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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Reflections on the Tunisia uprising


Is Tunisia a warning to other regimes?



Most of the governments of the Middle-east do not resemble the US or European style of democracies. Some are run by dictators, others by military leaders and some have a parliamentary system where one party dominates all aspects of the government.
So the uprising in Tunisia is not real surprising, given that the economy is going down and the common people are suffering.
According to CNN;
“Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was Tunisia's president for 23 years before Friday, when weeks of protests forced him into exile in Saudi Arabia. Tunisians complained that the president's family and supporters had grown rich while their living conditions stagnated and their voices were stifled.”
Ali was a dictator with expensive taste while his people suffered a declining living standard. One thing that is unusual is that the opponents of the regime are not Moslem extremists. There are probably many US citizens who do not realize that there are people in the Middle-east who don’t follow the Moslem fundamentalists.
This seems more of an old fashion revolt against a tyrant who has horded his nation’s wealth and ignored his people’s needs and wishes. Many analysts are playing down the idea that such a revolt could spread, but such a rebellion has not happened since the 1970s. But it is not surprising. With war in two Middle-east countries and the sagging popularity of the Moslem fundamentalists, people may be getting restless and tired of the injustice and inequality of the countries in this region.
Is this a lone incident or a show of things to come? We will know soon enough.

From Kasama Project;

Tunisia: We Are Not Afraid,

Posted by Mike E on January 18, 2011

The good news from Tunisia

17 January 2011. A World to Win News Service. In a world sorely in need of good news and a Middle East that has seemed to be getting darker, a ray of light has broken through in Tunisia.
Instead of accepting being pressed down and passive, the masses of people seized the initiative and toppled a hated head of state who had long administered the country for the benefit of France, the other European powers and the U.S., a man who was backed by all of them until the very end. While the Tunisian events are not like, for instance, Iraq and Afghanistan, where the U.S. has suffered serious military setbacks, this is a movement where no reactionaries have hegemony, at least so far.
This is rare in today’s world where imperialists and Islamic reactionaries too often monopolize the political stage. These events have brought hope not only to Tunisians but millions of other people sick of the unbearable status quo crushing the region and the globe.
For this reason Tunisians face a very difficult situation as the enforcers of today’s world order and their present and possible future Tunisian underlings and allies manoeuvre to stuff the genie – the people – back into the bottle.
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