What led to the entire North Africa unrests and demands for democracy?
@themaximilian (92)
Germany
March 19, 2011 4:06am CST
There must have been something that caused all the people to demonstrate and finally demand reforms and democracy and freedom. I mean, they have lived in the previous system for years and years ... can anyone explain that to me?
3 responses
@chocolatechilli (246)
• South Africa
19 Mar 11
One can also ask why they did not try before. I think a different mind set takes hold when people see the citizens of one country succeeding. The same thing happened in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s to early 1990s. Once people saw the Berlin Wall falling, that was an iconic moment that toppled the mindset of communism, and governments fell one by one in that region like dominoes. A similar thing happened in Africa, earlier. African soldiers fought in World War 2 and saw European governments change. It resulted in a wave of countries gaining their independence. When the (more recent)uprising in Iran took place and the regime there failed to suppress twitter reports about what was happening leaking out, that made a huge difference. We all influence each other in some way.
@alrarahman (82)
• Indonesia
19 Mar 11
Yes, that's true. Fast communications through social networks especially twitter and facebook have given people the boost to gain their independency. Many Middle Eastern countries are led by dictators. People there have learned more how slavery attitude instill into the mind commonners by the government is never giving them any good. Facebook has been banned in Egypt, many Mideast countries seem to follow it. But the urge has been too strong, the ban has even incited more rage at the true will of the establishment on the people.
@frontvisions101 (16043)
• Philippines
19 Mar 11
It all started with this young chap named Mohamed Bouazizi. He's a 26 year family guy working hard to support his sister, who's in college, and his other siblings, plus his mother, of course. Based from an online forum (link at the bottom), in Africa, the voting system has little to no shed of equality at all. Only those that have money can be heard and those that are poor are ignored. That's another reason why Mohamed worked at an early age of 10 by selling fruits along the streets of Sidi Bouzid, a small town in Tunisia, North Africa. One day, Mohamed got humiliated in public by a local enforcement by slapping him in broad daylight because the enforcer found out that he didn't have a license for selling fruits. He tried reporting this incident but, as I've said, the poor is ignored there, so he got locked up instead. What he did then was pour gasoline on his body and burned himself alive. This incident enraged his friends and family and formed a revolt against the government. This revolt continuously grew until their leader got kicked out of the position and out of the country. Now, the people of Egypt got inspired by this and did the same, eventually, forcing Mubarak out of position. Some also say that Zimbabwe is planning to do the same with their leader.
http://cozay.com/forum/f2/conflicts-in-north-africa-the-fight-for-democracy-t2472/
@chinchoy (191)
• Hong Kong
19 Mar 11
Those people are being maniputlated into thinking that they will get democracy and freedom and used as a political tool to gain power. In some of those unrest countries, it is just a struggle to gain power for one Islam party over another party. There is also the control of oil at stake in that part of the world.
