Blog Assignment 3 - Tunisia and Mali

Tunisia
The Arab Spring started here in December of 2010 after a street vendor set himself on fire in both desperation from and protest against his lack of opportunity.  This protest was the catalyst for a series of street protests known and the Jasmine Revolution, which was largely captured and furthered via social rather than traditional media. President Ben Ali was forced out of the country by mid January of 2011 and by October of 2011 Tunisia had its first free elections. The moderate Islamist party Ennahda, or Renaissance won the election with a pluralist majority, and, by December, Moncef Marzouki was named interim president.  Since then, there has been unrest over the control of mosques and how successful religious leadership can work within a democracy even though Ennahda has kept Islamist laws out of the secular nations constitution.  

Mali
In March of 2012, the Malian government was overthrown by soldiers after what the soldiers determined to be a mishandling of a Toureg rebellion.  The Touregs are a displaced, nomadic people who, after the coup, took over much of Northern Mali.  The Touregs were not strong enough to retain power of the areas they controlled and were soon overrun by Islamist extremists.  With no strong military presence or control to stop factions such as Al Qaeda,  Northern Mali turned into a safe haven for terrorists. France has stepped in, attempting to regain control of the area while Mali restabilizes its government and military.

Thoughts
I think what is most interested in these two cases, expanding the thought to Libya and Egypt as well, is that after rebellions are able to force a coup the uprisings are often unprepared to quickly create stable governments, leaving their nations vulnerable in several ways.  It’s hard to argue with any person or group rebelling against oppression but the consequences of their actions may be more dire than the original circumstances.  To put it into simpler terms, some children may not like their parents, but if those children are not prepared to fend for themselves, how smart is it to push away the people who may not only oppress them but may also support them?  It’s a tough call.

Blog Assignment 2 - Merkel, Plagiarists, and the Upcoming German Election

Annette Schavan, German Education Minister, Resigns Over PhD Plagiarism Scandal. ~GlobalPost
(http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/europe/germany/130209/annette-schavan-german-education-minister-resigns-plagiarism)

From this article I learned that the German education minister Annette Schavan was stripped of her PhD by the University of Dusseldorf for plagiarism last week.  I also discovered that this is not the first instance of plagiarism to strike Angela Merkel’s Cabinet.  In 2011 the former German defense minister, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, resigned from his post after he was found to have plagiarized his doctoral thesis.  The article made sure to note Schavan’s hypocrisy for harshly admonishing Guttenberg in 2011 for his plagiarism when she seems to have been guilty of the same lapse in integrity.  According to the article, Schavan denies any wrongdoing and promises to retaliate through legal action.  Wrongly accused or not, Schavan finds it best to step down from Merkel’s Cabinet to avoid being a distraction.  Merkel’s Christian Democratic coalition claims that the PhD scandal is “a politically motivated set up” aiming to strip away some of the party’s credibility as elections approach in late September.

I think that Merkel’s Christian Democratic coalition calling this a set up to try and save face is a weak and silly claim.  There can be no mistaking that Schavan’s plagiarism scandal came during a politically crucial time. That said, for this to qualify as a set up the accusation of plagiarism against Schavan would have to be false.   I am going to have a hard time believing that the University of Dusseldorf would implement such a heavy handed ruling against the standing education minister unless they were absolutely certain.  Although I am not familiar with the current political climate in Germany as the elections approach, I have a feeling Merkel’s longstanding political position is growing harder and harder to retain.

To be honest, I'd feel and look as guilty as Schavan does here too if, because of me, it looked like my Prime Minister were wondering how many more plagiarists are in her cabinet.

Photo:
http://cdn2.spiegel.de/images/image-457249-panoV9free-vbjw.jpg