Reflecting on the rippling "Revolutionary" effects in the Arab World.

It goes without saying that youth, activists, workers, women and elderly are joining together in light of the inspirational revolutions sparked in Tunisia and Egypt. Who would have known that only four months ago, Mohammed Bouazizi, the Tunisian street vendor, famously known for setting himself on fire, would find the Arab world, in a domino-like effect, spiraling viral protests across the region. This blog-post was inspired primarily after the Jordanian protests, not because the Libyan, Syrian, Yemeni, or Bahraini protests are not as fundamental; rather because the protests sparked a few comments on twitter that alluded me to reflect on the current political climate in the region.

Who would have known that in such a short span, decade-long dictators would be toppled down, giving the people the power to speak out and take control of their own political destiny. Who would have known that years of colonial, and imperial representations of the people would be dismantled through a collective body of people, joined together with one voice. Constructions of the Orient are tabula rasa, no longer inferred. For there are no "Clashes of Civilization". There are no "apolitical" bodies incapable of handling "democracy". There are no uneducated, incompetent minds willing to stay silent. There are no longer Islamophobic or racial assertions to blame citizens for their inability in taking political and individual action unto themselves. Who would have known, that after December 17th, 2010, a personal self-immolation, sparked by desperation, frustration, humiliation and harassment, that the Middle East would never be the same again.

The reasons for such actions and reactions are not because people are randomly trying to replicate Tunisia's and Egypt's successful ousting of their long-standing dictators, but because Tunisia and Egypt provided a voice, for millions of people who have been silent for far too long. Bouazizi's act of rage, brought out years of swallowed sorrows and frustrations in the citizen's nation-state.

Essentially, for some countries, like Syria, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen and the like, the call for some people, is not simply or merely a call for a revolution, but a call for change; a call for freedom; a call for effective reform; a call for deconstructing unjust tribal control; a call for fair and moral dealings; a call for an obligatory recognition for citizens rights; a call against spacial restrictions; a call against political limitations; a call against class division and class-based control; and a call for human rights in its very primitive nature et al ...

Protests, calls for reforms, demands for change, active community involvements, etc., are not demands against the nation, but against despotic or corrupt state-bodies. Those who speak out are not against their country. Those who speak out are seeking the betterment and the greater fulfillment of their country, now, tomorrow and for the future generations to come. Those who speak out, do so, because silence maintains a deaf stability hesitant to reacting to change, in fear that the status-quo might be affected. Those who act out, do so, because they have the right to do so; because freedom of speech is not limited to theoretical assumptions and rhetorical assertions. And because citizens are not simply absent subjects.

Egypt Jan 25, 2011 - Flesh Burns

As fire flares into heated waves of subdued anger and frustration, self-immolation melt through problematics that have been hidden in the rubbles of the cities peripheries for far too long. Flesh burns in the name of a meaning lost, no longer felt, but ignored in the scattered piles of unknowns of nameless people and places. Flesh burns to tell others, that no longer silence will prevail to allow these feelings to succeed. Flesh burns to lost responsibilities of leaderships, hidden away in the warmness of their classic-like structures that warms their bodies of the same elements that flares their colonially-decorated fireplace. Flesh burns to rotten lies that sit on the periphery of the soul, holding on to rocks hoping that the body would slip and jump. Flesh burns to reignite feeling, far from sedation, the eyes no longer cry for, but blink rapidly against the harsh realities of alleyways that unearth poverty and abuse at its core. Flesh burns because no longer can the tongue speak in forms of fabricated truths or veracious lies. Flesh burns in the light of darkness that obscures the mind in lifeless attempts to stay alive.

Lifeless bodies lose hope in the continued promises of a betterment in the midst of answerless destinies. In the name of freedom, the mind no longer can contain what lingers within in anger or frustration. And nothing leaves one consoled than to bring out what burns inside to the core.

And in the name of any meaning that would harmonize the damage that scars you so deep, nothing mitigates the broken pieces of shattered possibilities but through revolt. To speak against the restoration of insanity, allowing words, bodies in motion and masses to weld their unified needs towards a betterment for a land that has held their bodies in her womb since time immemorial. Speak not but against atrocity, oppression, deception, corruption and a continued masquerade of a people’s republic.

Against torture, and propagated reflections of a distorted freedom, submit to nothing but the demands of a reality, that charges against mirages in the reflections of a sanitized mirror. Words can suppress and ignite the self in power to change. So, wait not for direction to take the next step forward, for progression awaits your initiation. What are you waiting for?