Today in the World........: November 2011

The American Autumn and Arab Spring

We often hear the statement, "Freedom is not free”, coming from politicians when they debate in Congress for increased military spending.
In addition to money, wars and other military escapades, there are societal requirements. These are the men and women who wear the American uniform and enforce the political decisions made by our leaders. In America our calls for freedom and democracy culminated on Independence Day, 1776.

Throughout North Africa and the Middle East, the call for freedom and democracy has never been louder. Formerly marginalized and oppressed people are now taking to the streets, protesting their respective government's politics.

For example, in May of 2011, a vegetable peddler in Tunisia had his vendor license revoked by government officials, and his push cart confiscated. In protest towards the government, the man self immolated
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The outrage that followed ignited anger and frustration in thousands of Tunisian citizens resulting in demonstrations, strikes, protests and marches, which dominated the global news media, and ultimately resulted in a revolution.

History was being made right before our eyes. Unable to hide from the internet and cell phones, the world can watch history being made in real-time.

This clarion call for social and economic justice produced a domino effect and spread to other countries like Yemen, Libya, Syria, and Egypt. Prior mass demonstrations, which, in the past were sometimes directed towards American Foreign Policy and Israel, where now focused at their own political systems.

For decades, the leaders of these regimes succeeded in diverting attention away from themselves, and blame Israel, and U.S. foreign policy for their economic troubles. In an effort to limit influence from western culture, governments justified censorship, limited women's rights and dictatorial rule.

World wide media has coined the phrase, "Arab Spring", to identify the birth of new ideas as these countries struggle to transform their societies. No longer could leaders like Muammar Gaddafi in Libya and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, point to the West as the source of their internal radical activity.

These protests and demonstrations came from Arabs and not a foreign power. It was Arabs demonstrating for social justice and demanding political and economic power from their own governments.
In Egypt, for example, Hosni Mubarak amassed a vast fortune, estimated to be in the hundreds of millions. Egyptian citizens were deprived from its countries oil revenues by Mubarak’s virtual monopoly of power. He siphoned money away from the Egyptian people to his personal bank accounts, as the country experienced high unemployment and limited personal freedom as well as political rights for women.

Libya's Muammar Gaddafi and Egypt's Hosni Mubarak have been deposed as these societies reinvent themselves in the shadow of Liberty and Freedom.

Ironically, the last several weeks of protests throughout the United States, shows us that the call for political change is alive and well. The "occupy wall street" movement has focused the country's attention on corporate greed and social inequality. Despite more than 200 years as the oldest democracy in the world, political power and wealth are concentrated in the top 1 percent of our society at the expense of the “99%.”

Freedom is not free and at times like these, with daily demonstrations from the "occupy" movement, reminds us that our society is vibrant and healthy.

Our constitution is a dynamic document that is alive and flexible. Political and cultural change is sometimes messy and often disruptive.
The women's right to vote movement and the Civil Rights movements were messy and disruptive.
The struggle to form unions was messy and disruptive.
The movement to end the Vietnam War was messy and disruptive.

Each of these events produced massive, structural changes in our society and empowered formally marginalized people.

This is the nature of change. It needs to be embraced and nurtured and understood in a historical context.

Non-violent protests are the tools a civilized society uses to successfully change. The “occupy wall street” movement, and the “arab spring” movement, has resonated with millions of people.

Martin Luther King, Gandhi, and the Dali Lama all preached non-violent approaches to succeed at changing institutions. The men and women protesting are merely expressing their constitutional right. The winds of change are blowing both here in the United States and the Middle East.