Rebellion is something that has been seen all our lives. An act of violent or open resistance used in order to defend one’s personal point. Anything from peaceful marchers to violent protests. An act of rebellion can only go so far. So when do we know when too much is enough. And when is it safe to say that a point has been fully made. When should we as people draw the line. Relating to all of this most recently there have been events that have struck acts of rebellion and have drawn into question the ending results.
Recently this year in Nicaragua around the time in April there was a revolt against the current president Daniel Ortega. A revolt due to the controversial pension reforms this president has made and wanting him to be removed from his power. Over 300 people being killed and that not including everyone that has been injured. As stated in the article Nicaragua: what’s driving the uprising and what comes next? “Nicaraguan officials have repeatedly cast protesters as criminals and “terrorists” involved in a US-backed conspiracy. The vice-president, Rosario Murillo, has accused the “satanic” opposition of driving the violence and attacked what she calls a “false” anti-Ortega media.” Both the protesters and the Nicaragua officials are responding to each other with violet acts, but that it seems the protesters are doing it with full hate and to make their point shown.
Recently there was a uprising in Iran that brought back horrible flashbacks to a time in 1979. A current battle over food prices and unemployment. By the end of the week people had enough, and began to pour out into the streets beginning to upturn police vehicles and setting government officials ablaze. Hundreds where arrested, 12 where pronounced dead, and these people were originally greeted with tear gas. In the article The uprising in Iran: ‘This is what revolution looks like they make the statement: “Judging by the fact that they killed those protesters, I don’t think it’s going to stop. But I want to say, no matter what the outcome of these protests, the people of Iran have already won, because no longer does this regime have any legitimacy. Zero legitimacy. Because over and over again, people have said they don’t want an Islamic republic.” Proving in this case that things won’t be ending anytime soon and not in any peaceful way. The protesters are rebelling and the officers of Iran are rebelling right back.
Rebellion often is ignored until someone dies, only then will things be taken into account most of the time. A political cartoon I found demonstrates a message that we as people often ignore. It illustrates an Iranian man with a very long beard, and the beard is made up of people. People that are climbing up his beard trying to reach the top in a frantic manner, and the Iranian man looking frustrated and angry while this is occurring. And the caption on the image is “The Iranian rebellion the world wants to ignore Six hundred people have already been arrested and dozens killed. Civilians don’t stand a chance.” Foreshadowing this idea that while all this chaos is happening it seems to still be ignored and that because of this we as citizens we don’t stand a chance. And any results will most likely end up being negative ones. We rebel and it usually leads us to death or having that power being taken away from us in order to be silenced by those with greater power.
So what’s the solution? What can we as individuals do? A clear solution is not one that is simple, because when two sides rebel they won’t likely be on the same page. We can’t stop people from expressing their opinions, but we most certainly can try to stop it from getting out of hand. To handle things in a manner that doesn’t involve tear gas or guns, but in a way where there are limits for both sides in every situation we become faced with. All we can do is let these things happen and take into account what we will do after it’s over, and what we can do better for the next time. To educate people and make them more aware.
