RSP Books

MENA Revolts : The Role of Youth in Revolutions One of the very important features of the MENA revolts is the heroic roles of the youth. From Tunis to Cairo, Algiers, Benghazi, etc., young people dared the regimes of repression. Brilliant initiatives including organization of sit-ins, massive deployment of social media and information technology, etc. showed the important role of new generations in revolutions. More than this, it reflects the fact that these movements represent not just the present, but also the future of these societies. One of the revolutionary implications of youth heroic role in the revolution is that the experience and lessons will serve as legacy for new generations. Graphically, the roles of the youths have been inspiring which reflect the level of frustration faced by young people. In these MENA countries, 60 percent of the population are young people with more than half of educated youths unemployed while those employed (either self-employed or governmen...

MENA Revolts: Social Media Activism or Mass Revolutionary Organization The current growth in online activism such as social media platforms (Facebook, twitter, YouTube, blogs, etc.) and their politicization is a product of the growing radicalization going on in the society especially among youth. Youths, fired up by enthusiasm to end regimes of corruption and perfidy deployed various social media to beam life pictures of movement, and expose the lies of the combated regimes. Mass mobilization of people within and outside countries was facilitated by social media. Western mainstream media that could have ordinarily censored various stories were compelled by social media news dissemination to air news of the revolt. Government propaganda instruments were circumvented by live news from social networks and real-time online reportage. All of these show that at time of social upheaval, the best of technologies are deployed by mass of workers and youth to advance revolutionary movement. Furt...