Monday, March 14, 2011 By Arjun Gupta
It started in Tunisia. A man named Mohammed Bouazizi, a typical Arab youth, was struggling to provide for his mother, uncle and several siblings in harsh economic times. A female officer confiscated his vegetable cart (his only way of making money) then proceeded to publicly humiliate him because he did not have a permit to sell his wares. Bouazizi was angered by the confrontation and went to the governor’s office to complain. After the local governor refused to see or listen to him, Bouazizi said if his complaint wasn’t heard, he would set himself on fire. He was not taken seriously. Then Bouazizi promptly bought two bottles of paint thinner then set himself on fire in front of a local government building.*
That literal ignition was what the youth of the Arab world needed to light the candle to their revolution, the most dramatic change that the region has seen in decades. Tunisia was the first to push for change. After Bouazizi, thousands took to the streets in largely peaceful protests across the country. For some time, the people and the government had an implied social contract. As long as there was relative prosperity (jobs, food and a strong economy), the people would comply with brutally repressive governments and limited freedoms. But once the government wasn’t able to provide those jobs and the economy wasn’t doing well, the system broke down. The Arab youth realized the government wasn’t holding its end of the bargain and the people weren’t allowed to speak about it freely.*
That’s when the people really started to get angry. For a solid month and half, Tunisians took to the streets and protested against their brutally oppressive government. On January 14, ousted President Ben Ali and family fled to Saudi Arabia.
If the Jasmine Revolution of Tunisia was the match, Egypt was a large tank of oil. Inspired by their North African counterparts for most of the same reasons, Egyptians held a protest in Tahrir Square against then-President Hosni Mubarak, dubbed the "Day of Rage." The ruling party’s building was burned to the ground. Anti-Mubarak forces used Twitter and Facebook heavily to organize their resistance. This prompted the Egyptian administration to shut down all internet service in the country for five days, though protests continued. Curfews were instigated and routinely broken by the thousands. Hosni Mubarak made several speeches during the unrest. First he fired his entire cabinet, then appointed Omar Suleiman as Vice president, Egypt’s first in 30 years. Then he announced that he would not be running for re-election for his sixth term of office in September, and that the constitution would be reformed to allow independent candidates to run. After 18 days of protests and the center of the country shut down (imagine Times Square being clogged with protesters for over two weeks) Mubarak finally stepped down as President of Egypt and transferred power to the Egyptian military. The military vowed to control the country for six months and then transfer power to a civilian-elected government.*
Why does this matter? Several reasons:
• Spurred on by Egypt and Tunisia, protests have broken out in Bahrain, Yemen, Algeria, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Libya and Iran. Revolutionary fever is spreading across the Arab world to very important countries.
• Israel is very nervous about what the new Egyptian government will be like. Being Israel’s main ally, the Egyptian elections also matter to America. In the 70’s Egypt was the first (and one of the only) Arab countries to sign a peace treaty with Israel. Mubarak honored this during his three decades in office. Egypt was Israel’s only ally in the region. The new government, however, may not be as friendly.
• Egypt and other Arabian countries experiencing revolt are among the world’s biggest exporters of oil. With all the chaos, moving oil from the field to the gas pump will be much more difficult. Riots in Libya and Algeria have direct effects on the gas prices in Charlotte.
• The War on Terror: One of the main points that Al-Qaeda has based their terrorism on is that the Arab world needs is fundamental Islam. They feel religion should be the basis of all government. However if the Egyptian and other Arab people choose secular democracies for governments, their choice would be a heavy blow to Al-Qaeda. The success of democratic revolutions would show to terrorist groups that the mainstream Arab world does not follow such extremist thinking.
• Depending on the outcome of the protests in all the different countries, the U.S. may have a ton of new governments to become friends with.
• The Suez Canal is a link between the Mediteranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. Much Saudi Arabian oil and other Asian goods flow through that narrow sliver of water, which Egypt controls. Depending on the policies of the new Egyptian government, prices on Saudi Arabian oil and many Asian products going to Europe or the U.S. could become more costly.
• Need a revolution? Get Facebook. Much of the protests were organized through social media sites, especially after Egyptians were banned from having more than three people at a meeting. Many violated this law of course, but others who didn’t or couldn’t used social media to connect and keep the resistance alive.*
*This article was written using information from Time Magazine, Al-Jazeera English, the Charlotte Observer, "10 Reasons Americans Should Care About the Egyptian Revolution" by Stephen M. Walt and PHS senior Wesley Jacobs, a Model UN Veteran and AP Comparative
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