By Majid Morceli
San Francisco - Thank God It’s Friday. It’s time to take a deep breath and unwind. I don’t feel like doing anything tonight, I just want to stay home and do some “Chromecasting”: streaming content from YouTube to an LCD TV using a $35 basic device, which I consider one of the many great inventions of Google in the last few years.
I was not sure what I wanted to stream, but one thing I did know was that I did not to watch anything political: nothing to do with the Palestinians, Moroccans, Algerians, the Ukrainians or God forbid anything related to the terrorist group ISIS. Everywhere you look, there is a video depicting the atrocities they are committing in the Middle East.
Earlier in the day I read somewhere that they are banning Music from the areas they control in Syria. After reading this un-Islamic nonsense, I felt this strong urge to listen to my favorite Arabic Music as if ISIS were on their way to my place to confiscate and destroy my music players and eventually mercilessly behead me, and I will never have that last chance to enjoy any music.
My mint tea infused with jasmine is ready, my iPhone is on hand and I am ready to start streaming. As soon as I clicked on the YouTube app, I see Cheb Khalid staring at me as if he was asking me to watch his one and a half hour video concert. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to watch it. I like some of his songs, but I prefer to listen to Cheb Mami instead. I browsed the YouTube app to see if I can find some of his High Definition (HD) videos, but in vain: Cheb Khalid kept showing up in my search results, and many of his videos are HD quality. I decided to give Khalid a chance and clicked on the Play button and then on the Chromecast sign on my iPhone to stream the concert to the LCD TV.
While sipping my tea and watching Khalid doing what he does best, getting the crowd on their feet, he started addressing the audience and specifically those of Moroccan and Algerian origin. He would mention Casablanca, and he gets a reaction from the crowd. He would mention the city of Ouahran, and he would get an even stronger reaction from the crowd. In a way, he was perhaps unintentionally able to unify the Algerian and Moroccans among the Swiss crowd (the concert was taking place somewhere in Switzerland).
Seeing how Algerians and Moroccans live in harmony in foreign lands, I could not help but think about the barriers that separate us in our homelands, and for how long our leaders will continue to go against the will of the people. One thing is certain: Morocco has never shied away from asking for the dismantling of the borders, and the Algerian regime always refuses and even goes so far as to place impossible-to-meet conditions on Morocco just to begin negotiations.
Right when I thought that I would take a night off from politics, there was Cheb Khalid, reminding me that I will take a break when the leaders of the countries sit across a table and iron out their differences.
Khalid’s concert was done, and Mustapha Bourgogne showed up in my YouTube app. I clicked the “play” button, and, you guessed it, the song was an original Jil Jilala one, “la3youn 3ayniya ou Saquia Lhamra liya”. The Sahara conflict needs to be solved, and perhaps someday, new songs will be composed: songs that will reflect our similarities rather than our differences.
The Western Sahara conflict has divided us for such a long time. Let’s hope that one day in our lifetimes, this same Sahara will unit us.
I don’t know about you all, but I really want to see peace between Morocco and Algeria in my lifetime. Bouteflika is at peace with himself and he knows that he will go see God without ever seeing peace between us.
It is frightening to see that the military regime is grooming his brother Said Bouteflika to be his successor. Does this mean that many of us will never witness peace between Morocco and Algeria?
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Morocco World News’ editorial policy
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