The Democratic Virus
The virus has been unleashed and it is unremittingly creating chaos and havoc wherever it strikes. It struck originally in the most unanticipated of places: Tunisia. Who might have imagined? And from there the virus ricocheted throughout the Middle East and northern Africa. One dictatorship after another came under protest by their populations.The genie that erupted from the stifling-bottled atmosphere of tyranny brought with it, its impish sense of humour, liberally sprinkling the virus wherever it hovered on the landscape. From Tunisia to Egypt, Egypt to Libya, Libya to Syria, Syria to Jordan, Jordan to Bahrain, and on the fever flourished. Aided and abetted by poverty, unemployment and lost aspirations.
And while the jury is still out wherever the eye wanders, the virus still spreads, the genie enjoying its belly laughs. The genie very much appreciates that this is an entirely other world he has been loosed within. It is a world not of flying carpets but of another type of gravity-defying miracle; an invisible Internet that conveys news and photographs and links people and causes.
China and Russia are both in a lather of apprehension, although China acted in a more accelerated manner than Russia, being less arrogant and more attuned to the vagaries of citizen unrest. Its first line of defence was offensive; to shut down websites, and stifle as much as it might, the Internet conversation and thrust of enquiry leading to inconvenient demands and intrigues.
Russia is now in the throes of a backlash caused by its democratic deficit. Which once looked so promising, extending into the future, suddenly truncated by the appearance of an old-style strongman, so traditionally beloved of Russians. And suddenly that strongman's allure has dimmed, the party of Vladimir Putin, no longer Unites Russia.
The man who would be President - once again and in perpetuity - seems held by protesters in Russia to have concluded his usefulness to the country as Prime Minister. United Russia is now seen as a party "of thieves and swindlers". Thousands of opposition activists are voicing their distrust, disgust and dismay at the plans of Mr. Putin's longevity and the supine acquiescence of Dmitry Medvedev.
The genie invoked Internet networking sites to inform and advise the protest, inspiring the Voters League of journalists, bloggers, writers and artists, all campaigning for democratic elections. Sunday's rally on Moscow's Garden Ring road in the city centre has inspired the expectation that 50,000 will show up the following Saturday.
A woman waves a sheet of white paper and a ribbon to drivers on the Moscow's Garden Ring road during a protest in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)
"Today is an example of people who ... have come out in the streets of the city to show that we are numerous, that we are afraid of nothing."That impetuous, impertinent genie takes all the credit all the time.
Labels: Political Realities, Revolution, Russia
posted by Pieface @ Monday, January 30, 2012
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