Pen Meets Paper Jan.31'10

Opinion by Helge Nome
The world’s attention is now focused on a rapidly developing situation in the Arab world. The spark that ignited the fire that is now spreading from one Arab country to another occurred in Tunisia where a street vendor set himself alight after having been denied the right to earn a livelihood from his business. Fires can only start if conditions are right at the time of ignition, and that they are: The combination of oppressive regimes and marginalized educated young people has created a highly combustible witches’ brew in the Middle East.
The other troubling trend,from the point of view of the Western Oligarchy, whose subjects most of us are - including our elected politicians, is the rise of Islam in the Arab world. Amidst all the confusion now reigning in Tunisia, Egypt and elsewhere, highly organized Islamic groups are now stepping into the fray to become catalysts for change amongst bewildered populations that have no specific direction in which to go, other than wanting to get rid of existing oppressive leaderships.
Another troubling factor is looming food shortages that have their roots in crop failures in various parts of the world: Some nations are now hoarding grain for themselves, sending up prices of same, and so encouraging speculation by international gamblers who care nought about the well being of millions of people that live on the brink of starvation. In the chaos that can potentially develop in the wake of food shortages and political upheaval, militant Islam will find an ideal medium for growth, galvanizing local populations against the predatory practices of the Western Oligarchy’s financial system.
What we are learning from events in the Middle East at this time is that things can happen very quickly when a certain tipping point is reached. And the potential for spontaneous destructive activity is considerable: I watched online video coverage of events in Cairo on Aljazeera Live which showed demonstrators trying to rock a bus used by security forces back and forth with the aim of dumping it into the river next to the bridge where it was parked. However, a guardrail prevented them from managing to do this. The problem was quickly solved: A demonstrator hurled a burning rag into the driver’s compartment and within a few seconds it was engulfed in flames.
The criminal element and opportunists are now out in force in Egypt and people are reportedly guarding their properties with baseball bats, and whatever weapons are handy until some kind of order is restored. All this should be a lesson for governments in North America: Having an educated young population marginalized by the inability to find meaningful employment and without an income is a recipe for disaster.