Fascinated, I’m watching northern Africa and the Middle East. People want rights. They want to be heard and the stories are visual, dramatic and touching. We hear the human voice and empathize with the pain.
I cry at senseless death too.
But what remains when the camera crews leave?
We all hope that they get democracy, jobs, equal rights and an education. In an ideal world…
I’m writing some, in Escape (Captive’s sequel) about these people’s protests. The situation there fascinates me. How to take the protest and turn it into good government and not a much worse dictatorships (known to happen after the military takes over). If these countries are lucky, strong leaders, who value the people, will arise and fill the power void. If not, the situations will only get worse.
Revolutions are so much written about in literature. You have the Russians, the French, the American, and so many others. Any time of great change brings out the imagination. A new order will come to replace the old. What will it look like?
Perhaps I should read more science fiction. I’ve read that in those books the most creative visions take hold to captivate a reader’s mind. My 2012 resolution? For now, reality is offering plenty a fertile ground for imagining a new reality. We started online and now it’s spreading beyond into people’s lives.
A few of the people who “like” Captive on Facebook live in Iran. I love that! No country is an island anymore…though many still don’t have connectivity and so can’t hook up to the world. Soon, soon.
As we’ve seen with the coming of this new year, change does come.
The pictures of the riots may sell newspapers: because boundaries continue to blur and the world gets smaller.
