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Since starting active field research in Sidi Musa (see project description) in January 2003, the challenges have been many and various in types. Conducting interviews with residents and associations, looking into and studying the politics of state urbanism, has made me realize that, comparatively speaking, there are even more acute forms of spatial segregation, poverty, and exclusion within the old ramparts of Salé medina than Sidi Musa. Inside the medina are caravanserais that, for centuries, used to be the equivalent of modern day hotels mostly catering for merchants and their goods. Today these old hotels where the rooms do not exceed 12 square meters-- often lacking water and electricity, with serious sanitation violations, in physically degraded and potentially dangerous conditions-- have been converted into family housing for extremely poor, often unskilled laborers, rural migrants, and a generally marginalized population. So far I've worked with the residents of two different caravanserais (fendenk in Arabic); Fendenk Largo and Fendenk Bou'lam with the intention of having them organize themselves in syndicates or associations to better their own living conditions as actors, and to make demands as active participants in larger social dynamics. More specifically, bringing consensus between the residents of Fendenk Largo involved encountering deep-seated beliefs that such endeavors should only be carried out through the welfare state and that they, as citizens of this nation-state and as voting constituents, are the 'ideal' recipient of aid since they constitute the 'urban poor.' The lack of cooperation between the residents and, to a certain extent, the distrust between them has complicated matters in bringing this association to life. Allow me to note that this observation is not meant as a justification that the idiom of human rights cum dignity should be a simple and accepted tenet, especially on the part of the 'urban and marginalized poor.' Rather, the observation is meant to underline the extraordinary impediments that extreme poverty, structural violence, and the lack of a horizon create among these very groups in need. This situation has given rise, therefore, to the necessity of thinking about other strategies for attaining the project's aim. One strategy has been, and continues to be, the creation of strategic alliances with a number of residents. Another strategy has been to work directly with state offices in order to build trust and foster thinking in terms of a communal good. This remains a long term process whose building-blocks are currently and slowly being erected. During the night of the May 16, 2003 in Casablanca, a number of young men, commonly described as "Islamist fundamentalists," exploded themselves killing a number of people. The trauma of this "terrorist" attack had far reaching effects on political, religious, and civil spheres in Morocco. In conjunction with police investigations and media reports, it was revealed that all these young men came from an extremely poor slum area in the Casablanca periphery, Sidi Mumen. Though reports never explicitly equated urban destitution with religious extremism, it became an unspoken truism shared by all. While in the 80s and 90s, stereotypes ascribed a deviant or even criminal behavior to the 'urban poor,' after the events of May 16 yet other layers were added to this characterization, such as religious fanaticism, destructive behavior, and the sullying of religious sanctity. Residents of Sidi Musa and those of the different Fendenks with whom I worked, as a representative sample of this larger 'mass' of the urban poor, have felt that this bombing has further damaged their social image, though the event made it evident to authorities that more serious social and development programs are needed for the curtailing of poverty and violence. During three public presentations I made on the themes of 'urbanism and terrorism,' 'the urban poor,' and 'urban desires and the question of rights' (in Centre Jacques Berques, Fondation Bouabid and Ecole Nationale d'Architecture), my papers focused on questions such as:
Jamila Bargach, July 2003. Top |