Sunday, February 9, 2014

The Politics of Community

Morocco, like many other countries, is culturally more focused on the collective than the individual. For foreigners living here, this can be both good and bad.  For example, my neighbors know who I am, where I am from, my age, ethnicity, and what I do.  They also know when I go on vacation, and who are the usual people I hang out with.  This leads to very interesting interactions.  Like when I go to my hanout guy (the small shops located everywhere that sell basic necessities) he usually asks me how my last trip was, why I haven't been to see him, and how work is going.  We frequently talk about the weather, if its a cold winter compared to other winters, etc.  As a foreigner, I am used to a certain level of anonymity living in the West.  I go about my life as I choose to live it.  That is not the case here.  I go about my life constantly wondering who will cross my path on the street, what is said about me behind my bag, and how my behavior and life choices will affect my community.  Clearly, a lot goes into deciding what situations are worth the risk and which ones are too detrimental to deal with.

Community is something you revere here in Morocco.  I am happy to have my entourage-that motley crew of Fulbrighters, other miscellaneous foreigners, my family upstairs and all of the characters that make life here both interesting and frustrating.  People make choices based on what others will think of them.  In the classroom, this can serve to the teacher's advantage regarding crowd control, discipline, and generally getting people to cooperate.  However, this can also work to everyone's disadvantage. For example, students who have been given scholarships to study abroad have been known to turn them down because of family pressure.  People have broken off engagements because of what other people have thought of their significant other.  One of my best friends here frequently says that Moroccans have a PhD in stare.

My point in writing this is not to criticize.  Yes, there are moments when the pressure of living with the confines of a community can seem suffocating.  However, it is those members of the community that are your first line of support.  It goes both ways.  Compromise is healthy, although sometimes it is at the expense of freedom.  Each individual has to make choices based on the import of the community in his/her life.