The Plight of Moroccan TV

This past Ramadan Moroccan viewers inside the kingdom and abroad were fuming over the mediocre Moroccan drama series and comedies that crowded their TV screens around Iftar time, the time of breaking the fast. Iftar time is equivalent to American Super Bowl spread out over thirty days in terms of peaking TV viewership and ad revenues. Moroccan Facebookers created several groups to protest against 2M TV and Al-Oula TV, both state-run TV channels. Moroccan press, too, lashed out at the two channels, and Rachid Jadir, a young underground cartoon artist, came up with a short, but quite funny, video clip --which made the rounds on Facebook-- mocking the Moroccan TV mockery. Al-Jazeera TV also chipped in and discussed the issue on its daily Maghreb special edition for about 30 minutes.

Experts claimed several factors that contribute to the poor quality of TV programming:

1. Political: Few months ago, the Audio-visual watchdog in Morocco, HACA, canceled a invitation for proposal to the private sector for 2 TV projects and 3 radio stations permits. It was canceled at the last minute, citing the difficult market conditions caused by the global financial meltdown, which might, they argued, depress an already suffering TV ads market. But some observers said it highlighted the authorities reluctance to allow privately-owned networks to operate. This kind of TV channels will need to attract viewers to survive, which might lead them to discuss taboo topics in Morocco, particularly in a country with high illiteracy rate, and where citizens hardly read to know what is going on in the country. That is more headaches for the authorities, which have been butting heads with the Moroccan printed press lately. This, observers argue, creates, or rather, maintains an audiovisual environment monopolized by two state-owned TV networks.
2. Advertisers: Advertisers are rumored to have a major say on what shows the two channels should air. From the dozens of proposals for shows and series, the advertisers prefer to conservatively pick the familiar faces in the Moroccan comedy scene as a safe bet. The underfunded SNRTs two outlets have no choice but to say yes to advertisers so that they can balance their budgets with high premiums they charge for the much prized Iftar peak time. Projects proposed by young and unfamiliar artists get the boot and the Moroccan audience never gets to discover new talents, leading to very uncompetitive and incompetent products by the same old faces.
3. Nepotism and corruption: Those same old faces have now accumulated fortunes thanks to their exclusive contracts obtained through shady and murky contacts. Actors and producers like Said Naciri, for example, appear every year on 2M TV and fail miserably to put not even a smile on the viewers' faces, let alone laughter. Inflated contracts charges end up in the pockets of the "artists" and TV artistic evaluation teams. Of course, the two networks, run by bureaucrats, will never reform themselves as feedback, instructions, and orders go one-way street, from top to bottom.
   

Backfire:
Things have changed this year. With tools like Facebook, the Moroccan blogosphere and Twitter, feedback to Ramadan programming was immediate, and negative. The press and the advertisers themselves, for the first time in the history of Moroccan media enviornment, were able to measure the viewers' temperature. Newspapers bombarded the two networks with a daily barrage of criticism. And the advertisers, 10 days into Ramadan, pulled most of their advertising. Viewers of course had no shortage of alternative shows and networks to follow, as they zapped to Egyptian, Saudi, and Lebanese networks for Syrian and Egyptian drama. Quite anecdotal was the fact that many disappointed viewers turned to Hizballah's Al-Manar TV to watch a of a drama series that was said to be of higher quality than what the Moroccan networks aired. Too much for a regime that declared war on Shiism in Morocco few months ago.

Modern Ramadan

I was approached by an English Pakistani medical student in our Library and asked if I were to join her and some Muslim Fellows for Friday prayers. I quickly agreed and without any hesitation. Prayers are keeping the vibrations of my sanity alive this Ramadan, and are a source of relief for my daily over accumulating stress. Not to mention the self-purification we are blessed to experience during this holy month.

Once we were done with Jumuah prayers, I realized that the majority of people in our little mosque were not fasting!! Their excuse was that is so difficult for them to fast in the heat during a long day that requires a lot of attention and fast pace learning. I was simply stunned by their reasoning and shocked to an unbelievable point. I couldn’t help it but ask myself: Isn’t Ramadan one of the pillars of Islam? Is there some justified non-fasting during Ramadan other than sickness? May God forgive me; I allowed myself to google the subject online, naively thinking, that there might be some justified excuses for not fasting besides Illness. Perhaps some unique mental hardship these medical students are using?!

My only Moroccan American colleague was praising me one day for my strength to hold on my fasting while working with cadavers and undergoing a long hectic day of attending lectures and studying without fainting. At first, I seriously thought it was an innocent compliment made to accentuate the strong belief of a Muslim holding on her religious beliefs in a non-Muslim country by majority, but to my surprise, and while we were having that conversation she reached to her cup of coffee and started drinking it. Then and only then I realized and understood the reasoning behind her compliment about my fasting: she wasn’t fasting either!

I froze for a second and started contemplating my surrounding. There were so many Muslims in my group who were proud to be part of the Muslim Ummah yet chose to abstain from fasting and for the very same reasons I mentioned earlier. It didn’t take me too long to realize that I was considered a minority Muslim, within the big majority Muslim Community. But what seems a little bizarre though is that the minority, in this case, whole heartily abides by the pillars of Islam unlike the big community.

Although I moved to the US at a young age, Ramadan was and still holds a special love in my heart. It’s very refreshing to close my eyes, and recall my memories of Ramadan in Morocco. The spirit of people and the warmth welcome of a special month many of us await impatiently, and how it brings most of our family members, friends and neighbors together. The constant recitations of Quran, the Taraweeh prayers, the closeness we get to Allah are simply priceless. There are no perfect words that can express those feelings I have once felt and moments I have enjoyed living in a country, where majority of its citizens practice the same religion.

Upon my migration to the states, I didn’t feel much difference in our Ramadanic Atmosphere. My family carried same traditions and values we were entrenched with in Morocco. Perhaps, the only change I was faced with is having to explain what Ramadan and Islam are all about to classmates and teachers. Years went by, and I found myself away from home for college. Distance and change in environment didn’t alter my faith in Islam. In fact, I believe it made it stronger than ever before. It made me appreciate and value my religion and the union of my family during the beautiful holy month of Ramadan. Moreover, it was during Ramadan that I expanded the network of my friendship with Muslims from all over the world in and out school, with whom I had Iftars, and prayers on a regular basis.

So after a deep pondering, I came to the conclusion that Ramadan is still special in my heart regardless of my location and surrounding. Close or far away from my family, I strive hard to carry the same values and practice of religion I grew up practicing. I feel so sad for those who excuse themselves from fasting it and missing on the unique experience of feeling the holiness of Ramadan.

I can’t help it but ask myself, where is our Muslim, young, educated professional generation is heading to with their Islamic arbitrary excuses they make as they go in their lives? How can we, Muslims, pick and choose from the most important 5 pillars of Islam what better suits our lifestyle, and completely disregard what some of us might consider as a hardship?

Lamiaa