When the Eastern Wall fell, and Glasnost came in Russia, it was a kind of a revolution for a while, sure, but what we experience in Africa today is a far more greater historical event.
I agree, although I have been reluctant to hold out hope for the significance of the difference I feel. But it does appear to me to be different in a distinct way.
Timothy Garton Ash, for all his fame, seemed to waste a whole article making the point, that these revolutions are similar yet different - that they are 2011, and not all those before. But he didn't explain why, which is the main thing.
I feel, or I hope I feel (if I allow myself a little of the hope delusion), that this sequence of events represents a whole new wave of energy arising, which has no precedence. We are witnessing the birth of something which will eventually sweep the whole planet. Not in a rush, but within ten to twenty years, or sooner.
It is the demise of an old order. They will get Julian Assange, but they won't stop what he represents. People have been empowered by technology, which in its turn has been set lose by other forces. There has been a definite shift, which I have felt since the 1990s, but not really seen manifest until now.
Anyway, looks like Qaddafi is digging in. What is happening in Libya now, is that all those cities and areas which have gone 'free', are rushing to Tripoli to finish off Qaddafi, because they know if they allow him to survive, and he reasserts control of the country, then they will be hunted down and killed.