Blank line item. . . 60,000 dh. Part II

Once I had a copy of the budget, the question became what to do with this wealth of information. On the one hand, since I'm a guest in this community and the commune president could probably have me deported if he wanted to, maybe this is none of my business and I should stay as far away from any drama or accusations as possible. But on the other hand, if I could somehow encourage just a bit of transparency and accountability, the people of the commune would benefit from this budget for years to come. Even if my poking my nose into things motivates the commune into doing just one development project this year instead of pocketing that money, that one project could have a lot more impact on people's lives here than my little bathroom-building projects. Or am I naive and egotistical enough to think that I can change the behavior of rich politicians who live in their mansions in the cities and clearly don't care that everyone living in the commune already thinks they're stealing all the money? But maybe all it takes is for one person to refuse to accept a system of corruption and to encourage other people to refuse to continue to accept that system. If I too turn a blind eye, am I giving up on the possibility of a positive change in the system? Maybe it's my duty to stand up for people and demand transparency. After all, what can the commune really do to me? I have the luxury of American citizenship and a family and a life far away from the politics of this tiny little rural commune in the middle of nowhere. The commune can't refuse to sign property ownership papers for me or demand absurd taxes from me because I'm never going to buy a house or property here, will never need to send my children to the commune's public schools, and will certainly never ask for a job in the commune. People here are afraid to say anything bad about the commune because the commune holds a lot of power over their lives. But even though I know that in the grand scheme of things I have very little to lose, being kicked out of the country for involving myself too much in petty local politics doesn't sound like much fun, and maybe I'd rather go back to blissful ignorance, drinking tea and running with my dog and pretending like everything and everyone is great. And let the work of the commune remain the mystery maybe it's meant to be.