We are in Casablanca this week – the commercial center of Morocco. A couple of days into a series of lectures on the Moroccan economy, one fascinating idea is emerging: Morocco is the Mexico of Europe. In addition to providing the underpinning of Latin America’s art, music, language and general culture, Morocco also shares with the largest nation of Latin America a series of challenges and, it seems, perspectives on the global economy.
Being an American, I hear the lectures from my own place, and cannot help but get excited about the possibilities. Morocco is geographically situated as an axis in the middle of the Arab world (to the west), West Africa (to the south) and Europe (to the north). It is a multilingual nation. It is a nation whose history screams tolerance (and even better, I would argue, Engagement). It is a nation pushing to create an educated population. All the ingredients are there in Morocco’s soup – any minute lightning will strike and a powerful new economy will emerge.
Or not?
What stops this thing? The simple answer is, ‘the entrepreneurial spirit,’ or, better, the absence of it. Moroccans, we are being told, do not feel intuitively what Americans seemingly have written into our DNA. As a culture (but remember, we have plenty of exceptions), we look at a situation and try to figure out how to convert it into a new business venture. It is very hard for us to imagine that this willingness to take a risk is not a universal human trait.
So how did WE get it and not them? Is it a product of our history, when we became what we are by exploring just over the frontier lines? Is it the myth of ‘up from our bootstraps’ told in all those rags-to-riches stories? Is it the model that our presidents have established, with Nixon, Carter, Reagan and Clinton all coming from social nowhere to lead the most powerful nation on earth?
And can it be learned?
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Little Cups of Paradise
I am in Fez today -- a city at the heart of Islamic tradition worldwide. And everywhere, at times two or three on a block, are cafes. Men sit at the tables outside for hours drinking mint tea or cafe noir, rich dark espresso. It is difficult to imagine coming home to Starbucks.
Here I experience what I knew in my head in America. Coffee is a foretaste of paradise. It isn't just the flavor, although after three cups an hour ago I crave it again as I write. It is the experience. It is 'wasted time' -- or so we could think as Americans. In reality, it feels like the meaning of our existence, watching people, breathing life, alert to the reality we otherwise rush through.
Traditionally, the cafe is a man's experience. Even noa, there are cafes where women are scorned for entering. But Morocco has changed, and will continue to change. More and more, the young women sit with their friends (even with their boyfriends!). That seems fitting. The Qur'an says that Paradise is for women as much as it is for men.
Here I experience what I knew in my head in America. Coffee is a foretaste of paradise. It isn't just the flavor, although after three cups an hour ago I crave it again as I write. It is the experience. It is 'wasted time' -- or so we could think as Americans. In reality, it feels like the meaning of our existence, watching people, breathing life, alert to the reality we otherwise rush through.
Traditionally, the cafe is a man's experience. Even noa, there are cafes where women are scorned for entering. But Morocco has changed, and will continue to change. More and more, the young women sit with their friends (even with their boyfriends!). That seems fitting. The Qur'an says that Paradise is for women as much as it is for men.
Friday, June 6, 2008
So you think you know the world
Here in Morocco it is impossible to escape the realization that in painting our image of the outside world we have used a brush so wide it has covered over the faces of the people. Morocco is unknown to us. They were the first country to recognize the U.S. as a nation, our friend for 225 years -- can you find it on an unmarked map?
Morocco is a surprise. It is deeply Muslim, but the language on the city street is more likely to be French. Nearly every one of Morocco’s 32 million people is bilingual – at minimum. Many speak Amazigh as well (the language of the Berber people who make up a very large minority), and now school kids also learn English, and Italian is the favorite language of choice.
Maybe that shouldn’t surprise. One of our great human moments was al-Andalus, the seven and a half century empire that joined Morocco, Portugal and much of Spain. While the Roman Empire disintegrated into a filthy struggle simply to survive, architecture and poetry and medicine and philosophy defined al-Andalus. London was a hovel, Paris eventually a minor city, but Cordoba was a quarter million Arabs, Jews, Romans and others under an umbrella called 'convivencia.'
It ended, of course. Such things always do. Then came Ferdinand and Isabella, the Inquisition and the hate.
But can it happen again? I think so. I think it already is here. But that is for tomorrow.
Morocco is a surprise. It is deeply Muslim, but the language on the city street is more likely to be French. Nearly every one of Morocco’s 32 million people is bilingual – at minimum. Many speak Amazigh as well (the language of the Berber people who make up a very large minority), and now school kids also learn English, and Italian is the favorite language of choice.
Maybe that shouldn’t surprise. One of our great human moments was al-Andalus, the seven and a half century empire that joined Morocco, Portugal and much of Spain. While the Roman Empire disintegrated into a filthy struggle simply to survive, architecture and poetry and medicine and philosophy defined al-Andalus. London was a hovel, Paris eventually a minor city, but Cordoba was a quarter million Arabs, Jews, Romans and others under an umbrella called 'convivencia.'
It ended, of course. Such things always do. Then came Ferdinand and Isabella, the Inquisition and the hate.
But can it happen again? I think so. I think it already is here. But that is for tomorrow.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Seven Thorns
We met with Dr. Ahmed Abbadi, the Secretary General of the Mohammadian League of Moroccan Scholars ... the ulimah (scholarly body) of Islam in Morocco. There could be no better face of Islam. He is soft spoken, incredibly intelligent, approachable, easy to laugh and very much in touch with the rest of the world.
In the course of the conversation, he noted that their challenge is to meet seven standard rallying complaints used by exremist Muslims.
1) The humiliating cariucatures of Islam and Muslims that feature so prominently in our press and on our streets.
2) A perception of a double standard in which, for instance, the US denounces Iran for a potential nuclear weapons program but never speaks against Israel for its own arsenal.
3) The history of colonization by the West.
4) The horrible acts of the past ... Inquisition and Crusades among them.
5) The ravaging consumption of the oil of the Muslim world, typically at ridiculously low prices.
6) The explicit and/or clandestine role of the West in the demise of the Ottoman Empire in the 20th century.
7) The U.S. actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Dr. Abbadi pointed out the list of complaints made by conservative Americans against the Muslim world as well. Here, I simply wonder if we ought not to be taking the complaints of the Muslim world more seriously.
In the course of the conversation, he noted that their challenge is to meet seven standard rallying complaints used by exremist Muslims.
1) The humiliating cariucatures of Islam and Muslims that feature so prominently in our press and on our streets.
2) A perception of a double standard in which, for instance, the US denounces Iran for a potential nuclear weapons program but never speaks against Israel for its own arsenal.
3) The history of colonization by the West.
4) The horrible acts of the past ... Inquisition and Crusades among them.
5) The ravaging consumption of the oil of the Muslim world, typically at ridiculously low prices.
6) The explicit and/or clandestine role of the West in the demise of the Ottoman Empire in the 20th century.
7) The U.S. actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Dr. Abbadi pointed out the list of complaints made by conservative Americans against the Muslim world as well. Here, I simply wonder if we ought not to be taking the complaints of the Muslim world more seriously.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Packing
There are four days until the plane takes off, so I should firm up what I am doing on this trip, huh?
(For the record: I am participating in a five-week "Morocco Experience" as a recipient of a Fulbright-Hayes grant. I am traveling with seven other faculty members from across the Maricopa County Community College District -- I am the only one from Mesa Community College -- eight junior and senior high teachers from across the state, and two of the District's international education directors. We will be staying in Casablanca, Rabat, Fez and Marrakech, visiting many, many university faculty and community leaders.)
I have my new Canon camera (which set me back $500), and my iPod is full of Arabic language audios. Now, what am I going to do with all this?
(For the record: I am participating in a five-week "Morocco Experience" as a recipient of a Fulbright-Hayes grant. I am traveling with seven other faculty members from across the Maricopa County Community College District -- I am the only one from Mesa Community College -- eight junior and senior high teachers from across the state, and two of the District's international education directors. We will be staying in Casablanca, Rabat, Fez and Marrakech, visiting many, many university faculty and community leaders.)
I have my new Canon camera (which set me back $500), and my iPod is full of Arabic language audios. Now, what am I going to do with all this?
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