Middle East

As protests continue in Bahrein, mobilizing people to the squares and public areas to claim for their demands, we tried to interview one of the non-violent Human Rights activist working there but he preferred not to give his name and just explained us the main reasons that are moving people against their government. Here we publish those reasons.

Latin America is definitely on the move: there are multiple events taking place in political, economic, social, cultural, ethnic, institutional, religious and spiritual fields, showing a new moment.
Here we publish the complete transcription of the lecture given at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem by Tomás Hirsch, humanist Latin American leader.

A wave of massive protest inspired by the recent uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia continues today across the Middle East and North Africa. In Bahrain, thousands of anti-government protesters are occupying one of the central squares in the capital Manama after two days of strong clashes with the state police and armed forces.

Egypt’s governing military council has announced new steps in its oversight of the transition from the longtime rule of former President Hosni Mubarak. The council says it will hand authority to an elected civilian government in six months. It has also instructed a legal panel to draft a revised constitution within 10 days.

Estimates of his stolen fortune range as high as $70 billion, more than a third of the entire Egyptian economy.
Time is running out for world governments to freeze Mubarak’s assets before they disappear into a maze of obscure bank accounts — like so many other dictators’ stolen fortunes.
The Avaaz community is launching another international campaign.

On January 14 the Tunisian dictator Ben Ali was deposed after 20 years in power. Even if the detonator for the popular rebellion was the self-immolation of a humble street vendor mistreated by the police, over many years the Tunisian people had to bear injustice of all kinds, alarming levels of unemployment and poverty and even the persecution of certain Islamic practices.

To the joy of almost 20 million people who had mobilized to demand the resignation of Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president chose to step down after 30 years in power.
Mubarak’s resignation takes place after 18 days of massive protests. The recently-appointed Vice President Omar Suleiman made the announcement, saying that a Military Council will take over the administration.

In response to dramatic developments in Egypt, Salil Shetty, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said: “I congratulate the protesters for their extraordinary courage and commitment to achieve fundamental change.”
“Persistent attempts to put down peaceful protests have not only failed but redoubled the determination of those demanding change.”

We humanists feel very joyful at the outcome of the Non-Violent Revolution in Egypt, which has culminated in Mubarak’s resignation. Towards the end of January the International Humanist Party showed its support for the “peoples’ protest” in the Arab world; and we demonstrated outside Egyptian embassies in several countries supporting the non-violent struggle of its people.

The majority of journalists, media people, commentators and intellectuals from the main broadcasting channels do not seem to be able to perceive in depth what is happening in Egypt. And we must bear in mind that the massive demonstrations or social unrest are only an indication of the “new world which is already arriving”.