Moroccan Activists Slam Music Festival as Corrupt - NYTimes.

com 5/29/11 9:23 AM

May 29, 2011

Moroccan Activists Slam Music Festival as

Corrupt
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RABAT, Morocco (AP) — With Shakira and other top international artists performing in open air
venues around Morocco's capital — often for free — the annual Mawazine world music festival
doesn't at first seem like something anyone could dislike.

Activists from Morocco's pro-reform February 20 movement, however, tried to get it canceled,
describing it as a symptom of the country's corruption and cronyism.

In the past, religious conservatives have criticized the eight-day extravaganza for being decadent,
and last year they were angered that it featured openly gay performer Elton John. This year,
however, the attacks are coming from Facebook-savvy youth who would normally be found in the
audience of such celebrations of international music.

"The struggle against the Mawazine is the struggle for democracy," said Rachid el-Belghiti, a
freelance journalist heading the National Campaign to Cancel the Mawazine, a Facebook group
with more than 30,000 members.

He's using online organizing much the way protest movements in Tunisia and Egypt did in
uprisings earlier this year that overthrew longtime authoritarian presidents and sparked protests
around the Arab world.

"I love Shakira, I have no problem with Shakira — she gave $400,000 for a school in Haiti — but
there are serious education problems here," he said. Colombian superstar Shakira closed the
festival Saturday night.

He said the millions of dollars raised for the festival, which come from the public and private
sector, should have gone toward education and development — or even other festivals outside the
capital.

The festival is put on by the nonprofit Maroc-Cultures association and paid for by corporate
sponsors.

Maroc-Cultures, however, is run by Mounir El Majidi, a close confidant of the king, and many of
the sponsors, such as Maroc Telecom and the national airline, are at least partly owned by the

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state. Critics say the festival underlines how intertwined the royal palace remains in Morocco's
economy.

"We just think it's a waste of money, it could be invested in more constructive projects," said
young activist Zineb Belmkaddem, a teacher at a local American school. "Presenting Kanye West
and Shakira for free is ridiculous in a country with so much poverty."

According to Abbas Azzouzi, a member of the festival's organizing committee, the event cost
around $7.8 million — a hefty price tag in a country lacking the oil of its North African neighbors
and with at least 30 percent unemployment, especially among urban youth.

Protesters against the festival gathered last week in downtown Rabat before they were dispersed
by truncheon-wielding policemen.

The festival comes at a delicate time for the February 20 movement, which through
demonstrations around the country pushed Morocco's all-powerful king, Mohammed VI, to start
a process of constitutional reform.

The movement, however, has refused to meet with the committee deliberating the new
constitutional amendments, because that committee was appointed by the king, and now they risk
being left out a reform process expected to stretch through the summer.

Unlike the movements elsewhere in the Arab world that helped inspire it, February 20 is not
calling for the departure of the country's leader, but rather Morocco's transformation into a
constitutional monarchy.

Lacking a cohesive leadership, however, the movement has said little beyond calling for reform
and social justice and has had some of the air taken out of its sails by the king's own initiative.

The regime also appears to have adopted a new zero-tolerance policy toward the movement's
demonstrations and attempts over the past week to rally around the country have been quickly
and violently suppressed.

The Mawazine festival began 10 years ago as an opportunity to expose people to music from
around the world. But under El Majidi's tutelage it turned into a mega-production featuring
international stars at hefty price tags.

Kanye West, Cat Stevens, Earth Wind and Fire, Lionel Ritchie and Quincy Jones starred in this
year's festival.

The eight venues around town also feature the cream of Arab pop stars, including the soulful Iraqi
crooner Kadhem al-Saher and Egyptian megastar Amr el-Diab, as well as several big African acts.

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"That's what Morocco is, its roots are Arab with influences of Africa and links to the West," said
festival organizer Azzouzi. "That's what we want to express through the festival."

He explained that with artists from 60 different countries, the festival's creed as always been to
promote values of diversity, exchange and cultural tolerance, and this year's 10th anniversary
show is the biggest yet.

In the wake of the April 28 bombing at a Marrakech cafe that killed 17, many of the them
foreigners, it was even more important to keep the festival going.

"(The cancellation) is what those people, the terrorists are looking for, this has never been
considered," he said.

By all accounts, the festival is popular, especially with a certain number of seats kept free at every
venue. Azzouzi said 2.2 million are expected to attend with another 16 million Moroccans, in a
country of just 30 million, watching it on television.

Activists say that private and public corporations are pressured into donating to a festival under
the king's patronage. Azzouzi dismissed these allegations, explaining that corporate sponsorship
of the arts is mutually beneficial and involves no coercion.

The flavor of what the festival first set out to be can be seen at the world music stage, set in a
beautifully preserved medieval fortress on the edge of town overlooking a river. The intimate
setting of less than a 100 seats features bands from Colombia, South Africa and Iran playing
traditional music while overhead soar the castle's resident population of storks.

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