MOROCCO - Abdelhamid, our enthusiastic guide for a whirlwind tour of Tangier, pauses repeatedly to point out ambitious construction projects. A new soccer stadium here. A new town square there. Maps and artists' renditions of new developments posted all over the place.
Many have just begun work, but the answer is the same each time we enquire when they'll be finished: five months. If we come back in half a year, Abdelhamid tells us proudly, the coastal city will be ready for a proper viewing.
Such rapid progress is as much of a culture shock as the chaos of the Marrakech markets, or the pile of goats heads on display at the Berber market I stumbled onto in the Atlas Mountains. But such is the advantage of not having a messy democracy to get in the way.
In Morocco, bureaucrats and squabbling town councils aren't much of a concern. What the King wants, the King gets.
In this case, the King wants to turn Tangier into a proper tourist destination. And so he's reassigned the former mayor of Marrakesh, credited with a highly successful beautification campaign in that city, to do likewise in Tangier.
Construction projects aside, autocratic rule is not supposed to be a good thing. And for most of the time since Morocco's liberation from French occupation in 1956, it hasn't been -- particularly under Hassan II, who inherited power from Mohammed V ("our George Washington," as Abdelhamid puts it) in 1961 and withstood assassination and coup attempts to cling to it for 38 years. Under Hassan II, dissidents were routinely jailed, "disappeared" or outright executed, protesters were massacred, and elections for the already weak parliament were rigged.
Every once in a while, though, an autocracy gets lucky. And because Hassan II was apparently a better father than he was a leader, Morocco is enjoying a bit of good fortune.
The popularity of a Moroccan king isn't easy to measure; even if the locals hate him, most know well enough to keep their thoughts to themselves and to plaster their stores with his picture. But seven years into his reign, the excitement about Mohammed VI remains palpable.
In part, that's because the youthful 42-year-old -- billed as "the king of cool " in a 2000 Time cover story -- is about as hip and media-savvy as northern African kings get. Athletic and well-dressed, Mohammed VI famously made waves early in his reign by pulling out his wallet to pay for a meal at Marrakech's Mamounia Hotel that he was expected to receive for free. Known for hitting the nightlife during his crown prince days, he's enjoyed rubbing elbows with the celebrities who flock to Morocco since; more usefully, he's made himself accessible to the general public by driving his own car and venturing out into crowds.
That, though, is the window-dressing. And while he's been having a good time, Mohammed VI has been busy yanking Morocco into the 21st century.
It helped that it was fertile ground to begin with. In the cities, at least, Moroccans have long been worldly; in stark contrast to other Muslim states, for instance, they boast that Jews were so valued in the 20th century that the government actually tried to impede them from migrating to Israel. And while most Moroccan women remain veiled, female tourists -- and some locals -- have long drawn nary a glance walking around in Western clothes.
Still, after Hassan II the country had a way to go -- and Mohammed VI started promptly.
On the political side, he moved quickly to sack his father's old cronies, including some who had participated in the worst oppression. And while the parliament is still impotent by Western standards, it is no longer completely ignored and its elections are less tainted by corruption.
On the human rights side, the King has made much of reaching out to disenfranchised groups that his father ran roughshod over. Dissidents have been released from prisons and exiles -- along with the families of those "disappeared" -- welcomed back into the country. And while a truth and reconciliation commission into the abuses of the Hassan II era was criticized for being too weak, its mere establishment sent a clear signal.
Most encouraging, though, is the status of women -- something that the King addressed, in part, through his own family.
Mohammed VI's mother, like other royal wives before her, was never seen in public -- perhaps, Moroccans whisper, because Hassan II had multiple wives. But this king appears to be a one-woman (or at least one-wife) man; consequently, his wedding was a public affair and his spouse has been granted the title of princess. She has since assumed a prominent role, including encouraging women to vote.
More tangibly, 2004 saw the adoption of a liberalized family law that raised the marriage age for women to 18 (the same as for men), made polygamy more difficult, and made both marriage and divorce much more equal undertakings. And women have been granted a hand in the country's governance: 35 of them now sit in the parliament, courtesy of spaces allotted by the King, and for the first time they have been appointed to Cabinet.
The first-hand evidence shows that there is still some ways to go, with women's roles still heavily restricted to the home: Visit a market and you see few; wander into a cafe, and they're entirely absent.
Still, Morocco's progress is enough to give pause to those counting on democracy to liberalize the Arab world. While Hamas triumphs at the ballot box and Iraq plunges into civil war, Morocco has emerged as the most liberal of Arab nations.
It could all unravel in a hurry, of course. Because Mohammed VI is less vigorous in repressing them than his father, Islamists are said to be gaining minor footholds in Morocco. Terrorism -- already having reared its head in a series of Casablanca bombings three years ago -- could prove destabilizing. And besides, if the King is less gifted a parent than he is a politician, Morocco could regress under his successor.
By the time power is passed on from him, though, Morocco could be almost unrecognizable from how Mohammed VI inherited it -- not just on Tangier's streets, but in the lives and attitudes of those who line them.
