I am forever in love with maps. While doing a little research about why the revolution in the Arab world is called the "Jasmine Revolution" I realized that in recent years many revolutions have often been given non-political, non-personal names. So I decided to make a map out of this knowledge of names of recent revolutions.
Libya and Syria are now included in this map. As of today, the 9th of April 2011, the date of the revision of this map, Muammar Gaddafi and the revolutionaries are still fighting each other in Libya and no negotiations have been started. Last night I did listen to a senior ex-Gaddafi minister on Hard Talk who was confident that Gaddafi is not going to be able to hold out much longer and the revolution in Libya will be successful. The NATO-led coalition is still fighting against Gaddafi's mercenaries.
Meanwhile in Syria 20 protesters more were killed in Dera in their struggle to overthrow President Bashar Al Assad. No progress there either. Each promise for reform made by President Bashar Al Assad is followed by a fresh wave of violence against the protesters. It's almost as if a promise made is a clear hint towards fresh retribution. So Syria is still in a revolutionary limbo as of now. Though the situation could change.
The revolutions and their names shown in this map chronologically are:
1. Carnation Revolution, Portugal 1974
2. Velvet Revolution, Czechoslovakia and USSR 1989
3. Rose Revolution, Georgia 2003
4. Orange Revolution, Ukraine 2004
5. Tulip Revolution, Kyrgyzstan 2005
6. Jasmine Revolution, Arab World 2010-2011
The Jasmine Revolution is a term specifically for the Tunisian events and I don't think the protests and unrest taking place at various hot-spots in the Arab World have all been clubbed under the umbrella term Jasmine revolution as yet. However it was Mohamed Bouazizi's sacrifice which sparked the domino effect in Tunisia, Algeria, Yemen and Egypt. The tremors are being felt all over the region and in certain Asian regimes as well.
I hope that the Arab people find themselves in a much better position once their struggle is successful. I also hope that peace comes to these people soon.
Click on the map to view a larger image.
I may have missed some other names of revolutions and I would like to know about these if this is the case.
Feel free to use this map for any purpose you like, just link back here / give credit. Email me for bigger file size or other file formats (pdf,gif,png etcetera)
