http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/03...

The globalisation of revolution

Revolutions are caused by human agency; not telecommunications technologies, scholar argues.
Tarak Barkawi Last M odified: 21 M ar 2011 14:41

Around the world , p eop le are wond ering what k ind of example Egyp t will p rovid e in their future s trug g les for d emocracy and eq uality, s ays Tarak Bark awi [GALLO/GETTY]

To listen to the hype about social networking websites and the Egyptian revolution, one would think it was Silicon Valley and not the Egyptian people who overthrew Mubarak. Via its technologies, the West imagines itself to have been the real agent in the uprising. Since the internet developed out of a US Defense Department research project, it could be said the Pentagon did it, along with Egyptian youth imitating wired hipsters from London and Los Angeles. Most narratives of globalisation are fantastically Eurocentric, stories of Western white men burdened with responsibility for interconnecting the world, by colonising it, providing it with economic theories and finance, and inventing communications technologies. Of course globalisation is about flows of people as well, about diasporas and cultural fusion.

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But neither version is particularly useful for organising resistance to the local dictatorship. In any case, the internet was turned off at decisive moments in the Egyptian uprising, and it was ordinary Egyptians, mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, who toppled the regime, not the hybrid youth of the global professional classes. Nothing new about globalisation Are there other tales of globalisation, perhaps those told by rebels and guerrillas? Globalisation is also coming to awareness of the situations of other peoples, such as those similarly oppressed by local and faraway powers. Of particular interest are those moments when these peoples rise up, when they devise forms of revolt and struggle. Defeats provide lessons, and victories give hope. These revolutions need not be on satellite TV to effect their instruction. Revolutionaries in France and Haiti in the 1790s received news of one another''''s activities by the regular packet ship that plied between Jamaica and London. Sailors, slaves, and workers circulating in the Atlantic between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries shared and improved upon their repertoires of revolt and resistance, bringing the good news to ports from Rio to Boston, Bristol to Havana. When Indians rose in revolt in 1857, Frederick Engels analysed their mistakes - like the Libyan rebels today, they were too eager to stand and fight against a better organised opponent. Engels publicised the uprising in a series of newspaper articles that ultimately inspired Mao Tse-tung''s theories of guerrilla warfare, which went on to circulate as well-thumbed texts in the pockets of Vietnamese, Cuban, Algerian and other revolutionaries (and of those who sought to defeat them). Before Mao, Chinese nationalists and intellectuals at the turn of the twentieth century staged operas about the dismemberment of Poland and looked to the Boers, the Filipinos and others fighting imperialist oppressors, all in order to think through their own situation. This is the globalisation of revolution, and these are the histories within which the Tunisian example belongs, the example that so inspired the Egyptian people. News of it might as well have arrived in Egypt by caravan as by fiber optic cable, it would still have been electric, the very idea that the solitary stand of a fruit seller could bring down the big men. The agency was human, the act political. But these are also histories of despair, self-immolation and tragedy. Few peoples have resisted as have the Vietnamese, but at what cost, and for the reward of delayed re-entry into the capitalist world system. It is a blessing that the voice of the Algerian revolution, Frantz Fanon, who hailed from Martinique, is not alive to see the state of Algeria today. Soon we may feel the same about Nelson Mandela, the conscience of South Africas struggle against apartheid, as his country sinks into the hands of a venal elite. China prospers, but has abandoned its revolution, its people paying a greater price for Mao''s strategies in peace than they ever did in war. Post-revolution struggle It is no joke that revolutionaries face their greatest challenges after the revolution, and usually fail to meet them with sufficient humanity. Having broken from the international order in their struggles for freedom, revolutionary countries have proved unable to negotiate a re-entry into that order on terms that allow them to flourish, while remaining true to their principles. The question now is what kind of example will Egypt provide, to its Arab sisters and brothers, and to present and future struggles for justice, liberty and democracy the world over. The democratic forces of Egypt must look to other countries to think through their complex struggles, against old regime elements at home, for a political and economic order that promises opportunity and justice, and for a foreign policy that balances realism with values. In doing so, Egyptians would do well to cease looking to the tired countries of Europe or to the United States

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for recognition and inspiration, and instead turn their attention to the other powers of the global South who face the same dilemmas, powers like Brazil, India, Turkey and Indonesia. Having dealt a mortal blow to the American-centreed order in the Middle East, Egypt must still find its way in the one world we all share, and regain its place as a great non-Western power. Tarak Barkawi is a senior lecturer in War Studies at the Centre of International Studies in the University of Cambridge. He also authored the book Globalization and War (Rowman and Littlefield). He has held fellowships at the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies, Harvard University; the Department of War Studies, Kings College London; the Center for International Security and Cooperation, Stanford University; and the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, Ohio State University. The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.
Source: Al Jazeera
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Apparently the writer is attempting to make something of this that it is not OR he has missed the point entirely. Blah, blah colonial, blah blah easy target, blah blah, blame those guys, blah blah rally like minded people focused on the wrong things. It's like listening to a song with the same music over and over, just different words that you don't like to begin with. This kind of rhetoric is pointless. Focus on making things better. The people of Egypt, the people of Yemin, etc. are the agents for change in the revelutions, period. Technology has

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merely played a role in providing the people with the ability to communicate. The hype is because of the magnitude in which this is happening and the speed in which it is taking place. Why? Before technology was there to enable people to communicate (discuss and organise) with such speed, so pervasive and open, etc., it would easily be thwarted and squashed. So, the real story behind the Technology hype is how the balance of power has shifted. Information is power and the people are well connected. In fact, perhaps this point should celebrated!
richazure and 61 more liked this Like Reply

The youth from Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Somalia, Morocco and even the Palestine should start thinking by now on how they also can and have the chance to change - create their own medium of technology to control the power of information! If you look at your current medium of technology you are using now regardless a computer desktops, laptops or your mobile phones, your Internet providers, your telecommunication providers, are they all MADE IN ARAB??? NO! All are MADE IN......., DESIGN BY......, MANUFACTURED IN CHINA! So, do you think you are able forever becoming the followers of technology MADE BY THE WEST??? In my country, we are not able to design or produce our own 9mm bullets! All have to be bought and imported from the WEST! At one point we are the biggest air conditioning exporter to the world but still the technology was MADE IN JAPAN! So, who's to be blamed??? Revolution is not enough, EDUCATION and UNDERSTAND your stand and way to move forward, in my personal opinion is the key to success to be what you want to become!
Andrzej Szczniak and 21 more liked this Like Reply

all that will come because our populations are capable of this .... in 1962 the first car was manufactured but then the regime never invested in the industry so that these kind of things can be made... the only thing the ruling elite cared for was money and power so instead of having the things in the country which in return all these industries will be providing jobs and revenue for the state what they did was import thing and let the people pay for it
Maha Braja and 4 more liked this Like

*points at self and pro-semite,anti-zionist movement* <<<------- in desperate need of self sustainable nations, then continents/economic blocks, then entire homosapian populated planet. Preferably before CERN anihilates the one 'race' (human race) on earth and deploys yet another unit of 3 book facists to a genesis planet to re-create another evolution of zionism vs human nature (which we won't identify until the last moments so we kill each other over women, tribal pride, race, religion and any other BS we can think of - all instigated by anti-semite (anti-origin of civilisation/anti-Arab/anti-Islam&eastern banking/anti-Palestine/anti-essense/antianything good&positive!) entities such as 'crusaders', 'hisler' (clearly Herzl,not Hitler-as he based his

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movement upon Herzl's ideas), Sharon and Netan Yahooo. Rarr! I like to rant. =)
Maha Braja and 2 more liked this Like

I think it must be similar to what happens in South America. As far as I know, south american countries are selling technological packages to the usa, because of the lack of posibillities to implement this technologies in the own country and not because of the lack of education (there are many excellent experts in all branches). But I agree with you, that education, a fair education system (for all) is very important. The difficulty is, that there are many countries interested in maintaining this kind of limitation of other countries. In my opinion, a revolution is a huge step, if not the only way ;) to solve this kind of issues.
1 person liked this. Like

Iranians didn't have Twitter or Facebook, they toppled the Shah, who ruled with an iron fist, just like the current regimes who are being toppled. Technology didn't play a major role, and no, technology didn't help the speed either, as the Iranian revolution was much faster than the current ones. It is about the will of the people, when time is right, they will rise. Look at Americans, with all the Facebook and Twitter they are doing, I don't see them change anything.
Jose Stenio and 8 more liked this Like Reply

No, internet is not a condition, but a tool, a medium and you have to admit: internet spreads information faster, despite the fact that it also can be censored, used to supervise and misinform. It is very much easier to communicate, organize and incite others to get involved than if you have for example to print and spread flyers secretly or have to write all the messages on street walls as the only alternative popular medium.
5 people liked this. Like

In Iran, Bay watch used to be the number one TV program although they might not admit this. Modernity in technology has won the day here it seems as Iran use the tools of modernity to better its position on the world market. Technology played the major role here as it will anywhere.
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The key appears to be whether or not the military supports the protestors. The shah was removed with it, current Iranians suffer without it. Social media is a tool that can be used for good or ill, it's up to the people to decide. What do you think America should/could change with similar uprisings?
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In today's world Arab leaders are considered west-backed tyrants or despots who have taken nations hostage. Finally Arabs are fed up with the flawed leadership and want to take the matters in their hand and stories like this have happened in the history.
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Pitting the electronic age, wherever it sprung, with the Egyptian revolution, is counter-productive. Without the people, no revolution; without the medium, less communication. Together they sang, "freedom."
Sipke Seachnasaigh and 35 more liked this Like Reply

This comment was more balanced and realistic and more useful than this entire "scholarly" article!
Malek and 22 more liked this Like Reply

When the Internet was shut down the protesters resorted to printing leaflets on paper which is a European invention from the 15th century. Mr. Barkawi seems infused with anti-American resentment which prevents him from appreciating the principles of democracy which were discovered in ancient Greece and instituted in 18th century America. No one here reasonably expects the democracies-in-labor within the Arab-Muslim culture to exactly mimic the American version. The 21st century starting point, with its high-speed transmutation of gigabits of information into political power, preempts the painfully slow process of democratization we and our ancestors had to endure. African slaves weren't freed until 100 years after our revolution and could not exercise their right to vote until 1965. Women were property who could be legally beaten with a thumb-sized tree branch in public and couldn't vote until 1920. Citizens of Asian and Philipino descent couldn't vote until 1945. Finally, the descendants of the original inhabitants of America who were here before the Europeans arrived in 1492 were given citizenship and the right to vote in 1948! The naturalized and American-born Muslims who were murdered in the World Trade Center in September of 2001 had the right to vote in our elections. So when Mr. Barkawi, who makes good American dollars preaching to our "hybrid" youth about the evils of our democracy, advises Egyptians to avoid using America as a model: I must disagree. At the very least, Egyptians can avoid making the same mistakes our founding fathers made in our original constitution. At most, Egyptians can adopt principles contained in our Declaration of Independence such as the right and the responsibility of ordinary citizens to forcibly overthrow an elected government that has become despotic. Our God and Allah created everyone as equals and Americans are as equal to Egyptians as women are to men. There is no good reason to reject American principles of democracy, or the American Internet, just because it is American! We call that "throwing out the baby with the bathwater".

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As the Egyptians birth their democracy they are free to pick and choose what is good for them and leave the rest behind. Lastly, I hope Mr. Barkawi someday recognizes that America has given tens of millions of its youth in the fight for freedom here and globally for over 250 years and THAT revolution continues to this very day.
vking and 30 more liked this Like Reply

American Democracy, American democracy, American Democracy . trust me the Egyptians do not need to look at the American democracy as a role model because they do need a situation where 3% of the population owns more than half of the country. the West try to give credit to the Greeks to everything that was invented in the past, do you know that after the era of the Greek scholars the people of Greece themselves couldn't understand the works of their scholars and it was when the Muslims conquered Egypt where they had access to the libraries in Alexandria that they began translating and encrypting the knowledge of the Greek scripts so anything that is now said to be owned by the Greeks is in Arabic translation. hopefully the Egyptians are going to set an example for the rest of the world to follow
Jose Stenio and 6 more liked this Like Reply

We get it Ahmed. The West is decrepit and corrupt and owes all its achievements to the righteous, conquering sword of the Muslim. I think you can move on to a different thread now.
8 people liked this. Like

Yes, you are quite correct. The Muslim world kept the light of learning alive paving the way for Europe's enlightenment it's true, but you cannot dine out on that forever. It was five hundred years ago. What's important is what you do today and tomorrow, not what you did yesterday.
Moe and 5 more liked this Like

Perfectly said Ahmed. I hope you guys make it ! Theres no real democracy without a minimum of social justice.
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On point and thoughtful. Thanks. Now, if only the "scholar" Mr. Barkawi could learn from this.
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"I hope Mr. Barkawi someday recognizes that America has given tens of millions of its youth in the fight for freedom here and globally for over 250 years and THAT revolution continues to this very day." Only delusional Patriots would recognize that. Reality speaks a whole different story unfortunately, non of it was for freedom, rather it was for conquest, greed and power, from the beginning, till now, from the attempted genocide against the aborigines of America, to the attempted invasion of your neighbors. I thought Patriots like you became rare, good to know there are some still around for the amusement.
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Good to see you are still burying your head in the sand ozyism. Just like the facts I presented before on Communism in the 20th century, and how the western response saved an awful lot of Muslims. But before you start going into immoral trading, greed and power, lets look into the Islamic "economic" atrocities. Well, one thing, lets look at the slave trade. Did you know, more slaves were taken from East Africa by the Muslims, than the whole of the west in the last 500 years? And that to prevent them "polluting" the Arab bloodline, over 90% of the males were castrated - while being on the slave trade road? And only 10% ever survived to get to market? And also it was usual practice to remove their tongues, because no one wanted a slave that proclaimed himself a Muslim. And who was the last 10 nations to OFFICIALLY abandon slavery, through overwhelming political pressure from the west? And only then, because no one had discovered the oil fields. AND WHEN WAS THIS? Which religion, had the clerical class up in arms about that decision, claiming that since it was in their religious book, it was the will of their god, that owning slaves was a right of their religion?? Or do you believe in the right of the Muslims to own slaves? And which countries, where slavery informally exist, have the highest rates of modern slavery?
Rita Haring and 4 more liked this Like

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The globalisation of revolution - Opinion - Al Jazeera English http://t.co/9Jcg9Xg via @AddThis

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RT @nomadicchick: #Egypt: The globalization of revolution: http://bit.ly/ePM199 (Via @AJEnglish) Interesting opinion piece!

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#Egypt: The globalization of revolution: http://bit.ly/ePM199 (Via @AJEnglish) Interesting opinion piece!

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The globalisation of revolution - Revolutions are caused by human agency; not telecommunications technologies http://bit.ly/g0Qayj

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#mesa201 Globalisation of Revolution. Interesting theoretical argument. http://bit.ly/ePM199 Egypt shouldn't look West or East for examples.

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The globalisation of Revolutions are caused by human agency; not telecommunications technologies http://bit.ly/g0Qayj ukdor usdor anon

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Provocative piece here. What now for #Egypt? - http://t.co/vPhkdOl via @ajenglish

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