allAfrica.com: Africa: Arab Revolution Lesson to Africa - 0 views
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So far pundits and even lay commentators have rushed to sound warnings to Sub-Sahara African governments of the possibility of an Arab revolution-like events happening within their borders
Bringing the Economy Back Into Tunisian Politics - Carnegie Endowment for International... - 0 views
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Observers have often summarized the situation in Tunisia, and the Arab world in general, as a conflict between Islamists and secularists. While the framework of an Islamist–secularist divide is not completely inaccurate, it frequently ignores more nuanced analysis and perpetuates the orientalist premise that Middle East politics should be explained by historical religious norms. In Tunisia, political Islam was marginal until the fall of dictatorship in January 2011.
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The main demands of the sporadic protest movements before 2011 were not ideological, but called for more political liberties or an improved socioeconomic situation, as in the 2008 Gafsa uprising
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a growing sense among disenchanted voters, youth in particular, that their standards of living would not improve no matter which party they voted for.
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The Arab spring is still alive | openDemocracy - 0 views
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Some have attempted to make the Arab spring ‘unknowable’ as a socio-political phenomenon, all the better to obscure the intentions of its subjects and justify counterrevolution. But the reality is that its aims of establishing freedom and democracy in a region run by decades-old systems of tyranny exists beyond its popularly accepted timeline
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In almost every national situation where counterrevolution has triumphed, it has been allowed to do so without any hindrance by the democratic West – in fact, in many cases it’s with direct or indirect support from it
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There was never any true support for democracy from those who pretended to be its bastions and patrons, all while powerful foreign anti-democratic forces, such as Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, mobilised viciously on the side of counterrevolution to crush nascent democracy
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Can Essebsi's 'Call for Tunisia' Movement Unite the Opposition? - By Erik Churchill | T... - 0 views
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The Call for Tunisia features a broad spectrum of former regime officials together with secular liberals. The former regime officials, or RCDists (from the Constitutional Democratic Rally), were excluded from running in the last elections and see in the new initiative a chance to revive their political prospects. (There was no such cleansing of the actual government administrations -- only positions in the Constituent Assembly). These officials and their supporters oftentimes criticize the current government as incompetent and unable to manage the complexity of government. They try to deflect criticisms of the rampant corruption and stasi-like police state of the past, by pointing to the (very real) progress achieved under Bourguiba and Ben Ali. They cite statistics on women's rights, improvements in education, and infrastructure development, and they compare Tunisia with its neighbors in the Maghreb and throughout Africa. Their motives are clear -- keep the good and throw out the bad of the former regime.
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challenge will be to integrate their liberal values into what is at heart a conservative party
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While Ennahda supporters talk about the extremism of Bourguiba/Ben Ali regarding Islamic practices (including banning the veil and a very liberal interpretation of Ramadan -- not to mention the systematic torture and imprisonment of Islamists themselves), many Tunisians felt comfortable being Muslim under the former regime. It is fair to say that many (though certainly not all) Tunisians did not feel that their religion was under assault under the previous secular regime
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Do-it-yourself | The Economist - 0 views
Authorities Struggle to Take Control in Tunisia - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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The security forces at first allowed the demonstrations to build for a few hours. Then military forces fired shots into the air, followed by occasional blasts from a water cannon to disperse the crowd. After the former government’s swift and ruthless attacks on any unauthorized public gathering, however, the crowd seemed to revel in the relatively gentle response. “A shower,” shrugged one man, in French, his suit and overcoat soaking wet. A man in red shoes danced in the puddles in front of the chanting crowd.
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The outlawed Communist and Islamist parties were excluded from the talks.
Protestors in Tunisia press for new-look government (1st Lead) - Monsters and Critics - 0 views
BBC News - Live: Tunisia turmoil after government falls - 0 views
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1305 Egyptian blogger Hossam el-Hamalawy told the BBC World Service he did not think the incident in Cairo would spark unrest, but he thinks the likelihood of protests is growing: "Over the past four years the number of strikes and social unrest has been escalating and everybody is expecting an uprising. What exactly will be the trigger nobody knows. But we all feel it in the air."
BBC News - Tunisian minister and ex-dissident defends cabinet - 0 views
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Mr Amamou - a prominent blogger - said it was important to have people in the cabinet who knew how the wheels of government worked.
Arab Leaders Keep a Wary Eye on Tunisia - NYTimes.com - 0 views
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In Egypt, where the leadership continues to rely on a decades-old emergency law that allows arrest without charge, there is a lot of room for free and critical speech, offering a safety valve for expression that did not exist in Tunisia, he said.
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