One Tyrant Out, Another Returns

The official silence surrounding the Tunisian Revolution invites gales of laughter. This sort of things isn't supposed to happen in the Arab world, where the people have two choices:

1. Bloodthirsty screaming Islamists who will behead your brother for reading Oscar Wilde, and stone your sister for reading anything; or
2. Meretricious gasbags who will funnel the wealth of your country into Swiss Bank accounts, and cause your cousin to vanish in the dead of night when he snarks too loudly about it.

But here the people, having already voted out the Islamists 24 years ago, have sent the gasbag, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, into exile. No doubt he can buy an estate in San Marino and commiserate with Roman Polanski about the world's injustices.

Obviously, this too will pass. Though the sight of furious young men in beards and galabiyeh, invoking the Prophet's wrath, has been blessedly absent from Tunisia's popular uprising, they may soon return. Algeria, which has experienced a civil war between Islamists and anti-Islamists for nearly 20 years, is just over the border. And there's no guaruntee that a secular government will govern any better than Ben Ali did.

But for the moment, let's enjoy watching the Saudis, Syrians, Egyptians and Iranians glance warily over their shoulders. Let's quietly savor the obvious discomfort of the French, who are again hung upon the hypocrisy of their crypto-colonialism. 'Tis time to kiss, when tyrants seem to fear.

On the other hand, Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, the dictatorial heir who was flung from Haiti like a wormy apple the year before Ben Ali came to power, has returned. The feckless son of Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier, the humanitarian medical man who murdered 30,000 Hatiians during his 14-year reign, Baby Doc has shown up out of the blue during Haiti's elections, for no stated reason. Perhaps Ben Ali can rent his chateau.