Corruption..?

When we were in Fez, we stopped the bus after dinner one night and got out to see this concert that was going on. It was very small but there was a stage set up and when we went to check it out there ended up being something like a freestyle rap concert going on. They were rapping in Dar’ja so we obviously didn’t understand, but it was very obviously “f*** the man” kind of message. It was also full of a style of person that is very common in the US, but I hadn’t really seen at all here—very gansta-esk. When we got back onto the bus our program coordinators were kind of in shock. They had never seen anything like that in Morocco before—such blatant, public opposition against the government. Nowel who is a very conservative Muslim woman who still wears a head scarf all the time and fully participates in Ramadan, was surprised to have seen that but she still referred to them as crazy kids or hooligans and she really didn’t think what they were doing was very meaningful. It was just a game they were playing. But Yellin, who is very Americanized and went to school and taught at Harvard and has traveled throughout the US saw it differently. He too was amazed to have seen such a performance in Morocco but thought it had a much bigger meaning—a revolution if you will. The times they are a changin’.
We’ve been told under a few circumstances that the way the Moroccan government/the king deals with opposition or difference is by “accepting” opposing parties just to bring them closer and in reality keep a closer eye on them. For instance, when the Berber population became kind of fed up with the country neglecting their language and heritage, the king created a Berber institute of sorts that kind of made everyone happy without really changing much. The Berbers felt they were being represented, but really the government was giving them an institution or a simple body of association as to really just keep an eye on them. I’m not really sure of the kind can create the same type of institution for young men rappers—especially since that’s exactly what they are fighting against… but who knows!
So today when I was walking in the medina with my sister, a man started yelling and kind of causing a scene. I sometimes confuse regular dialog as confrontation because Arabic tends to be a very harsh language all on its own, and also because I never really understand any of the words themselves so I make assessments purely by body language etc. But today this man really was upset and I asked my sister what was going on and she got this really angry look in her eyes and said that the government comes and takes a lot of the vendors merchandise when they just use the floor space to sell things and don’t actually have a physical shop. Apparently it’s totally illegal to sell items just lying on the street—sensibly so—and so when government officials drop by they take some of the vendors merchandise instead of kicking them out completely or even arresting them. Today, this mad was very mad and definitely upset that this was happening to him and my sister also thought it was just awful that the “government” would do that. Later this evening when the medina is at FULL capacity and it’s hardly possible to move at all, I saw more uniformed men just grabbing handfuls and handfuls of jackets, shoes what-have-you; yet, these vendors were just kind of dealing with it. I was totally outraged at how nonchalantly this negotiation was happening but another American girl I was with at the time was totally unfazed and was just like it’s an agreement. The vendors give the officers (they looked more like militants than police men but I really couldn’t tell) whatever they want/can carry in exchange for not arresting them or shutting them down all together. I’m going to be bold here and just say… that is definitely corruption one way or another. I wish I could have heard what the rappers were really saying in detail—I’m sure this is the type of situation they were referring to.