10 February 2014 | Mr. Nacer Arji
The Moroccan society is changing. The customs, the norms and the very nature of human relationships, that for centuries marked the people of this land, is now widely challenged by a rising growth of values which were unknown to the very majority of people until the country became suddenly connected to this new world order, often confused with the word globalization.
Without a doubt, the country is indeed day after day losing its roots and moral. If to be Moroccan means the belonging to a ‘state’, as well as the sharing of a common past and faith, along with other people, I strongly believe today this assumed shared memory is fading away inside a quest of meaning to understand oneself. In other words, the two or three Moroccans’ generations born between the 1940s and 2014 are confronted to a severe identity crisis. The root element that explains the real causes of this hidden crisis is ignorance. Their Ignorance about their own identity, its strength and importance in being preserved. Their Ignorance that all other cultures and world identities are equally important.
If for decades education meant being able to solve calculus equations, never was it taught to student that the essence of studying lays in building a strong & disciplined society where everybody is satisfied and proud of it. That said how many among us are happy with the country’s performance today? Among the educated and non-educated people, probably the answer would be none. Education is a package. Maybe many among us think if they go to the best schools and get the highest-rated diplomas, in their respective fields, they literally deserve the best work positions in the country.
Actually this facade is only an illusion as knowing how to read and write does not necessarily mean reading between the lines. Here comes the role of critical thinking. Indeed, analyzing, comparing, contextualizing and differentiating are key skills to master if we are willing to work seriously on determining the country’s real problems which only later on in our quest to solve them, we will be using the basic calculus formulas.
Moroccans should be able to discuss openly as many topics as they want in public and private spaces. If today we perceive health issues growing among our population, it is because taboos remain as forbidden in the collective memory of people, no way to bring them forth. If the political scene is stagnant today, it is as well because of taboos which for years were developed and then were cultivated by the people who (as sociology teaches us), fear any change, let it be good or bad for them. Finally if the society is accustomed to practices belonging to another age, it is because of other taboos that are specific to our televisions which is not free to broadcast quality programs. This said, the country lives in the status-quo, a sort of lethargy. This brings some to find elements of responses to the current crisis in radicalism, as none is done to enrich the debate over the country’s strategic decisions and future.
I personally don’t see with a good eye the country to be going in the right direction. Rather, I see it as going nowhere, not even going back to some good past . Maybe time has come that the greater goal for any Moroccan chief of Government should be to free people’s minds from all the middle Ages obscure dark thoughts that are of no added-value to our wanted modern society – insha’Allah
10 February 2014 | Mr. Nacer Arji
