Hans Blix: Whether Obama in Syria or Bush in Iraq, The US Is Not the World Police

Hans Blix was the chief UN arms inspector for Iraq from 2000-2003. He was also the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from 1981 to 1997 and Swedish minister of foreign affairs (1978-79). He spoke with Global Viewpoint Network editor Nathan Gardels on Monday, August 26.

Full article at Huffington Post.

More:

• Middle East protests: "Every uprising is different" (on inconsistent attitudes of superpowers)
• Overview Arab Spring 2010 - 2011

Unrest marks Tunisia revolution anniversary event

Illustration by Amin

Protesters have thrown stones and tomatoes at Tunisian leaders at a ceremony marking two years since the start of an uprising that changed regimes around the Arab world. (The Miami Herald, December 17 2012; deredactie.be, December 17 2012)

It is indeed two years ago that Mohamed Bouaziz, a street vendor set himself on fire, to protest the regime of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. This sparked demonstrations that spread around Tunisia and several Arab countries, known as the Arab Spring.

More:

• Overview Middle East protests (Wim, February 21, 2011)
• Revolutionary times (Wim, February 20, 2011)

Democracy in Libya?

Picture taken from VRT

Libyan protests: overview map

Map by k_thos

This informative beauty was twittered by k_thos: an overview map of the rebellion going on in Libya.

Click here for full size.

Click here for Tripolis prison map.







For more updates: http://twitpic.com/photos/k_thos

For a chronological overview of the protests, ordered by country: clickety.

Middle East protests: "Every uprising is different"

Taken from VRT, © Belga

This morning (Wednesday, 11th May 2011), the VRT published a very interesting article written by Wouter Carton, discussing the inconsistent attitudes of superpowers concerning the current uprisings in the Middle East. Here is a translation to English.

For a chronological overview of the protests, ordered by country: clickety.

Prophetic article on Egypt

Detail from Eugène Delacroix'
"La Liberté guidant le peuple"

Lately, I have been more busy updating the overview of the protests in the Middle-East than posting a fresh entry. Still, it keeps on fascinating me.

Overview Middle East protests

Illustration by Carlos Latuff

"The power of dictatorships comes from the willing obedience of the people they govern - and that if the people can develop techniques of withholding their consent, a regime will crumble."
--The nonviolent revolution rulebook

The Jasmine Revolution (WP 1, WP 2; BBC Live and Arabisch protest in Dutch), an overview:

Revolutionary times

Illustration by Amin

Being a child of the eighties, I always wanted to have experienced the turbulent sixties. Even since I was a young boy, I was looking up to all those pictures of people striding for freedom, turning Europe and America upside down: the Prague Spring, American civil rights movement, the protest against the Vietnam war, the student barricades in Paris, ...