Category Archives: Culture

Thinking for Yourself

I have a friend, a young teacher, who finds it essential to refer back to the Qur’an and Sunna for guidance, whether it is a question of teaching classical Arabic in schools, or regulating the use of alcohol (is it possible to drink responsibly?), or even in questions of everyday behavior such as how to greet others or how to share a meal. All the arguments he makes can be made without referring to the Qur’an at all, but since he does bring the Qur’an into it, it becomes a religious matter; and anything that implies that the Qur’an could be wrong on the facts (such as the idea that the vast majority do use alcohol responsibly) must be denied, even if there is clear evidence to contradict his point of view. On a question like Darwin’s theory of human descent, he doesn’t even want to know the evidence because it would force him to question his preconceived idea. The problem becomes even more acute when we take into account the notion, often expressed among Muslims, that Islam is a complete system governing life on the political, social and economic levels as well as on the religious level; so to question the validity of a single idea in the Qur’an or Sunna is like pulling on a thread that could unravel the whole social garment. As a result, while Islam is indeed a vast and rich system allowing for great diversity of expression, the risk of stepping outside it and finding oneself in revolt against all of society is very high. It should come as no surprise that many otherwise intelligent, curious and open-minded young people are extremely reluctant to take that risk.

The Morocco Show

This piece was written during the Gnawa Festival in Essaouira at the end of June, after I’d been back in Morocco for four days. Mohammed is a friend who lives in Essaouira, a journalist and activist who was previously referenced in my post “Waiting for the Rain.”

Even though I’ve been away from Morocco a long time, the details of buildings, dress and behavior are instantly familiar to me, and the rhythms of life envelop and somehow comfort me. I guess this makes it hard for me to fully relate to a statement like Mohammed’s that “Morocco is a hard place to live in,” even though the evidence is all around me. Last night a discussion broke out between Mohammed and another friend as to whether Morocco is a “horrible” country as Mohammed put it, or merely a “cruel” one as my other friend said. My friend defended the idea that a country can be cruel without being horrible, which led to the question of how Morocco can be cruel and generous at the same time. I pointed out that Moroccans feel a moral obligation to help each other, even strangers, while Americans tend to feel that other people’s problems are none of their business. My friend feels that if Morocco ever succeeds in developing itself to the European level, this generosity will disappear because it’s a holdover from Morocco’s communal past. In fact, he feels that this type of generosity is actually an obstacle to Morocco’s development, because it goes against individualism which is a necessary condition for progress.

I don’t know if it’s just because I’m at the Gnawa Festival, which attracts eccentric young people after all, but there seems to be a wider range of self-expression in Morocco than I’ve seen in the past. I’ve seen a punk with a mohawk and a Ramones T-shirt, an emo with a buzz cut and long locks falling into his eyes, chin goatees, specially cut sideburns, afros, dreadlocks, even the occasional piercing or tattoo. The question is whether all this will lead to expression on any other level, as happened in the 1960s in the West when youthful self-expression mutated into political struggle. I suspect that most of my friends here would say definitely not. In fact, they would call such expression a ruse, a false freedom, a distraction from the real problem which is, as Mohammed put it, that the rich run the country in their own interest. Just as it always has, power in Morocco comes from the top, so nothing ever happens here unless it’s in the interest of the power elite, the Makhzen.

In this vein Mohammed mentioned an article he’d written in which he traced Gnawa back to its historic origin as the music of slaves, and proposed that modern promoters of Gnawa are creating a new generation of slaves, in this case the slaves of globalization, the global consumer economy that in Morocco profits only the rich. As we watched an open air concert I proposed, “So the rich want to turn Morocco into a show for foreigners to get their money, rather than developing the country in the interests of its people,” and he replied, “That’s it in a nutshell.” The Makhzen is happy to see the young poor of Morocco amuse and distract themselves with hairstyles and such, because they expect that’s as far as the self-expression will go. Meanwhile they could care less about the future of these young people, at best seeing them as props in the show they’re putting on, a show called Morocco.

Nothing Has Changed


Fez, July 3, 2009. Click image to see a larger version.

If I had to pick a single image to sum up what I’ve seen so far in Morocco, I guess it would have to be this one.

A young man rests on his bicycle, overcome by fatigue or even despair in the middle of his route. People pass by, indifferent, no doubt consumed by their own problems. The nowhere quality of the place just underlines the theme.

Fortunately no nation, culture, or people can be summed up in a single image. However, since I’ve returned to Morocco after being away for three years, I keep hearing the same message from most of my friends. Nothing has changed, and since things were dysfunctional to begin with, that means Morocco is slowly sliding into an abyss of futility and defeat.

A friend in Essaouira who was active in reformist causes, labor activism and investigative journalism has given up writing after suffering personal difficulties and the intense opposition of local authorities.

A friend in Fez who is in his third year of law school lost an entire year of studies after conflicts between students and the administration led to the cancellation of midterm exams.

Other friends have been more fortunate on a personal level, but they still see a society with no middle class, no effective system of public education, no electorate ready to defend its rights, no politicians willing to risk their privileges in the fight for reform, and a state committed to a bread and circuses strategy of keeping the youth entertained with festivals rather than investing in the long-term economic development of the people.

To be honest, I was reluctant to return to Morocco because I thought I might be saddened in this way. Coming from a nation where everything works despite having just suffered a major economic crisis, it’s difficult to undertand a society that remains stuck despite the enormous inventiveness, curiosity, motivation, and native intelligence of the Moroccan people.

When I was here in 2003–2006, there was a feeling that despite all the obstacles of an underdeveloped nation, change was in the air and the future would be brighter. It was easy then for me to explain what I loved about Morocco, a nation reaching for democracy and opportunity while holding to the best of its traditions. Today I have a harder time answering that question.

I’ll have more to say on this later, but for now I pose the question to you, dear readers. Is Morocco stuck, and why?

Are Emos a Threat to Egypt?

Egypt’s paranoid dictatorship is trying to distract the people from its own unpopularity by cracking down on emos.

    Egyptian emos have more to worry about than just being mocked by their peers; they are now being actively targeted by the police. “State security sees us as a dangerous underground, as Satanists, as queers and faggots,” one emo told a state-run newspaper.

What’s an emo? A disaffected teenager with dyed black hair, who is always feeling sad and sensitive. Or to put it another way:

    A few well-off, bored teenagers hanging around in shopping malls…. Essentially a consumer culture — it’s all about your image and which music you purchase.

Like every other problem in Egypt, like the recent pig slaughter, this seems to be due to a government that lacks legitimacy, overreacting out of weakness because it fears a challenge from Islamic conservatives.

    President Mubarak’s regime has lost all legitimacy amongst Egyptians both politically and culturally, a state of affairs it seeks to reverse by inventing both internal and external enemies of the state and portraying itself as the last hope for the soon-to-be-besieged Egyptian populace…. Culturally the government likes to style itself as a last bastion of Islamic values, the irony of which is obvious to anyone witness to the daily security clampdowns on the Muslim Brotherhood. So now emos are the latest hate-figures; their strange looks and vague connections to undefined, sordid western values makes them the perfect foil for a dictatorship on the back foot.

I wish I had some pictures of Egyptian emos to present here, but apparently there aren’t that many of them. So instead I’m showing you a Western emo as a type specimen.

Could a few thousand oversensitive teenagers be a threat to Egyptian society? Read the article for a portrait of a dictatorship in decline.

Democracy First

It’s been a while since guest poster doga has written here, but today he is back. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is 81 years old, and has held power since 1981. Nearly everyone believes he is grooming his son Gamal to succeed him. What does this mean for Egypt, and how should the outside world react? doga addresses these questions below.

Not long ago, Egypt hosted a remarkable musical event conducted by the celebrated Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim. This concert had the direct support of Egyptian culture minister Farouk Hosny, who is currently a candidate to be the next director-general of UNESCO. At the end of the event, those present, including a large part of the Egyptian elite, gave their guest a standing ovation, and during a press conference the world-famous conductor expressed his hope that Egyptians, Syrians, and others would visit Israel to express their points of view.

Although certain Egyptian intellectuals announced their rejection of this cultural exchange with Israel for reasons that are well known in the Arab world, others — we could say the majority — supported this event, justifying their support by saying that there is a large difference between Israeli artists and intellectuals who support peace in the Middle East, and those who promote war. For me, this is a debate that leads nowhere.

What is noteworthy about this event is that it follows criticism of the Egyptian response to the recent Israeli attack on Gaza. While the whole world was protesting this war, others were protesting the Egyptian regime in particular, due to its tacit support for the conflict in closing its border to the Palestinian people. Even though the Egyptian political class believes itself to be committed to peace in the region, and even though it invited an Israeli known for his commitment to peace to conduct a concert there, we mustn’t be fooled into believing that Hosni Mubarak is acting in good faith in regard to the Palestinian cause. Rather, there is a profound change underway in Egyptian politics, most likely due to self-interested calculations. I think it’s obvious that this political change would not be occurring without the emergence of new interests that have created the need for a revision of Egypt’s political strategy.

It is clear that the government of Hosni Mubarak is in conflict with the Muslim Brotherhood, which remains the principal counterweight to the power of his regime. Moreover, we can see in a glance that the Islamic government in Gaza scares the Egyptian state, because of its alliances — both ideological and otherwise — with the Muslim Brotherhood. It follows that the Israeli war on Gaza gave Mubarak the opportunity to strike a blow against Hamas, the friend of his enemy the Muslim Brotherhood. Moreover, Islamic movements throughout the region are an ongoing challenge to Arab leaders. In Egypt, Mubarak’s desire to transfer power to his son Gamal is well known, but without the help of the heavyweights of the region including Israel and the United States, this transfer could not happen peacefully. Thus it seems clear that Mubarak in his recent policies is trying to build international consent for the transfer of power to his son, since helping Israel or fighting Islamic movements builds his legitimacy in the eyes of the great world powers. Moreover, the Israeli security services remain the most powerful in the region, and certain politicians like to insist that the Israeli security services play an important role in keeping friendly Arab leaders in power, among them Mubarak.

I believe that the Barenboim concert is one aspect of this political strategy, namely an attempt to win global support for the transfer of power by showing a false face. It’s clear that a large part of the Egyptian cultural elite has expressed its strong support for Gamal Mubarak as their next president. For example, Adel Imam, Egypt’s best known actor, believes that Gamal Mubarak will be the best possible president for Egypt, after his father of course. In any case, the transfer of power in Egypt will be a test for promoters of democracy everywhere, whether in the Arab world or in the world as a whole, especially for President Barack Obama. Obama has promised a change in America, so let’s hope that this change will be reflected in a revision of American foreign policy. Instead of supporting these dictatorial leaders, America must give priority to democratic choices, because peace will never develop in an environment ruled by political systems from the Middle Ages.

It will be necessary sooner or later to normalize relations with Israel, so as to have neither permanent conflict nor permanent hate in the region. But before that, we must first protect ourselves against a new dictator. That’s where we should be directing our energies and our pens, rather than getting sidetracked from the real issue by insisting on an Israeli boycott. I wonder what the Arab cultural and political elite has done for the Palestinians, beyond insisting on an Israeli boycott and applauding their own leaders? A just peace in the Middle East cannot exist without Arab governments freely chosen by their people, so it’s in the interest of all who support the Palestinian cause to first demand a democratic transition, in Egypt and throughout the Arab world.

Data Isn’t Free

Here’s some interesting, depressing comments on the failed economics of delivering high-bandwidth content to the developing world.

    Last year, Veoh, a video-sharing site operated from San Diego, decided to block its service from users in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe, citing the dim prospects of making money and the high cost of delivering video there.
    “I believe in free, open communications,” Dmitry Shapiro, the company’s chief executive, said. “But these people are so hungry for this content. They sit and they watch and watch and watch. The problem is they are eating up bandwidth, and it’s very difficult to derive revenue from it.”

That’s the problem with you people, you’re just too hungry! Taking food from the rich people’s tables and holding your hands out for more. Now where have I heard that before?

    “It’s a problem every Internet company has,” said Michelangelo Volpi, chief executive of Joost, a video site with half its audience outside the United States.
    “Whenever you have a lot of user-generated material, your bandwidth gets utilized in Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, where bandwidth is expensive and ad rates are ridiculously low,” Mr. Volpi said. If Web companies “really want to make money, they would shut off all those countries.”

So far, apparently, Veoh is the only company to take this drastic step. But if you wake up one day to find your favorite sites like YouTube or Facebook blocked, don’t blame your local dictator — at least, not yet. Instead, blame capitalism. Or better yet, blame yourselves! You’re downloading content without being good consumers.

Amazing World

Putting the financial crisis in perspective:

    When I read things like, “The foundations of capitalism are shattering,” I’m like, “Maybe we need that.” … Because everything is amazing right now, and nobody’s happy. … We live in an amazing, amazing world and it’s wasted on the crappiest generation of spoiled idiots that just don’t care. …
    I was on an airplane and there was high-speed internet on the airplane. That’s the newest thing that I know exists. And I’m sitting on the plane and they go, “Open up your laptop, you can go on the internet.” And it’s fast, I’m watching YouTube clips, it’s amazing—I’m in an airplane. And then it breaks down, and they apologize, “The internet’s not working.” And the guy next to me goes, “Pfff! This is bullshit.” Like how quickly the world owes him something he knew existed only ten seconds ago!

Comedian Louis C.K. on the Conan O’Brien show. Thanks to financial blog Infectious Greed for the tip.

Technology and Tradition

Technology shatters tradition; but even though the shattered whole can never be restored, neither do the shards of tradition disappear from the scene; their persistence in music, dress, architecture and habit continues to fire the imagination of the young and provide the distinguishing features of the new, emerging culture; so that in time tradition mutates, merging with and modifying the technology that has invaded it to create a new, synthetic whole.