salam

I stand by my assertion. As you can see, we’re losing sight of the main point and getting side tracked because you wrote that there was no Mandela in Morocco. So, let’s end it here.

Thank for the word ’stupid’. I didn’t mean Mandela as a man, as a person. But as a symbol. As a way of thinking and trying to move ahead to the next step and put Apartheid behind. What’s more, today’s Morocco needs a powerful source of inspiration to make it to overcome a host of obstacles and traps while avoiding any kind of bloodshed. That’s what Mandela stands for as far as I’m concerned and not some sort of Superman who toppled Apartheid all by himself!

That’s a stupid thing to say. Mandela didn’t single-handedly defeated the Apartheid. Also, the Alaouis didn’t do to the Moroccans nearly as much as the Dutch have done to the blacks. It is true that they consider themselves genetically superior, but that’s where the analogy ends.

On the other hand things cannot change overnight. Most of us have to be ready to set it in motion and then use it smartly, not abuse it rigth from the beginning. Otherwise we could lose it even faster than it takes to write a leader article in a quality paper.

There is no recipe for change. And as there is no Mandela in Morocco, some of us will have to take risks, small, progressive, calculated risks that could not only knock on the the Palace’s door but compel its owner to leave his Ivory Tower and join the 21st century. And a new generation of Moroccans hungry for freedom and thirsty for the circulation of ideas, views and opinions.

We are fed up with paternalistic attitudes towards millions of people whose dream is to live decently in a country where all citizens should have their say in the future of their children … with no prison strings attached.