By Michael Oghia

“This just in, we have reports from Beirut! Things are getting crazy down there on the streets, it’s pandemonium! Reports are unclear as to what is going on, but we have heard many loud noises and there’s been multiple accounts of light flashes. Some experts are calling what’s going on here the beginnings of another civil war, but our analyses are calling it for exactly what it is: a great party!”

See, that’s what’s going on here in Lebanon – celebration. Not that the Lebanese ever needed a reason to party. (The fall of a dictator is definitely a good excuse though.) All over the Middle East there’s been a flood of revolution that has swept over the region, and one thing is certain: It’s very exciting.

If you haven’t guessed, this article is about what’s going on in the Middle East.

As a University of Louisville alum going to the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, I am acquiring a very interesting perspective on the events of the region. This perspective is exactly what I want to share, one that is different than that of CNN (I prefer Al-Jazeera English). I will say that the points I am about to present do not come from an expert on the Middle East, for I am not one. I am just your average Arab-American graduate student who watches the news a lot. Moreover, it is hard to write about it because it’s not finished yet. On the contrary, it is currently raging! But I have made some observations and noticed the observations of others as well.

So revolution…why now? Where did it all come from? It didn’t come from the Muslim Brotherhood or Al-Qaeda. It didn’t come from Hezbollah or Hamas. It didn’t come from Osama bin Laden, wealthy oil sheiks, Israel, or America. It came from one place: the youth. Arab youth all over the region are creating huge demographic bubbles that have led to increased grievances. These grievances are mostly tied to the socioeconomic and political structures of their countries.

First, is the sheer amount of young people. Every single country in the Arab world has a population whose median age is below 30. And in some countries, like Yemen, that number is even below 20! Couple this huge demographic with six factors: high unemployment, low employability of qualified and educated young adults, very low wages, a rising cost of living, political systems that continue to suppress the human rights of the people, and corrupt governments that maintain a status quo fueled by nepotism and hold capital in tightly knit sociopolitical circles alienated from the rest of the population (a major cause of low youth employability).

You don’t have to be a chemist to realize that if you mix all of these things together, you’re going to have an explosion. But first, there needs to be a spark. What was the spark in this case? His name was Mohamed Bouazizi, and he was from Tunisia.

On December 17th, out of desperation – stemming from government corruption, the inability to provide for his family, and a general lack of compassion or empathy for him by the ruling powers – he set himself on fire. The events that followed happened so quickly it is hard to really understand what happened. But somehow, the self-immolation of this 26 year old (in addition to the WikiLeaks cables that exposed massive corruption and extortion by the Tunisian dictator) became the catalyst that catapulted revolution into the various countries of the region. And as the revolution spread, the reformists and protesters began calling for more changes in their own countries, in the name of the changes or reforms that happened before them (e.g., the Egyptians praising the fall of Tunisian dictator Ben Ali and the rest of the region citing the fall of Mubarak, the Egyptian “president”).

And now protests are happening all over the region. In Bahrain, the oppressed Shi’a Muslim majority is calling for major reforms and the overthrow of the monarchy. In Morocco, Jordan, and Algeria, protesters are also calling for major government reforms. In Iran (not an Arab country), there have also been protests – the same in Oman, and now Kuwait. But the most interesting places are in Yemen and Libya. A civil war is already being fought in Libya, as those who oppose the dictator fight for emancipation from his rule. In Yemen, a country where most of the population is below 25, the students of the country are marching and demonstrating, so that the dictator there steps down. Even Saudi Arabia is feeling the heat! It has recently banned political rallies, another move that paints their government as an autocratic regime.

It’s incredible what is going on right now; in fact, it is history that is tantamount to the fall of the Berlin Wall. I cannot underscore how huge this is right now for the Arab world! It is incredibly wonderful to see how much good is coming out of this. For instance, one of my favorite pictures of the Egyptian revolution showed Coptic Christians in Egypt forming a human chain around their Sunni Muslim compatriots as they performed their prayers, to protect them from the riot police. Women are also very active participants, organizing rallies, leading the protests, and coming out in force.

These protesters are not screaming for Shari’a law. They are not calling for the death of America. On the contrary, the Obama administration is the one who has really turned its back on the Arab world, proving that the interests of neoliberal capitalism and our ridiculous foreign policy is in fact above the rhetoric of democratization and “change” that we all so routinely hear about. This is not about American democracy, oil, or Islam. What is going on is about guaranteeing that the citizens of these countries have access to basic human rights – rights that have been stripped away from them by their governments (and by the international community’s blind eye) for so long. What is going on is real change, change that is empowering to all Arabs, especially those who are young, disenfranchised, and frustrated about the obstacles that prevent them from getting a start on their lives.

In this sense, it has become blatantly obvious that no entity can just import democracy or build a democracy based on its country’s model. It has to come from the people! The borders of many Arab countries were largely drawn by foreign powers who did not take into account the vast diversity of a region composed of unique histories, different economic and political circumstances, particular religious compositions and dynamics, and a separate identity including contrasting sociocultural demographics. You’re going to have problems, and you’re going to have contention.

There is so much going on right now, and I can’t wait to see what happens! Ironically, Lebanon is somewhat stable right now (usually Lebanon is known as the hub of Arab political instability). But the rest of the region is seeing events that have been festering for many decades. Even the citizens in the countries whose governments have fallen are proving to be truly dedicated to reform, as they will not accept anything other than a transparent government and, most importantly, REAL democracy that is constructed by themselves, not by any foreign power.

I am not sure what is going to happen in the future, but one thing is for sure: This Cardinal is going to be watching.

Michael Oghia graduated from the University of Louisville in 2009 with a degree in sociology.