On Thursday evening, the foreign house owners in Fez medina were called together for a meeting with the Wali at the town hall in Batha, behind the Hotel Batha. The subject was foreign investment in tourism. The outcome was very positive in that the way will be paved now to get the necessary permits and government blessings needed for investors to launch legitimate business ventures. In Fez, the main investment interest has been in the old medina where many people are buying and renovating traditional houses for tourist lodging.
Anyone with an interest in Morocco knows that an integral part of the future economic plan involves making revenue from tourism a major source of the national economy's income. Foreign investment is being encouraged and development in that arena has been ongoing for a long time now.
So what makes Fez medina different from any other place in Morocco going through the same process?
Fez has two sides - the mythological and the actual. We all know the mythology of Fez as the cultural, spiritual and intellectual capital of Morocco. The city holds a special place in the heart of all Moroccans. Fez is Morocco and Morocco was Fez. Fez was the Muslim refuge to the legendary Spanish Moors, the cultural source of Morocco and once upon a time the jewel of North Africa. Its founder still lies in the heart of the medina. In modern times, Fez has become the New Age Mecca for all kinds of seekers who believe in the truth of the myth. Fez medina is a draw for investors looking to turn a fast buck and for investors or visitors seeking an alternative lifestyle. The fantasies are as varied as the people who come here. The siren call of an ancient past mixed with a modern present lures world-weary tourists, intellectuals and artists, common people and anyone seeking refuge from modern madness. People say Fez has a soul.
Right now, today, in 2007, Fez is also a ghetto in every sense of the word and most of its inhabitants are barely eking out a miserable subsistence living. Too many are uneducated, drug-addicted, criminals, and even worse, children of these people caught in a devastating self-defeating cycle of destruction. Bidonvilles surround the area and most foreigners probably walk right past them never imagining what kind of hell exists in a place like that. People will tell you these are not Fassis, the 'real' Fassis left for the comfort of Rabat a long time ago, but that's not what is important. Like it or not, these are the human beings who inhabit Fez medina today. They are Fassis.
So when we talk about 'preserving' Fez medina or 'protecting' Fez medina, what do we really mean? When people talk about the impact of the current investment and restoration projects in the medina and their effects on the local lifestyle, what is the point? Preserve what? Protect what? Restore what?
The fantasy is that Fez medina is a living and functional artifact from medieval times. Artisans are working happily at their ancient crafts to produce all those souvenirs the tourist buy at outrageous prices. Women weave carpets in the traditional way. Tanneries still operate as they did for the past 10 centuries. It is all so quaint and fascinating. The people are simple and so nice and friendly. This is the public face and part of it is true. But, there is a much grimmer reality behind the scenes. Go into the backstreet 'factories' sitting in the upper floors of crumbling buildings and see the children pounding out those brass designs we love so much. See the women sitting on the bare cement floors painting those henna designs on the 'hippie' lamps for 20 dirhams a day. Visit a sweat-shop where young girls are lined up four or five to a loom cranking out rugs day after day and sleeping on thin mats side by side in the same building at night. Or watch the women pain-stakingly blinding themselves over embroideries they must sell for centimes on the dirham.
There are laborers in the medina working for 20 dirhams, maybe 40 dirhams, a day. Even by Moroccan standards, this is NOT a living wage. This is not enough to get married and start a family, but it happens all the time. These people end up living in a room in some falling-down old house or a tin shack somewhere. The kids start coming along. The problems follow. And NO, Moroccan family ties are NOT strong enough to overcome the starvation, neglect, abuse and despair these people live with everyday. Bad things happen.
We all hear about the culturally, religiously strong family ties and how Moroccans prefer a more communal living style than Westerners can understand. Well, six or ten or fourteen people in a single room is a bit more communal than anybody can stand. Somebody has to go. So, we have kids living on the street and young girls farmed out as domestic labor. Old people are put into nursing homes with inadequate facilities and budgets so they, too, take to the street. We hear the stories about professional beggars, rented babies, and scams working around the grocery and liquor stores. It makes it easy for us to turn our heads and believe the real desperation huddled on the corner wrapped in a dirty blanket doesn't exist. Most of us can't read the Arabic newspaper to know about the unspeakable crimes that take place.
I am not writing about anything here that I have not seen personally. I can tell you about the young girl who grabbed my daughter's pizza box and when she opened her mouth all of her teeth were either broken or missing. I can tell you about the hungry boy crying in front of the train station in the freezing cold morning air. I can tell you about the houses in the medina with no toilets and no running water that would be condemned if people weren't living there. Once I mentioned the women in my neighborhood who draw water at the fountain everyday and somebody said it's because they are too cheap to pay for water. People wash up in this fountain that sits right next to the neighborhood garbage dump. Women wash the family laundry and carry the heavy baskets home to dry. They bring their dishes and their children to clean up. Are they too cheap and so idle they would choose to do this rather than pay a water bill?
Nobody can fix all the social problems in the world. Poverty will always exist for one reason or another. But we can alleviate the suffering of one person, even for one day. One act of charity could be the event that turns a life around or even saves it. One effort to make the world a better place for everybody could change the world. So when I hear people talk about saving the medina or wanting things to stay as they are, I have to wonder if that is really a good thing or not. Does anyone really want to be part of bringing groups of tourists in to stare at this misery and think it's quaint because all of us refuse to accept the reality? I don't think anybody is that cold-hearted.
There are no easy answers but a step toward finding some would be to do something. Do anything. Donate clothing to a charity. Feed the hungry or buy bread for the poor. Support education for one child. Support healthcare for one child or one woman. There is a chance now with foreign investment and foreign residents to make some significant changes in the medina for the good. Fez can continue to be the soul of Morocco if people work together to feed that soul because without that soul there will be only the empty shell of a dead body.
Then what will we do with all these pretty houses?
