no seriously I understand exactly what you think about schizophrenic morocco. You are looking at it with that fascinated eye of yours, just because you are outside of it. Yes it might be fascinating but it is tiring, frustrating and somehow irritating.

I’ve learnt lately that in psychology they have an explaination for that, there are some people who can live quiet easily with contradictions and others who just can’t stand it. the majority of moroccans seem to can :). how can we become one or another type I just don’t know, maybe it is in our genes or maybe it is the environment we lived in.

but the most important to know is that if you can’t , it will be hard for you to live in morocco (other than as a tourist of course)

sometimes I see moroccans as a nation searching for itself but nor looking at the right direction, we want to be this ideal image we have of what is good, beautiful, acceptable seen through others’ eyes… but we forget to see what we really are because nobody else that us is like that and nobody is proclaiming that what is the real us is good, beautiful or acceptable… so we end up trying to show that we are modern like the west, religious like the east and so on …

sorry I dont even know where my thoughts are leading me :)

“that is the thing that shocks… [the jokes] left the place they were supposed to keep … some people can call that hypocrisy, as for me I think it is much more complexe than that, it is a very complexe way of being…”—I think this is what makes Morocco so exciting today and challenging, because it is a laboratory of change! Young people chat on the internet, watch sexy videos, experiment with a Western lifestyle (if they can afford it) and at the same time, they kiss their mother’s hand, they pretend never to have touched a cigarette or a girl… :)

I think these are the growing pains of a modern society, which raises the question, how can we keep our identity, our traditions, with this flood of new influences? I think all societies go through this. Walking the line is never easy, and sometimes there are missteps….

@Mohamed — I think this answers you too. In their own words, Driss and Sanaa misjudged the situation, and never expected this to be the scandal it has become. But I’m not sure that makes them amateurs. We are all amateurs in this new world, because we really don’t know where the lines are any more—they change from day to day. Morocco is certainly more open today than it was a few years ago. I could feel the difference even in the time I was there (2003-2006). And it will be more open tomorrow. Our friends went a little too fast, and angered the wrong people… it’s a mistake anyone can make. I hope the State will accept their apology and we can move on.

as for the jokes, I think that any moroccan can tell you that theses jokes are softies when compared with others we all heard, knew or once told. the problem remains (as for sooooo many things in morocco) that these ones are put public, written, assumed… that is the thing that shocks… they left the place they were supposed to keep …

some people can call that hypocrisy, as for me I think it is much more complexe than that, it is a very complexe way of being what we are supposed to be as well as being ourselves, a way of combining two opossites without contradicting any, some call it schizophrenia :) but hey aren’t we the supposed modern traditionnel coutry everybody is talking about :)))

That is just my attempt to put asmile on that very sad case

have a nice day

Maybe Driss and Sanaa need to pay the price, as you say, to demonstrate that these laws are unjust. I hope not, but that’s the principle of civil disobedience. The situation forces us to ask, do we really want to send people to prison for telling jokes? Worse, is that really the problem here? Or is it simply an excuse for the State to crack down on a magazine that has been critical in the past? You’re right to say that there are limits in any society, but arbitrary limits are wrong, and how can “injury to Islam or the King” be anything but arbritrary? How do we even know where the line is? If I criticize M6 for the clothes he wears, have I crossed the line? I honestly don’t know, and that’s the problem. These laws give the Moroccan State the power to throw people in jail using a standard that shifts from one situation to the next. I’m not defending the jokes themselves, but the right of Moroccans to live under laws that are clear and the same for everyone.

You’re an admirer of Nass el Ghiwane, and you feature them on your blog. Weren’t they, in their time, accused of going too far? Keep that in mind as an example of how standards can change.

Following the capture of Saddam, Bush visits his cell and they have a talk. Saddam says that his sons love American movies, especially Star Wars. There are white people, black people, even extraterrestrials, but no Arabs. Saddam asks Bush why that might be, and Bush answers, “Because Star Wars is a film that takes place in the future.”

A famous journalist and model Christian has just died, and he arrives before St. Peter. He notices, installed behind the Keeper of the Gate, a dozen clocks on which he sees the names Jacques Chirac, Benedict VI…. Curious by nature, he doesn’t hesitate to ask, “What is the purpose of these amazing clocks?”

St. Peter is happy to explain, “These are the Clocks of Life for all the important people in the world. Each time one of them makes an idiotic remark, his clock jumps ahead one hour.”

The visitor remarks, “Chirac, Olmert, Blair, Ahmadinejad, the Pope… even Bill Gates! But where is the one for George W. Bush, who is certainly one of the most important people on earth?”

A little embarassed, St. Peter replies, “Don’t tell anyone, but I’ve installed it in my office as a fan!”

- “There must be some mistake” the lawyer argues “I’m too young to die. I’m only fifty five”

- “Fifty five?” says *Saint Peter* “No, according to out calculations, you’re eighty two.”

- “How’s you get that?” the lawyer asks.

- “We added up your time sheets.”