The ongoing events in the Middle East can only be described as watching history unfold. During the last few weeks we’ve seen first the Tunisians, then the rapidly following Egyptians protest to oust their corrupt leaders.
The Tunisian president Ben Ali and his family fled the country, stopping only long enough to stuff several kilos of gold in their luggage. Luckily for them they weren’t flying by Ryanair or they’d have had to pay a substantial fee for overweight bags.
Ben Ali and company had initially planned to go to France, but when the usual welcome committee failed to show and he was told in no uncertain terms that they wouldn’t be welcome, they had to change their escape plan and eventually sought refuge with their friend and western ally King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
The next shock to the USA and UK was when the Egyptians followed suit and demanded the resignation of their President Hosni Mubarak. After 18 days of protest he finally capitulated, and he was followed into exile by several millionaires no doubt as corrupt as himself. The power vacuum was quickly filled by the Egyptian army and a sigh of relief was heard from London to Washington.
But just as Obama and Cameron finally managed to grab a nap, the Libyans decided it was time for Colonel Gaddafi to go after oppressing the population for 42 years. Gaddafi, for the record, is cut from the same cloth as the late Saddam Hussein but he isn’t quite as stupid, and rather than try to use the army against his own citizens he employed mercenaries from neighbouring African countries.
His older son Saif Al Islam warned that Gaddafi would continue to fight till the death of the last man – which roughly translates to when the Libyan people have been wiped out by the African mercenaries while the western allies-slash-arms suppliers sit on their hands.
No doubt that in the aftermath of this terrible tragedy the allies will descend like vultures to pick over the carcasses and divvy up the oil reserves among themselves.
Not to be left out of the picture, the Iranians also decided to revolt. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad extended the warmest congratulations to the Egyptians on finally getting shot of Mubarak, but when the Iranian people themselves decided to get rid of him, he responded in the same manner as the others by sending in the army.
Meanwhile, in Bahrain the Shia minority have decided that they are fed up being oppressed by the King and his Sunni government and they too are protesting. It will be interesting to see how the usually unflappable Barack Obama copes with the disruption in a country where one of five US bases in the region is located.
Elsewhere there are ongoing protests in Yemen, Algeria and Morocco. While the media is focusing on this, it might be worth a mention that in July of this year Sudan will be partitioned between its north and south and as most of the oil reserves are in the south it seems obvious that there will be some sort of conflict there.
Are there any winners out of this situation? Ideally, yes: the populations of these countries will eventually gain by getting rid of the corrupt regimes and electing their own governments. These governments in turn will hopefully take the vast wealth accumulated by the dictators and divide it out among the people, thus eliminating the grinding poverty experienced by so many across the Middle East, and ushering in an era of hope.
Barbara Filaih is an intern at Metro Éireann.
