Saleh steps down but doesn't get it!!!!

One of the last things Saleh did as he FINALLY stepped down in Yemen was to give amnesty to all the people who fought for him and his government.  This is angering many Yemeni's who feel that since he signed off to leave he does not have the power to take this decision. In fact Tawakol Karmin wants an inquiry and she wants those responsible for the deaths of civilians brought to justice.

There's been historic elections in Egypt, here's hoping this newly elected government is closer to democracy then anything Egypt has ever seen.

Turkey has finally made good on it's threats to impose sanctions on Syria.  Turkey has also said it won't deal with Assad's government anymore. It's waiting to deal with a new leader of Syria.

Closer to home, several Canadian firms have been hacked over this PotashCorp bid. Sadly it doesn't seem to be the work of Anonymous to destroy the sale all together, but from a competitor who's trying to get insider information.

My biggest beef in the past 2 days though has been the fact that a Native community called Attawapiskat has been asking for help for over a month. Our officials had time to play kick out the occupiers in various cities but has not found any time to address the human crisis going on in this native community.  A bunch of protesters with tents really must be removed. Never mind that the living conditions in this native reserve are probably worse then any condition at any of the Occupy sites in Canada! Something to think about while you drink your morning coffee.

Photo's from October 15th, 2011 - Includes Occupy Montreal as well as protests for Middle East...

I commented on Saturday that there was a lot going on  in terms of protests and Marches. The ones we got to see was the Syrian March for  freedom, The Egyptians Copts protesting for their rights, People from the Feb 20th movement in Morocco and of course Occupy Montreal.  Hubby took pictures of all of it and it's here on Picassa.

They marched like an Egyptian....

The protests going on in Egypt since January 25th, has caught the attention of the entire Middle East and North Africa. It's undoubtedly caught the attention of the world, is the whole Arab world going to change?  The fact protests in Tunisia led to toppling their dictator is enough to encourage the Egyptians to protest until the same thing happens in their country.

My husband has been saying that this discontent has been bubbling under the surface for years and if it doesn't bubble over now, it will very shortly. The momentum will not be stopped. Sooner or later many of the regimes in this part of the world will change. Hopefully not for the worst. Perhaps it might be time that the west let the people from this region chose their leaders, even if they don't appear to be a choice we might have chosen.

I doubt most in the west realize that the countries in the Middle East and North Africa are far more repressed and conservative today then they were in the 60's. No doubt helped along by the various dictators and autocrats. I won't even begin to figure out how the USA had something to do with it, but for sure all these dictators have survived in their own countries by being allies with some of the most powerful countries in the world. It doesn't matter that the dictator, like say Saddam Hussain was hard on his people as long as he was friends with the right leaders.

Most of the leaders in the Middle East and North Africa are old men. Like in Egypt. Mubarak is 82 years old. How can he possibly think he knows what's best for his country which is 50% people under the age of 19.  He wouldn't have a clue. This is obvious, they are chanting for his departure, his solution is to dissolve the cabinet, you know shuffle his friends around, change the titles and pretend there were big changes. It hasn't fooled anyone.

Protests against authoritarian Arab regimes have also broken out in Jordan, Yemen and Algeria. Even the Lebanese are protesting because they want their economic concerns addressed. To quote a student from the Lebanese University "Egypt and Tunisia had only one dictator, we have had 15 or 16"