The 'Jasmine revolution' that unfolded in Tunisia in January 2011 at first appeared to be peculiar to that country, a consequence of then President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's systematic degradation of his people, his flagrant nepotism and the exploitation of his position by members of his immediate family, particularly his second wife and his son-in-law, to amass huge fortunes.1 Tunisia served as a back office to many of Southern Europe's industries, its cheap labour and location on the Mediterranean offering lower production costs for many European-owned factories. Yet Tunisia had suffered in the aftermath of the worldwide credit crunch: as early as 2008 the Tunisian government had to bail out French, German and Italian companies that had lost EU backing to prevent the losses of tens of thousands of jobs for Tunisian workers.
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机译：起初，2011年1月在突尼斯爆发的“茉莉花革命”似乎是该国特有的，其原因是时任总统齐纳·阿比丁·本·阿里（Zine El Abidine Ben Ali）的人民系统化地堕落，公然的裙带关系以及该国成员对他的地位的利用他的直系亲戚，尤其是他的第二任妻子和他的女to，积累了大量财富。1突尼斯是南欧许多工业的后勤部门，其廉价的劳动力和在地中海的地理位置为许多欧洲人提供了较低的生产成本拥有的工厂。然而，突尼斯在全球信贷紧缩之后遭受了苦难：早在2008年，突尼斯政府就不得不救助失去了欧盟支持的法国，德国和意大利公司，以防止突尼斯工人失去数万个工作岗位。
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