Paying for the revolution

“Freedom ain’t free” is a commonly used idiom in the United States. Somewhat jingoistic and trite it may be — certainly when used to justify a militaristic US foreign policy — there is still much truth to the expression. The uprisings in the Arab world this year have certainly not come gratis. Many have paid the ultimate price — death — and the economic losses have been staggering. In post-revolutionary countries, economics has become a major focal point and it was arguably lop-sided economic development as much as political repression that sparked the uprisings in the first place, from Tunisia to Egypt and Bahrain, to Yemen and Syria.  One of the economic factors that contributed to the uprisings and is a cause of much inequality throughout the developing world is capital flight, and while governments may have, to varying degrees, limited ability to stop legitimate investors from pulling up stakes,an