If the shock of Egypt’s unexpected uprising and success has a debt to anything, it is journalism. The lack of raw power only hides the strong impact that this trade has. Journalists themselves look timid, out of place, running around perhaps accompanied by a cameraman, harmless mischief-makers. But Egypt showed how everyone’s a journalist, how journalism embodies the voices of the people and gives them an outlet that reverberates throughout the globe- by Sumer Dayal (UNSW, Sydney)  . . read more

One of the most interesting things about the popular rebellions in Egypt and Tunisia is thinking about what will happen next. Leaders have been toppled or are close to being toppled but it doesn't seem that anyone is jumping at the bit to fill the void that's been created.

In Tunisia this is most obvious as the incoming government of who-knows-what remains leaderless, while in Egypt the oppressed Opposition and the Muslim Brotherhood will fight it out for factional dominance.

I know with this incredibly electric movement of democracy and hope that I wouldn't want to step up to the mantle- it will only take one dip in the economy or a feeling that nothing is moving forward for protests and chaos to reign once more.    . . read more

After Tunisia erupted in popular protests, pundits all over the world were writing about the event as if it was a trigger-point for similar rebellions to take place in similarly repressive dictatorships all over the Middle-East.

I like many was sceptical.

Pundits love to heap significance on an event as if it's world changing or the start of something special - most often they're wrong or are connecting dots that don't exist. 

It seems though that this time their predictions were right; Bahrain is splintering and the once fighting fit Gaddafi is lying on the ropes - looking as if he'll have to throw in the towel like Ben Ali and Mubarak. 

It seems like the implications of these protests can't be overstated. 

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By Arthur Goldschmidt, Penn State University

If you glance at the news on TV, you’re sure to see pictures of mobs shouting the slogan “Mubarak must go!” and wonder what this is all about.