This has been the year of protest

The vegetable stallholder who set himself alight in Tunisia in December 2010 in protest at police harrassment indirectly led to an extraordinary movement against harsh Arab regimes. Governments were toppled. It was called the Arab Spring and affected Tunisia, Morocco, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Bahrain. The dream of real democracy developing across the Arab world proved a false dawn. Perhaps only in Tunisia did the democratic spark stay alive long enough to make a difference. Nine years later we have had another year of violent protest but in other parts of the world: Hong Kong, Venezuela, Chile and Iran. Hong Kong witnessed the most staggeringly scary protests with full-scale street warfare enveloping the former British colony before the violence was brought to an end by tough, over-robust police action. Beijing wisely did not intervene with troops and eventually the most radical protestors were surrounded and defeated. Will these protests that filled our television screens for weeks bring a promise of democracy and permanent independence for Hong Kong? No, they will not. Beijing will never brook a breakaway state that has belonged to China since the handover by the British on July 1 1997. Likewise, the mass protests in Caracas and other cities and towns in Venezuela which provoked a violent response from police and troops failed to move the rigid, corrupt and repressive Nicolas Maduro to change his ways. Maduro remains president of Venezuela and the people are still trying to leave the country in their thousands to find food and jobs and a decent way of life. Protest in Venezuela achieved nothing but misery and tragedy. Democracy under Maduro died a painful death. Many of the Venezuelans leaving their country headed for Chile where there was every expectation of a life of stability and hope. But the government of Santiago took some hard economic steps including raising the price of petrol and suddenly there were huge protests in the streets of the capital. Violence broke out. The fervour for fairness amongst the people was crushed. The same thing happened in Iran when, under inceasing strain from US and international sanctions, the Tehran government raised petrol prices. Violent protests erupted in towns across the country. In all four countries the protests brought no change. Governments suppressed. So the Arab Spring failed, resulting in many cases in harsh repression, and the 2019 protests also failed. The people rose up but were quickly brought down. What a sad commentary on this world of ours.