The Arab winter is coming

On the other side of the world, protests are an everyday occurance, but far from a welcome one.

Shashanth Shetty

The Silhouette

It was a raucous day in Toronto today. Legions of the disaffected stoically rallied against the corporations that are so fundamental to the ruin that perpetuates their lives.

Yes, this historic and noteworthy event, known as “Occupy Toronto”, drew not only the bored and the apathetic, but also the mildly annoyed, the slightly beleaguered and the somewhat disadvantaged. It adequately set up the backdrop for what is to be a truly momentous clash of the classes, with the poor and the provoked finally triumphing against the greedy and evil capitalists! Huzzah!

But this will not be their story. Indeed, this may be the farthest thing from their story. As a conceited bunch of middle-class suburbanites march in on Toronto, a different set of people, with a wholly different set of goals, begin their march on Tahrir square, a contrast that more or less sums up the comical difference between the West and the rest.

While we here seem to be protesting simply for the sake of protesting, the masses gathered in Cairo tonight are protesting for the right to agitate without being physically assaulted or jailed, the right to have a democratic system of governance and the right to not be treated as second-class citizens simply for belonging to a different religion. In comparison, the motley crew of fad-seeking students, debt-stricken adults, and anti-corporate liberals that make up the “Occupy Toronto” protest seem almost silly.

It hasn’t been easy for them, of course. This week will mark the ten-month anniversary since the beginning of the Egyptian protests, a period that can be described as tumultuous, at best. Egyptians had to deal with violent suppression when the protests began, followed by the relatively peaceful ousting of Mubarak, followed by the takeover of the seemingly benevolent armed forces, followed by the realization that the army may not have been as kind as once presumed.

Now, as October nears its end, Egypt is once again slipping into violence, with the Egyptian army brutally stifling any dissent from the populace and communal bloodshed becoming more and more commonplace, especially between majority Muslims and minority Coptic Christians.

It’s a problem that’s currently being echoed throughout the Arab world. The so-called Arab Spring, the inspirational tale of how the Middle East was regaining its freedom, has turned into a nightmare. As November and December approach, the Arab Spring has turned into the Arab winter, with very little to show for it. Libya’s situation has evolved from a minor revolt to a full-fledged civil war, with final death tolls estimated around 25,000.

Although Ghadaffi has been ousted, the sole change in authority has been the transfer of power from Ghaddaffi's clan in the west, to the opposition clan in the east. There has been no indication from the National Transitional Council, the fighters who are currently in control, that there will be any move to democracy. Further to the north, in Yemen and Bahrain, bona fide citizen movements have been brutally suppressed by the ruling government elite, with little or no condemnation from Western powers.

Lastly, the Syrian government, which has been in the news a lot lately, is still actively waging war with it's own citizens in a bid to maintain it's dictatorial status. With Syria being propped up by Russia and China in the U.N., there is very little the West can do there. Still, the people of Syria actively continue to revolt, an act of rebellion that has cost them 3,000 of their own friends and family.

Other Arab countries, once the site of massive protests, saw the mobs diminish after rulers granted them minor concessions. There seems to be a sense of melancholy in much of the Arab world tonight, and increasingly, a perpetual sense of defeat, as well. Still, the people involved in these protests refuse to give in, and keep on marching.

You can see, then, why I am so cynical of the protests going on in Toronto and, to some extent, of those in the U.S. as well. To me, they're not really genuine protests. They're just happenings driven by teenagers and young adults desperately looking to be part of a movement, by people who will never really stand for anything.

Those involved will never be in danger of anything more then being hosed by the police. They'll never have to worry about being dragged away in the night by agents of the government. They'll never be shot or tortured. Rest assured, if there was a chance that any of them were in danger of anything more then a paper cut, none of them would be out there protesting to begin with.

Their motivation, too, is just as bogus. It comes not from seeing yet another loved one get shot, or from seeing their rights being trampled; it comes from a selfish desire to be noticed, to be appreciated, to seem as though they are “doing the right thing.” As their phony parade draws to a close, they'll go back home to their warm beds and pat themselves on the back for having been brave enough to face down “the Man”. They'll forget their “cause” as soon as they've uploaded their pictures to Facebook or Twitter. They'll move on.

Half way around the world, moving on is not an option.