Monday, August 31, 2015

Winds of change, again


Parts of the world seem to be into the second generation of "colour revolutions" such as the Malaysian yellow "Bersih" protests above and the Lebanese "you stink" movement. Among the interesting thing about both cases is that they defy the simplistic characterizations that were imposed on the first generation, which tended to be seen in terms of whether they were somehow aligned with USA interests, which therefore became a basis for assessing whether they were legitimate or not. By the time the Arab Spring rolled around, incumbents had calculated that they could shoot and win, or at least not lose. So good luck to the latest incarnation of the phenomenon.

Photo: Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha

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