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By: Abdelhafid Missouri Morocco Post Philadelphia PA
Let us first define empowerment. It is that stage of maturity when an individual or a group has the capability to effect instantaneous or deferred change in the life of the individual in particular and the community in general at home or abroad through the exercise of political clout and networks.
The Community at present lacks the instruments of empowerment and the know-how to go about obtaining it. I am in no way claiming in this article that I have the know-how to make that happen. Instead, I am making a call to activists and members to engage their thoughts in a constructive scientific approach that may help increase the visibility of the community in the US. That is to be done through a well-thought-
We say something is an integral part of something else when it is so intractably linked to it that there is no way the two parts can be separated. A part does not have to be completely similar to the main body to be part of it, survive in it, or be empowered in it. A hand is not the same as a leg, nor is an eye the same as a nose. Yet, they all form and complete a one unified body.
Community activist and intellectuals have to be fully aware of the means of empowerment in order to seek them, learn them, and make them a part of the foundations of their community activism.
Moroccans are endowed with a cultural and historical heritage that is so diverse that if well used can impart an immensity of empowering tools to the Moroccan individual’s private initiative as well as to that of the community as a whole.
The strategy I am recommending is based on the following tools. Each of them should be explored in depth by Moroccan intellectuals and community activists in the Diaspora. This strategy is not presented as a recipe for one to follow. Rather, it is a mixture of general recommendations and ideas for those interested to dig into and learn from in order to devise a clear path towards empowerment. I ask the Moroccan community to forgive me for the over-use of the model “should”. The purpose of this whole endeavor is to contribute with what I can towards assisting our Moroccan community to think critically about what assets are really essential towards development of a mind-set that engages the reality around us, and challenges the Moroccan individual to come up with new ideas for the betterment of the status of our community in the USA and elsewhere. In the following, I am making seven recommendations to the Moroccan community and ask it to devise a long-term strategy for its integration and empowerment. Here they are:
1- Moroccan intellectuals and activists should work within their own Moroccan community association and within the geographic location it covers. Board members of a Moroccan association should remain close to their community, aspire for its good, and work towards that end through raising awareness about the importance of education, speaking the English language, opening up unto the outside world, advocating for it in public forums, providing services to the needy, filling out forms for those who can not do it on their own, promoting its concerns with city and state officials, providing language services for those among us who do not speak the language, joining the army, the police or the fire department, starting a business, celebrating Moroccan and American culture and music, and presenting a good image about our cultural heritage to Americans.
I also would like to remind our community that while it is very important to maintain good relations with our consulate and embassy, it is still a grave mistake indeed when community leaders seek to be too close to Embassy and Consulate staff as though that were the ultimate goal of their involvement in the community.
2-The Moroccan community under the leadership of its activists and intellectuals should also be aware that blind and emotional attachment to obsolete and useless values inherited from the country of birth may very much be the poison that kills one’s dreams and ambitions. Therefore, a reasonable Moroccan would weigh matters and options with reason and logic without interference from an excess of emotions.
3- Moroccan community leaders among the educated should aspire to set the example to their community by joining universities and colleges, echoing current cultural, social, and political trends, and encouraging members to do the same.
They must launch a campaign in US academic and political circles that is based on the history that joins the US and Morocco together including US-Moroccan diplomatic, political, development, military, and security cooperation throughout the ages. This should be supported by evidence that Moroccan-US initiatives throughout the ages have been compatible and served the interests of both countries, culturally, developmentally, diplomatically, and militarily.
4- Moroccan community activists and intellectuals in the US should lead the way for other communities in terms of condemnation of terrorism, anti-Semitism, and violence against US and Moroccan interests with actions that prove honest and serious intent and commitment to peace and stability around the world. They should help their organizations and members start and subscribe to associations, and organizations that are engaged in the war on terror and extreme violence around the world. This is a great way to increase the visibility of the Moroccan community in the US and around the world. Joining diplomatic missions and military institutions to serve the country is of the utmost importance to instill the sentiment of pride within the community and acceptability for it within the society at large.
5-The Moroccan community leaders abroad should be fully aware that if their members do not join in the efforts of US organizations and institutions at home and abroad, the whole community will lose these empowering tools to governments abroad that are very eager to work with US government institutions even against their own citizens in the US and elsewhere. It is said: “If you do not make the rules, you enemy will”.
Community activists and intellectuals have to be fully aware of the means of empowerment in order to seek them, learn them, and make them a part of the foundations of their community activism.
6-Moroccans should emulate programs of institutions such as the Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the National Center for International Visitors, the various International Visitors Councils which count about 48 across the US, and many NGOs that are involved in international development.
Moroccan community leaders should learn from the experiences of these organizations locally and internationally, attend their activities, and form partnerships with them.
There is plenty of positive guidance to our community from the websites of these organizations and an immense opportunity for close encounters with decision-makers on these platforms.
7- The Moroccan community should devise special interest groups (SIG) based on specialization. Those with a focus on international development should launch a group of interested individuals whose stock of knowledge in the field provides them with assets to benefit the whole community and the country as a whole on ways to participate in diverse international assistance programs available to them from government or non-governmental entities, at home and abroad. There is a lot we can learn from USAID, for example, and various UN development and foreign aid programs.
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