A year of beautiful language and imagination kindles hope for the days to come

THE 2010 ended with a tragedy, when on December 17 after being harassed by police Mohamed Bouazizi, the roadside vegetable vendor set himself on fire in Tunisia. His fault was that he was doing ‘businesses’ without a permit. However, the flames of Bouazizi’s self-immolation gave birth to Arab Spring in 2011, which started from Tunisia, engulfed Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Yemen, Lebanon, Jordan, finally it reached the Wall Street. And slogans against economic and social inequality were heard in over 95 cities across 82 countries. These still pulsate. These were not sudden, but had been in the making.

The 2011 was a year which taught so many new words to the world like ‘Arab Spring’, the Spanish "Indignants", the Occupy Movement’, ‘We are the 99%’, Egyptian Revolution 2011, 2011 Yemeni Uprising, Libyan Civil War, ‘Jasmine Revolution’ and ‘India against corruption’.

These were not the hollow terms coined by establishments or darbari epistemologists. These words, slogans, phenomenon were created while in epic battles against the established dwindling order. These are the words for which 2011 will always be remembered because; these words were created in the streets by the people, for the people. These are the words, the impact of which was seen from Wall Street in New York in the shape of the Occupy Movement to the call for ‘Jasmine Revolution’ in Bejing’s Tiananmen Square.

While addressing the protestor Occupy movement, the celebrated author Arundhati Roy said that the Occupy movement has introduced 'a new imagination, a new political language into the heart of empire'. The 2011 will be remembered for that beautiful language and imagination, which it gave to the world.

This struggle has re-awakened our imagination, lit our faces. Somewhere along the way, capitalism had reduced the idea of justice to mean abstract “human rights” and the idea of dreaming of equality had become blasphemous. We are not fighting to tinker with reforming a system that requires a major surgery.

So let’s not let the imagination die and beautiful words of 2011. Let’s add a few more words to the vocabulary of “beautiful language” and take the imagination beyond the barriers of reform so old systems could be replaced with fresh ones. Thank you 2011! Welcome 2012!

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