ANALYSIS: ON THE fourth consecutive day of UK riots, British leaders may be waking up to the fact that they have their very own version of an Arab Spring in their backyard. Indeed maybe they already have, and continue to shout words like "mindless", "criminality" and "thuggery", to retain popular resistance against what is becoming a rapidly misinterpreted and badly demonstrated struggle for civil rights; an Anglo Summer.
As British youth continues to rob flat-screen televisions and scare innocent onlookers, all condemned acts, the fact remains they are of the mindset they can and need to do this – a much bigger failure. The unacceptable means – racist attacks, arson, beatings, looting, sticks, rocks, stealing of runners and harassing of communities – are blurring what is at the heart of all this: a massively disenfranchised youth living in a world where social media has once again provided the pivotal organising force among angered communities.
While the Arab Spring used these media tools for the most part positively, the same cannot be said for those who trashed a florist in Ealing and who burned a furniture shop in Croydon.
There are, however, undeniable similarities between the civil unrest in Arab countries and what’s happening now in the UK: they are/were all mobilised by social media tools; they all have/had the capacity to spread regionally; most were catalysed by a single, violent event; and they are/were all fuelled by a majority of quite angry young men.
Egypt overthrew a dictatorship through peaceful means. The “youths” in London and other areas just destroy neighbourhoods and get free stuff, or so it seems. Indeed looting in Cairo during the Arab Spring was at times rampant. A high-profile journalist was sexually assaulted and almost killed in Tahrir Square, and respect for local protesting women in some areas was at times sadly lost. Many iPhones were stolen in London and ancient mummies were smashed in the Cairo Museum.
A few months ago, I met a friend in one of Amman’s many hip bars just moments after he came from the protest lines having demonstrated against Jordan’s low standards of living and high unemployment. He had fled because the police had started water-cannoning the crowd. I asked why he went to the demonstrations in the first place. He said it was good to be seen there by certain groups, meaning those who were mobilising the protests, those who had influence.
As UK leaders and some media outlets chalk this up to nothing more than youths on a bender, it is hard to ignore the global hypocrisy. Just months ago, the British media was camped in Cairo, Tunis, Tripoli, Damascus, and Amman lapping up anything that further fed fuel to the raging Arab fires. Media reports were always in favour, and rightly so, of the demonstrating masses as they endured waves of military and police crackdown. While nothing can justify the recent chaos in the UK, there has been little interpretation of why this is happening. It is not just a series of events that led to opportune moments for bored youths on Facebook to stock up on goods.
There was an undeniable excitement when media sites and newspapers displayed the sweaty brows of young Egyptians as they quite angrily demanded their right to better living conditions. When Yemeni women stood in front of thousands with their fists clenched in the air there was a sense of global pride.
While Britain’s rallying youth has failed to choose an acceptable collective voice or maintain any level of pride, there is a chilling reality: whether or not the demonstrators have legitimate reason, they are there in their masses and they are angry.
It remains to be seen if the Arab Spring will actually improve standards of living and respect for human rights in Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan and Iraq. Syria is still in the grips of a brutal military suppression of freedom of speech. In the UK, needless damage has been done and, as social media continues to fantastically connect, mobilise and enrage communities, end results remain uncertain.