“Jasmine Revolution”
Symbol of peace: Flowers placed on the barrel of a tank
in very much calmer protests than in recent days in Tunisia

'The Protester' - Time Person of the Year 2011

'The Protester' - Time Person of the Year 2011
Mannoubia Bouazizi, the mother of Tunisian street vendor Mohammed Bouazizi. "Mohammed suffered a lot. He worked hard. but when he set fire to himself, it wasn’t about his scales being confiscated. It was about his dignity." (Peter Hapak for TIME)

1 - TUNISIA Democratic Change / Freedom of Speech (In Transition)


How eyepatches became a symbol of Egypt's revolution - Graffiti depicting a high ranking army officer with an eye patch Photograph: Nasser Nasser/ASSOCIATED PRESS

2 - EGYPT Democratic Change / Freedom of Speech (In Transition)


''17 February Revolution"

3 - LIBYA Democratic Change / Freedom of Speech (In Transition)

5 - SYRIA Democratic Change / Freedom of Speech (In Transition)

"25 January Youth Revolution"
Muslim and Christian shoulder-to-shoulder in Tahrir Square
"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) -
(Subjects: Egypt Uprising, Iran/Persia Uprising, Peace in Middle East without Israel actively involved, Muhammad, "Conceptual" Youth Revolution, "Conceptual" (without a manager hierarchy) managed Businesses, Internet, Social Media, News Media, Google, Bankers, Global Unity,..... etc.)
"The End of History" – Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)
(Subjects:Abraham, Isaac, Ishmael, Muhammad, Jesus, God, Jews, Arabs, EU, US, Israel, Iran, Russia, Africa, South America, Global Unity,..... etc.) (Text version)

"If an Arab and a Jew can look at one another and see the Akashic lineage and see the one family, there is hope. If they can see that their differences no longer require that they kill one another, then there is a beginning of a change in history. And that's what is happening now. All of humanity, no matter what the spiritual belief, has been guilty of falling into the historic trap of separating instead of unifying. Now it's starting to change. There's a shift happening."


“ … Here is another one. A change in what Human nature will allow for government. "Careful, Kryon, don't talk about politics. You'll get in trouble." I won't get in trouble. I'm going to tell you to watch for leadership that cares about you. "You mean politics is going to change?" It already has. It's beginning. Watch for it. You're going to see a total phase-out of old energy dictatorships eventually. The potential is that you're going to see that before 2013.

They're going to fall over, you know, because the energy of the population will not sustain an old energy leader ..."



African Union (AU)

African Union (AU)
African Heads of State pose for a group photo ahead of the start of the 28th African Union summit in Addis Ababa on January 30, 2017 (AFP Photo/ Zacharias ABUBEKER)

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela
Few words can describe Nelson Mandela, so we let him speak for himself. Happy birthday, Madiba.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Middle East uprising will put oil giant Saudi Arabia in peril, claims historian

Daily Mail, By MARK ALMOND, 19th February 2011

Just seven days after the fall of Egypt’s Mubarak, the whole Middle East is in turmoil, with bloodshed from Libya to Bahrain.

Tyrants and their well-paid gunmen try to drown opposition to their rules with violence and repression. Civil war and chaos threaten Yemen and Jordan.

This is not just a grim prospect for the people who live there. It is extremely unnerving for the West.

Turm-oil: The fuel-rich autocracies like Saudi Arabia on which we
depend are now facing full-throated revolution, claims Oxford historian Mark Almond

The oil-rich autocracies on which we depend are now facing full-throated revolution.

Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi is willing to shoot as many as it takes to stifle opposition in Libya. But he can’t shoot everyone.

And if he is ousted, there is no certainty that any eventual successor would honour existing contracts with Western oil giants – contracts, incidentally, which were the dubious legacy of Tony Blair’s diplomacy.

Powerful: The downfall of Saudi Arabia's
king Abdullah could ignite a political
blow-out
But it is the rising tide of violence around Saudi Arabia which could ignite a political blow-out of terrifying proportions in the world’s biggest oil producing country.

Even people who hope to see the end of the Saudis’ hand-chopping, wife-beating Wahhabi fundamentalist regime must realise that its downfall will create a global economic earthquake.

The situation in neighbouring Bahrain is a microcosm of what might happen in Saudi Arabia. Don’t let Bahrain’s tiny size mislead you.

This island kingdom sits on the fault-line separating the tectonic plates of the Muslim world and is the fulcrum of American power in the Middle East.

The U.S. Fifth Fleet is based on the island –which is attached to Saudi by a causeway – and pro-Iranian Shi’ites who make up 70 per cent of the population are seething with rage against the pro-Western king.

The remaining 30 per cent of Bahrain’s population are Sunni Muslims, and the bitter Sunni-Shi’ite infighting there could spark a religious civil war which could quickly spread to Saudi Arabia.

Outsiders would pour in. Not just jihadi fanatics. Iran would support the ‘oppressed’ Shi’ites of Bahrain and Saudi.

More...

What would America do? Could Obama abandon the pro-Western rulers of Bahrain and Saudi if Iran got involved?


And how then would people in other Arab states such as Egypt react if the West put stopping Iran ahead of People Power? And how might Israel react?

Inspiration: Thousands of reformists gather in Egypt's Tahrir Square
during the protests earlier this month that inspired other Middle East countries

Shoe-waving: Anti-government protesters in Yemen shout slogans
demanding President Ali Abdullah Saleh step down

On top of all this, there is Lebanon, where Iran’s ally Hezbollah took advantage of the upheaval in Egypt to form a new coalition government while no one was looking. All perfectly constitutional and democratic. But a huge blow to Western influence.

The fact that Lebanese democracy can produce an anti-Western majority should remind romantics that people power in the Arab world doesn’t necessarily produce what we want.

In the long term, democratising the Middle East must be a good thing – that is, if we can get to the long term.

In the short term, the world is in for its bumpiest ride for decades.

Oxford University historian Mark Almond is Visiting Professor of International Relations at Bilkent University, Turkey.

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