I've been lazy and so has the Mass Media

My blog's inactivity has shown the inaugural post was more than a little ambitious. I'm only writing the second post of a blog months after the first, which promised daily updates. I deleted the first post because I'm not sure what direction this blog will take. I'm just going to write here as often as possible, and try to keep it running as long as I can.

Moving on, I'm dedicating this post to a current trend in Middle-Eastern and North African politics the media has dubbed the Arab Spring.

The waves of protests, connected by their democratic sensibilities, geo-graphic location and the role which Internet-based social networks played in their formation, have been characterized as a success; the name—Arab Spring—likens the current trend to the spread of democracy through Europe known as the Spring Time of Nation's.

Summer, however, may prove less promising than the spring.

The protests began in Tunisia when a fruit vendor set himself on fire after a policewoman confiscated his cart and goods. The government, then ruled by autocratic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, ignored his requests for a review of his case, and he walked home, where he lit himself aflame. His misfortune became a rallying cry for young politicos from Algeria to Bahrain.

On May 18th, BBC.co.uk reported the new Tunisian government ended a ten day curfew that was instituted to quell protests calling for their resignation. The government had arrested 1,400 people—only 300 were charged with a crime—in an 11 day period.

Egypt faces a similar predicament. The military, which was treated generously during Hosni Muburak's reign, controls the transitional government that took power after the president left office.

Tunisian protestors criticized the transitional government for including many of Ben Ali's former ministers, but the movement's leaders shouldn't have been surprised that they retained their positions.

Who else would run the government?

Ben Ali held his position for close to 24 years, Muburak just under 30. That's longer than many of the protestors have lived, or will continue too given the region's low life expectancy.

The youth used Twitter, mass texting and word of mouth to organize protests, sit-ins and letter writing campaigns, much like my peers in college.

Setting up a functioning government requires more than getting people to come to a Facebook event.

Simply, more.

More skill, more focus, more willpower.

More than that, many of the public officials are the only ones trained to do their jobs. To sustain a monopoly on political power, a government must kill or absorb the competition then ensure no one takes their place. Limiting entrepreneurship, political organizations and censuring educators has led to a generation which can ask for a new system, but lacks the expertise or experience to build one.

Predicting social butterflys and youthful demonstrators will construct a democracy is raising the public's expectations too high. There are better ways to sell advertising, and media companies know that.

Instead of taking time to comprehend what's happening in that part of the world, newspapers enlarged their headlines, broadcast stations aired videos captured by cell phones and each slapped a label on a movement that had only begun.

The discontentment of Middle Eastern youth boiled over last Spring. Let's see how the Summer heat changes the political atmosphere.

Signing off,

T Magnum