The Sheep Distribution

I continue on my animal postings, but this time with a slightly more serious topic. This is also my first touchy subject that I have dealt with in my writings and keeping people informed. As I have stated before, this blog is my own opinion, and not the opinion of Peace Corps in any way. I do not believe I will offend people, nor do I want to give a one sided opinion. So I will try as always to show the whole picture (Wow I sound like a news agency or something).

So recently in my village, there have been sheep being distributed for local residents. This sheep distribution has been backed by an agency which may be governmental or may be non-governmental. Basically the agency deals with farming, and farm animals. So, this agency has been given funding to purchase sheep, and give them to local people. Each family is supposed to receive three sheep. Altogether, after talking with the person in charge, there were 5000 sheep given out to the families. If I do the quick math, my village has 8000 men, women and children. So basically 5000 sheep means 1667 families were receiving three sheep. So who knows if each and every family received sheep, that is debatable, especially with the reactions that I witnessed. More on this later…

So you wonder about the purpose of this distribution. I believe that is fairly simple to figure out. A man here told me that having sheep is like a bank investment. When you need money, you sell a sheep to get that money. If you do not need money, you keep the sheep, raise it, potentially have more sheep, and then sell if, potentially making profit. So receiving three sheep really helps a family out. In fact, on the surface, this is a great thing. Basically it is akin to getting money passed out, or getting a government surplus check right into your pocket. This year is also a good year for sheep, due to ample grass and weeds to eat, and sheep are more expensive. So if families will sell these sheep, they would make more money in a drought year where sheep are inexpensive. However, I repeat and emphasize the words “on the surface.”

I am an environment volunteer, this is true. One of the goals of Peace Corps is to provide technical assistance to the people with whom I work. Environmentally the area I live suffers from a number of environmental problems. Two of these problems, deforestation and overgrazing, go hand in hand, and basically walk down the street holding hands (which is a “Schuma” or shame in this culture to do).

Deforestation is an issue for many reasons, and also a touchy issue. Wood is used as fuel for heat in the winters, and cooking as well. So cutting down trees needs to occur, and even I purchase fuel wood for the harsh winters that apparently occur in my village. The key word here is sustainable use of wood. Currently, the rate at which the local wood is being used is not equal to the rate at which the wood is being replenished. Even now some villages run out of wood in the winter. Also illegal cutting of protected wood still occurs, and is difficult if impossible to really enforce. Altogether, wood prices go through the roof in the winter… so buy your wood now kids.

Overgrazing is also a problem. One reason is that Morocco is public lands, so grazing occurs anywhere that food is available. Sheep really enjoy eating grasses and weeds, and also tree limbs, when they get cut down. In addition, saplings (baby trees) make an incredible food source. But, when all the public land saplings get eaten, no trees become replenished, and you add to the problem of deforestation. This is already occurring in portions of the area.

The short-sightedness of this sheep distribution is what bothers me. There are many implications of this distribution. Five years or ten years down the line, there may be very little wood, and it will be very expensive. So what looks to be a great investment by having free sheep given to you (basically money in the pocket), will come back and take all of your profits away in the long term, and may even make you poorer, and certainly will not help to replenish the environment. Sadly, in the discussions I have had with locals, they do not totally understand this, and are confused as to why I would ever be against a free sheep distribution. In fact, people jokingly asked me why I did not get free sheep, and my reply was that I did not want them, because they eat all of the weeds and trees. Faces were funny to see. (Oh and an aside, the reason I was at this distribution is that I was helping my host family get their sheep. So I was carrying a few sheep, and making sure they did not get away.)

Sure the agency was an agricultural agency. That may not mean much to you, so let me explain. In Morocco, the government has ministries, basically departments. One of these is The Ministry of Agriculture. There is no ministry of environment, just an agency that does not have the same power as the Ministry of Agriculture and certainly these two bodies do not work much with each other, as Agriculture is about the money, not protecting the environment. So I am assuming this agency did not have any sort of foresight into potential harm of giving sheep out. But hey, what the issue in giving only 5000 sheep out to further degrade the land… people here already complain enough about lack of wood, and blowing dust (due to no plants holding the soil). Sorry, this was my sarcasm creeping into my writing.

While 5000 sheep can be pretty rough, I think the worst part about the distribution was the “Free-for-all” mentality that occurred. Moroccans have a very difficult time standing in lines and waiting their turn (this is an extreme understatement.) In fact, when sheep distributions were occurring earlier this week for other parts of the village, people felt slighted, and wondered why those people got their sheep first. So when it was time to get the sheep, I saw the bad side of human nature. There was arguing, shoving, fighting, people climbing on the trucks and helping themselves, and maybe other occurrences that I will not name here. It would have been so orderly and faster to wait. In fact the local police came to make sure things were sorted out right. It was hot, and tempers were firing. I could not believe it, and really you would think that this was a water truck going to a community that did not have clean water. But it was sheep. It was money. People do crazy things for a few bucks (even if in the end it makes them poorer.)

During the moment I had some conversations with local people that I know well enough. At one point, a man came up to me and asked, “What do you say?” In my reply I said, “I don’t know.” He them changed to English, which he knows very little, and stated “This is Morocco.” It is a cliché statement, but so profound. It makes me realize that helping people with environmental issues will be a large battle. I knew that it would be, but this was kind of a wake up call, and a show that people can be downright nasty in situations such as this.

I suppose that is all I have on this. I hope this was informative, and not too dry. Word.

Album of the Moment – Radiohead - “Kid A”
Book of the moment – John Steinbeck - “East of Eden

Much Love,
Me!

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