As 2011 ends, its time to take stock. Perhaps more is at stake today than ever before. Our world is changing monumentally. From the Kyoto Accord to the EU split, from the Arab Spring to austerity protests in Europe, the world seems topsy turvy.

Though I do not pay much heed to it, I have to also mention TIME magazine’s declaration today that their Person Of The Year is The Protestor.

I think that this glamorous title needs some perspective. Why is it that this is the year of the protestor. How is it that 2011 came to be that year, and what do we take away from it?

I feel like I may be reverting back to my rhetoric of old when I say that it is clear that our world is coming apart at the seams. We are the cusp, or perhaps we have already jumped of a mountain. Does it not seem that everywhere we look, everywhere we turn, there are people who are expressing their dissatisfaction with the state of affairs? Have we had enough? Have we truly been pushed so far that we leave the comforts of our homes and march down streets in numbers never seen before to declare, Basta! Enough!

From Athens to London, Cairo to Tunis, Aden to Damascus, Ben Ghazi to Tripoli, New York to Moscow - people are rising up. Sure, its not everyone. Sure, its not even even one sixth of the global population, but in doesn’t take much. It didn’t take much. What army can hold back such a show of force? Who can challenge the might of the people?

2011 gave us a clear answer- use that pepper spray, use those bullets (rubber or otherwise), use your tanks, your water pipes, your servicemen or your merceneries - all methods are welcome, because all methods are useless. We are here, we are fighting, in our own ways, on our own terms, and we will bring change.

This is not the year of the protestor. This is the year of the awakening. The system stacked against us is faulty, it is bleeding us dry, it is mincing us raw, and we have been pushed far enough now to push back. I will bring my child to the protest, I will invite my grandmother too.

Viva la revolucion, bitches.

Al Jazeera | People & Power - Ingushetia: A Second Chechnya?

Ingushetia is a tiny province that borders Chechnya, the perennially rebellious Russian province. Over the years, as Russian forces have cracked down on Chechnyan militants in an effort to combat radical Islamic terrorists, the fighting has spilt over into Ingushetia. This documentary provides a rare look into the inner-workings of Russian provincial politics by exploring how the Russian government is addressing its concerns of rising militancy within Ingushetia. 

unesco:

The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood on the Griboyedov Canal in St. Petersburg, Russia

Holy gorgeous.

You wanna know what is going on/will probably happen soon in Afghanistan-Pakistan?

Then read this article. Keep your boots laced if you wanna keep pace, this piece pulls no punches and doesn’t slow down for stragglers.

Pinkhus Karlinskii, eighty-four years old with sixty-six years of service. Supervisor of Chernigov floodgate, part of the Mariinskii Canal system in Russia. Photo taken in 1909.

I am speechless. This collection of century old photographs of Russia is simply astounding.

Russia’s South Stream Gas Pipeline Project

Hat tip: RIANOVOSTI

If you read one article posted by me this year (or ever), read this one.

If you want to know what Pakistani newspapers are editorializing about, what the hottest topics of discussion at family gatherings are and what the professors in Pakistan are speaking about to their students, this is an article that you cannot miss.

Written by a professor at Berkley, it is in ever sense of the word, a meta-analysis of the Af-Pak situation, and the looming crisis in the Central Asian Republics.

via Informed Comment