Some handy crib notes

Gonzalo Lira traces the unrest in the Middle East back to the fuse that lit the powder keg...

"One of the things we forget is that, when history decides to move, it can move fast. ... All was copacetic for decades—until one morning, December 10, 2010, a 26 year-old vegetable vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi had his cart confiscated by a policewoman in the city of Sidi Bouzid. She insulted him and reportedly spat in his face. When he tried to get redress from the local municipality, he was rebuffed. Out of frustration, humiliation, and likely impulsive foolishness, he doused himself in gasoline and set himself on fire, in protest at the unfairness of it all. The outrage this triggered in the rest of the Tunisian population is remarkable...

Inspired by the Tunisian revolt, and sparked too by rising food prices, Egyptians started their own revolution on January 25..."

Read the whole thing here. Whether you agree with the analysis or not, it IS an interesting recap of the timeline.