Saturday 12 February 2011

Algeria, Yemen, Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Following the momentous events in Tunisia and Egypt there are no doubt people in these and other middle eastern countries who think that they too can rise up and overthrow their rulers. I cannot overstate how wrong these people are.

While the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt were undoubtedly created and carried out by the protesters themselves for them to become the success they are they had to rely on the help and support of a wide variety of people in all walks of life from across the world. The speed of change and the complexity of the situations, especially in Egypt have stretched a lot of these people close to breaking point and left many exhausted. I personally feel as though I've shortened my life by ten years and am having nightmares about Yemen. That means that if there are any further uprisings in the near future they are unlikely to receive anywhere near the same level of support and therefore much more likely to end in bloody failure.

Also the revolutions in the Tunisia and Egypt are far from complete. Despite all the victories they've won without the skill, hard work, vigilance and patience of their people these revolutions can still end in spectacular failure. In fact the uprising in Egypt served to distract many Tunisians from their own revolution leading to some sporadic outbreaks of disorder and some issues arising over the future direction the new Tunisian government might take. So please no more uprisings until everybody has had the chance to catch their breath and solidify the progress that has already been made.

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