Cempaka Culture and Tourism: Saudi music festival spotlights pre-Islamic heritage

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. …”

Monday, January 21, 2019

Saudi music festival spotlights pre-Islamic heritage

Yahoo – AFP, Anuj Chopra, 20 January 2019

The Qasr al-Farid tomb (The Lonely Castle) carved into rose-coloured sandstone in
Madain Saleh, a UNESCO World Heritage site in Saudi Arabia's Al-Ula governorate

Bathed in light, musicians belt out melodies among pre-Islamic desert ruins in northwestern Saudi Arabia, a heritage trove at the centre of efforts to put the reclusive kingdom on the tourism map.

Hosted by the Al-Ula governorate -- where Nabatean tombs and art are chiseled into caramel-hued rock -- "Winter at Tantora" is the latest music carnival in the Islamic kingdom, where such events were unheard of just two years ago.

Spread over eight weekends until February 9, the main events are hosted in an auditorium made of mirrored glass that has drawn international artists, from Lebanese singer Majida El Roumi to French classical violinist Renaud Capucon.

And it shines a spotlight on a long-isolated area seen widely as an open-air museum.

"Saudi Arabia is turning a new page," said Zainab al-Kadadi, a Riyadh-based banker.

The 29-year-old attended a musical weekend that also included sand dune bashing -- an adventure sport that involves driving across challenging desert landscapes -- and a tour of an Ottoman-era train station.

The new purpose-built Maraya (Arabic for "Mirror") concert hall hosting the first

"Winter at Tantora" music carnival among the UNESCO World Heritage listed ruins

The festival is seen as a soft opening of Al-Ula, an area roughly the size of Belgium that is being touted as the centrepiece of Saudi attractions, as the conservative petro-state prepares to open up to international tourists.

Building a tourism industry from scratch is at the heart of a government plan to prepare the Arab world's biggest economy for a post-oil era, an ambition fraught with challenges.

The austere kingdom, which forbids alcohol and has a strict social code, is already seen by many as a hard sell for tourists.

Recent events that drew international censure -- notably the gruesome murder last year of critic Jamal Khashoggi and a sweeping crackdown on dissent -- appear to have made the challenge more acute.

"Saudi has great tourism potential, but after what happened it's hard to come here and say 'Everything is wow, everything is amazing'," said a Westerner who was among a group of global social media influencers invited by the kingdom for an all-expenses-paid trip to Al-Ula.

"When I went to collect my (Saudi) visa, my friends joked: 'Hope you return alive!'."

The October 2 murder of Khashoggi, whose body was dismembered by a team of Saudi agents inside the kingdom's Istanbul consulate, triggered global outrage.

French solo violinist Renaud Capucon performs with pianists during the music carnival

Kingdom of 'fun'

If Al-Ula were in another country, it would be an easier sell, others in the group suggested.

"The biggest obstacle is stereotypes," said Kyle Mijlof, a 30-year-old travel photographer from Cape Town.

A liberalisation drive by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, has brought new cinemas, concerts and sporting extravaganzas.

While it is yet to offer tourist visas, the country fast-tracked electronic permits for visitors to attend the festival.

The kingdom organised a similar process in December for a motor sports event in Riyadh, where performances by artists like Enrique Iglesias and David Guetta -- and thumping after-parties -- were on offer.

"We live in a Saudi Arabia where by day children may be told that music is forbidden but by night they are taken to music concerts," said a Saudi artist, highlighting a social dichotomy.

A liberalisation drive by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has brought new

cinemas, concerts and sporting extravaganzas

In a country where two-thirds of the population is under 30, amping up entertainment that allows citizens to have fun aims ostensibly to blunt public frustration over an economic downturn and soaring youth unemployment.

"MBS may have borrowed from the playbook of the ancient Roman empire, which hoped 'panem et circenses' –- bread and games -– would be enough to make citizens acquiescent," said Cinzia Bianco, a Middle East analyst at Gulf State Analytics.

"The belief is that if they are engrossed in worries about making money and having fun, they will have no interest in politics and dissent."

'Changing the narrative'

Preparations for the Al-Ula festival "accelerated" after the Khashoggi crisis erupted, as authorities have been keen to turn the page on his murder, a Western consultant close to the organisers told AFP on condition of anonymity.

An official close to the organisers denied that it was a diversionary tactic, saying planning for the festival was in the works well before the murder.