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Spain's New Moriscos
By: Anouar Majid | | There is much debate these days about Moroccan immigrants’ assimilation in Spain. Moroccan immigrants, both legal and illegal, estimated to be close to one million, make up the largest single national group in that country, yet they are far from doing well or making their distinct mark on Spain’s culture or politics. In my travels during September and October 2008, I met quite a few Moroccans who are actively trying to carve out a space in Spain’s mainstream society; still, there is no doubt that theirs is an uphill struggle, one that will require a larger collective effort and decades of dedicated work. There are a few reasons why Moroccans occupy a somewhat marginal place in Spanish society, but two that stand out are Spain’s centuries-long conflict with Morocco and the unwillingness of Moroccan immigrants, even when highly educated and competent, to engage in politics and help shape public opinion.
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| Fabric of Our Identity
By: Anouar Majid | Not long ago, I came across a thought-provoking article by Jamal Boudouma about the history of Morocco’s flag and our national hymn. If you go back to Issue No. 262 of the Moroccan weekly TelQuel, you will find out that it was General Lyautey who, through a dahir (royal decree) promulgated on November 17, 1917, gave the Moroccan flag the shape and colors with which we are now familiar. TelQuel doesn’t mention that the French added a mini tricolore on the upper left corner to indicate who were the actual rulers of the country at the time, but this detail is not the point of the article. The point is to show that prior to this period, the Moroccan flag sported not the five-pointed star (pentagram), but the Star of David (the hexagram known in Arabic as Khatam Suleyman and in Judaism as the Seal of Solomon). Morocco’s Semitic heritage, which it shares with Jews, was acknowledged on the most visible symbol of the nation, until French colonialists thought differently. TelQuel goes on to record the history of our national hymn, first composed by one Captain Léo Morgan and only put to words in 1969, after Morocco’s national team had qualified to play in the soccer world cup of 1970. After a national contest, Moulay Ali Skalli’s “manbita al ahrar” (which, roughly translated, means “land of the free”) was selected by King Hassan II, who added a few touches to the lyrics. »» more |
| Fundamentalism Revisited
By: Anouar Majid | | More than a story about a young, privileged Muslim man’s gradual drift into rebellion against U.S. policies in the Middle East, Mohsin Hamid’s recently published novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist, is, in fact, a nuanced study of fundamentalism itself. At first, one gets the impression that the story is about a brilliant young Pakistani from a poor aristocratic family who succeeds in getting into Princeton, studies finance, never gets anything below an A, and, upon graduation, lands a job at the prestigious and highly coveted valuation firm, Underwood Samson. Thus, at the tender age of twenty-two, Changez is given his own expense account and American Express credit card, and asked to travel around the world to determine the value of companies for rich investors. Not surprisingly, Changez flies high around Manhattan and falls in love with the perfect elite girl, the delicate, fragile, and literally vanishing Erica, whose life has been arrested, and possibly destroyed, by the untimely death of her first sweetheart, Chris.
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| Only Connect
By: Anouar Majid |
In 1941, the Republican, anti-Communist publishing magnate, Henry Luce, son of American missionaries, member of Yale’s Skulls and Bones, the secretive organization dramatized in Robert de Niro’s 2006 film, The Good Shepherd, and co-founder of Time Inc. (publisher of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated magazines), now part of the TimeWarner conglomerate, made the rather compelling case that the 20th century ought be thought of as “the American century,” since it was the allotted purpose of the United States to unfurl the banner of freedom around the world. Because not all nations were on an equal footing with the American superpower, the “American century” carried with it echoes of the white man’s burden, the God-given mission to bring light to the natives of this planet. It is therefore in the shadow of such an ideology that Brian Edwards undertakes the gigantic task of reading American representations of the Maghreb—Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia—particularly of Morocco, in Morocco Bound: Disorienting America’s Maghreb, From Casablanca to the Marrakech Express, published by Duke University Press in 2005. This is a felicitous choice of topic, for I am not aware of any comparable study, one that approaches this topographically and culturally homogenous region from a blend of literary, cultural, and American studies perspective. Edward’s book must count as a first. »» more |
| A Moroccan Star is Born
By: Anouar Majid | | I am not sure whether I am saying this correctly, but reading Laila Lalami’s novel, Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, feels as if literature has spoken directly to me for the first time in my life. This has been a reading experience like no other I remember having. I did enjoy quite a few novels by Moroccan writers in the past, but somehow, Moroccan fiction, in any language, has sounded to me as if it were a copy of some other literature, as if the sensibility than runs through its veins were somehow a simulacrum of another national or cultural experience. Even Mohamed Choukri, my compadre from Tangier, sounded somehow foreign, as if he were a Jean Genet in Moroccan clothing, living on the exotic edges of a society that I inhabited but which was decidedly out of reach. »» more |
| Turkey
By: Anouar Majid | | On December 15th, 2005, I sat at the Mevlana Cultural Center in Konya, Turkey and raised my hand in prayer with the shaykh at the end of the sama’ ceremony, performed by what are known in the West as "whirling dervishes." Except for the occasional mention of Mawlana Rumi, the founder of the order; Shams al-Din Tabrizi, his mystical mentor; and the Prophet Mohammed, I didn’t understand much of what was being said. But my wife and I felt the sweetness of the Spirit and the power of a community bonded by faith. That moment of final prayer came after a member of the Mevlevi musical ensemble, a young mujawwid, had recited from the Qur’an with such mesmerizing power that I could almost see his angelic voice rise to heaven. Hundreds of spectators in the state-of-the-art auditorium listened and prayed intensely. Looking at them, I was reminded of the Sufi mantra that as long as a wali, shaykh, or qutb is in the community, God will spare the land and its people. It is fair to say that, for me and my wife, the sama’ event in Konya was one of the most powerful spiritual experiences we had ever had.
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| The Internet Galaxy
By: Anouar Majid | | To round up my reflections on the computer age, I read Manuel Castells’s reflections on the impact of the Internet on our lives and the future of humanity itself. Castells’s book, The Internet Galaxy, first published in 2001, makes it clear that inasmuch as the Internet is a culture, it is one that is rooted in a particular social tradition. First came the “techno-meritocratic culture” with its academic underpinnings; then came the hackers who tweaked any number of applications to bring them to the public and keep innovation alive; and finally came the “Virtual Communitarians” with goals at odds with the entrepreneurs whose risk (like artists) is often their ideas and thus have little to lose in this “new economy,” the most “multi-ethnic and global than any entrepreneurial culture in history.” Relaxed in their personal styles, enjoying the indulgences of high consumer culture, “Internet entrepreneurs are, at the same time, artists and prophets and greedy, as they hide their social autism behind their technological prowess.” »» more |
| Secrets of the Bazaar
By: Anouar Majid | | There is a lot of talk lately about outsourcing and globalization as the sure recipes for a better world, but for years computer hackers in the netherworld of the virtual have been talking about another kind of sourcing, one that, ironically, seems to carry more promise than the overvalued tenet of globalization. It’s called Open Source, a term that was invented in 1998 (the concept is much older), after Netscape had thrown in the towel to Microsoft's Internet Explorer and opened its formerly closed code for the hackers of the world (the term “hacker” is not to be confused with “cracker,” the bad guys of cyberspace). Netscape's CEO, Jim Barksdale, had read Eric S. Raymond's seminal essay, “The Cathedral and the Bazaar,” in which the author had come to realize that proprietary closed-source computer programs were no match for Linux, the open, peer-reviewed, and free operating system unleashed by a young Finnish student named Linus Torvalds in 1991, and decided to switch allegiances. The rest is, well, the hackers’ relentless quest for freedom. »» more |
| Looking for Leonardo
By: Anouar Majid | | A set of personal circumstances, in addition to the projections of Morocco’s High Commissioner for Planning (Haut commissaire au Plan), Mr. Ahmed Lahlimi, for the year 2030, have led me to think a little more seriously about the future of computers in the evolution and progress of human societies in this new century (millennium is too broad a category to consider when talking about rapidly evolving technologies). Mr. Lahlimi expects Morocco to become a major “hub” for innovation and the management of human resources through the use of communication systems. Agriculture and a semi-industrial economy couldn’t give Moroccans the dream they have long been awaiting, but the mastery of computer technologies and other media of communication might give the country an advantage in what is expected to be a multi-polar global economy with its “open regionalisms.” (Europe would have been enlarged to encompass its southern Mediterranean shore.) Could computer know-how really propel Morocco to this phase of social development? To find out, I enclosed myself in the basement and read Ben Shneiderman’s lyrical, almost utopian, book, published by the M.I.T. Press in 2002, about the power of computing to advance the quality of life on earth. »» more |
| Dispatches from Morocco
By: Anouar Majid | | I just finished reading a delightful account of contemporary Morocco published in 2001 by Stephen O. Hughes, a British journalist who has lived in and reported from Morocco since the summer of 1952 when he was hired to edit a newspaper for Americans working on four airbases. Much of what he talks about in Morocco Under King Hassan will be familiar to avid observers of Moroccan history and current events, but I was pleasantly surprised to discover a few interesting nuggets. With the exception of the Sahara issue, I will go through them in no particular order. »» more |
| A National Language?
By: Anouar Majid | | Morocco's official language is Arabic, but Moroccans speak darija, a dialect made up of Arabic and French, if one lives south of Ksar El Kebir; Arabic and Spanish, if one lives north of that region. The amazigh (Berbers), when among themselves, speak their own dialect of Berber (Riffiya, Tashelhit, etc.) or a combination of their amazigh language and their own darija. The bourgeois elites prefer French with a sprinkling of darija. No one speaks that much Spanish, not even in Tetouan and Chaouen.
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| Morocco 2010
By: Anouar Majid | | On May 15, the world soccer federation, known by its French acronym FIFA, will render a decision of supreme importance not only to Morocco's medium-term future but also to world peace and global education. On that day, FIFA will decide who will host the world cup in 2010. Five African nations have applied for the honor, but soccer experts know that the real contest is between Morocco and South Africa. Morocco has put together an attractive application package, complete with a state-of-the-art video demonstration of the country's potential and building projects, while South Africa has relied on showcasing its advanced infrastructure and experience in hosting international rugby tournaments.
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| War and Peace
By: Anouar Majid | | I just read a most interesting article about the future of war and peace and thought this might be a good time to think about this topic. Mary Kaldor, director of the Program on Global Civil Society at the London School of Economics and a major scholar of globalization and warfare, delivered a talk at the Nobel Prize Centennial Symposium in Oslo, only a few months after the atrocious terrorist attacks of 9/11. If people were to listen to what she said, the world could spare itself much trouble in the future. »» more |
| Doing the Right Thing
By: Anouar Majid | | I have always believed that one of the virtues of living in a free society is that its citizens develop a healthy relation to themselves and to their fellow humans. At best, they act not to look good in the eyes of their neighbors or leaders but to do the “right thing.” Western democratic cultures are not influenced by the ethos of shame as much as they are by guilt. This is probably one of the most salient differences between Arabs and Americans. Sure, both shame and guilt are mechanisms of social and self control, but they produce different psychologies and outlooks. The interesting case of an American organ donor is a good illustration of this difference. »» more |
| Les Pistons in our Genes
By: Anouar Majid | | Most Moroccans, like many other people in the so-called “developing nations” or "emerging democracies," aspire to a more transparent and fair society. They want to end corruption and take away the undeserved privileges of families who seem to reproduce themselves in politics and business ad infinitum. We have all watched in horror as the son of so-and-so was appointed to an executive post simply because he was his father’s son. But the democrats’ aspirations keep coming up against something more fundamental in human nature: The drive to look after one’s own. Moroccans, like all humans, have a strong tribal mentality, one that clashes with the bureaucratic demands of a modern economy and new political system. What to do? How to compromise? Alas, a new book on nepotism (favoring family members and relatives) tells us that committed democrats have no chance, partly because they themselves, when it comes down to it, are nepotistic, too. »» more |
| The Moudawana Problem
By: Anouar Majid | | Last Friday, a committee set up to study and propose changes in Morocco’s family code—known as the Moudawana—submitted its results to His Majesty. According to the news outlets that reported on this event, the changes proposed look quite conservative. Polygamy was made even more difficult than it is now but it was not abolished. And an adult woman still doesn’t have the right to marry without the consent of her male guardian, a judge, or, in the absence of a male relative, 12 witnesses »» more |
| Morocco Nouveau
By: Anouar Majid | | In early August 2003, the New York Times Magazine published a cover article on Spain’s “nueva nouvelle cuisine.” The article shows how Spain’s new cuisine has, in the opinion of many gastronomists, displaced France in creativity. French wine, I had read elsewhere, is also in trouble, getting stiff competition from new vineyards in Australia and California. One could think that such news are part of the anti-French campaign, but there is a point in these stories that may help Moroccans think about their own situation. When a country relies heavily on tradition and contents itself with merely repeating what previous generations have done, it eventually stagnates and loses its creative élan. »» more |
| Working Without a Job
By: Anouar Majid | | We hear a lot about a persistent recession, stubborn unemployment figures, more than 45 million Americans without health insurance, and a growing deficit that make life unpredictable for people who have come to rely on a job as a measure of security. Many people feel as if they were one paycheck away from unemployment and social catastrophe. This produces anxiety, fear, and a cut-throat race to beat other people for the coveted (but impermanent) job. But do things have to be this way? Not really. If governments and social institutions thought rationally about the state of society, we would all be playing now, creatively pursuing our hobbies while being guaranteed a good life. »» more |
| Death of a Moroccan
By: Anouar Majid | | Long-term Moroccan immigrants are always haunted by the fear of dying alone in a strange land. The longer they live away from their native places, the more they will know about fellow Moroccans whose lives are cut short by an accident or sudden illness. Some pass away in total obscurity, their coffins carried to cemeteries in the dark days of winter on the shoulders of kind strangers. Others die in the company of family and friends, their news sending waves of sorrow to relatives across the ocean. Some are young students who have just started their lives; others are veteran workers who have spent decades dreaming of going back to their childhood towns and villages. »» more |
| The Lessons of Washington
By: Anouar Majid | | Thanks to all the great people I met, my recent trip to Washington, D.C. was even more exciting than the two previous ones. I was once again reminded that the U.S. capital was established by visionaries who were devotees of the great ideas of the Enlightenment, the 18th century belief that human and social development can be reached through the efforts of human reason and the study of world history. America’s founding fathers acknowledged the power of religion, but thought that governments have no business upholding a particular doctrine, and so they separated Church from State in order for people to better live out their faith—whether it be Christianity or Islam. At a time when religious and narrow ideological passions are endangering the world’s political culture, it is moving to visit America’s monumental capital and reflect on today’s human predicament. »» more |
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