Several friends were planning to go there after my very happy time there this summer; fortunately none of them did go.

I do hope they sort things out. Lovely people; lovely country; I did notice extraordinary censorship (no You Tube) so perhaps the time was right to get rid of Ben Ali.

A lesson to all similar police states - their time has come and gone.

Power to the People !

And to think they filmed Star Wars there. Whatever next?

The problem is very simple and increasingly obvious. Young Arabs are getting better and better educated (a good thing) but with less and less opportunity for adult employment - an explosion was destined.

I met a young man in Morocco who was scavenging for rubbish to add to his cart; I asked directions in French (before realizing he was unlikely to know) and he replied in perfect English. We spoke for about ten minutes; he was 22, had attended college but there was no decent work available. He'd learned English because he loved our culture, music and movies. He was not a fundamentalist or a great believer. He had no desire to revolt or rebel; was content being penniless and dirty; felt he and his family lived in comfort (though he did ask for a donation which I happily gave him).

And his hero in the world?

Michael Jackson, of course. Who else?

JK2006 wrote:
The problem is very simple and increasingly obvious. Young Arabs are getting better and better educated (a good thing) but with less and less opportunity for adult employment - an explosion was destined.

I met a young man in Morocco who was scavenging for rubbish to add to his cart; I asked directions in French (before realizing he was unlikely to know) and he replied in perfect English. We spoke for about ten minutes; he was 22, had attended college but there was no decent work available. He'd learned English because he loved our culture, music and movies. He was not a fundamentalist or a great believer. He had no desire to revolt or rebel; was content being penniless and dirty; felt he and his family lived in comfort (though he did ask for a donation which I happily gave him).

And his hero in the world?

Michael Jackson, of course. Who else?

The western culture is increasingly desired by others - who think we have freedom (and to a certain extent we do) - but they are unaware of the sub-control which in its own way is just as controlling as the police states / dictatorships where they live.

Wouldn't it have been better - for millions of people - if, when we had the biggest demonstration of all time in the UK (against the Iraq invasion), we had overthrown B-Liar and New Lie-Bour ?

interesting reading here about Tunisia and the corruption of the first family and their relatives strangling foreign investment.

www.juancole.com/

Wikileaks again revealed to the outside world...

14 percent unemployment. Says it all really, doesn't it? Yet it's such a wonderful country and Tunisians are so nice. I shall be there again this summer unless something very nasty happens.