Politics Protests in the wider Arab world

[Imperium]

Its been in the news for the past couple of months so i think it deserves its own thread.

Ever since Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation in late December a series of protests and revolutions have taken the arab world by storm. The most severe so far have been in Tunisia and Egypt.

Wiki summarises it well.

 

[DLord.Van.Buuren]

Man, how come I didn't think of this, this truley deserves its own thread, thanks imp.

Anyways, this storm is something truley unprecedented, I was amazed at how two populations would actually go the same road in such speed.

The outcome may not be as expected though, I mean change doesn't happen over night or just by replacing the system. although I think its a beginning for something good.

when clinton said that egypt should go twords change without leaving any ''openings''

I don't know exactly what she meant but I assume she hinted that parties who will likely disturb their policies in the region, such as the muslim brotherhood shouldn't be given a chance in this case.

 

[xAznSinnage]

Internet shut down, hundreds of people killed, many rich people fled, the poor and average fighting the power. Respect to the brave ones that are fighting the government right now.

 

[thsv]

Man, how come I didn't think of this, this truley deserves its own thread, thanks imp.

Anyways, this storm is something truley unprecedented, I was amazed at how two populations would actually go the same road in such speed.

The outcome may not be as expected though, I mean change doesn't happen over night or just by replacing the system. although I think its a beginning for something good.

when clinton said that egypt should go twords change without leaving any ''openings''

I don't know exactly what she meant but I assume she hinted that parties who will likely disturb their policies in the region, such as the muslim brotherhood shouldn't be given a chance in this case.

Well they'd hate to have a group that might decide not to cooperate over Gaza with Israel take charge over there.

Moubarak responded by sacking his entire cabinet. Like putting a band aid over a gunshot wound.

 

[Franckie]

Can't say I'm surprised. The standard of living has arisen in many Arab states thanks to oil money. Many of the governments are also corrupt, repressive, and autocratic (e.g. Egypt!). These uprisings are going to continue hindering US influence in the region since the US has a blatant tendency of being a major backer for said regimes to begin with.

 

[Roflkopt3r]

Can't say I'm surprised. The standard of living has arisen in many Arab states thanks to oil money. Many of the governments are also corrupt, repressive, and autocratic (e.g. Egypt!). These uprisings are going to continue hindering US influence in the region since the US has a blatant tendency of being a major backer for said regimes to begin with.

Hehe interesting point about the USA there

Today the "march of million" was planned in Egypt, hope I'll get some fresh news about that soon.
At least military stated that they won't shoot on civilians anymore. That's pretty much how it ended in Tunisia as well afaik.
(The president told the minister of defense to use violence "when necessary", the minister of defense said we won't shoot civilians, the president kicked him out and the minister's last words were pretty much like: "Now you're f*cked")

 

[shaheer]

well i have a some friends there in Egypt who are studying in different countries and they refused to give a say in the matter entirely. though they gave me enough innuendo that they would want the present gov to leave and the brotherhood to take over. It seemed that they have tolerated more than enough of certain countries meddling in their affairs
@ DL you are in Al Maghrib right? you should know more than what we do. frankly the news channels are too inclined towards their patronizers and shows the news through different goggles

 

[DLord.Van.Buuren]

well i have a some friends there in Egypt who are studying in different countries and they refused to give a say in the matter entirely. though they gave me enough innuendo that they would want the present gov to leave and the brotherhood to take over. It seemed that they have tolerated more than enough of certain countries meddling in their affairs

So the street wants the brotherhood after all, I don't if the west will allow that, since israel will face bad consequences that way, hisbo allah and the muslim brotherhood and iran all ganging up on israel doesn't seem like something the west would want.

@ DL you are in Al Maghrib right? you should know more than what we do. frankly the news channels are too inclined towards their patronizers and shows the news through different goggles

Aljazeera was blocked by the egyptian governement for us too, I only follow this on thier website.

 

[Roflkopt3r]

Aljazeera was blocked by the egyptian governement for us too, I only follow this on thier website.

Wow that's heavy stuff, even blocking TV channels.

Saw a video showing some of what's happening on egypt streets currently. It's been uploaded by a channel usually only covering eSports/Counter-Strike (fragbite.com / swedish page), but some of their editors were in Egypt and filmed what was going on:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lamPsqjqy2g

 

[shaheer]

So the street wants the brotherhood after all,

idk about the street to be honest:| the guys i talk to are egyptians who are studying abroad, thus they can use the int

I only follow this on thier website.

well isnt Al Maghrib close to Tunesia and Egypt? i mean some good infos may come in your way through public

 

[Imperium]

An update,

After wide reports of the president stepping down, Mubarak made a public speech yesterday reaffirming he will stay on until September afterwhich he will step down and not seek re-election. He also delegated most of his powers to his newly elected Vice president Omar Suleiman. Most people were expecting his resignation so when he didnt announce it, it has caused outrage. More protesters came out after Friday prayers. There apparently is going to be another announcement soon.

Yesterday, the Iraqi prime minister announced he wont seek a election for a new term. It is similar to the announcement made by the Yemeni president Abdullah Saleh. If they actually go ahead with their promise is anyone's guess. Especially Saleh who might use the current insurgency as an excuse to stay on.

---

Announcement: He stepped down!!!

 

[DLord.Van.Buuren]

Alright one down !

Aljeria count down starts tomorrow.

 

[Roflkopt3r]

Nice stuff going on, finally some really good developements.
Western politicians once more showed that they're totally unimportant. It was so funny how they tryed to comment on the topic once in a while but just nobody cared about them.

Western companies once more showed that they do not care for politics or freedom when it's about money by the way.
Mubarak forced the mobile network providers to send a propaganda message via SMS last thursday (while communications were shut down for the people), and Vodafone (UK) as well as France Telecom followed that order. 95% of egyptians got a mobile phone so Mubarak certainly was able to reach many people that way.

 

[luffyg2]

Well it succeeded... I was really happy when the news came out that Mubarak finally left the power... now let<s see what<s the next country in line for the revolution

 

[thsv]

What kind of odds would you get on Algeria going next? 20 years too late but its coming.

 

[Roflkopt3r]

What kind of odds would you get on Algeria going next? 20 years too late but its coming.

I am a pessimist in such things, so I'll just say "not too good". The events were awesome so far, but it won't just sweep away all the dictators, sadly.

 

[digitaldude]

Algeria is going to be a lot more violent than eygpt, and so far it's only the north african arab nations that are protesting...How come?

 

[Akainu]

well meanwhile there is also protest in Bahrain and Yemen, both situated on the arabian peninsular. anyway, there are multiple reasons why tunesia and egypt had successfull revolutions (insofar their heads of state were ousted) and others don't, for example the military taking a more or less neutral point. also many of the problems are the same, but the structures are very diffrent (and thus hard to sum up).
To add my two cents to Algeria though: I don't think that the protests there will reach such a scale anywhen soon. The population is tired of war and conflict I read and they won't risk the peace they just recently gained to trade it for "change to something else" which could be democracy, but islamist just as well.

The Economist got a nice interactive map summing up some key points, however that disregards factors like repressiveness and a war-tired population.

 

[Roflkopt3r]

Interesting point I've heard of recently:
The Iranian revolution was recepted pretty similar in the west compared to the recent ones. Well, everybody knows what the long term result was... Though it was different obviously, after all there are no such important key/head figures like Chomeini involved this time and it really seemed a "democratic" revolt.

 

[DLord.Van.Buuren]

People have arisen in libea and its a complete blood bath in there, Qaddafi is a complete jackass and he's shooting his own people.