That *BOOM!* You Heard Was Tunisia.

Tunisia (aka "The Jewel of the Mediterranean") is a former-French-colony Arab country in northern Africa, between Algeria and Libya. Its tourism guide implies that it's mildly desert-like, fairly metropolitan, and a swank place to bring your family, lie on the beach, and play golf. If you've seen Tattooine in the Star Wars films, you've seen a bit of Tunisia. It's got some substantial historical significance, looks pretty friendly, and actually looks like a really cool place to visit for awhile.

Except that I can't go there, because they're busy overthrowing their government.

It's regime change time in Tunis, so
here's my attempt to explain wtf is happening utilizing a handy combustion metaphor:


Spark!
-Over a month ago, the absurd economic/unemployment situation in Tunisia made Mohamed Bouazizi, a young guy trying to get ahead, so frustrated with his inability to find half-decent work (or any work at all) that he very dramatically attempted suicide in front of the town hall. His story mirrored the stories of a whole pantsload of young people frustrated with the lack of economic opportunity for them, and when he succumbed to his injuries, the brewing frustrations turned into a protest movement that shifted into the streets.



One of the objects of anger was the fact that in Tunisia, most of the government/seats of institutional power are held by a small cabal of higher-ups that seem to suspiciously resemble the mafia-esque-oligarchy that runs Russia. This mob scene tends to steal cash from banks, move in on successful businesses to overtake them, rig elections, and oppress any political protest with force. The President, a Mr. Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, assumed power in 1987 and hasn't moved much since then, despite multiple "elections". All of these got under the skin of Tunisians, and added teachers, lawyers and average folks to the burgeoning protesting youth being called the Jasmine Revolution.

Fire!

-And good god was it epic. Basically the whole country turned itself inside out in a popular uprising. 

The army, which is a force of 30,000 strong charged with protecting Tunisia, refused Ben Ali's orders to fire on the people and instead acted as a protective force for the protesters. Which is terribly awesome. Unfortunately, the Presidential Police force is 160,000 troops strong, and was busily looting, shooting and muting everyone they can. A hefty State of Emergency ensued. There's an intense curfew in place. There are tanks involved. Many people have been killed, twelve on the night of Jan 13th alone.

Then, a few days ago, the Presidential Police invaded the airport in Tunis, and Ben Ali scurried into a plane and off to the Saudis to lick his wounds. In his stead, Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi has become president, making a lot of constitution-friendly-placating sounds. It is yet to be seen whether the new guy is basically the old guy in a new suit.

Smoke:

-For a deep (and overall excellent) analysis of this whole shit-show including more Why's and How's than I've got up my sleeve, Foreign Policy's got you covered. Probably because they're paid to do this.

For a less deep and more potentially legit/definitely overwhelming approach, good ol' Twitter is still being awesome at real-time fast-paced reportage. Even if it's noisy, easy to fudge, and difficult to understand. 

(And no, internet, I will not stop talking about Twitter revolutions.)

So what?

Quick recap here: a grassroots protest movement just overthrew a government that had been standing for 23 years, in under a month. If that's not enough of a "soit'sfuckingawesomethat'swhat", I don't know what else I can do for you.

But there's also the fact that Tunisia was basically cast in the mould of many Arab countries who might be in for the same fate. Egypt, Yemen, Libya--they're all saddled with autocratic rulers who have been in charge for an aeon, whose populations are facing worse and worse living conditions every year that are not being addressed. Even though CNN is sceptical that the revolutionary spirit will catch on, if I was Qaddafi, I'd be sitting with my nurse and having a little contingency planning meeting in case of the domino effect. It might be difficult to source my botox from exile.

**Sidenote: Many sources pointed to the Cablegate leaks as a spark for the whole Jasmine revolution. I've heard a number of complaints to the contrary, based on the (highly likely) idea that Tunisians were so fed up they didn't really need diplomatic cables to tell them their government leaders were dickwads. Nevertheless, there's some interesting stuff in the Tunileaks cables, and you can find them here.