The Pen Racket: Addicted to Aid at a Young Age - Azilal Province, Morocco, Aug. 7, 2010

Travel log:
They come from the West. Westerners ride into Morocco to enjoy the scenery, the culture and history. Still, what they see on their way to and from the kasbahs and the natural wonders is the evidence of many of the problems their predecessors helped create; and they want to help and the want to give.
So the question is: what are they giving and what are they taking away?
The professionally charitable (or developmentally charitable) say that purely giving chokes true development and does a disservice to the recipient of such well-intentioned and misguided generosity.
The Lost Nav is true to form and quite lost over what may be a solution. Armed with minimal skills in both French and the Berber dialect of Tashelheit, he wanders one hour each way to his local health clinic dreaming up ways to help, or rather develop.
During the hike, brains racked in the service of new community and country, the neighborhood punks demonstrate the early symptoms of their addiction to foreign aid. They also show the symptoms of boredom and the unavailability of more useful activities as they harass yet another 'aromi' or foreigner in their midst.
"Fiyi stilo," they yell and demand in their French-tinged Tashelheit or plainly "donne-moi stilo" in French... "Give me pen!" They carry on further with "bonjour" and "ca va?" in the most exaggerated and snotty French accents they can muster.
Many tourists are duped by this feigned desire for school supplies. Some are likely to give in just to get rid of the little beggars, but the locals tell a different ending to the story.
The pens are traded at the local convenience shops (called 'hanuts') for candy... candy and the sense that foreigners come and are happy to give.