By Jamal Elabiad
The British Council (BC) and the Regional English Language Office (RELO) are the paymasters and sponsors of a number of associations of different concerns and interests in Morocco. One of these associations is the Moroccan Association of Teachers of English (MATE), which came into being in 1979, and generally aims at improving the teaching of English in Morocco.
MATE was among the Moroccan associations that “vehemently” denounced the unjustifiable killing of innocent people in Gaza at the hands of the Zionist war criminals. By the way, Neither the BC nor RELO issued any statement of solidarity with the Gazans, including babies and kids.
But everybody with a minimum of common sense will notice after reading the MATE denunciation that it didn’t come out till almost twenty days passed since the outbreak of the Gaza holocaust. The question that must be posed here is: Why didn’t MATE condemn the holocaust the soonest possible? Only God and the Association Board know why !
Possibly, tardiness is attributed to the fact that some “Americanised” top MATE members didn’t welcome the idea of condemning the war on Gaza!
The following is another question that’s up to the MATE Board to answer : Was the condemnation, before it was published on MATE website, sent to the Association paymasters to check whether it contains some expressions that will put the paymasters as well as those they represent in a very embarrassing situation?
A good example of the expressions that the MATE Board, regrettably, didn’t include in the denunciation or at least hint at is the fact that without the financial and logistical support of both the U.S. and Britain, Israel could have done nothing. Was the rationale behind that not to anger the paymasters, and, as a result, lose their funding?
I will conclude with the following excerpts from one of MATE newsletters:
“ besides her financial contribution to the first two events, she ( Ms. Ruth Petzold ) promised to bring in specialists whose work would respond to the needs of the Moroccan ELT community.”
“ Mr Ladbury told us that the BC, as usual, will support MATE in its action plans and will contribute financially whenever it is possible.”
Ruth Petzold, neddless to say, is the RELO directress and Adam Ladbury is the BC director.