Corruption

Corruption is very prevalent in many parts of Greater Middle East. Dictators continuously re-elect themselves, and usually prioritise their own needs over their population's well being. Democracy is absent or flawed in most of the region, as this map demonstrates; notice that primarily greater middle eastern countries dominate the darker colours of the map, especially the parts just east of North Africa.

Israel, said to be "a flawed democracy", is the most democratic country in the region, even though it is far below any Western European or North American country. The vast majority are so called hybrid regimes or authoritarian regimes, meaning that the power is shared by only a very small amount of people or a single individual.

Leaders believed that people would never revolt against the government, however the Arab Spring proved the contrary. The people wanted to elect their own governments, but had to wait for "a spark"; an opportunity to have a co-ordinated, all-out effort in which everyone protested to the best of their ability at the same time, because they knew that previously, small-scale revolts were crushed.

Their chance arrived when Mohamed Bouazizi's protested by liting himself on fire, he sparked a chain reaction of revolts all over the greater middle east. People overthrew the infamous Muammar Gaddafi, Hosni Mubarak and many other leaders. The results of the protests are positive for the citizens of the region, but they still demand more. The Arab Spring has not ended, but will continue until demands are met and the region becomes democratic.

Online media has been very important in the protests. Unfortunately not all people have the chance to publicly voice their dissatisfaction, therefore they do so secretly. I presume the following example was originally made by an Iranian citizen (The revolution did not spread to Iran).

Some countries temporarily blocked access to the internet to stop propaganda such as the above, or to prevent attempts to rally protests and demonstrations.



http://punditkitchen.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/political-pictures-mahmoud-ahmedinejad-votes-got.jpg?w=500&h=303
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Democracy_Index_2011.png