Bahrain stands out as the first example of an Arab country where popular protests were crushed – with the assistance of neighbouring Saudi Arabia and the acquiescence of the US and Britain, whose military, strategic and business interests wed them to a status quo in which the Sunni Al Khalifa dynasty rules over a disenfranchised Shia majority.
And perhaps in the context of the disenfranchised community from which she comes, there is truth in that.
I'd had enough of childish, angry, disenfranchised academic passivity – and still resent the utter failure of public intellectuals to resist and critique the laughably short Browne review the moment it drew breath.
Hispanic residents, who make up 56% of the city's population, remain a disenfranchised majority in Pasco.
Whiteness, like all racial identities, is a relatively recent historical concept, conceived during European colonialism and American slavery as a way to empower poor whites with "whiteness" and divide them politically and economically from other disenfranchised people.
The Outsiders gave a powerful voice to a group of teenagers who were hitherto disenfranchised, marginalised and cast aside.
If proportional representation is not speeding to the top of the political agenda soon, then a large proportion of the voting population will continue to be disenfranchised, their votes will be seen to have unequal value and impact to others and people's disengagement with politics will only grow deeper.
There must be millions of us, up and down the land, who have spent a whole lifetime being effectively disenfranchised by it.
We have an archaic and divisive voting system that leaves millions disenfranchised and forces millions more to feel that they have to vote for a 'lesser evil' – instead of who they really support.
