My flight to China leaves on March 4th and I will be spending about 10 days in Chengdu. Chengdu is hardly the hotspot for pro-democracy demonstrations but both Shanghai and Beijing have seen their share of people joining in the Jasmine Revolution.
In both Libya and Zimbabwe the tide has turned against their respective leaders. If you want to assure yourself of losing power in a short amount of time, fire on your own people with military jets like Libya has done. In Zimbabwe, Mugabe has decided that watching all video of the Jasmine Revolution in other countries or watching BBC or Al Jazeera reports is grounds for a 20-year jail sentence.
Below is an excerpt from the Zimbabwe article:
“Indeed, the single most important lesson from Tunisia and Egypt is that we as Zimbabweans are our own liberators,” Trevor Ncube, owner of three independent newspapers in Zimbabwe and The Mail & Guardian in South Africa, wrote this week in The Mail & Guardian. Mr. Ncube added later, “The world will only help us when we stand up and fight for our freedom and reclaim our country from Mugabe and the arrogant clique around him.”This is similar to the statement made by Google executive Wael Ghonim prior to the Egyptian people overthrowing Mubarak. Video of his interview is below:
As in Egypt, negotiation with rubber bullets, real bullets, military jets, and 20 year prison sentences, will all lead to the same outcome.
I have a great friend who is in the Middle East on behalf of the State Department. He wrote me last night to say, "One can't stifle people's political expression forever, but the result is going to be a lot more dynamic and less comfortable than we are used to."
James
No comments:
Post a Comment