#Sidibouzid - Dec 17, one year on...

I rarely write on this blog and lately I have not posted much at all. I will not make promises to amend that, because life is churning far too fast for me to be sure of keeping such a promise. But I would like to write a few lines of what we see in my cherished Middle East over the past year, and what better time to do so than the anniversary.

So, this is a tribute to unemployed university graduate fruit vendor Mohammed Bouazizi of Sidibouzid in Tunisia, whose frustration and anger was the spark of the Arab revolution of 2011. His action woke many and started a wave of change.

Many more have died since and I fear we have not seen the end of violence. But many many have also found voice and hope. I believe we can never go back to a day where it is said that Arab populations are politically passive or complacent.

This is also for Tawakol Karman, Nobel peace laureate, Alaa Abdel Fattah, Razan Ghazzawi, Ali Abduleman - just to mention but a few of those brave people whose names we have learned this year.

Change will continue to come, if in different timetables and ways in different countries.

At the regional level, inter-regional interaction has also sharpened and heightened.