If you know your history

Then you would know where you’re coming from

Then you wouldn’t have to ask me

Who the heck do I think I am?

–Bob Marley (February 6, 1945 – May 11, 1981)

Posting remained light this last week, due to a number of factors — the start of my new semester teaching, the Egypt crisis crowding out other news, a couple of personal issues. But I’m lining up posts for tomorrow and after right now, and there’s a lot to cover. Here are some highlights:

• Eleven students at the University of California at Irvine — the Irvine 11 — have been indicted on misdemeanor conspiracy and disruption charges in connection to their alleged involvement in an action at a campus speech by an Israeli official one year ago. This is a huge story, and one which I’ll be covering in depth in the days and weeks to come.

• I’ll also be doing my best to add useful content to discussions around the current uprisings in the Arab world. I won’t always have much to contribute, and when I don’t, I’ll tend to just keep my mouth shut, but I’ll be piping up as I’m able.

• And of course it’s not just the Arab world that’s seeing an unexpected amount of youth and student organizing right now.

• Here in the US, signs are pointing toward March as being a big month.

In other news…

• A statewide student group in New York is breaking with a near-consensus among student activists nationally and calling for a tuition increase in SUNY, contingent on the revenue coming back to the system’s campuses.

• A student strike against new fees continues in Puerto Rico.

• New federal regulations on for-profit colleges are expected soon, and could be another big blow to an industry already reeling from bad press and customer dissatisfaction.

• Julian Assange’s extradition hearing is scheduled to begin tomorrow in London. New details are expected to emerge from the hearing on claims that Assange sexually assaulted two women in Sweden.

Malcolm Gladwell, on the New Yorker’s website, today:

In the French Revolution the crowd in the streets spoke to one another with that strange, today largely unknown instrument known as the human voice.

Just one question, Malcolm. How old are you?

I’m serious — my grandfather doesn’t sound this old, and he’s been dead for twelve years.

Tunisia ousted a dictator seventeen days ago, and its people are struggling toward democracy. The median age of the people of Tunisia is 29.

Egypt has seen millions of people take to the streets this morning, and appears to be on the verge of overthrowing its unelected President. The median age of the people of Egypt is 29.

Palestinian officials announced today that they will be holding their first municipal elections in five years “as soon as possible.” The median age of the people of the West Bank is 20, and the median age of the people of Gaza is 17.

The government of Yemen, facing widespread popular protests, has just announced the suspension of university tuition and the creation of a new jobs program for recent university graduates. The median age of the people of Yemen is 18.

The king of Jordan has just dissolved that nation’s government and appointed a new prime minister — supposedly tasked with implementing reforms. The median age of the people of Jordan is 21.

As pro-democracy youth protest movements sweep the Arab world, the government of Yemen announced this morning that university tuition fees would be suspended for the rest of the year and a new jobs program would be created for young university graduates.

The government is trying desperately to defuse popular opposition in the wake of massive democratic movements in countries from Tunisia to Egypt and beyond. Opponents of the current regime have called a day of action for this Thursday.