October 10, 2011
By Karima El Kadaoui
Since a very early age, I had a mission which was to please a society, an environment, to which I belonged. I was born among an opened-minded family, with Islamic morals and a soft Moroccan touch when it comes to traditions and family ethics.
At school I met different types of children coming from all sorts of social categories with diverse mentalities.
We were taught patriotism, the admiration of the divine creator:GOD! The main goal to all this was to make us aware of our responsibilities. They used to call us the “tomorrow’s generation” - the ones who will take over and do what it takes to make of Morocco a better country and improve its situation.
At this level, the question that is running through my mind is: “is that what we really aspire to?”
Apparently it was Obvious!
Nowadays when I look around me, and I try to analyze what surrounds me, all I see are boys and girls my age looking for adventure, adopting a dress code which does not match the Moroccan way of clothing, or even its traditions. Some of these young people have a stunning open mind,and an unorthodox vision of life.
I don’t blame anyone, I think that this came as a result of “globalization”; the openness to the West with all its benefits and drawbacks, in addition to the invasion of the new technologies in the universe without almost any geographical exception. Or maybe we just are far cry from the children we were , those children who use to swallow everything that was said to them without asking questions. We just want to be the executives of our lives far from any pressure coming from 'the society' or the so-called small society known as “family”.
I am not here to generalize, or to put everyone in the same category, I am just sharing my humble and modest point of view and litte experience: what I see in my everyday life when I walk on the street or when I sit at the balcony of a cafe - just random and strategic places where you can see all kind of person parade just in front of your eyes !
Which leads me to think that there is a major difference between what we are supposed to do and what we do, between what we say about Morocco and what happens in Morocco, how our parents perceive us and how we really are and behave. We live in a paradoxical society, a ”schizophrenic society”! Forced to wear masks to go unnoticed, pretend we are happy, to respond to the expectations of “the others”. These “others” who want to transform us into pure consumers, oppressed people …
Happiness and Freedom are related; each human being has the right to be happy, express him or herself in total freedom, to defend freedom's principles LOUD and CLEAR without any fear or lack of confidence. Trust in who you are, believe in your dreams, defend your place on earth, you deserve to be part of this universe , you deserve to be happy , to discover love,freedom, spiritual side of life, leaving the material side apart!
I will conclude my writing with a Dalai Lama’s quotation : “Brute force, no matter how strongly applied,can never subdue the basic human desire for freedom“.
Become a Global Girl
