...the lost interlude of African hope that flourished between the end of colonialism and the rise of authoritarianism in many countries...
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'...chronic instability is becoming the norm. First it was Egypt and Libya and Syria, and, in the past few days, it has been Ukraine and Venezuela—and Turkey and Thailand, too...'
In most of these cases, protesters and police do battle...without apparent conclusion...In each place, the formula is pretty much the same: demonstrators take to the streets by the thousands to decry varying degrees of corruption, insecurity, and a lack of democratic transparency—all justifiable citizens’ complaints. The response of the embattled leaders has been to objectify their opponents (calling them C.I.A.-bankrolled “fascists” in the case of Ukraine and Venezuela, and “terrorists” in the case of Egypt, Libya, and Syria), to hunker down and fight back, and in some cases, to unleash terror.
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