(Note: In light of plans for an Occupy Wall Street rally on Saturday in Zuccotti Park, and OWS having less than $117,000 in their bank account from increasingly dwindling donations, I write down this piece.)
By early 2011, the Arab world was engulfed in massive socio-political upheaval. A series of protests of various sizes and forms, all calling for greater democracy and the advancement of human rights, an end to political and economic corruption and mismanagement, and the obliteration of the monopoly over power by the old regimes, all were taking place in nearly every Arab state. Western audiences took notice, and, all while acknowledging direct inspiration from Tunisia and Egypt, decided that there was much to uprise against in the their countries as well. A familiar sequence followed. Anger expressed in traditional and alternative media, Twitter hashtags and Facebook pages surfaced and, shortly after, people took to the streets.
