As Foreign Policy Magazine reports, “Equatorial Guinea’s economy depends almost entirely on oil, which generated revenues last year of well over $4 billion, giving it a per capita annual income of $37,900, on par with Belgium.” While this has given the country’s ruler (Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo) an estimated net worth of over $600m (which in reality will be many magnitudes higher) it has left the population impoverished with one in three dying before the age of 40 and a US State Department Report citing problems including (but not limited to): “…limited ability of citizens to change their government; unlawful killings by security forces; torture of detainees and prisoners by security forces; life-threatening conditions in prisons and detention facilities; official impunity; arbitrary arrest, detention, and incommunicado detention; harassment and deportation of foreign residents with limited due process; judicial corruption and lack of due process; restrictions on the right to privacy; restrictions on freedoms of speech, press, assembly, association, and movement; government corruption; violence and discrimination against women; suspected trafficking in persons; discrimination against ethnic minorities; and restrictions on labour rights….“

While the country suffers such problems- the ruler’s son lives in abject comfort, enjoying a $30m home in Malibu (California) with a $10m fleet of cars (including two $2m Bugattis) and a playboy lifestyle.  As Foreign Policy Magazine continued, “Many African regimes have degenerated into kleptocracy, but Equatorial Guinea’s corruption is so entrenched, scholar Geoffrey Wood has written, that it “is one of the few African countries that ‘can be correctly classified as a criminal state.’“

Equatorial Guinea is by no means a unique case.  Many nations throughout the world suffer incredible wealth disparities, corruption and social issues caused by dictators who control natural resources or have a vice-like grip on the political system.  Continue reading →

In recent weeks, we have seen uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Yemen and Jordan where members of the populous have taken to the streets, demonstrating and disrupting a country over issues ranging from food inflation, corruption, freedom of speech, living conditions and basic human and economic rights.  Most notably of these have been the actions in Tunisia and Egypt which, at least academically, have forced some degree of regime change.  For the first time within the Arab world, populations have realised that they can create change by mobilising.

The Missing Ingredient

So what’s changed? Why did this not happen sooner? The answer is technology.

In each of these countries, you are dealing with regimes which curtail freedom of speech and communications to a degree which gives them notional control over the population.  The combination of fixed line and mobile internet, together with social media platforms and even SMS has given ‘the general public’ tools by which they can co-ordinate themselves in an organised and massive fashion; and in a way which subverts the typical methods of censorship employed by regimes.  In the Egyptian example, even recreant actions such as  ’switching off the internet’ didn’t preclude demonstrations from continuing, as firms such as Google provide alternative access platforms for users. Continue reading →