Arab Spring

[Bowler1]

Is the Arab spring running out of steam?

Bahrain and Syria still with little change for the last year. Egypt still not settled into stable politics that I can see and Libya split by factions many of whom are heavily armed. All this before I mention Saudi Arabia, Yemen and so on.

Out of all of this I had a very insightful comment from my office cleaner recently. He is from Syria and fled the country years ago. An intelligent guy that really should not be cleaning offices but such is life. When I asked him about democracy in Arab countries he was very dismissive of western democracy in general. He considered democracy as we know it in the UK as a western development and something that would never work in Arab countries. That surprised me a bit so I asked him why and his answer was surprising. His reply was roughly as follows – As a Muslim, even my religion is controlling and we accept that as part of our lives. So how could Western democracy work in a Muslim country?

I had no answer for him because I suspect he was correct.
Where this might lead the Arab spring from a Western POV is food for thought.

[mosaix]

I suspected all along that the Western powers were being over-optimistic about these Arab states adopting our democratic 'standards' and suddenly becoming our allies, especially as some of us had been arming their oppressors to the teeth.

[svalbard]

Was it it ever an Arab Spring though?

I had a similar conversation to Bowler's with a cabbie in Tunisia about five years ago. I was going from Monastir to Sousse, but found the talk so engaging(and the cab fee so cheap), that I asked him to continue onto Port El Kantoui. It was a 40k or so trip and he let rip against the ruling elite, yet held a fierce pride in his country, mocked the Algerians, Libyans and Egyptians as backward and scoffed at the liberalism of the west(passionate and in good nature at the same time).

What struck me was that yes he wanted certain freedoms, but his religion was very much a mainstay of his life. The Arab Spring is an invention of the world media. We like to label things. Recently flowers tend to figure highly when we put names on revolutions. Reality is far more mundane.

[Bowler1]

I think the reality may be far more exciting. These countries might create their own versions of parliment different from our Western versions, which could be interesting to see. I say good luck to them, despite my concerns.

[RJM Corbet]

I don't know if the west particularly cares, as long as western stability and oil interests are protected?

[mosaix]

Originally Posted by RJM Corbet

I don't know if the west particularly cares, as long as western stability and oil interests are protected?

That's why they care, RJ.

[Bowler1]

The oil is why Western goverments have been supporting the dictators till now. Their human rights records were poor but the oil kept flowing, sort of like Dune and spice but a lot more boring.