Many Canadian and international media have covered and are still covering the 10th anniversary of the wave of the so-called “Arab spring” that swept over Arab countries, one after the other.
It started in Tunisia with a man and his vegetable cart. He set himself on fire to denounce misery, the direct consequence of dictatorship in his country.
From Tunisia, the protests, and the aspiration for democracy, spread to other countries like Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, and Syria.
Sadly, the dream of freedom did not materialize in democratization or in better economies. Many people are still struggling to survive poverty or to find jobs to secure a future. The covid-19 crisis is an additional economic nightmare.
Tragically, chaos and devastating civil wars broke out here and there, like in Libya, Yemen, and Syria. Human suffering and tragic refugee stories, both within and outside of one’s own country and continent, became daily routine.
Sadly, in some countries like Syria, the choice became between living under a dictatorship OR under Islamism (the latter is a political ideology; it is not the broader beautiful Muslim religion also called Islam). Which of the two evils is less of an evil, in this catch 22 double tragedy?
Other countries interfered, fuelled, or benefited from wars. Some managed to run businesses out of the misery of other human beings. And yet, of course, others found ways to be generous, to help, and to become better human beings.
So, what is left from the Arab spring? Or did the summer follow the spring or not yet—even after 10 years?
Can we say that a newer Arab spring tried to see the light, more recently (October, 2019) in Lebanon and Irak?
What would be the fate of all these so-called Arab revolts or springs?
So many questions. So many unknowns. Perhaps taboos have been broken and perhaps hope can renew itself in this or in the future spring season(s)?
Hope is surely in the younger generations of Arabs, not only aspiring for but also demanding a just world: an end to dictatorships, oligarchy, discrimination, and sectarianism (or tribalism)! Not only dreaming of a new cultural renaissance (or another “Nahda“!), but also slowly contributing to it in business, science, industry, literature, music, and all forms of arts, etc.
To conclude this post on a musical note that describes the tragedy of the “Arab spring”, here is a song by Lebanese singer Hiba Tawaji, preceded by its powerful English lyrics. Bambi has goose bumps every time she listens to it…
Arab Spring song (taken from: shorturl.at/dgpM7):
” What spring am I singing, what spring shall I talk about?
The grief coming out from me is a scream from my worried heart
What spring am I singing, what spring shall I talk about?
Those falling people are innocent, who is responsible?
We dreamt of a thriving spring, which fragrance would spread over people
But this spring turned out confusing, blossomed with blood of children and people
It started with a vegetables cart, then it turned into a revolution in the field
They made our revolution a red one which kills in the name of religions
Big states entered into us with their political interests
Sleep flew away from our nights because of our unprotected houses
They brought those barbarian Mongols from remote places
Their hearts are filled with indisputable and recalcitrant barbarity and ideology
The roar of their voices flew, they told them : “you are combatants,
Arab world is your trench. Do not set apart a colour or a religion”
The folks decided their fates, their rights to live freely
But, alas! Revolution took them back to slavery
What spring am I singing, what spring shall I talk about?
The grief coming out from me is a scream from my worried heart
What spring am I singing, what spring shall I talk about?
Those falling people are innocent, who is responsible?
The aim of the revolution is progression, not regression.
I dread the lengthening of this revolution turns us into a masquerade
I want a green spring which announces a new summer
They turned us into a red spring, they strafed us with weapons and iron
Summer’s shining sun rises behind spring
After summer, autumn hears the thunder of the winter’s cloud
Thus that rain will come tomorrow and wash our red lands
The revolution of life comes back with the human scream
They called us “Arab Spring”, this autumn blossomed into chaos
The West prevented the Arab folk from becoming free through a white revolution
I dread for this Arab folk for whom others are planning revolutions
And Arabs remain ignorant as a child leading in kindergarten
What spring am I singing, what spring shall I talk about?
The grief coming out from me is a scream from my worried heart
What spring am I singing, what spring shall I talk about?
Those falling people are innocent, who is responsible?”
