by ANNA LEKAS MILLER
Like many Arab revolutionaries before him, including Mohammad Bouazizi of Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, Oussama Khlefi is young, highly educated, and unable to find work. He has a dual degree in information technology and business management, credentials that could earn him a lavish salary if he lived in Europe or even the United States, but currently lives with his parents in Salé (a small town outside of Rabat, Morocco), while picking up odd jobs in a vain attempt to earn and save money.
This is what pushed him and many others into the streets on February 20.
Like the many other uprisings across the Arab World, Morocco’s February 20th movement began as a response to the lethal combination of widespread government corruption and economic despair. Thousands of young people in Oussama’s position—young and educated recent graduates—are quickly realizing that their university degrees are meaningless in a desolate and corrupt economy.
Most of the country’s economic wealth is concentrated in the hands of King Mohammad VI and the royal family. Needless to say, it is hardly able to “trickle down,” and the few Moroccans who do have jobs making use of an advanced degree are most likely employed through a personal connection or blatant bribery. It is nearly impossible to enter the job market based on merit alone.
The bottom ninety-nine percent, those who are not connected to royalty or have extraneous money in their personal budget for bribes, remain chronically unemployed. They are like Oussama Khelfi: picking up odd jobs, living with their parents and unable to imagine a future of their own.
Idleness defines the Arab youth. Idleness becomes restlessness, restlessness becomes unrest and unrest becomes uprisings and possibilities for revolution.
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(Thanks to Feroz Mehdi)