What next for North Africa/Middle East?

vivatifosi

globalds wrote: »

The constant shouts of Allah Akbah from the demonstrators in almost every tape I see from all countries with demonstrations may not bode too well for western style democracies flourishing in the future.

I'm not sure about that one. I'm not comfortable with the idea of Moslem theocracy, but if it is the will of the people then so be it.

However I've also seen tapes where people shout "Allah, Allah" when they see atrocities happen around them. I then wonder what the difference would be between that and people here, seeing some dreadful atrocity, saying "oh God, oh God". In some respects it is a natural instinct.

ninky_2

religion is embedded into language in such a way to people using that language that the use of the world 'allah' shouldn't in anyway be taken to mean anything other than"goodness" really.

my OH is atheist but he still says "hoda-e-bozorg" (god is great/big in farsi). roughly translated it sort of means we can't know everything or control everything but we hope for the best.

vivatifosi

Out of interest ninky, what does your OH think of the situation and does he feel it will spread to Iran?

ninky_2

vivatifosi wrote: »

Out of interest ninky, what does your OH think of the situation and does he feel it will spread to Iran?

he is concerned about syria....no really sure why but to him that has a bigger connection (literal and political) to iran. he thinks that when these things happen it's never really about popular sentiment on the ground - it's about international political interests. undercover mercenaries etc etc always seem to be involved. it's not that there is no popular sentiment more that there is ALWAYS popular sentiment but no popular power...so when you see popular power it comes from some other source of power (or removal of international support for regimes)...IYSWIM

neverdespairgirl

Israel's feeling a bit nervous, with the potential for more fundie countries as their neighbours.

sabretoothtigger

Fundie countries ? I know the scenario in Egypt affected Israel alot, in the end we presume democracy should improve matters but I think its a rocky road to any eventual peace

I get it, Islamic Fundamentalist. Yep thats a danger, I hope they elect fair governments, probably 50/50 what happens

In terms of the Assad family, his wife - Asma - was born in the UK, so they may well be entitled to live here if it all goes wrong.

I think Mr Assad was a London GP till 2000 or so

robertkellymoore

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michaels

So all in all fairly quiet in the Arab spring - apart from bombs in Morocco, mosque storming in Syria, gas pipelines blown in Egypt, one of Qadaffi's sons killed by Nato and now something very peculiar happening in Iran (mossad involved?)

globalds

I'll bounce this one back up to the top of the pile again.

It would be nice if anyone else feels like posting an update or any more ideas as things unfold.

Syria seems to be moving closer to breaking point with evidence now that there is fighting between different units in the military.

Yemen seems to have overthrown it's leadership in all but name as anyone at the top ,who had power , are now recovering in Saudi hospitals.
The Americans are using it as an opportunity to get some easy kills in on al Qaeda ...They may regret this in years to come... My guess is now, whichever side they pick will be the wrong one.

The whole Israel issue seems to be getting more politicised ...Perhaps to distract TV audiences from from their own regimes actions.

Iran , very quiet at the moment, but their nuclear production seems to have recovered from the virus that destroyed most of the centrifuges.

Bahrain has lost it's Formula one ...Nice that the world has seen a bit of sense.... Doctors and nurses being charged for treating injured protesters can surely not be acceptable behaviour for any country.

Egypt seems to running out of money ...And I read that 800,000 have become unemployed since Mubarak was sent on his long term Red sea vacation. ...So this Autumn may see things getting worse for the poor folk of Cairo.

And my prediction now for Libya is that it will split into to states. The folk around Tripoli do not look in any rush to throw their dictator out.

ash28

sabretoothtigger wrote: »

Fundie countries ? I know the scenario in Egypt affected Israel alot, in the end we presume democracy should improve matters but I think its a rocky road to any eventual peace

I get it, Islamic Fundamentalist. Yep thats a danger, I hope they elect fair governments, probably 50/50 what happens




I think Mr Assad was a London GP till 2000 or so

President Assad was completing his training as an opthamoligist at the Western Eye Hospital in London - his brother Basil (being groomed for the presidency) was killed in a car accident. He was called back to Syria and subsequently joined the military.

He was in London from 1992 until 1994 - he became president in 2000.