Retreating

So, it's the last week of classes and as a good college student I am doing my duty and avoiding my last homework assignments like the plague. Consider it a form of anger that Valpo is already done with classes and descending into the wonderfulness that is finals week. Bah humbug.

This past weekend, a number of the other international students and I set off with the church community for a beach retreat at a hotel a little outside of Rabat right on...you guessed it...the beach. Ah the Atlantic...if at some point I can live on a beach at least for a little while, I'd definitely be okay with that. :-)

The retreat was nice, though slightly heavy at some points. The topic was how we as Christians attempt to deal with the overwhelming issues of the world. Those of you who know me well, know that I have struggled with this exact issue a lot over the past couple years. And so I was happy to note that as we made our list of huge issues: poverty, terrorism, war, sex traffiking, materialism, affluenza, negative effects of economic globalization, illegal imigration, abortion, hatred, lack of hope, racism, etc. that I was able to not feel that weight of hopelessness but feel like someday I'll be able to do my part in makign a difference in whatever vocation God calls me on and that I have to trust that God and his followers will work to do the rest. It's impossible to do it alone and feeling like its overwhelming when looking at those issues only serves to trigger paralysis.

Unfortunately, my mind did not dwell on this nicely packaged conclusion very long. :-(

After we made this list, we heard David and Julie Brown talk. This is a couple who has been working in Morocco for the past few years with the illegal African refugees. This may come as a surprise to many of you from the states, where the illegal immigration that we hear about is from Mexico and Latin America and preoccupies the minds of many in the US. But refugees and migration are huge issues worldwide too. Morocco especially is currently in a complicated crisis as the closest North African Country to Europe - specifically Spain. Sub Saharan Africans come up through the sub Saharan desert (a brutal brutal journey where 1/3 of the travelers die along the way) to Morocco in the attempt to get to Europe. Some of these are displaced by conflict, many others by poverty and lack of economic opportunity (ringing any bells for those of you who know the ins and outs of the immigration issues in the US). However, unfortunately when they arrive in Morocco they get blocked.

The borders between Morocco and Spain have been cracked down (when I traveled to Madrid a couple of months ago my passport was checked like 10 times between the two airports) and its virtually impossible to get into Europe. Unfortunately, Morocco's response to all of these aliens in their country is less than humane. Officially, there is absolutely no refugee problem. Unofficially, refugees are rounded up int he middle of the night, jailed, and then dropped off back into the desert and told basically to leave ASAP...of course you can imagine these refugees are less than thrilled about returning on the death trip through the desert and many simply returned. Unfortunatley, even if they are granted asylum papers these are not actually respected by the Moroccan police because of the lack of an official policy towards the refugees. These is fruther complicated by the fact that the Moroccan economy is terrible and cannot support its own people - unemployment is HUGE here - much less these people coming in.

Europe's reponse is another complicating factor. Morocco and Europe's relationship has always beena nd continues to be strong, and the EU is virtually dictating this policy because it does not want these illegal immigrants (even though crops are now dying because of the lack of temporary labor that the African refugees provide) coming into the EU. This is understandable. And thus they are forcing Morocco to crack down. However, because there is no official policy there is very little move room...if the refugees want to return to their home countries for example they try to get on a plane, they're taking ot jail and then dropped off in the desert, even if their ticket is payed for. There is an organization, the International Organization for Migration (largely funded by the EU by the way) that sometimes organizes planes to take migrants back...but its very expensive and not easy.

Amidst all of this, David and Julie Brown backed by the churches of Morocco, some Islamic organizations and some human rights organizations are attempting to be a light of support and love for these migrants. They described the above issues to us and their work - interviewing hundreds everyday who are asking for help of some kind. Sometimes medical, soemtimes job, sometimes needing emergency housing or simply a hug. They tell their stories, sometimes lying, sometimes exaggerating, often crying and begging for help. David and Julie and their team (practially the sole people working on this issue in the country) help as many as they can, attempting to use the money in their small budgets for the most urgent needs, but also helping some individuals start their own microenterprises and certainly acting as champions for the people.

For this, they have been followed by the Moroccan government...police have shown up on their doorstep and their voices will not be heard from the officials. Though, they have had to step in and help diffuse tense situations on occassion of migrant sit ins with the police and UN diplomats.

My first response to this story was...wow. It reminded me that facing a long list of issues and keeping hope in the face of AIDS, malnutrition, human slavery, school shootings, suicide bombers and decade long conflict is one thing but thinking about how complex and interconnected each one of these world problems is...devastating.

My second response, was one of amazement at the work this couple is doing. Such hopeless and thankless work...seeing these illegal refugees day in and day out, and then on the weekends going from church to church to raise money to continue their cause. It's just so much. It would be so so hard. And yet such work is so needed. And not just here, in the US, throughout Africa and around the world...

And that brings me to my third response...I've been thinking a lot about international law lately and the tensions between our sovereign state system (our world since the Treaty of Westphalia in the late 1600s) and some of the pressing issues of the day: migration across borders, global warming, intrastate conflict (Darfur, the Congo, Uganda, etc). My international law teacher loves to warn me in class about the perils that will surely occur if the Westphalian system collapses and the sovereignty of states is not respected. Certainly, events today threaten to do so - the US intervening in Iraq, states meddling in other states' business, basically the idea that other states can go into another state and change it as it sees as a direct contradiction to sovereignty...but at the same time I have such a hard time understanding how its so much better when we have people desperately trying to survive crossing the harshest terrain in the world for work and food and being beaten and thrown out of countries because of lines drawn on maps. I know its not as simple as that...certainly its the knowledge that its not that simple that makes my head spin. But it also makes my heart cry out "there has got to be a better way!"

Refugee/Immigration issues are some of the most complex too because you have that problem of "illegality" in that on the face there seems to be a clear "right" and "wrong." These people left their country where they had citizenship (perhaps nothing else, but at least citizenship) to come to another state in an illegal manner. The argument goes that if they had just stayed their would be no problem. And their arrival wihout any resources simply drains economies and causes increased social problems (like in Morocco, there is a lot of racism towards Africans and a new lower class being formed of squatters and the poorest of the poor). So clearly, these migraints are in the wrong and deserve what they get....the problem with those arguments are that they fail to conisder the larger world problems. These people leave some of the most desperate situations...sometimes literally running for their lives, pushed out because of conflict and terrible violence. Other times because it is simply impossible to find jobs and provide for their families. David and Julie told us that sometimes entire villages will pool their money to send two of the strongest young men to go get jobs and send money back to support the entire village. What else are people supposed to do? Especially in a system where globalization is making the rich richer and the poor poorer and where some might say rich countries are continuing a new cycle of exploitation on the poor in Africa and Latin America to support lavish Western lifestyles. Even if you disagree with this argument, the worldwide economy is so interconnected now that we are integrally tied to these people.

Oy. It's so complicated. And I can be the good college student and argue both sides to death and understand the issues till I'm blue in the face and yet the problem is still devastating on the ground with no real solution in sight. Here, in Europe, and in my own country. It makes me impatient to get out of this whole school thing and go do what I can to help. But then again, that's a whole catch-22 in and out of itself because the people who get to make decisions...yeah they have law degrees, and masters degrees and PhDs and job experience...oy. And to achieve any of that I have to first finish two more papers and three finals to end this semester.

And I've come full circle.

9 more days in Morocco...