Dreams of youth!

Back on board of imagination waves, I travel far away to the early age of my youth. I feel fascinated by the plain life and smitten by sweet dreams. Everything was simple, and easy to be reached. Oh! How many palaces, castles, houses…I had in my, both, night and day, dreams. I dreamed of bigger things, bigger than my shrimpy body. But I didn’t know, and wasn’t mature enough to realize how life is going to become complicated and darker, and how all that fortune is going to fade away. Life complication evolves in parallel to my body’s size. The bigger I become, the bigger it turns to be, till it becomes a monster I could not face. And the older I become, the tougher I have to fight, and the more I try, the more I hurt myself, and sometimes others. The dreams that were sweet have become just a pan of tar seeping its bitterness all around. Without hope, the only arm I still own, my ending would have arrived before this time.

About the Moroccan movement 20th February

After the upsurge of movements against corruption and tyranny in North Africa and Arab world, and after the booming of Arab’s democratic spring, as it’s called, Morocco as part of this corrupt world, received the breezes of this wind of change coming from Tunisia, and seen the birth of the movement called 20th February. Since that date, the movement led protests all over the country, all united about the main goal- to fight corruption of all its demonstrations in the country.

There were, and there is, no revolution in Morocco, as it’s the case with Tunisia and Egypt or other countries, but the movement succeeded to open a wide political debate that led to the constitutional change, and the vote of a new constitution in the first of last July, which was largely voted favorably, regardless of how the poll and its campaign passed.

The movement was uniting all streams in the country with their different ideologies and backgrounds, all hand in hand with the main goal, as already mentioned, to fight corruption and to build a new country where all citizens are equal and have complete rights, but lately these mosaic ideologies and backgrounds are very far from each other to lead a unite movement. And this is one of many causes that cause the muffling of 20th Feb’s glow.

The ideological differences are vital in the life of the February movement. For example, if someone is a member or just believe in Islamic group “Jamaat Adl wa Ihsan” “justice and charity” and its extremist views, how could he tolerate someone from the group “Kif Kif” defending the rights of gays, to be with him side by side? Or how could someone from the group of “Mali” who’s calling to breakfast publicly in Ramadan to tolerate a bearded activist from “Adl Wa Ihssan”?

And if there is someone who understood this well, it is the authorities who exploited, and will continue to exploit, the ideological differences to fight each stream inside 20th February by its contrast and to spread as much hate toward the movement as possible, by playing on each one’s beliefs. If you hate “Adl Wa Ihsan” there’s a reason to boycott 20th February, and if you hate “Mali” “Kif Kif”, there still a reason for you to boycott the movement. If you belong to none of these, there still hundred reasons to keep away from adopting the movement. And this is all for the benefit of those profiting from the current situation and change haters.

My experience with languages Tamazight, Arabic, French, English

Whenever I hear the debate rose about languages in Morocco and which one should be the official one in the country, I just think about my experience with languages. My parents and ancestors are Amazigh, and speak only one language Tamazight, and what they know in Arabic is some verses of Coran, they learned by heart in mosques to use in pray. So when I was born, the language that my mother fed me and that I hear everywhere in my surrounding was Tamazight. And then I started to learn classic Arabic, first in the mosque and later when I attended the school where I started to hear also some dialect Arabic, which was a little used by teachers. So up till that stage, I was introduced to three languages. And in the third year in school, another language was added, French.

Before the age of 10, I had to deal with four languages. My mother tongue comes in the first position because it’s the one I use frequently, and my only communication link with my family and surrounding, and then classic Arabic in which school programs were written. And the dialectal Arabic, though it was not much necessary in daily use in rural towns, such where I lived in, as mostly all people are Amazighs, but we tried as children of the town to learn it because we felt embarrassed when we fail to communicate with family members coming from the city, or some foreigners we meet in the surroundings, and also because our older brothers and sisters who attended school learned it.

And when I moved to high school at the age of 16, a 5th language was added to all that mixture, English. And the use of the other languages had become more essential than before. The classic Arabic use was very vital, as it’s required to succeed in school and almost the whole program is in classic Arabic. And dialectal Arabic was necessary to communicate with my peers, some of them who speak only dialect Arabic as it is their mother tongue. French too, had a significant importance in studies.

When I moved to seek a job, I found that the classic Arabic that we used to study for long years, and that is the official language in constitution is incapable to feed me, and unable to secure a job. Most of the jobs require French, as it is the language of economy, and of course this is related to colonization, and the forced link to the colonizer- France.

Learning all that number of languages was exhausting, and certainly has taken much time and strength, but probably it was preventing me from mastering them all. But, shall we see this combination of languages as positive, or negative? I don’t know.

Learning languages is certainly positive, but not all at once.

Osama died, Obama born!

The release of Barack Obama’s birth certificate two weeks ago, showing that he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii on August 4, 1961, ends the assumption and discussion about his birth place. This certificate is a pre-declaration of a political rebirth of Obama and a funeral to that debate, but actually it was a certificate of a real birth that will come a week later, after the death of Osama Bin Laden. Worldwide, the announcement of Osama’s death is related to Obama as he was the announcer, and without doubt, this has renewed Obama’s popularity and will strengthen his position in the presidential elections on the doors. And though the release of his birth certificate has come a week earlier, but, it’s only a week to name the new born. Osama died, Obama born. But, if Osama is not shrouded and buried in the sea, isn’t there a probability that the opposition will take off Obama’s political clothes?

Explosion at "Argana" Café in Marrakech

We all received, with sadness and grief, news of devastating explosion in the “Argana” café in Jamaa Lefna square in Marrakech. News talks about 15 deaths among them 11 foreigners the majority of them are of French nationality, and many others injured. The first thing that came to my mind when heard the news is my brother who lives there. Even, this probability was a little far, as I knew he would be at work at such time, but anything was expected. And, as I thought of my brother, everyone whose relative or family is in Marrakech today April 28th would have the same worries after hearing this sad news. But, what if the presence of his relatives in the place of the attacks is a reality, or what if the suppositions worsen, and his relative got injured or, unfortunately, died. It’s a bad case; no one would like it, for himself or his relatives. For that, we present our condolences and feeling of solidarity to all the victims of these barbaric attacks, that touch the security and serenity of this city and the country as a whole, but who’s responsible? Days will reveal more details.

At this link, you can see some photos of the place of the explosion: http://www.marocroom.com/vb/t2814.html

Revolution in Lybia

After the successive fall down of authoritative systems of Ben Ali in Tunisia and of Husni Mubarak in Egypt, the whole world have been waiting confidently to see the same scenario in Lybia with Muaamar Quadafi after the start of manifestations in the country. After days of peaceful manifestations, “the prophecy” hasn’t come true and Quaddafi didn’t resign or toppled from his position, and the worst even come when the conflict turned to bee an armed fight and Quaddafi started the slaughter against his opponents.

In the first days of the fight, “the rebels” were, or seemed to be, winning the fight and they were moving forward Tripoli, where Quaddafi take refuge. However, now the balance of strength has completely changed, and the rebels forced out of many cities they have controlled earlier, and now Quaddafi has regained his confidence and reorganized his legions and moves eastward, and now he’s in the doors of Benghazi, the last stronghold of rebels.

But where is the west from all this?

Perhaps, the events that boomed suddenly in the Arab world has come in a rush way and the west didn’t have enough time to study all the probabilities of any decision it could make, and western countries don’t want to lose their interests and benefits, even they took a decision against Quaddafi later, especially when the rebels seemed to be moving confidently to win the fight. But now, the rebels are losing, and perhaps, as Quadafi’s son Sayf Al Islam has said, we’ll gain control over Benghazi after two days, and he even said that “the no-fly zone is too late”, that may mean that the west would have helped the rebels before we arrived to that advanced stage and regained control of the country and we’ll crash every one that comes in front of us as Quddafi didn’t stop to repeat.

And what about Russia and China?

Now, Russia and China are against Lybian people, and they fought against the decision of no-fly zone in UN, and they took a promise from Quaddafi to be rewarded for that, and he Quaddafi even declared it. It’s a shame on Russia and China, because they want to take petrol from Lybia, but they forget that it’s mingled with Libyan blood.

And the Arab world?

The Arabs are powerless, and systems of the Arab countries are very sick, and if they are not, nothing of all this would have happened, and now they are being treated clinically, and we have just to wish their cure as quickly as possible. And it’s known that the Arab’s voice is no important in the international policies. What are we waiting, a word from a dead body!

Season of Melancholy

In an inattentiveness moment, smile was snatched from our lips, and all despair of the world hugs us and sculptured scratches of anger on our pale foreheads, and draw grooves of melancholy on our hearts. Anguish, distress and all their synonyms befriend us, and swear to chase us wherever we go. Clouds of pain jammed on our skies, and almost leave sparks of happiness’ sun burnish our dusky days. Heat of hope that gives meaning to our life lows down, but we still try, as possible, to keep our deep senses warm to avoid freeze of a merciless snowy storm of hopelessness that will definitely end our last chance of survival.

Are women equal to men in Morocco?

No one could deny that Moroccan women have gained more rights and their position has changed from what it was on, decades before. In the past, Moroccan woman wasn’t allowed to do different jobs and seen incompetent in different terms including the taking of responsibility and leading positions. Of course there were exceptions, but in general woman had one responsibility, that of taking responsibility of home tasks and children.

And now, there is a noticeable change, and woman has invaded many fields that were till the near past inappropriate for her to access. Therefore, and as woman is a part of society and has an important role in it, many changes have came to society with that change of woman’s position from a housewife to a woman that works and passes most of her time outside.

Before, woman was waiting in her parents’ home for a husband that will come and ask for her hand for marriage, and automatically he will take responsibility of preparing everything for this marriage and provide financial conditions for this new family; either they live separately, or together with the husband’s parents, and in her turn she’ll take care of her husband and expected children, and of course her husband’s parents if they live with them.

Now, after woman has started to work as the husband, and both genders have equal rights, many things have stood unchanged from the past. In marriage for instance, woman still rely on man to prepare everything for new family and take all financial responsibilities that he, in turn sees them as his pure own, though she’s able to help. Also, man sees house tasks as pure woman’s responsibilities she had to do even after a long exhausting day at her work outside, and there are husbands that may lay for hours at home waiting for their wives to come from work and go cook their meal, and if there are children means more duties.

I do not generalize, and I know that there are exceptions where both share everything from emotions to ambitions arriving to duties and rights, including the right to take decisions, but mostly everyone sees equality from his own view and there still much far from what equality is or should be.

Pleasure of writing

Though I don’t regularly post on my blog, but I habitually write. Sometimes about my bio, others about any topic that comes to mind, and sometimes just travel inside my mind to check if there’s some inspirational stories and try to form words and sentences to feel the pleasure of writing and at the same time bear its pain. The challenge I always faced is the inability to finish my writings and I stopped many articles, that I still think are about good or at least worth to write about topics, at the middle of the way and never come back to finish them. I’m not a professional writer or blogger, but I’m intrigued by writing practise. And from time to other, I intend to share some of those writings on the blog. Yes, it’s true that a blog importance is mostly measured by how much interaction and comments it receives, and despite my blog receives less comments and have only few on some posts, but I think, though I should not judge myself, that content I post is not that bad but interaction is affected by the number of visitors of the blog, and this is my blog’s problem due to the lack of optimization. Nevertheless, I keep posting, since I’m pleased when practicing writing and also since there still at least some people that comes across my posts and have look. And I still keep some hope that I could receive comments on my future posts, who knows?!

Battle in mind

From time to other, when my ideas go in clash between each other and the struggle intensifies bit by bit, I could hear the noisy hits of arms and drums beats in my head. And when the bitterness of the battle rises and the brawl between the tough ideas is increasing, I could feel the flames of fire burning on my head’s walls. If a rival wins the fight, then the war eventually ends and pain slowly gets over, but when the battle lasts for long without a winner, each legion took its troops back. The fight certainly would be resumed later, presumably between the same armies or between others, but what’s certain, war never ends and if it does there’s no need to my existence.

Shrubs of grief and sorrow

When doors of a heart are closed and no light let in, trees of darkness and shrubs of grief grow up in the deep of its corners and flowers of anguish bloom all around! When the grass of sorrow is irrigated with water of gloom, it propagates more and more. And when all those plants of distress are left without mow, we can see but a garden of misery and depression.