about an unknown future where only a blind could find his way, while a normal individual would ultimately end up trapped in the many holes his minds creates, hole not meant to exist, but by the constant effort to speculate and forecast unpredictable events, one’s ends up bringing them to life, regularly feeding them by wondering, fearing and doubting about what’s coming next.

Chapter two:

Finally, after hours of waiting and flying, I found myself in Tindouf, which appeared at first sight like a modern and normal city, far away from the ghost place described constantly by the national media back home.

At the borders checkpoint, the officials followed the normal procedure, taking care of the paperwork and asking for few information, among which one would have caused me troubles if my Saharawi host didn’t show up to finalize the details of my stay and accommodation:                                                      

When I was asked to state the location where I’ll spend my week, I simply answered ‘in the refugee camps’, not knowing that these camps were a set of six separated blocs, each one with a specific name and with a notable population.

I walked outside the small airport, my head still spinning from the realization that I was here, in Tindouf, the stronghold of the Polisario. My bewilderment soon vanished when I knew that this was in no case a Polisario HQ, but rather was an Algerian city, which the close distance from the refugee camps gave the reputation of a Sahrawi city.

After few steps out, a huge and dark Land Rover, with a nice embedded logo in the car door saying ‘PROTOCOLES’, appeared in the street, overshadowing the rest of the vehicles present in the surrounding.

The driver’s appearance was more surprising than anything else: He was small, dark skinned, his head was covered in a black scarf typically folded in the Sahrawi way and he was curved behind the huge wheel, almost his size. Everything contrasted, from the setting to the driver’s appearance, giving the impression that we were in terrorists training camps in Afghanistan.

It sounded unreal when we climbed up the back of the Land Rover, called by the Sahrawis the tank or in Arabic ‘Dabbaba’ for obvious reasons, and started driving along the sandy track at a crazy speed, throwing us in the air from side to side painfully each time the truck bumped on a rock.

Driving in the dark, with dunes everywhere and sand coming out like flames from the ground, I realized that this is the life I was hoping for, the action I wanted to live. A huge smile was on my face the whole trip, but a strong fear was building inside me, a fear from the so called mercenaries the media warned us against, an anxiety from ending up in an unknown place with masked people torturing me and pointing AK-47s at my head.

It was definitely my imagination working full-speed, and the any movies I used to watch apparently substituted craziness to reason in my overwhelmed brain.

The travel from Tindouf to the school of 27^th of February camp was quick, yet the distance we crossed was a considerable 19 Km.

I couldn’t remember how I ended up sleeping in a modest house, but the flash of images recorded during that night gave me the conviction that the most amazing part was yet to come.

Chapter three

After a deep and relaxing sleep, crucial after the 12 hours of travel, I woke up, aware that this time, it wasn’t the fjord I would see when looking outside, but an endless horizon filled with dunes and clay houses, it wasn’t the fresh and cool air of Flekke I would enjoy but a hot and dry wind biting the skin.

I opened my eyes on a bright room I couldn’t recognize, and when I ate eagerly the breakfast, still excited to gaze at the camps, I set off to the door, opening it quickly, only to see at a first glance a ginormous Land Rover again rotting under the sun.

‘Those Land Rovers are everywhere’ I thought!

But when I moved my eyes around, it was barracks everywhere, pieces of metal, barrels and Land Rovers, and above all, red shiny sand and dunes.

It was like the way the Moroccan media depicted them, but as I noticed afterwards, the Saharawi society wasn’t limited to the camps’ superficial appearance, but it was a whole set of customs, traditions, institutions and more.

‘Get in the Land Rover Mohamed’ shouted Hamdi.

We got in and he started to turn on the engine, but the car refused to growl and to give a sign of life. So basically, the first thing I did, as a guest in the camps, was to push a decades old Land Rover on the track until it turned on.

As I spent two or three days in the camps, that Land Rover became part of my daily life, pushing it around two time a day until it accepted to go on its own. The ironic thing was that, once independent from human assistance, the truck turned totally into a war vehicle, or as Hamdi like to repeat a ‘Dabbaba’.

Hamdi never kept on track whenever driving: always moving over rocks and bumps, and driving crazily over the dunes.

I always wondered how it could keep on rolling on its wheels, especially that the dashboard was a set of wires rolled on sticks and rocks. There were no keys; the only thing you needed was connecting two wires to turn the truck on, like in movies.

I was a bit disappointed nonetheless to not see armed forces around, AK-47s or military vehicles. Where were those checkpoints and those walls imprisoning the people here? Nothing!

People were driving around, walking behind their goats or chatting around a cup of tea under the tents.

The myth of the Polisario started falling apart in my mind.

People I met and talked to, stayed with and drank tea among were the most natural and friendly people I ever met.

This posed a new challenge to my beliefs and ideas, since after what I saw and lived, I had to make a huge cleanup in my messy mind, changing a whole story I took for granted into a totally different set of facts and events, but the challenge didn’t stop here. This experience, still freshly started, pushed me to question the dogma of absolute truth, its component and the way to defend myself against the deliberately implemented ideas I was asked and convinced to follow.

Chapter four

A museum in the camps! That was my exclamation when Hamdi told me that we are spending the morning visiting the national museum. The first image to jump into my mind was the conventional setting of a museum with ancient reliques and huge skeletons belonging to unknown creatures, but as usual, the Sahrawis surprised me with a place I could best describe as a History teacher frozen into walls and pieces of papers and metal.

When I got into the truck, Hamdi, with a shiny smile in his face, said “There are no brakes, they were screwed up yesterday!”

WTF! Did I sign up for some sort of survival competition or what?! Every day, it’s a new story with that Land Rover! I still can’t imagine how it is able to be driven anymore.

“Anyway, just make sure to get us alive to that museum!” I replied quietly, almost used to the fact that the truck was falling in pieces, and it was only a matter of days before it dies completely somewhere in the desert.

And so we set off, with NO BRAKES, thing which made our trip to the neighboring camp quite funny, especially when I was hearing Hamdi begging the truck to stop, and praying God that it stood still at the right moment and in the right place.

At some point, we managed to get to the Museum alive; a Museum which I thought at first was a military plant because of the tanks, jeeps and mortars I perceived from the entrance.

We went into the building, accompanied with two military guide, and the modest place, dull and poorly furnished, disappointed my wild expectations. The whole thing was about documents, pictures and lot of readings -which I am not fond of-, reminding me painfully of the History classes back home. But, at some point, paying attention to the guy explaining the issue of colonization and talking fervently about the military confrontations between the Polisario fighters and Moroccan troops, I thought he was talking about a different country than mine. 

Too many facts, too many memories, too many contradictions with my version of the conflict… That was a lot to make you think about. As if it seemed not enough, the last area of the museum, and which I was looking forward to visiting, gave the achieving shot to the excitement which motivated me few hours ago.

The planes, military trucks and missiles didn’t make me clap hands, because I realized these weapons didn’t serve in a movie nor in a parade, but instead it blew people up in bits, made children orphans, women widows and men lifetime haters and revenge seekers of the Moroccan Kingdom. Surprisingly, Morocco had a lot of friends as it appeared from the huge range of arms coming from all over the world, ranging from Israel to Germany and passing by the apartheid period South Africa.

How could a nation of few tens of thousands of people endure all this, yet never give up? How come hundreds of Sahrawi fighters kept up with a well-equipped military machine counting 40 thousand individual at that time? If it’s not the conviction and the faith in a just cause that motivated the Saharawi struggle, then I’ll seriously consider joining the UFO and ET believers clubs. 

But even still confused, I said to myself: This is the great nation you are so proud of belonging to! Look at the exploits your country made; look at the paragraph of history written in blood which will soon remind the world of us, not as heroes or a country of peace, but the oppressing power and oblivious people who gave themselves the right to steal the memory of a nation, the lands and wealth of those who became homeless and deprived from a life of dignity in camps harsher than any prison, yet their will and faith pierced every standing obstacle to reach the conscience of the ones still alive, those who refuse to claim something they don’t own and who cannot accept building their happiness and comfort with the misfortune of others.

Chapter five

Maybe people would tend to suspect and criticize this sudden change in convictions, although I wouldn’t describe the fact that I was supporting the Moroccan position as a conviction I believed in.

It was a natural process for me to be pro Moroccan while discussing the Western Sahara issue, because at that time the only set of information I was exposed to and the ultimate version of history I was taught in school and through the media has never been challenged by alternative sources, within Moroccan borders at least.

But as I was brought into a new setting, where I was claiming something everybody refuted, things started clinging inside my head, and the obvious for me became suspect to change. Is it enough to walk out with a rigid and unshakable opinion just for the sake of preventing my mind from brainwashing and misleading facts other tierce parties might seek to implement? Was I holding the truth only because I believed in it, or is the truth a common good everybody had access t, a common property we are all doomed to partition in the best way possible, not ultimately the more just and fair, but at least what would lay foundations for a consensus on what is true and what is not?

That’s why by challenging my own perception of the conflict, I tried to prove to myself that there is only one way to be comfortable mentally when unveiling your convictions, and that’s through building strong bases for your position, bases which are to be brought to life by direct witnessing and searching in the source place of the issue, criticizing ourselves before others do and never take things for granted.

Life is an endless show full of ‘coups de théâtre’ where things turn out totally wrong, wrong according to our previsions and speculations which might be rooted in fake yet convincing lands, and thus the events which we don’t envisage or don’t want to happen bring us back to new tracks -not necessarily the right ones-, like an enlightenment or a revelation we are the only ones to appreciate and to fully understand, like a precious secret we hold on tightly and confide to ourselves for pleasure and unique satisfaction.   

Mohamed Amine Belarbi