TUNIS - In front of the Ministry of Social Affairs, only minutes from the Medina, the heart of Tunis, about fifty people heatedly discussed. "Do not make too many questions around here there are several policemen, no, this is not a protest, we're just talking among ourselves." Only one of the youngest agrees to leave to answer a few questions, says his name was Ahmed, "a name very common," when he says chuckling.
"It is true, even here in the capital there were protests and if this continues there will be others. No, nothing organized, is that we are tired, the crisis affects everyone, but we are young we are paying the highest price. Do not give straight to the newspapers, those are all lined up with the government, only Al Jazeera tells how things really are.
" Things are not going well in Tunisia Zin El Abidine Ben Ali, President-autocrat who ruled from 1987 with an iron fist in a velvet glove that the Maghreb countries so close to Italy. Two weeks of protests and riots, demonstrations and student, rebellion for an economic crisis that for many means hunger.
First in the center of the country on Monday in the capital. Protests small but significant discontent evident since in the history of modern Tunisia such actions are rare. Ahmed is right, only Al Jazeera (and some Western newspapers) are telling what is going on, trying to understand the anger smoldering in a country in the Islamic world is undoubtedly among the most modern and secular.
A public complaint that the regime of Ben Ali is not willing to accept. Tuesday night was the president himself, with a televised speech to dictate the line against "minority of extremists and mercenaries that cause violence and disorder" and to denounce the "dramatization, fomentation and defamation media hostile to Tunisia." Immediately echoed by the local media (controlled almost entirely by the regime) that, after hiding the news of the protests, devoted page after page to denouncing Al Jazeera and the "slanderous media conspiracy" in the television of Qatar would be made accountable.
It all began on December 17, the public holiday on Friday. Mohamed Bouaziz a young graduate without a job trying to survive as a peddler selling fruits and vegetables in the streets was stopped by police. The agents are abrupt, Mohamed does not have the license, everything was confiscated.
Needless to protest. Even in a country like Tunisia, where tourism is the industry and tourists' rights are sacred, human rights are often an option. Dissenters from the regime is an enemy and the rest of the graduate-walking is violating the law and the police are there to enforce it. Mohamed is a graduate, like tens of thousands of Tunisian students, thanks to great success with education reform launched by President Ben Ali and the pride of the government, but as many others did not find work.
It is the main contradiction of the social system of Tunisia, against a number of graduates from higher and higher (and with higher expectations) the percentage of youth unemployment (from 15 to 29 years) has now exceeded 30 percent. Having a degree and having to make the rounds already seems to him an injustice, that they now take away even that miserable job they need to survive too.
Mohamed desperate to be outside the town hall in Sidi Bouzid, the town where he lives in the center of the country (265 km from the capital Tunis), sprinkle with gasoline and sets himself on fire. Is transported to the hospital in critical condition, third-degree burns all over his body, but survives.
The news triggered a wave of anger. For a week hundreds of young people descend on the streets, protests and slogans against the regime, some police car attacked and burned, a brutal crackdown, dozens of wounded. On the eve of Christmas and other clashes in the days to follow, this time more serious.
A young man commits suicide by throwing himself against the power lines, another was fatally shot by police bullets. As in all authoritarian regimes of the square in front of the discontent that is officially denied, however, someone must pay. Wednesday blow the heads of two ministers, Communication and Youth, like saying that Ben Ali also notes that it is not only a plot and some hot-headed bribed by an invisible enemy ("the starting point of these events is a case social "), yesterday it was the turn of the Governor of Sidi Bouzid - Wednesday night after two other young unemployed people were on fire in protest - and those of Jendouba (in the north-west) and Zaghouan (northeast).
Ben Ali is the most serious crisis since 23 years ago came to power. Since July 1957, the year of independence, Tunisia has been ruled by only two men, Bourguiba who remained in power until 1987 (with a phase "socialist" and a subsequent democratic opening) and the current president who dropped the old leader with a "coup" bloodless for "senility", elegant way to define Alzheimer's disease that had struck him.
Half a century and only two fathers and masters. In the cable to the WikiLeaks Tunisia's Ben Ali has been called a country "almost mafia", where the president and his men are the good and the bad weather. He wants to apply again in 2014, after which last year won the fifth term at a rate that was once called Bulgarian (89 percent of the vote).
In these days of "bread riots" for the first time a small minority of the public asked to leave.
"It is true, even here in the capital there were protests and if this continues there will be others. No, nothing organized, is that we are tired, the crisis affects everyone, but we are young we are paying the highest price. Do not give straight to the newspapers, those are all lined up with the government, only Al Jazeera tells how things really are.
" Things are not going well in Tunisia Zin El Abidine Ben Ali, President-autocrat who ruled from 1987 with an iron fist in a velvet glove that the Maghreb countries so close to Italy. Two weeks of protests and riots, demonstrations and student, rebellion for an economic crisis that for many means hunger.
First in the center of the country on Monday in the capital. Protests small but significant discontent evident since in the history of modern Tunisia such actions are rare. Ahmed is right, only Al Jazeera (and some Western newspapers) are telling what is going on, trying to understand the anger smoldering in a country in the Islamic world is undoubtedly among the most modern and secular.
A public complaint that the regime of Ben Ali is not willing to accept. Tuesday night was the president himself, with a televised speech to dictate the line against "minority of extremists and mercenaries that cause violence and disorder" and to denounce the "dramatization, fomentation and defamation media hostile to Tunisia." Immediately echoed by the local media (controlled almost entirely by the regime) that, after hiding the news of the protests, devoted page after page to denouncing Al Jazeera and the "slanderous media conspiracy" in the television of Qatar would be made accountable.
It all began on December 17, the public holiday on Friday. Mohamed Bouaziz a young graduate without a job trying to survive as a peddler selling fruits and vegetables in the streets was stopped by police. The agents are abrupt, Mohamed does not have the license, everything was confiscated.
Needless to protest. Even in a country like Tunisia, where tourism is the industry and tourists' rights are sacred, human rights are often an option. Dissenters from the regime is an enemy and the rest of the graduate-walking is violating the law and the police are there to enforce it. Mohamed is a graduate, like tens of thousands of Tunisian students, thanks to great success with education reform launched by President Ben Ali and the pride of the government, but as many others did not find work.
It is the main contradiction of the social system of Tunisia, against a number of graduates from higher and higher (and with higher expectations) the percentage of youth unemployment (from 15 to 29 years) has now exceeded 30 percent. Having a degree and having to make the rounds already seems to him an injustice, that they now take away even that miserable job they need to survive too.
Mohamed desperate to be outside the town hall in Sidi Bouzid, the town where he lives in the center of the country (265 km from the capital Tunis), sprinkle with gasoline and sets himself on fire. Is transported to the hospital in critical condition, third-degree burns all over his body, but survives.
The news triggered a wave of anger. For a week hundreds of young people descend on the streets, protests and slogans against the regime, some police car attacked and burned, a brutal crackdown, dozens of wounded. On the eve of Christmas and other clashes in the days to follow, this time more serious.
A young man commits suicide by throwing himself against the power lines, another was fatally shot by police bullets. As in all authoritarian regimes of the square in front of the discontent that is officially denied, however, someone must pay. Wednesday blow the heads of two ministers, Communication and Youth, like saying that Ben Ali also notes that it is not only a plot and some hot-headed bribed by an invisible enemy ("the starting point of these events is a case social "), yesterday it was the turn of the Governor of Sidi Bouzid - Wednesday night after two other young unemployed people were on fire in protest - and those of Jendouba (in the north-west) and Zaghouan (northeast).
Ben Ali is the most serious crisis since 23 years ago came to power. Since July 1957, the year of independence, Tunisia has been ruled by only two men, Bourguiba who remained in power until 1987 (with a phase "socialist" and a subsequent democratic opening) and the current president who dropped the old leader with a "coup" bloodless for "senility", elegant way to define Alzheimer's disease that had struck him.
Half a century and only two fathers and masters. In the cable to the WikiLeaks Tunisia's Ben Ali has been called a country "almost mafia", where the president and his men are the good and the bad weather. He wants to apply again in 2014, after which last year won the fifth term at a rate that was once called Bulgarian (89 percent of the vote).
In these days of "bread riots" for the first time a small minority of the public asked to leave.
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