One of the most interesting things about the popular rebellions in Egypt and Tunisia is thinking about what will happen next. Leaders have been toppled or are close to being toppled but it doesn't seem that anyone is jumping at the bit to fill the void that's been created.

In Tunisia this is most obvious as the incoming government of who-knows-what remains leaderless, while in Egypt the oppressed Opposition and the Muslim Brotherhood will fight it out for factional dominance.

I know with this incredibly electric movement of democracy and hope that I wouldn't want to step up to the mantle- it will only take one dip in the economy or a feeling that nothing is moving forward for protests and chaos to reign once more.    . . read more

If the shock of Egypt’s unexpected uprising and success has a debt to anything, it is journalism. The lack of raw power only hides the strong impact that this trade has. Journalists themselves look timid, out of place, running around perhaps accompanied by a cameraman, harmless mischief-makers. But Egypt showed how everyone’s a journalist, how journalism embodies the voices of the people and gives them an outlet that reverberates throughout the globe- by Sumer Dayal (UNSW, Sydney)  . . read more

Since the days of Alexander the Great, binge drinking has been a very popular past time - leading to him apparently killing a friend and burning down Persepolis while drunk.

Those are some Great shoes to fill.

Yet, governments, schools and the media have repeatedly tried to teach us of binge drinking's dangers. 

Dartmouth University has taken the lead, instigating a new nationwide policy to curb heavy drinking by their students.

Pour me another glass.

Binge drinking is defined as "the consumption of five or more drinks in a row by men — or four or more drinks in a row by women — at least once in the previous 2 weeks. Heavy binge drinking includes three or more such episodes in 2 weeks."

Seems I don't know anyone who isn't a heavy binge drinker.

Do you think this definition should be changed or should we change people's attitudes? Or should you follow HPD's no fools guide to drinking a lot but not dying?  . . read more

The French have always enjoyed a good riot and this year proves to be no exception.

While students have taken to the streets in protest of pension reform in Lyon and Paris, there is another group who are surely displeased with the age for full pension retirement and part pension retirement increasing by two years- this would of course be those nearing retirement.

Unfortunately they do not have the sprightly gait about their step to overturn cars and set them on fire, but hopefully the wisdom that age has brought them will give them the tools to find less violent ways to proactively prevent a government from increasing revenue at the sake of the ageing Frenchman.

While the French president Nicolas Sarkozy is insisting he will continue with the proposed pension reforms, cars are stopping throughout France as oil refineries shut down and the country begins to run dry.

Why those involved with oil refining are more upset about pension retirement is difficult to fathom.

To all sense of logic and reason baguette shortages should be reaching ghastly heights as bakers refuse to turn on their ovens and artists bemoan a lack of 2b pencils amid the silent and illegible resistance to reform by stationary companies and newsagents alike.

Makes that Tesla Electric Roadster look a lot more appealing than your Renault now, doesn’t it?

Will Sarkozy back down amidst the rising pressure from students and the French public?  . . read more

After Tunisia erupted in popular protests, pundits all over the world were writing about the event as if it was a trigger-point for similar rebellions to take place in similarly repressive dictatorships all over the Middle-East.

I like many was sceptical.

Pundits love to heap significance on an event as if it's world changing or the start of something special - most often they're wrong or are connecting dots that don't exist. 

It seems though that this time their predictions were right; Bahrain is splintering and the once fighting fit Gaddafi is lying on the ropes - looking as if he'll have to throw in the towel like Ben Ali and Mubarak. 

It seems like the implications of these protests can't be overstated. 

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Look out world because there’s a new trend to stop cross-cultural harmony and promote ethnic tension that gets you to sleep at night. And it starts with Egypt’s men.

Yes, Egypt's supreme court has recognised the harmful impact their sexually-charged men can have on their society and has upheld a decision to strip citizenship from those men who wed Israeli women “if the marriage poses a threat to national security.”

Why oh divine Egypt?

Think of the children!

But then I thought about it, and I realised they saw something I did not - Egyptian Israeli hybrids. Shock. If they’re not careful, those critters will take over their lands.

Then what’s the difference between the Egyptian and the Israeli? Political campaigns, war financing and angry riots would all go to waste, just because some of these boys thought that bridging the gap would be a good idea. Double shock – and horror.

Thank you, oh Egypt, protector of Arabness and marginalisation.

Honestly, it’s hilarious how breaking a marriage, then justifying this imposition on free will, is a legitimate way of protecting your country.

I thought that’s why they had guns.

And dude. Come on. An Egyptian is marrying an Israeli. It’s not you he has to worry about, it’s his dad.  . . read more

When you think of the Middle-East it's unlikely the words 'succesful popular uprising' are immediately at the tip of your tongue- in fact until Tunisia's President fled they'd actually be impossible to put together because Tunisia was the region's first.

Now though anything seems possible.

Egypt is a trigger pull away from explosion, Libya could be next in the firing line and dicators all across horrible dicatorships must be reloading and getting ready for reprisal.

An amazing moment as world food prices hit all time highs and selfish and greedy leaders are finding out that they aren't the only ones who want to chew the fat.    . . read more