At this point in my life I feel it's time to actually write what I think to clearly state where I stand in life and on particular issues. As a college student I believe I should synthesize the things I learn with the experiences I have to enlighten myself and help develop solutions to problems our world faces.
For my first topic I'd like to address the recent protest movements in the Middle East. These are revolutions based off grievances of repressed people's. Many of these authoritarian regimes disallow the very freedoms we all enjoy on a daily basis while the majority of the population lay in poverty. Sadly, the leaders in charge have been reaping the benefits of their nations resources for years. For example, if we look at the Maraburak and Kahadafi families we see extreme wealth. Each comprise fortunes of around 30 billion or more dollars. Also, if we look at Egypt in particular we see Maraburak held around 60% of all the countries assets. This distribution of wealth resulted in a variety of problems for both Libya and Egypt which was a major grievance amongst the general population.
With this said, I'd like to state that if many of these revolutions end with the opposition winning the transition to a democratic/semi democratic system will not be easy. Think about it, there needs to be a political socialization of the population in order for democratic roots to grow within that particular society. In order to create a democratic system there must be democratic institutions being practiced over a period of time. Within these countries there has been no such institutions in place so they must build them from scratch. Let's look at how Iraq created their democratic institutions (with the help of us of course). They created a democratic government in theory, but in practice it does not get anything done and each opposition group within the government despise one another. I fear in all of these countries semi democratic governments will be established. Although, there will be two scenarios resulting from this. 1) Oligarchy (IE Russia) 2) A democratic government like Iraq that won't get anything done and will have the potential to be overthrown by another dictator.
I hope none of these outcomes occur. I really hope a democratic system will emerge in all these cases that is successful and brings the people what they want. These people deserve freedom and economic benefits from their natural resources.
