What Has This World Come To? Are You Sick of Seeing How Messed up This World Is? I Know

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Kelli McNeil

Dr. Hall

English 1102

23 January, 2012

Doha Debate

What has this world come to? Are you sick of seeing how messed up this world is? I know I am. When will we see change is the question? First off, in the Middle East there has been a lot going on lately in the past year like protesting, revolutions, riots and deaths [the whole nine yards nay, avoid the cliché]. All of this all started with a poor

Tunisian street vendor named Muhammad Bouazizi who did what? in protest to the harassment and humiliation he suffered at the hands of some corrupt local officials in a small city in Tunisia. After his death thousands of protesters in Tunisian joined together to corrupt the government. A few weeks later they were able to successfully overthrow their government, this inspired many people in the Arab countries to protest against their government. Say how it spread from country to country and name a few. They now are calling this the “Arab Spring” which is the Arab’s “Uprisings” or Awakenings”. (cite your source).

For those who aren’t familiar with the Arab Spring, it’s a new era for the Arab world. [ to live and establish a new form of government that will help them this part is awkward, read aloud and fix or delete]. This is Arabs second revolt in modern history.

The first revolt that they faced was the Arabs revolted against the Ottoman Empire which was encouraged by the British. You’re lumping Arabs in a big bunch. Back then, maybe they were. Now the Arabs are revolting against their governments in the Middle East. 2

The Arab countries are all protesting about many different things, but they all have similar themes. After what happened in Tunisia, Egypt was the next country whose that the government was overthrown by protesters. For weeks, Mubarak unsuccessfully tried to crack-down on the protests and use any means to keep himself in power. But ultimately he was unsuccessful and the protesters were able to gain the support of the military and overthrow Mubarak. Libya's protests quickly became a rebellion and an armed revolution after Qaddafi tried to use violence to stop the protests. Large portions of the government and the military joined the rebellion. A lot of the issues about the Arab spring that the countries protest about were discussed in the times magazine, 2011 person of the year which is called “The Protester”. Either say this earlier or delete it. It comes too late in the paragraph.

While reading the times magazine, 2011 person of the year, it gave an

outlook on how important protesters are in history. While reading, ….(the reader

should follow)…While reading, I was interested to learn…etc. Who was reading?

Not: While reading…., it gave…Sentence grammar.) Protester has involved over

the years where they are protesting in populations with 3 million or more people.

The word “protest” is now in newspapers, magazines and all over the media. All

the protesters of 2011 shared a belief that their countries had to deal with financial

issues while the democratic favored the rich and the power. Protesters of today’s

world, especially in the Mmiddle Eeast are fed up with corruption, modern day

slavery and the financial issues, that is why change is very important for these

countries in the years to come. Citation? Some of the issues that the Middle East

are protesting about is that there are fighting for their freedom, the cost of rising McNeil 3

food prices, clean water, censorship of the press, limitations on freedom of

expression, violent crack-downs of opposition to the government, rampant

unemployment the list goes on. Again, where are you getting your info? You

need to cite this?

If you are not already familiar with the Doha debates, the Doha debate is a debate for free speech in Qatar. (“Debate” 3x! and the next sentence has a 4 th . Edit.) The debates talk about the most controversial and current issues. The Doha debate that I recently viewed was called “This House believes resistance to the Arab Spring is futile.”. Tim

Sebastian, the one who interviews the panelists was on both sides of the argument. Tim

Sebastian says that the importance of the Doha Debates is the fact that we’ve engaged the young people with controversial issues. The main issue in the debate[ in Arab]? is that a lot of governments are fighting for their survival. The Arab cCountries are fighting for change and a democracy. The countries aren’t fighting, the people are. The Panelists that are speaking for the motion are Anouar Boukhars, not the right information about

Boukhars which is a consultant for the Jane’s Intelligence Review. Nadim Hour, he’s the human rights watch researcher for Syria and Lebanon, does what? (complete his intro).

The panelists who that are speaking against the motion are Jane Kinninmont and Ahmed

Ali al-Mukhaini. Do you want to summarize their position?

Anouar Boukhars who was speaking for the motion was saying states that the

Arabs are falling apart and that their cultural outlook and political traditions are not right for their democracy. He was saying that their “future is determined by their past and by looking at the Middle East’s past, you can see change will not be easy, nor it will be without any setbacks.”. He was saying there will be ups and downs and the years ahead. 4

The Arab world is becoming a new world with the force of change with demographics, technology and the minorities. The majority of these protests are being led lead by educated youths who have been organizing protests through the internet, using sites like

Facebook and Twitter. Technology did not cause the movement, but it caused everybody to be more connected with the world. In Arab, women want their rights and its forcing change and pressure toward the people. Jane Kinninmout who was against the motion was basically saying that she supports people’s rights and she does not support cruelty.

Jane Kinninmout once you name her full name once, just use her last name wants to see a united popular movement. A group force can be effective with a religious society with religion and culture. She would like for the Arab government to slow down, because she doesn’t want too many people dying. She believes that” if you start to divide the people, it will start to confuse the people.”. Money and power are is the main issue, and she does not want it to be involved [in the wrong hands]. ?? In Syria all the military people want is money and power. Nadim Houry who is speaking for the motion, says that people are not scared of the dictators anymore. They are not going to give in without a fight. He is saying that there is a wall of fear that is keeping people from fighting with authority and even keeping people from even questioning their dictators. The youth has already lost a lot of internal support and legitimacy. The youth’s violent attack is destroying their economy and soon they won’t be able to pay the soldiers salaries and their security forces that they need to keep on their side. Even though we got used to instant changes we can’t change countries that have been in the past and in danger in a few weeks or months. He is saying that there never been change without risk. Ahmed Ail Al Mukaini who is against the motion is saying there is no social structure; there is no time for values. Economically McNeil 5 the GCC Countries will start to fund the Arab world and that will be able to offer more jobs.

My view of this debate is that I believed that change will happen in the Middle

East but like the panelist said, it will take awhile, maybe a few years, and it will not be easy. This all started with a street vendor in Tunisian fighting with the cops. I wonder how this Arab spring thing will end or will it never end?. The Arab World is not only just fighting for change, . tThey are fighting for peace, demands for comfortable housing, clean water and food, real education, and freedom from the cruelty of armed thugs. The only people who that have money and power were the ones who are better off in the middle east. Protesters are now ready to make a change of the lack of real freedom and the true democracy.

The paragraphs themselves are wordy and stray from your

points. Try to make sure each paragraph has a solid point

to it. And, use more quotes (properly cited)…you need a

minimum of 3 (and Doha Debates don’t get a cite). So you

need another source on your WC page. You should have 3

of those. Your phrasing is awkward and you often use

vague words instead of specific. When you read back over,

read aloud and find places where you could be more

specific. Finally, after your next draft and attending to all

these edits, take your paper to the SSC for one final edit.

Keep this copy to hand in with your final paper. 6

Work Cited

“This House believes the Arab Spring is Futile.” The Doha Debates. Host Tim Sebastian.

BBC World News. Qatar Foundation. Doha, 30, May 2011. Television. Good!

Andersen, Kurt. "The Protestor." Time 26 Dec. 2011: 56-89. Print. I think there’s a period after the title Time. Please check for yourself.

BBC News-Middle East. BBC, 04,Feb,2012. Web. 4 Feb 2012.

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