Thread: Tunisia: How the US got it wrong

Excellent review of the uprising in Tunisia.

"One sign read "Game Over". But in fact, the game has barely started.

The Facebook generation has taken to the streets and the "Jasmin Revolt" has become a revolution, at least as of the time of writing. And the flight of former President Ben Ali to Saudi Arabia is inspiring people across the Arab world to take to the streets and warn their own sclerotic and autocratic leaders that they could soon face a similar fate.

As the French paper Le Monde described it, scenes that were "unimaginable only days ago" are now occurring with dizzying speed. Already, in Egypt, Egyptians celebrate and show solidarity over Tunisia's collapse, chanting "Kefaya" and "We are next, we are next, Ben Ali tell Mubarak he is next." Protests in Algeria and Jordan could easily expand thanks to the inspiration of the tens of thousands of Tunisians, young and old, working and middle class, who toppled one of the world's most entrenched dictators. Arab bloggers are hailing what has happened in Tunisia as "the African revolution commencing... the global anti-capitalist revolution.""

Continues at:

Tunisia: How the US got it wrong - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

Tunisians vote with their feet, flee the country
Feb 16, 2011


More than 5,000 illegal immigrants have recently washed up on Italy's southern islands - an unintended consequence of the 'people's revolution' that ousted autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and inspired the uprisings in Egypt and beyond.
PHOTO: AFP

LAMPEDUSA (Italy) - A MONTH after massive protests ousted Tunisia's longtime dictator, waves of Tunisians are voting with their feet, fleeing the country's political limbo by climbing into rickety boats and sailing across the Mediterranean to Europe.

More than 5,000 illegal immigrants have recently washed up on Italy's southern islands - an unintended consequence of the 'people's revolution' that ousted autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and inspired the uprisings in Egypt and beyond.

European powers cheered when Tunisia's 74-year-old ruler fled into exile in Saudi Arabia on Jan 14, but the fallout a month later has tempered their enthusiasm. It has also exposed a dilemma for western countries that allied with repressive leaders in North Africa seen as bulwarks against extremism, and now must build new diplomatic relationships in a still-uncertain political climate.

On Monday, the European Union announced a 258 million euros (S$445 million) aid package to Tunisia from now until 2013, with 17 million euros of that to be delivered immediately. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, visiting Tunisia, said the funds were a gift, not a loan.

Meanwhile, Tunisia sternly rejected Italy's offer to send police there to help tackle waves of illegal migrants fleeing political upheaval, most landing on the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa - an arid one-town island of 6,000 people.

Lampedusa's Mayor Bernardino Rubeis told AP Television News that the island's detention center for migrants had to leave its doors open since there were not enough police to guard it.

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