2011 has been the year of the protest, the rebellion, and the attempted coup d'etat. It's hard sometimes to keep track of it all. Algeria: Algeria protesters push for change - Africa - Al Jazeera English Bahrain: Bahrain Arrests Dissidents : The Two-Way : NPR Côte D'Ivoire: Cote d'Ivoire braces for protests - Africa - Al Jazeera English Egypt: Egyptians celebrate Mubarak's exit - USATODAY.com Iran: CBC.ca | The Current | Iran Uprising: Panel Libya: Libyan town quiet after a night of coalition airstrikes - CNN.com Saudi Arabia: Witnesses: Saudi forces fire on protesters, injure 3 - CNN Syria http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/03/22/world/middleeast/international-us-syria-protests.html?ref=middleeast Tunisia: BBC News - Tunisia protests against Ben Ali left 200 dead, says UN Yemen: Are Yemen's protests going to bring another revolution? - CSMonitor.com
More news from Syria. It's becoming as serious as some of the other ones. Protesters shot as violence erupts around Syria - USATODAY.com Not quite as massive of a situation, but there are hundreds of people protesting the Russian government, specifically, the premiership of Vladimir Putin. Russia Protests: Hundreds Rally Against Putin. Russia is an interesting country to look at with regards to the changing world political and social climate. I don't know too much about it (yet), but I do know that it is a situation of contrasts. In some ways, it has become more "free" in the Western sense of it, but lately the government has, as France has done in kind, undertaken labeling peaceful religious groups as "dangerous cults" that are subversive, while religion in general is considered a nuisance to the government that is not easily tolerated. Meanwhile, half of the articles that I read about Russia portray them as a peaceful ally to the United States and the other half portray them as a hostile rival. In another case of not knowing who to believe, I reserve my opinion, but I have the strong urge to read more about it.
I just found out today about another country that had major protests last month. Djibouti: Protesters rally against government in Djibouti - CNN
Djibouti has a major French military presence, so I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that NATO won't be helping any rebels there like they are the Libyan rebels. -=Steve=-
