High in the Rif mountains this week 4,000 young Moroccans hacked away with pick, shovel and sledge hammer, gouging a road out of the wilderness. Even for the peasants who made up three-quarters of the group, the work was exhausting, as temperatures simmered up over 100°. City boys desperately tried to toughen their torn hands with tannin from the bark of cork trees. The work was hard, and nobody got paidbut the whole business was somehow satisfying. The young nation of Morocco was building something for itself.
Unity Road is a sensible vision conceived by Mehdi ben Barka. bright-eyed young (37) president...