Today in class, we were discussing the Arab revolutions and one of my classmates asked our professor a simple but important question: "Are the current political conditions in Morocco similar to the conditions of Egypt before the revolution?" Our professor seemed taken aback by the question for a moment. She is a university professor in Egypt and participated in the demonstrations there from the very beginning. Her answer was long, much longer than we expected. It was incredibly moving to hear, so I will try to repeat it here as best I can (keep in mind I'm writing from memory and translating from Arabic, so take the numbers, especially, with a grain of salt).
"The political conditions that we're seeing in Morocco are similar to those in Egypt just before the revolution, but there are many important differences. For one, Morocco is a kingdom, while Egypt was a republic (though there was no difference in practice). Second, while there is severe and widespread poverty in Morocco, it is nothing compared to the abject poverty that exists in Egypt. As a university professor in Egypt with seven years of experience, I make the equivalent of $1500 a month. A university professor in Morocco starts her career with that much. I still work two jobs to make ends meet, and it is common for Egyptians to hold two or three jobs, especially if they are parents. The scope of poverty in Morocco is not as wide or severe, so Moroccans do not have the same financial pressures that led to so much anger in Egypt.
"Moroccans, I have noticed, have such a good sense of humor. They laugh, they make jokes, they socialize. I see families spending time in public parks around Meknes, and children go play soccer together at the soccer fields. We have nothing like that in Egypt. There are almost no public services or public spaces for people to enjoy. In the last twenty years, everything has been privatized. Even the beaches, which used to be public spaces, now cost up to 100 EGP (Egyptian Pounds, 1 dollar = 6 EGP). Long stretches of the beach can only be accessed if you own a beachfront property, which can cost 1000 dollars a month. So poor Egyptians have no resources and no place to socialize. You could see before the revolution that people had lost their sense of humor. People didn't joke, they felt so much frustration.
"I love talking to people. Whenever I get in a taxi, I always take the opportunity to talk to the driver because more than anyone, they know the mood on the street. At the start of the revolutions I asked a taxi driver who was driving me in the city, 'What do you think of the demonstrations?' He was suspicious of me at first, and asked me right back, 'What's your opinion on it?' I answered excitedly, 'I love the revolution! It's amazing to see this happening!' He relaxed and said he supports the revolution as well. He told me that he worked for the government his whole life, and his pension only gives him the equivalent of $120 dollars a month. He says he is 76 years old and his wife is very sick. He couldn't afford the medication she needed with his pension so he works as a taxi driver. Even with the extra income, he told me, he can only afford half of the medication she needs."
Her voice cracked and she wiped her eyes, which were brimming with tears. "I'm sorry," she said. We sat there in silence for a long moment. "We should really get back to class," our professor said suddenly. And so we returned to our lesson.
I will never forget that quiet moment of honesty and humaneness. Somehow her story drove home the human cost of dictatorship more than any political article I had read or any youtube video I had watched of the revolution. Dictatorship and poverty don't just silence people. They don't just frustrate or anger people. The conditions in Egypt were killing people. And similar conditions exist all over the Arab World.
I don't want to end this post on such a sour note, so I'll talk about the market (sooq) in Meknes. I visited a new section of the market today. This part of the sooq sells food, including pastries, spices, grains, vegetables, fruits, meats, and live chickens. If I drew a map of the sooq, I would label this section "The Cloud of Bees."
Seriously. It's not uncommon to see pastry shops with windows full of bees crawling all over the sugary sweets. But this was ridiculous. We were walking in the largest swarm of bees and flies I had ever seen. And no one seemed to care. The shopkeepers kept selling and buyers kept buying as bees crawled all over the food and buzzed around or heads. I just decided to do as the Romans do and just walk through the cloud quietly without making any sudden movements. As I walked through the meat section, I saw some of the butchers taking a nap...on the equip they use to cut and prepare the meat.
And the smell. I will never forget that smell as hard as I try. The smell of chicken feces mixes with rotting meat and olives was honestly the worst stench I have ever experienced.
I think everyone should visit The Cloud of Bees once. But I won't be visiting twice.
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