Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Social Media Case Reflection 2 - Arab Spring

          Before getting into my research on Arab Spring, I wasn’t too familiar on what I was going to find. As I looked it up I came to know that the Arab spring was an event that happened back in 2010 over in the Arab world and continues to go on till this day in different parts of the country such as in the Middle East and also a continuation in North Africa. Arab spring was a revolutionary wave of different demonstrations and protests, such as riots and civil wars. Some of these protests had no violence involved with them but for the most part it was a mess of violence throughout this time. The reason that these protestors were so mad was because of the unfairness of the security, the ridiculous amount of unemployment, and the rising prices on everything. Although these are hard things to deal with in life, I firmly believe that it could have been handled in a different manner, riots and fighting never is the answer, this matter should be handled by the government through good communication and compromising on an agreement.
            These protestors used social media to their advantage and used it most effectively to communicate to the people as well as organizing them into groups and areas and also by raising awareness in the face of state attempts at repression and internet censorship. Social media and digital technologies allowed citizens in these areas that were affected by the Arab Uprisings for collective activism to avoid the state operated media channels. The amount of social media that was used indicates the kind of people that were powering the Arab Spring. It was young people who fueled these riots by using the new generation’s abilities of social networking to release this information to not only the Arab nations but to nations all over the world.
            I think that some of the pros of the Arab Spring is that there is no more full control by one party or person. Instead of blindly following other leaders or countries we can have our freedom and not be forced to do things that seem un-justice. On the other hand it is never a good idea to start civil wars, riots or to have disagreements or any kind of violence between the government and other countries, but having chaos for a little while is sometimes necessary in order to make things right. These things definitely are going to take some time to overcome but I think it’s something that needs to happen or no one is ever going to change and the horrible leaders will continue in their ways corrupting the world. At this point is the only time I think war is appropriate because it’s the only way to put a stop to it.
            “Chronic instability in countries undergoing political transitions have put additional strain on struggling local economies, and deep divisions have emerged between the Islamists and secular Arabs.” These Arab countries are amongst the poorest countries and have a rapid population growth, slow economy and weak governments. People just expected that things would change just in the blink of an eye if the authoritarian regimes were replaced with stable democratic systems across the region. They thought that the removal of corrupt rulers would instantly improve their living standards. Things just don’t work out like that, first of all it takes time to get those leaders out of their positions and to also change the mindset of the people of the community that were following these leaders. Then a new leader that has good values, and is highly respected and can show people that they can trust in him must come into position and completely turn things around. People need to realize that these things take time and don’t happen without much thought and effort and unity of everyone to be put into this cause.
For almost two generations, waves of democracy had swept over other regions, from southern and eastern Europe to Latin America, from East Asia to Africa. But not the Middle East. Tyrants shut down the political world and became owners of their countries. There was terrible rulers and a terrorist fringe. “Arabs had started to feel they were cursed, doomed to despotism. The region's exceptionalism was becoming not just a human disaster but a moral embarrassment.” In all the Arab spring was something that had to happen in order to make changes in those countries and I understand that it takes time but it should have been resolved already and it needs to be stopped.

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