The Tots 100 Blog Hop this month is on the topic of beauty. There are a couple of lines that I remember from studying English at school that come to mind whenever there is talk of beauty:
“‘beauty is truth, truth beauty,’ – that is all / Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know”
As someone whose beauty regime consists of a quick hair-brush, a roll of deodorant and a smear of moisturiser, a romantic declaration such as this is practically vindication. Of course, there are very few mirrors in our house, which may also be the reason that I haven’t bowed to the inevitable and splashed out on shares in a cosmetic company: after a week of sleep-training there are more bags under my eyes than in Heathrow Terminal Five during ski season.
Yet putting aside my inadequate School Run Mum beauty regime, something in this quote makes me think of current global unrest, and exactly whether truth can be beautiful.
There has been a domino-effect across the Middle East in the last few weeks. From Tunisia to Egypt to Bahrain the people have held anti-government demonstrations in pursuit of some of the many privileges that we who live in a democracy enjoy. The people of Libya, who are fighting to oust their leader of thirty years, Colonel Gaddafi, are dying on the streets as they pursue a new future. The UK government have now frozen Gaddafi’s assets as the UN pursues a resolution to prosecute him for the reign of terror he has ordered to curb protesters.
News seems to be coming thick and fast now but in the first few days of the troubles, accurate reports from the country were sporadic. One of the first responses of the Egyptian government to pro-democracy rallies was to shut down the country’s internet. Libya albeit briefly, followed suit, the ruling powers realising that the freedom of information the World Wide Web provided, and the freedom of communication, is responsible for the people on the streets. No longer ignorant, they are walking the path to Democracy.
I presume the Middle East revolution strikes fear into the hearts of regimes still suppressing their people by keeping them ignorant, restricting access to the internet above all other information sources. Information is power, to cite the cliche. The internet provides an astounding amount of information, leaving the reader the freedom to interpret it as they wish; to find their own truth. The people of Egypt, Libya, Tunisia have found their truth, and they have marched for Freedom; the opportunity to live their lives however they choose. Is there anything more beautiful than that?
Go on! You know you want to tell me what you think!