Usually, a revolution ends with the end of its leader. In Tunisia, it was the other way round: a man torched himself to death, and then the Revolution started, without any leader. It was given an exotic and orientalist name, Jasmine Revolution, but that flower is almost inexistent in Sidi Bouzid and Kasserine (where violence reached its climax). The turmoil was neither white nor beautiful. The situation was so dramatic, so desperate, so volatile that it took a poor dead man to launch the greatest revolt to shake the Arab World since 1916.
The Tunisian picture is not different from the Arab scene in general, which can be called the Ancien Regime : a dictator whose office term is his life, heavy security apparatus, widespread corruption, worsening economic situation, etc. But the most common factor was Fear. Now, the fear is over. And Twitter and Facebook are the people’s weapons of mass destruction.
Egypt is living its own revolution, almost copied from the Tunisian one. The regime is using militias and undercover policemen to counter the surge, hence playing the card of fear and terror. This scenario failed in Tunisia, but the popularity of the Egyptian regime amongst the world’s most influent countries makes it stronger than the Tunisian one; and weeks after the protests outbreak, Mr. Mubarak is still on his throne.
Similar events seem to happen in Algeria, Yemen and Jordan. Each country responded to the protests on its way, and the protests are still loose. But the Jordanian king sacked his government. The Yemeni President, who was going to be declared president for life, suddenly declared that he won’t seek reelection in 2013. The ossified regimes of Libya and Algeria decided large cuts in food prices. Other signs of anger are appearing here and there, and unprecedented reforms are planned in several Arab countries.
The world is divided in different time zones. 2011 corresponds in the Arab World to the 1789 of the Western hemisphere. It started on January 14 th , when the People of Tunisia overthrew the tyran . Egypt, the geographic, political and cultural heart of the Arab World is now following; if the regime falls there, not a single dictator will survive in the region.
For the first time in their Contemporary History, Arab citizens can sleep with a smile on their faces, while their rulers are trembling in their beds.
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