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[Alexhans]

because....

based on....?

Come on, people, forums used to be fun because people provided arguments along with their statements...

[Leafsnail]

Well, there's a fair few tourists in many areas.  Fear of the unknown tends to diminish if it's where you're getting your money.

[SalmonGod]

because....

based on....?

Come on, people, forums used to be fun because people provided arguments along with their statements...

I blame "tldr"

[Bouchart]

Basically because the riots have no clear leadership or direction, and neighboring dictators don't want to see anything vaguely democratic happen nearby.

[alway]

At that point though they will have other things to worry about. Namely the massive copycat protests in their own countries.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/01/29/us-jordan-protest-idUSTRE70S3GG20110129  - Jordan
http://www.sudantribune.com/Sudanese-youth-seek-to-follow,37798  - Sudan
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/01/29/135573.html  - Algeria

[SalmonGod]

Add Albania and Yemen to that list.

[ChairmanPoo]

Aww, poor Rania

[SalmonGod]

So I count 8 nations currently in or near revolt.

Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, Sudan, Albania, Lebanon, and Algeria.

Several more have had comparable events in the last couple years, beginning, I think, with Greece in 2008.

[Bouchart]

Ireland is also a place to watch.

[ChairmanPoo]

Is it that bad?

[Blank Expression]

Word I'm hearing from friends and family-of-friends in the country is that the looting is being greatly overstated by the international media - one of my friends' parents, who lives in Cairo, was surprised that there was any looting going on at all as the only people she'd seen "rioting" had been absolutely ecstatic, and the reports of looting seem few and fairly far between (and almost universally pointing at former police as the looters).

More troubling is the entreaties from the government not to report deaths via bullet wounds.

[SalmonGod]

More troubling is the entreaties from the government not to report deaths via bullet wounds.

I heard about this too.  Unsettling, but not at all surprising.

[Africa]

Ahh, I wish I still knew somebody in Cairo so I could hear what's going on firsthand.

Also, I was apparently in Amman when people were protesting, but it looks like nothing on the scale of the Cairo ones, at all. And it's been going on a couple weeks. They just want the prime minister to resign, they're not saying anything to the king and that hot, hot wife of his.

[nenjin]

It's nice to hear some direct reports, to cut through the media treating this as a spectacle. To hear them tell it, the riots and protests have now generally turned violent, and the whole police/security forces have turned to looting.

[Blank Expression]

It's nice to hear some direct reports, to cut through the media treating this as a spectacle. To hear them tell it, the riots and protests have now generally turned violent, and the whole police/security forces have turned to looting.

The latter may not be true, but they all seem to have gone home. In the major cities, at least, the military is keeping the peace (not that they've had to do too much).