Arab Spring

Question 1

What is the Arab Spring?

Answer 1

Series of protests across Middle East and North Africa (MENA)

Wave of (sometimes) revolutionary demonstrations, protests and civil wars

Also known as the ‘Arab awakenings’

Began Tunisia 17 December 2010

Self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi ( Dabashi 2012)

Question 2

Why were people protesting?

Answer 2

Disillusionment with ruling governments/leaders
Human rights violations
Political corruption
Economic decline
Extreme poverty
Youth unemployment
Increasing food prices

Question 3

Similarities to other revolutionary events?

Answer 3

Parallels with the 1989 fall of communist regimes in E. Europe?

Question 4

Key differences between Arab Spring and Eastern Europe

Answer 4

Arab Spring occurs largely outside of formal party politics, institutional bodies and readily identifiable social movements.

Nature of protests = often protean and informal

Use of social media as a tool to organise protests

End of post-colonialism? (Dabashi 2012)

Question 5

What triggered the Arab Awakenings in Egypt?

Answer 5

25th January – national holiday to show appreciation for the police - ‘day of rage’ sparked 18 days of protest

Question 6

Who was the president of Egypt and how long had he been in power?

Answer 6

Hosni Mubarak – in power for 30 years

Question 7

What did Mubarak do to stop protests?

Answer 7

Sends troops onto the streets – hundreds of protesters killed and thousands injured

Question 8

What occurred on 1st Feb 2011?

Answer 8

More than one million protesters in Tahrir Square

Question 9

Key elements of Egyptian revolution

Answer 9

Egyptian Revolution – diverse movement of protests, civil disobedience, labour strikes, riots…

Protest in Egypt nothing new, but Tunisia galvanised and inspired protests with renewed vigour

Islamic, anti-capitalist and feminist undercurrents to protest

Loose coalition of protesters organised via Facebook

Attempted block social networking, 
mobile communication and internet

Protesters come from a variety of 
different socio-economic and
religious backgrounds

Question 10

1995 World Food Summit in Rome defined food security as:

Answer 10

Food security exists when:

all people, at all time
have physical, social and economic access
nutritious and safe food which 
meet their dietary needs, and 
food preferences for an 
active and healthy life

Question 11

Supply of food is not enough, also need…

Answer 11

Entitlement to food
Access to food
Assets to afford food

Question 12

AAA

Answer 12

Availability, Accessibility, Affordability

Question 13

3 routes nation can take to feed its population:

Answer 13

1. Domestic production, self-sufficiency
2. International trade (food import)
3. Food aid (food donors)

Question 14

How do we measure food security?

Answer 14

Food gap

Difference between food requirement and domestic production

Question 15

Which is the most food insecure region in the world?

Answer 15

MENA

Question 16

What proportion of most of the Arab countries’ food calories are imported?

Answer 16

50%

Question 17

What percentage of food calories come from wheat in most Arab countries?

Answer 17

45%

Question 18

How much cereal did the MENA region important in 2007?

Answer 18

58 million metric tons

Question 19

Why is there food insecurity in the MENA region?

Answer 19

INCREASED DEMAND

Incredibly rapid pop growth – (i.e. Emirates 3000% over last 40 years)

Most Arab countries in top 20 countries w/growing population

Rapid income growth after oil
boom in the 70s

Extensive urbanisation

Food production not kept
 pace with demand.

Ecological
and climate reasons involved 
(arid or semi-arid lands, 
lack of water or arable land)

Question 20

What is the MENA region’s food gap predicted to grow to in next 20 years?

Answer 20

60%

Question 21

Food supply and demand are…

Answer 21

Inelastic

Very small changes in food supply (i.e. drought) get amplified in large price changes in the global markets

Question 22

Where does 73% of all food traded internationally 
come from?

Answer 22

US
Canada
Australia
Argentina
EU

Question 23

What other factors impact upon food supply?

Answer 23

Climate change and geopolitics

Question 24

What percentage of their income do the middle class spend on food in Egypt compared to US?

Answer 24

40% vs 6.9%

Question 25

What proportion of the MENA region is poor?

Answer 25

¼

Question 26

There has been a massive increase in food prices for basic food stuff, in Egypt the increase in price was…

Answer 26

20%

Question 27

After the uprising…

Answer 27

Some governments slashed food prices

Question 28

Food prices are not expected to go down, because of:

Answer 28

increased demand for biofuel

increased consumption of meat and dairy

climate change

high oil prices

speculation in food commodities

growing embargo on export of food producers (or fear of these restraints)

Question 29

How much of the MENA region’s water supply does agriculture take up?

Answer 29

80%

Question 30

How much of the region’s GDP does agriculture account for?

Answer 30

12%

Question 31

What seems to be the best alternative/solution to the MENA region’s food insecurity?

Answer 31

Food production outsourcing

Acquire land in remote parts of the country or in other countries

Question 32

Criticisms of land acquisition deals

Answer 32

1. Tax exemption
2. Labour abuse
3. Threaten food security in the host country (i.e. Saudi Arabia is shipping food from land it owns in Ethiopia, while Ethiopia relies on food aid, similar case in Sudan)
4. Farmers in Kenya and Pakistan are opposing land selling
5. Investors don’t care about local population
   New form of imperialism? Neo-colonialism?