Trouble in paradise:
Tunisia's 'economic miracle' unmasked
By Leela JACINTO | France 24
 Far from the all-inclusive resorts of Hammamet, Sousse or Jerba - where most of the 7 million-odd tourists who visit Tunisia each year gather - trouble has been brewing in this North African paradise.
It all started on Dec. 17, when a street vendor in the southern Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid doused himself with gasoline and set himself on fire after police confiscated his produce because he did not have a permit.
The incident sparked protests across Tunisia - a rare occurrence in the tightly controlled Arab nation - and as security forces reacted to the unexpected events, the death toll from clashes between police and protesters began to mount.
Tunisian officials say 14 people were killed over the weekend while trade unions and opposition groups put the death toll over the past three days at more than 50.
Ever since Tunisia gained independence from France in 1956, the Muslim-majority nation has been ruled by authoritarian presidents who placed an emphasis on economic and social development - particularly education and women's rights - but tolerated virtually no political opposition.
The current president, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, is Tunisia's second president since it gained independence. He has governed unopposed for the past 23 years, with elections routinely resulting in landslide victories for the ruling RDC (Democratic Constitutional Rally) party.
While Tunisia's impressive education system sees around 75,000 students graduate every year, the World Bank estimates that 46 percent of educated youths are still unemployed a year-and-a-half after graduating.
"About 15 years ago, Tunisia saw the emergence of a middle class through education, there was some social mobility," said Lahcen Achy, an economist at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. "But for the past ten years, the beneficiaries of higher education can no longer break into the workforce. Social mobility no longer works. In the old days, there were few opportunities, today there are none."
According to Achy, most of the beneficiaries of the "Tunisian economic miracle" have been limited to Ben Ali's close circle, including First Lady Leila Ben Ali's influential Trabelsi clan.
US diplomatic cables leaked to the whistleblower WikiLeaks site noted that Tunisians obliquely refer to Ben Ali's wealthy cronies and clansmen as "the Family" and added that while some Tunisians believe the president is being used by the much-derided Trabelsi clan, "it is hard to believe Ben Ali is not aware, at least generally, of the growing corruption problem".
Read full Article
|
Crackdown fails to halt Tunisian jobs anger
By Heba Saleh | The Financial Times
 The Tunisian regime is not used to defiance from its people, but for weeks now it has appeared powerless to stop disgruntled protesters. Neither a security crackdown nor the promise this week by President Zein al-Abidine Ben Ali to create 300,000 jobs over two years have quelled the fury over unemployment.
The official casualty figure is 20 dead. But trade union officials said 50 people had been killed over the past three days in Kasserine, one of three farming areas with high rates of youth unemployment that have seen the worst of the violence. They said looting and firing against demonstrators continued in the area overnight.
Mr Ben Ali's critics now say that the state he has built is no less autocratic and corrupt than that of his predecessor. His family controls the economy, the country lacks a free press, and very little dissent is tolerated. Inter national human rights groups regularly accuse the authorities of harassing critics, stifling freedom of expression and using torture against detainees - most of whom are Islamists.
"Tunisians are not investing as much as they can," said an international banker who follows the country closely. "The problem is corruption which started in the last five years. If you want to do business in Tunisia, unfortunately, relatives of the wife of the president have to be involved. That is why so many Tunisian companies are fed up and they are investing in Libya and Algeria instead."
A US embassy cable dated 2008 and released by Wiki Leaks, described corruption in Tunisia as the "elephant in the room". It said: "The perception of increasing corruption and the persistent rumors of shady backroom dealings has a negative impact on the economy, regardless of the veracity. Contacts tell us they are afraid to invest for fear the family will suddenly want a cut."
Read Full Article
|
Tunisian union wants inquiry into demonstrator deaths
By Rima Maktabi and Neil Curry | CNN
 As clashes spread Tuesday, a Tunisian workers union has called on President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali to order an independent inquiry into the deaths of demonstrators protesting high unemployment and poor living conditions in Tunisia.
Nineteen people were killed during two days in riots that broke out in two Tunisian cities near its border with Algeria, a government official said Monday, but union sources said the number is closer to 50.
The unrest occurred in the cities of Thala and Kasserine, said Samir Abidi, minister of information. All of the dead were demonstrators; more than 30 police were injured, he said.
In Kasserine alone, 13 people were killed in two days, Amnesty International said. The organization called for an investigation into the deaths and for those responsible to be punished.
Human rights groups have said the Tunisian government has cracked down on demonstrators with force. Reporters Without Borders condemned the arrests and disappearances of bloggers and online activists across a number of Tunisian cities.
The worldwide press freedom organization said police arrested the bloggers to question them about hacking into government websites.
The official news agency reported that the Tunisian government called in U.S. Ambassador Gordon Grey to answer questions about U.S. government criticism of the Tunisian government's handling of the unrest.
Read Full Article Back to top |
Special Reports -
Europe condemns Tunisian violence
By UPI
 European leaders rushed to condemn the outbreak of violence in Tunisia after the government shuttered schools and universities to quell rioting.
At least 14 people were killed in rioting according to official figures, though the death toll could be much higher.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague called on authorities in Tunisia to take steps to resolve the situation without further conflict. "I condemn the violence in Tunisia and the deaths of protesters and regret today's announcement of the closure of all national schools and universities across the country," he said in a statement.
A statement by Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief, and Stefan Fule, the EU enlargement commissioner, expressed Europe's concern about the violence. "We are concerned about the events that have been taking place in Tunisia in recent days," the statement read. "In particular, we deplore the violence and the death of civilians."
Read Full Article
|
Tunisia's opposition dismisses Ben Ali's warnings
By Duraid Al Baik | Gulf News
 Tunisia's opposition leaders on Tuesday rejected President Zine Al Abdine Bin Ali's threat to use force against peaceful demonstrators in the country. They said the warning to brand demonstrators as terrorists is not accepted and called on the international community to put pressure on the government to stop killing people.
Opposition groups said that at least 50 people were killed by the police which was ordered to used live ammunition against protesters, opposition websites claimed.
In a telephone interview with Gulf News, Eyad Al Dahmani, a Paris-based PDP leader, said citizens who took to the streets are revolting against corruption and the way the regime is misusing the wealth of the country.
He said the days of fear have gone. "Corruption and dictatorship have to end. People will not leave the streets before making sure that their demands are achieved," he said.
He said the demonstrations are not about jobs and more investments. "It is about the pride and dignity of the nation."
"No one can predict the direction of the current uprising. It all depends on the mood of the young men and women on the streets and on how much force the regime can use to suppress the rioters while buying the silence of the international community."
Read Full Article
|
The failure of governance in the Arab world
Protests in Tunisia and Algeria are part of a rising tide of popular dissatisfaction with illiberal, unreformed Arab rule
By Simon Tisdall | The Guardian
 The official response to unrest on Tunisia's streets comes straight out of a tyrant's playbook: order the police to open fire on unarmed demonstrators, deploy the army, blame resulting violence on "terrorists" and accuse unidentified "foreign parties" of fomenting insurrection. Like other Arab rulers, President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali seems not to know any better.
The trouble started last month when Mohammed Bouazizi, 26, an unemployed graduate, set himself on fire outside a government building in protest at police harassment. Bouazizi's despairing act - he died of his injuries last week - quickly became a rallying cause for Tunisia's disaffected legions of unemployed students, impoverished workers, trade unionists, lawyers and human rights activists.
The ensuing demonstrations produced a torrent of bloodshed at the weekend when security forces, claiming self-defence, said they killed 14 people. Independent sources say at least 50 died and many more were wounded in clashes in the provincial cities of Thala, Kasserine and Regueb.
In this daunting context, Ben Ali's emergency job creation plan, announced this week, looks to be too little, too late.
Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, has problems that dwarf Tunisia's but are basically similar: the population is booming, 60% are under 30, youth unemployment is soaring, 40% of citizens live on under $2 a day, and one third is illiterate.
Add to this a growing rich-poor divide, a corrupt electoral system that bans the country's largest party, the Muslim Brotherhood, and President Hosni Mubarak's apparent determination to cling to power indefinitely, and the picture that emerges is both disturbing and largely typical of the illiberal, unreformed Arab sphere.
The striking underperformance of most Arab governments in political, economic and social terms - and of the Arab League, dubbed by some an "autocrats club" - has been expertly charted in the past decade by a series of UN-sponsored Arab human development reports. Overall, they make depressing reading. Ben Ali and his ilk would do well to study the 2009 Arab Knowledge survey produced by the Al Maktoum Foundation.
Read Full Article
|
Tunisian Government Allegedly Hacking Facebook, Gmail Accounts of Dissidents and Journalists
by Neal Ungerleider | Fast Company
 A strange bit of JavaScript has found its way onto Tunisian Internet users' internet login screens. Some are now in jail in a country known for torture. But they've been adopted by an unlikely ally: Anonymous.The protesters complain of unemployment, economic woes and an omnipresent dictatorship. Tunisia's government has stumbled upon a new method of combating the protesters: Hacking into their social media accounts.
According to a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Tunisian government appears to be breaking into the Facebook, Google, and Yahoo accounts of dissidents and journalists. Hack targets found that Facebook groups they founded were deleted, as were pictures of protests. In CPJ's words, "Their accounts and pictures of recent protests have been deleted or otherwise compromised."
Already, in-depth information is surfacing on how the hacks were committed. It appears that the Agence tunisienne d'Internet, a government agency which supervises all of Tunisia's ISPs, or someone with access to the agency committed them. Tunisian ISPs are running a Java script that siphons off login credentials from users of Facebook, Yahoo and Gmail.
Daniel Crowley, Technical Specialist for Core Security, and Rapid7's Josh Abraham, broke the code down further. Crowley explained that the JavaScript is customized for each site's login form. It will pull the username and password, and encode it with a weak crypto algorithm. The newly encrypted data is placed into the URL, and a randomly generated five character key is added. The code only targeted users accessing HTTP sites instead of HTTPS, which appears to be why Facebook was so heavily ravaged by the hack plan. Facebook users default to using HTTP to access the site.
Much of this information has been released to the public by the quasi-4Chan allied Anonymous group, which has launched an anti-Tunisian government hacker campaign called Operation: Tunisia.
Read Full Article
|
About CSID
By supporting CSID, you help to: - Create a better future for our children so they can have more opportunities for improving their lives and realizing their dreams.
- Educate and inform Americans about Islam's true values of tolerance, peace, and good will towards mankind, including peoples of other faiths.
- Improve U.S. relations with the Muslim world by supporting popular movements rather than oppressive tyrannies and corrupt regimes.
- Replace the feelings of hopelessness, despair, and anger in many parts of the Muslim world, especially among the youth, with a more positive and hopeful outlook for the future.
- Encourage young Muslim Americans, and Muslims everywhere, to participate in the political process and to reject calls for destructive violence and extremism.
- Build a network of Muslim democrats around the globe who can share knowledge and experience about how to build and strengthen democratic institutions and traditions in the Muslim countries.
Center for the Study of Islam & Democracy
Membership/Donation Form 2011
Name: ______________________________________________________________________________
Institution:___________________________________________________________________________
Address: ____________________________________________________________________________
City____________________________State______________Zip _______________________________
Tel.:________________________________________________________________________________
Fax.:_______________________________________________________________________________
E-mail:______________________________________________________________________________
I would like to join CSID as:
Student Member ❑ $20 Newsletter Subscription ❑ $20
Institutional Member ❑ $200 CSID 500 Club ❑ $500
Associate Member ❑ $50 Founding Member ❑ $1000
Member ❑ $100 Lifetime Member ❑ $2500
National Advisory Board ❑ $1,000 International Advisory Board ❑ $5,000
I would like to make a tax-deductible donation for: $__________
I would like to make a pledge to CSID for: ❑ $1000 ❑ $500 ❑ $200 ❑ $100 ❑ $50 Other________
Please mail, along with payment, to:
CSID
1625 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Suite 601,
Washington, D.C. 20036
Please donate generously. Your contribution to CSID is both tax-deductible, and zakat-eligible. Your contribution will make a world of difference.
The Center for the Study of Islam & Democracy is a non-profit think tank, based in Washington DC - dedicated to promoting a better understanding of democracy in the Muslim world, and a better understanding of Islam in America. To achieve its objectives, the Center organizes meetings, conferences, and publishes several reports and periodicals. CSID engages Muslim groups, parties, and governments - both secularist and moderate Islamist - in public debates on how to reconcile Muslims' interpretation of Islam and democracy. CSID is committed to providing democracy education to ordinary citizens, civil society, religious and political leaders in the Muslim world, and has organized meetings, workshops, and conferences in over 25 countries, including Nigeria, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Iran, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, etc.
"Today, more than ever, we in the United States of America and beyond need to hear, understand, and promote the voices of reason, moderation, and democracy among Muslims. The CSID is one of the most articulate platforms serving this need. Through the CSID we can and have been tackling the deficit of democracy, human rights, especially women's rights in many Islamic societies. By supporting CSID we help support dialogue and understanding, instead of clash, among civilizations."
Nayereh Tohidi
Professor & Department Chair
Women's Studies, CSUN & UCLA
"There are few issues of greater concern to the future of the Muslim world than the prospects for democracy. CSID has pioneered the promotion of democracy at the practical level, and in this regard has provided invaluable service through education and social activism."
Vali Nasr, Professor
Naval Postgraduate School
|
|
