Those calling for new support seem to forget that the deposed regimes already received plenty of international aid finance. Under the aegis of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, they presided over elaborate privatisation and reform programmes, which benefited those close to power but did little to help the wider population. In truth the regimes tended to use this support to strengthen their rule, building state security apparatuses and creating kleptocratic governments accountable only to their foreign bankrollers.

Generous aid programmes mean leaders do not need to please their citizens, or gain their trust to secure power; they can instead use donor money to build a security state and buy off their opposition.

tous les instruments qui ont été employés pour filtrer les sites web en Tunisie proviennent des pays développés. Autant dire que des firmes d'ingénierie issues des démocraties dites authentiques ont prêté main forte à la dictature de l'ancien régime, moyennant finances

A la télévision, rien de neuf. Aucune nouvelle chaîne n'a été lancée depuis la chute de l'ancien régime

Dans les kiosques, deux ou trois nouveaux titres seulement

A Radio Sfax ou Radio Monastir, deux stations publiques régionales, l'information vit encore sous l'ère Ben Ali

The success of Portugal’s revolution was not inevitable. There was a significant period of political instability, social unrest and economic dislocation, and there were even efforts to hijack the revolution and take the country down an anti-democratic path.

Tunisia and Egypt have received the overwhelming majority of the nearly 740,000 people who have left Libya

They have done so in a very generous way — opening their borders, homes and hearts. At the Tunisian border, I was moved to see local poor families sharing what little they had with the newcomers.