Arab Spring

Arab Spring is the name given to the recent series of rebellions and revolts against the undemocratic regimes in
Middle East and North Africa. Various factors such as poverty, unemployment, inflation and undemocratic
practices were the main causes of these revolts.(This sentence should have been in the present
participle since your first sentence is in present, avoid switching between tenses in one
paragraph) Nobody had contemplated that what started as a small protest against police corruption and ill
treatment by the self-immolation of a Tunisian street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, will(would) convert into mass
rebellions(demonstrations would be more appropriate here) and will(would) engulf the major countries of
Middle East and North Africa.
The protesters mainly comprising of youngsters actively participated in the peaceful protests and heavily relied
on social media such as Facebook, Twitter MY Space, You Tube and Skype to organize, communicate, and raise
awareness in the face of states attempts (aimed)at repression and internet censorship. Major countries where
the Arab Spring mostly concentrated(has been witnessed) were, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria and Yemen. Up till now,
these revolutions have successfully resulted in the toppling of Tunisian President Zain ul Abedin and the
Egyptian President Husni Mubarak. In Libiya, these peaceful protests were transformed into a civil war which
has not ended till now, but according to the latest news, rebel forces have successfully encircled Tripoli, the
capital of Libya. In Syria and Yemen, the rebellions(street protest) are still going on and the government is using
very harsh and violent ways to clamp down on the protesters. The small uprisings which started in (the) UAE
and Saudi Arabia were successfully settled down by heavy deployment of military and swift economic
concessions. The responses of the western countries to these uprisings have been biased. In countries like
Bahrin, Saudi Arabia and Morroco, the western community has backed the governments'' decisions to
clampdown on the revolts whereas in Libya, the western community is providing air and logistic support to the
rebellions(rebels) to bring down the reign of Col. Ghaddafi.
The role of youngsters in these revlolts have(has) been remarkable. They have remained steadfast, disciplined
and united. These youngsters have remained successful in the ouster of despots like Husni Mubarik and Zain ul
Abedeen. But will they succeed in attaining the basic objectives of their mass protests, is still to be seen.
Moreover, the revolts in Libya, Yemen and Syria have turned bloody and peaceful settlement to these armed
rebellions seems to be a far cry.
Over all it is a very good piece of writing and structure is good except for little mistakes that I believe anyone
can commit while writing extempore .I believe you need practice more than a teacher ofcourse whatever you
write get it check with Prof. Asif since as per my knowledge and experience he is the best in Faisalabad.Your
mistakes have been highlighted in inserted brackets .I I were to write on this topic I would have written
something like this ..:)

Arab Spring; revolution in the air.

When dictator ship is a fact ,revolution becomes the right
(Victor Hugo)
Just when the world had started to believe that the Arab countries had gone used to
living under the command of their despotic rulers the unthinkable happened. Who would
have thought of a country like Tunisia becoming a fulcrum of an uprising that would send
reverberations to the rest of the world .And before the rest of the Arab rulers could
realized or device a mechanism to counter the after shocks or their western masters
could come to their help, they were taken aback when the swaths of ordinary Arab men
and women took to the streets to fight for their rights. And here we are eight months on
since the Jasmine Revolution, an uprising that shook the foundations of the whole Arab
world .And as a result of this Zine-al-Abidine the former Tunisian president has turned
into a fugitive seeking refuge in Saudi Arabia and is sentenced to 66 years in prison in
absentia.Another strong man Husni Mubarak, the former president of Egypt is facing
charges of murder ,atrocities and corruption in his own country and finally Muammar
Qadhafi of Libya is on a run, as a 6 months old civil war has entered in to its final act
with the rebel forces making advancements into the heart of Tripoli ,Libyan capital and a
stronghold of Qadhafi regime. The story of Behrain ,Morocco ,Algeria ,Yemen and Syria is
no different than that of Egypt and Tunisia where people continue to protest against their
respective autocratic and tyrannical regimes, the more they are being oppressed the
more their numbers swelled on the streets and in the squares which have become the
launching pads for these uprisings especially after Friday prayers. Besides these major
protests and mass demonstrations countries like Saudia and the UAE have also
witnessed the demonstrations of different sorts though smaller in scale and intensity, be

it the demands for reforms in Qatar or the women openly defying the ban on their driving
in Saudi Arabia.
In Syria alone 2200 people have lost their lives in the hands of Bashar ul Asad and his
forces, yet nothing seems to be stopping them the more Asads troops fire on these
innocent men the more resilience they are met with. It seems like as if the genie of Arab
revolution has come out of the bottle and there is no stopping to it.
However the western powers ,media pundits and policy think tanks have spent far too
much time in appreciating the courage of these men as agents of Arab Spring and far
too little on analyzing the after shocks and the dynamics of post revolution Arab world.
There are incidents which point towards the fact that outlaws and former friends of the
regimes are joining the ranks of freedom fighters which may set a bad precedent in the
days to come. In Tunisia people even after toppling down Zine ,continue to seek reforms,
Egypt continues to be governed by Tantawi ,the former aid of Mubarak in the name of
transition and most recently in Libya the supposed leader of rebels Mustafa Abdul Jalil
and his Transitional National Council who is backed by the NATO and the west, have
come under criticism for conniving the murder of their own military commander last
month, the reasons for which remain unexplained to date. The response of west to Arab
Spring has so far been biased driven by their own vested interests and in most cases a
reluctant one which has been confined to verbal condemnation of killing of innocent men
and women which are mostly unarmed.
The rest of the Muslim world including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan has been a silent
spectator to these atrocities committed against their own brethren by none other than
their own leaders and rulers. Sadly their denunciation has so far been limited to breaking
of diplomatic ties and calling off their envoys from these countries. What is feared by
some analysts that, if this wave of revolution is not given a proper direction it would turn
into a wave of violence and madness and may turn the whole Arab world into an un
chartered territory or a new Somalia or perhaps Afghanistan of 1990s where the war
lords kept on fighting and country remained victim to a bloody civil war. This is a high
time when the world should swing into action to save the Arab Spring from losing its
touch and turning into nightmare.
To start with United Nations should immediately send peace keeping missions to these
countries in order to avoid any further blood bath and ensure a smooth transitioning to
democracy .These peace keeping missions should ideally be composed of Muslim
countries to shun any possible clash of civilizations. The western world should come to
the help of these men fighting for democracy, Instead of providing them with the arms
the western block should provide them with food, shelter and medicines and money for
rehabilitation and let the Arabs decide their fate through ballet not the bullet. Else this
conquest and struggle of many will turn into a short lived victory with one dictatorship
merely replacing another with autocracy.
(Ammar Javaid)