We have all been hearing about the lack of democracy in the Arab world and the Middle East. There has been very little coverage or interest from the West to cover a very important story of civil movement in a Muslim/Arab country fighting for change. That country is Tunisia.
This breaking news story is important for two reasons: It does not fit the narrative that led to the invasion of Iraq, where Arabs as people need foreigners to come and invade them so they can have a democracy. This story is not just a blow to all those right wing Neo-con politicians in the "west" who think that Democracy should be imposed by them, but it also contradicts the radical Muslims who think that democracy is a western value. Thus began to pay attention.
Three weeks ago, Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26 year old university graduate, who sold vegetables on the street and had his good confiscated for lack of permit, went back home to his home town of Sidbouzid, walked to the governor's office, where Bouazizi had doused himself with petrol, according to the victim's uncle, Mehdi Horchani.
http://globalvoicesonline.org/...
An unemployed Tunisian set himself on fire in protest against his joblessness, sparking a wave of riots on the ground and solidarity and support on social networking platforms.
While the fate of Mohamed Bouazizi, aged 26, from Sidi Bouzid, in southern Tunisia, remains unclear, Tunisian netizens ceased the incident to complain about the lack of jobs, corruption and deteriorating human rights conditions in their country.
From Facebook to Twitter to blogs, Internet users expressed their solidarity with Mohamed, who had graduated with Mahdia University a few years ago, but could not find a job. Being the only breadwinner in his family, he decided to earn a living and with his family’s help, he started selling fruit and vegetable from a street stall. His venture gave him very little, enough to guarantee the dignity of his family. But city hall officials were on the look out, and have seized his goods several times. He tried to explain to them that what he was doing was not his choice that he was just trying to survive. Each time, his goods were confiscated, he was also insulted and asked to leave the city hall premises. The last time this happened, Mohamed lost all hope in this life and decided to leave it forever. He poured gasoline on himself and set himself on fire.
On Facebook, several groups were created to denounce what happened. Mr President, Tunisians are Setting Themselves on Fire (Ar) is such a group. In less than 24 hours, the group attracted 2,500 members, and today boasts more than 10,000 fans. In less than 24 hours, it has also been censored by the authorities, who have clamped down on the Internet with an iron fist.
Update since this article was written: Mohamed died of his wounds on Jan 4th and a huge funeral was held in his home town attended by 5000 people.
What happened after Mohamed burned himself is a mass uprising that threatens the gov. Unemployment in Tunisia is a high 14 per cent, but among young graduates it reaches up to 25 per cent according to the World Bank, which argues that the services sector is too small to absorb the 80,000 graduates produced by the universities every year.
http://www.somalipress.com/...
"I don’t see a solution in the short term," said Hocine Dimassi, an economist at the University of Sousse. "We have been graduating time bombs for the last 10 years. They reach age 30 and have no jobs and cannot marry, so they are filled with anger. It leads some to suicide and thousands to take the risk of dying while crossing the sea illegally to Europe."
http://news.yahoo.com/...
A massive police presence prevented the protesters from reaching the governor's office, where Bouazizi had doused himself with petrol, according to the victim's uncle, Mehdi Horchani.
"Mohamed gave his life to draw attention to his condition and that of his brothers," he said, describing a "deep sorrow and a feeling of injustice felt by all."
Tunisia has been successful at creating an industrial-base reliant on exports to Europe, but the jobs to be found in thriving sectors such as textiles and automotive parts are not suitable for those with higher degrees.
The Republic of Tunisia gained independence in 1956. Tunisia's principal resources are petroleum, natural gas and phosphates. Tunisia is secular Arab country. It is often cited as one of the most prosperous and "open" economies and societies in Africa and the Arab world. In the Arab world, Tunisia is a leader in gender equality and a society undergoing rapid modernization. A decree was passed as far back as 1981 banning hijab in public places.
http://www.uneca.org/...
Tunisia has invested so much in tourism, but tourism today actually is only partly Tunisian-owned, and I think this is a big problem. The profits don't stay in Tunisia. They create some cheap labor employment— but there’s lots of educated young Tunisians without jobs. According to official statistics, the number of jobless people in the country is about 500,000. The figures also show that a breakthrough in the situation is not likely to take place soon as the number of university graduates rose from 40,000 to about 80,000 during the last five years.
http://www.magharebia.com/...
For example, many of these educated Tunisians are savvy new media users and have been bloggering, facebooking and tweeting about their uprising.
Al Jazeera has lots of video material about Tunisia riots: http://is.gd/... -
As a result, the government has cracked down hard on freedom of speech.
As reported via Twitter, Tunisian blogger Slim Amamou disappears, Google Latitude shows he was last@ Ministry Interior http://yfrog.com/... #sidibouzid
Slim was interviewed by the BBC before his arrest. Here is full version of interview. l'interview complète de @slim404 a la BBC (Mp3) en anglais:
http://bit.ly/... #freeslim #tunisia
BBC reporter Asks him : Was he surprised by the rebellion? Issues of freedom of speech? Was he afraid for his life? The role of blogs, facebook and twitter?
One interesting twist to this story: The protests coincided with the release of WikiLeaks about Tunisia—diplomatic cables which, among other things, describe an excess of wealth in the presidential family.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/...
And Anonymous, the Online activist group who defended Wikileaks by targeting businesses that refused service to Wikileaks, also noticed this protest in Tunisia and decided to support it by attacking Tunisian Gov. websites.
Slim said in that same BBC interviewed before his arrest, "It has been useful to get Anonymous involved." He said they welcomed Anonymous to get involved because although they put individual bloggers in danger of arrest, they were helping them fight for their lives. And the world media started covering their story as a result of Anonymous action.
Despite gov. crackdown, people are still using facebook and twitter to get their story out there. More than 10 percent of the Tunisians are on Facebook. He said he expected to be arrested. And he was arrested the next day.
Al Jazeera has a link to many of the videos of the protest:
http://english.aljazeera.net/...
The Tunisia protests are having impact throughout the Middle East. Syrians Support Tunisian Protests http://is.gd/... In Algeria, there are also protests now over public housing and food shortages.
ALGERIA: RIOTING AND PROTESTS AGAINST GOVERNMENT http://bit.ly/...
Mubarek of Egypt, (seemingly out of nowhere) announces a several billion dollar jobs program for Egypt.
what is next for Tunisia? No one knows what will become of this. However, it seems like something has changed. The people are not afraid of their government anymore.
http://www.somalipress.com/...
[President Zine El Abidine] Ben Ali visiting [Mohamed] Bouazizi in a Tunis hospital—the young man who doused himself
in petrol, who sparked the riots.And it was really a powerful moment, because here we have a patient, a man basically
bandaged, probably dying—we don’t really know yet; he’s seriously burned—and the president’s looking at him. I mean,
I just feel the president is really looking at Tunisia, Tunisian society. It’s tempting to say the caption for this,
"Who is the patient?" Is it the regime, the body politic of Tunisia? Or is it actually the victim, Bouazizi? It’s an
incredible moment.
Update:
A mathematics teacher died (shot by police) today and others have been severely beaten and tortured.
http://mideastposts.com/...
Reporters Sans Frontières - Wave of arrests of bloggers and activists in Tunisia http://t.co/... #sidibouzid via @jilliancyork #fb
general who said to be siding with protesters was said to be replaced weeks ago http://bit.ly/...