FireDogLake writes "As of Friday evening (US Eastern time), the New York Times is reporting that the Tunisian President, Ben Ali, who’s been the country’s dictator for 23 years, has fled the country and been “temporarily replaced” by the Prime Minister with promises of major reforms, a new government and elections. All this comes after months of public protests and street demonstrations that reportedly included police killing scores and crowds ransacking one ministry and the palace of a member of Ben Ali’s family and further threats to the posh residences of the ruling elite."
A Tunisian youth wrote in The Guardian, Tunisia's youth finally has revolution on its mind "And then, WikiLeaks reveals what everyone was whispering. And then, a young man immolates himself. And then, 20 Tunisians are killed in one day. And for the first time, we see the opportunity to rebel, to take revenge on the "royal" family who has taken everything, to overturn the established order that has accompanied our youth. An educated youth, which is tired and ready to sacrifice all the symbols of the former autocratic Tunisia with a new revolution: the Jasmin Revolution – the true one."
The paradox of Tunisian water policy: "I've never been to Tunisia, but from readings I've found the country especially difficult to understand. They've had a corrupt autocracy for a long time, but some areas of policy they get (inexplicably?) right. And usually they are by far the least corrupt country in the Maghreb. Dani Rodrik called the place an unsung development miracle. Maybe that was exaggerating but for their neighborhood they still beat a lot of the averages and they've had a lot of upward gradients. They've also made good progress on education. And now this. Perhaps it is no accident this is "the first time that protests have overthrown an Arab leader." The lesson perhaps is that the path toward a much better world involves...small steps. Civil society there is relatively strong and has been so for a while. Democracy is probably not around the corner, but if you're studying social change it's worth spending a lot of time on why Tunisia and Jordan are often so much better run than the other Arab states."
Daniel Larison writes that's it's good that the US is Not Taking Sides. He has a number of other interesting posts on the topic.
A CNN correspondent writes Tunisia's military putting boot on 'Jasmine Revolution'. "The feel is very much that of a military takeover. It's hard to catch a whiff of what is being called the Jasmine Revolution."
Voice of America reports, "Parliamentary Speaker Fouad Mebazza was sworn in as interim president Saturday, a day after President Zine El Abdine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia. Mr. Mebazza said he had asked the country's prime minister to form a unity government. The country's constitutional council said the new leader has 60 days to hold new presidential elections."
The BBC has a kind of live blog of Saturday's events.
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