On that morning, I was heading to the newspaper with no new stories or article projects in mind when my editor-in-chief called me to ask whether I’ll be interested in interviewing a very special person, and to publish her memories on a daily basis in the newspaper. This very special person was a young student who became a professional prostitute. The editor-in-chief of course was only interested in raising the sales, because the golden rule in journalism is that “When there is no news, you should create the news”. And what’s better than dealing with one of the society’s prime taboos to make the news. I only had one answer to give: I’ll do it!

Morocco has the reputation of having a significant number of young prostitutes. Maybe this stereotype other Middle Eastern countries have about us is a bit exaggerated, but still, Morocco has very well structured prostitution webs, which transform innocent girls to mighty night creatures, and even export them to work outside the country. What most people ignore is that prostitution was a very prosperous activity in pre-Islamic Morocco. Native Berber tribes used to set tents on the roads after the harvest season to offer “entertainment” to peasants after a year of hard work. Prostitution then, was a social service which allowed money circulation among all the tribe’s members. Islam couldn’t change much in the anthropological habits of local people. In my opinion, the high prostitution rates among young Moroccan girls can be explained by the extreme openness to the west and the cultural predisposition to this kind of activities.

For me it was very difficult to write about the subject. Should I feel pity or contempt, compassion or disgust towards this young girl with a university degree who decided to sell her body to make a living? I’ve just decided to play the role of the objective pen, which describes what it hears and sees without the interference of any subjective feelings. Though, it was hard not to make a comparison between me and her. We were both Moroccan girls, born in the same year, listening to the same music, and with university degrees. Yet, each of us chose a different path, or maybe that path chose her.

Her name was Aïcha. She was very blond, very tall, and very beautiful, the kind of the 1960s American films’ beauty. Aïcha had to move after high school from her small town called Lhajeb to study English Literature in Meknes’ college. “My parents didn’t prepare me to live alone in the city. I come from a poor background where talking about sex is a taboo”, she told me while gazing at the horizon. In the girls’ dorms, Aïcha learned how to dress, to put on make-up, and to talk like a woman. It is also in the university dorms that she was tempted to make some pocket money to pay for the pretty clothes which can make her look like city girls. The first step to the abyss was going out incognito with older men who invited her to good restaurants, and make her discover her charms and feminity. The deadly stab was when she discovered that she had to pay with her body for the few bills to realize her late adolescence fantasies.

Once Aïcha graduated, it was difficult to leave her well-paid night life for miserable desk work or to abandon the lights of the big city for a small house in Lhajeb. She told me with a bitter voice “When I was studying it was just to make pocket money. I didn’t realize that I am a prostitute until it became my full-time job after graduating”. Aïcha is still now living in the city and working as a prostitute to send money to her family and pay for her charges. Her education and beauty make very rich and well-known men from over the world pay for her services. After filling four, 120-minute tapes and finishing the interview, the young girl looked straight into my eyes and said “I fast every Ramadan and pray five times a day for Allah to forgive me, but when the night comes I realize that I have to go work for the money.”

Today, whenever I drive across the girls’ dorms of the university, I wonder how many Aïchas are there waiting to be tempted by the big city’s illusive and misleading lights? How many would resist and how many would fall?

25 Moroccan youth and 25 American youth met in the POMED and AID conference, “Find Your Voice: A Cross-Cultural Forum on Political Participation and Civic Activism”, which took place in The Moroccan Capital Rabat last Month. I was asked to share my experience as a young English-speaking blogger with the participants? So I’ve decided to tell them my story through 3 verbs:

To Inform
When to the Moroccan Journalism School for the first time, the first thing I saw was a banner in the entrance wall with sentence “Information is holy, and Comment is Free”. This sentence haunted me for my 4 years in that school, until it became a part of who I am. Unfortunately, in everyday’s journalistic practice all the editors-in-chief I’ve worked with were hammering on me that my opinion doesn’t matter, and only pure information matters. After some years of swallowing my voice, I started believing that “Information is free” but “Comment is not free”. Therefore, I started looking for a way to express my voice.

To Express
In 2004, during one of the first blogging conferences in Morocco by Rachid Jankari, the first Moroccan blogger, I finally discovered the way to express my voice. That night I came home very excited, and created my first blog. It was the kind of blogs where you write your diaries and post poems and abstract photos. In 2006, I started my official blog “Words for change”, because I believe that my only weapon is my words and that by spreading the word it may change the world. Maybe I blog out of narcissism, maybe I blog out frustration, maybe I blog because I would like to share my thoughts, and tell the rest of the world about the place I live in and the problems people of my age face. In all cases, I think that blogging gave me back my voice and completed the other half of that old sentence “Comment is Free”.

We are 30 000 Moroccan bloggers today. Some blog in French, and they are stereotyped as being bourgeois blogging kids who went to French schools. And some blog in Arabic, and they are stereotyped as being Islamist radicals. In between there is some youth who blog in English, including me, who are stereotyped as being American spies. Well, the reality our diversity is a capital that make our strength, even if we aren’t organized as a community yet. Rachid Jankari described the Moroccan Blogosphere as being in its “Adolescence”, which make it unable to compete with classical Medias, and somehow unable to educate.

To Educate
Few months ago, I became a youth ambassador within the Middle East Youth Initiative, which gave me the chance to act as a peer-educator with my blog posts. The MEYI was initiated by the Wolfensohn Centre for Development at Brooking and the Dubai School of Government, as to promote economic and social inclusion of youth in the Middle
East by creating an international alliance of academics, policymakers, youth leaders and leading thinkers from the private sector and civil society. With the MEYI, I realized how it’s difficult to educate, especially that I’m just a 23 years simple girl from the region. My work as a Youth Ambassador is about sharing my little experience as a young journalist, as a youth activist, and as a human being. And that’s the best part of it, because as human beings, my readers may reach a self-identification status, and that’s what may educate.

That’s my story. The story of a blogger who believes that words may bring change, so “spread the word, it may change the world”. That’s how I’ve found my Voice. I hope you’ll find yours!

I always thought that real heroes are those who invented complicated machines or those who came-out with genius theories. All that, was before I met Aicha. Aicha in Arabic means Living. Indeed, in her eyes we can see the flame of life that only true heroes have. In addition to her 8 children and husband, Aicha is living with an unpleasant guest everyday inside her weak body: AIDS.

With her pink traditional dress, which they call Tub in Sudan, Aicha was standing in front of 70 strangers to tell proudly her story with AIDS, during the UNDP HARPAS workshop for Independent Artists, Bloggers, and Journalists, which was held in Cairo from the 5th to the 8th May. “I didn’t commit any crime. I was operated for appendicitis, and they transferred to me blood infected with AIDS. I had to face my family, my children, and the whole society”, she said to her curious audience. In fact in many Arab countries a huge quantity of blood is still used without being well examined. Aicha was lucky enough to have an understanding husband, who supported and encouraged her to tell her story on television and in international meetings without any fear or shame, in such a conservative society full of taboos. Undeniably, “HIV/AIDS’ power is not in the Virus itself, but in the vicious circuit of fear and stigma linked to it”, as Doctor Ihaab Al Kharat from the HARPAS team has explained during the same workshop. In fact, AIDS is just like any other illness that we can live with without any risks if we take the right medicine at the right time.

Nowadays 39.5 million people worldwide are living with the Virus. In the Arab Region they are more than 460 000 people living with AIDS. Yet, I would like to question these figures given by the UNAIDS, because they are all based on government statistics. How can we imagine that a country like Syria only have 300 HIV/AIDS cases, without mentioning the whole Khalij region which doesn’t want to communicate any official figures on the issue? Another alarming figure is that only 5% of the declared AIDS cases in the region have access to treatment. Not because of luck in medicine, but because of the society taboos and of a coward suicidal discourse related to the Virus.

I was so impressed by Aicha that I decided to sit with her and have a long friendly talk. I was like a little child staring at this monument-like lady strong and confident in her 30s. She told me how her husband and she are living a normal sexual life by using condoms during their intercourses. Aicha also gave birth to a little girl, who doesn’t have the Virus, after following the right treatment that reduces the quantity of HIV in the blood during the pregnancy period. However, if science found a way to cope with the situation, the reaction of the doctors, who are supposed to be the most compassionate towards people living with AIDS, was very harsh on her. Once the medical staff learned about her case, they just put her in the quarantine and left her sinking in her blood and tears, shouting until the head of the baby came out.

When I’ve heard that story, I was so angry and disgusted at the same time. I cried fiercely and hugged Aicha. I could not describe that moment. I felt that she is a young woman just like me, and that all the stereotypes of the society disappeared. 48% of people living with AIDS in the Arab World are women, and Aicha is one of the few women who are coping with the Virus in a normal way. I feel I’ve found a hero made out of flesh and blood, who can inspire me in my daily life. For Aicha, and because I believe in life, I will go tomorrow morning to check my blood in one of the local centres, where I can get a free HIV/AIDS test. I hope you’ll do the same!

According the latest investigation on Moroccans and Religious values, initiated by three famous Moroccan researchers: Mohamed El Aydi, Hassan Rachik, and Mohamed Tozy 60% of the Moroccan population never have read Coran before!
I wanted to share with you the outcomes of this research because I’ve found it very interesting, and I was personally choked to notice how incoherent Moroccans can be towards their religion. In fact only 5.6% of Moroccans read Coran everyday, 28.1% read it from time to time, and 58.9% have never read Coran. Well, I can situate my self with the 28%, but I couldn’t believe that even with our strict Islamic educational manuals which impose on us to learn by heart many Sourat and the traditional religious education in the countryside, 60% of the population still have never read their holy book. Probably the statistics are the same in a county like France regarding the bible-readers. Yet, France is a secular country whereas we are an Islamic county if we believe our constitution. Moreover, religious symbols are everywhere: mosques, clothing, education, Imarat Al Muminin…
In the same investigation, 40% of Moroccans think that even if you don’t fast during Ramadan you are still considered as Muslim. 57% disapprove mixed beaches, so maybe I’d better not go swim with a bikini this summer. 83% of the interviewed Moroccans think that women should wear a veil, so I really shouldn’t go swim with a bikini this summer. However, 84% of the population disapproves Takfiir! I feel released, because even if I swim with a bikini and even if most people wouldn’t like it but I would still be seen as a proper Muslim girl!
In addition, more than 99.9% of Moroccan thinks that Islam is the best religion ever and that there is an answer for everything in the Coran, starting from the social organization to the political, economic, and even technological matters. I just wonder why don’t they read Coran so often if there is an answer to everything in its pages? Well, maybe I sould go read Coran right now to find an answer to this issue!

The United Nations University-International Leadership Institute
"Promoting Peace through Dialogue, Middle East Session 2008"
Amman, Jordan | July 20-August 3, 2008

Why Enroll in this Training Seminar?
A 2005 report by the Alliance for Conflict Transformation identified some key recommendations for those pursuing a career in conflict resolution. Gaining practical negotiation and mediation experience and networking were two of the top three recommendations. Current demand exists and will continue to grow for those practiced in negotiation and who have a strong professional network.

Whether you are a student looking to build your resume and gain course credit, or a professional looking to acquire new knowledge and expand your network, "Promoting Peace through Dialogue, Middle East 2008" presents an amazing opportunity. This training seminar includes a two-week residential program conducted by professors, trainers, and speakers from around the world. Participants will receive extensive training in conflict resolution techniques and gain an in-depth understanding of the Israel/Palestine and several other of the world's major conflicts, including the factors which continue to fuel them. Participants will also have the opportunity to increase their knowledge of other cultures through interaction with and exposure to an array of cultural views and backgrounds.

Fees for the seminar include participation in the international conference. If you are interested in registering for the International Conference only, click here.

Participants may also opt to enroll in a study tour to Israel/Palestine.

Who can Enroll?
This program is open to final-year undergraduate students, graduate students, and professionals. Applicants from a variety of backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Only 65 total participants will be accepted for this program.

Note: Academic credits are available. Please visit the Academic Credit page for information.

Seminar Topics
This course is designed to maximize exposure of 65 select participants to the skills and techniques necessary to effectively negotiate and mediate conflict situations. The seminar will be conducted in English. Participants are encouraged to view this course as a career advancement opportunity. To that end, this course will instruct participants in effective networking skills and provides ample opportunities to meet recognized professionals. An exciting aspect of this course is the opportunity to meet and interact with others who are dedicated to the field of conflict resolution and will become international leaders. The topics offered provide an in-depth understanding of multiple aspects of conflict resolution.

Topics will include:

Theory of interest-based negotiation
Interest-based negotiation practice skills
Mediation training
Extensive negotiation and mediation simulations
Project management in conflict zones
Environmental conflict management
Background to the Israel-Palestine conflict
Cultural aspects of conflict resolution
Gender aspects of conflict resolution
Track I and II diplomacy
Developing successful networking skills
Nonviolent strategies to promote negotiation

Course Schedule
The training portion of the program will begin on Sunday morning, July 20, 2008, and will end Sunday, August 3. The final two days of the program, August 2 and 3, will be conducted in conjunction with the an International Conference, allowing students to meet and network with leading professionals.

There will be ample opportunities for participants to explore the city and enjoy its cultural offerings. Accommodations, including breakfasts and lunches are provided from the night of July 19 through the morning of August 4.

Program Faculty
William Monning, J.D., professor of international negotiation and conflict resolution at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, Director of the Mandell-Gisnet Center for Conflict Management at the Monterey College of Law, and co-founder and President of Global Majority, is the academic coordinator of the program and will conduct the core curriculum. Skilled trainers from Global Majority will assist instructors throughout the program.

Guest Speakers and Trainers
A diverse array of internationally recognized academics, professionals, and representatives from various organizations will present on the specific topics outlined above. These experts include:

Dr. Paul Arthur, Course Director of the Graduate Program in Peace and Conflict Studies at the School of History and International Affairs, University of Ulster
Dr. Jairam Reddy, Director, United Nations University-International Leadership Institute
Dr. Tatsushi Arai, Assistant Professor of Conflict Transformation, School of International Training
Jeffrey Mapendere, Executive Director for the Canadian International Institute of Applied Negotiation
Dr. Boatamo Mosupyoe, Director of African Studies Program, Cal-State University, Sacramento
*Due to possible unforeseen events, we reserve the right to revise this list as necessary.

study tour
Leading up to the training seminar, a delegation will visit Israel/Palestine to see the conflict with their own eyes. Participants in this optional study tour will have the opportunity to meet with Palestinian and Israeli nonviolent activists and view the reality of life under military occupation from the perspective of Israelis and Palestinians working for a just resolution to the conflict. The delegation will focus on seeing, listening to, and recording the experiences and perspectives of a range of Palestinian and Israeli voices. This experience will be beneficial to those attending the conflict resolution seminar and conference in Jordan.

The eight day tour will be led by experienced local guides and group facilitators from sponsoring organizations. If you are interested in this optional tour, please indicate so on the application and those organizing the tour will be in contact with program details, costs, and application materials.

For Details see: http://globalmajority.org/gm/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=16&id=44&Itemid=198

Find Your Voice:
A Cross-Cultural Forum on Political Participation and Civic Activism
Rabat, Morocco
April 25-26, 2008

Americans for Informed Democracy (AID) and the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED), along with the Institut National de la Jeunesse et la Démocratie (INJD), are now accepting applications for the conference “Find Your Voice: A Cross-Cultural Forum on Political Participation and Civic Activism.”

This two-day conference will be a multilingual dialogue on the necessity of youth mobilization in the political process and empowering emerging leaders in political parties and civil society. Bringing together Moroccan and American experts on media, political party participation, youth mobilization and citizen journalism, participants will engage the speakers in debate, hold small group discussions, and partake in youth mobilization workshops. The participants will also develop and ratify policy recommendations to be presented to government representatives.

Topics will include:

Space for youth in political parties
The role of civil society
Media and democracy
Youth mobilization through citizen journalism
The conference will take place in Rabat, Morocco from April 25-26, 2008. American and Moroccan students and young professionals are encouraged to apply. We seek an ideologically and geographically diverse group of participants. Space is limited, and up to 50 participants will be chosen by a competitive application process.

Lodging and most meals will be provided to participants. Participants are responsible for arranging their own transportation to and from the conference. A limited number of modest travel scholarships are available for highly qualified applicants.

For more information go to www.pomed.org or contact rabatconference@pomed.org.

The Moroccan Minister of Social Welfare Nezha Squalli is taking off her politically-correct face and unveiling her hardcore communist face. In fact Nezha Squalli shamelessly asked for the banishment of the call for prayer of Al Fajr, because she claims that it is disturbing the wellbeing of the foreign tourists during their exotic staying in Morocco.

Well, I would just remind Madame Squalli, that she belongs to a government of an Islamic country and she is “for the moment” the Minister of Amir Al Mu’minin the Prince of the Faithful. Therefore, asking the Minister of Islamic Affairs Ahmed Ataoufik to find a legal way to ban the call of prayer not to disturb tourists is an insult to the high symbols of this nation. Furthermore, the tourists coming to Morocco are supposed to respect the local customs, as Moroccans would do for the Bell rings in Christian countries.

Maybe the Minister, who was a militant of the Moroccan Communist Party, still believes deep-inside that “Religion is the Opium of the People”. Yet, the outrageous thing about this story is that the PPS, the Party of Progress and Socialism is defending their Minister and calling the Press to stop judging Nezha Squalli. For their pat the Islamist movements inside Morocco as well as the more traditionalist streams of the Moroccan Civil Society are calling the Minister to submit her resignation as soon as possible, because she don’t represent the Moroccan population.

From My side I would kindly advice our dear Minister to look to her face in the mirror and ask herself who is she? Since, if a Minister in the government of his Majesty still struggles with her religious identity how can she be an example for the rising generations?

“Morocco is one of the most badly-scored MENA countries as far as education is concerned in terms of access, equity, efficiency, and quality” according to the World Bank’s recent MENA Development Report. The newly published report was a real earthquake for the whole country and especially for every person who is a pure fruit of this educational system, including me. I’m neither a formal institution nor a specialist on the issue, yet my 19 years spent in Moroccan schools enabled me to do an autopsy of the Moroccan educational system by asking the five classical WH questions.

What? The Moroccan Educational System is not one system but a mixture of many models. For centuries, only privileged elite could get educated. This traditional first form of education was mostly religious and the holders of this Power/Knowledge were considered a very influential class in the society and called Al Fukaha -- the knowledgeable. When the French colonizing machine came to Morocco, it brought with it a whole new model of teaching based on an orientalist dichotomy. Both traditionalist and imperialist systems have one thing in common: they show you what is good and what is evil, but never dare to tell you how to make the evil become good.

Who? Many actors shaped the face of the Moroccan educational system. Hassan II is incontestably one of the characters who has left the biggest impact on the schooling system. Under the pressure of the right wing Istiqlal party, Hassan II led a huge Arabization movement in a society which speaks Darija, Amazigh, and French but not Classical Arabic, which resulted in the rise of frustrated militant minority groups from one hand and hardcore fundamentalists from the other. And during the 1970s, all the philosophy colleges were closed down -- except the Rabat Philosophy College -- as to counter the communist rise in the country. Therefore, additional actors were all the teachers who lacked both in resources and pedagogy to educate their pupils. In the middle of this turmoil, the actors forgot to teach the future generations how to critically think.

Where? Centralization is one of the characteristics of this weak Moroccan educational system. It is true that primary education became a priority during the last few years. However, secondary and higher education is still concentrated in the major cities when the majority of the population live in the rural areas. This issue along with the tribal patriarchal mentality pushes many conservative families to deprive their daughters from schooling. So far, no one is thinking how to find practical solutions to solve these problems.

When? Four years ago an ambitious educational reform started in Morocco when the Ministry of National Education and the Royal Committee on Education published a Charter on Education and Training. Since then, access and equity became the strategic priority. Illiteracy campaigns were led among the elders and the Amazigh language finally gained academic recognition. The research and national will is there, yet , nobody knows how to translate it to reality.

Why? Many reasons can be given for the unfortunate state of Moroccan education. The first may be the failure of the French-like bipolar system based on weak public universities (14 universities) in addition to an important number of specialized and selective institutions (139 schools). Another reason is the political manipulation of the educational system for many decades to keep the public opinion under control. Thousands of zealous explanations can be proclaimed, but if you want the opinion of someone who lived the experience from the inside let me share with you only one example, and you’ll understand why this educational system is so ineffective: In my Family Education class, instead of learning how to take care of a child, how to sew, and how to cook, I’ve had to learn the manual by heart and recite it in front of my teacher!

How? Sorry, I can’t answer this question, because in the system where I was educated they only taught me what the problem is, and not how to solve it.

When I was packing my bags to go to the Catalonia, Spain to the Euro- Med training on Gender and Religion, I was wondering if it’s not just some other futile training full of theory and which never come up with any practical projects or achievements. Well I was wrong!

During the training course Jews, Christians, Muslims, and non-believers had to live, travel, work and party together for 10 days in the Comarruga Youth Hostel. We all came with our education, our religious backgrounds, our stereotypes, and methods of work. Yet, the 23 participants from all over the Meditareenian Sea were all ready to learn and to tolerate people from other confessional roots.

The fourth day we went in a field trip to Tarragona to visit the various religious communities there. Guess what, there was no Jewish community in this old Roman marvellous city because of the 15th century hatred, whereas the strong Muslim community is still struggling to build a mosque for its believers. Spain is a secular country according to its constitution. Yet, the state still supports the Church by giving 8% of the taxes’ incomes to the Catholic Christian Church. In addition, Spain still seems much occupied by its bloody past full of Judaic & Islamic phobia of the early Catholic Kings of Spain.

Michael, Paulo and I weren’t affected by this Spanish mood. A Jew, a Christian and a Muslim succeeded in becoming friends very easily during this training course. Micha is a Russian Jew who left his family in Moscow at the age of 16 to go to Israel living in a Kibbutz and serving 3 years in the Israeli Army. He is now a traditional and modern Judaic jewellery designer in Jerusalem waiting for the Devine call to become a committed Religious Jew. Paulo was born in Roma in Italy, with a balcony on the Vatican and the sounds of thousands of bells ringing all over the place. Paulo even shacked-hands with the formal Pope John Paul II when he was a child, but since he is a social sciences graduates Erasmus student, he just decided to question his given dogma and travel around the world looking for Secular answers instead of Religious ones. As regards me, I was born in a conservative Moroccan Muslim family. I discovered other religions very early, and have chosen to remain a very spiritual Muslim out of conviction. My studies of journalism, diplomacy and communication thought me how to be very politically correct with people different than me without really caring about them.

In this training we were just three human beings willing to learn and go forward. Micha was sharing with us his stories in the army when he caught a 9 years old Palestinian kamikaze. Paulo was telling us that he sees the bible as a literature book and questions the nature of the Christ. When, I was telling them how important for me to stay Virgin until marriage because of my belonging to the Prophet Mohammed’s genealogical tree. We were so different in education, faith and hopes, yet, we all enjoyed heavy metal songs, the smell of tobacco or extra olive oil on our meals.

In one of the simulations of the course, each of us has to play a role other than his real life’s role. I had to be the representative of a very conservative party. I’ve had to stand against the building of a Muslim mosque in Spain. After the simulation was over; I felt very bad because for few hours I had to be the persecutor of my own community especially that many Moroccan immigrants in Europe suffer from the same right wing discourse everyday. I discovered how hatred is easy and how tolerance and acceptance is hard to reach as far as religious issues are concerned.

By Tomorrow I’ll be back in my country, where I am surrounded of Muslims everywhere and where the Media and the different ideological discourses are the only resource to discover people from other religions. Nevertheless, this time I’ll be taking with me in my bags the souvenir of three friends from different backgrounds who learned to tolerate each other, to accept each other as we are, to coexist for 10 days in peace, and above all to care about one another. This caring is the main achievement one can get as a human being.

* This article is a MEYI property (http://www.shababinclusion.org)

Everybody knows the story of the three Japanese Wise Monkeys (see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil). Well let me tell you the story of a young journalist, who feels like that monkeys. Yet, this Monkey seeks no wisdom. She just feels that her senses are being paralyzed by too much frustration in a Middle Eastern country called Morocco.

I CAN’T SEE. In my country we have only two TV channel, and both are controlled by the state. There are people I don’t like to see, like the characters they show on TV who look like living on another planet. There are people I would like to see, like the political leaders or my municipality civil servants. Unfortunately, these people sit on desks situated in very high towers which my sight can’t reach. And there are things I’m forced to see, like the thousands of doctorate holders protesting in front of the parliament, the poor youth being brain-washed trying to bomb them selves, or many others who venture on the Mediterranean Sea risking their lives to make a living.

I CAN’T HEAR. I’ve grown up in the middle of the Economic crisis of the 1980s and 1990s. We had no music of our own then. We used to listen to music made by other people to other people. I live in a place where we hear rumours all the time, because we are somehow afraid of the truth. Sometimes I hear machines and constructions around. However, even deaf; I can still understand that these houses and infrastructures are not for me, but for wealthy people who can pay for it.

I CAN’T SPEAK. My tongue is chained by three chains called: Religion, Patria, Monarchy. I can shout on strikes, on football games, or on public markets, but what can I have to say if I can’t speak about the main components of my identity, as noted in our constitution: Islam, Morocco, and the King.

The Moroccan Monkey is handicapped in his senses. Still, he has a heart full of hope, honour and ambition. With his heart he can see him self in the mirror of reality, hear the hymn of change and shout loud for glory!

Qu'est ce que le Marketing?
- T'es dans une soirée, tu vois une nana qui te plaît ; tu t'approches et tu lui
dis « J'suis super bon au lit ». Ça c'est du marketing direct.
- T'es dans une soirée, t'es avec un groupe d'amis, tu vois une nana qui te plaît,
une de tes amies s'approche d'elle et lui dit « Tu vois ce mec, il est super
bon au lit ». Ça c'est de la pub.
- T'es dans une soirée, tu vois une nana qui te plaît, tu t'approches, lui
demandes son numéro de téléphone, le lendemain tu l'appelles, et tu lui dis «
J'suis super bon au lit ». Ça c'est du télémarketing.
- T'es dans une soirée, tu vois une nana que tu connais, tu t'approches, tu lui
rafraîchis la mémoire, et tu lui dis « Tu te souviens comment j'suis super bon
au lit ». Ça c'est du Customer Relashionship Management.
- T'es dans une soirée, tu vois une nana qui te plaît, tu te lèves, tu t'arranges
un peu les fringues, tu t'approches, tu lui sers un verre. Tu lui dis qu'elle sent bon,
qu'elle est bien sapée, tu lui offres une clope et tu lui dis « J'suis super
bon au lit ». Ça c'est du Public Relation.
- T'es dans une soirée, tu vois une nana qui te plaît, tu t'approches et tu lui
dis « J'suis super bon au lit » et en plus tu lui montres les muscles, ça
c'est du merchandising.
- T'es dans une soirée, une nana s'approche et te dit « J'ai entendu dire que t'es
super bon au lit ». Ça c'est du Branding « Le pouvoir de la Marque ».
- T'es dans une soirée, tu vois une nana qui te plaît, tu t'approches et tu lui
dis « J'suis une bête sexuelle, j'suis super bon au lit, et en plus je tiens
toute la nuit ». Ça c'est de la publicité mensongère, et c'est puni par la loi.
- T'es dans une soirée, tu vois une nana qui te plaît, tu la mates avec des
potes, tu fais des réflexions très fines, tu te bourres la gueule, tu ne fais
rien du tout et tu rentres bredouille. Ça c'est la réalité du marché

Comment expliquer l'économie ? Réponse: Ce n'est pas compliqué grâce à la théorie des vaches....

SOCIALISME : Vous avez 2 vaches et vous en donnez une à votre voisin.
COMMUNISME : Vous avez 2 vaches, le gouvernement vous les prend et vous donne un peu de lait.
FASCISME : Vous avez 2 vaches, le gouvernement vous les prend et vous vend un peu de lait.
NAZISME : Vous avez 2 vaches. Le gouvernement vous les prend et vous tue.
BUREAUCRATIE : Vous avez 2 vaches. Le gouvernement vous les prend, en tue une, trait l'autre et jette le lait.
CAPITALISME : Vous avez 2 vaches. Vous en vendez une et achetez un taureau. Vous les laissez se reproduire et quand l'économie monte, vous vendez tout et retirez le bénéfice.
ENTREPRISE AMERICAINE : Vous avez 2 vaches. Vous en vendez une et forcez l'autre à produire autant de lait que 4 vaches. Plus tard, vous embauchez un consultant pour analyser pourquoi la vache est morte.
ENTREPRISE FRANCAISE : Vous avez 2 vaches. Vous faites grève car vous en
voulez 3.
ENTREPRISE JAPONAISE : Vous avez 2 vaches. Vous les reconcevez pour qu'elles fassent 1/10 de la taille d'une vache normale et qu'elles produisent 20 fois plus de lait. Vous créez ensuite un dessin animé appelé VacheKemon et le commercialisez dans le monde entier.
ENTREPRISE ALLEMANDE : Vous avez 2 vaches. Vous les reconcevez pour qu'elles vivent 100 ans, mangent une fois par mois et se traient elles même.
ENTREPRISE ITALIENNE : Vous avez 2 vaches mais vous ne savez pas où elles sont, et allez déjeuner.
ENTREPRISE RUSSE : Vous avez 2 vaches, vous les comptez et en trouvez 5. Vous recomptez en en trouvez 42. Vous recomptez encore une fois et en trouvez 2. Vous arrêtez de compter et ouvrez une autre bouteille de vodka.
ENTREPRISE SUISSE : Vous avez 5000 vaches et aucune ne vous appartient. Vous facturez les propriétaires pour garder leurs vaches.
ENTREPRISE CHINOISE : Vous avez 2 vaches, vous avez 300 millions de gens pour les traire. Vous clamez qu'il y a le plein
emploi, une grande productivité bovine et arrêtez le journaliste qui a donné les chiffres. ENTREPRISE INDIENNE : Vous avez 2 vaches, vous les adorez.
ENTREPRISE ANGLAISE : Vous avez 2 vaches, elles sont toutes les 2 folles.
ENTREPRISE MAROCAINE: Vous avez 2 vaches, et vous ne savez pas quoi en faire et vous importez du lait...!

The Warm Mediterranean weather turned cold inside the varnished stones of the Moroccan Journalism Institute’s German style building. About 90 pale faces were sitting in the hall waiting for their turn to take the interview for studying in this prestigious college. They all know that if they succeeded out of 1500 students in the written exam, only 30 lucky people will remain by the end of the day.

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The Moroccan people are a bit different than the rest of the Middle East in terms of International relations. For example, International news has a very small place in our Press and TV. People don't really care about what is happening. They are becoming more like Western people who are busy making a living. Yet, Moroccans still react sometimes when there is a psychological geography feeling with some countries like Palestine or Iraq. However, the 24 hours channels hammered a lot these subjects to the point that everyone sees these conflicts now as daily routine. Even in universities, we still don’t have strong International Relations’ departments or analysts, like the Egyptians or the Palestinians. In this mix, Moroccan young public opinion is still very reactive instead of well informed.

Even if the US Elections are very crucial for Morocco, Young Moroccans don't seem really to distinguish between Democrats and Republicans or Donkeys and Elephants, apart from some rare elite or International Studies’ students. Morocco needs the US support not only in its big battle for the Sahara issue but in all development and military affairs now on. Therefore, the modern Moroccan kingdom is still more concerned about what's going on in France more than what's going on in the US. I have even experienced a fever of enthusiasm among the supporters of Sarkozy and Royal during the French 2007 elections. I may suggest that the Transformational Diplomacy of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hasn't been well implemented in Morocco. One can just visit the US Embassy’s web site http://www.usembassy.ma/ to notice that nothing have been done to inform the average Moroccan about the US elections! The truth is, the revolutionary diplomacy of Rice about going to the normal people and explaining to them what is happening, and making diplomats like field people, is nothing but wonderful dreams.

I really think, it would be good if I can make a small opinion poll among Moroccan youth on the US elections battle. From what I know and have been discussing with my friends, Moroccans favour the Clinton family. Hilary Clinton has good ties with Morocco. She even created in my University a Centre for Women Empowerment which operates in the Atlas region http://www.aui.ma/VPAA/hrcwec/index.htm. Hilary Clinton also received an honorific Master degree for her work. Moreover, Bill Clinton has a reputation of a man of peace in the Moroccan mind after what he did in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The ex-president visited Morocco and was the architect of the free trade agreement between the two countries, whereas, President Bush just sent a letter of apology to the Moroccan king for not being able to come to Morocco in his Middle East tour.

Yet, the US has impregnated for the last years an image of a "Macho" & a “Racist” state. Therefore, I often hear my peers saying that "even if Americans look very democratic, but they are still a patriarchal conservative state, which won't allow a woman to rule them". Furthermore, young Moroccans also may tend to think that Americans won't accept an afro-American president like Obama, even with Operah's support.

From another perspective, young Moroccans are big consumers of the American film industry. Thus, American serials like "24 Hours” or "Commander in Chief” have contributed to make the idea of having a female or an afro-American president of the World’s greatest power more acceptable for the world's mass.

Waiting for the Transformational Diplomacy’s revolution http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2006/59306.htm to gain more concern about the American political matters, the young Moroccan is still in general lost between the Elephant and the Donkey. But to be fairer with the Moroccan public opinion, let’s wait and see how the mass will react on the elections’ eve once they have more information.

300 is the name of one of the best films that was launched this year in Hollywood. For me, when 300 is mentioned, it reminds me of the union of 300 outstanding Arab youth in Al Ein Asoukhna in Egypt between the 19th and the 23ed November 2007 in the League of the Arab States First Youth Forum.

The Hollywoodian film 300 and the LAS Youth Forum’s 300 active youth have a lot in common, especially the spirit of battle. In the LAS Youth Forum’s case it was a great battle to harmonize between different and diverse young people, and to build a common discourse and a common vision about the future.

The League of Arab States in the person of Mr. Khalid Ouhichi and his exceptional team succeeded in collecting funds from a number of organizations to make the dream of uniting the Arab Youth comes true. Yet, these same sponsors were a hard burden on the Forum’s programme, as they imposed many incoherent sections and some boring speakers that the organizing team couldn’t avoid.

The Arab League was very ambitious, and its ambitions seem to give its fruits. The first step was to hire a hardcore Youth Activist like Mr. Haythem Kamel to coordinate the event, which gave the Forum a spark of originality and Young spirit. Indeed, for the first time the participation was through online applications instead of hosting participants that the local governments choose. The second thing to applaud is the way the Forum was run: A modern open-minded and open to criticism management of the event. I guess the Arab League has learned a lot from its partnership with the Council of Europe in terms of Youth integration. The LAS section of Mr. Ouahichi even insisted in creating a consultative Youth Committee to participate in the preparation of the event. I had the chance to be a part of this team, and I can say with all the objectivity of a researcher, that we were integrated in every single detail of the Forum preparation. Our suggestions were highly taken into consideration, to a point that sometimes all the work was changed to please us, as we were a sample of the coming 300.

Some claim that 300 Arab Youth are hard to control in a beautiful hotel on the Red Sea. I would say that the main objective of a first Forum was Networking, and networking can be realized either in workshops or plenary or even in a football game on the beach. I was even impressed by groups of youth with common interests holding meeting till midnight in a very professional way to debate about their projects.

We always hear the stereotype of “the Arabs agree not to agree”. After living the experience of this forum, I could say with confidence that the age of this proverb is gone. I have seen maturity, creativity as well as methodological working in these 300 soldiers of the Arab future.

Focusing on the weaknesses of the Forum would be a lost of time, especially that the strengths are much more numerous and important. I needed some time and space to judge the forum and write my report, and I can see many outcomes of this 4 days event.

First of all the Forum was very flexible. Workshops that needed more time were organizing follow-up meetings after the end of the work days. The organizers were very open to criticism and even tried during the last day to modify the mistakes of the previous days by giving the microphone and the plenary presidency to the Youth. In addition, all the evaluation forms are taken very seriously and being examined by the LAS team.

Furthermore, the Forum ended –thanks God- without the classical Arab recommendations that we all know very well and hate very much. This event wanted to finish with concrete measurable projects that the LAS and its partners can follow up and support. Regarding the projects them selves, they translate the real needs of the Arab Youth: creation of Quality Commission for youth projects, creation of an Arab Youth Parliament, creation of an Arab Youth Network for training trainers on Democracy issues, creating an NGO for Arab Young Bloggers, Holding a Forum exclusively for Arab Young Artists… If we analyze these projects, we can conclude that our Youth are claiming structures with a stable board and funding to meet and work. Our 300 realized that in this post-modern world there is no place for amateurism and meetings where we simply wine and dine and go home happy. It is time to build structures and umbrella organisations where these capacities can be exploited, and were the Arab Youth work can be fulfilled in a professional methodological way.

At the end, I can’t predict what these projects would become tomorrow. Therefore, what I know for sure is that all the Youth are still motivated and in touch with each other, and new projects and ideas are circulating on the internet everyday like: the Arab Erasmus, the Dahab meeting, the Oriflame Network elaboration. Hence, the end of the 300 Arab Youth is fortunately not similar to the 300 film end, because if the 300 heroes die at the end of the Zack Snyder’s film, our 300 Soldiers of change are still alive holding the torch of change. No one can stop the 300!

Lewis and Wigen unveiled a very dangerous part of what we considered as “science”, as they revealed that continents are nothing but geopolitically constructed discourses that change their shapes with socio-political implications. Area studies in the U.S were founded to provide a good knowledge about unknown parts of the earth for the new hegemonic power.

Earth labeling is an old game that Europeans have been playing to explain their imperialist maneuvers. Whether based on civilizational divisions, world system logic or world regions’ classification, the game of labeling is still a stereotyped euro-centered academic discourse, designed to back up geopolitical aims.

In this paper I would try first to explain the logic of Metageography that Lewis and Wegen suggest. Then I would try to follow the progression of Area Studies in the U.S in time explaining what could be its future role. Moreover, I will try to expose the metageographical units of division of the earth, with a focus on the World Regions’ alternative scheme and explain each unit’s weaknesses.

In “The Myth of Continents: A critique of Metageography” the historian Martin Lewis and the geographer Karen Wigen argue that continents are irrelevant. The two writers arguments provides a good understanding of how Area Studies served Geopolitics by labeling the Earth and constructing reductionist discourses, as to satisfy the Great Powers’ pragmatic needs. Zoogeography and Geology prove that Geographer’s division of continents is irrelevant if we analyze the Faunal, the Floral, and the Tectonic truths.

In this process of labeling the Earth in a Euro-centric way, Europe stands as a big anomaly in the continents’ scheme from a physical geographical perspective. “Europe is by no stretch of the imagination a discernible landmass; it can’t be reckoned a continent according to the dictionary definition of that term” (M. Lewis & K. Wigen, 1997). Europe is an extension of Asian, yet, most geographers still consider it as “an archetypal” continent because of human geography characteristics that distinguish it from Asia. This just tells how much geography is a constructed discourse to serve hegemonic supremacy as well as to justify in“scientific” way imperialism. In a peace on Environmentalism and Eurocentrism James M. Blaut says that “the crystallization of northern European’s tiny feudal polities into modern states occurred for reasons that had little to do with topographic differentiation…” (J. M. Blaut, 1999). Geographers like Henry Thomas Buckle or Paul Vidal de la Blache, claim supremacy for their local civilization within Europe, but no one seemed to contest Europe’s supremacy. Environmental determinism and Social Darwinism played a huge role in Imperialist discourse about “The White Man’s Burden” or the French “Mission Civilisatrice”. Russia in Lewis & Wigen arguments is the geographical and cultural face of the European anomaly, since it's both Asian and European. History has proven that even Russian used its two faces following geopolitical strategies, moving from the 19th century typically European Russian to a more Asian- turned Cold War country.

If we admit that cultural distinction can provide basis for continental division, how can we call Asian one continent, when the Indian Subcontinent, the Gulf region, South East Asia, and other parts of it are completely different entities? Does it mean that the cultural logic that applies to Europe doesn’t apply to others? Andrew March suggests that the answer to these questions “say more about European scholars’ psychology than about Asian geography”.

Mental maps in popular imagination are very revealing of how much areas’ labeling can blur realities. In Area Studies for example, Asian studies don’t include Iran or Siberia or Lebanon. The same logic is applied in the press and official discourse. “The boundaries of the continents have become loose from their geographical moorings; these categories have become increasingly vague in the public imagination, reducing their usefulness even as locating devices” (M. Lewis & K. Wigen, 1997). What is alarming are the endless geopolitical designations that the public adopt without any criticism, like: the Middle East, The South, the third World… Lenus Hoskins in Euro-centrism vs. Afro-centrism, questions our way of looking at realities, and suggests looking from the eyes of Mother Africa for example instead of the eyes of Father Europe (L. A. Hoskins, 1992). Contemporary geographers aren’t much different from their racist Euro-centric predecessors, since they all still play the game of labeling the Earth. Even Lewis & Wigen alternative scheme is nothing but a modified version of Metageography.

Area Studies:

Area Studies are one of the key studies to understand Metageography and how geopolitical discourse was constructed, that’s why I suggest examining the emergence of area studies and the challenges it faces today. Hence, I have analyzed scholarly papers which were produced in different periods since the rise of Area Studies in the 1940s to nowadays.
American government and universities understood after World War II the necessity of understanding the unknown areas. Since, in Foucault’s terms “Power is Knowledge”, and the U.S was about to become the most powerful country, it opened government financed Area Studies divisions in prestigious universities. “American Military personnel had never before attempted to coordinate a worldwide effort, and the ensuing search for international expertise, both for planning military strategy and for orchestrating the post-war settlement” (M. Lewis & K. Wigen, 1997). Consequently, the American Council for Leaned Societies, the National Research Council, the Social Sciences Research Council, and the Smithsonian Institute merged together during the 1940s to create the Ethnographic Board, which was meant to operate in Area Studies.

Werner J. Cahnman, a member of the Association of American Geographers and a live witness of the creation of area Studies in the early 1940s, wrote in 1948 that “the new trend responds to a new need. Areas Studies is another way of saying that the United States of America has become mindful of the international expansion of its interests” (W. J. Cahnman, 1948), Cahnman’s statements shows the pragmatic perspective behind the creation of these studies. Yet, the main fears of that phase were that “Area Studies are being viewed as the chambermaid of Politics”, and the influence of Ratzelian “life-space” and Darwinism on the divisions of Area Studies in the U.S.

Marshall K. Powers in 1955 points out that Area Studies, as an attempt of understanding of the other, can prevent another World War. During the 1950s, Area Studies wasn’t yet a well established scholarly discipline, so it needed to undergo “the challenge of acquiring respectability” (M. K. Powers, 1955). Afterwards, Arian Studies became very popular and the trend of the 1980s in these studies was focused on Area Studies Economics (Philip A. Kuhn, 1984). This trend can be historically explained by the Capitalism vs. Socialism dichotomy of the Cold War.

Area Studies nowadays, are facing a real crisis as the cold war is over. It struggles to reinvent it self in a “scientific” or post-modernist shape. Yet, “Globalization as the dominant concept of the 1990s suggests powerful processes of homogenization and convergence that make increasingly irrelevant the detailed knowledge of internal affairs of different countries and regions” (Peter J. Katzenstein, 2001). One can argue that Katzentein’s fears are premature, as 9/11 revealed that Area Studies are still relevant but in cultural and religious terms. I also think that the challenge that Area Studies face today is deeply philosophical, since it needs to go from epistemology to ontology, from the (How?) to the (Why?), as to understand cultural phenomena far from the Core.

Units of Metageographical Divisions:

According to Lewis & Wigen there are three major ways of Metageographical divisions which have been used to divide and classify the Earth: Civilizations, Systems and regions. The historian and the geographer suggest as a solution for the blur divisions a new division by there own, based on World Regions as unit of analysis.

The first Unit of division is Civilization. The British historian Arnold Toynbee, in the beginning of the century, “took civilizations as his operative categories, describing these geo-historical formations as quasi-isolated and essentially comparable units of analysis.” (M. Lewis & K. Wigen, 1997). According to Toynbee, all civilizations undergo Ibn Khaldoun’s phases of “birth, growth, decline, and fossilization”. Toynbee wanted to challenge the Hegelian Euro-centric “Unity of History”, but meanwhile, he drew a rigid line between what he calls “civilized” and “uncivilized” societies and ignored cultural interchange and religious minorities across civilizations. For this historian, written texts of religious value determine civilizations, because civilizations rise with the rise of a new world religion. Therefore, regions with oral traditions were considered uncivilized by Toynbee. This elitist division of the world to historical and a-historical influenced the early Area Studies’ classification. The end of the Cold War broke the bio-polar system and gave birth to two theories; Fukuyama’s End of History unipolar theory and the Huntington’s civilization-based system. Samuel Huntington, a public intellectual that is both a Harvard scholar and a statecraft-man, stood as the heir of Arnold Toynbee by claiming in 1993 that “the fundamental source of conflict in this new world will not be primarily ideological or primarily economic. The great divisions among humankind and the dominating source of conflict will be cultural… the principal conflict of global politics will occur between civilizations” (Samuel Huntington, 1993).

Huntington was both right and wrong. He predicted in a way the great doctrinal disputes. At the same time he missed the fact that transnational terrorist actors with religious extremist believes can’t be spotted clearly in a map. Moreover, the recent conflict is not between two civilizations, but between states that have certain “modern” values and non-state actors that produces an anti-modernist discourse. How can Huntington’s theory fit in a world where Islamist movements carry out terrorist acts in other Muslim countries?

The second unit of metageographical division is Systems. William Mc Neill pointed the rise of a world system beyond civilizations, whereas, Braudel “focused on systemic interactions that transgressed both state and civilizational boundaries” (M. Lewis & K. Wigen, 1997). According to Immanuel Wallerstein, civilizations aren’t isolated, and what civilizationaists label as marginal areas have played an important role in history of the core. These peripheries provided row material and cheap labor for the core in a neo-Marxist perspective. Hence, world system theory is economic-centered and gives little sense to cultural considerations as Weight would say. Another danger of this division is the mapping of “cultural centrality” over “economic centrality”. It is wiser to consider the world from a postmodern perspective, which says that identities aren’t rigid and new identities continue to be created everyday. Even Karen Wigen argues that; culture, power, and place interact endlessly to create new schemes both culturally and economically, as it is the case in Asia (K. Wigen, 1999).

Alternative Scheme:

Lewis and Wigen suggest remedying to the incoherence of previous divisions, by introducing an alternative scheme based on Regions, which they define as “large socio-spatial groupings delimitated largely on the grounds of shared history and culture” (M. Lewis & K. Wigen, 1997). The two authors explain this new unit of division saying; “where the continental scheme is based on a spurious identity between human grouping and landmasses they inhabit, the world regional framework attempts to delimitate areas of shared ideas, related life ways, and long-standing cultural ties” (M. Lewis & K. Wigen, 1997).

The cartography of the 17th and 18th century established sub-continental divisions based on size, political feature or languages, which served for the American Area Studies divisions. Even if these classifications changed once and forth and may appear inconsistent. Yet, they offer certain “fluidity” compared with the continental division. “Meanwhile, the world regional grid gradually acquired a life of its own outside of American institution” (M. Lewis & K. Wigen, 1997), as people in these regions entered in a self-identification process, adopting these classifications as their identities. According to Robert stock “the most important of Lewis and Wegen’s proposals include the treatement of central asia as a distinct region and the separation of an African American region” (R. Stock, 1999). Still, this Regional model of division is very geographically deterministic. We could even say that Lewis and Wegen tried to avoid Metageography and fail in Metageography again.

Going from the civilizational scheme of labeling the earth to World systems theory’s economic and European-centered division and ending in Lewis and Wegen’s World regions alternative divisions, all are nothing but stigmatized temptations to label the earth on the metageographical level for geopolitical reasons. Nowadays geographers explore new categories like Oceans and hydrographic based divisions of world region, as a new trend that Duke University is exploring (M. Lewis & K. Wigen, 1999).

Area studies as a major machine of geopolitics operated since W.W.II closely with politics to draw a biased map of the world. These Studies are still very relevant today after 9 – 11 but in a cultural and religious sense, as to go from explaining societies to understanding them.

Reference List:

- V. Lieberman (1997). The Eurasian Context of the early modern History of Mainland South East Asia. Modern Asia Studies, pp. 463- 546.
- L. MartinW & Karen E. Wigan (1997). The Myth of Continents: A critique of Metageography. Berkley: university of California Press, pp.124-188.
- W. J. Cahnman. (1948). Outline of a theory of Area studies. Annals of the Association of Americans Geographers, p.233-243.
- L. MartinW (1999). The geographical review.
- Oyvind Ostreud. (1988). The Use and Abuse of geopolitics. Journal of Peace Research, p.191-199.
- L. MartinW & K. Wigen. (1999). A Martimie response to the crisis in area studies. The geographical review, p. 161-168.
- L. MartinW. (2000).The Geographical review, p.603-628.World- city Network: A new Metageography. Annals of the association of Americans geographers, 123-134.
- K. Wigen. (1999). Culture, power,and Place: The New Landscapes of Esat Asian religionalism. The American Historical Review, p1183-1201.
- P. A. Kuhn. (1984). Area studies and the Disciplines. Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, p.5-8.
- M. K. Powers. Area Studies. The journal of Higher Education, p.82-89+113.
J F. Butler. (1950). Toynbee and the categories of interpretation. The Philosophical Review, p.230-233.
- P. J. Katzenstein. (2001). Area and regional Studies in the United States. PS: Political Science and Politics, p.789-791.
- L. S. Hoskins.( 1992). Eurocentrism vs. Afrocnetrism : A geopolitics Linkage Analysis. Journal of Black Studies, p.247-257.
- D. C. Engerman. (1998). Review [Untiteled]. The Pacific Historical Review, p.610-611.
- J. M. Blaut. (2007). Environmentalist and Eurocentrism. The Geographical Review.
- J. A . Agnew. (2000). Review : global political geography beyond Geopolitics. International StudiesRreview, p.91-99.
- R. Stock. (1999). Review [Untiteled]. Canadian Journal of African Studies, p.184-186.
- E. Shohat. (2001). Area studies, Transnationalism, and the feminist Produsction of knowledge. Signs, p.1296-1272.

I don’t know how much of you have tried the London Eye. When you are going up, it’s kind of slow, but once you’ve reached the zenith and coming down, it’s pretty faster than what you can realize. Well, I guess in the wheel of history we are trapped in that speedy side of the wheel. Our notion of time and space has changed since we’ve reached the zenith of our history: 9/11. Have any of you had enough time to figure out what is happening since then: The War on Afghanistan, Palestinian Intifada, The War on Iraq, Iran nuclear game, The Tsunami, Katrina, The Cedar Revolution… Even analysts and political scientists can not pursue the events with the necessary depth, as they are them selves being taken by the flow of never-ending new events. Where are we in History? That’s a question I want to ask.

I believe Time is elastic. However, some states keep fighting over space and drawing imaginary lines and “national boundaries”. Hey dear states of the earth wake up! Fighting over land is a post-colonial matter, not to say a medieval issue. Some other states fight over identity: Kurds, Amazigh, Aboriginals, Gays, and Women… All want rights and space where to practice these rights. Hey dear communities of the earth wake up! Fighting over recognition is a twentieth century thing. I see no groups seriously fighting over time! Does the US have power over time? NO. So it’s not the twenty-first century first power in any way.

As a graduate student in International Relations, I find nowhere a theory dealing with strategic time management in International Relations, or at least, a Time-Space theory other than the old-fashion geopolitics of Uncle Kissinger.

As a passenger of that speedy wheel, I seriously consider what would be waiting for me once down when the tour would be finished. Are we heading towards the Holy Scriptures’ apocalypse or Kaplan’s disaster or something else? Anyway, it seems to be the end of an era, or an eon as would say some, in the universe.

I’m not a prophet, and not even a proper researcher. I’m just like birds sensing the upheaval when it’s near. Then, I would just like to ask real specialists to stop analyzing the means (oil, nuclear power, military, water…), or the events or even the personalities of the leaders, because “there is no logic to human behavior” as thought me Dr. Kalpakian. Maybe it’s more efficient to start looking at the wider picture, while drawing on physics for instance, and studying Meta-Time. Our real future enemy can’t be defeated with soft or hard power it’s beyond that. It’s up to you to figure out how to beat it. It’s Time.

Since the middle of the nineteenth century, new-comers from North Africa brought with them to France their diverse cultural heritage. These local forms of cultural expression were used for the entertainment of foreign workers. During colonization, North African militants used many forms of arts and expression to resist and condemn the French rule in their countries.

The original forms of cultural expression focused on values of the motherland, Nationalism as well as working-class suffering, which is hard for the second generation to identify themselves with, as they were born and raised in France and were facing different realities and problems during the 1970s and 1980s. The clash between the first generation and second generation values and perception of the space gave birth to a new form of cultural expression during this period. “Caught between the “Myth of Repatriation” and the growing intolerance toward North Africans, some immigrants children turned to collective forms of cultural expression to address intergenerational tensions and to assert their right to inclusion in French society” (Derderian 2004).

The immigrants developed a new Genre of arts in theater, literature, Medias, music and cinema of course. Cinema, as a way of expression which can convey scenes of every day’s life with sound and picture, is one of the most important and efficient way to communicate about immigration issues. Since the 1970s on, a generation of French filmmakers, from different backgrounds from North African origins, appeared in the French cultural scene to tell the stories of their communities, to seek social integration or simply to achieve an esthetic work.

In this paper we will examine the rise and development of French filmmakers from North African origins, and try to understand the aim behind this fever to share emotions through sound and picture. We will also study their cinematographic production with regards to their being at the center of interculturality between the “departure country”s vision and the “host country”s vision of the universe. Yet, cinema is not only a form of artistic manifestation. It can be also understood in the social context as a mean of struggle for a certain community or a tool of social integration in the host country after achieving fame and wealth. Once totally integrated in the “host country”, the “departure country” shows interest on these movie makers who succeeded in becoming famous, and it even claim that they belong to it, which is very problematic for the psychological and artistic identity of there filmmakers.

At first Cinema was expensive and not very accessible for immigrants, so they turned toward its older form: Theater. Theater was an easy and less demanding form of cultural expression. It serves as a medium for the second generation of immigrants to challenge the stereotypes about their communities. Consequently, many theater companies raised in the name of migrant communities during the 1970s and the 1980s such as; “Kahina (1976-1982), Week-end à Nanterre (1977-1980) and Ibn Kaldoun (1978-1980)” (Derderian 2004). Most of these companies performed in Verlan slang, as a mixture of Arabo-Berber accent and regular French. The themes developed by the companies were mainly about immigration and the daily problems of foreign workers as well as the situation of migrant families. These themes were often presented in a humoristic way to reach the mind of the audience. The plays relayed more on improvisation than on a specific script (Derderian 2004, pp: 50-51).

According to Derderian “After the early 1980s, North African cultural expression moved from militant collective initiatives by amateur artists rooted in working-class suburban communities to professional forms of creative expression that targeted mainstream French audiences and relied more heavily on mainstream sources of diffusion and instrumental support.” (Derderian 2004, pp: 52). This phenomenon can be understood if we analyze the transformation that acquired at this historical moment, as communitarian forms of art weren’t enough to make a living for the artists, who wanted to turn into cinema and reach a wider audience, and the immigration theater has reached a certain maturity in its means and teams which enabled it to go to the next step.

France was a good place to study cinema and to do cinema compared to the destination countries, even if many stereotypes persisted about French filmmakers from non-European origins. France soon became thanks to its rich cultural atmosphere, the center of most of first Arab and North African filmmakers like Tewfik Saleh from Egypt and Mai Masri from Labanon… an important fact while dealing with these filmmakers, is to precise that most of them are immigrants before they become filmmakers. Maybe filmmaking was for them a dream from the time they were in their country of destination or maybe the desire to express a certain cultural esthetic came after the clash with the European society or maybe the second generation born there wanted to produce a cinema that resembles more to the color Beur.

Mehdi Charef went to france at first at the age of 12 to join his working father there. Charef spent his childhood around Nanterre and Gennevilliers Banlieux, where he shot many scenes of his filst and most known film Le Thé Au Harem d’Archimède on 1985. Ali Ghanem, went to France during the middle of the 1960s, and learned cinema by himself by reading specialized books and watching movies and other filmmakers on set. Ghanem shot his fist movie in 1970 Mektoub, which were considered as the first full length movie dealing with immigration by an immigrant filmmaker from North African origins (Rosen 1989, pp: 36). From the part of women, Assia Djebor represented the voice of women. Assia Djebor, who was a famous Algerian writer, thought it would be easier for her to communicate with the Algerian illiterate women through films. Thus, she made two highly original films, La Nouba Des Femmes Du Mont Chenoua in 1978 and La Zerda et Les Chants De L’oubli in 1982, before quitting cinema. In 1994, Malik Chibane released his film Hexagone, which was seen as a cinematographic success. The film Hexagone was a new stage in the development of Cinema made by French filmmakers from North African origins, since in terms of professional cinema Hexagone was a success in its plot, its audience rates and its money incomes. In spite of having “no formal training and no connections in the entertainment business” (Derderian 2004, pp: 64), Chibane was inspired by Week-end à Nanterre, and tells through his film the story of five days in the life of five North African Beur friends in the director’s neighborhood at Goussainville. Unlike Mehdi Charef or Rachid Bouchareb, Chiban’s film, which drew more than 60 000 viewers, was at first rejected by many production companies because of the ethnic composition of its actors. In addition, “Chibane received no financial support from the National Cinematography commission” (Derderian 2004, pp: 65), which is the main financial supporter of young artists in France, so the filmmaker was forced to relay on his own and work with a restrained small budget. According to Chibane, the ministries who supported the project like Bernard Tapie tend to see it as “a social initiative, not as a cultural one”. These facts show how much the French Republican model of secularism lucks in strategy while dealing with the promotion of minorities’ art production. If we compare the situation of French filmmaker from non-European origins to filmmakers from minority groups in Britain or the United States, we will notice that in these countries Art expression is very strong, because it is reinforced by minority positive laws and institutions, which help artists from minority groups to fund and share their work openly. Whereas, in France this kind of community based work is condemned because it is seen against the values of the republic, which favors cultural assimilation rather than communitarian originality. Under the rule of the socialist party, thing got worse for filmmakers and artists from North African backgrounds, after the paralyzation of the Cultural development Direction and the weakening of the Cultural Intervention fund (Marques 2002).

Other filmmakers like Farouk Beloufa, Taieb Louhici, Nacer Khemir, Ibrahim Tsaki and Merzak Allouche came from Tunisia and Algeria, because they luck of professional schools and cinematographic practices in their motherlands. Others simply came to France as students and became permanent residents, in a France seen as a paradise for cultural practice from the outside a hell for new-comers from the inside.

Cultural duality is a main feature of the cinematographic art of filmmakers from North African origins. Mehdi Charef and Mahmoud Zemmouri for instance, had to work to gain money to subsist and shot films to fulfill their artistic needs, they were inspired from their first home and second home, and lived all the push and pull situation at a sensitive time in French characterized by ethnic racism and social stereotypes. The battle to find a place in the second home and the bitter nostalgia about the first home, gave a special spontaneous esthetic to their work and something of a cultural duality (Odin 2002, pp32).

Many artists from North African origins tempted to focus on their artistic identity instead of their ethnic one, claiming that they should be seen as French artists like any other ones. However, some artists indirectly benefited from being an “Immigrant” or a “Beur”. These artists came to the scene to fill the roles of negatively represented North Africans, so they became famous out of that. The case of the actor Smain can illustrate this fact, as he had access to cinema by doing small role of the “negative Arab”. This can be applied to filmmakers as well; many became famous because government authorities wanted to give them the chance to produce their works out of political maneuvers or to fulfill the curiousity of French people from European origins about what happens in the “exotic” Banlieux. Smain and other actors and filmmakers never wanted to stand up as spokesmen of their community, even if they were in fact directly inspired from the situation of French people from North African origins in their artistic works. Apart from special cases like Jamal Debouz, who maintain good relationships with the country of origins of his parents, most artists prefer forgetting their ethnic specificity and melting in the French Republic colors, but stereotypes about their community always chasse them.

Filmmaking by French directors from North African origins is closely associated with what they call “immigration literature”. Both “immigration cinema” and “immigration literature” share the same themes and the same an “Apatrid” art strained between two countries, cultures and visions of the universe, as explained by Lassi. These forms of cultural expression, deal with “the socio-cultural context of production situated in a foreign land and victim of it’s non-integration in the art of the host country, same as their producers can’t be integrated easily” (Lassi 200’, pp 42-45). Christophe Ruggia did a cinematographic version of the novel Le Gone Du Chabâa 11 years after its publication. The novel by Azouz Beggag, describes the issues of cohabitation between the North African Arab minority culture and the dominant “French culture”, at the same time it explores the different strategies to overcome these cultural barriers between the two communities. Le Gone Du Chabâa and other literary productions by French novelists from North African origins are a major source of inspiration for filmmakers from the same background, which shows that different forms of expression can join and complement each other when dealing with the same theme. The cultural expressions by French artists from North African origins are today a real entity in the French arts, expressing the living and esthetic of a double culture carried by the North African communities in the French Republic.

Another important side of the filmmaking process when the French movie makers from North African origins turned professional is the issue of funding. Nowadays, most big productions made by these kinds of directors are funded by French film companies or government funds for cinema. Funding deals sometimes impose modifications on the original scenarios, or impose a psychological auto-censorship by the directors who make concessions about the reality of things to be produced. Further more, becoming professional means also addressing a much larger public, as “the western viewer becomes a major factor in the film equation” (Rosen 1989, pp: 36). The French viewer has many stereotyped expectations about the production of filmmakers from different backgrounds, which pushes as to question seriously the themes and the images presented by these directors. Do these filmmakers fulfill “the stereotyped expectations of the western audience” to sell their works? Is the reality so ugly to tell, that it is necessary to hide it by humor and stigmas?

“Not necessary!” the answer comes from the recent film Indigènes by Rachid Bouchareb. Indigènes was projected on May 2006 during the official competition of the Cannes festival. The film tells the story of more than 600 000 North African soldiers, who came to fight for France during the Second Great War in 1943 in the Italian front, and who died to liberate southern France from Toulon to Alsace. Indigènes stars four artists from North African o