Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

What Is Happening in The World, Op-ed


Sun 14 Jun 2020 | 11:15 AM
Elham Abuelfateh

What is happening in the world ... Is it the symptoms of coronavirus, an unimaginable chaos ... or a western spring? Is it one of the features of 2020 that started with the spread of the most dangerous virus accompanied by clashes, battles, pisions, water and oil wares?.

Demonstrations and protests around the whole world in an uprising against injustice, repression, colonialism, racism and violent actions against peoples. The beginning was in the United States after the demonstrators rejected all the excuses to justify the hideous way in which George Floyd was killed under the legs of the policemen.

Although it was not the first time, but preceded by several previous racist acts in the United States where police officers killed black citizens through firing bullets, for refusing to stop or they were in a situation that posed a threat .. In any case, killing George Floyd by police made it clear to the world that it was a deliberate murder, as the he was shouting “I can't breathe”

It seems that the muffled breath  in the United States has found a way out in the hearts of the world that feels and realizes the meaning of humanity.

In London, thousands of demonstrators and protesters took to streets, tried to storm the royal palace and announced their rejection to racism with the slogan of the life of blacks is important and in Bristol they destroyed Edward Colston statue, the symbol of racism,as he was originally a slave trader. They pulled the statue to the ground to throw it into the river, amid anti-racism chants.

In Paris: protests erupted and the French police were forced to disperse the demonstrators with tear gas.

In Brussels, the capital of the European Union, which is like most European countries, had a historical stock of colonial exploitation as the Democratic Republic of the Congo was privately owned by King Leopold II, demonstrations against racism flared up and moved from Brussels to Antwerp and Liege; despite the Coronavirus curfew.

Munich witnessed one of the largest demonstrations in which 30,000 people gathered and went to other German cities, including Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg., and Berlin.

In Bulgaria, the demonstrators  took to streets, shouting at George Floyd's latest words, "I can't breathe!"

In Mexico City, the murder of George Floyd not only provoked anger in the country, but also drew attention to the fate of construction worker Giovanni Lopez, who was arrested and died due to the police violence, for not wearing a protective mask.

In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joined thousands of demonstrators kneeling on his knee. Trudeau knelt several times, the last of which lasted for eight minutes and 46 seconds, the time when George Floyd stayed under the knee of white policeman Derek Chauvin,

In Pretoria, South Africa, the demonstrators waved a fist in the manner of the spiritual father of combating racism, Nelson Mandela, repeating his famous phrase on the way to freedom!

The Middle East has not escaped chaos, too. Turkey’s intentions to seize Libyan oil are increasing, and it’s problems with its neighbors in Cyprus and Greece for the seizure of Mediterranean gas after it wreaked havoc in Syria through its extremist militias.

Egypt is facing many conflicts with Corona from one hand in addition to its desperate attempts to avoid wars and destruction and to preserve its borders from terrorists and ISIS who occupied Libya, and from the other hand it seeks to avoid conflicts with Ethiopia to preserve the right of its people in the Nile water due to the Renaissance Dam. It is also facing Ethiopia’s arbitrariness and its withdrawal from negotiations and announcing the start of filling the dam.

This is the world today, a struggle with disease, a struggle with injustice, persecution, and racism. So how the beautiful and calm life bounce back?