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May 11th, 2008

Tunisia: Sarkozy's Visit Spurs Blog Reactions

Naruto · 21:14 · Middle East & North Africa , Western Europe

lingua → fr

The Tunisian blogosphere was buzzing last week with responses to Nicholas Sarkozy's official visit.

Cos-maux-polis has several posts about the trip criticizing certain statements made by Sarkozy as racist:

Décidément les déclarations de Nicolas Sarkozy sur le sol africain ont de quoi interroger. Voici qu'à l'occasion de son voyage officiel en Tunisie, le Président de la République a laissé percevoir sa conception du partenariat Nord-Sud : « Vous avez une main d'œuvre qui ne demande qu'à être formée, nous avons beaucoup d'intelligence et beaucoup de formation (…) ».

Clearly the statements of Nicolas Sarkozy on African soil are worth questioning. On the occasion of his official visit to Tunisia, the President of the Republic revealed his concept of a North-South partnership: “You have a workforce who do waiting to be trained, we have a lot intelligence and a lot of training (…).”

She also reported statements from Bakchich :

lors du voyage officiel en Tunisie, Nicolas Sarkozy aurait déclaré en off : « à chaque fois que je viens (en Tunisie), il y a une grève de la faim. Chaque fois que je pars, la grève s'arrête. Je le constate, c'est tout ». Il aurait ajouté: « bien sûr qu'il n'y a pas de démocratie en Tunisie. Mais on n'y a pas les mêmes critères qu'en France ».

during the official visit to Tunisia, Nicolas Sarkozy declared, off the record: “whenever I come (in Tunisia), there is a hunger strike. Whenever I go, the strike ends. I'm just saying, that's what I see.” He reportedly added: “Of course there is no democracy in Tunisia. But the criteria here are not the same as in France “.

Tunisian blogger Zizou from Djerba writes about the fall of the Tunisian opposition, which coincided with Sarkozy's visit, and insisted on the need for change while Sarkozy demonstrated his pragmatism:

Comme tout le monde l'a constate, le president francais a choisi son camps et l'a montre clairement. Sarkozy a choisi de jouer la carte du gouvernement alors que la partie visible de l'opposition , gonflee a bloc apres les evenements de Redeyef l'attendait comme un messie. Une enieme greve de la faim a ete organise et les contacts ont ete pris bien a l'avance avec des journalistes qui connaissent deja le pitch….Les propos du president Francais avaient le merite d'etre clairs et sa position est tout a fait comprehensible et limite previsible.

As everyone has noted, the French president chose his camp and showed it clearly. Sarkozy has chosen to play the government's card while the visible part of the opposition bloc, which has swelled since the [food protests] in Redeyef, received him like a messiah. For the umpteenth time, a hunger strike was organized and journalists, who already know the drill, were contacted well in advance…. The remarks of the French president had the merit of being clear and his position is entirely understandable and unsurprisingly limited.

Global Voices Advocacy Director Sami Ben Gharbia writes with irony about this visit in a post titled “Sarkozy has voted Ben Ali” (”Sarkozy a voté Ben Ali”), even embedding a video of famous French muppets ‘”les guignols de l'info”:

He writes:

Au deuxième jour de sa deuxième visite d'Etat en Tunisie, Nicolas Sarkozy est resté fidèle à la diplomatie des contrats, que certains veulent qualifier de “Realpolitik”, et nous apporte la bonne nouvelle : “l'espace des libertés progresse en Tunisie”. Enfin ! Ben Ali a eu droit aux louanges de la part de quelqu'un qui ne veut pas s'ériger “en donneur de leçons” sur les droits de l'Homme.

On the second day of his second state visit to Tunisia, Nicolas Sarkozy has remained faithful to the diplomacy of contracts, which some people want to characterize as “realpolitik”; he brings us some good news: “the space for freedoms progresses in Tunisia”. Finally! Ben Ali has been entitled to praise from someone who does not want to “lecture” others on human rights.

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April 15th, 2008

Tunisia: Al Radeyef Protests - When Bloggers Give a Voice to the Voiceless

Naruto · 21:39 · Middle East & North Africa

lingua → mk · sq

With little to no coverage of the plight of thousands of people at the rich Phosphorous mines of Gafsa, Redyef and Oum el Arayess on mainstream media, Tunisian bloggers and activists are turning to the Internet to tell the world their story.

Protests by workers against inflation, the rising cost of living and the right to employment in the rich mines, have been dealt with a security clampdown by the government, which has arrested countless of protesters. And for the first time ever, Tunisian bloggers join hands with activists and other online users to give a voice to the voiceless - on Twitter, like Houieda's Tweets; by joining and contributing to a Facebook group to stream updates and news about situation (134 members so far); and by uploading videos to YouTube (which is banned in Tunisia).

This video, by Free Tunisie, shows some of the protests by the families of those arrested in unrest. More videos are also available on the above link.

Many of these online spaces also share the same text made the Tunisian Human Rights League (text published in Arabic by Samsoum and on the league's official website).

Moreover, there is a local committee which was set up to voice the requests of Gafsa inhabitants called Comité de Soutien aux habitants du bassin minier de Gafsa (Support Committee to the people of the mining area of Gafsa), which created the support Facebook group.

On blogs, COS-MAUX-POLIS (Fr) wrote two posts: one about situation and another about the response and disinformation provided by the Tunisian government.

Writing in Arabic, Fatma-Arabicca calls the incidents the Revolution of hunger. She puts some of the troubles in context here saying:

منذ 5 جانفي 2008 تاريخ اعلان النتائج النهائيّة لمناظرة انتدابات كوادر وأعوان شركة فسفاط قفصة اندلعت جملة من الاحتجاجات التى مازالت تعصف بأم العرايس والرديّف منذ أكثر من ثمانية أسابيع يخرج شباب الرديف ليعتصم بالخيام ويعلن اضرابا مفتوحا عن الطعام رغبة منه في تحقيق حدّ أدنى من العدالة الاجتماعيّة ومطالبا بحقّه في التشغيل …امّا في أم العرايس فان الارامل اللاتي فقدن معيلهن في حوادث شغل بالشركة لازلن منذ أكثر من شهر يسكنّ خيمة امام أقليم أم العرايس لشركة فسفاط قفصة يطالبن بتشغيل أحد أبنائهن

A series of protests broke out after the final list of those who will be employed a Phosphates Gafsa company on January 5, which are still continuing today in Oum el Arayes and Al Radeef. For more than eight weeks now young men from Al Radeef hold protests in tents, and announce hunger strikes, to call for the minimum requirements of social justice and their right in employments. At Oum el Arayes, the widows who have lost their breadwinners in the accidents at the company, still live in tents, on the outskirts of the province of Oum el Arayes, which are located in the Phosphates Gasfa company, where they are calling for their sons to work at the company.

Fatima also posts photographs of the protests.

Carpediem-selim (Fr), meanwhile, writes a detailed post about police brutality against the strikers :

Les forces de l'ordre, qui sont présents par milliers, n'ont pas hésité à déployer des pratiques de barbares contre des citoyens qui demandaient un droit fondamental qui est le droit du travail : des coups de feu ont été entendues, des bombes lacrymogènes ont été jetées par centaines, des chiens de police traînaient dans toutes les rues de la ville, des manifestants ont été violemment battus en plein monde et des descentes policières nocturnes et musclées ont eu lieu, violant l'immunité des domiciles, qui a poussé plusieurs jeunes à fuir et à passer la nuit dans les montagnes entourant la ville. Un climat de frayeur a été instauré dans toute la ville en procédant à des intrusions menaçantes dans tous les quartiers assurant le bouclage total de la ville et l'arrêt de toute circulation…

The police force, numbering in the thousands, did not hesitate to use barbaric methods against citizens who were demanding the fundamental right to work: gunshots were heard, tear-gas bombs were thrown by the hundreds, police dogs patrolled the city's streets, protestors were violently beaten in public and aggressive nocturnal police raids were conducted, violating the immunity of [citizen's] homes, which pushed several young people to flee and spend the night in the mountains surrounding the city. A climate of fear has been instilled in the entire city proceeding to menacing intrusions in all neighborhoods, assuring the city's complete lock down and a halt to all traffic.

Brastos (Ar), writes about those arrested, asking what their crime was. He writes:

قلت انو هالاعتقالات شملت العديد من الناس .. سواء كانو مناضلين و كوادر نقابية محترمه .. والا حتى مواطنين “لا متسيسين” .. كل ذنبهم انهم قالو ياخي شبيها بلادنا غنيّة بالثروات ، و الفاقونات العام اثناش ن شهر وهيّ تحمّل في فسفاطنا و مشتقاتو .. و الاربعة و عشرين ساعة و نحنا نربشو في المناجم .. و فنينا اعمارنا فيها .. كيما فنوا اعمارهم الذين من قبلنا .. و الذين من بعدنا .. و بالرغم من هاذاكا نحن جواعى و بطالة ..
يمكن ذنبهم انهم المرّه هاذي قالو هالكلام بصوت مرتفع شويّة ..

They said that a number of people have been arrested, including activists and union representatives, as well as people who had nothing to do with politics. Their only crime was that they asked why when their country was so rich in minerals, and they worked in the mines 24 hours a day, and sacrificed their entire lives in them, as well as the lives of those who came before them and those generations which will follow, were they
still hungry and unemployed? … Perhaps their fault was that this time they have voiced their concerns with a loud voice?

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January 25th, 2008

Tunisia: An Introduction

Naruto · 23:43 · Middle East & North Africa

lingua → ar · es

The “Tunisphere” is a group a passionate Internet users and bloggers even if their number is not as high as in neighbouring countries like Morocco. In this post, I will introduce you to some of them.

One of the pioneers of the Tunisphere is Hou-Hou, who is based in Canada and writes posts either in French or in English. His topics are general and focus on technology or social issues in Tunisia and Canada. He is also the brain behind the first and most famous Tunisian aggregator - tn-blogs.

Another leading blogger is Adibs, who is a veterinarian. His blog though tackles different social issues and he belongs to the first wave of Tunisian bloggers. He writes in French.

Subzero Blue is the former GVO author from Tunisia and he only posts in English and Arabic. He initiated the idea of Tunisian Blogger meetup and now he advocates micro-blogging via twitter too.

Tarek Cheniti, who is a PhD student in Oxford, UK, writes a lot of his posts in English, French and Arabic. In the latter, he uses the Tunisian dialect instead Standard Arabic. He also advocates the use of the Tunisian dialect as an official language instead of Standard Arabic. He covers a lot of political (Governance aspect), economical and social issues in his posts.

One of the good examples of the Tunisian blogosphere's diversity is Diana Magazine, which is the blog of a law student, who writes in Arabic, English and French. He is really interested in the political situation in Lebanon and the death of Diana, Princess of Wales!

Yosra, is another active blogger, specialising in writing about marketing and online media. She also contributes to the first newspaper supplement about Tunisian blogs every week and was responsible for the Tunisia Blog Award 2007. Another blogger interested in online media and web2.0 is Mehdi Lemloum, whose has a personal blog with emphasis on marketing, public relations and Tunisian soccer.

Since last year, the number of blogs in the Tunisian dialect and Arabic have been increasing. BTB is a famous blogger who writes a lot in the Tunisian dialect in an ironic way, while Khil we lil, who posts in French and the Tunisian dialect, writes a lot about cultural aspects and the southern region of Tunisia.

Meanwhile, Boudourou is a common initiative led by some bloggers who criticize Tunisia's traditional media and how media process the information in their Arabic posts.

But it is not always quiet on the Tunisphere. Some blogs raise a lot of controversy when they first appear. Among those, is Kifi, whose addition to the Tunisian aggregator created a stir, because of the clear sexual orientation of its author. Kifi means “similar to me” in the Tunisian dialect. Having said this, it isn't the first blog administered by a gay blogger. The first is Mon enfer. Both bloggers post in French.

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