The Moroccan city of Asilah has hosted the Youth activities of the Arab league in its third session on the theme of youth and migration from the perspective of human rights 14-20 November 2009, and which is attended by around 140 young people representing Arab countries and European countries as well as representatives of the League of Arab States in the person of Khalid Louhichi, the Council European youth in the person of Louis Gomez, in addition to Ms. Sonia European Youth Representative and Ms. Gloria from the World Bank .The Forum Program was characterized by capturing a number of issues and studies that try to address the issue of youth mobility and dealing with it from different aspects, social and political. However, most forums, meetings, regional or international organization organised by Arabs, have a predominantly traditional character of the routine emptying it of its dimensions and the real purpose, to remain ineffective and not just an activity that can rise to the aspirations of the target group and perceptions, with Arab youths unable to crystallize a vision and realistic goals, thereby turning the Forum space for dialogue, debate and express opinions boldly and objectively to fashion show and ostentation, discussing issues not related to the core of the forum, the thing that makes it easier for others to pass false messages, without any reaction against whatsoeevr ; sa well as getting support for a failed work with the direct exclusion of the best ones.
What concerns me is that I want to shed some light on the views and criticisms of the European Youth participating in the Forum, without concentrating on the Arab youth.The latter, which was clear to me from the first moments in the Forum that they know each other so well which made it clear that they often met in different occasions, and calls into question the credibility of the Organizing Committee of the Forum and the credibility of the standards adopted in the selection of the participating youth, adding to this as well that when we sit arround dinner tables, I try to distinguish between a young village poor « the unclassified » and the rich « young five-star » and find that the morality of the bourgeoisie is the dominant from the ways of talking and sometimes dressing ;what made Forum lose its Features of diversity and difference and make each man a replica of the other, if we take for granted that each social group is distinct culturally.
What was told about the majority of the European youth was totally wrong and the goal of their presence was transparent and clear. They are chosen by their associations they are active in. They are also chosen based on criteria of efficiency and the level of activity and the extent of their interest in the forum and their ability to communicate and represent their own representative supervisor. From here I think we should take into account their remarks and criticism concerning the forum.
A Greek company considered that the Forum marked several aspects affecting the respect and violate the rules of discipline, depriving youth work fro m its sanctity and credibility ; which was considered as reflecting in part the immaturity of the participants and their inability to bahave themselves, and in part the inability of some of them to stick to the ethics of dialogue and debate, such as listening to the other and avoiding duo-dialogues and other ethics which the civilised world can’t live without.
I a It has expressed as well as other colleagues from different countries, "Russia, Estonia, Germany, Switzerland," their concer about the transformation of the Forum from an opportunity for fruitful discussion and hard work into a space of Tourism and taking pictures, dancing and exchanging kisses and gifts, and absenteeism from work to attend workshops and spend time in the Internet Room and seize the opportunity to do tours of the city center ...
According to reliable sources ; I was told that there was a distribution of alcoholic drinks and Shisha by the Organizing Committee within the Post tourist”Elbarid” complex that was home to concerts, dance night.
Many of the participants were surprised by the decision of the Organizational Committee to separate the participants and make their places of residence distributed between the post center and « khayma »hotel .This latter where the residence was very bad according to the words of some participants who complained about the low temperature of the rooms and lack of heating which transformed the rooms into refrigerators. There were recorded also some cases of poisoning due to bad foods such as those of the Basel from Estonia and Hashim Dgstnai.
A number of young Europeans and Arabs expressed their resentment and anger to the bad translation.A translation which was not considered credible, particularly as the nature of the subject of discussion was superficial and the recipient didn’t get the message.It required professional translation to maintain the cultural and intellectual load of the term employed to explain the phenomenon according to different contexts.
Also on the sidelines of the forum ,European youth committee called for the amount of the budget spent on the Forum to be organized in this way, and how $ 200 was distributed to each participant when it was supposed to distribute $ 400, Where is the money wasted then?
One of the Jokes of the Forum was Khaled Louhichi talking to much and showing of his linguistic muscles as is his habit when he is always in Hassan II conference Hall. But a participant from Portugal, criticized his monopoly breaking the familiar habit of the Arabs, which put Khalid Louhichi in an embarrassing situation and showed signs of embarrassment under the laughter of the Europeans.
Talking about said Khalid Louhichi, it has become clear to many, either through his talks as the representative of the League of Arab States or through his talks to the youngs his indirec diffusing of the t secular principles peculair to the Tunisian political regime.
There should be noted the kind of regulatory indifference and unintended regulatory gaps that resulted from the lack of focused management and allocation of responsibilities among the members of the Organizing Committee to find that the tasks and responsibilities interfere with each other which makes the decisions of the Organizing Committee intersect from time to time, and thisshows a lack of expertise of the organizational Commission and its inability to organise a forum of this kind.
It should also be noted that I was told on the first day of the forum together a group of Arab youths living in Tangier met to express their rejection of the League of Arab States forum for young people and announce the withdrawal of confidence from all the forum's decisions and recommendations.
Despite all of this, I can’t deny some of the positive things that captivated me personally.This Forum gave me the opportunity to have relations of friendship and cooperation with distinct European youth and perhaps this is the only positive thing in the forum as a whole.
In conclusion I would say that the forum of the Arab League for young Arabs is not up to be their voice express their problems ... let alone offering them solutions to their problems. It’s proved to me through almost all the forum workshops I attended were only rrepeating the old authoritarian discourse without introducing effective alternatives and proposals away from objective reality of the Arab peoples that suffer from poverty, marginalization, exclusion and suffering from the atrocities of the political priorities. And a new way to absorb the anger of youth and the oppressed to mislead and conceal the truthfrom them. by Karl Marx was right when he said « disinformation of the worst than repression ».
