Friday 3 June 2011

The hot Arab and cool spring hot summer.


Well, it has been labeled the Arab Spring, and we've seen protests in Morocco, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Bharain. In fact we also saw the starting of a few uprisings in China, but their media squashed that from worldview. It appears that the Arab Spring was springing up all over the place almost in a cluster munitions pattern. Many think that it is over now, but I highly doubt that and I believe we will not only have an Arab spring but also an Arab summer.
It's as if these areas of civil unrest have spread near and far. We've seen Muslims and Christians having it out in Egypt Nigeria, Uganda, and the Sudan. And yes the ongoing problems in Iraq. Many believe that Iran will have a re-occurrence of their near overthrow very soon, and as I read the tea leaves I would agree.
The protests and demands of Arab Governments are not over, it's just beginning actually. Let me explain what I mean. The rapid inflation in many Middle Eastern nations is very hard on the poor, and they need to buy food and the food prices have increased drastically. In many of these nations, they are basically oil Republics so to speak, and the government works to take care of the poor and there is a big separation of classes. Indeed, they don't have the benefits of a strong middle class as we do here in the USA.
Indeed, there was a very interesting article recently in the New York Times titled; "Promise of Arab Uprisings Is Threatened by Divisions," by Anthony Shadid and David Kirkpatrick, which stated; "From Egypt to Syria, tensions over religion and clans have threatened uprisings that once seemed to promise a new sense of national identity built on the idea of citizenship."
Top that up with massive job losses due to the disruptions causing local supply chain chaos, along with the prospect of increased food costs and global shortages as well. Wheat prices and scarcity is going to be a huge issue in Egypt and the rest of North Africa as well. Remember they say that the stability of a society and civilization is only three meals away. When people go without food for more than a day everything breaks down. So no one should be surprised this summer as more and more of these tensions and issues come to a head. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.

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