The whole Tunisian thing

Al Jazeera has good coverage of the revolution (if it still counts as one, the way things are going?). I finally got around to subscribing to their RRS feed and it makes a nice adjunct to the more local focus of the ABC news, even if in both cases I mainly skim the headlines too sleepy to pay much attention.

Women in Tunisia’s Revolution has some nice criticism of the form of some of the attention it's gotten, and that lead me to Secular Good, Muslim Bad (nb: title is sarcastic) I do think it's a huge mistake to see countries as being on a one dimensional uncivilised/civilised dichotomy, with Western style secular capitalistic democracy etc being the pinnacle everyone should aspire to. I find this particularly obnoxious when Americans posit the US as the epitome of that pinnacle(*), because no (especially not in terms of secularity!)

Also, in other "things happening to in other countries that could maybe stand to have more attention" news, there is significant flooding in Brazil and Sri Lanka (and possibly other places I forgot, sorry :/). It seems in general like a good time to make unrestricted donations to general aid agencies such as the Red Cross, here is a post with some places to donate (I am sleepy and lazy, sorry)

(*)This metaphor got away from me a bit. Highpoint of that pinnacle? Hmm.