i'm joined now by a labor research fellow with the global public policy institute focusing on democracy and human rights in the middle east and north africa this is labor thanks for joining us the revolution the arab spring the so-called arab spring was fueled by hopes of a better future and dave many regime leaders were toppled yet today many people in the arab spring countries say their lives are worse than before a big gap between rich and poor and the like was the arab spring therefore worth it . thanks for having me rebecca well the hopes that europe's uprising start for more of them are perceived as human rights justice and less repression corruption and so if you're going to make an equality has been smashed as you have pointed out by repressive government responses military coups and civil war and the underlying structures factors actually still remain in place such as so if you're going to make inequality widespread poverty and the lack of job opportunities for the young people prevailing corruption and repressive regime regime apparatuses so all in all although we now draw a r