Tunisia is burning… Jody McIntyre Independent Editor's choice Blogs

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today, the arab people live in hope, but the arab leaders live in fear.
鈥淏en ali, out out!鈥?, protestors shouted as they marched through the streets of tunis,washington capitals hats, the capital. 聽on friday, their wish was granted, with ben ali fleeing to saudi arabia, the nearest oppressive regime willing to take him in. 聽even france, former colonial ruler and a long-time ally of the tunisian dictatorship,nfl houston texans reebok hats, seemed keen to avoid providing refuge for the fallen president. 聽perhaps nicolas sarkozy feared a rush of french arab masses to the streets; i鈥檓 sure sarkozy would rather not see a repeat of the banlieues riots of 2005. 聽ethnic minorities in france have made their voices heard; provoke us, and we will fight back.
at a meeting for haiti last week,cincinnati bengals, i heard oscar guardiola-rivera saying that the only way to fight oppression abroad is by challenging our own government at home. 聽for tunisia, the same principle applies. 聽we must take our inspiration from the brave tunisian people who have fought,new york jets snapback caps, and are still fighting against the ben ali regime. 聽the tunisians who have lived in a police state for decades, but still had the tenacity to rise up with such explosive force.
the eu鈥檚 support for ben ali鈥檚 regime goes a long way to explaining the initial media silence as over a hundred tunisian demonstrators were killed in the streets by police over the last few weeks,your guide to the relegation battle – and why west ham, blackpool and blackburn, but with the internet now available, news quickly spread. 聽but we must ask, where was the twenty-four coverage of streets on fire, as we saw of the green movement in iran last year? 聽as usual, the utter hypocrisy of the western media is plain for all to see.
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we can only hope that what has happened in tunisia can evolve into something far greater. 聽on friday, reports began to emerge of thousands of jordanians demonstrating against mass unemployment and rising food prices. 聽ben ali was the first casualty, but many more should be watching their backs.
on saturday morning, 100 people gathered outside the tunisian embassy in london. 聽the blustering wind could not dampen their spirit; a revolution had happened. 聽a girl standing next to me introduces herself as kaouther ferjani; she says that her father was a political opponent of president ben ali, and she has been unable to visit her family in tunisia for many years. 聽鈥淵esterday, he had three phones and skype on the computer,鈥? she says, 鈥渨hen he heard what had happened, he was kissing the phones and the computer screen!鈥?/p>
many of us may have only heard the news in the last couple of days,nba fitted hats, but the tunisian people have been rising up against the ben ali dictatorship for almost a month now. 聽revolutions always need a spark, and in tunisia, mohamed bouazizi was that spark. 聽a young vegetable seller from the province of sidi bouzid,new york giants snapback caps, bouazizi set fire to himself outside the city hall after the police confiscated his stall and thus, his only form of income.

as dyab abou jahjah noted in his excellent analysis of the situation in tunisia, ben ali鈥檚 attempts to blame protests on foreign aggressors are rather bizarre, considering ben ali has few enemies aside from his own people. 聽this was a popular, spontaneous uprising, born out of years of police repression, mass unemployment, poverty and marginalisation. 聽despite ben ali鈥檚 corruption being well-known to the eu, they have remained friends over the years because, as abou jahjah comments, 鈥淒emocracy would involve some kind of implementation of a people鈥檚 agenda that is not sufficiently pro-western for europe or the usa to live with.鈥? 聽this may come as a bit of a surprise to those who had thought our governments had a shred of credibility left, but it will come as no surprise to people living in saudi arabia,onyx snapback hats, or afghanistan,washington national hats, or kuwait, or egypt, all ruled by puppet presidents propped up with american dollars.