NEWS FLASH

Poll: Syria Neighbors Say Assad Should Go, No Consensus On How | According to the latest poll from the Pew Global Attitudes Project, Syria’s Middle East neighbors think Bashar al-Assad should vacate his office after a brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters but they’re not sure about what pressure to put on Syria to get there. Here’s a chart from Pew showing that, of the five countries polled, only Tunisians favor an Arab military intervention and no country’s respondents favored a Western military solution to the conflict:

By Ben Armbruster on Dec 19, 2011 at 1:15 pm

The death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il over the weekend marked a pretty difficult year for the world’s dictators. State television said Kim Jong-Il died on Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011. As it turns out, exactly one year earlier, a young Tunisian named Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire after he was banned from selling fruit to earn a living. Bouazizi’s brave move set off a wave of protests throughout Tunisia and the region, now known as the Arab Spring. Here’s a run-down of deposed dictators and autocrats since January:

January 14: Tunisia’s president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia after weeks of mass protests. On June 20, Ben Ali and his wife were tried and convicted in absentia on theft charges and sentenced to 35 years in prison. Saudi Arabia has refused to extradite. Tunisians went to the polls in October to elect a new government in voting that international observers are calling remarkably free and fair.

February 11: Egyptian pro-democracy demonstrations ousted President Hosni Mubarak after weeks of protests inspired by the events in Tunisia. While Egypt faces new rounds of violent turmoil after recent parliamentary elections, the next session of Mubarak’s trial is set for this month.

April 11: Côte d’Ivoire President Laurent Gbagbo was forced from power after refusing to relinquish the presidency after losing an election in November 2010. Gbagbo has been transferred to the International Criminal court where he faces four charges of crimes against humanity.

October 20: Libyans joined the Arab Spring fervor in mid-February. NATO-assisted rebels took the capital Tripoli in August, and the forces of Libya’s new government captured and killed former leader Muammar Qaddafi in what the ICC recently said could be considered a war crime. Elections are expected to be conducted next year.

November 23: After months of Arab Spring inspired protests, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed a deal in which he would step down and “transfer his powers to his deputy ahead of an early election and in return will get immunity from prosecution.”

December 17: Exactly one year after a Tunisian vendor set himself on fire, sparking a wave of fallen autocracies throughout the region, North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il dies. However, there are currently no hopes for transfer to a democratic system in the communist country as Kim Jong-Il’s son, Kim Jong Un is expected to take over leadership.

Of course, while not technically considered a “dictator” or the leader of any particular country, it wasn’t a great year for al Qaeda No. 1 Osama bin Laden, who was killed in a Navy SEAL raid on May 1.

So if 2011 wasn’t exactly the year of the despot, will the trend continue in 2012? A near civil war in Syria threatens President Bashar al-Assad’s rule there; mass backlash against rigged elections in Russia is getting larger; and in Iran, the Green Movement hasn’t entirely disappeared.

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LGBT

New Tunisian Government Promises ‘Dignity’ For Gays

By Zack Ford on Oct 26, 2011 at 11:55 am

Some are concerned what social changes might come with the victory of Tunisia’s Islamist party in the country’s first free vote since the Arab Spring overthrow of autocratic president Ben Ali. Nahda party spokesman Riad Chaibi has offered reassurances that the new leadership does not want to deprive citizens of individual freedoms, going so far as to say that being gay is “a matter of dignity”:

Chaibi, who spent five years in prison for his opposition to dictator Ben Ali, said that in Tunisia “individual freedoms and human rights are enshrined principles” and that atheists and homosexuals are a reality in Tunisia and “have a right to exist.” According to Chaibi, in the case of homosexuals there is also “a matter of dignity, because society sees them as undervalued.”

Given that Tunisia has a history of stigmatizing and punishing people who are gay, this would be quite a bold step. Chaibi also said that women will not be forced to wear veils and people will be allowed to drink alcohol, promising a coalition government approach that values freedom. Detractors of the Nahda party have suggested that its actions in the mosques do not match its talking points to the public.

Tunisia’s neighbor, Libya, has adopted Islamic Sharia law, which suggests persecution of gays may continue there. If the Nahda party successfully follows through on its assurances, it could prove the Arab Spring’s potential for liberating the LGBT community from religious oppression in the Middle East.

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Security

PHOTOS: Tunisians Excitedly Display Blue Fingers After Casting First Democratic Vote In History

By Faiz Shakir on Oct 23, 2011 at 12:52 pm

Ten months after vegetable seller Mohamed Bouazizi set himself ablaze in a desperate act of protest against poverty and government repression which spurred the Arab Spring uprisings, Tunisians are flocking to the polls to cast a vote to install the first democratic government in their nation’s history. By all accounts, the turnout is large, but the voting is taking place peacefully. Tunisians are dipping their fingers in blue ink to mark the fact that they casted a ballot.

Having been run for decades by French-inspired secularism, Tunisia is expected to usher in a government that embraces a Turkish-inspired Islamic-led democracy. Rached Ghannouchi, the head of the favored Islamic Ennahda party, is pictured below (top left) waving a blue-dyed finger after casting his vote. “I have never thought that I would actually stand in a long line to elect the party I like. I am really grateful for this unique opportunity and long to see more progress,” said one Tunisian school supervisor.