RSS

Thu, Nov 10th 2011, 23:02

NADIA TOUMI, YATA germany , Bronze Contributor (20)

The revolution in Tunisia was not motivated by ideology or religion, nor was it pro or anti-democracy. Its only catalyst seems to have been the desire of millions of Tunisians for social justice, dignity, the right to work, and to live free of fear and poverty.The Tunisian people had reached a point where even Ben Ali's summary dismissal of his government, his promise of fair legislative elections within six months, and his pledge not to run for a sixth term in 2014 (after a 23-year dictatorship) could not save him. After all, if it is next to impossible for the educated few to find a job (much less a good job), how much less are the opportunities for the uneducated, or those with limited or minimal education?Tunisia is probably the last Arab country where a popular insurrection could have been predicted. It is more stable, and Tunisians are better educated than most of their Arab brethren. Habib Bourguiba, Tunisia's first president, made it his business to develop his country's broad middle class by pouring resources into its educational system and making higher education virtually free. He abolished polygamy, established an anti-Islamic fundamentalist regime by expelling leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in the late 1980s, and pushed a social agenda of secularization, women's rights, birth control and family planning that, in contrast to most countries in the region, slowed population growth by keeping both public education and social welfare within manageable limits.Under his successor, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, however, Tunisians outraged over the official corruption; the rapacious lifestyle of his family;
Tunisia, unlike Algeria and Libya, is unable to rely on oil and gas exports for 97% of its foreign revenues, and has had to import expensive energy, and attract foreign investment for its textile industry, offshore car-assembly plants and tourist developments.Ben Ali's ouster has sparked both hope and fear, depending on who is speaking, that his fall may be the harbinger of things to come, especially given the rising tide of popular dissatisfaction with illiberal, unreformed authoritarian rule in the other Arab autocracies that line the southern shore of the Mediterranean.T
Unlike other Arab countries, Tunisia has a highly educated population, its annual economic growth rate hovers around 5%, its annual birth rate is only 1.7% (less than Britain); it is mono-ethnic (99% Sunni Arab); has a high level of tolerance (as expressed in the large degree of equality for women), has strong ties with the European Union, and its economy is linked to Europe.

Fri, Nov 11th 2011, 17:45

Norbert Wied, Carl Schurz Vereinigung e.V., (7)

dear Nadia
a good statement, congratulation