Status Quo is Shaken

This is your friendly guest blogger filling in for Dennis while he's away.

There has been a revolution in Tunisia. The people, admit heavy rioting and fighting for the past month, has successfully ousted their President, Zein al-Abideen Bin Ali this weekend. As there are many riots in that part of the world, I didn’t really think much of it at first.

Until, while reading the news postings about the revolution, I came across this paragraph;

“Analyst Ahmed Lashin said he did not rule out the possibility that the entire Arab world would be engulfed in chaos in wake of the Tunisian “revolution.” He noted that anti-government demonstrations have already taken place in Algeria and Jordan.”

And this quote from the analyst;

“The Arabs have been repressed for too long,” he said. “They are eager for change and are on the verge of explosion.”

A writer for the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi wrote in an article,

…The Tunisian people deserved to be thanked twice – “for proving that the Arab street is not dead as many had expected and is capable of waging an intifada and making sacrifices for change, and for exposing the Arab regimes that claimed to care about human rights and the values of justice and democracy.”

Hamas in the West Bank is warning the leaders of the PA that they could be next. “The people of the West Bank can no longer accept humiliation.”

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=203717

And,

“In the Gaza Strip, hundreds of Islamic Jihad supporters rallied to support the uprising. Activists of the Islamic Jihad held Tunisian flags bearing the words "Revenge against tyranny" during the rally in the heart of Gaza City.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70D2OV20110115?pageNumber=3

This ousting is making other entrenched leaders in the area nervous. So far, there have been rumblings in Algeria, Egypt and Jordan.

The rioting was fueled by high prices, high unemployment and government corruption.
This first revolution may be the spark that ignites a firestorm of rioting across many countries.