The Most Notable Revolutionaries of 2011

Right, wrong, or otherwise -- these freedom fighters haven't let the powers-that-be block them, and we're (mostly) better off for it.

BY DAVID J. ROTHKOPF | JULY 1, 2011

The U.S. is celebrating Independence Day and 2011 has been a year of revolution. So, it only seems appropriate that we spend a moment or two celebrating the year's most notable revolutionaries. Some directly channel the spirit of Samuel Adams and Thomas Paine, others earned their place on the list inadvertently. But everyone cited below has, for better or for worse, generated some fireworks.

Let's begin with a few honorable mention contenders for top revolutionary honors, then we can conclude by crowning a Miss Congeniality, a runner up, and a champion.

Honorable Mention: Wael Ghonim

To start on a serious note, few people captured the revolutionary spirit more fully than did Wael Ghonim, the Egyptian Google executive that even President Obama cited as an ideal leader of tomorrow for the post-Mubarak Era. Ghonim's website "We Are All Khaled Said," named after a young Egyptian who died at the hands of the government, helped galvanize opposition to Mubarak. But it was his arrest and his appearances following his release that made him the face of Tahrir Square and helped fill the world with hope that this Arab Spring might lead to real political change in Cairo and throughout the region.

PEDRO UGARTE/AFP/Getty Images

 

KAWASIORI

2:55 AM ET

July 2, 2011

Nice post

I love your site great foreignpolicy

 

THOMAS K.

9:07 AM ET

July 3, 2011

:/ The list was almost

:/

The list was almost entirely honorable mentions, the runner up were people protesting about a road and it didn't even bother to pick a winner.

Now that's just lazy writing.

 

AUKPERSPECTIVE

7:18 PM ET

July 6, 2011

Web 2.0 and Real People's Revolutions

The biggest aid to revolutionaries in 2011 and onwards - Web 2.0 not to mention a bit of Web 1.0 too plus mobile phones. How appropriate that it was a Google executive who became the figurehead in Egypt

Pre web it was very easy for the state to stop people communicating & organizing by controlling TV, radio and newspapers ... and if trouble broke out well just shut down the mobile phone network too. That made organising large public protest very difficult and also easy to control for the regime - just stop any pesky foreign journalists from getting too close.

Much harder these days with Google, Twitter and Facebook plus the handy mobile phone with built in video camera (and with instant sending we can all be foreign correspondents now). I saw Nassim Nicholas Taleb at a corporate events in London as he said modern technology makes totalitarian systems a lot less stable by allowing freedom to report information, communicate and organize. Once you have got multiple 10,000 or 100,000 demonstrations happening across your country it is crunch time for any dictator. And can you trust your army regulars to shoot on civilians - not in Syria and Libya it appears. And would it work if they did if it is going to appeat on CNN 5 minutes later?

No fun being a dictator these days. Good thing too.

 

ALANNEWMAN

10:30 PM ET

August 4, 2011

Agree with your web2.0 opinion

Totally agree with your web2.0 opinions. A lot of government has manipulated the main stream media and only show what they want the people to see. Web2.0 media is a way for the people to get connected and gain more information. My friend who works in a local shoe lifts company suggest that recent fair election rally in Malaysia has been growing stronger and become a main concern for the government to take unneeded brutal action against the people. Most people believe that their PM will be voted out in the next coming election.

 

PATRICIAMOORE

7:42 PM ET

July 10, 2011

What about solar energy farms increasing jobs?

This is good news...but half the people they hire will be from Arizona. Or even from California. This will provide some decent paying jobs and there will be some construction work for a couple of years.

When completed, the factory and an area for an industrial park would sit on 300 to 400 acres about 12 miles south of Laughlin, east of Needles Highway and west of the Colorado River. The factory would create about 2,000 skilled manufacturing jobs, according to county documents.

ENN chose Laughlin after surveying the Southwest and finding few other states with large swaths of land available for residential solar power development. The company wants to sell the energy generated by the project to California power companies.