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.