Injustice 30

Redeyef: A Town of Hopes Betrayed

It’s hard to believe, when you’re in Redeyef, that this town is one of the richest in the whole of Tunisia. It’s also in Redeyef that we see the real meaning of social injustice. Despite the four hundred thousand tons of phosphate mined there every year, the twenty-seven thousand inhabitants of Redeyef have, for decades now, had access to just one school, one poorly equipped hospital, and a deserted youth centre.

South to North and the Sea in Between: Politics of Migration in the Mediterannean

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.»

A Story of Water in Kairouan

A Google Web search on «l’eau + Kairouan» produces a disconcerting variety of reports on the magnificent Aghlabid basins, the conqueror Okba’s recovery of a lost golden cup («When picking the cup up, water sprang from the ground») and the stoppage of running water to the Haffouz delegation of Kairouan, so that one is left confusedly marveling at the graceful aesthetic and functional design of the region’s ancient water source and wondering how residents of such parched lands have survived the summer months without the potable running water to which they are accustomed.

Global Surveillance Monitoring – Nawaat Partners with Privacy International for Legal Reform in Tunisia

Defining the core of Nawaat’s collaborations with Privacy International, Sami Ben Gharbia points to the present legal battle that encompasses the Technical Telecommunications Agency mandated by decree and the (leaked) draft law concerning cybercrime, both of which must be addressed by «deconstructing the legal discourse of these threats and coming up with a proposal that will respect human rights.»

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Tunisia and Israel, Tunisia and the US

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.

Interventionism, Systematic Alignment Instill Political Divisiveness – and No Resolve for Gaza

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 Martyrs of the Revolution Affair– State Justice at Odds with Public Opinion

Is the ‘Martyrs of the Revolution Affair’ that has inundated Tunisian media over the past week symbolic of an already-failing post-revolutionary justice system? Or does it instead reflect the reappearance of the same sort of political corruption that thrived under old regime? Either way, the gaping division between a recent decision announced by Tunisia’s military tribunal and public opinion has Tunisians up in arms or at least on edge about the political, legal, and moral integrity of the State.

The curious timing of the World Bank Report on Economic Corruption under Ben Ali

It is curious timing indeed that the report should be completed just before the Prime Minister’s official visit to Washington to entice American entrepreneurs to invest in Tunisia. In an interview with the Washington Post, Jomaa expressed intentions to pursue economic reforms that conceivably align with World Bank-propelled reforms: “The big trend for Tunisia is to encourage all private initiatives”.

«State Capture in Tunisia» : A World Bank Report on Economic Corruption

That this report diffuses information which was previously inaccessible is a feature not to be overlooked or undervalued. In the wake of revolution and the unfolding democratic transition, the study’s objectives are relevant, its approach and resources transparent, its conclusions meticulously drawn and valuable to common knowledge and future research…However, a subtle but noteworthy contradiction associated with the confused designation of Tunisia as victim of state capture and as a role model for other countries reflects a greater, underlying discrepancy that exists at the institutional level.