Int’l media following protests across ‘Arab world’ but ignoring those in Africa

International media is following protests across the ‘Arab world’ but ignoring those in Africa. SUPRISE SUPRISE, U STILL CANT ACCEPT THE HAITIAN REVOLUTION EITHER M#@*$$%*#S.

So clearly Egypt and etc have gotten a lotta international recognition re: revolutionary furvor, but its never compared with or covered alongside any other parts of Africa — only other places in the “Middle East”. Great article HERE tackling the issue, bringing up some struggles that in fact ARE going on south of egypt and libya, and are super connected to the North African/Far West Asian uprisings.

… reports surfaced of political unrest in a West African country called Gabon. With little geo-political importance, news organisations seem largely oblivious to the drama that began unfolding on January 29, when the opposition protested against Ali Bhongo Odhimba’s government, whom they accuse of hijacking recent elections. The demonstrators demanded free elections and the security forces duly stepped in to lay those ambitions to rest. The clashes between protesters and police that followed show few signs of relenting.

Elsewhere on the continent protests have broken out in Khartoum, Sudan where students held Egypt-inspired demonstrations against proposed cuts to subsidies on petroleum products and sugar…

Ethiopian media have also reported that police there detained the well-known journalist Eskinder Nega for “attempts to incite” Egypt-style protests. In Cameroon, the Social Democratic Front Party has said that the country might experience an uprising similar to those in North Africa if the government does not slash food prices.

And a thesis about why sub-saharan africa may have a harder time with ‘succesful’ riots – but this sounds a little too much like the common story told of an enormous area, and the nothing wants to know more…

“In most of the countries that have had fairly ‘successful riots’ the societies are fairly homogeneous compared to sub-Saharan Africa where there are a multiplicity of ethnic groups that are themselves very polarised. In sub-Saharan Africa, where governments have been able to divide people along ethnic-political lines, it becomes easier to hijack an uprising because of ethnic differences, unlike in North Africa.”

But check the Ivory Coast:

[Int’l media totally neglected] Ivory Coast, where the UN estimates that at least 300 people have died and the opposition puts the figure at 500.

“With due deference to the bravery of the Egyptian demonstrators, protesters who gathered this weekend in Abidjan [in Ivory Coast] aren’t up against a military that safeguards them – it shoots at them.

“The country’s economy has been coughing up blood since November, with banks shutting by the day, businesses closing by the hour and thousands of families fleeing their homes,” he continues. “And in all of this where is Anderson Cooper? Where is Nicolas Kristof? Why is Bahrain a front page news story while Ivory Coast is something buried at the bottom of the news stack?”

[In] Djibouti… 20,000 people protested this weekend according to the opposition.”

Fear of a black planet.