January 14, 2011
WHERE IS AMERICA? (via The Mother Judd):
Tunisia president appeals for peace, pledges reform: After weeks of escalating protests, President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali promises to ease civil liberties and curb corruption, and he indicates he won't seek another term. (Borzou Daragahi and Sihem Hassaini, Los Angeles Times)
In the hours before Ben Ali's address, riots raged in the capital, Tunis, and other cities, as protesters angry about poor economic prospects and a lack of civil liberties looted government buildings and battled police.Hospitals on Thursday were filled with victims of gunshot wounds, a Tunis resident said. Among those shot was an American man carrying a camera in the city center, another American living in Tunis said.
"It was absolute chaos," the American, who asked that his name not be used, said in an e-mail. "It looked like protesters had been burning banks or stores controlled by members of the first family."
Suddenly, police on motorbikes raced into the crowds. "They beat back protesters and used tear gas to try to dispel the crowd," he wrote.
In the melee, his friend was shot in the upper leg and remained overnight at a hospital.
Tunisian activists both in and outside the country have turned to social media for political organizing, calling for a huge rally Friday in the capital's November 7 square. And the nation's largest union, which has endorsed the general aims of the uprising, called for a two-hour general strike Friday but refrained from urging supporters into the streets.
Many on Facebook derided Ben Ali's address as a "farewell speech." And minutes after he finished speaking, Tunisians defied an 8 p.m. curfew in the capital to take to the streets, tooting their horns in celebration.
"We are no longer afraid," some chanted.
" People are tired of it," said Diogo Noivo, a North Africa specialist at the Portuguese Institute of International Relations and Security, a think tank in Lisbon. "People started to understand that regardless of how much they work, how much they study, they will never be able to improve their life conditions, because the rules are not equal for everyone. This is an unequivocal challenge to the regime."
Now that the UR would seem to have found his tongue, perhaps he could speak up in favor of the self-determination movements that are succeeding in The Lebanon, Palestine and Tunisia and still struggling along in Iran?
