Protests with a common theme

Will Bunch wrote an opinion piece for the *Philadelphia Inquirer* noting the large number of countries where protests are happening.

Hong Kong has been in the news. But have you heard about the protests in…
Bagdad, Iraq
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Kyiv, Ukraine (well, maybe you’ve heard of that one because Ukraine has been in the news for other reasons)
La Paz, Bolivia
Quito, Ecuador
Jakarta, Indonesia
Algiers, Algeria
Seoul, South Korea
Across Britain
San, Juan Puerto Rico
Moscow, Russia
and more?

Bunch says these protests have something in common. The people are protesting corrupt governments. There is also another thing in common. The government corruption in these countries was ignored or actively encouraged by the American government. And in many places that narrow, self-interested foreign policy began long before the nasty guy took office.

Bunch wonders why, with so much obvious corruption in American politics, the response from the American public is so muted. Though Bunch is delighted that many of the Democratic presidential candidates are talking about corruption, with Elizabeth Warren being the loudest and with the most detailed plans.

Bunch concludes:

It’s worth noting that — for the most part — the fate and the future of 2019′s global protests are very much up in the air. It wouldn’t be melodramatic to say the next few months will be among the most important in human history. If the world’s autocrats send tanks into Hong Kong or ignore centuries of British democratic tradition to ram through Brexit, or if Trump’s warnings of a second American civil war somehow come to pass, our children and grandchildren may face a grim, Orwellian future. Or this can finally be the year of People Power that so many of us hoped for — and didn’t quite see realized — in 1989 [when the Soviet Union collapsed]. It may come down to whether America chooses to sit on the sidelines or become a beacon of hope.