Domino Democracy?

As I read about the dramatic events shaking up the Arab world, I am trying to shake my own sense of cautiousness about real change. While it was my hope that just such a wave of outcry from the terrorized populations that make up the majority in the Arab world would lead to a demand for some type of democratic reform, I did not foresee such a swift response.

I would like to believe that Jordan will get a chance at democracy, and that Egypt will soon hold multi-party elections, but I seem to remember having such a belief years ago. I think back in time to 1989, to what I thought I was seeing. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, I was sure that I was witnessing history seeing the student protests in Tiananmen Square. I remember thinking that I would remember this moment for the rest of my life as the students built their statue of freedom only to have the communist tanks roll in and crush the protests.

The difference between the two situations may come down to distance. The former Soviet Union’s eminent demise in Eastern Europe may as well been on the moon to the average Chinese citizen. They did not know anyone who lived there, they did not have relatives living in East Germany, and they did not have the internet and satellite TV readily available to them. The Jordanians know people in Iraq, as does everyone in the Middle East.

The students in Tiananmen Square had access to information about what was taking place around the world, the rural Chinese did not. With the popularity of satellite TV and all Arab news agencies, the citizens of the Middle East can see what is happening, even with the anti-American slant of Al Jazeera and Al Arabia. Those purple index fingers held up by over 8 million Iraqis was a message that needed no translation.

As I watch my hope is renewed.