Tunisia is a very popular holiday spot for the UK community. They have met the Tunisian community and are a bit more knowledgable than we would give them credit for.

The media statements made by British holiday makers on return home were clearly one of sympathy and support for Tunisian people.

My point is, other factor now play an important role in the new model of Revolution. Gone are the days when some sort of old style Bureaucracy giving Direction and Strategy to a repessed group of workers.

This is the beauty of The Tunisian people and their Jasimie Revolution. Thats why the whole World is watching.

Terry Stewart

Well, one other consideration is that his regime is friendly to the West- wheras hundreds of thousands have died, if not over a million, in Iraq and Afghanistan, and STILL there isn’t a unified popular uprising, the nation of Tunisia has successfully revolted against Tyranny.

So… maybe the West, particularly the U.S. is hypocritical and friendly dictatorships like that of Ali, and thus isn’t keen to publicize our support of tyranny or romanticize the heroic effort of these Tunisian patriots who risk life and limb to do what the West superficially claims to do: support democracy.

“The blogs in English and French that people in Europe and the US can easily read are of course not the real networks that matter.”

Both the Tunisian and Moroccan blogospheres (the latter of which I’ve studied for the past four years) are, and have historically been, largely Francophone. There are indeed large swaths of Arabic bloggers as well, and as Internet penetration increases (Tunisia’s at about 30%) and the middle class gains access, the Arabic blogosphere grows, but nevertheless, many of the networks that “matter”, as you put it, are indeed Francophone, or a combination of Arabic and French, anyway.