I wasn't in Houston for 48 hours before I read about two opportunities, through newspapers, to increase awareness about the Western Sahara.The Fog City Journal, an online newspaper based in San Francisco, ran two pieces about a festival held in Tan-Tan, in the south of Morocco. The event, cancelled from 1979 to 2003 due to events in the nearby Western Sahara, was reopening as a showcase for Moroccan culture and business opportunities. The Moroccan government flew a Fog City journalist, a California state representative, and some other notables there. The result was shameless boosterism that would make a chamber of commerce blush.
The Fog City Journal ran an article and an open letter to King Mohammed VI about the festival. The article completely ignores the Western Sahara and Sahrawis, many of whom live in Tan-Tan. The article dismisses the Polisario's struggle as "political unrest in the region."
Doubtless to the surprise of Sahrawis, Berbers, native Moroccan dissidents, and Amnesty International, State Representative Fiona Ma and Fog City's Luke Thomas write, "The Kingdom of Morocco has rightfully earned international respect for its advancement in human rights and democracy while preserving the delicate balance of Morocco's rich cultural heritage."
The rest of the article is exhortations of the "Experience Morocco" sort. The pictures are pretty sweet, though.
I sent an email to the Journal's editor, explaining what I felt was missing from the article. He was nice enough to publish it. I couldn't figure out how to permalink it, so just CTRL-F Morocco.
Was this a case of Western Sahara monomania? I don't think so. It'd be a tactical and intellectual error to bring up the Western Sahara whenever someone writes or talks about Morocco, but the festival was taking place close to the Western Sahara where, nearby, Sahrawis were arrested in peaceful protests.
The other newspaper news is that my own Houston Chronicle ran an article about potential reparations for Franco's Spanish victims. I wrote a letter asking that we not forget some of Franco's last victims, the Sahrawi people. Unfortunately, it didn't run.
Because it's important that we increase awareness about the Western Sahara, if you read or watch something even tangentially related to the Western Sahara, you should write in.