(ANSAmed) - CAGLIARI, JANUARY 16 - An appeal was made for
unity between the two shores of the Mediterranean, in order to
overcome the economic and social crisis and to look to the
future with hope. This solution cannot come through a second
Marshall plan to aid Africa.
Penetrating, farsighted and disillusioned, Moroccan writer
Tahar Ben Jalloun, one of the most important voices in North
Africa, and a Goncourt award-winning author in 1987, stated: "In
our times, society in the third millennium is no longer willing
to carry out gestures of altruism. The global crisis has hit
everywhere and everyone, and everyone is concerned with saving
themselves. And yet in order to overcome the crisis, it is
necessary for the richer north, which is in constant demographic
decline, and the poor overpopulated south to work together,
setting aside prejudice and racism. Maybe learning a lesson in
democracy from North Africa and looking at Sweden as a model for
immigration policy."
The writer, born in 1944, currently living in France and
author of bestsellers such as "The Jasmine Revolution" and
"Racism Explained to My Daughter", visited Sardinia for the
first time as a guest in Cagliari at the conference entitled "Le
Radici come Futuro", coordinated by university professor Mauro
Pala and organised at the Teatro Massimo by Cedac and
Prohairesis. The discussion focussed on identity, immigration,
racism and the most critical issue last year, the Arab Spring,
the uprisings that decreed the end of three regimes in Tunisia,
Egypt and Libya, and which shook the entire Arab world. "Europe
forgot about the Mediterranean and the south shore. And yet
immigration is a necessity," said Ben Jelloun, "for the people
arriving who are looking for work, and for employers in need of
labour. Instead we create confusion and everyone ends up in the
same pot, legal immigrants, undocumented immigrants waiting to
be made legal and petty criminals. This generates fear, the
mother of racism."
"Until now the heads of state in France, Italy and Spain have
brokered deals with dictators who have stood as an obstacle to
Islamism," Ben Jelloun criticised. "In exchange the West closed
its eyes to the cries of pain from the humanitarian
organisations. Relations with Libya were limited to a visit to
Italy by Gaddafi, another to France, and the vacations to the
west by the daughter of the Libyan dictator."
Then something that no one had expected happened. "Europe,
faced with the discontent resulting from the Arab Spring,"
explained Ben Jelloun, "stood by and watched and is still on the
outside with a "prudent" stance. The recipe to overcome the
crisis, according to the Arab scholar, is through cooperation,
this is the only way to create a democratic future. "Racism and
prejudice go hand in hand and intensify with the economic
crisis," he explained. "It's no wonder that a 'pied noir' like
Zinedine Zidane, a symbol of multicultural France, is more
popular than President Sarkozy. This is an important sign. Many
others will arrive on your doorstep in Italy, and it will be
possible to write new and better pages regarding the future of
society. Because," said Tahar Ben Jelloun, "a dual identity
means multiculturalism." (ANSAmed).
