Are we witnessing a general revolution of the arab world?

Meanwhile in Cairo..
On december 17th, 2010, Mohamed Bouazizi immolated himself by fire on the town square of Sidi Bouzid, a small Tunisian city 300km from Tunis. Earlier that day, policemen had confiscated all his fruits he sold to make a living which pushed him towards suicide. Later that week, a protest is organized in Sidi Bouzid against the high cost of living and the lack of jobs. On Chrismas Eve, protests are organized in a larger town of Tunisia, and then in the capital, Tunis, where the protest is violently shut down by the police. But the spark of the revolution has been ignited and by January 5th, protest are organized in all the country and are joined by thousands of Tunisian, who are now protesting for more democracy. A curfew is set up by the government and the army is called but the majority of the Tunisians stay in the streets and the soldiers fraternize with the protesters who are now asking for the demission of Ben Ali and his government. Meanwhile, protest have started in Algeria for the same reason after four or five Algerians commit suicide, but the revolt and riots are quickly shut down. In Egypt on the other hand, violent protests have been organized and the army has been called to put the rebellion down which reminds us of Tunisia. In fact, the  rebellions throughout the Maghreb has received the name of the jasmine revolution. On the 15th of January, Ben Ali resigns, but now Egyptians are asking their president Moubarak to leave, and protests have been organized in Jordania against the high cost of living. In the past month, one dictator has been kicked off his throne and another is about to fall. Are we witnessing a general revolution and democratization of the Arab world?

Revolutionary Irony

Once, not so long ago, in South America,
Lived a young man named Ernesto Guevara.
He was generous, believed in liberty,
And believed life should be lived in simplicity.

For he was against capitalism,

And thus despised materialism.

One day with a few friends he went to Cuba,

And in the name of freedom overthrew Baptista.

He was killed by agents of a certain nation

But for ever remained as a symbol of revolution.

And now, four decades later,

His face is available on a poster,

A tee-shirt, a mug or anything that can be sold for money.

And this I call, the Revolutionary Irony

If there were no more assholes

If there were no more assholes, wouldn't life suddenly be great?
If there were no more assholes, if they were erased from the planet,
All these men full of hate, corrupted politician and tyrannical dictator
Who every day force their people to endure their reign of terror

If there were no more assholes, in politics, in the streets or in our homes
If there were no more assholes, like the ones who started the pogroms
If words like honor, justice and equality became reality
And men and women of the world could live their lives freely

If there were no more assholes, our lives would be perfect
But frankly, let's face it,
If there were no more assholes, the world would have no defect,
And I like my life with spices in it.

But what is a foie mou after all?

Dear reader (or whatever we should call someone who reads a blog), if you have ever looked at the name of my blog and wondered what mysterious story these words in a foreign tongue might cover, your curiosity will be satisfied (or disappointed) for I need to write a few posts for the month of january and I am  lacking inspiration at the moment.
During the summer of 2010, I was staying at a friend of mine's house on the west coast of France, and going through the whole waking up, going to the beach, having dinner and going out routine which I am sure, most of you go through when on vacation. One night, as my friends and I were in a bar drinking water, we made friends with a group of people from Nantes, further north on the coast. After a while, we asked our new friends if they had any peculiar or funny expressions in their town, a question which would probably make one sound strange if asked anywhere else but the fact is that France was for a long time divided in many different people who spoke their own language and it is only after countless wars and years that France became whole and that most people abandoned their dialects or patois and started all speaking French. Therefore, even though those languages are now spoken only by a few old men, they have contributed to introducing hundreds, or probably thousands of expressions into the French language, depending on the region of France, and most of the time quite funny. So as we were exchanging expressions, our the Nantais as we called them told us that when someone couldn't hold alcohol or was afraid of doing something, they would call this person a foie mou, which translates as "soft liver". Henceforth, I have been calling someone a foie mou every time the opportunity has presented itself to me and told the story to whomever would listen.