The state has withdrawn from its social responsibilities and handed everything over to the private sector, which cares about nothing except profit. Worse still, we see that major companies like Maroc Telecom treat citizens with arrogance and contempt — and sometimes even state institutions.

These days, Maroc Telecom floods us with SMS messages urging us to buy recharge cards to get triple their value when recharging. But once we bought the cards, Maroc Telecom refused — for three days — to accept them.
What do we call this?
Fraud? Scam?
No. A scam requires some creativity and intelligence in deception.
This is neither fraud nor a scam. It is simply theft and hogra.
And the biggest hogra is when you complain and they tell you: “We can’t do anything for you, we have a technical problem.”

Two years ago, Maroc Telecom wanted to install one of its antennas on a building. The residents protested, and Hassan Merzougui came and asked the workers for the installation permit. They refused, and he stopped them for two days.
Everyone gathered at the police station: the commissioner, the authorities, the Telecom representative, and the mayor.
Merzougui, as mayor, demanded to see the permit.
The Telecom representative arrogantly replied:
“By God, no one will see it. We will finish our work, and if you delay us, we will charge you millions for every day of delay.”
Under pressure and intimidation, the mayor had no choice but to withdraw, without being allowed to see a single document.

Isn’t this contempt, arrogance, and corporate tyranny from Maroc Telecom?
Yes, everyone knows they have licenses that allow them to do whatever they want, steal however they want, and prosecute whomever they want.
But what would it cost them to respect the citizen and the mayor and simply show the permit?

The era of political tyranny is over.
We are now in the era of corporate tyranny.

Amar Jalloul – 2013