9. “Arab Spring” focused questions:

1. Immediate precipitating causes of the “Arab Spring” – when, how and why?

-first protests that occurred in Tunisia on 18 December 2010 in Sidi Bouzid, following Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation in protest of police corruption and ill treatment.

-With the success of the protests in Tunisia, a wave of unrest sparked by the Tunisian "Burning Man" struck Algeria, Jordan, Egypt, andYemen,[74] then spread to other countries. 

• believed to have been instigated by dissatisfaction with the rule of local governments, though some have speculated that wide gaps in income levels may have had a hand as well. Numerous factors have led to the protests, including issues such as dictatorship or absolute monarchy, human rights violations,political corruption (demonstrated by),economic decline, unemployment, extreme poverty, and a number of demographic structural factors, such as a large percentage of educated but dissatisfied youth within the entire population.

B. Long-term causes of the “Arab Spring” – why did it happen in your country, based on deeper historical and cultural issues?

- Tunisia experienced a series of conflicts over the past three years, the most notable occurring in the mining area of Gafsa in 2008, where protests continued for many months. These protests included rallies, sit-ins, and strikes, during which there were two fatalities, an unspecified number of wounded, and dozens of arrest

-The Tunisian Revolution was an intensive campaign of civil resistance that was precipitated by high unemployment, food inflation, corruption, a lack of freedom of speech and other political freedoms and poor living conditions. Labour unions were said to be an integral part of the protests. The protests inspired the Arab Spring, a wave of similar actions throughout the Arab world.

-The shocking self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi on December 17 2010 was the fuse the lit the fire in Tunisia. According to most accounts, Bouazizi, a struggling street vendor, set himself on fire after a local official confiscated his vegetable cart and humiliated him in the public. It’s not entirely clear whether Bouazizi was targeted because he refused to pay bribes to the police, but the death of a struggling young man from a poor family struck chord with thousands of other Tunisians who began to pour into streets in the coming weeks.

http://middleeast.about.com/od/tunisia/tp/How-The-Arab-Spring-Started.htm

C. Key players – who are the individuals and organizations that have served as key players in the “Arab Spring”?

-the youth

-Social media 

http://www.usip.org/publications/youth-and-the-arab-spring

D.Possible futures for your “Arab Spring” country – play out at least THREE different future scenarios – what might happen?

Lets do this one together at the end once we have all our information combined 





Other Text:
Revolution 2.0 page 131- talks about how Ben Ali's (Tunisian President)  speech "changed everything"


Images :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHO9Xwi_NXY