Gerald
07-14-11, 06:43 AM
http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/5958/54069926cairoface.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/713/54069926cairoface.jpg/)
For all they have achieved, Egypt's protesters are back in Tahrir Square.
It looked much neater than really it was back in February. Egyptians had just emulated the Tunisians by overthrowing an authoritarian president who had seemed secure behind a brutal, well-organised police state.
Protesters in Libya, Bahrain and Yemen were trying to do the same. Syrians weren't far behind them. Demonstrations demanding change, if not the toppling of the ruler, were happening in Jordan, Algeria, Morocco, even in peaceful Oman in the Gulf.
Events were moving with stunning speed. Someone called it the Arab Spring, and the phrase stuck.
Now it is blazing summer across the Middle East. In most places it's too hot to demonstrate, or to fight, in the middle of the day. And it is clear that the process of change that has come to the Arab world is not neat, quick or easy.
Thousands have died and thousands more have been imprisoned across the region. Libya is suffering a civil war and bombing raids by Nato. The Assad regime is using lethal force against an uprising it claims is a conspiracy by foreigners and Islamist extremists. The uprising in Bahrain was crushed after the regime invited troops and police from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates into the country. And so on.
But this does not mean that the old world that so many millions want to reject is going to preserve itself. What happened at the beginning of this year may well be one of history's full stops. But it is now clear just how tough it will be to create a new Middle East. Real change will be measured in years, not seasons.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14153583
Note: 14 July 2011 Last updated at 10:49 GMT
For all they have achieved, Egypt's protesters are back in Tahrir Square.
It looked much neater than really it was back in February. Egyptians had just emulated the Tunisians by overthrowing an authoritarian president who had seemed secure behind a brutal, well-organised police state.
Protesters in Libya, Bahrain and Yemen were trying to do the same. Syrians weren't far behind them. Demonstrations demanding change, if not the toppling of the ruler, were happening in Jordan, Algeria, Morocco, even in peaceful Oman in the Gulf.
Events were moving with stunning speed. Someone called it the Arab Spring, and the phrase stuck.
Now it is blazing summer across the Middle East. In most places it's too hot to demonstrate, or to fight, in the middle of the day. And it is clear that the process of change that has come to the Arab world is not neat, quick or easy.
Thousands have died and thousands more have been imprisoned across the region. Libya is suffering a civil war and bombing raids by Nato. The Assad regime is using lethal force against an uprising it claims is a conspiracy by foreigners and Islamist extremists. The uprising in Bahrain was crushed after the regime invited troops and police from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates into the country. And so on.
But this does not mean that the old world that so many millions want to reject is going to preserve itself. What happened at the beginning of this year may well be one of history's full stops. But it is now clear just how tough it will be to create a new Middle East. Real change will be measured in years, not seasons.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14153583
Note: 14 July 2011 Last updated at 10:49 GMT