So, I'm taking a break from writing papers because well...we all need a break from time to time. I thought I'd tell you all about my experience yesterday visiting the community of Tarmelot which is literally right outside Ifrane (where AUI is located and where I've been living for the past 4 months).
If you've read my previous posts, you know that Ifrane is a rich resort town. Very clean, expensive (by Moroccan standards), and houses a university attended by upper-class Moroccans (its the only university in the country that you have to pay for). So in a way, its a little bubble away from the realities that is the life lived by most Moroccans. It's been interesting to be at AUI for the semester because it has meant I've been able to hear a variety of perspectives and begin to grasp the complexity of the economic/class/cultural situation here in Morocco. But at the same time, sometimes it gets hard to break out of the bubble and remember that the kids at AUI with their Hummers and clothes from Casablanca, Rabat and Paris...are the extreme minority.
Tarmelot is certainly the opposite. Just 5 minutes away from the university and within eyesight of the characteristic red roofs of Ifrane is a tiny little shepherding community located in a valley between rocky hills not very far from the high school where I've been teaching English. There are about 20 families...perhaps 100ish people? living there and have been since about 45 years ago when they were brought in from the countryside (some of them nomads) to raise sheep for the rich people in Ifrane.
As we turned off the paved road (two of the other international students, me, and our pastor Karen) onto a dirt road, we passed a tiny one room school house that they are just completing. The first school for the community - Karen was exclaiming "there's a door now...and a built-in cabinet!..." where they will soon have a full-time teacher from the Moroccan government to teach the kids and hold adult-education classes (only one of the women in the entire community is literate). Right now the only students who go to the school in town are the kids in the two families who are "rich" by Tarmelot standards...
A little ways down the road we soon got our first glimpse of the homes...made out of stone and cement with roofs made out of wood and covered with flattened tin cans to keep out the wind and rain. They sort of look like long hutches except made out of the stones that cover the hills where their sheep graze. We got out and were soon greeted by a number of women and children...a round of kiss kiss, kiss kiss (the French-style greeting) for us all with shy, warm smiles from the women and curious grins from the kids.
We first went into one of the houses where the women work...two years ago Karen and some of the high schools students/AUI students worked with the women to start a weaving cooperative to generate income for the women. It is now fully operational with the women organizing themselves, working their looms, buying the materials - Karen and the AUI student group Hand-in-Hand provide them with help to market the items...the entire room's perimeter is lined with homemade looms made out of think branches of wood with strings of wool coming down and rugs and purses at various stages of completion towards the bottom. The woman use some of the wool from their own sheep but also by some dyed wool in town for colors and contrast. Each women buys here materials and then gets income from her finished products when they sell. Their work is beautiful...
We went into one of the women's houses...apparently the gathering place because it is one of the nicest houses owned by the most well-off families, so there is electricity from a solar panel and a real roof made out of aluminum. The women laid out rug after rug after rug, with purses and blankets in between to show us. They were beautiful and good workmanship. Though you could tell they're still trying to figure out some details...Karen was talking to them and telling them that the purse straps might be a little long and you could tell they weren't taking her too seriously, until I put on the purse and the bag hit my knees... :-)
They brought us tea and sat around watching us and talking amongst themselves as Karen told us a little bit about the community and their struggles and successes. Clearly, the cooperative has brought a lot of opportunities for the women and given them a way to bring some extra income for their families, but also helped reinforce the strong sense of community between the families. It was so nice to sit there and watch their faces as Karen complimented their work or asked about how their families are doing. The toddlers squawking and walking around, one of them, little Abdu allah was practically a weeble, bouncing off of everything in sight and just grinning with delight. The young women our age smiling shyly...those are the times when it makes me wish I could really speak Arabic, and not just the ridiculous Modern Standard Arabic that I'm learning but the colloquial dialect.
It was a lovely morning and was glad to be able to make a couple purchases to support their project...its so nice to see what powerful change a project like that can make, and the importance of people like Karen and community organizations who provide the help to get them off the ground.
So that was Tarmelot...perhaps more thoughts on that some other time. For now, time to go write about Moroccan authoritarianism...
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Change can be Made!
Hey ya'll -
Hope your week's starting off great, if you have time check out this link: http://aidemocracy.typepad.com/
My internship director from the Middle East Institute (Spring '06), Lindsay Morgan has a piece featured on the blog (Americans for Informed Democracy) that I found really hopeful! A good reminder that we can indeed make change if we remain truthful and work hard.
The piece was posted May 11, entitled: "So you want to change the world?"
Check it out...
Hope your week's starting off great, if you have time check out this link: http://aidemocracy.typepad.com/
My internship director from the Middle East Institute (Spring '06), Lindsay Morgan has a piece featured on the blog (Americans for Informed Democracy) that I found really hopeful! A good reminder that we can indeed make change if we remain truthful and work hard.
The piece was posted May 11, entitled: "So you want to change the world?"
Check it out...
Friday, May 11, 2007
Classes Done
Well, Classes are done! Humdillah (Praise God!) as we say!
Which means I'm just left with two papers (one on Moroccan authoritarianism and the other on the gender bias in the Structural Adjustment Programmes of the World Bank & IMF...sounds exciting...not) and three finals (Arabic, International Law and Middle East Politics).
Really not so much, though I've been severely lacking in motivation this week so hopefully I'll get my act together without losing to much sleep.
Not too much else going on...getting ready to come home!
Hannah
Which means I'm just left with two papers (one on Moroccan authoritarianism and the other on the gender bias in the Structural Adjustment Programmes of the World Bank & IMF...sounds exciting...not) and three finals (Arabic, International Law and Middle East Politics).
Really not so much, though I've been severely lacking in motivation this week so hopefully I'll get my act together without losing to much sleep.
Not too much else going on...getting ready to come home!
Hannah
Monday, May 07, 2007
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...
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...
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