Moroccan Americans: what are our responsibilities? June 30, 2006
Posted by Delilah in : General, Maroc, US, World, US Congress , add a commentAs I indicated earlier, although unacknowledged in the invites or the agenda, the issue of the Sahara was front and center throughout last week-end’s Moroccan Americans Convention - and although a formal denial was offered, visibly stage-managed by various officials of the Moroccan government. Ironically, when all the official speech-making was over and we were invited to break into discussion groups, the one dedicated to “territorial integrity” was, by far, the smallest and the networking group the biggest. Says it all, really: people aren’t interested in having issues forced down their throat.
Still, there was a definite attempt to convince the audience that the Sahara issue is the foremost issue for Moroccan Americans and that we should all mobilize around it to lobby Congress to - I suppose - support whatever position the Moroccan government holds at any given time. We were repeatedly told - not so much by the Moroccan Ambassador, but certainly by the paid PR/communication (sic) flacks - that the Sahara is our only, and most critical , issue to discuss with Congress. One of the flacks - the clownish, patronizing former US Amb. to Morocco - even went as far as acknowledging that the “POW issue is a clever way of bringing Congresspeople to our side”. He went ahead and even brought up Darfur as a “model” of effective mobilizing - as if we didn’t know the kind of manipulation that issue has been subjected to.
So - let’s see here, about these responsibilities of ours as Moroccan Americans: (more…)
When Moroccan Americans get together… June 28, 2006
Posted by Delilah in : General, Maroc, US, World, US Congress , add a commentLast Saturday, I attended a day-long gathering of Moroccan Americans advertized as focusing on “opportunities and responsibilities”. The email invite came from a former colleague that I respect and have known for a long time and I had time, so I went - if only to catch-up with old acquaintances and maybe meet new people. That, I did but the rest was pretty much old school, to say the least.
I got there mid-morning, just as the Ambassador of Morocco was wrapping-up his speech. I had no clue who he was, until I asked the guy sitting next to me, in the back of the room who turned out to be an official at the embassy too. Next to him, was another embassy official. This thing was starting to look “official” to me - which didn’t surprise me at all, although I wished the invite had mentioned it and saved me the trip. I turned my attention again to the Ambassador who was going on about “territorial integrity” (ie the Sahara issue). He even introduced a few former POWs.
Then the MC explained that we would hear from former US Amb. to Morocco, under Bill Clinton, Edward Gabriel whose exceedingly patronizing tone was matched by the hollowness of his presentation. He started off joking that he “knew he was at the right place when he saw signs for the conference room pointing in both directions” - which was a damn lie actually - basically telling the organizers to their face that they are incompetent by virtue of being Moroccan. And the room laughed along with him… He also interjected “couscous” numerous times, basically to indicate how Moroccans do business. And the Moroccans in the room laughed with him. (more…)
The most bigoted nation of the “civilized” - sic - world, period June 5, 2006
Posted by Delilah in : General, US, US Congress , add a commentHere we go again, let’s bash gay folks to get the fundies out to vote in November. How retarded is this? My God, don’t the bigots know they are being played? And what the hell kind of argument is it that says “gay marriage ruins marriage?” - How stupid is this? Have they noticed the rates of heterosexual divorce? Hello?
Also - doesn’t the Senate have better things to do these days than to try and go after our fellow citizen’s most basic rights? People are dying all over the place and the debt ceiling is in the stratosphere and these guys want to mess with the Constitution to go after gay people?
Predictable and predicted June 3, 2006
Posted by Delilah in : General, Political Islam, Iraq, Islam/Arab Phobia, US, World, So-called Democrats, US Congress , add a commentNo satisfaction at all in being proven right, is there? Anyone with a drop of common sense about them knew damn well that the anglo-american invasion/occupation of Iraq was based on lies, had zero chance of “success” - how could it? - and would end up bringing the anglo-american sphere of influence down a few notches.
As for the nauseating abuses of Iraqi civilians all of a sudden “coming to the surface now” as if Iraqi civilians haven’t been the victims of this crazy misadventure from the start - what took so long?
All we can do is continue to pray for peace and justice - while our politicians - Democrats and Republicans alike - continue to mislead us and kill people in our name. For shame.
