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April 25, 2011

Confused by the Arab Spring

By Rob Kall

I don't know whether the Arab Spring is a good or bad thing.

::::::::

I don't know whether the Arab Spring is a good or bad thing. 

I'm no expert on the middle east or north Africa. The Arab spring confuses me. 

We know the US was funding unrest in Syria. 
We know CIA was in LIbya.
Yet we also know that those nations do not have elected leaders. Of course, elected leaders in the US don't represent the people. They represent the corporations while hiding behind the thin veil of democratic process. 

Libya has the highest standards of living in all of Africa by a number of measures. It's people were not doing badly. But there's all that oil AND water there. 

Syria has been a relatively stable nation. But, with its close alliance with Iran, it is a thorn in the side of Israel. When I see John McCain, the 

I know some who are thrilled that the LIbyans are fighting for freedom. But others question whether the people of LIbya needed saving. 

We look at Egypt and see a nation that is now run by its military. Is that a better situation? 

In the US democracy is a shill. Politicians are elected because of corporate money and third party advertising. They work for the corporations and the most wealthy. Is democracy still working in the US? Is the word Democracy being used as a cover for neoliberal expansionism and application of what Naomi Klein has described as the shock doctrine?

It would be wonderful if Facebook and twitter and youtube could be used to organize and coordinate successful revolutions. They clearly play a role. But no nation is safe from the influence of third parties that have interests in their assets, resources and role in regional power balances. Those interests include the US CIA, WTO, WB, NATO, European Union, multinational corporations... to name a few. 

I'm not sure if a nascent democratic uprising can even exist in these times without being tainted by the above influences. 

What do you think?



Authors Bio:

Rob Kall is an award winning journalist, inventor, software architect,
connector and visionary. His work and his writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, the HuffingtonPost, Success, Discover and other media.


Check out his platform at RobKall.com


He is the author of The Bottom-up Revolution; Mastering the Emerging World of Connectivity


He's given talks and workshops to Fortune
500 execs and national medical and psychological organizations, and pioneered
first-of-their-kind conferences in Positive Psychology, Brain Science and
Story. He hosts some of the world's smartest, most interesting and powerful
people on his Bottom Up Radio Show,
and founded and publishes one of the top Google- ranked progressive news and
opinion sites, OpEdNews.com


more detailed bio:


Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, debillionairizing the planet and the Psychopathy Defense and Optimization Project.


Rob Kall Wikipedia Page


Rob Kall's Bottom Up Radio Show: Over 400 podcasts are archived for downloading here, or can be accessed from iTunes. Or check out my Youtube Channel


Rob Kall/OpEdNews Bottom Up YouTube video channel


Rob was published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com for several years.


Rob is, with Opednews.com the first media winner of the Pillar Award for supporting Whistleblowers and the first amendment.


To learn more about Rob and OpEdNews.com, check out A Voice For Truth - ROB KALL | OM Times Magazine and this article.


For Rob's work in non-political realms mostly before 2000, see his C.V.. and here's an article on the Storycon Summit Meeting he founded and organized for eight years.


Press coverage in the Wall Street Journal: Party's Left Pushes for a Seat at the Table

Talk Nation Radio interview by David Swanson: Rob Kall on Bottom-Up Governance June, 2017

Here is a one hour radio interview where Rob was a guest- on Envision This, and here is the transcript..


To watch Rob having a lively conversation with John Conyers, then Chair of the House Judiciary committee, click here. Watch Rob speaking on Bottom up economics at the Occupy G8 Economic Summit, here.


Follow Rob on Twitter & Facebook.


His quotes are here

Rob's articles express his personal opinion, not the opinion of this website.


Join the conversation:


On facebook at Rob Kall's Bottom-up The Connection Revolution


and at Google Groups listserve Bottom-up Top-down conversation





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