Khalid Albaih is a Romanian born political cartoonist. He uses the internet and various social medias including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as well as a variety of other blogs and websites, as platforms for his work. He lives in Qatar and his work generally focuses on issues within the Arab world. Albaih has drawn countless cartoons and in the process inspired commotion and dissatisfaction throughout the Arab community. His works have been located on the internet and transformed and recreated into graffiti and posters in various Arab nations including Sudan, Yemen, and Egypt. He views his digital cartoons as a part of a monumental virtual, and artistic, revolution.
Albaih and his virtual revolution is habitually connected to the most significant revolution of recent times within the Arab world which is referred to as Arab Spring. The Arab Spring was essentially a series of demonstrations across many Arab nations; there were protests both violent and non-violent. Significant uprisings were seen in Syria, Libya, Yemen, Egypt, Bahrain, Algeria, Iraq and more. A major basis for the rebellious activities carried out in Arab Spring was a call for democracy. Democratic revolutions across time and space can be linked in many ways. I would specifically like to link the revolutions affiliated with Arab Spring to the democratization of Latin America.
Latin America is a region which has for years been widely plagued by a seemingly endless struggle for democracy. Nations such as Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and many more have experienced both the creation and breakdown of democratic institutions. A commonality between all of these transitions into democratic rule, as well as many other transitions in other regions and during other time periods, is that they were so often propelled, at least in part, by more artistic revolutions. A great deal of transitions to democracy originated in nations that were under authoritarian rule. For example, Chile was overthrown by a military coup in the year 1973 and remained under that rule, officially, until 1989. The process of this passage to democratic rule in Chile was lengthy, arduous, and demanded the involvement of many different actors. Though there is the ever significant role of elite leaders within the military, government (or what is there left), and economy, there is also an equal, and arguably more important, role of the opposition. In transitions to democracy there must always be that first person or group to initiate a rebellion. Time and time again artists, intellectuals, or singers have been the front runners of the opposition. These people hold a momentous position of untouchability. A repressive government will have no trouble kidnapping, killing, or torturing any other civilian in the working class, but a more prominent figure such as an artist would cause much more uproar if they disappeared in the night. From this standpoint artists possess the power of speaking out against an unjust government and demanding change. Whether it be a singer incorporating indirect calls for change in the lyrics of a song or an artist such as Albaih himself allowing for his art to embody such messages; these public condemnations of unjust circumstances summon for the assemblage and mobilization of the masses. This is what leads to change. Just as so many artists before him have, Khalid Albaih is proving that speaking out by means of art is a way of evoking change. Whether his virtual revolution takes 5 years, 10 years, or 500 years history has proved that, although it may be tedious, it will eventually succeed.