The Middle East is in the throes of a Leo Tolstoy moment.

"Happy families are all alike," he wrote in the great novel Anna Karenina.

But "every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

There is no single or even a coherent pattern of situations that have spurred the seething outbreaks of unrest and revolt across North Africa and the Middle East in recent weeks.

Although almost all of the countries of this region are ruled by despots, either republican or monarchic, there is little convergence between the flareup of trouble on the streets and the degree of authoritarianism imposed by the ruler.

Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, in power for nearly 42 years, for example, is facing uprisings in major cities despite having created perhaps the most efficient police state across the Arab and Persian world.

But in equally repressive Saudi Arabia, where much of the responsibility lies for the global sponsorship of militant and murderous Islam, and where the entire social and governmental structure revolves around King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz and the 30,000 members of his family who live on stipends from oil revenues, there is nothing. So far.

Yet in neighbouring Bahrain, where self-appointed "King" Hamad has run a liberal regime by regional standards with unveiled women driving cars, the police have used tear gas and rubber bullets to clear peaceful demonstrators from the central square of the capital, Manama. Several people have been killed.

The critical factor in Bahrain seems to be the sense of injustice felt by the country's 70-per-cent majority Shia Muslims in the face of what they see as discrimination imposed by the ruling royal family, its army and police, all dominated by the Sunni Muslim sect.

Religious and tribal divides are also a factor in Yemen, where President Ali Abdullah Saleh is facing a continuing uprising in the north, the south and now running street battles in the capital Sanaa.

Yemen has other factors too that make it perhaps the most volatile society in the Middle East.

It has with Libya and Iran the highest level of corruption in the region, the highest level of poverty and the youngest population frustrated by the lack of opportunity.

Poverty, and young, educated, listless populations are elements which put Algeria, Syria and Jordan high on the list of volatile states in the region.

Of the three, only King Abdullah II of Jordan seems to fully appreciate the dangers and show willingness to make pre-emptive reforms.

Corruption is a factor in civil unrest in many countries in the region.

The wealth of most of these petty potentates comes either from corruption or skimming off the cream of oil revenues.

Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the United Arab Emirates and ruler of Abu Dhabi, is the second richest monarch in the world after the king of Thailand, according to Forbes magazine, and worth $23 billion.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia clocks in with $21 billion. The $18-billion empire of Dubai's ruler Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has stakes in Sony, HSBC Holdings, MGM Mirage and New York retailer Barneys.

Qatar's Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani rules the country with the highest per capita annual income in the world - $143,000 - but his personal fortune from oil and natural gas is a modest $2 billion.

His financial sponsorship of the independent and aggressive TV news channel al Jazeera has not made him popular, except on the streets where he is the least likely in the region to face unrest.

Morocco's King Mohammed VI is worth about $1.5 billion, garnered from phosphate mines and a share of the country's largest public company.

But he spends about $1 million a day running his palaces. Another relatively liberal leader within the constraining bounds of an absolute monarchy is Sultan Qaboos bin Said of Oman.

He's estimated to be worth $1.1 billion, which he undoubtedly needs as he runs seven palaces and four yachts ranging in length from 61 to 155 metres. But perhaps the most corrupt of all because he is such a hypocrite is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the "Supreme Leader" of Iran.

Khamenei leads what purports to be a government inspired and disciplined by religious morality.

Yet he, his family and a few other religious leaders control almost all the country's oil revenues - $64 billion last year.

jmanthorpe@vancouversun.com