TUNISIA, OH, TUNISIA

(CNN) -- What is happening in Tunisia? [17 January 2011]

Following a month of largely leaderless popular protests against the government, Tunisia's President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled the country on Friday. Fouad Mebazaa, the speaker of parliament, was sworn in the following day as interim president, and new elections are due within 60 days.

What were the protests about?

They were sparked by the suicide of an unemployed college graduate in December. The man set himself on fire in front of a government building in the town of Sidi Bouzid after police confiscated his fruit cart, saying he was selling without a permit, according to Amnesty International. He died January 4 from his injuries.

The event tore the lid off what appears to have been long-simmering fury at Ben Ali and his associates. Tunisians accuse the ruling circle of rampant corruption and nepotism. Recent diplomatic cables from the U.S. Embassy in Tunisia obtained by WikiLeaks revealed growing disquiet with the government -- especially over nepotism.

 

Now for Andrew Sesinyi's TEARS OF A TORN POET

Once upon a decade in time I visited Tunisia

Overflying the languidly curvaceous contours

I savoured my window seat seeing sights of Tunis

I was seeing a land made and designed for tours

I loved the white washed buildings gleaming in the sun

I landed and adored the desert disaffected bustling Tunis

Baking in the African sun Tunis looked as inviting as a freshly baked bun

I stayed a week with taste buds weakening for Tunisian dishes

 

President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali presided and hosted guests gallantly

The conference had all inferences of an African wonder in splendour

Little was showing then that could two decades later be displayed arrogantly

Nothing said anything about today's troubled Tunisia in a political blender

I decry Africa for ever crying wolf whenever desiring to undo democracy

There is an outcry about the cries of pain when hope hovers and dies

Cries that mourn each season of life as graft gives birth to growing autocracy

When blood bonds bear still-born products with commercials of lies.