The country with two governments nationalized/robbed its banks

What do you do when international sanctions create a major cash flow crisis in the country and the banks refuse to give out salaries to your government employees? Simple, just send some men with guns to take over the banks and claim them nationalized. At least that’s what Ivory Coast president dictator Laurent Gbagbo has done. 

What is happening in Middle East now as protests continue in Yemen, Bahrain, Iraq, Iran and Libya

Yemeni President Ali Saleh

The protests in the Middle East are spreading like a wild fire threatening to engulf the whole region, check that, the whole world. After the success of Egypt protests, every capital from the Gulf of Eden to the Atlantic Coast is seeing at least some level of protests. I have put together a “what is going on where” brief to give you a quick snapshot of how this historical event is unfolding. If you haven’t already, read the previous two briefs (here and here) by this blog because this one tries not to repeat those points.

Infographic for all you need to know about Arab World Protests: Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Algeria, Jordan, Syria, Mauritania, Libya and Iran

Since things are heating up all over the Arab World and many countries are taking cue from the near-success of ongoing Egypt Protests, I put together an infographic to explain it all. Its a neat little summary of what is going on where as of today:

Note: if you find the font too small to read, click on the image to enlarge.

Related Posts:


Where did Mubarak go wrong?
Who is Mohamed ElBaradei?
A Somber Note on Egypt Protests
Vodafone suspends service in Egypt in an attempt to shutdown the protests
Military will be the key for Mubarak’s survival


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All you need to know about Arab World Protests: Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Algeria, Jordan

The entire Arab region is engulfed in popular uprisings sparked by the success of Tunisian Revolution. And it is all happening at lightning-fast speed, fuelled by Social Media and angry emotions. Here is a quick and dirty introduction to why and how this is happening.

Today hundreds of thousands of protesters are on the streets in capitals around Arab region, protesting for removal of incompetent dictators and governments. Starting from Tunisia, the anger has spread like wild fire and is constantly being fed by Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Overnight, dictators, who have ruled their countries for decades, are finding their position shaken. But for rest of the world, it is difficult to understand how a region that has not seen a government overthrow since 1979, is witnessing so many revolutions at once. Here is the explanation.

As had been pointed out by this blog, some time before these protests began, the catalyst for all of them is the rising food prices, unemployment and inflation, which has left these poverty-stricken countries in deep crisis. And to top it all off, each country had its own political baggage to exacerbate the anger. Here is how it all began.

Protests in Egypt: Military will be the key for Mubarak’s survival

While the Egyptian protests enter third day, many are expecting country’s 29-year-old dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak to fall. However, it will finally be Military’s decision to let regime fall or not.

Within a month, another Arab country has come under widespread political unrest following the Tunisian model of popular protests. While half-hearted attempts of protests against the corrupt and oppressive Egyptian regime had been going on since the successful Tunisian Revolution earlier this month, massive showdown began on 25 January, when the protesters organized themselves on Facebook.

For Dummies: Erik Prince, Mercenaries and Somali Pirates

Monday Backgrounder For Dummies is a DoT feature that discusses a new topic every week giving the reader basic knowledge about the subject so that you can pretend to know things without reading a newspaper. With Erik Prince causing buzz around the world over his possible involvement with mercenary fighting Somali Pirates, it seems a good time to talk about Blackwater and Erik Prince.

Note: there is no way to talk about Blackwater without sounding like a rant coming from a ultra-left conspiracy theorist. Unfortunately, the following stuff is true. 

In case you missed it: Last week, it was reported that a mercenary company, Saracen International, is putting together massive operations in Somalia to take on what American and European governments failed to- Somali Piracy. And to complicate the matters, the man behind it all is Erik Prince, the founder of controversial Blackwater, the private security company, infamous for the role of its mercenaries in Afghanistan and Iraq.

#5 Côte d'Ivoire has too many governments

Cote D'Ivoire is a country with two presidents. In November 2010 the country went to elections that were originally meant to be held in 2005 but were repeatedly postponed due to the Ivorian Civil War. The elections were won by the opposition, but the sitting President Laurent Gbagbo was not too keen to give up his post (unlike Mr. Nepal). So he simply decided not to hand the power over to the new government. Not to be outclassed, Alassane Ouattara, the winning candidate set up his own rival government. Both guys took the presidential oath and named cabinets.

Currently, Gbagbo holds on to the Presidential Palace while Ouattara is holed up in a hotel nearby. Ouattara has held Cabinet meetings in a tent on the hotel's lawn and is using the fax machine in the hotel manager's office to communicate with foreign embassies. Both governments keep issuing orders to the civil and military servants outside their offices and absolutely no one has any idea which ones to follow.

At least you know where both the presidents are unlike…

(Click here for the complete list)

#4 Nigerian President takes off, forgets to tell anyone

During the end of 2009, the Nigerian President Umara Yar’Adua left Nigeria to get treatment for his heart in Saudi Arabia. No big deal. Only he forgot to tell anyone or hand over the executive powers to his deputy. It was only after more than six weeks passed by without anyone hearing from him, that people started suspecting something was wrong. Six weeks? The guy must have a lot of cats.

Once his absence was realized, the country went into a constitutional crisis trying to figure out legal procedures for dealing with the power vacuum created by his absence. Then after three months of leave without permission, he showed up again in February 2010, only to hole up in his palace and refusing to meet anyone. Shortly afterwards, he died, giving way to the new President Goodluck Jonathan who is such a badass that he banned Nigerian football team from participating in international events after it failed to go beyond group stage in the FIFA World Cup. Boo yeah!

We suck!

However, this whole episode compares nothing to the comedy that went on in Afghanistan…

(Click here for the complete list)