The destructive tornado starts as a gentle breeze. The hot air, being lighter goes up, but sometimes, cool air above acts as a shield preventing its natural upward movement. The hot air remains down, gets hotter due to (warm) earth’s surface, gains momentum, and starts whirling around. It gains energy by heating up further and breaks through cold air, spouting up. Then, the monstrous tornado begins to swallowing everything on the way, until it expends all its energy.
The “Arab
Spring” started as a gentle breeze in
Tunisia swept through many countries and still raging in Syria swallowing many
lives, displacing millions of innocents.
The
Beginning. May 2010
26
years old, Mohamed Bouazizi left his home as usual to sell fruits and
vegetables in the sidewalks of Tunis in Tunisia. He had been doing it, eking
his living, earning close to a $ a day, barely enough to sustain his widowed
mother and five of his kin. Three inspectors from the council have asked him to
pay bribe. The amount demanded if paid, would leave him broke at least for that
day. He refused.
Then, one of the officers, a woman, Mrs. Faida
Hamdy had slapped him, threw his cart
and scales. He refused to yield. She did
not realise, at that time, the consequences - as how the rest of the world
would pay for it. He ran to the council office to report to higher ups, but to
no avail.
Then, something
stirred deep within; he picked up a can of petrol, poured over him, and ignited
up into flames in front of the same council office.
With
90% burns, Mohamed Bouazizi died in the hospital within few days. This incident
gained huge nation-wide sympathy among Tunisians, soon catapulted into
revolution, bringing down the government eventually. This is the beginning of
Arab Spring, which spread to neighbouring country, Egypt, toppling the
Government. And, then to Yemen, resulted in civil war.
Most
of the Middle Eastern countries are oligarchical societies run by Royal
families and not by elected governments. What King says will be the law.
Women
are not respected and do not have basic freedom. They have to wear burkha or
hijab in public. Any violation in conduct of dress will attract severe
punishment, while men are allowed to practice
polygamy. Syria is one such country ruled by Al-Assad, wielding power for more
than 2 decades. The Arab spring arrived here sometime in 2011.The tipping point
was, when schoolchildren made a protest march in Derra (a Syrian city), Al-
Assad deployed military and arrested them. The protests against arrests were
peaceful, to begin with, from People of Syria, but four children were tortured
for writing graffiti against the establishment. That led
to revolt against
the government, and the government responded angrily by opening fire, killing
many people. Then, people wanted Al- Assad to step down. Al-Assad did not
agree. However, some section of the people supported Al-Assad and some were
against him. This was in 2011 when Arab spring found its roots everywhere in
west Asia. Anti-establishment protests continued for two more years. Since the military
is with Al-Assad, the rebels found themselves at the receiving end devoid of
any weapons to fight against armed military.
Exactly,
during that time, Al-Queda was on the verge of disintegration. The unrest in
Syria breathed life into it. With a change in leadership, the erstwhile Al-Queda
had re-framed as ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.) with changed ideology.
The group’s new ideology is a caliphate (means Islamic state in the world with
Calif as head) as Salafists of Sunni Muslims. That means even their brother Muslims,
Shiias are enemies for them. The open secret is that ISIS has backing and
financing from Sunni kingdom Saudi Arabia.
In the
occupied territory, ISIS started collecting taxes, water and electricity cess
from people and that is their revenue. Now Syria is part ruled by Al-Assad and
part by IsIs. Common people who started as rebels with a cause are now facing the
tyranny of ISIS. ISIS, the scoundrels had begun committing atrocities on women
- using them as sex slaves or even selling them like commodities. Since Syrian
people are suffering from both sides, they started fleeing the country for
safety to nearby Turkey, Lebanon and to Europe.
* Recently, Turkey, Russian alley in Syrian war, shot down
Russian fighter plane on the ground it entered (incursion) Turkey’s air space –
too silly, that left whole world perplexed. It is because Turkey perceives
Russian actions in Syria are not in tune with their interests. Too complicated.
Is n’t it?
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