Posts tagged Revolution

I’m hungry, but all I want to be fed are lies. Tell me that I’m good enough. Satisfy this unyielding craving for some kind of certainty. Tell me that it’s more than a dream, that it’s more than this hopeless faith and helpless devotion. I’m just a sinner trying to make it as a saint but these sins make up the oceans swimming through my veins. I need a transfusion. I need a transformation, some inner turmoil revolution. I need you to hold me, just hold me long enough to leave me feeling reassured. I’m dancing in discontent, mingling with the thought of a moment. I need to be convinced. I need to be told that this is more than what I see laid out before me. I need some kind of sign. I’m too scared to walk down these midnight tunnels on my own. I need… you.

verbalresistance:

Sources tell Al Jazeera about 1,600 people are hurt as police use live rounds and tear gas to disperse protests in Taiz.

As many as 1,600 people have been injured in the Yemeni city of Taiz after police reportedly used tear gas and live ammunition to disperse pro-democracy protesters in the city’s main square, Al Jazeera has learnt.

A sit-in was held in the square on Sunday as part of nationwide anti-government protests. According to witnesses, police also opened fire above the heads of protesters, and used batons to disperse the crowds.

Medical sources said most of the injuries were from tear gas inhalation.

“It was a peaceful demonstration. It became dangerous because of the tear gas. It’s shameful to fire at peaceful protesters,” one protester told Al Jazeera.

Governor Hamoud al-Soufi denied reports that one person had been killed in the clashes. He also said eight soldiers had been killed after clashes between “infiltrators” among protesters and some citizens forced riot police to intervene.

The protest came a day after an opposition coalition called on Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh to hand over power to his deputy, Abdu Rabbo Mansour Hadi.

‘Peaceful transition’

The coalition has released details of their initiative for a peaceful transition of power, according to Al Jazeera’s sources.

As part of his interim duties, they called on Saleh’s deputy to reorganise the central and national security as well as the Republican Guard, the forces currently loyal to Saleh and controlled by his son and nephews.

Hadi was appointed by Saleh as Yemen’s vice-president after the civil war in 1994. 

He is well regarded by the opposition, and the negotiations between the president’s advisers and the opposition took place at his house in Sanaa. 

By accepting someone from the ruling party to lead in the interim, the opposition appeared to send a message that it is willing to be flexible about finding a solution.

The move is also likely to help the coalition win support of residents of southern Yemen, where Hadi hails from.

The suggestion to appoint him as the country’s leader has come as no surprise, but so far, the president has rejected every offer that requires him to leave office before the end of the year. 

There has been no reaction from the president or the ruling party so far.

aljazeera.net

Hundreds have died in the name of democracy, in the name of freedom, today alone.

Hundreds will die tomorrow. The next day. The day after that.

In Yemen, Libya, Bahrain, Iran… in every Middle Eastern country that is uprising. That will uprise.

China. North Korea. In every country dictated by an authoritarian government.

The people are speaking and they are speaking LOUD.

Everyday for the past two months, civilians have been made casualties of this revolution. People, like you and me, young and old.

Fathers. Mothers. Sisters. Brothers. Friends. Family.

These people are dying in the name of a cause. They’re fighting, struggling for something most of us take for granted: liberty.

These people are being MURDERED for peacefully protesting against the corruption of government, against unemployment, against starvation and poverty.

These people are being MURDERED for wanting to be free. For wanting a voice.

For the freedom to think. To express. To dream. To speak. 

These people are being MURDERED for peacefully protesting against governments that have, for too long, used the threat and the acts of violence to shut them up. To keep them down. 

How many people do you know get arrested, get beaten, get tortured or get murdered for having an opinion? For blogging about it? For talking about it? For acting on it?

Well… now you know of the mere thousands who just died for it. And everyday you will know of hundreds more.

Are you paying attention? Because this is reality. Wake up.

“The 18 days that changed the world,” that’s what they’re calling it. And amazingly, just days after the revolutionary victory of the Egyptian people, that almost seems like an understatement.

Four days after the mere three weeks it took for the fall of a thirty year authoritarian regime, youths all around the Middle East have taken to the streets of their countries to fight for what rightfully belongs to them: freedom.

Protests in Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Algeria, Jordan and Iran have erupted, Arab youths risking their lives and the lives of their families all for the notion of hope.

Hope provided by a country that many had deemed unlikely to act: Tunisia.

And look at the effects of that hope!

In 2009 the Iranian people made a similar attempt at democracy, taking to the streets in mass protests against a dictator who has ruled their country for too long, a dictator who rigged an election in his favor and used fear and violence to kill the human spirit. That revolt was quickly disassembled and Ahmadinejad continued his authoritarian rule against the unwilling Iranian people.

The fall of Ben Ali in Tunisia quickly carried out an idea that spread across the Middle East like a disease. After the success of the Egyptian people with the resignation of Hosni Mubarak, that disease quickly became inflamed. If Tunisia could do it, if Egypt could do it…what was, what is stopping the rest of the Arab youths?

Now? Nothing.

Fear is no longer an obstacle for those seeking freedom. To die an activist is to die a martyr for humanity, for liberty, for democracy.

Al-Khalifa, the ruling king of Bahrain, offered his people a lump sum of money to every family in a desperate attempt to quiet down and disassemble the protests. In this seemingly rich country, people all across hit the streets in anti-government demonstrations not in the name of poverty or unemployment, but simply for the need of democracy, protesting against the corruption of government and the unequal spread of power.

One thing these countries all have in common is the will and need to be free. These people are protesting not just against their corrupt governments, poverty and unemployment, they’re fighting for the right to dream.

Dictators such as Yemen’s Ali Abdullah Saleh, Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya, Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria and the notorious Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran have all used fear and the threat of violence during their reigns. And for many years, for too long in fact, this repressive tactic had worked.

Despite what many believe, these people, in all of these countries, had been living under the presumption that their governments, though authoritarian and corrupt, were somewhat poor. Yes, there are rich and poor people, but it was assumed their kings and presidents, though rich, were living beyond their actual means.  

At the height of WikiLeaks came the slap-in-the-face notion when people living below the poverty line, unemployed and starving, realized just how many billions of dollars their rulers were spending on luxury items, extravagant birthday parties and monthly vacations while they could barely find two pennies to scratch together.

This was a hard hitting realization that soon resulted in unrest and uprising.

On January 3, 2011 one man’s desperate act of suicide sparked the wild fire that is now truly changing the world. His devastating attempt at death woke a nation into the realization that if dying had become the only answer then no one was asking the right question.

If they were going to die, it would be at their own will, fighting to the death for a belief, an idea that would be achieved at any sacrifice, including life.

I pray for the success of these countries. I wish them true democracy.

With hope, with faith, anything is possible. Every obstacle is destructible.