Blog Topic Number 9

     With the first two images on this topic I wanted to try and illustrate as we have talked about in class, and as you can see on the news, just how widespread the protests in the Middle East and the Islamic world have become.  Both of the following maps show the main nations these protests and between the two I think it is easy to get a sense of just how many places are being affected.  The second map shows specifically the geographic locations the major protests have occurred at.

     The most important thing to grasp I think is to understand how this unprecedented movement has been able to happen.  We can see the fear these governments have of the social networking sites once conflicts began to occur in their lands.  In Iran, and Egypt for example censorship and complete internet blackout were put into effect by the ruling powers in an effort to keep the people in the dark and keep the revolt from spreading further.  Never before have the youth in these nations been able to be so easily informed about the outside world, and this awareness has showed them that there is another way to live life, and that they do not have to accept the tyranny of these rulers, many of whom have been in place since the 60s, 70s, and 80s.  By the same token never before has the outside world been able to so easily observe and follow and be involved with protests like these in foreign lands, which is another chief reason these nations moved so quickly to block the internet to the outside world.  In essence they were trying to protect their image and control the riots without retaliation of their methods by the outside world.  This can no longer happen, there is always a way for these people to get their information out.  So, these riots spanning across the Middle East have been motivated basically by globalization in one form, in the way of the ability to send and receive information to and from the outside world largely thanks to the major social networking organizations like Facebook and Twitter, as well as Google.

     One image I was able to find, which is the last of the previous three illustrates the confidence these people have in their connectivity to the world and the protestor's acknowledgement that their movement was started using tools such as these sources.  They are able to coordinate with other protestors as well throughout these means and be extremely effective.

    So I'm sure by now it is clear the protest I am going to focus on is the which has rocked the government of Egypt where President Mubarak (who recently stepped down as a result of these riots) had been in power since 1981.  Egypt has a total population that varies by source but is generally agreed on to be between 80-83 million people.  The TFR of Egypt is 2.97 and the median age is 24 years old.  I want to focus specifically on that first number and the last one, over 80 million people with the median age of 24, this means there is a huge portion of the population that could be considered very young.  That is important in understanding how these protests were able to become such a major event, the young people using these networking abilities are revolting and want to create a better future for themselves because they are simply more aware than the generations before them.

     The first major protest in Egypt took place on January 25th 2011 and already the people were calling for the resignation of their long time leader.  The internet shut downs also occurred shortly after this very first protest began.  The next day the government tried to subdue the protests by use of tear gas and beating and many were killed and hundreds were injured and arrested.  On the 28th Mubarak made his first television appearance on the matter and promised a commitment to democracy but refused to step down and in this press conference he announced the termination of his entire cabinet.  At least 25 were killed in protests this day and the next day the toll would reach over 100 dead.  On the 31st the army came out in support of the people saying it would not continue to use force against its great people.  On Feb. 1st Mubarak pledged to step down at the next election, which was not near good enough to please the protestors.  On the 11th Mubarak's resignation was formerly announced.  This whole movement came out of years of poverty of the people and oppression by the government and was a culmination of many other things including the corruption of their government and their desire for democracy, the people finally saw success in their movement.  By the final protests there were hundreds of thousands of people participating in the demonstrations.

     This link is an amazing source to learn about the timeline of protests not just Egypt but throughout the entire Middle East.  Middle East Protest Timelines 
     There is also a pretty decent article relating to the protests in Egypt found here. Egypt Protests