The Tunisia ouster affects my family personally, because my sister works for an organization in NY with close ties to the "former" leader. Her boss has been personally invited to "run" for positions (ie, president Ben Ali offered to give her positions in his government) over the years, but she always refused because she personally disagreed with his rule even though they were friends and she profited from her contacts within the established government. Since the ouster, the country is incredibly destabilized, her credibility is nil due to her association with the former leader, and as a result my sister is facing unemployment. Maybe she'll take my advice and apply for a State Department job now (knowing Arabic is a pretty useful skill)
Anyway, now protests are popping up in Egypt. I sorta doubt they'll get much accomplished, as Egypt tends to crack down a bunch on their citizens, but it'll be interesting to see how it turns out. However, it seems to be the US-allied countries experiencing these populist rallies. A major issue for US interests in the region, I would think? Where does everyone see this going?