"Arab Spring"--Who Coined This Term?

[yellowwood]

When I hear the term "Arab Spring" used to describe the unrest in the Middle East, I wonder what propaganda team created that term.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Why say 'propaganda team'?

Maybe it was a single journalist. In what way do you regard it as 'propaganda'?

[TheDebbieDee]

2. I've also heard the terms Arab Street and Arab Strait used

over the last several years......I was always puzzled how these phrases emerged.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. I've never heard 'Arab Strait', and can't make sense of that

'Arab Street' has certainly been used for several years, and is fairly simple - it means the typical opinion of average Arab people. As we talk about the opinion of "the man on the street". That one has been around long enough to be in the Oxford English Dictionary:

Arab street n. orig. and chiefly U.S. popular public opinion in Arab countries or communities, esp. on political issues; cf. street n. 3d.
1977 Amer. Polit. Sci. Rev. 71 1373/1 The existence of nuclear weapons in the region will induce moderation and a revolution of declining expectations in the *Arab ‘street’.
1992 Economist 7 Mar. 73/1 Saddam Hussein and Moammar Qaddafi prefer to think of themselves as representing the true voice of the Arab street.
2002 U.S. News & World Rep. 5 Aug. 7/1 We shall be warned by Riyadh and Cairo that war against Iraq will rile the Arab street, that we can't head to Baghdad with Gaza in turmoil.

(street 3d.) The streets regarded as the realm of ordinary people, and especially as the source of popular political support for a cause or party.
1931 W. Lewis Hitler 57 The Democrats‥have not been able to deal with the Nazi because of his Mastery of the Street.
1954 B. North & R. North tr. M. Duverger Polit. Parties i. i. 38 The Storm troops wrested from the Communist and Socialist crowds their dominance of the street.
1969 Listener 24 Apr. 555/3 This was the street taking over a modern state in a way which hasn't happened, I think, at any other time in our history.
2005 R. Nidel World Music: Basics iii. 190 Abdel El Halim Hafez.‥was the golden boy of the Nationalist revolution in 1952 when pan-Arabism arose, the darling of Nasser and the street.

[yellowwood]

5. It Sounds So Manufactured

"Spring" has such a pleasant connotation--like "awakening" or "rebirth." But some of it is pretty bloody.

I remember "Coalition of the Willing"

"Shock and Awe"

"Death Panels"

I just distrust words like this.

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Well, closeupready gives the derivation I have assumed, in #3

Are you saying that you'd rather it hadn't happened, and Mubarak et al. were still in power?

[yellowwood]

11. Still in Flux

No. I can't say that any of the uprisinga are unjustified.
But I am suspicious when I hear postive metaphors applied to situations that may or may not improve people's lives. First of all, the various rebels have to "win" in order to justify the positive reaction. If they lose, they're just dead.
We aren't sure yet about the character of the of some of the rebels. Will they all support a democratic government?
Call me a cynic, but I have seen that the old order is not necessarily replaced by a new, better order.

[Soral]

7. It's possible the Iranian protesters started it, their movement is 'green'

[muriel_volestrangler]

8. They are, however, not Arabic

Unless you mean they were commenting on what was happening elsewhere.

[closeupready]

3. Well it's clearly a reference to the Prague Spring, but in an arab country.

It could have easily been coined years ago by someone who made a prediction that arab countries need to have their own Arab Spring. Who knows.

[Whisp]

9. I have no idea what it's supposed to mean, but it bothers me.

can there be a Jewish Autumn
or a Catholic Winter?

I don't get it.

[Luminous Animal]

12. Not all Arabs are Muslim.

[Whisp]

13. yes, of course you are right. my mistake.

I know that but somehow got misled

[robdogbucky]

10. This might help, it's an Al Jazeera feature on one of their programs

People and Power is the program that first broadcast this basically 27 or so documentary about the birth of the April 6 Youth Movement during a textile workers' strike:


Egypt: Seeds of change
People & Power reveals the story behind the unprecedented political protests in Egypt.

People & Power Last Modified: 09 Feb 2011 10:56 GMT

"It is widely accepted that the spark for the recent dramatic events in Egypt came from last month's uprising in Tunisia. If people power could bring down one regime perhaps it could do the same elsewhere.

Many of the necessary conditions were already in place: public fury at years of political repression, an economy that rewarded a corrupt elite and kept a majority in poverty, and widespread loathing for a leader clinging to office.

Could Egyptians be persuaded to overcome 30 years of fear and apathy and take to the streets?

It is no accident that this question has been answered, emphatically. Over the course of a remarkable fortnight, People & Power has been filming exclusively behind the scenes with a core group of young activists from the April 6th opposition movement.

As Elizabeth Jones reveals, they have spent a long time planning and organising for these momentous days, taking lessons from other revolutions about how to mobilise popular support."


Here's the link:

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/peopleandpower/2011/02/201128145549829916.html


Just my dos centavos

robdogbucky