Blad Schizo

Last week's Tel Quel cover says a lot. Blad Schizo, or "Schizo-Land," is also the title of the recent punk-ska-surfer anthem by Hoba Hoba Spirit, a Casablanca band. Listen here.

Loosely translated from the lead opinion piece:

"Schizophrenia's 'local sauce'

"There is thus a Moroccan schizophrenia, which we maintain even as it influences us. All the symptoms are there, mixed up in a local sauce. Psychiatrist Mekki Touhami describes the specifics: 'Many schizophrenics are locked up, charged through their delirium, in a neo-reality. In our society, this neo-reality often takes the form of a persecution complex: the jnoun [evil spirits] live in me and control me, my neighbors are out to get me, my wife is poisoning and bewitching me.' It's easy to find the same paranoiac attitude in general public policy speeches. Behind each public action, we seek the conspiracy, the conflict of interest, the hidden motives. But these are logical attitudes, when we recall the opacity which prevailed for a long time in our mode of governance. Recall that Tazmamart [a secret prison] was supposed not to exist, and then became the subject of several best-sellers and documentaries on our national television stations. Not so long ago, the famous 'foreign powers' were invoked to explain all of our dysfunctions. Today, official speech has been rationalized: no one dares to fall back on such language anymore. Instead, the street has taken over such duties: Are Arabs doing badly? It's Israel's fault. It's George Bush's fault."