لم يكن استفتاء الخامس والعشرين من جويلية حدثًا عابرًا بالنسبة إلى الإدارة الأمريكية، حيث أصدرت وزارة الخارجية الأمريكية بيانا يوم الثامن والعشرين من جويلية أبدت فيه موقفا متحفّظا إزاء مسار إعداد الاستفتاء. هذا الموقف اعتبره عدد من الجمعيّات والمنظّمات التونسيّة “تدخّلا صارخًا في الشأن الوطني”، رغم معارضة هذه الجمعيّات انفراد قيس سعيّد بالحكم.
Polemical public figures who provoke protests upon their arrival or an outpouring of public response to their ideologies and work are as telling of the values and issues precious to Tunisian public opinion as they are of the controversial figures themselves.
At the beginning of the month, Journalist Farhat Othman criticized the Italian Interior Minister’s visit to Tunisia, observing that an offering of patrol boats, in the guise of support against terrorism and contraband, could only be intended for support against clandestine immigration since it consists of «patrol vessels mandanted by the cooperation agreement linking Tunisia and Italy since 2011 after the massive wave of Tunisians to Italy.» As if to provide a caricature of European politicans obsessed by preserving EU security, Nicolas Sarkozy addressed a cheering crowd of supporters in Nice earlier this week, calling for the «refounding» of the Schengen Area and «a real immigration policy to put an end to social tourism in our country.»
As much as Tunisia’s initial, post-independence, political transition was influenced by the extent and nature of economic support from the West, the success of the country’s waning post-revolution «democratic transition» is significantly impacted by the same US and EU powers. A misnomer that diminishes the scope and complexity of international alliances and enmities that it encompasses, the Arab-Israeli conflict bears greatly upon Tunisia’s relations with Western democracies, the primary prospective investors and financial backers of political transition in Tunisia for the past half century.
In Tunisia, there is a great deal of skepticism regarding the competency and «responsible governance» of the interim government in juxtaposition with Tunisia’s international image as the ‘sole democracy in the Arab world’ as citizens sense that technocrats and politicians are incapable of rising above their own political and electoral trajectories to synchronise a unified, coordinated national response to aggression that is tantamount to a Palestinian holocaust.
The ‘open’ letter to Secretary Kerry, endorsed by and intended for US government officials, is written accordingly, in polished diplomatic terms where the return of every initiative is measured in dollars and proposed projects and investments perpetuate the image of the US abroad as a benevolent (soft) power.
What Jomâa did not say regarding contrasting political visions amongst the Gulf countries visited on his trip will weigh heavily not only on international relations and the actual support that Tunisia might receive from its alliances, but on the conditions for the support (if any) offered. Meanwhile images of blood-stained earth and bullet hole-scarred buildings permeate national news following clashes between national security forces and militants in Jendouba and Sidi Bouzid.
The show of US interest in Tunisia since the beginning of the revolution is significant, both in mainstream media and discourse as well as in US official investigations and reports. Whether docked at the capital port, or congratulating the prime minister, or releasing large sums of loan money into the economy, or advocating for a successful democratic transition, the United States has made it clear that it has a vision for Tunisia.
عادة ما نلتفت إلى الترجمة من الناحية الفنية أو التقنية، لكن يجدر الانتباه كذلك إلى أنّ العالم الحديث وتقنيات التواصل تتيح توظيف الترجمة من العربية إلى الإنكليزية واللغات الأخرى لخدمة الأجندا الصهيونية بوجه عام والدفاع عن مصالح إسرائيل في الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية بوجه خاص.
The U.S.’s Internet freedom movement has been engaged in plenty of soul-searching since Haystack, a much-hyped anti-censorship tool built by […]
Entretien avec Moncef Marzouki, médecin et homme politique tunisien. Il dirigea la ligue tunisienne des droits de l’Homme, et préside depuis 2001 le Congrès pour la république. Il est l’auteur de Dictateurs en sursis. Une voie démocratique pour le monde arabe, éditions de l’Atelier, 2009. Comment devient-on opposant ? Moncef Marzouki : Ce genre de système ne laisse pas d’alternatives. […]
[…] Sur le papier, la journée s’annonçait intéressante, historique même. Et dans une certaine mesure, elle le fut. En effet, la liste des invités comptait les chefs de fils des principaux protagonistes de ces élections, ainsi que les intervenants habituels de la société civile tunisienne. Ce qui a poussé certains à la qualifier, à tort, d’« assise de l’opposition » […]
Le régime de Tunis, indépendamment du chef de gang en exercice, tout au long d’un demi-siècle est indiscutablement devenu un […]
En ces jours, comme à chaque été, au moment où les avions et les bateaux de croisières traversent la méditerranée du nord vers le sud transportant les européens qui vont passer des jolies vacances sur des belles plages aménagées exclusivement pour eux, des pirogues, des recoins les plus insolites des dessous des poids lourds et d’autres […]
All the currents that claim adherence to political Islam proclaim the “specificity of Islam.” According to them, Islam knows nothing […]
