SEIF DA’NA
Seif Da’Na is an associate professor of sociology and international studies at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside specializing in Mideast and North Africa. He said today: “Repercussions of the Tunisia example will be deep and significant and will be felt throughout the region. The uprising signifies not only the failure of the neo-liberal economic model that Arab regimes pursued, but also the futility of political oppression to enforce this model in the long run. The event signifies the beginning of a new era that must be seen as a process of change and might lead to the creation of a new region. The demands by people on the street we are seeing in Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and elsewhere are broad. They are political, economic, and social demands signifying the dead-end of a system that employed excessive political oppression to enforce destructive neo-liberal economic policies. Privatizing the public sector essentially reversed the post independence economic achievements of these countries, increased inequality, and created intolerable living conditions for a significant part of the population. [Read more...]
News Release Archive | Tunisia | Accuracy.Org
The Mideast * “A New Era” * From Cairo
Interviews Available with Tunisians: “A Third Way”
Protests continued today in Tunisia, with the ruling party’s headquarters surrounded and its signage dismantled.
RADIA DAOUSSI
Daoussi, a Tunisian native, is the president of the Vineeta Foundation, a non-profit focusing on public health and human rights. She also works for international organizations, including UNDP, UNICEF, and the World Bank. Daoussi said today: “Tunisians have not let down their movement, it’s not like Ben Ali is out and we can all go home. The Ben Ali regime was supported by the U.S. government for years with hundreds of millions of dollars. Ali came to visit the U.S. under Bush. Tunisia has apparently been a major player in the ‘rendition’ program. Tunisia followed the IMF structural adjustment programs, cutting subsides for food and fuel. It was heralded by the IMF, by France and the U.S. as a model for the Third World because of its growth, but it was dependent on tourism. It did provide good education, but not many jobs.
“For all the talk of democracy by U.S. officials, this was a homegrown movement, not planned out by the U.S. military or government. It’s past time for people in the U.S. to ask what price there is for ‘stability.’ There’s a third way — not pro-U.S. authoritarianism or repressive Islamic rule — a true democracy.” Daoussi is speaking at a forum tonight in Washington, D.C.
The following activists are available for a limited number of media interviews form Tunisia (please call between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. Tunisia time, which is 6 hours ahead of U.S. ET):
[Read more...]
Tunisian Academic: “Will Not Recognize This Band of Thugs”
NOUREDDINE JEBNOUN, [beginning Tues. 2:00 pm ET]
Available for a very limited number of interviews with major media outlets, Jebnoun is visiting assistant professor at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University. He said today: “Today, in Tunisia, a new government has been announced and mainly led by the same old guard of criminals from the Constitutional Democratic Rally, which is neither ‘constitutional’ nor ‘democratic’ but an aggregation of thugs and criminals that Tunisian people, who sacrificed themselves for freedom and dignity, must place under trial. I will not recognize this government and I do not consider this government representative of the genuine aspirations of the heroic Tunisian people. Our people who were killed by the snipers of the praetorian Presidential Guard as well as by mercenaries hired by [ousted dictator/President] Ben Ali from Belarus and Serbia deserve better compensation than being represented by this mediocre political class; which in reality has neither legitimacy nor credibility. [Read more...]
Tunisia: U.S. Backing Dictatorship over Pro-Democracy Movement
CNN is reporting: “Police in Tunisia’s capital city used batons and tear gas to clear a peaceful demonstration on Friday. … [This occurs] after days of riots that have killed at least 21 people.”
STEPHEN ZUNES
Zunes just wrote the piece “Pro-Democracy Uprising Fails to Keep Washington From Backing Tunisian Dictatorship.”
Zunes is professor of politics at the University of San Francisco and senior policy analyst for Foreign Policy in Focus.
CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER
Alexander is director of the Dean Rusk International Studies Program at Davidson College in North Carolina and a specialist on Tunisia. He is author of Tunisia: Stability and Reform in the Modern Maghreb.
He said today: “Until this week, I was betting that [Tunisian President] Ben Ali would ride this out. But the regime’s traditional tools can no longer address the situation.
“There’s broad-based social unrest, people have no faith in the government given the mafia-type corruption around the president’s family, human rights abuses, and until yesterday, his refusal to make any kind of political reform.
“Economics is huge in this. In mid-December, a university graduate lit himself on fire after police busted him for selling vegetables. [Read more...]
