Arab Spring

Being Arab

  • Being an Arab means you speak Arabic

  • Exceptions:

    • Israel - Hebrew

      • Palestinians speak Arabic

    • Turkey - Turkish

    • Iran - Farsi

    • Kurds - Kurdish

      • Don't have land

Oil

  • Oil is abundant in the middle east

  • 1960 | Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries of OPEC is created

    • They form a Cartel of Producers

    • They artificially limit the production of Oil and drive up prices


The Arab Spring

  • Tunisia, Egypt: Went into full revolution,

  • Started by College Students

    • Youth is Idealistic, and Brave

    • They are willing to fight

  • Causes:

    • Democratic deficit: dictatorship & authoritarian Regimes

    • Human rights violations

    • Government corruption

    • Economic turmoil

    • A young, educated, and idle populace

      • There were no jobs for students after they graduated from college.

  • Arab Spring begins:

    • Young people using Social Media to organize

      • Not using real weapons, but using the internet

    • They use Facebook to raise the people up

    • Most countries had extreme poverty and sever unemployment

  • Tunisia and Egypt:

    • A young vegetable vendor immolates himself from

    • In Egypt after days of protests, Hosni Mubarak 30-year presidency

      • Moorsi gets elected in, but he is so much worse.

      • Moorsi gets overthrown by a military coup