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a clean and well-written arcticle nonetheless. Four days of DNC coverage and that's all we get?..."
Posted by sylvarwolf in DNC: Talk With Strangers
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We Have to Be the Change
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| Youth at the World Congress of Youth in Morocco meet in small groups to write the text for the Casablanca Declaration |
In August the world converged at a 1,000-person, two-week long World Congress of Youth in Morocco, which was put on by the King of Morocco and Peace Child, a non-governmental organization (NGO) from the United Kingdom. Our theme was, "Together for Tolerance, Solidarity and Sustainable Development." Little did I know what these words would come to mean.
The goal of the Congress was to write the "Casablanca Declaration," a unified world youth statement that would represent our common vision. We would use it to tell U.N. agencies, governments and world financial institutions what youth have done for economic and social development in our communities so that they would invest in us instead of putting their money into governments and programs that don't reach the people, or do more harm than good.
The plan was to present the Declaration to the King Mohammed VI, and then later the Moroccan government would present it to the U.N. General Assembly. Several divisions of the United Nations, UNICEF (the U.N. fund for children) and the World Bank had also agreed to take a look at the document.
The youth, ages 14-25, came together with incredible credentials. We were founders of organizations, leaders in our communities, delegates of governments, journalists and artists. Gandhi's words were our mantra, and we said them over and over, "You have to be the change you want to see in this world."
And what better way to be the change than to have people from 154 countries write a declaration in Arabic, French, English and Spanish on behalf of the world's youth? Or rather, as I was soon to find out, what better way to find the differences between the Western and Arab world than to have them agree on paper?
Action!
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| At one action project, participants dug holes to place signs at a new park. |
In a spectacular feat of logistics, participants were sent across Morocco to the tops of mountains and into the Sahara desert. We returned with mixed feelings. The action turned out to be tourism, and the sustainable development was more scenic than participatory. In some cases the youth were more there as an international parade for the local population. In between being escorted around and drinking sweet mint tea with the locals, only a few satisfying hours of action occurred. There was some trench digging, park renovation, tree planting, camel riding, orphanage visiting, rabbit breeding and basket weaving.
After everyone returned to the Congress, people sat around for hours confused about what was going on, until suddenly each region had only two hours to make amendments to the declaration and propose them in the Congress forum. Although the bad organization and confusing translations didn't allow for people to put their concerns together and accurately represent their regions, the actual downfall of the congress session was the chaos caused by the first proposed amendment.
Bringing Down the Tent
The opening words to the Declaration specified that the youth were united regardless of nationality, class, gender etc. So, to add to this list of descriptors, Latin America, North America and Europe suggested including sexual orientation. The proposition brought down the house, or rather, the tent.
As soon as the translation went through in Arabic, many Moroccans and other delegates from Islamic countries were on their feet shouting in Arabic, chanting, and heading for the plenary stage. The arguments against adding in homosexuality weren't complex; there was no way homosexuality could be alluded to, because in Islam it does not exist. Though it wasn't specifically argued, there was no way a document could be handed to the King (who paid for the Congress) with such a reference.
A young African American man came to the stage and made a speech about why such a reference would be important. Then several young men came up and yelled in Arabic, and translation wasn't given. After that the tent was divided, almost exactly in half. Those in opposition sat on one side and those in favor on the other. One side was a sea of black and brown faces (African and Arab world) and the other a meld of lighter skin tones.
Mob Mentality
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| The only way youth got to express their feelings at the meeting to address the violence -- through a sign. |
Let it be clear that the mob was not the majority, the violence was not committed by every Palestinian there, and many were trying to be reasonable, but an angry mob is formidable and not open for rationalization.
I grew up in racially divided public schools, but I had never seen a group hate another group because of their citizenship. It was difficult to decide how I felt, other than sad, because I understood that in many respects the Palestinians had no way of expression other than violence because of their country's economic oppression, daily destruction and humiliation by the Israeli occupation. The dreams of their young people can go nowhere, and right next door is a country that receives over $3.3 billion each year (Washington Report on Middle Eastern Affairs), or about $5,000 per person, in aid from the U.S.! A state of despair leads to desperate acts. But what is the state of our world if at an international youth meeting, a place where everyone was to have a chance to speak and people would listen, that people still knew no other way to express themselves than through violence?
For the rest of the day, Palestinians wore their flags like capes around the camp, and the rest of us were stunned that the Middle Eastern war had played out right in front of our eyes. When the Moroccan organizers finally called a meeting to address the violence, they said they would not take responsibility for the attack because they had not invited the Israelis to the meeting, their co-sponsor Peace Child had. They did not say that the assailants would be expelled. They would not directly condemn the attack because the Arab states do not recognize the country of Israel.
I was shocked. I couldn't understand why they could not at least assure us that those who committed the violence would be asked to leave. When I asked a young Moroccan, Mohammed, age 20, why they could not publicly expel those who hit the girl he said that it would have made no difference to single out individuals because each person in that mob would have hit the girl had they had the chance. To publicly denounce the attack, regardless of how the Moroccan organizers really felt, would have only stirred more anti-Israeli solidarity among participants and made the situation worse. It was impossible for justice to be served for this one small act of violence because it is impossible for justice to be served to the whole. Steps toward peace would not be beginning that day, and for me to expect that was to overlook the complexity and severity of the conflict.
Imagine
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| Youth hold hands and sing John Lennon's Imagine. |