[Take a look at this crap first]
When Mohamed Bouazizi immolated himself in protest and set off a wave of much bigger protests in Tunis, and then elsewhere, speculation arose as to the extent to which the revolution will spread. Or, is it indeed a revolution? Maybe it was a mini-revolution, kind of like Sa`d, or baby Jesus. Alternatively, some opined, it might be just a coup. But Tunisia is old news. Protests spread quickly like, literally, a flame, to Algeria, Yemen, a teeny weeny bit in Morocco, then back to a spike in Jordan, only to settle on three-days and counting in Egypt, all over Egypt. Is the Arab world transiting to democracy? Or is it only Tunisia? And why Tunisia? Why not Egypt? Is it the lack of participation of Islamists? The nature of state-society relations in Egypt and other places where regimes built some bridges and created more stakeholders? Is it the split between secularists and non-secularists among the opposition? Are we being naïve about its spread?
A recent study showed that 87% of Americans and a whopping 93% of the world’s population have sounded off on the Tunisian revolution and its aftermath. While political scientists and veterinarians are split on the causes and consequences of the revolution, sociologists and mid-west gardeners are in far more agreement on the importance of class and environmental variables. Oh, someone just wrote a piece about Egypt being completely different. There, encouraged by a second day of protests and more tire burning, another blogger just rescinded what he said about Egypt the day before. Op Ed diarrhea and blogger sound bites are neck to neck. It’s the nature of the Tunisian regime, no, its size, but wait, why not Iran? Blog about that. Let’s compare, because they both experienced protest. Why Yemen and not Albania? Maybe we should wait and see.
My mother places the most emphasis on the corporatist structure of interest representation in Tunisia, as opposed to those in Egypt, especially before Jamal kind of took the helm in the NDP’s Policies Committee. However, my neighbor’s dog thinks mom is exaggerating the role of institutions and points to the importance of social structural diversity, especially regarding the identity politics of the opposition. Tante Rose, being a `Awnist and all claims that now that Syria is out of Lebanon, she doesn’t mind having close relations with Syria. Nonetheless, says Chuck, our real estate agent, why did these people wait so long before getting upset. He has a point, no doubt. The most comprehensive account of the potential spread of the revolution came from aunt Jemima in a paper co-authored with Anthony Bourdain and Kanye West, titled, “My North African Sick and Twisted Fantasy,” in which they delineated the various historical junctures in post-colonial north African states responsible for creating divergent paths, explaining proneness to uprisings as well as the kind of brutality that would not take into account the cost of suppression/violence threshold. Mom disagrees, but couldn’t comment because she wanted to watch the last installment of the Palestine Papers unveiled by al-Jazeera. Quicky, my neighbor’s dog feels the analysis is taking too much of a new institutionalism turn which is somewhat outdated, and offers to write an op ed about what will happen in Egypt, except he would like to wait and see what will happen there before he asserts the applicability of one of the available approaches. The waiter just chimed in and offered the new dessert menu (the old one was left accidentally on the table). He thinks the Middle East needs a new president after that guy fled to Saudi Arabia.
[see this supportive Jadaliyya post by Tony Alessanderini]
Where the hell was everyone before Mohamed Bouazizi got fed up?