Protests in Cuba, Iran, and South Africa

Protests have recently popped up across the globe. Let's take a look at what is happening.

Cuba

Al Jazerra (Jul 17) reports:

On July 11 and 12, thousands of Cubans took to the streets in 40 cities around the island shouting “Freedom,” “Down with the dictatorship,” and “We’re hungry.”

. . . Protesters took to the streets in towns around Cuba last Sunday to protest against power outages, a COVID-19 surge, widespread shortages of basic goods and the one-party political system.

Miami Herald (Jul 15) has some interesting takes from Democrats and progressives:

Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida:

“The DPCF demands the one thing that the United States has within its power to do right now that we know will immediately and measurably improve the lives of the Cuban people suffering on the island: President Biden, lift the Cuban embargo now!”

Manny Diaz, Chairman of the Florida Democratic Party:

“It’s completely, factually incorrect and it plays into the communist playbook that the U.S. is always a bogeyman.”

BLM

“The people of Cuba are being punished by the U.S. government because the country has maintained its commitment to sovereignty and self-determination. United States leaders have tried to crush this revolution for decades. Instead of international amity, respect and goodwill, the U.S. government has only instigated suffering for the country’s 11 million people, of which 4 million are Black and Brown.”

Iran

Iran is seeing protests in the Khuzestan province. BBC (Jul 17) reports:

Iran is facing a severe drought, and there is growing public anger over water and power shortages.

. . . Iranian authorities have downplayed the scale of the protests, which have been held in several of the oil-rich province's towns and cities.

Videos said to be from the demonstrations and posted online show people setting fire to tyres to block roads. In one of them, security forces are seen following a crowd in helmets and camouflage fatigues.

South Africa

Al Jazeera (Jul 17) reports:

Gunshots and petrol bombs reverberated across Kwa-Zulu Natal province following the arrest of former President Jacob Zuma in the early hours of July 8.

In the days after that, sporadic protests turned into rampant looting, growing more violent and destructive in two of Southern Africa’s biggest economic hubs – Durban and Johannesburg.

. . . “The majority of the people that are looting are poor and unemployed and tired of the inequalities,” said Vuyo Zungula, an opposition MP and president of the African Transformation Movement.

I think one would have to admit that US embargos and sanctions are impacting the protests that are occurring in Iran and Cuba. As mentioned above, both countries are dealing with power outages and water shortages. Those have to be exacerbated by difficulties in getting proper supplies for maintenance of these facilities. Blaming the United States would be too simple. I have to believe that people want political freedom. And in the case of Iran, it appears they're dealing with a drought -- which, of course, so is California, but California has the necessary infrastructure (such as reservoirs) to deal with multi-year droughts. Finally, is the CIA and other US entities playing any role in these two countries? That has to be a question that is asked due to our adversarial relationships. Or perhaps Israel and Saudi Arabia in Iran.

As for South Africa, the main driver appears to be internal politics, but I suspect that is too simplistic and that as Vuyo Zungula stated, poverty plays a role. I'm sure there are other issues going on here, as well.

And let me also assume that government corruption is a major issue in all three countries.

Over-arching all of this has to be the fact that COVID-19 has plagued the globe since February / March 2020. We're dealing with nearly 18 months of suffering across the globe. 

These protests could end quickly or they could continue. We've seen protests before such as the Green Demonstrations that happened in Iran over a decade ago that, at least on the surface, had little impact on the government. On the other end, we had the Arab Spring that impacted various North African countries. It is interesting that these three countries are having protests around the same time. It could be nothing at all or it could be something. Maybe COVID-19 is the straw that broke the camel's back and we'll see more protests spread across the globe over the coming months.