We spend a lot of time on Moroccan blogs talking about recent developments concerning the press, but how well informed are Moroccans about the same issue? Those that don’t live in one of the big cities may be completely unaware, or worse, misinformed and passing along bad information.
An example:
While talking with my husband last night, I asked him if he’d heard about the verdict. He said no, and quizzed the other Moroccans in the room with him. One said he’d heard about it, and insisted that the two editors of Nichane were going to jail for three years, he knew that for a fact. I tried to explain “suspended sentence” using my poor husband as a middleman, but the so-called expert was having none of it – he seemed pleased to say they were going to be thrown in jail. I’ve run into that a lot there – it always seems there’s one guy who likes to “hold court,” and has an opinion on every topic under the sun – normally a load of b.s., but the other guys just sit with him and nod sagely at his comments, like they agree with everything he says. My brother-in-law is like this [alert, alert, I'm talking about the family], and they actually call him “La radio” – if you start him talking, he won’t switch off. He’s the sort of guy who repeats hooey about how all the Jews were warned about 9/11 in advance, and what’s worse, people believe him. He used to spout off about America, a country he’d never been to, until my husband finally got a chance to come here. Now that he doesn’t have a leg to stand on in that topic, he’s moved on to other useless and ill-informed political and social commentary.
I think I’ll fax them a French version of the Nichane verdict article tomorrow, that ought to fix them. The funny part about all this is that my father-in-law really respects my outspoken and decidedly non-traditional behavior, which surprised me. I think he sensed that we’re a lot alike, or, as he says “Maroc! Kulshi kassoul! Ana wa ntia, la.” I love that old guy.