From the FINANCIAL TIMES
…Indeed, Tunisia has shattered two long-held myths about the Arab world, the first being that people power is irrelevant. “It’s clear that when conditions develop in any society for mass action, it takes place,” said Mustafa Hamarneh, a Jordanian analyst. “The conditions are probably riper for this kind of action in north Africa, but that doesn’t mean they [other Arab states] are immune.”
The second myth has been that youth will tolerate autocracy and corruption so long as they are financially provided for. Tunisia’s revolt was triggered by anger at unemployment, but the momentum came from the stifling of all freedom of expression and the economic greed of the Trabelsis, the family of the former president’s wife.
“If people think Tunisia is about prices and unemployment, they’re missing the point,” argued Marwan Muasher, a former Jordanian foreign minister, now vice-president of studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “It was about a feeling that it is not acceptable for an elite group to be controlling everything at the expense of others.”…
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