Obama, McCain and Western Sahara

RDB writes that the election matters most to “Third World countries that live under Uncle Sam's wing, or worse, rot under the boots of his GIs” and agrees that an Obama win would be a chance for America to make history.

However, there is another issue Moroccans should consider: the fate of Western Sahara:

A Maroc, les élections américaines représentent un enjeu plus que majeur, puisque directement liées (qui dans ce monde ne l’est pas?) à l’avenir du pays. La connexion directe s’établissant dans les relations Mc Cain-Maroc et Obama-Mandela. Quoi?! C’est plus simple que ça n’en a l’air. Mc Cain l’ancien président du comité d’amitié marocco-américain, est le choix du Maroc, puisqu’il semble tourné vers les intérêts du royaume du moins sur le papier, tandis qu’Obama est un ami d’un vieil homme appelé Nelson Mandela. Vous ne voyez toujours pas l’anguille? Fouillez sous roche, où mieux sous sable…Le Sahara!

Oui, c’est un peu tiré par les cheveux, mais c’est une option qui peut se vérifier…On sait tous que Mandela, l’icone mondiale de la liberation des minorités, est un protecteur et défenseur de la cause séparatrice du polisario. Par extention, Obama pourrait être influencé dans ce sens et faire basculer la balance…

Si cette hyppothèse se vérifie, le Maroc croisera les doigts pour que Mc Cain sorte gagnant des urnes…

A reader, Cogito, writes that while he's still thinking, RDB's post has nearly made him change his mind about Obama:

En parlant de ton article à un ami, il vient de me confirmer qu’effectivement c’est le parti républicain qui a toujours été du coté du Maroc en ce qui concerne le dossier du Sahara. Le parti démocrate étant toujours du coté des minorités….

Et moi qui faisait que défendre et espérait qu’Obama soit à la tete des Etats-unis sinon ça serait la catastrophe avec ce Mccain’sh, je me retrouve en train de revoir ma position, par amour pour mon pays, par pragmatisme parce que la priorité pour moi est l’avenir du Maroc avant tout…

But Spy Jones doesn't think Western Sahara is much of an issue:

Un McCain soit-disant pro-Maroc, et qui prône le prolongement indéfini de l’Iraq… Tu trouves ça défendable comme parti pris ??

Je crois qu’il ne faut pas se faire d’illusions, et que la question du Sahara ne sera pas perdue au Maroc à cause d’Obama (Cet ignare de McCain ne fera pas bouger les choses ne serait-ce que d’un iota), et qu’il vaudrait mieux soutenir Obama pour mettre fin à une guerre injuste et cruelle qui a ravagée un pays entier, et qui l’a mise à feu et à sang.

En plus de pouvoir mieux traiter avec la crise financière que ne le ferais McCain, Obama sera moins belliqueux que Bush et consorts, et ne cherchera pas à provoquer une guerre avec l’Iran pour servir les interêts des lobbies militaires.

Belier, a supporter of Ron Paul, writes in the comments that choosing between Obama and McCain is like choosing between Pepsi and Coca-Cola.  “à 2012 peut être!”  “Maybe in 2012!” he writes.

Facebook group: Moroccans for Obama

On the Facebook group, Moroccans for Obama, some Moroccans rallied in support of Obama, others remain cynical about his chances:

Karim, posting from Orlando, FL, writes:

c lui la sollution pr la pai en iraq!! et c lui la sollution pr la survie des américains aussi, ils doivent etre des idiots pr ne pas voter pr lui!!

obama for change …c le seul démocrate qui pourra apporter la paix ds le monde en tt cas pr le moment… jespere qu'il restera ainsi une fois élu président of usa…to be continued

Oui moi aussi je soutien Barrack Oubama j'espère bien qu'il va pas nous décevoir,et qu'il va travailler pour le bien de ce monde.Obama et mille fois mieux que Mc cain = (Mc cayne meno walo)

Moussa, a Moroccan living in Kentucky, writes:

I admire this guy, but in the white america he has no chance. race is a big issue. i lived in kentucky and i am 1000% sure people wont vote for him cuz he is black.

Louarni Ashraf:

they have one chance to prouve that USA is not a racist country …i don't think that it's hard to realize …everybody want to see an african american as a president of the united states of america !! god bless ya nigga !!

Faty Owns You:

It's all false hope.

He surely will be the president…until he gets shot.

Blogger Viento del Sur writes about the actor's solidarity with Sahrawi people. He says Bardem declared when visiting the refugee camps:

La situación empeora año tras año. El proceso de paz está bloqueado y eso afecta especialmente a los más débiles. Mujeres, niños y ancianos", señaló Bardem, recordando que hay 200.000 personas que fueron españolas "abandonadas en el desierto desde hace 33 años

The situation worsens year after year. The peace process is blocked and this especially affects the most vulnerable people - women, children and the elderly, said Bardem, reminding us that there are 200,000 people who were once from Spain and have since been abandoned in the desert 33 years ago

Indeed famous names attract attention to a cause. Artists such as Manu Chao, the writer Eduardo Galeano and other famous people have visited the refugee camps in the past, and committed to the cause, as Caminando en el desierto says:

Si estos compromisos públicos sirven para avanzar, aunque sólo sea un paso -que sirven, sin ninguna duda- bienvenidos sean. Y aunque me gustaría que los verdaderos progresos se lograsen con la suma de los pasos individuales de quienes somos simples ciudadanos, debemos reconocer el mérito indudable que tienen estos apoyos.

If such public statements are helping to advance the cause a little - they undoubtedly do- such comments are welcome. And even when I would like for real progress as a result of the sum of individual efforts of average citizens, we must truly recognize the merits of this support.

And in Spain many families host Sahrawi children to spend the summer in their homes, and share a different culture in a safer environment, (you can see for example, Sahrawi chilren in Cordoba ) but in September summer is over, and it is time to say goodbye to their host families as Amigos del Sahara says:

os niños saharauis han acabado sus vacaciones en extremadura y han vuelto a Tindouf.

Sahrawi children have ended their vacation in Extremadura and are back in Tindouf.

Two lovely initiatives capture the attention of many people on the Web. Pencils for Peace (Lápices para la Paz) supports children facing armed conflicts by providing them with pencils and education materials and they discover a nice story in a recycled can:

Y aquí mismo, a pesar de la situación de exilio permanente, están ellos, con sed de aprendizaje, sonriendo y siendo felices a pesar de todo. A pesar de que el suelo de la escuela no es uniforme y alguna mesa esté coja..,de que la pintura de las paredes se caiga por la tremenda erosión de este lugar…, ellos siguen pintando con sus ceras maravillosas, la palabra libertad.

En un rincón del aula veo un bote.
Es una lata de leche en polvo. Y de él salen unos bonitos brotes verdes. Pregunto qué es y los niños entusiasmados me dicen: - ¡¡Son lentejas, son lentejas!!.
El profesor sonríe: - "Es una forma de que ellos sepan que el mundo no es sólo desierto y un lugar donde apenas existen las plantas. Día a día todos los niños vigilan los brotes para que nunca les falte el agua. Siempre hay que tener presente la esperanza…"

And here, in spite of the permanent exile, they are hungry to learn, while smiling and being happy despite everything - despite the fact that the floor of the school is not even and some tables are not balanced … the paint on the walls is fading due to the tremendous erosion… they are still painting the word freedom with their wonderful crayons.
In a corner of the classroom I see a can.
It is a can of milk powder. And from it, beautiful green sticks with leaves are growing. I asked what it is, the children excitedly told me: They are lentils, lentils!!!!
The professor smiles: - "It's a way to let them know that the world is not just desert and a place where there are hardly any plants. Day after day the children have to take care of the plants so it will never lack water. One must always have hope … "

And the other initiative is  Refugees Exhibition, which was hosted by volunteer Bars in Spain during the summer to collect funds and help Sahrawis.

During the summer some children have discovered Spain and shared life with their host families, others stayed behind in the refugee camps and were lucky enough to see Javier Bardem outside the big screen. These are baby steps to help them have a normal childhood in the middle of an armed conflict.  And now they are back to school in the refugee camps, using their new pencils and learning about a whole world of words.

Algerian The Moor Next Door has been blogging the story intensively and reports:

Talking to informed Mauritanians, some of them saw the coup coming during the summer (as it did), in the autumn, or not at all. My sense was always that the coup would come this summer (I never wrote this expressly but I expressed this view in discussion and refrained from commenting on the crisis (1) because Western Sahara Info. covered it well and there is not point in competing when you’re one of two or three bloggers paying attention to it, (2) I wanted to make sure that if I “predicted” it I would not be wrong; I could have said, “by the end of May/June/July/August Sidi’s government will be no more” and been wrong; I’m no weather man, and (3) I’ve yet to encounter a Mauritanian that had positive things to say about Sidi beyond his golden personality). One of the major pressures that forced Sidi to act the way he did towards the end was the threat of a commission being formed to investigate the financial side of his wife’s foundation, which would surely have done him in ever more deeply. The commission might even have made his administration’s ridiculous personal expenditures public. For instance, I am told that his air travels alone cost the state some $2 billion, on chartered jets, his family, full entourage, and various other luxuries. He was between a rock and a hard place: Either he would be forced to step down (a la Olmert) in total shame, or he would be impelled to dissolve parliament and reorganize his government, which would precipitate a coup such as today’s, allowing him to save political face. Flanked on both sides, he moved in desperation and met his fate.

Western Sahara Info has been blogging the crisis from its outset, and today provided up-to-the-minute information on the coup, including a brief analysis:

Quick analysis, which I may regret: a tragedy for Mauritanian democracy, on the one hand, but that didn't stand much of a chance anyway; but more importantly, a giant setback for the country's broader chances of political development. While President Abdellahi and his cronies aren't exactly angels, Generals Ghazouani and Abdelaziz represent the very worst military-parasitic element of the Mauritanian regime, and their refusal to let the civilian side of the regime settle down in power threatens to undo it completely in the long run. If the last coup, in August 2005, could be met with cautious understanding by the international community, having unseated President ould Tayaa, and eventually with praise as it led to a real transformation, this time around it is different. What happened in 2005 was that a military-personal-tribal dictatorship was overthrown and the chance arrived to replace it with a civilian semi-authoritarian structure that respected most democratic norms most of the time, and which made sensible moves towards national reconciliation, refugee return and economic development; not heaven, but infinitely better. This change is now being reversed. The putschists — even though they are some of the same people as acted in 2005 — must be condemned and the result of the coup overturned if possible; Mauritania had a golden opportunity to break its vicious circle, and it is now slipping away.

Roads to Iraq, in a post entitled “American orchestrated coup in Mauritania,” reports the news as well:

Things are happening rapidly in Mauritania, started with a coup this morning, issuing the “statement no 1” on the Mauritanian TV, changing the Head of the TV because he refused to cooperate with the army chief who staged the coup, and announcing a new military junta.

In Egypt, Bella [Ar] says what happened in Mauritania proved that Arabs weren't cut for democracy.

يبدو أن الممارسة الديمقراطية لم تُخلق لشعوب مثل شعوبنا لاتستطيع التنفس خارج الحكم العسكري

It seems that democracy wasn't made for people like us - who cannot breathe outside military rule.

After giving us a brief history of Mauritania's young democracy, Bella writes:

وهكذا ياسادة لم تكد موريتانيا تنعم بممارسة الديمقراطية في تجربة رائدة كنا جميعا نغبطها عليها حتى عادت ريما لعادتها القديمة وتدخل العسكر وحدث الانقلاب

This way, Mauritania, which was just about to reap the fruit of democracy in a pioneering move which the entire region was eyeing with excitement, things return to what they were originally, and the military intervened and the coup happened.

Kuwaiti Wild Il Deera poses a few questions about the coup. He asks:

ما هو موقف جامعة الدول العربية من قادة الإنقلاب؟
ألم يكن الرئيس الموريتاني رئيساً منتخباً من الشعب؟
كيف لمؤسسة سياسية مثل الجامعة تطلب أن تُحترم عربيا و دولياً أن تقبل بحدوث إنقلاب عسكري على نظام أحد دولها الأعضاء!

What is the stance of the Arab League from the leaders of this coup?
Wasn't the Mauritanian leader elected by his people?
How can a political group, like the Arab League, which demands that it is respected in Arab and international arenas allow such a military coup to take place in one of its member countries?

Prolific Moroccan blogger Larbi [fr] linked to a news article, remarking:

On peut le dire : l'Afrique est un continent maudit !

His post garnered significant response. Citoyen commented:

Il est vrai que les putschs sont imprévisibles en Afrique…mais je me demande, quand même, si cette fois-ci encore, les services marocains ont été pris de court comme en août 2005 ?

It is true that coups are unpredictable in Africa…I wonder, though, if again, the Moroccan services have been caught short as they were in August 2005?

Finally KABOBfest, always one to inject humor into every situation, remarks somewhat facetiously:

Whereas coup culture in a lot of countries is a thing of the past (e.g., Syria ain't had a coup in a few decades) some countries like to kick it old skool, harking back to when it seemed like there was a coup-a-week somewhere in the world. While Mauritania isn't Fiji, they are keeping the tradition of pointless coups alive and well in the Arab world.

The Arabdemocracy blog also has an excellent “obituary” for the young democracy that was.

Photo above is of Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, by Marcello Casal Jr./Abr (Setember 2007)

استتشهد لانه بطل
للانه ما ارادالاستعمار
وكان يحمل فكر وافكار
نعم اغتيل عزيز الدار
واصبح الان في قائمة شهدائنا الابرار
اطفئ نوره لكن بقيت انوار
وعدت بان تكمل المشوار
وتصبر صبر كباار
بان تغسل الذل والعار
وعدت بان تتماسك وان لا تنهار
فقط من اجلك اايها البطل االمغوار
ومن ااجل انصارنا الثوار

Blogger Recuerdos del Sahara invited us to share not one but three cups of tea because, as people say there:

El primer te es amargo cómo la vida. El segundo es dulce cómo el amor. El tercero es suave cómo la muerte.

The first cup of tea is sour as life. The second cup is sweet as love. The third is soft as death.

Photo by Cristoph Andre on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

Eva Moreno, who lives in El Aaiun, describes the whole experience of trying to make some Sahrawi tea:

“La primera vez que intenté prepararlo me salio fatal, bueno, la primera y la segunda y la tercera… No es que sea muy difícil pero hay tener maña para calcular bien la cantidad de té y azúcar y para hacer la espuma: se vierte el té de un vaso a otro desde cierta altura, y es fácil que se salga fuera y ponga perdida la bandeja. Se prepara en brasas (”jmar”) de carbón vegetal (”fajar”). A muchos les gusta añadirle hierbabuena, cominos y otras plantas cuyos nombres no recuerdo ahora. La bandeja con patas se llama “tabla”, la tetera “berred” y los vasos “kisan”. El té sienta muy bien cuando hace calor; en el mes de Ramadan, al ayunar se tiene a veces dolor de cabeza, sobre todo si la noche anterior no se tomó el té y se tiene esa costumbre, a eso se le llama “tener la cabeza de té”.

“The first time that I tried to prepare a cup of tea was terrible, well, the first time, and the second and the third… It is not that difficult but you must calculate precisely the quantity of tea and sugar and make the foam: You have to pour out the tea from a certain elevation, and then it easily spills out and makes a mess of your platter. You should prepare it on a grill (”jmar”) made of charcoal (”fajar”). Many people enjoy it with some mint, cumin and other herbs that I cannot remember now. The platter with posts is called “tabla,” the teapot is “berred” and the cups “kisan”. The tea is pleasant when it is hot. During the month of Ramadan [the Muslim month of fasting], when you are fasting sometimes you have a headache, especially if you forgot to drink your tea the previous night and you are used to it. You are then said to “have a tea head”.”

As with many cultures, people in Western Sahara have developed rites and a social scene around tea and we can imagine the desert, a cloudless sky at night, a full moon and a cup of tea (or two, or three)! Enjoy!

Although most Sahrawis speak Arabic or Spanish as a first language, some choose to blog in English; some live abroad, others in Morocco or Western Sahara. Still others are Sahrawi supporters from other countries. I will attempt to convey what all of them, regardless of political affiliation or beliefs, are talking about in this important region.

Introducing Anglophone Western Sahara

One prominent blogger covering this region is One Hump or Two? Admittedly an American, Will is especially notable for the fact that he has tirelessly assisted me in digging up the best of blogs from this region. His blog covers both political and cultural issues. An excerpt from a recent post reads:

I'm obviously no fan of Morocco's occupation of Western Sahara, but I like Morocco the country–everyone I know who's been there has liked it, and the Moroccan government is nice enough to let my friend study there this semester, despite his affiliation with separatists like me. That's why I hope Morocco and whatever Sahrawis are on its team win as many medals as they want at next month's Olympics.

View from Fez took in Morocco's chances, and pointed out that Morocco has won medals in the past in boxing and track. The taekwondo team is apparently good, too, so I predict a sweep.

FreeWesternSahara is a Sahrawi blogger whose blog tagline reads “No to the Auntomony, but yes to the Referadum.” A recent post featured photos from Western Sahara, including this one:

Freedom Writer is another Sahrawi who blogs in English. An excerpt from a recent blog post, about having to make a difficult decision, reads:

Emerson said that he loves ”the Sayers of no” more then ”the Sayers of yes”! and I agree with that. Emerson realized that ”No!' means ”yes” to saving other people s time and energy. When we make our choice to say No in any given situation( Job offer, invitation…) we save our energy and other people s time and effort to convince us to change our mind, and as Leonardo da Vinci said ” It is easier to resist at beginning than at the end”.

There are several other foreign bloggers writing about Western Sahara. Of prominence is alle, who runs the blog Western Sahara Info., a great place for news updates on the region. Sand & Dust, by Nick Brooks, is another great resource for those wishing to learn a bit more about the conflict between Morocco and Western Sahara. A third blog, Western Sahara Endgame, focuses heavily on politics.

As Global Voices continues coverage of the Western Sahara, we are constantly looking for new blogs to read. Please let us know if you find any!

Si de repente se le preguntase a un saharaui de poesía lo más seguro es que a su mente no acudirá ni el título de un libro de versos ni el título de un poema. Sin embargo es muy probable que pueda citar los nombres de los poetas más conocidos e incluso podría recitar varios versos de memoria. Y es que la poesía tradicional saharaui en hassania, lengua de los saharauis, sigue siendo oral, a pesar de que en los últimos años se haya intentado escribir y archivar y así evitar que algún día desaparezca con sus propios autores. Durante el colonialismo España se mantuvo al margen, sin importarle la poesía, y de forma general sin preocuparse por la cultura saharaui. La poesía, ajena a cualquier influencia externa, continuó su viaje en su tradicional vehículo, es decir, de boca en boca y anidando en la prodigiosa memoria de vates, cantores y de los amantes de la poesía.

Sometimes poetry is combined with music as a family tradition, explains Sahrawi blogger, Aziza Brahim, who is a famous singer. She writes about her connection with her famous grandmother, a Sahrawi poet, living in the refugee camps - Ljadra Mint Mabruk:

Para mí, lo que nunca cambiará, es tomar el té en casa de mi abuela, Ljadra. Siempre compartimos mucho tiempo juntas, desde que era pequeña. Hablamos, le peino, compartimos intimidades, puesto que es mi confidente y mi inspiración. Mi música bebe de la poesía de mi abuela, es natural. Muchas veces empiezo a cantarle, y ella empieza a recitar, y también viceversa.

Ariadna links to seven Sahrawi poets who fuse two languages, since Spanish is the second most important language of the region. However the Cervantes Institute, which is devoted to the study and teaching of the Spanish language has constantly denied support to them [es], as blogger Haz Lo Que Debas [es] points out:

¿No es más urgente el apoyo a un niño sarahaui, que aprende el español en la escuela, con muchas dificultades, que la instalación de sedes del Cervantes en Pekín, San Petersburgo… o la Quinta Avenida de Nueva York?

The blogger continues that this is important because there is also Sahrawi literature in Spanish [es]:

La literatura saharaui en español, incipiente aún, camina sin embargo con paso firme. Una literatura poco atendida por los medios y desconocida por el gran público. También olvidada por las instituciones españolas, caso del Instituto Cervantes o Casa Arabe, que no se interesan por la cultura de este pueblo árabe africano que también se expresa en español, y que un día formó parte de España. Al menos la ayuda de escritores, universidades y asociaciones solidarias con el pueblo saharaui está consiguiendo romper este otro bloqueo contra un pueblo que lucha pacíficamente por su libertad, que “pide la paz y la palabra” para recuperar la tierra que injustamente le arrebataron. Es un libro modesto y sencillo. “No es un bello producto.”

Three years ago, a group of Sahrawi poets and writers got together to establish Generación de la Amistad Saharaui (Generation of the Friends of Sahrawis):

Ocurrió un 9 de julio, muy caluroso, en el centro de Madrid. Un grupo de poetas saharauis venidos de diferentes puntos de la geografía española, apoyados por varios escritores e intelectuales españoles, iniciaban una andadura que empezaba entonces a dar sus primeros frutos y que hoy se apoya en más de una decena de libros publicados. Otros compañeros se unían desde los campamentos de refugiados saharauis al nacimiento de este “humilde sueño” que, tres años después, no ha dejado de ser humilde pero es ya una realidad.

Poetry is a language too, and the Sahrawis are expressing themselves, preserving their history and culture by building bridges in Spanish.

This week's pick comes from the Western Sahara blog, writing about the new Sahrawi satellite TV station, R.A.S.D. TV (Democratic Sahrawi Arab Republic Television):

لا أخفيكم سرا كم انتظرت شخصيا كما الكثيرين بالمناطق المحتلة خروج هذا المولود الجديد الى النور بعد طول انتظار، نعم أخيرا لنا تلفزاتنا الفضائية

I have to tell you how much I've personally waited, like many others in the occupied areas, for this newborn baby to see light. And after a long wait, yes, we now have our own satellite television station.

The blogger says that the most important mission for the station should be to advance the Sahrawi case among other Arab countries:

لعل أهم دور لها آن تعرف بالقضية الوطنية لأخوتنا العرب في ظل صمت الجامعة العربية والذي نتمنى أن تتمكن القناة من كسر جدار الصمت هذا وان تجعل منها منتدى للنقاش البناء وللتفاعل مع الأشقاء العرب ، وهو اكبر تحدي للتلفزة نظرا لامتناع المسؤوليين عن الأقمار الصناعية العربية عن إعطاء تردد لها.

The most important role [for the station] is to shed light on our national cause to our Arab brothers. As the Arab League has remained silent over the issue, we hope the station will be able to break this silence barrier and to be a forum for constructive and interactive discussion with our Arab brothers, which will be the biggest challenge facing the channel, considering that the officials at the Arab TV Satellites have refused to host the channel on their frequencies.

He adds:

وأخيرا نتمنى أن تميط القناة اللثام عن واقع المناطق المحتلة من خلال بث أشرطة متلفزة تظهر فيها الصحراء الغربية من الداخل وان تؤرخ هذه الحقبة والمنعطف الهام في مسيرة قضيتنا الوطنية العادلة،

And finally, we hope the channel will also uncover the realities in the occupied areas by airing footage showing the Sahara from the inside, and to document this era and this important juncture in the history of our just national cause.