“I regret the day I threw a rock at a police officer,” says a resident of Mellassine. 13 years after the revolution, public resentment toward the police is no less palpable in a neighborhood rife with drug trafficking, crime and misery. For many young men and women here, the only apparent escape route from their daily struggle is one heading overseas.
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.
Amami and Mlouka Case Dismissed – and Rule of Law Prevails over Police Force
Lawyers, academics, politicians, civil society, more than one-hundred fifty organizations, Tunisians and internationals were part of the movement to FreeAzyz Amami and Sabri Ben Mlouka: democratic transition demands that the misuse of judicial power inherent in police state be replaced by the precedence of an independent justice.
One Hundred Days of Lentitude – Jomâa on His Work in Office
Citizens, politicians, analysts, and union members expecting concrete decisions and well-elaborated intitiatives in Jomâa’s press conference last Wednesday felt either marked disappointment or resignation to the Prime Minister’s consistently long-winded and half-hearted commitments to real reform.
Activist Azyz Amamy and Sabri Ben Mlouka Arrested, Law 52 Polemic Continues
Thirty-one year old blogger and activist Aziz Amami was arrested yesterday, May 12, 2014 in La Goulette, a beachside neighborhood of the capital. Some time between ten and eleven o’clock Monday night, Amami and his friend, photographer Sabri Ben Mlouka, were purportedly pulled over and detained for the possession and consumption of marijuana.
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.
We Are Happy From Tunisia – Celebrating Diversity and Solidarity In Spite of Political and Economic Insecurities
What each country, each city, each community has to offer in this movement is an independently-crafted testament to one’s existence in the contemporary world during a period in history marked by widespread political instability, economic crisis, and desperation for change.
Tunisia: Still Waiting for Truth, Accountability and…Planning for Elections
Another week in Tunisia’s politics is charged with mixed emotions. For now, in light of the unresolved and reinvigorated confusion surrounding the Belaid case and the elusive progress being made in election-planning processes, public demands for truth, accountability, and productivity reflect a citizenry eager for change, and still waiting for signs of it.
Human Rights Watch / Tunisia: Rappers sentenced to prison for artwork, writing, lyrics deemed ‘insulting’
Tunisia: Rappers Sentenced to Prison String of Prosecutions for Artwork, Writing, Lyrics Deemed ‘Insulting’ (Tunis, September 5, 2013) – A […]
Weekly Political Review: “The invention of democracy”, A Well-informed “Misreading” by Moncef Marzouki
The new book of the President of Tunisia Marzouki, The Invention of Democracy: The Lessons of the Tunisian Experience (L’invention d’une démocratie, les leçons de l’expérience tunisienne), might have little chance to restore faith in the democracy project under the leadership of Troika.
Tunisia: Revolutionary decisions and actions, not parades and celebrations!
At the heart of the plight of the more than 700 wounded and the families of the 300 martyrs is the fact that they were used for political purposes during the elections campaign. Today, those in power are busy sharing the pie, on the other hand the losers aspire to a piece of the pie and in the midst of this very struggle for power the cause of the wounded is lost.