Adonis Diaries

Lalla Hagoura: UN Charter scarecrow; (Apr. 13, 2010)

            Siesta time after lunch is sacred in hot climate but kids care to play all the time.  An alternative to convincing the kids to keep their peace for a couple of hours was to invite an old storytelling aunt.  The aunt of Fatima Mernissi barged in from the city of Tetouan and scared the hell out of the kids with lalla Hagoura story.  Lalla Hagoura turned out to be a malevolent old hag that hides in dark staircases and then disembowel kids making noises; the only way for loud kids to be saved was for the mother to show up on time and ward off the calamity. Thus, the rowdy kids split into two clans: one clan opted for silence and hanged to mother’s skirt when escalating staircases and the other clan decided to start waking up early, entrap lalla Hagoura, and then lapidate her with stones to death.

            Freedom of expressions, liberty of conscious, democratic institutions, separation of powers, and equal civil rights to all regardless of gender, race, color, origin, or religious affiliations turned out to be lalla Hagoura that everyone wanted to see but never showed up.  Lalla Hagoura became the code name of what is unknown and thus scares off people.  One of the many faces of lalla Hagoura are the articles of the UN Charter that occasionally a few international gathering divulge the secret of the existence of the Charter but that the general public never read or is aware of being international super laws that should be applied to mankind regardless of political regimes or religious dogma.

            All States in the UN have signed up on the Charter but all States prefer not to take out the skeleton out of the closet; every State desires its own charter commensurate to its political structure and the best way to tame the little people and the frustrated masses.  A few States teach courses in “civic education” for kids, or what amount to fairy tales of how government institutions function. Civic education courses are barely communicated to grown up students for a good reason:  Teachers would feel terribly embarrassed of questions demanding details on how “civility” coincides with real applications by government institutions.  When the UN Charter will be taught and disseminated in schools as pre-requisite to human education and knowledge development?

            It would be a great milestone to humanity if a President or Prime Minister of any State delivers a candid speech on how the State laws fair with the articles of the UN Charter that was written in San Francisco in 1945. The UN Charter supersedes all States’ Constitutions according to the signatory States. Societies’ organs were asked to keep the UN Charter in their mind and do their best to teach and educate and disseminate the articles to the new generations and to develop respect to human rights, civil rights, liberty of conscious and equal rights to all. UN resolution 116 of 1947 stated: “Any State desiring to be member of the UN must apply a formal declaration of accepting the UN Charter.”  Thus, formal declarations poured in stating that the signatory State is a democracy with parliament and intending to enact laws compatible to those of the Charter; foremost laws were stating freedom of thinking, of conscious, and liberty of changing religious convictions.

            Instead of conducting public debates on the meaning of each article and the proper application of the Charter and what are the representative procedures most States ignored their citizens and signed up hurriedly in order to side among the victor States. The UN Charter has become a scarecrow skeleton that should be best kept a secret to the general public.  Even the developed States that claim to represent “humanist civilization” are disseminating lalla Hagoura scare tactics whenever their interests do not match with recalcitrant States.

            The new code names are loyalty to the status quo and complete obedience to the ruling classes. Most Arab State leaders enjoy the status of caliph for life and as such are to be revered as infallible. Modernity means engagement in civil laws and the separation of State and religious powers; the secret for enduring power status was to monopolize communication Medias; this can no longer continue: Internet and satellite channels are forcing despots to re-assessing their controlling techniques.

            The best definition for a democratic political structure is when laws prohibit State administrations from manipulating religious beliefs to State interest; laws are not enough: effective laws have enforcing articles attached to them with sets of harsh punishing consequences.  This definition of democracy has corollaries such as separation of power institutions and representation of the public with no discrimination among genders, race, origins, or religious affiliations.  It is about time that the UN Charter be revisited publicly and frequently and not simply be used as a scarecrow to pre-emptive wars, either physically or psychologically.