The New Year's Post That Never Was...

So 2011 started with a bang.
Quite literally; the bang of gunfire.
Two hundred and nineteen dead, that's two hundred and nineteen.
It makes the London tuition fees protests look.... tame?

Let me introduce today's guest publication;
The Life and Death of Democracy - John Keane
It can be thoroughly recommended.
Though, in light of recent events, it would seem Mr. Keane will need to rethink, because right now democracy seems very, much, alive.

As the dēmos, in approximately 500BC, risked their lives to overthrow the powerful aristocracy in Athens, thousands of street protesters took to the streets in Tunisia, in a bid to topple the corrupt control of President Ben Ali. A revolution now commonly known as the Jasmine Revolution.

Unemployment, food inflation, presidential and governmental corruption, lack of freedom of speech and poor living conditions, all attributed to the explosion of protest that erupted in December 2010. The catalyst, however, was the shocking self immolation, on the 17th of December, of a Tunisian street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi. The wave of chaotic protest that followed, would result in Ben Ali fleeing to Saudi Arabia, on the 14th January 2011, leaving his post of 23 years and Tunisia in a 'state of national emergency'.

The exit saw the subsequent, rapid formation of a caretaker coalition government, with the promise of elections within 60days.
However, anger and unrest remained, as the coalition government contained members of President Ali's party, the Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD) so street protests continued; with new demands that the RCD should be disbanded and all members should be forbidden to stand in future governments.
As a result, on the 27th of January, the Prime Minister removed all former RCD ministers, other than himself from the government.

Events were already revolutionary; but things got even better...

Now, the cue for that wonderful and spontaneous occurrence, which has so often shaped the history of the world; the domino effect.

Almost as soon as the media had returned from one country, it was straight onto the next.
This time to Egypt; where protests began on the 25th of January...

If this was top trumps, Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak would win, as he resigned on the 11th of February, following a ridiculous thirty years in power. The protests, largest in Cairo and Alexandria, resulted due to long-term anger at governmental corruption, police oppression, minimum wages, inflation and state of emergency laws. Protesters fought for the resignation of Hosni Mubarak and for democratic reforms to the political system.
At its peak, over 1million protesters scoured the streets of Egypt, at least 365 deaths were reported and the capital city of Cairo was at one point described as being a 'war zone'.

...This wasn't just a bunch of students, with painted faces, waving defaced, mildly amusing posters of Nick Clegg.

Initially Mubarak attempted to cling to power through the use of Egypt's Security Forces, by instigating a curfew and by blocking off forms of communication, such as the Internet and mobile phone networks. But eventually, after days of tantalising 'Will he? Won't he?' moments, Mubarak finally dissolved government, appointed Omar Suleiman as Vice-President and asked the chief of Egypt's air force, Ahmed Shafik to from a new government. Defeat was finally acknowledged when, on the 11th of February, Omar Suleiman announced Mubarak would step down as President and power was to be handed over to the Supreme Council of the Junta, headed by Mohamed Hussein Tantawi. For me, this appears to be a slightly worrying situation as military rule can often spell trouble but Tantawi pledged elections would follow in 6months time.

So as Egypt and Tunisia, breathe a sigh of relief, for now...
Libya holds its breath as street protests begin to explode...
WATCH THIS SPACE.

P.S. Happy New Year!
Apologies for the lack of posts recently...
But not future promises made!