The head of state of Tunisia, Ben Ali, is a former police officer, and apparently his wife, Leila Trabelsi, who plays an important role in the shadows, has a history of hairdressing. One day while I was in Tunisia, irritated and uncomfortable due to the presence of the police, I complained to a friend of that climate of high surveillance.And he, smiling, replied: "What else did you expect from a country ruled by a former policeman and a former hairdresser?" But beyond dell'aneddoto, Ben Ali, in power since 1987 after a coup d'etat "soft", it was first launched in a merciless battle against the Islamists, and later dedicated to the growth of the country.
He did not, however, never tolerated any kind of criticism or opposition or political opposition. He ruled the country with an iron fist, gagging the press and keeping the citizens under surveillance. To authorize its rigid position, which rejects any concessions, was the almost unanimous support of France in particular and European states in general.
Everything works according to his will: foreign trade is thriving, and tourists flock en masse, then, why change policy? And above all, why give in to protesters? There was no need for a spark, a breath of madness, a human drama to push the population to take to the streets to demonstrate against this police regime: December 17, 26, a street vendor was poured gasoline to immolate himself in the public square Sidi Bouzid, a town in the central area of the country.
And 'who died three weeks later. The police had arbitrarily confiscated his cart of fruit and vegetables, and anger prompted him to call it quits. But his was not an impulsive act: long suffered oppression and contempt for the police. E 'against this contempt that thousands of Tunisians have experienced for several days.
Four dead, two suicides and two demonstrators were killed by shots of a firearm. Ben Ali's regime has so discredited and should no longer rely on the goodwill of the Europeans. If the situation in Algeria is not much better, the context of the riots of the past two days, however, is different.
Algeria is living in a state of permanent tension for the past two decades - since the election process that was leading the party to victory Islamist Front Islamique du Salut "was discontinued. There was a civil war, which cost over 100,000 dead. The terrorism that is invoked Islam still exists, and has continued to commit crimes against the civilian population.
Today was the sharp rise in oil prices and sugar to trigger protests from a population that feels robbed, humiliated and exploited. It is not clear why a rich country like Algeria (thanks to the windfall of oil and gas, the state has more than 155 billion dollars of foreign exchange reserves) should have a population so poor.
Algeria is a wounded country, which is still suffering the aftereffects of the war of liberation. And although the state is confused with the army, can not guarantee the security of citizens. The self-styled commando attacks by Islamic repeated almost every week. One in three young people can not find work.
A half century since independence the country continues to suffer, and fails to use his immense wealth to start a rational development to benefit all sections of the population. Yet many intellectuals Algeria boasts quality journalists of great talent and tremendous courage and some economists, and a hospitable people, good, generous, loving life.
But things do not work, there is the weight of history, in a non-consolidated, the gross appetites of some military corruption. The Kabylia (the Berber of Algeria) has never ceased to challenge the central power, which always responds with a crackdown. Lose trust between politicians and citizens.
And all this is added the advance of identity and dissent. E 'thus arose an explosive situation, illustrated by the events of recent days. As in Egypt, as in Tunisia, the people are fed up of being subjected to humiliation (the now celebrated hogra) and take to the streets shouting Kifaya! ("Enough").
If Tunisia and Algeria, the power does not agree to be questioned, if only to know the answer to popular clamor crackdown and bloodshed, it is because he understood nothing of what is happening at the deepest levels, and do not realize that sooner or later be swept away by the wrath of those who have nothing to lose.
(Translated by Elizabeth Horvat)
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