Section 377- A Setback to LGBT rights in India

An event in the country of India, has set back LGBT rights tenfold. After a 12 year battle in the Supreme Court, India chose to make same-sex intercourse, a law that existed during the times of British India, illegal. The Delhi High-Court had seen the end to the sodomy law in 2009 was challenged and overturned by the India Supreme Court. The ruling now allows men and women to be arrested and even jailed for pursuing their love. Love that is deemed as "unnatural offenses".

Originally supported as an HIV prevention clause, it was overturned. With this ruling both HIV-activists and LGBT activists are shocked. Even the Indian Health Ministry disagreed with this ruling citing a right to equality and privacy being taken away with the passing of 377.

The Supreme Court tried to brush away human rights accusations by saying that the section does not criminalize any orientation or identity, just any actions deemed an offense.

To find more on the heartbreaking outcry against this ruling by India's LGBT population, you can visit here and here

Egypt (Arab Spring)

The Egyptian Revolution of 2011 was the one of the first of its kind to fully utilize the social media platform as a means to organize. In fact, it had become so powerful that Egypt attempted to eliminate it's internet access to slow down the rebels. Egyptian rebels gathered in major cities and the riots became so serious that President Hosni Mubarak appointed an entirely new cabinet; even appointing a vice president. However on February 10th, Vice President Omar Suleiman announced Mubarak's resignation and that all power was with the Armed Forces of Egypt. The military dissolved the Egyptian Parliament and the Egyptian Constitution. The main goal was to remove the "emergency laws" in place in Egypt for almost 20 years.

In the "emergency laws" the Egyptian people experience heavy censorship, a removal of constitutional rights, and basically forbid all non-governmental political activity. There were no personal freedoms for the people of Egypt.

Mubarak's successor, Mohamed Mursi was the first democratically elected president. However, more protests occurred and Mursi was also removed from power. Demonstrations against the military government still happen in Egypt today, and police brutality is still a problem. 

Revolution in Tunisia (Arab Spring)

       

Mohammed Bouazizi, a man from Tunisia sets himself on fire to protest his treatment by the police coupled with the Wikileaks scandal exposing crimes against Tunisia caused one of the most major uprisings which would eventually lead to the removal of Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali from the government.

However, it was not just two spontaneous events that caused these riots. Tunisia was plagued with a corrupt government, terrible unemployment, and inflation. So much so, that people could not afford to feed themselves. The Tunisian people lived in poor living conditions and were denied basic and political freedom. Freedom of speech was basically nonexistent. President Ben Ali was in power for almost 23 years, but the socially and politically fueled riots caused him to flee to Saudi Arabia. There hadn't been demonstrations as powerful as this in Tunisia for almost 30 years. Police brutality was common and many of the deaths counted in the process of this revolt was the result of this.

The culprit behind the harried state of Tunisia was the Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD), the political party of disgraced President Ben Ali. The effort to appoint members of government outside of the RCD was unsuccessful and the ministers resigned almost immediately. The protests against RCD members became so great, that Prime Minister Mohamed Ghannouchi removed all RCD members from government (other than himself of course), the party was suspended and eventually removed. Beji Caid el Sebsi became prime minister after Ghannouchi resigned.

Arab Spring Timeline

Some may find the events of the Islamic Revolution and where the events took place. Well, you're in luck, because The Guardian created an interactive timelines of the events of Arab Spring!

The timeline starts in 2010 and goes all the way to December of 2011 by outlining every event between those.
The map can be found here

I hope this helps!

Ukraine

     Gleb Garanich / Reuters (taken from BuzzFeed) 


Here is something interesting. Ukraine is currently undergoing some massive riots by the student community in order to protest the policies of President Viktor Yankoyvich. The President has pulled out last minute from financial dealings with the European Union, which has nearly split the country in two. The protesters, mainly based in Kiev are calling for closer ties with the EU, the complete opposite of Yankoyvich's intentions. Ukraine is apparently under the pressure of Russia, and refuses to sign the association agreement with the European Union.

To many of the protestors, being under Russian rule would be the worse fate. Many cite this to be the unfinished work of the Orange Revolution. Citizens have gathered in the city of Kiev in the bitter cold, calling for Yankoyvich's resignation.

You can find picture of these barricades on BuzzFeed here. There are even comparisons to the barricades being similar to those in the French revolution.

However, police intervention is constant, and at times violent. Police brutality is a serious problem, even when the reinforcements are told not to touch the protestors. It seems that the police are using force to remove otherwise peaceful protesters. Other than scuffles with the police, the revolt is growing in numbers comparable to the 2004 Orange Revolution.

It is truly an incredible event to see occurring in our day and age. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'd like to take a little break from our usual programming to wish all those who celebrate, a very happy thanksgiving! If you're spending it with family, cherish it. Time with family is the most important of all. 

Anyways, Thanksgiving is probably one of my favorite days of the year just because of the sheer amount mashed potatoes I am allowed to eat without getting weird looks. 

BuzzFeed posted a pretty great master post of all things Thanksgiving. I looked through for much longer than I should have. 

Enjoy!

http://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelysanders/why-thanksgiving-is-the-best-day-of-the-year

What Exactly is a Revolution?

Many of you may be thinking, what exactly makes up a revolution? Every revolution seems to have similar characteristics, and in the same sense every revolution is different.

Most importantly, what makes a revolution succeed?

The reason I began to think about these questions, was because I came across an article analyzing the 1979 revolt in Iran in context with Egypt. Granted this article is almost 3 years old, it still gives valuable insight into the art of revolution.

For your reference, here is the article:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2011/02/201121393446561799.html

To try to answer some of these questions:

Revolutions do not happen overnight
Certainly it will take time for real change to occur. Expectations are very high at the beginning of a revolution and emotions run high. Caution must be taken when planning out elaborate heists. Everything must go from simple to complicated, not the other way around.

Entrenched Regimes may stay entrenched for a long time
Regimes that have been place for a very long time and hold a very large amount of power will not be removed easily. Even if the leader is removed, their philosophy is not.

Using media not controlled by the state to spread word
This itself is a revolutionary move by itself. It allows the populous of that nation to spread information, and information is key. We've seen the use of this more often in the world, especially in recent years. It is effective in revealing some not very nice information about government practices and the justification of revolution.