European Euphoria

Rovinj is a cute little village on the Northern Croatian border, and Alex and I found our way there today. We were planning on staying in Dubrovnik, but somehow we overlooked the fact that there are no ferries to Dubrovnik from Venice. Oh well. That was the least of our troubles the last two days.

Thursday night we decided to sleep overnight in Casablanca airport because there were no trains early enough to check in for our flight, and usually there are no taxis running that early either. So from 11 pm - 5 am we slept surprisingly well at a cafe and were up right on time to check in.

Unfortunately the airport in Milan decided to go on strike that day so our flight was delayed for 12 hours. We had no place to go and nothing to do. We spent the time reading a bit and napping a lot.

Our plane did not actually take off until 7 because a Moroccan man did not like the fact that smoking on the plane was prohibited. He put up a really unnecessary fight and even tried to get some of his comrades to boycott the flight. In the end he gave in, and sat down like everyone else.

We arrived in Milan pretty late, caught a late bus into the city center and crashed at a two star hotel. For the price (which was still a bit expensive) it was a pretty nice hotel in a nice area. We finally got to sleep at 3 am and were up again at 8 to head to Venice.

Getting to Venice ended our traveling troubles. We ate well, walked much of the city and just relaxed until we hopped on a ferry to Rovinj. We found a cute little apartment for 50 euros a night, and although the price is a little more than we wanted to spend it is definitely worth it.

Will tell more later in the week!

Final Boarding Call for Terminal 18

In one of my previous posts I added a little commentary about an interview I had for an internship position in Washington DC, and said that I would not name the organization so as to not jinx my chances. Well, it worked! I was accepted as a summer intern at International Peace Operations Association!

In other news, Alex and I are flying out tomorrow morning at 7 for Italy. We will be spending a day or two there before taking a ferry from Venice to Croatia...I think I detailed this in another previous post so I won't bore you with all the details again.

Since we are backpacking through various parts of Europe, I will not have many chances to blog, etc. I will try my best to keep everyone updated and detail some of our adventures. Don't worry, I will give a complete update once we are stateside.

Speaking of returning to the states, Alex and I will have to get our butts down to DC basically as soon as we land on American soil. I do not know how much time we will have to visit, or what areas we will hit. But we have plans to travel back up to New Jersey for the two weekends after we get back and visit Missouri for the 4th of July holiday. Will give more details in the coming month.

Now you have basic idea of what's going on for the next month, let me tell you about the last week. My friend and Alex's editor, Matthias, visited us this last week from Beirut. We were both really excited since it was the first time in a long time that we hosted anyone. And we couldn't have asked for better weather or a better way to spend our time.

We spent the first couple of days in Fez. Alex and Matthias had a few necessary meetings, etc, but a lot of time was spent on exploring the area. I took Matthias down to the old medina to do a bit of shopping and we exploited Fez like pros. The best part was Matthias' choice of restaurants. I had the best meals in Morocco during his visit.

This trend continued when we bussed it up to Chefchaoun. It being my favorite Moroccan city, I had to take him there. We spent a couple relaxing days there, ate great food, bought cheap textiles and ventured in and out of Chefchaoun's sites. I must say that during our shopping escapades, Matthias and I mastered the bartering system with a game we like to call "good cop, bad cop". It's pretty self-explanatory, and really works.

Our last stop together was Rabat. Of course we ate amazing food and just had fun exploring the medina. We also visited the Kasbah, and the gardens of Rabat. It was definitely worth the trip.

Matthias is finishing up his trip in Marrakech, and so you will have to find out from him how his Moroccan adventure ended! I do know that he is returning to Beirut a couple carpets and textiles richer!

As for Alex and I, we are in Casablanca just waiting to board our flight. We went to see the Hassan II Mosque, which is the biggest in Africa. It was one of the most majestic buildings I have ever seen. The outside is just as decorative and intricate as the inside. Walking around the mosque at sundown is definitely the best time of day.

Right now I am going to recharge with a pain au chocolate. Get ready Eastern Europe, here we come!

Find Your Voice: A Cross-Cultural Forum on Political Participation and Civic Activism

Last weekend I attended a conference in Morocco’s capital of Rabat, and had the opportunity to hear some of the opinions and concerns of Morocco’s youth. Alex and I both agree that our experience in Morocco differs quite a bit from our stay in Beirut, in that we have not had a chance to befriend or discuss any important issues with Moroccans of any age. In fact, up until last weekend, the extent of our interactions with Moroccans were with shopkeepers and Arabic professors.

The conference, called “Find Your Voice: A Cross-Cultural Forum on Political Participation and Civic Activism”, was jointly sponsored by Moroccan and American NGOs (including POMED and AID) in which 50 participants were selected to participate. Surprisingly it was a great array of Moroccan and American students, all willing and eager to engage panelists and express their opinions in group discussions.

To read more about the conference (and future conferences you could apply for) here is a link to POMED’s website:

http://pomed.org/activities/conferences/

Our main topics included Moroccan youth and the barriers they face in political participation and the lack of youth involvement in all areas of society, societal problems like illiteracy rates and poverty, role of media and civil society, role of government in all of these areas and finally the tools in which Moroccans and Americans can increase their involvement and the involvement of others.

We were lucky enough to have four great panels throughout the conference. Some of the panelists included US Embassy staff, members of Moroccan parliament, NGO representatives, a manager from Barack Obama’s campaign, a radio broadcaster from a Moroccan radio station and a well-known Moroccan blogger and activist. After the panels we were invited to participate in discussion groups in order to express all our personal opinions, add to the opinions of the panelists and suggest “policy recommendations” (which I will get to).

Of course, as students and young adults, we (Moroccans and Americans alike) were all very opinionated. Group discussions, in particular, tended to become very intense. It become very clear that Moroccans and Americans had completely different thought processes and ideas on the definition and ways to create change.

We began by discussing some of the problems facing Moroccans, including: a 50% illiteracy rate, a political infrastructure that catered to a political elite and no programs for youth involvement, media facilities distrusted on a wide scale and the poor development of the Moroccan media industry, inadequate number of schools of journalism and training for journalists (there are only 2 schools of journalism is all of Morocco), the slow rate of growth of civil society in Morocco and their low impact on political and societal issues, and finally how to get youth more involved in political participation and civic activism that had a positive affect on the development of Morocco.

Of course these are problems faced by governments and populations all over the world, and so it was fun to get the American and Moroccan perspectives on all these issues. During the course of the conference, it became increasingly apparent that there was a huge gap between American and Moroccan mentalities. Americans took it for granted that they were dealing with other students who were completely aware of individual rights and a culture of individual responsibility, as we are. And Moroccans, who grow up in a culture completely different than ours, tended to make suggestions that did not in any way to attack fundamental problems, rather their solutions were to amend one law or create another in order to change the system.

Of course, it is important to be able to work in a system, that is government or business structure, and make small changes for the better instead of try and attack a system as a whole. If the youth rose up against the Moroccan kingdom the king would not just give up his power, but seek to squash the revolution and consolidate his power. Maybe the king would institute some reform, but this would not be the best way to tackle the situation.

And, of course, the Americans are used to a system that actively engages the youth and creates countless opportunities for the youth to get involved and use their creativity and enthusiasm for the betterment of the country.

What both groups tended to ignore were fundamental issues that needed to be addressed. Like the illiteracy rate, or awareness of the culture of individuality and change. Americans have been told since they were old enough to speak, if not by their parent then definitely in school, that they have certain rights that no one can take away from them and that they have every opportunity in the world to be successful. We forget that.

To create awareness, there needs to be a change of mindset in Morocco and it has to start with the real youth. The youth young enough to be educated in a way that inspires them to be academically productive without the worries of family and monetary responsibilities. If an American child had to worry about doing all the daily chores instead of dream of all the things they want to do when they grow up, our culture would be wholly different. The education system in Morocco has to encourage students to think as individuals and also to expose them to other cultures and mindsets so that they can formulate opinions and criticisms for themselves. I am not an expert, but I have not seen any of this kind of education on a wide scale in Morocco.

Anyway, back to the conference. Throughout the conference, the participants were given the task of coming up with “policy recommendations” based on the insight of the panelists and the developments during group discussions. These recommendations were directed toward the American and Moroccan governments as suggestions for reform in order to open the doors for greater opportunity for political participation of the Moroccan youth.

I personally felt that the policy recommendations ended up being too vague and not creative enough. The end of the conference probably let a bitter taste in everyone’s mouths because it seemed all of our discussion did not yield as optimistic results. On the other hand, I met a lot of great people and learned a lot about the Moroccan youth…overall the conference was a success!