Two years ago Western backed dictator Ben Ali was removed from power in Tunisia. Hope replaced desperation and ordinary Tunisian’s looked ahead to a new dawn of democracy and prosperity. But fast forward to 2013 and hope has given way to despair with splits within political Islam, between the ruling “moderate” party and the extremist […]
Posts Tagged ‘Tunisia’
What will follow Gaddafi in Libya and beyond?
Oct 21st, 2011 by David Osler.Less than 24 hours after the death of Gaddafi, thousands of people have already committed predictions for the future of Libya to print and/or cyberspace. Some of those indulging in speculation are more informed than others, but the simple reality is that nobody knows what happens next. Although I have visited the country, and have […]
An age of revolt – in an age without a left
Feb 14th, 2011 by Owen Jones.I remember the exact moment when I realised that I was living in a different era from the politically tranquil times I grew up in. It was in a lecture theatre at University College London, a week or so after the 52,000-strong student march. An impromptu ‘what next?’ meeting had been called, and the room […]
Tunisia: test of Western protestations of democracy
Jan 15th, 2011 by Michael Meacher.Will Tunisia now herald the breakthrough to democracy for the Arab world? Just as a small revolt in rural Hungary in 1989 sparked an interconnected movement for freedom across the whole East European region, so an equally small but evocative incident in rural Tunisia has triggered a mass revolt which may prove unstoppable across the bloc of […]