h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In June 2008 I wrote ‘America still thinks it has to run the world1.’ Well – I beg to differ.
And in September the financial excrement hit the punkah and most of what I had said in June has happened, pretty well as predicted.
But what happens next, now that Uncle Sam implodes, having 'outsourced' just about everything but its billionaire bankers and junkies and a 'middle-class' that is fast becoming an endangered species?
Sitting in Morocco in September and October 2008, it was easy to feel a little smug, especially as the head of The Banque Du Mahgreb has steadfastly refused to yield to years of pressure from America to 'liberalise' the banking system here. There was no 'credit crunch' in Morocco for the simple reason that you could not borrow from the banks here unless you had more than you wanted to borrow already deposited there.
Of course Morocco suffered, but indirectly, as its main trading partners are European and the Europeans didn't have much to trade with. But Morocco looked elsewhere and has actually done rather well out of the situation and is set to become the major 'Hub' on the Western side of the Eastern hemisphere. Within the next decade, Tangier will be another Jebel Ali and Casablanca another Hong Kong.
But another thing is now happening. The June 2008 article ended with:
“What,” one might well ask, “is the promise of America?”
“IBM – or – Insh’Allah, Bookhrah, Mâafeesh”
And how by-our-lady true. America's half century of world domination is over; half a century of propping up despots and dictators, selling arms to both sides and raping continents of their natural resources in the name of 'free-trade' (particularly in Africa).
Now America has no power to intervene. Tunisia last week, Egypt this, Yemen today and then – almost certainly Algeria next.
What will be next, as Africa (Sudan) has already begun to realise that the arbitrary lines drawn across the continent by the colonial powers in the 1830s are just that – arbitrary – and have no bearing on ethnicity, religion, language or tradition? Nigeria2, the Ivory Coast and the Congo are the next most obvious countries to follow Sudan but the really terrifying prospect is that the entire continent could become one almighty Yugoslavia as every ethnic group in the entire continent demands independence.
One can't see the UN having much influence if that were to happen, but – let's face it – the UN is already recognised as a joke and half of it's 'peacekeepers' as serial rapists.
Morocco is, justifiably terrified, especially as it has been embroiled in the Western Sahara dispute since 1975 and the country is made up of nine different ethnic groups. However, Morocco is very different from all other African countries with very, very long history of being incredibly loyal to their Sultan (or King).
The importance of the King – Mohammed VI – cannot be underestimated and what he has done for the country since 1999 is incredible. It is the King that holds this country together, in a strangely similar way that the English Language holds India together as one country.
Moroccan journalists complain about the restrictions on the press but totally fail to even begin to comprehend their responsibility. You cannot criticise the King at all and I support that 100%. Why?
Morocco still has a far too high illiteracy level (although that is changing fast with the generation born since 2000). What Moroccan journalists fail to understand that, to illiterate Muslims, the 'written word' is entirely different. To them, the only written words that they really understand is the Koran and there is therefore an inbuilt perception that ANYTHING written is similar on the basis that if it written down and read to them it is somehow 'the word of God'.
By all means criticise the 'monkeys' (the politicians – as they are generally referred to) but NOT the King.
The poor and illiterate Moroccans WANT to have a grand wealthy King – a King that they can be proud of. The last thing that they want is a dumbed-down monarch who has to justify his expense account to a committee of the monkeys.
Even in the UK, despite the calls for the monarchy to be abolished, it won't be because the vast majority of the population actually like the pomp and ceremony of the royal occasions, and I would bet a pound to a penny that if there were a referendum as to whether they would rather pay for the civil list or the bank managers' bonuses, the answer would be 100% for the civil list.
But Mohammed VI has done far more for Morocco than most Moroccans realise. At the beginning of the century, there were complaints from the educated middle classes, that 'things were moving too slowly'. They weren't, and if they had moved any faster, Morocco would now be in turmoil. It isn't (other than the traffic in Casablanca) and the rate of change is moving upwards exponentially.
When the dream of Morocco becoming a major world 'Hub' actually happens, Morocco might well be in something of the same position as it was during World War II and be an isolated neutral corner as Africa tears itself to pieces. And , Morocco will be sitting there, very nicely, in a position to pick up all the pieces as Africa puts itself back together – a totally different Africa – and be the .distribution centre for the whole of West Africa, the Mediterranean, an impoverished Europe, a bankrupt North America and an increasingly wealthy South America.
I'm going to keep my money on Morocco.

Hello there pedant