Morocco SOS: Save Our National Ship Before it is Too Late

By Rachid Khouya

Morocco World News

Es-Semara, Morocco, June 22, 2012

Our nation must be considered as our home, our household and our mother. Yes, our forefathers have taught us that the nation is the mother that cares for us, feeds us, educates us, protects us and gives us a name, an identity and a sense of being and belonging. Our nation is, and must be treated the way we treat our mothers. They have to be treated with love, respect, and care and giving. We should give them more than what they give us, we should take care of them more than they take care of us and we should consider what they give to us as a debt that has to be repaid in one way or another, sooner or later.

We will always remember the text in the old programs of primary school that says that our grandfathers planted trees for us to have fruit; and so it is our turn and task to plant trees for the coming generations. That lesson teaches us all, big and small, poor and rich, that we are responsible for the kind of the world we will leave our children and beloved future citizens. They are the ones who will eat the fruits of the trees we will plant today and they are the ones who will die of hunger and starvation if we cut all the trees, and destroy all the gardens and the farms. They will pay the price for our deeds tomorrow if we are led by greed and selfishness today.

Our nation is like a ship that is carrying us all on our journey inside the stormy and windy oceans of life and time. Being on the waves of the time, our journey is in jeopardy. What should be understood by everyone is that all those inside the ship risk losing their souls and dying if we do not take care of the ship. The real sailors are the ones who care more for the ship than for the passengers, because if the ship is safe, everyone will reach the shore. But, this is far from reality.

Today, the majority of citizens seem to be led by their whims and their personal egos and selfishness. They think only about what they have and what they want, what they can take. They do not stop to water the seeds of the trees. They attack the trees, cut all the fresh fruits, eat them, swallow them, cut even the branches of the tree, the roots .Some like to cut the whole tree from the public garden and take it to their private gardens without being aware of the dangers they are causing for the whole nation.

Unfortunately, those who have taken the flag of the country and whom we consider as our leaders on the ship are the one who are destroying the ship. Everyone from a different position is trying to cut a part of the ship and take it to their house. Everyone is trying to get more from the tree for themselves and their families. The leaders who should be the last ones to abandon ship when it sinks are the first one to flee. But should we let them? Should we keep watching and allow them to destroy our national ship? Should we let them do what they like when they are guided by selfishness?

Of course we should not. It is imperative to stand up and stop them from dividing our ship and its goods between themselves. It is our ship together, as Moroccans; this is our country, the land of our parents and grandparents. Our leaders should consider themselves equal citizens with us, and lead us to safe ports or leave us where we are. We can lead, find our own way and find where to go. In the current situation, we are all lost. We do not know where to go and where to seek refuge. We let our leaders steal and destroy which is a sign that we do agree with what they are doing and that what they are doing is legal, acceptable and moral.

Our mission as real citizens at this moment watching them destroy our ship is to get up and prevent them from finishing the destruction. It is our moral obligation. Otherwise we will be like the ones depicted in the prophet’s narration: “Like a group of people who boarded a ship. Some of them ended up in the lower and more dangerous sections of the ship while others were above that. Every time those in the lower parts of the ship needed water, they passed by those in the upper parts and inconvenienced them. Then some of them said, “we could make a whole in our portion of the ship and we would be able to get water to drink without bothering those above us.” The prophet (PBUH) explained: “If they were to leave them with this business of theirs, all of them would perish but if they seized their hands, all of them would be saved.”

Well, I believe that we have either to seize our leaders’ hands, unveil their veiled deeds, save our national ship or they will destroy our beloved nation and we will all sink together. So, let those who can prevent such wrongdoings with their hands do it with their hands, those who can change it with their tongue and words, change it with their tongues and words and those who are incapable of either of these, let them do it with their hearts, that’s the weakest level of faith as our religion teaches us.

Rachid Khouya is a teacher of English in Es Smara city, south of Morocco. He obtained a Bachelor Degree in English studies from Ibn Zohr University in Agadir. He published many articles and stories in different regional and national Moroccan newspapers. He is an active member of MATE (Moroccan Association of Teachers of English). He is interested in education, human rights and citizenship (Email: [email protected]).

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Morocco World News’ editorial policy