Primus inter pares

Arab spring: An ongoing sequence of events.

Roughly over a year ago we witnessed the beginning of the sequence of events which were to be known as the Arab spring. We must be clear of the fact that this event is still ongoing at this moment (i.e. Syria in the form of an attempt revolution). There are no data of results of these events yet – there won’t be an answer any time soon for the most essential question of all: Were the sacrifices in life in vain in the strife for democracy?

Symbol of sacrifice and despair.

- We do not yet know if the consolidation of democracy will be successful.
Just a few challenges on the road to democracy in the after math of a transitional process:
For a matter of fact we do not even know whether the consolidation processes have actually begun in all of the involved countries. Or whether, if, there are ongoing processes whether they’ll manage to consolidate. It is no easy task to engineer a country’s constitution. There are not even guarantees that the power holders are willing to give up their power (whoever they may be). Constitutional engineering requires throughout think through. It is not good enough to create a new state with a set of institutions. These institutions have to be able to be able to survive the test of time. The constitutional engineers must be able to identify the social cleavages. Whether they be economical, cultural - ethnic all sort of fragmentation which may affect the legitimacy of the state. Is the state large and thus in a need of a more regional orientated governance? Opting for presidentialism or parliamentarism? Proportional or majoritarian electoral system? There all these vast and fundamental questions. Newly found states must have the constitutional know how to create a dynamic state system which will be able to stand the test of time. When it comes to constitutional engineering the know how of how to create a functional state becomes increasingly essential. Mistakes could be fatal for the whole statehood and its legitimacy. Hopefully these revolutionaries have the right consultants working vigorously for the democratic dream. Creating a new constitution is like looking at a complex mosaic (society) and then trying to interpret the patterns and fit those patterns into different theoretical models.



Finally I would like to lift up Bahrain in the Arab spring, through the documentary:
Shouting in the dark:



I would also like to pay tribute to Al Jazeera’s heroic journalists. It’s humbling to see such brave, dedicated, journalists in the middle of war mayhem reporting to the world. These journalists work in such conditions which are immensely dangerous. Not only do they have to and avoid bullets, but also live in constant fear of being captured. They truly work as the eyes and ears of the world in these conflict areas.
- All journalists risking their lives are equally worth the credit; however the reportage by Al Jazeera has been absolutely phenomenal in the Arab spring.

Putin in tears after anticipated victory

Today the victors will celebrate, tomorrow the opposition will protest.

Question is whether the Russian people will feel the result as legtimiate. Of course great efforts have been made to make the elections appear fair and just. However according to euronews there will be no quarter to the opposition as Mr. Putin warned those who wanted to “destroy Russia’s statehood and usurp power”.
......atleast more of this is guaranteed for awhile now, eh?

Russia's ''webcam'' presidential election day

Interesting efforts to avoid the duma election disaster. Installment of webcams all across the polling stations and, citizent observers. Will this be enough to avoid another election disaster? Atleast it shows of the brilliance of Kremlin, quite innovative attempt to appease the opposition. This massive investment of innovations shows that Kremlin is taking the opposition very seriously, indeed.
Fair elections or not this is an astonishing transparency innovation by any standards. However I am worried that polling webcams could be used as a two edge sword.
The elections can be monitored over webcams here: Click

Sample from the site.

President Medvedev and his wife are casting their vote in the 4th of March 2012 Presidential election.

...for entertainment value I wonder how many videos like these there are. ''Disco before the election'' - Party polling station.

Russian presidential elections tomorrow - then what?

Opposition has grown extremely loud and active in Russia after the rigged duma elections. Tomorrow will not be extremely interesting in terms of surprises in the Russian presidential elections. Putin, obviously, will re-assume the presidential office, what is interesting is what will happen after he has. Will the opposition grow louder? Can Putin re-invent himself in an attempt to press seemingly progressive democratic policies in an attempt to calm the opposition? Or will he become increasingly conservative. There are several questions and only so few answers. It seems as if all actors in Russian politics are holding their cars hidden, thus far. Then of course the opposition has already asked, and been given permission, to hold a demonstration days after the presidential elections. It will be interesting to see the nature of those demonstrations. Most importantly Kremlin has to avoid the duma election disaster by any means.




An extra ordinary speech held by Putin on the 23th of February 2012. Putin rarely holds speeches like this in public amongst people.

Putin has been using his triumph cards wisely in recent times by loading those buses with country people to hold massive demonstrations of his own. He appears to be enjoying overwhelming support outside the federal cities of Russia. However it appears economical advances are not enough for a growing and louder city dweller opposition in Russia.

Combating censorship with censorship

I got familiar with this activist video yesterday and, so I have been casually monitoring the discussion in the video. What soon became obvious was the fact that a great majority of Russian language comments appeared, which were clearly not approving of the video. Even the vote within the video was clearly disapproving of the video. Reason I do not know, perhaps the Russian state machinery actively wanted to combat the video. However the hosts of the video disabled the comment and voting feature after the tide was turned.



It’s not very ideological to combat censorship with censorship. Of course censorship is effective because, it will eliminate unwanted competing opinions from display. Too obvious censorship, however, is not desirable or even effective. For a propagandist it becomes essential to attempt to make his or her agenda less obvious. Influencing opinions has to be something which allows the receiver to at least initially feel as if the information they’re receiving is correct. The less an individual is using his or her critical mind the better and, easier it will be to influence opinions.


Elaborate internet propaganda

*They have since become smart and re-opened the comment and voting function in the video.