What is happening in Tunisia is taking the world by storm, but not in America. Why do I love this? I'm always encouraged when the people take control. Tunisia is small enough to make it happen. Iran is too big for it to have happened when it tried. China is also too large. The Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia is secular, not religious but it is happening in an Arab nation which can serve as a model. It is cyber, it is about the youth, just like some of our elections in America. The Internet is the center of this movement. How much WikiLeaks can be considered in the movement is unclear. The embassy posts are revealing. What is important is that Arab countries are watching and in those totalitarian nations better wakeup and pay attention and listen to the people otherwise, they will oust you. What will the ripple effects be in Egypt, Iran and other nations? Tunisia is the result of years of tyranny and it finally exploded. Its size is important, as I have said. I love the excitement of the people. I wonder where the visitors from Tunisia who visited my class years ago are in this change. I hope they are part of it. Even though the USA supported the ousted dictator, I wonder how we will respond. It is certainly better than sending in our troops to fix a country. It should be fixed from within. Bravo people of Tunisia.
I'm lucky to have some people to speak to about this at my school. Our head custodian is from Yeman and a politically active student from Lahore, Pakistan. In addition we have to read from sources outside the US like Egypt, AlJazeera, and other Arab nations.
Now we will watch with baited breath to see how this all turns out. What factions will lead? How will the rural and city commingle and cooperate? Will Islam play a role? Now we will watch another experiment in government by the people, but this time on the Internet.
From a local radio show in NYC:
Friday, January 21, 2011
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