FAO Quotables

"But being right, even morally right, isn't everything. It is also important to be competent, to be consistent, and to be knowledgeable. It's important for your soldiers and diplomats to speak the language of the people you want to influence. It's important to understand the ethnic and tribal divisions of the place you hope to assist."
-Anne Applebaum

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

UPDATE: My Makhzen and Me Documentary via Reading Morocco

UPDATE (22 MAY):  I finished watching this film a few weeks ago and it's an excellent look into the continued turmoil, unrest and protest within Morocco.  The director convincingly captures the Moroccan governments efforts to fund/prop up counter-protest (pro-government) groups.  The government does this in an attempt to de-legitimatize and weaken the February 20th movements.
        I shared this video with my North Africa grad school professor and he agreed it was well done and forwarded it to our entire class to view.  


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Today I am watching the documentary My Makhzen and Me.  This is a documentary by a young moroccan and San Diego film student about the February 20th movement in Morocco.  It's only about 50 minutes long and I am about half way through it.   I came across through the excellent Reading Morocco Blog.  It's a great resource and one which I read regularly--you should too if you are interested in Morocco and the rest of the Maghreb.  
    
We are studying Morocco this week in my North Africa class so I appreciate getting a local perspective on recent events.  


Makhzen refers to the governing elite class in Morocco--this is a group the revolves around the monarchy and is made up of the royal family, businessmen, wealthy landowners, tribal leaders, top-ranking military personnel, security service leaders.


I will write more about it once I am done.  


Links and Morocco/North Africa/Maghreb-ish Blogs that I peruse regularly:


http://readingmorocco.blogspot.com/2012/04/my-makhzen-and-me-film.html
http://www.mymakhzenandme.com/english.html

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