Arab springs. We were better off when we were worse off.
Il Giornale, September 19th, 2012
We were better off when we were worse off. Already heard this saying?
Why did everybody get so excited then when the Arab crowds, embellished by what it was believed to be a Spring breeze, carried out their revolutions? The sobering lesson comes now from a report saying that public voice, civil liberties, the rule of law, anti-corruption and transparency slipped dramatically backward or were stable as they were in the good old times of the tyrants. The report was published by Freedom House, whose job is to measure the rate of democratic governance each year.
Although the report is of course to be taken with a grain of salt, in this case they have to state the opposite of what they would like (they preferably blame democratic countries), so they maybe deserve some credit this time. Democracy is measured by numeric scores. Perfection in the democratic governance is achieved with a score of 7, whereas 5 is the minimum standard. The Islamic world slipped backward, the Egyptian revolution that had scored 1,98 under Mubarak, only reaches 2,25 despite open elections granting her a good score. Bahrain, that had scored 3,27 in 2004, declined to 2,03, that is the level of pre-uprising Syria. According to Freedom House Tunisia on the other hand rose to 4,11 from the 2,36 of the Zine el Abidine Ben Ali's time. Oh really? We surely welcome these data, which nonetheless seem colliding with the news: the new Constitution includes a clause that defines woman as “complementary to man”, instead of establishing equality; another article labels any relationship with Israel as a crime. As per transparency we will not buy those little games: while the mobs were chanting “Obama, Obama, we all are new Osama”, the leader of the Supporters of Sharia, Abu Iyad, vanished into thin air. He was searched for by police because he had inspired (or commanded) raids related to the film clip on Mohammed, which cost the lives of four innocent people. Police could not or did not want to arrest him although he was within their reach.
At the end of the day, all scores being said and read, it is the political wind that blows that will shape the future: clearly things are jumping from the frying pan into the fire. The wind of democracy is not blowing. A huge wave of jihadist extremism and anti-Western hatred has been unleashed. Salafists and Al Qaeda are getting organized and demand more Shaaria. Shiite Hezbollah take it to the streets immediately after the Pope's departure in order to preach hatred and war to huge crowds, in the very place where a minute in advance love was being preached. We have seen Egyptian President Morsi taking too much time and not enough energy to condemn the murders of the past few days. And shortly soon we have to assess again, I'm sure,that we were better off when we were worse off, and worse off....