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Malawi protests: An African spring?

A protester burns vegetation in a street in Lilongwe, Malawi, last week. Protesters went on the rampage after a court injunction stopped them protesting the economic and democratic crisis in the country.
Associated Press
A protester burns vegetation in a street in Lilongwe, Malawi, last week. Protesters went on the rampage after a court injunction stopped them protesting the economic and democratic crisis in the country.

Just as when Tunisians first rose up against their government, few outside are paying much attention.

The same basic forces — unemployment, high food prices, human rights abuses and mistrust of government — which sparked the revolt in Tunisia and then led to today’s widespread popular revolution across the Arab world, is now at play in this small, southeastern African nation.

Read more.

The host of the Humanosphere community is Tom Paulson, who spent 22 years reporting on science and medicine at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Tom was one of the first daily news reporters to cover the topic of “global health” (a much-debated label which he discusses the merits of on the Humanosphere website).