Inspirational Violence

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Tunisian youth are protesting violently against unemployment and corruption among the ruling elite. The North African country has an unemployment rate of more than 13%. And with a population of just 10.4 million, that's a lot of jobless people.

The violence is linked by some sources to a Wikileaks document released last month, that reveals US Foreign Policy on Tunisia and the concerns it has over Tunisia's internal politics. One of the key passages states that "The problem is clear: Tunisia has been ruled by the same president for 22 years. He has no successor. "

Now, I can't help but start to draw a comparison here.

Egypt has an unemployment rate of 8.4%. That's less than Tunisia. But Egypt has a population of more than 80 million. That's quite a lot of angry, frustrated, jobless people.

We've had the same president for 30 years. He has no successor. We supposedly have presidential elections this year. We have no candidates. We have a single party government, with zero representation from the opposition.

So... my question is... aren't we sitting on a time bomb? There might be a lot more to this than a simple, straightforward comparison. Maybe if I conducted a very thorough analysis of the socio-economic and political situations in each country, I would see this differently. But right now, it does seem that simple.

And clearly, I'm not the only one who thinks so.