We seem to have a populist revolt on our hands—in Tunisia
This is stunning news:
After 23 years of iron-fisted rule, the president of Tunisia was driven from power Friday by violent protests over soaring unemployment and corruption. Virtually unprecedented in modern Arab history, the populist uprising sent an ominous message to authoritarian governments that dominate the region…
Ben Ali’s downfall sent a potentially frightening message to autocratic leaders across the Arab world, especially because he did not seem especially vulnerable until very recently.
He managed the economy of his small country of 10 million better than many other Middle Eastern nations grappling with calcified economies and booming young populations. He turned Tunisia into a beach haven for tourists, helping create an area of stability in volatile North Africa. There was a lack of civil rights and little or no freedom of speech, but a better quality of life for many than in neighboring countries such as Algeria and Libya.
Nobody seems to know what will happen next in Tunisia. The sense is of chaos, which can provide an opportunity for even more sinister and repressive forces to enter the scene. Let’s hope not—but think Iran when the Shah fell.
As in many recent populist movements in the Arab world, modern communications media seem to have played a large role [emphasis mine]:
The ouster followed the country’s largest protests in generations and weeks of escalating unrest, sparked by one man’s suicide and fueled by social media, cell phones and young people who have seen relatively little benefit from Tunisia’s recent economic growth. Thousands of demonstrators from all walks of life rejected Ben Ali’s promises of change and mobbed Tunis, the capital, to demand that he leave.
Tunisia is an Arab country, as well as a Muslim one–although, curiously, it is the only Arab country that bans polygamy.
And what a history! I didn’t know it until today, but Tunisia was the site of Carthage. Later it (or sections of it) was conquered by the Romans, the Vandals, the Byzantines, some Normans, the Almohad caliphs, the Berber Hafsids, pirates (remember the Barbary Coast?—it was in Tunisia), Spain, the Ottomons (are you still with me?), and the French. Tunisia became independent in 1956, and Ben Ali’s been in charge since 1987.
Until now.
Notch up a Wikileaks, it bleeds.
Our cable detailed how their President screwed over their economy for his family’s benefit.
Only then did his countrymen realize just how vast his ‘take’ was — and that the Family was entirely above the law.
The current Israeli ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, has a book called, “Power, Faith, and Fantasy” about America and the Mideast going back to the colonial period. If you haven’t read it, you should.
How this relates to Tunis: at one point he relates how the scourge of Barbary piracy compelled the newborn United States to create a navy to defeat them, since the Europeans were unwilling to crush Barbary, content to just bribe them. Creating a navy required more federal power than the Articles of Confederation offered: and thus was the Constitution born. Interesting, no? We can thank the Tunisians.
It’s humbling to consider how immense Africa is. Tunisia looks like a tiny spot on Africa, especially wedged between Algeria and Libya. In actuality, Tunisia is a little bigger than Georgia, which is itself more than 4 times the size of Massachusetts.
I commented in a previous post that his could be part of the democratic trend president Bush sought to push in the middle east, before comrade Obama told the audience in Cairo that no country has the right to impose democracy on another. He got a standing ovation from the autocrats and Islamists for that.
BTW, did you know the Moslem Brotherhood was specifically invited to the speech, the very same organization that just recently declared war on the US. I guess it’s part of their reply to Obama’s outreach to the Moslem world.
The next question is whether the democrats in Tunisia will be able to survive Qaddafi and Algerian Al Qaeda without President Bush to protect them. This could be the start of something very good or very bad.
Bryan;
not unrelated:
“From the halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli . . .”
Thanks for the book suggestion, I’ll look for it in my library.
Revolts happen when people have hope, not when they are most repressed. The Bush seeds will sprout.
I knew about the Barbary pirates, but I didn’t realize it was the site of Carthage.
That could be good or bad, but I dread to think of what a “young people’s” revolt in the U.S. would bring.
I wish the Tunisian people the best of luck with their revolution, may they not simply replace one dictator with another, and may they also keep the Islamists away from the instruments of power. Tunisia is not known as an extremist hotbed, but I’m sure there are some out there.
I visited Tunisia briefly, oh, maybe 14 years ago now. The beach culture was just getting started then, mostly with working-class Germans there on package tours. The brand-new luxury beachfront hotel I stayed in had about a 10% occupancy rate, a decent bar, and an adequate restaurant. (I was on per diem; the Germans, who weren’t, stayed in more humble digs). The whole place struck me as “Third World Lite”, where it was pleasant enough and things more or less worked, but all too frequently, you’d run into something that would generate a “WTF were they thinking?” reaction. I certainly didn’t hate the place, but I never had any desire to return.
I read this morning that they are now looting and burning. I had hoped this might be some sort of popular uprising, but it sounds as if it is turning into something else. Anarchy.
I visited Tunisia briefly in the 1970s. The beaches were beautiful, bordered by steep rocky cliffs (really hard to climb, if you got lost, as we did!) with little blue-and-white villages clinging to the tops. We saw the Carthage ruins, which were, then at least, unspoiled and stunning — you could stand among the tumbled pillars and fallen walls half-covered with weeds and moss and feel the weight of time.
However, beyond the tourist sights, Tunisia was far and away the creepiest place I’ve ever been. I’ll never forget the main boulevard in the city of Tunis, a wide straight avenue in the heart of the city, paralleled on both sides for what seemed like miles with hundreds of identical building-sized portraits of then-president Habib Bourgiba, glaring down with eyes that seemed to see everything and follow everyone everywhere (this must have been the same street now named “Avenue Habib Bourgiba”). My naive young American eyes had never seen that kind of dictator-ish deification of a leader. There were no women to be seen anywhere, only legions of men, and they introduced me to the Muslim treatment of young unchaperoned Western women — with the result that we ended up hiding much of the time in our hotel for self-protection. I still have a couple of little things I bargained for in the souk in Tunis, but I was glad to leave and never wanted to go back.
I blame the vitriolic, inflammatory rhetoric of the Tunisian Tea Party for this.
good one Bilwick!
Soros merely found a way to make more blood money. If it becomes a worse socialist hellhole then most, and begins developing a nuclear program to milk the West of gold, other fuels, and food while continuing it’s program (which if it succeeds it will use or sell to people who will use), then you will know he bought and paid for it (out of the earnings of destroying the nation it was). Hey, it was somehow vulnerable. In his eyes, it means the change was necessary.
I can’t imagine that a situation like this occurs in North Korea or Cuba. In these countries the leaders exercise much more control over their people. And it’ll also be interesting to watch the international community and the reactions of other countries to the events taking place in Tunisia.
The democratic Tunisian Arab Street. Yeah, sure. Dream on.
watch patton again. Scene in ancient battlefield in early part of movie is supposed to be near carthage. At the time us forces were in tunisia
Yes, U.S. forces in WW2 did fight in Tunisia, and in fact suffered one of their worst defeats there, at the Battle of the Kasserine Pass in February 1943. It was their introduction to Rommel and the Afrika Korps varsity, and it didn’t go well. In fact, the defeat here is what led to Ike replacing Lloyd Fredendall with Patton as II Corps commander. The rest, as they say, is history.
Why says…
Actually Tunisia has been the backdrop for an ENDLESS sequence of Hollywood productions.
Hollywood loves:
Tunisia (Lawrence of Arabia
Morocco
Jordan & (Lawrence of Arabia
Southeast Spain ( Patton Once Upon A Time..
Indiana Jones, Life of Brian, etc. all were filmed in Tunisia.
The big man rolled out the red carpet AND
Tunisia has a climate not too far away from Northern Mexico/ Southern California. PLUS, all manner of varied micro-climates without a lot of utility poles to force modernity upon the viewer.
This last item should keep Tunisia in the movie business for a long time.
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These food riots were predicted by me many weeks ago: there due to the effects of crop failures, yes, but the real killer is Benny and the Press.
The Bernanke is taxing all USD liquidity-assets at a tremendous clip.
What this means is that the stock market is losing ground to commodities — so that even up days are in fact economic losers.
Global stock markets have been losing ground to gold and silver and should continue to do so.
Right now we are on the very edge of a silver panic. Commercial silver deliveries can’t keep up with demand. Most dealers are entirely out of stock and waiting for metal.
Gold and silver imports by India an China are now not even price sensitive. This is how the USD is losing its reserve status.
The Bernanke is a river boat gambler — and now he’s going ‘all in’ at the river!
With everyone’s money!
Democracy? In Arab country? Do not make me laugh. It will result in another Hamastan or Hezbollahlend, or Somali-like chaos. The only form of government capable to provide civil peace and social order in Arab world is military dictatorship. Everything else quickly becomes nasty. (As well as in Russia, the only stable form of government is autocracy: pre-enlightenment society can not support viable democracy, it quickly degrades to primordal savagery.)
Arabs are natural anarchists, they can tolerate only rulers that do not interfere big time into religious, community and family life. Only essential functions of government can be maintained here without most harsh tyranny bordering in auto-genocide (like Saddam rule in Iraq). Saudi kings make a lot of compromisses with clergy, other Arab rulers buy loyality of populace by largesse from oil revenues. When oil will run out, all Arab world will go to the dogs.
The idea that the Constitution is a product of a need for a Navy is an overstatement. No doubt the Revolutionary War showed the Founders (especially Hamilton) the need for a strong central government to provide for the common defense, but the United States didn’t even create a Navy until 1994. And it wasn’t the first Navy.
The Continental Congress created a Navy in 1775. So a federal constitution wasn’t needed to create a Navy. To fund one adequately, probably yes.
“The Act to Provide a Naval Armament” was passed by the United States Congress on March 27, 1794, well after the following dates: Adoption of the Constitution, September 17, 1787; Ratification of the Constitution by New Hampshire, June 21, 1788; Operational start date of the new federal government, March 4, 1789.
If the need for a Navy birthed the U.S. Constitution, why did the new nation wait five years to create one?
Michael Oren is a superb scholar and I would like to read his book, but the origins of the U.S. constitution are more varied and local than the scourge of Barbary pirates.
Sometimes one edits too much. In this case, I edited out an introductory statement for the above post.
Please note my comment at 2:19 is about Bryan’s comment at 12:52 am.
It’s probably not wrong to say that the most influential event which caused the Constitution was the funding of necessary government functions which did not occur because of weaknesses of the Second Continental Congress working through the Articles of Confederation. The slack was either borne by the men in the field or taken up by men like Robert Morris, of whom a new book shows his under appreciation.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/01/book_review_robert_morris_fina.html