The View from Fez questioned why Bono has been seen wandering the medina of late; USA Today confirms that popular band U2 is currently in Fez recording an album. This is not the first visit to Morocco for U2 - their 1991 video “Mysterious Ways,” directed by Stephane Sednaoui, was filmed in Fez.

The View from Fez suggests that perhaps they are also here to see the World Sacred Music Festival - I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s indeed true. Here’s hoping that The View manages to catch up with Bono!

MoTIC is urging readers to continue signing petitions against Morocco’s internet censorship. Although YouTube is back, Livejournal and Google Earth are still blocked, without explanation. The petitions are:

Petition to Counter Internet Censorship in Morocco (Fr)
Stop-Censure (Fr)
Unblock Youtube (continue signing anyway!)

The Maroc IT Blog also urges readers to denounce the censure, pointing out a satirical article by La Gachette du Maroc (fr).  A Moroccan in Washington DC is questioning who blocked YouTube in the first place, saying:

People behind the blocking of Youtube in Morocco have to be reprimanded in proportion with the damage caused from ban. The news has made its way to BBC,New York times, Washington Post and a plethora of other news outlets in the world causing an unwanted negative advertising of a Kingdom that seeks to replenish its image and join the club of modern and free societies. Consequently, the ban on a high profile such as Youtube has tarnished the image of Morocco,a country in a democratic transition.

Additionally, here is another good piece by Omar El Hyani for Open Source.

Magically, Moroccan bloggers are all beginning to post bits in English, which is nice considering how many more readers English blogs seem to garner here.

The Global Peace Index, in which the United States and Iran are practically tied at 96 and 97, ranks Morocco as 48 out of 121. Iraq and Sudan are at the bottom of the list, while Norway is ranked as #1.

In certain indicators, ranked on a scale of 1 ( most peaceful) to 5, Morocco did extremely well. “Number of homicides per 100,000 people,” “Number of deaths from organized conflict (internal)” and “Aggregate numbers of heavy weapons per 100,000 people” are just three of the indicators for which Morocco was given a “1.” The lowest ranking indicators were “UN Deployments 2006-7″ (5), “Relations with Neighboring Countries” (3), “Level of Violent Crime” (3), “Political instability” (3), and “Respect for Human Rights” (3).

The survey also covered culture and education, as well as other indicators. Morocco’s lowest point lies in higher education; in the education rankings, percentages of students enrolled were given. The results:

Primary education enrollment: 90%
Secondary education enrollment: 36%
Higher education enrollment: 11%

Overall literacy was said to lie at about 51%.

Last night, Hamza and I (as well as some friends) were fortunate enough to attend the Gnaoua Dance Party hosted by the folks from The View From Fez.  Although we were quite late, it was wonderful - I had never seen Gnaoua outside of the Essaouira Festival, so I felt extra lucky.  We missed the food, but judging by how many people were full of energy and dancing, it seems that it was a success!

Hamza (my husband) has already topped whatever I could post with his gorgeous photos over at El Hafa, but here are a few of my own.

Who rocks the party?  Gnaouis rock the party!

Seriously, they do.

The rest of the album can be found here

Thanks Oumama, for being the first to alert me to the fact that YouTube has returned to Maroc Telecom customers.

What is truly amazing is how bloggers managed to mobilize so quickly. This afternoon, I found that several international news sources had picked up the story, no doubt because of the fact that bloggers in three (or more) languages managed to pool their resources, e-mail each other, start up petitions, make incessant posts (which we then managed to get put up on Global Voices), starting an incredibly effective chain reaction.

International news sources which covered the story:

Reporters Without Borders
MidEast Youth
Associated Press Article (via San Jose Mercury - surprising how many local papers in the States picked this up!)

Special thanks to Youssef who quickly got this story noticed.

The Blogoma is still going strong covering the recent ban on YouTube.  As I have a lot of work these next few days, I direct you to Maghrebism, where the story is being covered comprehensively.  Myrtus has provided us with a list of blogs covering the story, which is now also being covered here at Mashable.

What can I do?

• Digg my Global Voices Online story and Youssef’s story to spread coverage.
• Sign the petition to unblock YouTube in Morocco.

Maghreb Arabe Presse reported that Morocco is the largest importer of green tea from China, outranking Japan and Russia:

The surge of imports started in 1993 when the sector of tea was liberalized, said the manager of a Moroccan tea importer company, adding that today a Moroccan person consumes up to 1.76kg of tea per annum, which is one of the world’s highest rates. Morocco’s market is very important to the sector of tea in China, the chairman of the Chinese chamber of commerce told MAP. He underlined that some Chinese farms and factories work exclusively with Moroccan clients.

-May 26, Beijing

I’m saddened and disappointed today. #1, by how many comments I’ve read, mostly in other blogs, in support of censorship; and #2, by the fact that it seems that Maroc Telecom/Itissalat Maghreb, owned by Vivendi Universal, has blocked YouTube on its own, and that it is, perhaps, not a directive of the Moroccan government (thanks Youssef for the info)

I should first clarify that most of the people I’ve found to be, seemingly, pro-censorship, support it in this case because the likely cause of the ban on certain websites was related to the rise of fundamentalist materials. That sounds fair.

But, the problem with censorship is that once it starts, it seems to pick up speed. First, they censor fundamentalist sites, then what? Soon, nothing is off-limits.

In Europe, hate speech has been criminalized. It is illegal in most countries to deny the Holocaust. Now, I will state that personally, I believe that the Holocaust happened, that it was one of history’s biggest tragedies, that the persecution of Jews, homosexuals, and other minorities occurred on the largest scale ever during that time. But what if I didn’t? Shouldn’t I have the right to express my opinion?

The U.S. Constitution allows for free speech in any form, excepting libel, slander, and speech which poses a direct threat to one’s person. The founders of the United States, tired of religious intolerance in Europe, created the First Amendment to protect against censorship.

Of course, I am the first to acknowledge that the American ideals have, in many ways, fallen apart - recent examples being the firing of Don Imus and possibly Rosie O’Donnell, the Senate bill introduced in 2005 that could have barred certain topics from university classroom discussions. My country is by no means, nowhere even close to perfect.

But I raise it in discussion because I believe in First Amendment ideals.

Morocco is not blocking YouTube simply because some fundamentalists may have posted videos there. If that were the case, they would not have censored Aboubakr Jamai, Ali Lmrabet, Sanaa Al-Aji and Driss Ksikes, none of whom support fundamentalism.

Although citizen media has not yet hit it big, look to Global Voices Online, MidEast Youth and all of the other sites that we have begun to look to for news - and look at the recent case of Bangladeshi blogger Tasneem Khalil if you don’t believe it’s possible for us to have influence.  Get your story picked up by RSF or HRW and you never know…

So props to The View From Fez, Youssef (here and here), Agora, Hchica, El Hafa, Larbi, Sami ben Gharbia at GVO, A Moroccan in Washington D.C. and anyone else who is making an effort to open a dialogue on this subject.

A first-year student at Moulay Ismail University at Toulal in Meknes was attacked Tuesday afternoon and died while being transported to the hospital.  TelQuel reported that the incident in which the boy was killed was between Amazigh students and leftists, “pour des divergences idéologiques et le contrôle de l’université.” (for ideological divergences and control of the university).

Additionally, a Saharawi student named Soltana Khaya lost an eye last week during a clash between Moroccan police and Saharawi students, according to an Algerian paper.

Reuters AlertNet reports that violence against Saharawi students in Morocco has grown this year, with police involvement in recent skirmishes crossing the line.

This morning, I signed into Google Reader and saw that netdur had posted “YouTube blocked in Morocco?” A quick little check, and I confirmed it…YouTube is indeed blocked here, adding to a list that already includes Livejournal, Google Earth and any sites about the Western Sahara (although a few in English have slipped through).

What I want to know, however, is why no one is speaking out about this? Out of the over 40 Morocco-based blogs I read, only five or six have even mentioned these facts. Is it that the internet, without which your blogs wouldn’t exist, just isn’t important? Or is it that you don’t feel that you can do anything, so you keep mum?

And as Everything Morocco pointed out, this problem is not unique to Morocco.  As The Enquirer says “China, Iran, Syria, Tunisia, Vietnam, Uzbekistan, Oman and Pakistan censor anything that moves or jiggles.”

Personally, I have no idea what we can do, but I know that keeping quiet won’t help. Morocco bloggers, join me in speaking out against internet censorship.

–It appears that A Moroccan in Washington D.C. also posted about this early this morning.