3. “Above all, it has been about
the ability to communicate.”
4.
5. “Ya Balady” – Spoken word
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzbB7ebv-Lw
Noam Chomsky answers questions about the Arab Spring
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0rC7Wj4VpE
Editor's Notes
Quote 1: Beaumont (2011)
Quote 2: http://oupacademic.tumblr.com/post/70970052826/out-of-the-mountains
The uncensored and unedited form of spreading information via social networking websites is also a key factor in the non-hierarchical and loose organisation of new revolutions, namely in the Arab Spring uprisings, allowing people from all walks of life to become part of large but unstructured movements that represent the needs of everyone by allowing everyone to voice their opinions individually. Importantly, social networking websites are available worldwide and allow information from even the most remote places to be accessed everywhere in the world, forming solidarity beyond borders and giving people everywhere the opportunity to pressure their own governments to react to crises in faraway places.
Photo: http://peacepaixsalaam.tumblr.com/post/51001121036/this-photo-was-made-by-a-friend-mon-syrie
Whilst information spread via these websites can sometimes be unreliable due to its unedited nature, it is often much more reliable than state-controlled media. Indeed even when false information has spread through tbese websites, it has aided in the cause, such as the false notion that Mohamed Bouazizi was a university graduate. That he hadn’t attended university was irrelevant – the idea was strong enough to start the wave of revolution that would become the Arab Spring. The accompanying images spread from these revolutions have been particularly powerful in stirring people to action, within the countries affected, and in solidarity around the world. Without these images, it is easy to ignore monumental events taking place in faraway places. But the images serve as a constant reminder that people are fighting for change, and they also serve to show the injustices these people are facing – the brutality of dictatorships, the power of protest, the desire of young people to fight for better economic and political opportunities, for democracy.
Liberate Egypt: http://clogland.tumblr.com/post/54611855947/good-times-a-second-chance-for-egypt-if-the
WMDs: http://fuckyeahmarxismleninism.tumblr.com/post/30327367703
Whilst the futures of the countries involved in the Arab Spring will depend on their individual contexts and how power is organised in the aftermath, these uprisings showed what new technologies have made possible in political realm.
