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Comment by maxklein | Hacker News Reader

I believe the issue is more than Tunisia is not a country of interest, even for people who are interested in foreign policy. Take a look at the average person who actually follows foreign news - countries like Iran, Brazil, Argentina, Egypt rank much higher than Tunisia, Botswana, Azerbaijan, Guyana.

Some countries have just been in the news more, so have been noticed more and have more 'fans' or interested observers than others.

Even for the educated crowd here, if I said that the government of Sao Tome had been overthrown, that would be a lot less interesting than if I said the government of Libya had been overthrown.

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The driving force behind the revolution, as presented by the media here in Portugal, was one of a large group of disaffected youths with little prospects for advancement. This is a recurring issue across the majority of Arab nations and throughout the region. The ramifications for other countries would appear to be rather profound.

Spain and Portugal as well...

That's most likely an American bias. In Europe, it has been followed quite heavily, especially of course in France: Tunisia is very close to Europe, and there are strong ties between several European countries and Tunisia (political and economical).

It is also the only country from Northern Africa ("magrheb") which is secular, with all the ensuing geopolitical consequences w.r.t. terrorism of islamic ideology. That's one of the main reason why European union supported Ben Ali quite heavily (EU represented 2/3 of international trade for Tunisia).

Wonder if this will change now...

Secular in what way? The Tunisian constitution states that Islam is their official religion and that the President must be Muslim. Religious freedom is granted by their constitution, and 99% of the country practices Islam.

Algeria might be considered more secular. When the Islamic Salvation Front won the first rounds of the Algerian elections in 1991, the military took control of the government in order to stop Algeria from becoming an Islamist state under sharia law, which caused the civil war. The Algerian constitution also states that no political party may be formed if it is "based on differences in religion, language, race, gender or religion". Still, 99% of Algerians practice Islam.

You are right that Islam is the official religion. But I don't think it means much.

Tunisia encourages women working in official positionsnot to wear the hijab in public places. Same restrictions for men. Indeed, you could say that the rules is stricted than in France (the most violently anti hijab of my friends are Tunisian muslims). It is only of anedoctal value, but within most of my friends who are muslims, most of the ones not practising the religion at all (eating pig, drinking alcohol) are of Tunisian descendant.

You are the first person that I know who claim Algeria is more secular than Tunisia. I would be curious to know what you are basing it on, the fact that the military took control does not mean much: what matters is the society.

Well I guess i'm more basing it on semantics -- secularity typically is defined by a state being separated from religion, and I was just pointing out that Tunisia has explicit mentions of religion in regards to its state and president, whereas Algeria explicitly states otherwise.

RE: Algeria, I have a lot of family there, and my immediate family travels back at least once a year. Overall it's a very liberal, secular country, especially compared to other Arab nations.

My friends in DC and in the military are following it since it's a big deal in terms of precedents for Arab/Muslim revolutions. But no one else I know is really paying attention to it.

Agreed in general. Fans of EFF and Anonymous are also paying attention; but even a lot of online activists are overlooking it. Too bad, because there's a lot to learn ...

> Some countries have just been in the news more, so have been noticed more and have more 'fans' or interested observers than others.

Not to mention that tiny scrap of land about the size of New Jersey on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean, where a local conflict has been keeping the world media drooling for 60 years.

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