Reflection #10

Magda Borgarelli

On Tuesday, I went to the event Social Justice in Harry Potter and the Arab Springs.  At first, I thought it would have been something silly, mainly geared to win the support of the Harry Potter fans here on campus.  However, the presentation turned out to be very interesting, especially in the light of what we have learned throughout this course.  The girl who came up with the idea found that many parallels could be drawn between the J.K. Rowling book and the Arab Springs, specifically on social issues and civil societies.  For example, she compared the state of servitude in which the house elves in the book live and that of women in Saudi Arabia.  She also talked a little about the role of social media in the book (Potterwatch, the gold coins to indicate meeting dates) somewhat paralleled those in the Arab Spring (Facebook and Twitter).   Needless to say, I felt very knowledgeable on the subject since that is what we have been talking about all semester.  In fact, I have realized that the issues of civil societies and social movements can be applied to almost all cases of social injustice (or justice) that are happening all around us.  Almost always, when a specific group is deprived of some basic rights, some form of civil society organization will be formed, be it something like the one in Serbia, or even Dumbledore’s Army.  It is only through them that we can promote peaceful change, and it is thanks to them that we are able to voice our discontent of authoritative regimes or simply Voldemort.

Reflection 10

                                                                                Reflection 10

                Although there has been a lot of attention focused on the Israel-Palestine conflict, as the dispute that has been going on there is a focal point for the region, I plan on discussing something a bit more under the radar and has put one of the 2011 Arab spring movements civil society to the test, specifically the test of true unification.  

                “Tshe new President of Egypt Mohamed Morsi took extensive new powers for himself Thursday, freeing his decisions from judicial review and ordering retrials for former top officials, including ex-president Hosni Mubarak” (Washington post, Birnbaum). While international intentions are focused elsewhere, mainly the conflict in Israel and Syria, Morsi has made a power grab the likes of which the former president was toppled for. Morsi’s declaration came one day after brokering a cease-fire between Israeli and Palestine. The Morsi regime, a name which I thought hitherto inappropriate, however, my mind has been changed. The new president of Egypt is creating a sort of autonomous body, such as the Egyptian military has done, and been doing since the days of Mubarak. What this can do is turn what was once a sort of autocratic version of checks and balances with Mubarak on top the people at the bottom and a military controlling the ladder; now that Morsi has dismissed the higher ranks of the military, he has unprecedented power. Now there is a supposed time constraint on how long the powers of Morsi will last, but when is the last time a despot told the people who had just rebelled for a democracy that they would not get it? Another interesting thing that Morsi’s new powers allow him is the extradition of judicial review; no longer must people go through trial and no longer can the laws Morsi creates will not be subject to court’s rulings, basically he can do whatever he wants, in the interest of Egypt of course, much like the old regime. Although it seems as though the revolution is losing its momentum and that the autocratic regime is back with no or little resistance that is far from the truth, as the Egyptian will not allow such usurpations of democracy to be allowed.

                Although the people remain united in there want for a democratic government Muslim-brotherhood supporters have been demonstrating their support for Morsi though rallies, while many other Egyptians are protesting the newly found powers of the president. Don’t get it wrong both Islamists and secularists have been protesting the detestable power grab by Morsi, but only time will tell if the people are willing to unite in their cause against the regime and if the regime is willing to work with the people. 

Sean OBrien Reflection 11/15/2012

I think that the press that Spy gate scandal is getting is absolutely ridiculous. There is so much going on in the world especially with the tensions rising in the Battle between Israel and Hamas. Israel is now officially bombing Hamas. This week they killed the one of the top Hamas leaders and a result Hamas got pissed and has been continuously firing rockets into and around Tel Aviv. I was on Cnn the other day and i could barely find any mention of what was occurring in that particular area. Meanwhile headline news is about the CIA scandal. I mean granted it is a big deal, you have the head of American intelligence agency who may or may have compromised secrets or parts of the US. He is on record as saying that did not happen, but for obvious reasons you dont want to compromise said material. I just cant comprehend the vast amount of coverage. Where I logged onto the BBC and it was the first story that was being presented. I think that the US media is just very polarized and different from the rest of the world.

Reflection 9

It's amazing that more than 60 years after the creation of the State of Israel and the start of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict we are still more or less at the same place. The Israelis are still defending their claim to the land and the Palestinians and neighboring Arab allies are still fighting that claim. After 60 years, you would think that diplomacy, grassroots efforts and civil society would have ensured some sort of major change. Apart from the Yitzhak Rabin and Yasser Arafat negotiations that has simply not been the case.
What we see now is simply extremism on both sides not unlike, in a way, the extremization of our political parties here in the US where essentially in order to cater more to the base of their support, the parties/countries become more and more radical and reduce severely their ability to compromise which hampers all peace process. In these most recent attacks and rise of the conflict it is much pretty much certain that Israel is in the right even if their answer might be disproportionate. The states of the world and civil society cannot afford to pick a side because of politics or religion. Instead they must ensure that fair and just peace for both sides is achieved so that prosperity and peaceful existence for both sides becomes a reality as opposed to a distant possibility.

Structure Response

Khondker uses the term 'cyber-civil society' in his work. I think this is one of the most significant notes on the arab spring where social media was a factor. In class we continually attribute protests and rallying and uprising to effective civil societies. Not only did social media serve as a means to spread information, but as an organizational tool. The grass-roots efforts of mobilizing people, giving structure and focus to an increasing amount of citizens is the difficult but necessary jobs of such organizations. But, in most cases, civil societies are limited by how many people they can reach. However, if the internet is accessible in a region the expanse of who can be told of such a movement or force is infinite.

Tunisia is a good example of this. When only 28,000 citizens had a Facebook in 2008, protests movements died out. Yet in 2011, with 2 million people on Facebook, the Tunisian protests were much more effective and lasting. I believe that this, if nothing else, is a convincing argument that the arab spring would not be what it was without social media. Whether they would have happened or not without it can't be said for sure, but I am confident that they would not have reached the extent they did without sites like twitter and Facebook.

Egypt is another good example as to why social media played such an important role. When Khaled Said was (ironically) dragged out of a cyber-cafe and beaten to death, the pictures of him afterwards was what inspired people to take a stance. 35,000 people were organized together on a Facebook page, making them more than just lucky protestors but intelligent and focused citizens united for a cause.

While I do believe it possible that uprisings may have happened regardless of social media, the internet expedited the process and almost certainly improved the organization of people and made the protests more effective.

Reflection

This is a continuation from my structured response; as it doesn't answer the actual questions asked I decided I'd post it as a reflection.

I just finished reading Mill's On Liberty for another class, and I think many of his ideas about liberty are relevant to these situations. Mill emphasizes the need for discussion and the need for debate between contending opinions. He believes that fostering discussion allows for the progress of society, to find the truer truths and ensure a successful democracy. The variety of ideas and opinions are necessary to have the most 'true' or effective ideas. Debate allows communication and for people to form understandings of one another and creates a community atmosphere. Such an atmosphere gives power to the people.  Mill explains how action on a community based level is not only effective but allows people to become a part of something greater for themselves, and less dependent on the government.

While Mill was righting at a time that the electrical telegraph was only just invented, his ideas can be related to how people connect through the internet today. Perhaps bigots aimlessly arguing about whatever bugs them about the news that day isn't entirely productive; however people posting about events in blogs and in Facebook is not only an improved method for spread of word through the expansion of freedom of the press, but allows people to peacefully talk about issues and perhaps more importantly, solutions. People can connect with more people, meaning a higher variety of ideas.

The internet itself is a tool for democracy. Sadly, not everyone has complete access to the online world as some governments restrict its usage. I don't think that will be a problem forever, as the UN has established access to the internet something like a right. Regardless of whether social media is actually used to plan a protest, allowing people to establish a network of diverse people and diverse ideas can only aid societies' progression towards democracy and liberty.

Thursday November 14, 2012 Sean OBrien

Social Media as it pertains to Twitter and Facebook will be an ever expanding source in revolutions to come. I think that it would of been a lot harder to organize the Egyptian people into the Flash mob that occurred in Tahir Square.  I think that when people saw on Facebook that their was a mass of people and there were Safety in numbers. Like the documentary that we watched, one the Egyptian women described that people would see pictures of huge crowds and know that everything was alright.
I think this is also important because social media is commercialized and is usually not controlled by the State. Now there are places like North Korea that social media and other media sources are more restricted which I would imagine it would be considerably harder to receive.
Returning back to the middle east I think that Syria is a very similar case to that of Egypt. I have looked online and I have seen video coming out of Syria. Granted everything you see and hear on the internet is not necessarily true. We know that there is obviously and armed conflict and that helps to get that info out. I think that before too there was this assumption that you needed a leader, a single person to unite them(Being the rebels or revolutionists) ie Castro in the Cuban revolution. So I think that there is this new norm out there regarding social media. I think that Social Media is that Leader, the thing that brings people together and leads them. Not necessarily a cause per say but more of unifying factor. I think that Social media is so embedded in our generation that it will be hard for it not to be important in the future. Especially in something that is so important as a nations future during a revolution.