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Thread: Protests Sweep Across The Middle East

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    Default Protests Sweep Across The Middle East

    Just some food for thought.

    I moved to Cairo, Egypt at the beginning of this school year, to do a year's worth of study abroad, and attend the American University in Cairo (AUC). It was a great opportunity being that my majors are Anthropology and International Human Rights Law (IHRL). The AUC has one of the best IHRL programs in the world. Mainly because here, not only can you study violation of human rights, but you see it everyday, and there are a myriad of opportunities to travel to other downtrodden countries in Africa also filled with oppressed citizens.

    Recently, as it has been shown on news stations all over the globe, there was a huge uprising sparked by a young man's suicide in Tunisia. Like many Arab countries, the government of Tunisia claimed to be a democracy when in fact it was a dictatorship, with fixed elections and corrupt politicians who took advantage of Tunisian citizens. Protests and riots spread across the country like wildfire demanding the removal of the ruling regime. The leaders fled, and now Tunisia is quite possibly going to be the first Arab/North African country with a truly democratic government.

    The citizens of Egypt have taken notice, and started to follow their lead. For a week floods of invites and status updates on facebook, and also twitter status updates announced the upcoming protests planned across the country. Two days ago people's facebook and twitter accounts became inaccessible from Egypt. Today was the day the protests started, and first hand I can say that it is scary. All foreigners were advised to stay home. Any protest in Egypt that is not pre-approved by the government is illegal, and the police have the right to forcibly arrest its participants. The police and military are lined up by the 100s, if not 1000s, and are on hand with tear gas, water hoses, and fire arms.

    But this protest, by sheer force of numbers is not going to be easily stopped. Already about a dozen protesters and a few police men have been claimed as casualties. The pressure is building and everyone is holding their breath to see if these protests will reach a boiling point-fire has been opened upon protesters already (although with rubber bullets). Tear gas has been thrown into the crowds, people are being beaten by batons. The situation is highly volatile and there is a high probability that it will escalate.

    Experiencing something like this first hand really puts things into perspective, and helps me appreciate the liberties and rights that I take for granted every day in my daily life back home in the United States. So many of us live in countries where we don't have to risk getting shot for speaking our minds, or protesting injustice. Where there are more than one candidate in an election and our votes are actually counted. While the recent events here have been a little frightening, I'm glad I am here-it makes me appreciate the things so many of us take for granted so much more.
    Last edited by <3Sari<3; 01-25-2011 at 10:31 PM.
    Quote Originally Posted by rasterbee View Post
    Hey Sari, change the your "quote" in your sig.
    DONE

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