Discovering MENA and other thoughts

TIME Magazine proclaimed the "indignado" (the protester) as the person of the year back in 2011 . This was a gesture of recognition of the tremendous impact rebellious/revolutionary movements have had all over the planet: from Madrid to Wall Street, from Chile to China and, above all, in the Arab World, where scores of outraged youths took to the streets chanting their demands. They managed both to overthrow tyrants and to fascinate and inspire many amongst us. However, it seems that protesting, voicing people’s demands or disapproval of existing policies, has turned in several countries into an extreme sport as of lately. Two examples have notably caught our attention, two cases nearly nobody could instantaneously draw parallels about: Spain and Egypt. Two countries where two deeply controversial (anti) protests laws have been adopted during the last months. The "public safety" legislation (Ley de Seguridad Ciudadana) put through in Spain last November has al...

In addressing the debate on the pros and cons of foreign intervention in Syria, there are many parallels that might be found between the Syrian situation and the dilemma faced several Western powers before the Spanish Civil War. George Orwell said that " the outcome of the war in Spain was decided outside of the country and one year afterwards, any realistic observer knew that the democratic government would not be able to win unless there was a radical change in the European situation. " The picture was complicated: firstly most states clung to the need to appease Hitler's Germany, and at the same time, many had mixed feelings regarding the communist forces. Paradoxically, the ultimate goal was to avoid a general war in Europe with, like the Spanish war and the Syrian conflict, deeply ideological roots. The position of the international community in the conflict was finally based on the non-intervention principle, but this postulate was openly mocked by Nazi Germany...