When is it time to move to another host?
 

I have hosted my small but growing vB 3.8.2 forum with iipanel.com shared hosting for the past year. Their servers are located in Jordan. I found out lastnight (the hard way- 400+ database error emails in a few hours and a down site) that they support 25 simultaneous MySQL connections, and are unable/unwilling to increase, even at additional cost to me. The error messages, Steve Machol said, were caused by too few available db connections.

I have 500 'active' members scattered about the globe. 1,000 threads and 9,000 posts. Some pictures and polls, but mostly text.

The questions:
-Was my problem caused by inadequate hosting? Or possibly some sort of 'flooding'? My forum is one of political dissent, and a lot of folks don't care for us.
-Is a forum this size nearing a size that would benefit from a VPS or dedicated server? Or should shared hosting still be adequate?
-Can anyone recommend a host that don't mind hosting dissidents, and that are in a country that won't "shut us down" because they don't like our content?