Will Mubarak leg it out of Egypt like Ben Ali did out of Tunisia and will that improve living conditions for the people? Egypt and Tunisia, like other Arab countries, suffer from the same disease which is uncontrolled growth in population so that vast numbers of youth are qualifying from university to find no jobs. Rising commodity and food prices make their lives ever more precarious every year and this is not going to change. If Mubarak does go and there are elections there is every chance of the Muslim League coming to power which will mean immediate cut off of all aid from the west as has happened to Gaza with Hamas. If up countries such as Ethiopia, Uganda and South Sudan start diverting more water from the Nile as they are proposing then cultivation could fall and food could become even more scarce than it is today. Israel must be watching the situation with dread. A Muslim League government will surely support Hamas but will it link up with Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon or will the hatred between Sunni and Shia prove too great to resolve? Iran must be ecstatic. It has succeeded in getting its proxy, the Hezbollah in control of Lebanon and its friend Al Maliki has been able to hang on to power in Iraq. Southern Iraq is Shia dominated and has a long border with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. The beards in Iran would love to take over the two Holy Mosques in Saudi Arabia and that dream seems almost within grasp. Iran can now develop nuclear weapons at will and there is nothing Israel or the US can do about it. So will Sunni Arabs team up with Israel against Shia Iran and its proxies? Oil at $ 200 a barrel. Did the Mayans really foresee 21.12.2012?