The Amilcar Notes – 5: The U.S. Tunisian Experiment: New Direction For U.S. Middle East Foreign Policy?
Entrance of trashed home of Imad Trabelsi, now serving 18 years in a Tunisian prison
(Note: This piece also appeared on Counterpunch and Nawaat.org, the latter and award winning Tunisian alternative website)
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1. The Party’s Over; the mansion trashed
Today, a friend, relative of a Tunisian family in Colorado, took me for a ride in the hills above the Mediterranean just 2 kilometers north of La Marsa. On the way, we passed the residency of the French Ambassador and nearby, one of the trashed out mansions of the Ben Ali and Trabelsi clans, the two ruling clans that ran the country into the ground economically and politically. The gutted mansion stood on the corner of the road to Gammarth by the Mediterranean where it bisects Rue Hannibal. Down the block is a chic looking restaurant called `Le Cafe Journal.’
The mansion belonged to Imad Trabelsi, one of Leila Trabelsi’s nephews, recently sentenced to 18 years in prison by a post Ben Ali tribunal. Among Imad’s many escapades was one where, along with his brother, he was accused of stealing a french financier’s yacht, painting it over, changing the numbers, making it his own. One of the graffiti notes left on the wall filled with slogans against the Ben Ali years read `Dear Imad – Thanks for the wall – signed Abdel Aziz.’ The place was thorough trashed, pulverized really, as if hit by a drone missile gone astray from Pakistan! All the other Ben Ali – Trabelsi mansions, many of them, like this one built on property expropriated from the state to the two families – lie in similar ruin. Not roped off, they remain open to the public. Read more…
Brunius' Better For All The World - a readable history of the U.S. Eugenics Movement
It’s a good article on the North Carolina sterilization campaign in the New York Times. It follows a well worn pattern of such revelations:
- surprise – how could it have happened here
- an interview with a victim, some poor guy (literally) who is as normal and as bright as most but was incarcerated in a state institution. To get out he had to accept a vasectomy which screwed up his life and stripped him of much human dignity
- the state which committed the crime now repents…but is trying not to give financial restitution, because giving financial restitution to 7000 people will cost them alot.
There are some new juicy details unknown to me, like the fact that recently deceased CBS commentator Charles Kuralt’s father was really into the stuff. So was Humphrey Bogart’s. Bogart’s pop wrote regular commentaries on eugenics in medical journals. Slimey stuff, don’t know if Bogie ever talked about it. Much literate has been written on the subject in general. My favorite: Harry Brunius’s Better For All The World
The story continues (January 14, 2012) with an article in the
The Amilcar Notes – 4…Tunisia and the `New’ Islamic Politics
Grand Mosque Ez Zitouna, founded in 732 a.d.
1. Islam in Tunisia
A year ago, or nearly so, if we begin the changes sweeping the Arab World with the immolation of Mohammed Bouazizi – as good a starting point as any – this region was on the verge of sweeping changes. To date, the changes have come in two waves, a wave of demonstrations followed by an election wave.
The election wave took some, but not all, of the political energy out of the demonstrations. The former was radical, if not `revolutionary’; the latter, in all cases so far more conservative. Yet the election wave gains it legitimacy from, and claims to carry on the values of, those in the streets who with their hands bare, tore down the corrupt and repressive political house Zine el Abidine Ben Ali built for a quarter of a century. They literally blow his house down…and then trashed it to boot.
Even if the old political parties, in Tunisia, the Rassemblement Constitutionelle Populaire (RCP) – Ben Ali’s reworking of Bourguiba’s Neo-Destour Party – is now banned, the new constellation of political parties is far from radical in the main,, their emerging approach seeming to combine a more open political landscape with a market economy open to the west. Although economically linked much more closely to France and Italy historically, post Ben Ali Tunisia will have closer ties with the United States. Indeed, it might have much closer ties
Ironically those who initiated the first wave have been more or less isolated from the second one. During the second round, in country after country, the Islamic parties showed their strength and to one degree or another came to power. The shift has been pervasive. Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Morocco…and I dare say if there are elections elsewhere in the Arab world the results will be similar with Islamic parties emerging as the most powerful political force everywhere. Read more…
The Amilcar Notes – 3… Tunisia – The Forgotten Socio-Economic Crisis
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Tunisian engineering students at ENIT. A jobs fair is taking place just behind them.
ENIT…(L’Ecole Nationale d’Ingenieurs de Tunis)
The El Manar campus of the University of Tunis stands high upon a hill far above the center of downtown in Belvedere. The campus is home to some 30,000 students, among them many studying the sciences. ENIT – or L’Ecole Nationale d’Ingenieurs de Tunis – is one of Tunisia’s most prestigious institutes, producing an annual crop of about 1000 engineers of all varieties. The students who qualify to study there are among Tunisia’s brightest and most diligent.
I visited the campus the day a jobs fair was taking place (December 7, 2011). At a time of high unemployment with the Tunisian economy bleeding jobs at an alarming rate, I asked about the job prospects for ENIT’s graduates. The response surprised me: virtually 100% of the engineers graduating from ENIT find employment and usually immediately. Rare among Tunisians these days, they will probably enjoy stable and generally well paid jobs their whole lives.
With its highly educated work force, led by graduates of institutes like ENIT, Tunisia already possesses a human capital, a solid intellectual and technical basis for becoming the economic engine of the Magreb (North Africa), being something much more than part of a region which feeds Europe with raw materials, food and provides tourist facilities for German and Nordic tourists, and those from surrounding Arab countries. From the point of view of political economy, the question emerges: given the political changes and new openness, can Tunisia re-invent itself economically, building on the solid foundations that have already been laid
Yes, Tunisia is in the midst of powerful socio-economic crisis, itself a part of the global crisis of neo-liberal capitalism. But looking around the Mediterranean, with the possible exception of France, which is struggling with European integration, the entire region is in dire straits. Tunisia’s neighbors are facing the same or worse crises. Algeria, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Greece, Spain, Portugal – just to name a few of the most obvious cases are all in many ways in worse condition than Tunisia. Looked at from this point of view, frankly, despite all its problems, ironically, Tunisia probably has better prospects of pulling out of the crisis than many of the other countries in the region.
Beja, in the west of Tunisia near the Algerian border...far from crowds of Tunis. photo credit: Free Tunisia
(This is the second of a series which I expect will include 4-5 installments. It ran on ZNET)
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Have `les jours de gloire’ arrived in Tunisia and we just didn’t know it?
From the point of view of public relations, Rachid Ghannouchi’s unofficial trip to the United States appears to have been modestly successful. Ghannouchi opposed putting criticisms of Israel in the Tunisian constitution which appeared on some of the legislative drafts. Both Congress and AIPAC – it’s hard to distinguish between the two these days – breathed a sigh of relief. Whatever his inner thoughts on the subject, good relations with the United States trumped pushing Tunisian support for the Palestinians (which is pervasive) too far at the moment. Call it principle or a tactical decision, or simply the fact that Ghannouchi has too much on his plate back home, he moved on to other subjects quite quickly.
Ghannouchi promised a Tunisian coalition government in which the two secular parties with whom his Ennahdha Party is in coalition would be respected, again calming the waters. Sounded good to Washington ears. This reassurance came after one of his spokespeople called Ennahdha’s October 23 election victory the beginning of `the 6th caliphate’ –suggesting that Tunisia is heading in a much more religious fundamentalist direction. That gem came from Hamadi Jbeli, Ennadha Party chair and a possible choice to become Tunisia’s prime minister during a speech in Sousse just after the October 23 national elections here for a constituent assembly. Read more…
The Amilcar Notes – 1…Zine al Abedine Ben Ali’s Sorry Legacy: Repression, Torture and Death
note: the picture on the left is the view from my window in Amilcar, a suburb north and west of Tunis where I am staying for 3 weeks thanks to the kindness of Tunisian friends from Colorado
( This is the first of a series which I expect will include 4-5 installments. It also appeared on the Foreign Policy In Focus and ZNET websites)
1. ..le bandit
45 years ago when I lived in Tunisia as a Peace Corps volunteer and staff member, it was rare that people would talk about politics or openly criticize the government. `How’s your family? How’s your health? What do you think of the weather’ ..and other non subjects were the focus of conversation. But the country is living in another political age today. Less than a year after Ben Ali fled the country with as much of the nation’s treasury he could carry on his plane. Finally liberated from fear, the country seems to talk nothing but politics. It is on nearly everyone’s mind…and tongue. Tunisians may not have won much else – the economy is bleeding jobs and the state security system under Ben Ali has hardly been touched, but they have won and genuinely enjoy a new era of freedom of speech. Read more…
Rob Prince – Publications This Last Year or so
Rob Prince (right) at `Occupy Denver’ march, October 17, 2011
R. Prince – Publications/Lectures This Past Year Or So
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- September 25, 2012. Radio Interview Press-TV (Iranian Television). Interview Concerning the Removal of Mujaheedin E Khalq from the U.S. State Department Terrorism List.
- September 9, 2012 – Politics Makes Strange Bedfellows: The Long-term U.S. Alliance with Islamic Fundamentalism. Friends of Sabeel Lecture Series. Montview Presbyterian Church, Denver, 3-5 pm.
- August 15, 2012 – Former Algerian Defense Minister – Khaled Nezzar Indicted for War Crimes in Switzerland – Part Two. Algeria Watch, Foreign Policy in Focus, Open Democracy
- August 10, 2012 – FormerAlgerian Defense Minister – Khald Nezzar Indicted for War Crimes in Switzerland – Part One. in Foreign Policy In Focus and Counterpunch.
- July 26, 2012 – Tunisia: Culture Wars 2: Salafists Run Amok: the Case of Habib Kazdaghli, University of Tunis, Dean. in Open Democracy.
- July 23, 2012 – Tunisia: Culture Wars 1: Salafists Run Amok; the La Marsa Art Exhibit Disruption. in Foreign Policy In Focus
- July 8, 2012 – Syria, the United States and the El Salvador Option: Part Two. in Foreign Policy In Focus and Stop NATO!
- June 26, 2012 – Nasser Casts His Shadow Over Egypt’s Presidential Results. in Foreign Policy In Focus
- June 18, 2012 – Syria, the United States and the El Salvador Option: Part One in Foreign Policy In Focus and U.S. Labor Against War
- June 3, 2012 – Tunisia’s Salafists: Brownshirts of the Arab Spring. in Foreign Policy In Focus, ZNET, Nawaat.org, The Magreb Center.
- May 2, 2012. Power Structure In Israel Split Over Shrill Israeli Rhetoric on Iran. in Foreign Policy In Focus
- April 24, 2012. Presentation at The Magreb Center, Washington D.C.: The Political Economy of the Arab Spring and Aftermath.
- April 7, 2012. Playing With Fire: The Salafist Option In the Middle East – Foreign Policy In Focus
- March 8, 2012. Obama and Netanyahu: Horsetrading Iran For Palestine.: Part Two. – Foreign Policy In Focus
- March 6, 2012. Obama and Netanyahu: Horstrading Iran For Palestine: Part One – Foreign Policy In Focus
- March 3, 2012. Presentation: Syria Panel. University of Denver, Korbel School of Internatioal Studies. Middle East Study Group.
- February 21, 2012 – Tunisia at a Crossroads? – Foreign policy In Focus
- December 13, 2011 = The Amilcar Notes – 2: Tunisia: Emerging Democracy or Just A Façade? In Foreign Policy In Focus. Second of a series of 9 articles written on Tunisia from Tunis.
- December 6, 2011 – The Amilcar Notes – 1: Zine Ben Ali’s Sorry Legacy – Foreign Policy In Focus. First of a series of 9 articles written on Tunisia from Tunis. Also on ZNET
- November 22, 2011 – One Hour Interview – `Hemispheres’ – KGNU Boulder on the Arab Spring with emphasis on Tunisia, Egypt and Syria
- November 11, 13, 2011 `The Israeli Pickle: Iran’ (Parts 1 and 2). Foreign Policy In Focus. This is the website of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC for which I am a permanent correspondent. This piece, slightly edited also appeared on the national website Counterpunchon November 21, 2011
- November 1, 2011 – The “Tunisian Elections – `It’s The Real Thing” – link to article in `The Guardian’ The same piece also was featured at Foreign Policy in Focus. This is the website of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington DC for which I am a permanent correspondent, at Nawaat.org. Nawaat.org is an award winning alternative Tunisian website based in Berlin which, during the Ben Ali years published many pieces critical of that regime. (more on the award further down)
- October 15, 2011 – “Unlikeliest of Bedfellows – Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and A Mexican Drug Cartel” in Foreign Policy in Focus.
- October 3, 2011 – “Kaddish for Oslo – 2 – The Palmer Report: Justifying The Mavi Marmara Attacks and the Blockade of Gaza.” in Foreign Policy In Focus.
- September 26, 2011 – “Kaddish for Oslo – 1 – The Palmer Report: Justifying The Mavi Marmara Attacks and the Blockade of Gaza.” in Foreign Policy In Focus.
- September, 2011 – `The Last of the WPC Mohicans…The Ghost Ship of Lonnrotinkatu, Part 3. In Peace Magazine, Toronto Canada. Parts 1 & 2 written in 1993. Not on-line
- July 5, 2011 – “Will The Air War Become An Occupation” in Foreign Policy In Focus. This also appeared on the European website ‘Open Democracy’ and at `Truth out’ – one of the more significant anti-war internet sites in the USA – July 1, 2011 – Shifting Targets from Iran to Libya and Syria in Foreign Policy in Focus
- April 4, 2011 – “Despite Pressure from Tel Aviv, Tunisian Jews Have Little Interest in Emigrating to Israel.” In Foreign Policy In Focus. This piece got wide circulation. It also appeared in Jewish American History Month in `Exposing and Fighting Global Anti-semitism and Anti-Jewish Racism” and at the website “All-Africa.dot.com”
- March 28, 2011 – “Two-sided Love Affair: U.S. and Algeria Anti-Terrorism Cooperation In Africa” in Foreign Policy In Focus
- March 20, 2011– “The Libyan Quadmire”. This piece appeared on ZNET
- March 17, 2011 – “Fukushima Disaster: World Energy Crisis Intensifies”. This piece appeared in Foreign Policy In Focus
- March 12, 2011 – “Tunisia Election Blues” in Foreign Policy In Focus. This piece also appeared at Nawaat.org and at the website `Free Tunisia’ and the website Facile Gestures
- March 1, 2011 – “Algeria: Khadaffi’s Ace In The Hole?” This piece appeared in Counterpunch on March 2, 2011 http://www.counterpunch.org/
- February 27, 2011 – “Whither The Arab Awakening” This piece appeared in Foreign Policy In Focus and ZNET
- February 16, 2011 – “Algeria Where The Demonstrators Carry Black Flags” This piece appeared on Foreign Policy In Focus. on ZNET, on Alternetand on The Energy Bulletin
- February 8, 2011. “A War Israel Is Ill-Equipped To Fight”. This piece appears at Foreign Policy In Focusat The Guatemala Times
- February 1, 2011 – “US Middle East Policy: See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil – Just Practice Them And Act Surprised” This piece appeared in Foreign Policy In Focuson Common Dreams at Open Democracy and ZNET
- January 28, 2011 – “U.S. Middle East Policy In Crisis…Tunisia, Egypt, Who’s Next? This piece appeared in Foreign Policy In FocusonZNET and at Portside
- January 12, 2011 – “Yezzi Fock – It’s Enough”. This piece appeared at Nawaat.org
- December 26, 2010 – “Tunisia’s Zine Ben Ali. Will The End Be Gracious or Graceless?” This post appeared in Foreign Policy In Focus, in Nawaat.org, on ZNETand on The Progressive Realist
- December 22, 2010 – “Deconstructing Tunileaks: An Interview With Professor Rob Prince – Part Two’ at Nawaat.org
- December 20, 2010 – “Deconstructing Tunileaks: An Interview With Professor Rob Prince – Part One’ at Nawaat.org
- Appearances, Interviews (I am listing those in which I am presented as Lecturer, International Studies, Korbel School)
– November 2, 2011 – Interview by Tunisia Live about the return of Peace Corps to Tunisia; U.S. Ambassador Grey interviewed on same program.
– March 1, 2012 – Whither Syria? – Panel Discussion organized by the Middle East Study Group of the Korbel School of International Studies
– I have done a half dozen on `Hemispheres’ program of KGNU on different aspects of the Middle East – several on the changes in Tunisia both before and after Ben Ali fell, one on the Israeli response to the Arab Spring, another on U.S. Iranian relations, one on the Egyptian Revolution. I did not write down the dates, but this is easily verified. My next scheduled one hour interview is on November 22, 2011 where I will be talking about my upcoming trip to Tunisia. I have also participated in KGNU’s International news hour on two occasions
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Penn State : Only One Example
Larry Aronstein (left) and Rob Prince (right) ...about to break into song
by Larry Aronstein, Guest Blogger
I spent 46 years in public education, mostly as a principal, assistant superintendent and superintendent. I found that the values of the school-community were reflected in what were the accepted practices in both the academic and athletic programs. In almost all of the five different communities I worked in, the communities had very little to point to as sources of pride. Like most of America, they were working class towns with little social or economic capital or mobility. Read more…
The Israeli Pickle: Iran (Part One)
The Israeli Pickle: Iran
by Ibrahim Kazerooni and Rob Prince
On the streets of Teheran
Note: This piece is published at Foreign Policy In Focus and at Counterpunch.
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A bit odd.. a media leak reveals a conversation between Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in which the latter tells the former that he, Sarkozy is `fed up’ with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and `considers him a liar’. This comes some six weeks after German Chancellor Angela Merkel `read Netanyahu the riot act’ over the Israeli decision to build 1000 new homes in the West Bank settlement of Gilo.
Netanyahu is not used to being kicked around that way, at least not by Israel’s European allies. Are Sarkozy and Merkel merely saying more or less out loud what Obama dares not say? Are they `giving Netanyahu a message’ and if so, what? Merkel was annoyed (the word `infuriated’ was circulated in the media) by Netanyahu’s settlement announcement, Sarkozy’s outburst most probably has to do with something else – French (and perhaps U.S.) frustration with the Israeli Prime Minister over a possible Israeli military strike against Iran. It could be that Sarkozy’s comment was a simple warning: Don’t Do It; Don’t Attack Iran. Read more…
Adrienne Anderson (1952-2011) – (2) LeRoy Moore’s Memorial Statement
Adrienne Anderson
Remembering Adrienne Anderson (11-6-11)
by LeRoy Moore:
Moore’s statement Adrienne’s Memorial
Adrienne, when I last saw you a few weeks before your death our visit was brief because you tired quickly. I thus didn’t get to share a lot that was on my mind, things like the following.
Over the three decades of your environmental work here in Colorado you put yourself in one dangerous situation after another, because you saw a need or because people sought your help. You knew that the natural ecology locally was severely endangered. You often pointed out that Denver is ringed by highly contaminated military-related Superfund sites. To the southwest is the Martin Marietta (now Lockheed-Martin) missile factory, to the southeast the Lowry Landfill, to the northeast the Rocky Mountain Arsenal and to the northwest the site of the defunct Rocky Flats nuclear bomb plant. Read more…
Front Range Jewish Voice For Peace Picket at the Allied Jewish Federation’s General Assembly – November 6, 2011 – Denver
Front Range Jewish Voice For Peace Picket...Not In Our Name - photo credit: Beth Daoud
Links:
Adrienne Anderson (1952-2011)
Adrienne Anderson
(from the notice sent out by her family)
Adrienne Anderson, long time environmental activist who worked with labor unions, low income and other neighborhoods affected by industrial pollution, Denver neighborhood associations, the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, and a host of organizations on behalf of environmental justice, passed away on September 7, 2011 after a five month battle with brain cancer. A memorial service and celebration of Adrienne’s life took place today, November 6, 2011 from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm at the Altona Grange Hall, #127, 39th and Nelson Road, Longmont Colorado, just east of North Broadway (Hwy 36) in Boulder.
Adrienne’s friends, supporters and co-workers shared remembrances and honored her life. In lieu of flowers, a donation may be made to the college fund set up for her daughters at the Public Service Credit Union. Checks may be made out to Erin and Sarah Smile and sent to them for deposit at 306 Peery Parkway, Golden CO 80403
With Anderson’s death, Colorado lost a courageous fighter for environmental justice. Adrienne worked with many environmental organizations in Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico and Oregon. Her projects ranged from improving services provided by electrical utilities to rural communities, to protecting Pinon Canyon from encroachments by the US military, and to fighting contamination of farmlands, watersheds, city parks and lakes with toxic radioactive wastes. Though environmental work is always tough, Adrienne never shirked from really hard tasks. While it is relatively easy to take on less controversial causes such as wilderness protection energy policy, general air and water quality enforcement, global warming, it is an entirely different matter to challenge defense contractors, Denver Water and the corporate establishment of Colorado. Read more…
7 Billion and Growing: Is The World Overpopulated
Note: I’ll be adding links to this particular entry in the days/weeks to come. While we’ll never really know the exact date as to when human population reached 7 billion, a date last week – October 31 or November 1, 2011 – was arbitrarily set to mark the occasion and as such, once again fueling the 40 year debate over the growth of human population and what it means to the planet. I hope to use this page as a kind of on-line bibliography on the subject and will be adding to it regularly with different items.
Videos-U-Tube Presentations
RT – Overcrowded? – “RT” is a Russian-based news source, relatively new. I find their reporting and analyses to be, at the least, worth watching, usually with more content, food for thought than main stream media sources. Am familiar with one of the participants in this debate – Matthew Connelly, whose book Fatal Misconception: The Struggle to Control World Population (Harvard University Press: 2008) is one of the better in-depth history of the ups and downs of population control movements over the past 100 years (although I am not particularly impressed with the flippant, `cutsy’ approach he gives to the subject in this interview)
– On Sterilization Abuse Against Blacks and Poor Whites in North Carolina
– On Sterilization Abuse Against Native Ameicans (1)
– On Sterilization Abuse Against Native Americans (2)
– On Sterilization Abuse in Chile
– On Sterilization Abuse in Puerto Rico since the 1930s
– On Sterilization Abuse against the Roma (Gypies) in Slovakia
– On The Peruvian Sterilization Campaign Under Fujimori in the 1990s
Tunisian Elections…It’s The Real Thing This Time
Tunisian Community of Colorado Marching in the Jan, 2011 MLK `Marade'...one of the nations largest
edited and published in Foreign policy in Focus, this piece also was picked up by Nawaat.org (award winning Tunisian alternative media site). The Nawaat article in turn was picked up an featured in `the Guardian‘ of the UK. For that piece…click on link; look to the right – Tunisia Twitters. It was also picked up, via Foreign Policy In Focus and sited on Huffington Post UK. Click on the piece `Nawaat – The Tunisian Elections It’s the Real Thing’). Truthout and the Eurasian Review also published it
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Tunisian Elections…It’s The Real Thing This Time
OCTOBER 28, 2011
tags: Ennadha Party, Tunisian elections
by Rob Prince
Just six years ago…
The year was 2005 – not all that long ago – that Zine Ben Ali won his third term as president with a not especially credible 99% of the vote. At the time, critics dismissed the results as farcical, little more than yet another attempt to put perfume on the body of a police state known virtually universally for its smothering of any independent voice, democratic sentiment.
Tunisian dissidents viewed the 2005 results as a step in Ben Ali’s drive to make himself president for life, or worse, through a change in the constitution, open the door for his wife, Leila Trabelsi and her clan to seize power. Concerns of this nature, and widespread anger at the clan’s unbridled greed and treachery were a vital part of the mix that ignited the Tunisian revolt which began last December.
Tunisians also feared that his wife, Leila Trabelsi, would try to change the Tunisian constitution in such a way that should some mishap befall Ben Ali, that she would replace him.
Obsessed with a largely non-existent radical fundamentalist threat in the country the Bush Administration defended Ben Ali as an ally of the United States in its “war on terrorism.” But so pervasive was the knowledge of Ben Ali’s abuses that even Bush and Co. was uneasy and embarrassed by the charade – which is saying something. Read more…
View from the Left Bank: Rob Prince's Blog 