This week saw the overthrow of a tinpot dictator and the hope of a people for real change in Tunisia.
I've compiled several interesting reads on the recent events:
Ben Ali: Friendless, Homeless and Humiliated -Dictators Take Note, By Yvonne Ridleyhttp://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27269.htmHe might still be living in the lap of luxury, but make no mistake Tunisia's former President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his family are prisoners.
Like birds in a guilded cage, they are languishing in a palace in one of the most exclusive districts of Jeddah but the truth is Ben Ali and his equally odious and corrupt family have nowhere else to hide.
It should signal a warning to all the other despots and dictators in the region – Egypt in particular – that no matter how close you think you are to the West, in times of trouble they will drop you faster than a burning coal.
As one of the cruelest oppressors on the planet scrambled to board a plane to escape what some may consider a well deserved lynching, the truth is he had no idea where he was going.
So fast was his demise.
We were told he was heading for Malta, then France and Dubai and half a dozen other countries but the truth is no one wanted the 74-year-old...
US Knew Tunisian Gov. Rotten Corrupt, Supported Ben Ali Anyway, By Juan ColeTHAT IS, UNTIL THEY DIDN'T...
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27268.htmThe Norwegian newspaper Aftenpost released a series of US diplomatic cables from 2006 on massive and pervasive corruption and nepotism in Tunisia and its effect on economic development and social problems. The cables show that the United States government was fully aware of the dangerous and debilitating level of corruption in Tunisia, and its anti-democratic implications. But they raise the question of whether Washington was wise to make Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, despite his clear foibles, the pillar of its North Africa policy because of his role, as a secular strongman, in repressing Muslim movements.
The US embassy in Tunis noted the contradictions of what was once called ‘the Tunisian miracle’– relative stability and security and 5% growth a year, but with Mafia style corruption on the part of ruling cliques that was discouraging foreign investment and contributing to failing banks and high unemployment.
Most debilitating, and destabilizing, has been high levels of unemployment, especially for college graduates:
‘ Unemployment, however, is a growing concern and is one on which every GOT official is focused. Official unemployment figures leveled off at 14 percent in 2005, after a steady declines dating from 1999s 15.8 percent. Even at 14 percent, however, this figure is consistently challenged as too optimistic by first hand accounts of university graduates unable to find jobs and reports of increasing numbers of ever-more qualified applicants seeking Embassy jobs.’
It was in some important part the college-educated unemployed and their sympathizers that brought down Ben Ali’s regime....
Flight to France left without Ben Ali's relatives (Extra) http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/africa/news/article_1611970.php/Flight-to-France-left-without-Ben-Ali-s-relatives-ExtraDubai - The departure of former Tunisian president Zine el- Abadine Ben Ali's relatives from Tunisia was not without its difficulties, al-Arabiya reported Saturday.
Mohammed Bin Kilani, a pilot with state-owned Tunis Air, told the broadcaster that he and his co-pilot refused to delay a plane headed to Paris on Friday that some Ben Ali supporters had hoped to use to make a quick exit from the North African nation in political turmoil.
'I'm no hero. I was just doing my job,' said Bin Kilani, who said his co-pilot agreed with him that they shouldn't keep the plane's 103 passengers waiting for the unnamed 'important passengers' who were hoping to board.
He added that he had no desire to help anyone who had committed crimes against the Tunisian people to flee the country.
Ben Ali found a plane to take him to Saudi Arabia Friday night. Other Arabic media reported that some members of Ben Ali's entourage fled Tunisia by car for Libya...
Tonight we are all Tunisians, By Yvonne Ridleyhttp://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27266.htmOver the last few days we have seen some of the bravest people facing down some of the worst.
Armed with nothing more than a revolutionary heart and hopes of a better future they gathered and protested as government forces aimed their weapons and fired live rounds in to the crowds.
But the ammunition and the underlying threats of arrest and torture meant absolutely nothing to the masses – for they had simply lost their fear.
It was the final testament to the brutality of a dictator who has had the support of European leaders and various presidents of the United States.
And that the Tunisian President Zine El-Abedine Ben Ali fled from his country like a rat up a drainpipe after 23 brutal years spoke volumes about the character of the man himself...
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