I've been watching with some interest as people celebrated the "rise of people power" in a few parts of Africa up North. I even read of some twit who claimed the recent Youth festival in SA had helped trigger the popular uprising in Egypt.

But harsh reality had to come sooner or later. It was only a matter of time before someone resorted to the traditional way of dealing with civil unrest. As the news of unrest in Libya came through, I thought "here it comes, this one isn't going to go smoothly."

And sure enough the blood has started to flow in earnest.

Rocking the boat in pseudo democracies is one thing - toppling dictators is a whole different story.

For those few countries in the world that actually do have a healthy democracy going, I hope you truly appreciate what you've got.