Maherbaal

2005-10-11T18:21:00.000+02:00

2005-10-10T19:27:00.000+02:00

The death of the opposition;a[very] short autopsy

2005-04-18T17:44:00.000+02:00

Is it an exaggeration to say that our opposition is bankrupt,dead ?
In my opinion ,no. The problem is that unlike humans, there is no official death certificate for political parties ,they can keep on haunting the people like ghosts for as long as they can pay for the rent of their offices and the wages of their “cadres”. Take the POCT of “camarade” H.Hammami, a Marxist-Leninist-Trotsky st-Stalinist party which should have been buried long time ago but is still persistently trying to find a suitable “proletariat” to lead. It simply refuses the passage of time. Yes, the opposition is dead but its rotten corps is still laying on the ground ,decomposing in the mids of the living and waiting for a benevolent coroner to write its epitaph and bury it. Unfortunately there are no “volunteers” who are willing to remove the “carcasse” from public display. Thus aggravating the risk of disease and widespread contamination among the populace,especially the young which represent 70% of the population.
But what were the reasons behind this un dignifying end?
It is tempting to blame the regime for this horrible “murder” as it tries to silence and kill any microscopic spark of dissent,even within its own ranks. but the reasons which led to the death of the opposition are more innate than external(the regime), for it reflects the broader apathy among the “people”for what the now defunct opposition stood for:
-a)its detachment from the politics of confrontation[thus loosing the respect of the public],and its foggy political agendas,as opposed to the regime's. This opposition has never been able to move from the politics of mere protests (often for jailed “camarades “ of other movements! ) to that of targeting real power. Politics is about power (to put into effect the desirable changes )or it is nothing.
b)the never ending internal scheming,positioning and re positioning,creating in the process very bizarre coalitions,swinging in all directions,as if the end of dictatorship was imminent,but in the end it was their pendulum which stopped swinging,not the regime's,at least not for now.
c)the opposition was run by five people,appearing as modern leaders but were in no sense modernizers. all of them were mini-dictators with a marked disdain for their own parties and followers, speaking the language of Parisian salons (l`opposition caviar!)with little in common with their working -class base , fiercely defending their names and positions as leaders against anyone who dare to question the legitimacy of their longevity, unconsciously mirroring the methods of the man they tried to “dethrone”. To this gang of 5, loyalty to the leader was more important than loyalty to the party,and to this end they had shown a remarkable survival mechanisms,adjusting to political defeats,social upheavals,discontents within their ranks..etc. they were the geniuses of survival and adaptability,but now it's over,they`ve reached a dead end,or as we say in the Tunisian dialect:وقفت الزنقت لسارق(this include Ben Ali too,for in his crazy drive to obstruct any meaningful expression of different views he ended up smashing the only “facade” (no matter how “facade-like” it was in reality)of democratic governance which was represented by the now dead opposition).
Tunisia is still crying out for a “real” opposition that listens and responds to its people,but until then,the RCD remains the “natural” party of government .

Not to be continued,

Opinions (in memory of Ben Kheder)

2005-03-14T18:38:00.000+01:00

Zou, I don't know what to say about your sudden[.................],it is just not fair,but I know that we must go on. that's what you would have wished us to do.
I don't know if this is the right way to break the ice, but it is my way to honor a friend and everything he stood for .

Goodbye dear Zou.

Opinions
(in memory of Ben Kheder)

what's the problem with this opposition?

Well, it is boring,as the late Ben Kheder put it before leaving this world, and leaving us with no answers to what he meant by that. perhaps he left this “space” blank so that you and I would have something to do with our pens. Yes,the opposition is boring,plastic,out of line,watery,but most of all impatient with intellectuals off talking to “themselves” in their own private language, that is too blasphemous. this behavior makes the opposition unconscious participants in the regime's efforts to silence all those “subversive voices” and to make them “invisible”,their crime is self defeat. there is no interest,no sympathy(or a very plastic one!),no support and definitely no effort to “communicate” with the “present”, with the tools of the present. Does the opinions/ideas/issues discussed on tunezine or nawaat represent something that Si Marzouki,Si Ben Jaafar,Si Chebbi and others would like to join??? no.
well, that is why,Si CH/M.M/BJ, no one under thirty five(70% of the population!) find your “politics” appealing, to say the least!
The opposition is moribund, its leaders are aging veterans from a bygone era of lost struggles and humiliating defeats. yet it resist the passage of time,anachronistically clutched to the political habits of the 70s.its “autonomy” has survived practically “unchanged”,reproducing itself in inertia ,and that's exactly what is so sad about it. It never really succeeded in creating a political alternative that goes beyond the limits set forth by the RCD, they accepted the “ faits accompli” ,as one PDP spin-doctor (Si Touzri) put it in his feuille de route, and tried during the last decades to evolve within those limits,but they didn't sold out. for even though they continued to believe that “political life” was possible within the narrow spaces of their headquarters, they ,nevertheless, kept the flame alight and refused to die. for this honorable deed they deserve all respect. But then they refused to change too , and this is the source of their misfortune(s). it is true,having the misfortune to live in Ben Ali`s Tunisia where the sword rules, it is easy to say that our misfortune are “explicable”, but what about our pens? Some say that the pen is mightier than the sword, especially in our context,but has it been in use? To my knowledge no,or very little. Those who used the pen as a sword were marginalized and ignored . That bad habit is still “alive” and well,despite the Internet!

But what can we do with our only WMD:-) ?
Well, if the pen is mightier than the sword,as one friend of mine told me this morning(Omar.k), then I guess we have a lot of work to do. the pen in opposition need to create its own logic of refusal,its line of flight* with its own positive content( by which I mean our collective capacity to create and envision new alternatives),what are we against and why? What do we want?
We want to be free don't we? If so,then I think we should begin by trying to “write” ourselves out of Ben Ali's jail,We should replace his logic of the sword with the logic of democracy,....We should...

is there any one out there who would like to add something?

*Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus.

A new dawn?? (this text is dedicated to M.Abbou)

2005-03-05T18:05:00.000+01:00

from my perspective,the “unthinkable” broke out of a glorious early spring morning(28th of Feb),which “inexplicably” turned into something close to a revolution.
like the rest of the diaspora I followed the event unfold on the net. but I was there by way of the heart.
not since the bred riots of 84 has there ever been such electrifying moments of hope ,enough to power a powerless people,events that may lead to a genuine change. this burst of energy is not accidental nor coincidental, it is the culmination of many decades of dictatorship and the collection of millions of tiny drops of anger floating in the air which ultimately rained down like a torrent on February the 28th. No , this is not an accident, it is rather the beginning of the end of an era and the dawn of a new one,or so I would like to believe!
Yes, I believe in our ability to make this transitional change to democratic rule( so many times delayed by “circumstances”)a true reality not the regime's manufactured one. it is up to us how far we want to go.

but Trying to make sense of the contradictory messages emanating from the opposition can be a dispiriting experience. Seeking the demise of Ben Ali and at the same time participating in his electoral show is such an experience ,which necessarily involves the act of analysis,or perhaps of psycho-analysis. and the results, at least in my case, are intimidating,frightening and confusing .no wonder that we so often feel small,disoriented and on the defensive when confronted with challenging experience like the one we are living these days. Charon's visit and The recent turn of events in Sfax, Tunis, Gafsa and elsewhere involves unexpected tests and challenges for the opposition . In this context, talking about elections means lowering the expectations of students and others who took to the streets in a show of defiance to Ben Ali(the invitation to Charon is just a pretext. even Ben Ali knows this fact).Therefore I think it is ill suited to talk about elections in these circumstances for three simple reasons:
timing
--it is impossible for any party to develop an electoral strategy or program three months prior to the elections and win,only Ben Ali can do that!
--the election are municipal,thus of little interests to most people, especially in this context of public uproar following the invitation of Charon to Tunis. not to mention the divisions it may cause within the ranks of the opposition and the impossibility to use the visit as a leitmotiv in a municipal election,it is ludicrous and stupid.
--participating in the elections will give a signal to the regime that the opposition is after all not “opposed” to his peculiar way of governance ( I mean dictatorial!) and that they just want to remind him that they “exist” and wants to be invited to his show,that's all! Nejib Chebbi will not drop dead,followed by all members of “ kataib Nejib Chabbi”, as soon as Charon's plane hit the ground,that is too bombastic a threat to be taking seriously.
So, where from now?
I think the opposition should consider alternative ways in dealing with the two main topics on its agenda: Charon and Ben Ali. needless to say that Ben Ali is the problem which will consume all our effort,Charon's visit should, in my opinion, be used as an “intensifier” of public anger to keep the momentum going,he's not the problem .momentum is also about being seen and talked about, and here the opposition is nowhere to be found,there is in fact no public-relation strategy to talk about in the first place. no allies and no source of revenues but a few European radical leftists isolated and broke. In these “circumstances” only a bold action can keep the momentum going,a visit to Beyrouth for example and a meeting with the opposition there[ followed by discussions about “matters of reciprocal concerns”,a joint press-conference...etc],might take the struggle to a new dimension and put the “Tunisian problem” on the global stage. Few days ago, walid Joumblat (moistly eyed and apparently very moved by what he was about to say)said that what took place in Lebanon will soon reverberate throughout the Arab world . a visit to beyrouth by a high delegation(Chabbi&BenJaafar..) from the opposition will promote the interests of both parties,it´s a win-win political move that will open new windows of opportunities for the opposition, new perspectives,perhaps new allies and friends, not to speak of the media frenzy the visit will create ,and that's exactly what we need .
These are the contours of an idea, a bold move to turn the table on Ben Ali and mix up his cards, and an opportunity for the opposition to reaffirm its role ,both nationally and internationally, as the only democratic alternative to Ben Ali.

Adel Ayadi.

We deserve it

2005-02-25T21:02:00.000+01:00

We deserve it

less than 48 hours since he met with the Iranian “special envoye”(perhaps as a middle man between Tehran and Washington) Ben Ali invites today Moloch in person to visit Tunisia . And why not? He's after all the president of the country, elected by 99,94% of the population!which means dictatorial powers,no checks and balances here,no parliament,no army, no media,no civil society, no political parties, no one to question him as for the righteousness of his diplomatic maneuvering. Ben Ali doesn't need to muddle through those institutions to seek an approval,no debates in the parliament,no demonstrations, nothing, he just needed to pick up the phone and invite Charon(the mask of death for the old Punics)to Tunis.Horrifying isn`t.
not even Dr Frankenstein could produce a more perfect specimen of a political monster,no skilled parodist(inc.Omar.K)in the history I know has ever mastered the vulgarization of politics the way Ben Ali does, It is that simple. what is amazing here is the amazement of almost everyone;how could he do it,they ask themselves? Well, many things could happen while one is sleeping, like having a bad dream and seeing monsters roaming around scaring you with their sinister grimaces.during those nightmares sometimes you can't even move a finger or a say a word as if paralyzed and dumb.
as a matter of fact I did have those dreams when I was a kid. My mother's own esoteric explanation was that I might have been visited by “BOUTILLIS” the king of darkness(her own words) and that I should not worry about him because He's afraid of light and mornings,he hates both.
It is worse with the sleep of reason,and the past two decades has produced monsters galore,some are of course more sinister than others. Fatma bouseha seem merely comical harmless-fun compared with the manifestly evil character of Ben Ali. let there be no mistake on this,Ben Ali is evil in a way that only those who believe in the physical presence,in flesh and blood, of evil spirits (dracula is one!)can understand it. Ben Ali is a scar across the face of the nation,an unspeakable shame, the enemy within,more difficult to fight and more dangerous to liberty than anything else,including the RCD.
No wonder then that most people regard it as suicidally irrational to get in his way. Yet when Ben Brik did just that few years ago, he was lionized,the “lion” of Numidia roared and Ben Ali almost made it in his pants,that was indeed a moment of splendor,a flash of light, but not a morning.

I need something to drink,
To be continued......... by me or anyone who would like to add something.

twilight of the middle-minds :the elections debate

2005-02-20T18:54:00.000+01:00

twilight of the middle-minds :the elections debate

debate about what?

Dumbing down the public,in this case politically,has been paralleled by similar trends in arts / literature and the media were pundits rule supreme. yes that's a fact,but is it deliberate or is it dumbness “revealing” itself periodically through its agents of dumbness?
Who knows,but one thing is sure;dumbness is here to stay.
Proceeding with the preparation for the coming municipal elections is a real abnegation of reality. as if all of the really big questions had been settled and we are already in the post Ben-Ali period, or so this opposition assume ,and the only thinking we need is how to “ manage” the perpetual care taking of some fossilized political habits like elections and the campaigns that follows with.
As if that will make a difference. but as the record shows, It will not .

if the opposition is to rescue itself from a certain death it must engage the regime head-on with an ambitious political program of its own,different from the IMF dictated and sponsored PAS,it cannot afford to keep saying and repeating the same narratives of prisoners, human rights ,street fights(trayeh machhoura!),Irak, Palestine,no matter how important these issues are. it needs to chance its arm,break out of that suffocating political orthodoxy of the 70`s, and explore “new topics”,not least those it has so far been too “timid” to venture into. But If indeed there is no alternative,as the “records” shows ,then politics ,as we mortals knows it,cannot have any meaning at all . What is left then is an inflation of relatively trivial micro-political proposals ,like the next municipal elections, presented through a de-politicized language more akin to business managers than to political leaders:how to manage THIS situation(sic)!
One symptom of this regrettable development is that political outcomes are quantified rather than valued,it is the %`s that counts ,even tiny miserable 0,01,not what one stands for. it is exactly the kind of politics in which the RCD became champion of the world,though with double digits to the left!
without alternatives, debate becomes empty of meaning.

But to engage the RCD we need to answer two important questions:what do we want NOW and what do we want to achieve later?
The development of political consciousness/ commitment and the exercise of [real]pressure on the regime are ,in my opinion,the most urgent topics for the opposition to tackle. Without an active and effective “militant “ opposition and politically conscious citizens there will be no end to the hegemony of the RCD. only this time we have to do it more wisely than in the past. we must re-engage the public instead of seeking quick-fixes for a deep political malaise,for no one can fool the people. history shows that when people wants to be included in any political “ adventure” of their own choice,they often do a great job in breaking down the “barriers” to their participation. when they believe that “participating”make a difference, they will rise to the occasion and perform their public duty. but how to re-connect with the people remains the Gordian knot to untie for the opposition. It's the people who knows better than the RCD or the opposition how it is with their present being, which they live it, radically, every day . As Hardt/Negri(in Empire) put it :”you cannot change the situation effectively unless you appreciate the depth of the problem;and to do that fully you need to be at the sticky end of it,or at least to have heard the news from there”.
one needs to be in the position to know the “original version” of a given problem in order to position oneself as bearer of an alternative plan of action,because it's when a “credible” alternative to the regime is unlikely to be worst than the present one that people may decide not to carry on as they are doing now. Maybe we are not there yet,maybe the “people” have not falling to the bottom in order to rise again,for strength also flows from the depths of wretchedness :to have nothing to loose is to be formidably powerful,freed from old illusions [and, perhaps, prepared for new ones:-))]. this “freedom” may be destructive, leading to terrorism,or it may (hopefully!) lead to genuine social change. unfortunately , only terrorism is the available alternative,more peaceful alternatives are yet to be developed .
Thus, it's the lack of substance and the manifest decline of the standard of political debate which is the problem and the defining feature of our present political life.
We need to re-invent politics,we need a political renaissance of our own (home grown but “in” the world!)and we need it badly. But as any renaissance of any kind,this too needs visions and visionaries. yes, we have to get back to that, to the very beginning of it : the idea.
unfortunately, The subordination of political creativity; ideas,programs,agendas...... to pragmatic objectives , such as the municipal elections to come ,has helped foster an atmosphere that is unwelcoming for the development of new approaches( my own experience with the FDLT). no fertile imagination is allowed ,as if there is no more to add/think or say about the situation;our fate is sealed and Fukuyama the pundit seems right when he professed the “end of history and the last man”.that's not the case of course,but sometimes one is “tempted” to believe that ,especially in these times of political depressions!

So, to sum up the bla-bla I would say that unless the opposition is able to do some hard thinking about what they want now and later ,it is not certain that they will be around for that much longer in order to evaluate what has been done,that option is not valid anymore. In fact, I believe that death is already stealthily at work in that doomed “body” called the opposition from which reason has already hemorrhaged , and sooner rather than later it will leap upon this opposition and extinguishes its last “soupire”.death is always untimely.

this opposition too will die empty!

Maherbaal

Jailbreak

2005-01-23T19:11:00.000+01:00

Jailbreak

A little over a hundred years ago, our forefathers, witnessed but never took part in, one of history's greatest events: the industrial revolution. An event which shaped the structures of our society, economy and culture. Most historians describes the event as the most important since the introduction of the printing machine or the invention of the alphabet. It was the culmination of a long process of evolution encompassing all aspects of life, which ultimately catapulted the world into modernity. It was the age of the steam-engine, electricity, telephone and later the combustible-engine and aeroplanes, to name but a few. To these great technological achievements, which eventually led to Europeans supremacy, our forefathers didn't contribute a thing, they were spectators rather than players. Even though the argument may not sound fully convincing, one has to acknowledge the fact that they were ruled by a foreign power and had limited access to knowledge, a fundamental perquisite to any socio-economic development. I am not trying to judge them posthumously. The point is that our forefathers, for some reasons beyond their capacity to alter or influence, missed the train. It must have been a bitter pill to swallow for the enlightened spirits of that period.

But what about our own period ? Are we prepared for the big ride ?

In our time and at the dawn of the information age, information technology (IT) is gradually becoming what the industrial revolution must have been to our forefathers, a vehicle of immense social, economic and political changes. The ability to use it and adapt it has become indispensable factors in generating wealth(i.e.; productivity gains) and accessing knowledge(to generate wealth!).Just in the last twenty years, a series of successive technological breakthroughs dramatically changed the ways we communicate, work and pursue our day to day business. The common feature of these breakthroughs is speed. We are today able to access information, process it and transformed at speeds unimaginable twenty years ago. The dazzling speed with which micro-electronics have revolutionised and transformed the world we live in, our social intercourse and our economy is breathtaking. It is only when analysing the spill-over effects on the others sectors of the economy that we can grasp the full importance of (IT).From aviation to bio-technology, nano-technology, household machines and personal computers all bear the print of the micro-electronic revolution.

But to use and adapt IT presupposes the existence of a physical infrastructure capable of guaranteeing the free flow of information. Apart from the physical infrastructure, there is a second prerequisite, legislation, without which the IT revolution will never take roots in our country. The latter is undoubtedly the more important of the two. It is pertaining to the law-making bodies to set up the rules of conduct and to protect people from each other and from the state. Here too, smooth and just laws presuppose the existence of an independent law-making body.
In today's Tunisia neither of the prerequisites exists, we are lagging behind in terms of infrastructure and are still fighting for our right to express ourselves freely, let alone to fight for the right to access information. In other words, we are entering the digital age handcuffed and blindfolded, thus risking, in our turn, to miss the train. We risk actually to miss, probably, the greatest adventure in human history.

But what is preventing us from participating in this adventure ?

Well, not only the prerequisites discussed above shines with their absence, the regime is, actually, in the process of destroying what remains of them. The physical infrastructure is, to put mildly, a joke. It is not the institutions of the state (dhakhilia and so on..) which must be targeted as the main beneficent when planing for the infrastructure, it is the people, and especially the young generation. It is the latter who will create wealth in the future, adopt IT as a way of life and adapt it to its needs.
The roll of the state is very crucial in "delivering the goods" (infrastructure). States like Malaysia, India and other so-called third-world countries are taking giant steps towards the fulfilment of those fundamental prerequisites, of course at varying degrees. In Tunisia the situation is totally the reverse of what it should be. Instead, the regime in Tunis spent the last decade in blocking any flow of information that does not emanate from its own sources, and so depriving his own people of the most valuable resource in the information age: information = knowledge.
The regime is actually sabotaging the future of my own generation and those to come. Furthermore, Ben Ali managed, during the last decade, to dramatically weaken a judicial system already weakened by thirty years of Bourguibism. To sum up what has been discussed so far, I think that if we don't act swiftly and take the matters in our own hands, we risk in the near future to be confined in some sort of technological apartheid, from which it will be impossible to escape(if we consider the speed with which IT has developed). Ironically, one of the regime's main slogans are about the internet, globalisation etc… It had even mobilised an army of faithful "zabatist" and other bigots the likes of Afif Frigui, to promote the use of the internet and to introduce IT as whole to the general public.

Can the regime deliver the goods ?

My personal answer is a NO, for the simple reason that we are aspiring to more than the regime can deliver: A democratic and free society. Besides, regimes like Ben Ali's never showed any ability or willingness to change. They have always responded to the aspiration of their peoples with the usual brutality as if they were dealing with colonised subjects or a defeated army.

We wont be defeated nor silenced, because the more brutal the regime is, the more we are determined to fight it. I hope that the heightened tension of the last few weeks will precipitate the regime's downfall. Dictatorships like Ben Ali's have long since reached the end of their journey, blown away by the winds of change. It is our turn now to make the jailbreak.

Maherbaal

Samedi 2 fevrier 2002 .

Dying empty !

2005-01-23T19:07:00.000+01:00

Dying empty !

Early last year I began to suffer from a severe stomach-ache ,few months later I was diagnosed for cancer.

Confronted with my own mortality ,I began to lament myself for all the things I had not accomplished yet with my life.
Yes, it’s true, I had traveled very much, met a lot of fantastic peoples, slept with many gorgeous females(one at the time ,of course!) etc…but I had never seen the world trade cen…oh! That’s no more. well.. the statue of liberty in new York nor sahit el-fnaa in Marrakech, never spent a journey wandering aimlessly along the great wall of china ,never scaled ,much less being even near ,mount Everest, never had a face to face encounter with a wild beast during my “promenades” in the forest ,never dived in the red see, never been to the south or north poles. thirty-something years old and “dangerously” approaching[at the speed of light] forty, I had let my life slip away from me and was now forced to admit to myself how poorly I had prepared myself for death. As soon as I heard the verdict I started to go to gyms, just because I was going to meet my maker didn’t mean it was too late to get myself back into fighting trim. besides, I wanted to look sharp at my funeral. At the same time I started reading Ibn Khaldoun, Montaigne and Al-Farabi,I didn’t want to leave this world without having finished that internal reading list!
Months later, immensely relieved after a successful surgical operation, I dropped fitness training from my agenda and put back the heavy boys back on the bookshelf. yet despite the positive end of my trauma, my brush with death left me deeply troubled, it brought me face to face with my most guarded values and had “discovered” a number of troublesome inadequacies. I was no longer regretting all the things I had yet to accomplish during my brief sojourn on mother earth :learning Chinese, to wander around for a few hours in the Karnak temple, to oust Slim Chiboub from the leadership of L`ESPERANCE and take his place, to take part in the Rio carnival at least once in a lifetime(my hajj!),to visit every borde…no. Instead ,I was realizing how revoltingly self-centered my reaction to the specter of death has been, I’ve discovered how selfish person I was. I was rapidly coming to terms with the fact that ,despite the friendly façade of charm that masqueraded as a personality I felt worthless.

Yet in my defense I realized that I was not the only member of my age group who would have reacted in this way ,I was simply being true to the ethos of my generation. now I had to face that ugly truth not only about me but about us.

THE HORRID TRUTH ABOUT MY GENERATION

As a prototypical product of generation X I take upon myself this burdensome task to tell the truth about us.
We had a good start with the food riots of 84 and the subsequent departure of the much hated Mzali, change was in the air as they say fill bled. but then we hit the wall. we became self-absorbed .we stopped caring about but money and food. we fell in love with our mobile phones. Some obsessed about Italian footwear other about the right to wear culturally correct Egyptian peasant dresses and acted like they were on to something!

We abandoned the poor, the have-nots ,the nobodies, the oppressed because we were doing a post-doctoral work or busy making money, always acting like we were better then the rest..we made stars of lamine nehdi ,lotfi bouchnak,sofia sadek, and heroes of saddam,ben-laden.we made millionaires out of nobodies (trabelsi & co) just by looking away pretending not to be involved. and all along we were acting as if we were really cool.

So deceptive.

As the years went by, it became obvious to me that our sellout was not accidental. yet despite that I choose to remain silent .I watched Hela Erroukbi,?Adel Adella(al mindhar) and Imed ktata(kathaya fil moujtamaa) as they ridiculed themselves and us, live on TV time and again, yet through it all I remained silent. I watched friends of mine, those who succumbed to the inevitable(marriage!), cheering the political left from their eagle nests high on the hills of Gammarth and then sending their children to private schools, yet I was silent. I watched intransigent communists once ready to go to extremes in the cause of freedom now go to extremes in the pursuit of more earthly things, yet I was silent. I watched friends who had been brutalized the day the food riots broke out now wearing the uniform and tear gassing/brutalizing others, yet I was silent. I watched my entire generation make its separate peace with society and console itself with football, al-jazeera, the web ,big brother ,lamine ennehdi,fame factory,pusy,Catherine zeta jones(mmmm..),adel imam,nawal zogby,the where abouts of Ben Laden, the wealth of the Trabelsi …..,yet I was silent.

Now it’s time to tell the truth about us.

To appease my soul and to make up for my sins and the sins of my generation I’ve decided to take my pen and write it down. For too long I have aimed at hapless pensioners and die hard losers, never at my own generation, now ….more in sorrow than anger…I will do just that.

My contemporaries might feel betrayed by this cross-examination, some may call me the traitor… Judas in some, but nothing will stop me from leaving an eyewitness account, as much detailed as possible, to future generations of the rise and fall of generation X.

J ´ACCUSE

since the dawn of history, generations deeply tinged with a visionary complex have inspired strong emotions, respect and sometimes even “devotion”. the youths who followed Alexander the great on his marauding conquests inspired reverential wonder .the thirty-something SS officers who executed their “orders” with minute precision inspired horror, the hordes of young men who accompanied Tarek Ibn Ziad in his conquest of Spain inspired awe ,fascination and respect.
Unfortunately, my own generation falls into somewhat a different category.

as convinced of their uniqueness as Temime l`ahzami`s generation of 78, though in perception not in deeds. as given to luxury as the tenth-century’s Andalusians, though not as cultured nor sophisticated. As boring and simple-minded as no other generation in the history of Tunisian civilization, my generation, feared and adored in their youth now inspire irritation if not contempt ,to put it mildly.
Now to the big question!

What is the most devastating criticism that can be leveled at my generation?

Well, first on the list is that they promised that they wont sell out, and they did. they promised that they will outperform their parents, but they failed. they promised not become materialistic, but then they became the most indebted (BATAM keeps the records!)generation in the history of my country, next only to the bey`s. they swore an oath that they will bring democracy to our country, but failed so miserably. they further complicated the matter by wasting much time and effort to convince themselves and others that they actually didn’t sold out, that they simply grew wiser, that the situation is “unique”, that Ben-Ali is too powerful, that the opposition is….that …

Deceit, avarice, and cowardice were added to our ethos and that strange mutation produced our specimen. Mutant X.
Thus, the most devastating criticism which can be leveled at my generation is that they promised not to sell out ,and they did. this is the poisonous well from which all of our misfortunes flows.

Values, prejudices, neuroses, tastes….the essential habits.

The worst thing about my generation is that we don’t realize how self-centered ,fake, lame, obnoxious beyond belief, , out-and-out hypocrites we really are. truly a case study in false advertising. unfortunately for my beloved country and until the rise of my generation this kind of sociopathic behavior rarely existed, and if ever it did ,it was often geographically ghettoized in certain areas of the big cities where the last beldia held out against the exodus of millions of nouzouh*,but in the end they were overwhelmed by the cheer numbers of the invaders and gave up. but they didn’t sold out.

what do we have in common with those baldia one might ask?
They were self-centered, they thought they were better than the rest, they were cowards …but not traitors like us. yes, it’s true, in the end they lost their pathetic struggle for supremacy(”baldia uber alles”) though not without a fight.
We the traitors, never entered the battlefield, we’ve deserted it in large groups before the war ever begun, some went to the “enemy”, others into exile and the greatest majority retreated into the deepest recesses of their tiny miserable lives. Though unlike the baldia who were a tiny minority contained in ghettos ,we are everywhere!
Here follows a series of indictment I’ve prepared for …self-examination and judge for your selves(as Kirkegaard would say!).

Forever young

It has always been possible for a few people to remain youthful well into their forties(Heni Chaker,fayrouz,Kacem Kefi 20 years ago or M.Jackson today).but it has never been possible for the greatest majority to do so. just take a temp at TUNeZINE and you will get a grip of what I am talking about. take Ivan le terrible for example, showing off his bare chest on which he write from time to time(when he gets inspired!) a few third-rate school-boy poems about how much in love he’s with god knows who, if not his wife of course, or the notorious big TIZ who think he’s too young to be involved in politics(sic)waiting for a daddy to show him how. or that Loup, a vengeful jackass with an IQ of 51,he`s like a great white shark on speed or coke polluting the air with his gonzo-style inquiries into nothingness. or the so-called Lecteur who seems to believe hard as a rock that he’s doing great favor to Tunisia and humanity by bombarding the opposition forums with whatever he seems to be reading and expect to be awarded the croi de guerre for his heroic deeds .they all refuses to accept the passage of time.

Bad habits

The ”Me” generation.

We are a failed generation largely because of our overwhelming obsession with ourselves, we pretend to be “social” when in fact we seek recognition for what we do, and that’s what annoys decent people. they are annoyed by our self-referential statements…i.e. I was there when it happened…I was tear-gassed during the bread riots…I was against Bourguiba and now ben-ali….I am a democrat..etc. Decent people are also annoyed by our hypocritical moralizing and of course our lack of self-awareness ,we resolutely refuses to think and act as responsible adults. As I write these words there is a live conversation taking place on TUNeZINE which can marvelously illustrate what I am trying to say:

Mitghareb started very good but then something happened:

“Depuis quelques temps maître Néjib Hosni est en résidence surveillée, dites moi est ce qu'on fait quelque chose pour lui, rien de rien.

Est ce qu'on a dénoncé cette injustice rien de rien, est ce qu'on a proposé quelque chose pour lui rien de rien.

Est ce qu'il ne merite pas notre soutien surtout que lui il a soutenu tous les oprimés.

Les gars à vos plumes, à vos clavier pour dénoncer ce que subit cet homme, aidons ce brave monsieur, défondons le comme il a défendu tant d'autres.

J'attend vos propositions pour lever cette injustice et il ne faut attendre les autres et surtout pas le CNTL de maintenant pour faire quoi que ce soit ...”

I was expecting something like”a vos armes les gars” but as you can see it was just a “poutoute”* and nothing else.
Later ,mitghareb(as if he`s the only one), got the company of a few other “poutouteurs”,one of them is the so-called Morpheous(I am a matrix-fan too !) and here`s what he had to add to his friend`s “poutouterie”.:

Dès que j'ai un peu j'apporte mon grai de sel et on lance l'attaque
Tunezine, RT et Nawaat nous aiderons pour relayer l'évênement

Quell scandale!

….and what was that “evenement”???

Mighareb:

Je vous propose d'écrire une lettre type et l'envoyer aux différentes ONG internationales, aux différents bareaux, aux différents syndicat de majistrature, Au juge Canadien (j'ai oublié son nom excuser moi je vais le chercher) à toutes les associations de juristes, voila c'est facile.

Qui s'en charge d'écrire cette lettre et la soumettre à la correction sur le forum?

Les autres chercher toutes les adresses de ces organismes et société

and here comes the cri de guerre!

Au boulot les gars, Maître Hosni a besoin de nous et plus que ça la Tunisie a besoin de nous, ne la décevons pas

This what I meant by self-referential ,once we recognizes what kind of people my generation represent then we can agree on the fact these people are making great efforts to report on something that is indeed very important.............. but then we hear that wordless voice at the back of our heads that keeps saying: BE CAREFUL

Fear has become the malady of my generation, it’s a monster inside of us and it has many arms; fear of telling the truth, of doing the right thing, of being responsible of…...
we`ve build a whole culture around it as if to hide from it, pretending it doesn’t exist, and distracting ourselves with “efforts”(like the letter to someone-thing suggested above by Mitghareb) best suited for physically handicapped persons (perhaps we’re, since we’re glued to our pc`s all the time) and that’s not fair(to the handics of course)!
And it’s not over yet, luckily for me, another poutouteur just passed by with a resume of his daily reading and a “commentary” (a kind of bonus to us forumier!),but never mind, what the so-called Lecteur just posted ½h ago only strengthen my belief that we’re doomedJ
This is the self-referential guy par excellence, a true specimen of the mutant X GEN and a pure product of ” le studio tunezine des poutouteurs”(tunezine studio el-bassasineJ),this is what he wrote a while ago:
L'année dernière, Et Teatro fut obligé d'installer un grand écran en dehors de la salle tellement l'affluence (surtout lse jeunes) était importante.

Donc, ceux qui disent que la nouvelle génération tunisienne est une génération perdue n'ont qu'à aller se rahabiller !

PS : l'année dernière, j'avais dit que je donnerai la moitié de ma vie pour y ête présent. Cette annéée, je mets aussi en jeu une autre moitié !

As every mutant X, obsessed with living in the moment, Lecteur tries to transmute a banal activity(in this case a memorial to some dead poet) into an event requiring reflection, comments and huge masses of data. thus turning mundane occurrences into extraordinary events: every concert superb, every speech meta-celestial(especially those of Atwan, lecteurJ),every friendship epochal …etc.
And then there is that pathetic penchant for “suffering by association”, that is: a dysfunctional penchant to always try to vicariate for other people’s tragedies, not personally experienced, of course, but imagined through the web and the mass media. pour a few drinks into an X gen and he will tell you that when cheik imam,om kalthoum,Nasser,nizar kabbani or even hedi comba(vendeur de cigarettes fi bab-bhar!) died, a part of him died with them.fa yzidou fi e-ttin billa by claiming as their unforgettable experiences things that happened to someone else somewhere else. this bad habit of annexing another person’s or people’s suffering and then integrating it into ones own auto-biographical data(not to speak of the signatures which are ,more often than not, longer than the message itself) later to be used when “communicating” with others, is a trademark of genX.

……my last jack in solo!

To be continued

Nothing and anything

2005-01-23T19:06:00.000+01:00

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The opposition and its [malodorous] political agenda, or perhaps the lack of it!

The one and only agenda: The gathering of anecdotes about the daily misery of prisoners and the terrible plight of their families seems to be the only card left to play for most opposition figures, as if all of the big questions had been settled.
It may be possible to scrap together few notes that look like communiqués, sign them from wherever you are Paris, Hamburg or London, and say that you’re still involved in the opposition “business”, but that alone is inconceivable to cover the basic necessities that sustain even the semblance of political life. It is no more than a phoney distraction from the reality that the resistance to Ben Ali`s regime is not a simple rejection of his brutal treatments of his opponents, the opposition to Ben Ali is about “that” and much more: social injustices, brutal economic inequality, neo-liberal “fundamentalism”, cultural desertification, corruption, and on...
It is a “total” war for democracy and freedom and nothing less. But “Wars are not metaphors, they have a beginning and an end”*, and ours is no different, we want to see the light at the end of this fucking [too long] tunnel. Unfortunately, there are no “wars” on the horizon, not even small battles, [wala hatta skirmishes]. NOTHING, worst still, we are invited these days to watch the spectacle of the ultimate caricature of political morality and virtues. In this comedy: “la comédie démocratique”, few “Illuminati” from the far-left joined together under the red banner of Ettajdid to infantilize us yet another time peddling, as always, ancient clichés as revolutionary new ideas. For these people there is no limits, ANYTHING is possible. They can make a visit to a political prisoner on behalf of the CNLT or LTDH in the morning and sign on his political death in the evening (ID) **. Needless to say that The CNLT - LTDH shouldn’t be so intrinsically involved in politics in the first place, but do they care? Striped naked by this foolish political move (the colour beneath the mask is RED!) they ended up depreciating their own “value” as trustworthy institutions. This paralysis of reason, the refusal to observe any qualitative difference between two simple alternatives is becoming the trademark of the opposition.
The other three BOZOS of the opposition (M.M, M.B.J, AJC) are not doing any better (I will be back to them later) - SITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION!!
Is this the result of inertia? Of a certain political culture reaching its limits and cant go any further?
To be continued...

Let the world perish but let there be wine, me and JL

* The late Susan Sontag.
** The arguments of the ID offends me not only because of the callous politics that underlie them but also because they are sustained through a “wilful” ignorance of reality.

Adel Ayadi (Maherbaal)
11th-01-2005

Fear and Loathing 2

2005-01-23T19:03:00.000+01:00

Twilight of the midlleminds

Why might not whole communities be seized with fits of madness, as well as individuals?
Nothing but this principle [that communities are also liable to collective fits of insanity], can account for the downward spiral of dumbness we are witnessing these days.
In these last weeks since the “debacle”, I knew that there will be many talks of election frauds, intimidations, biased reports etc. But I can assure you that our main problem is not there. Rather, we were defeated once again by our own inability to find a narrative that speaks to the whole nation, not just the “enlightened” (if ever they are). What is weird and maddening is that these madcap “events” happened not once but at least 4-5 times since Ben Ali came to power. in each event the same spectacle; a defeated opposition repeating the same arguments over and over and over: we couldn’t reach to the people because of Ben Ali, as if they had something to say, a message of hope, an alternative path to a sustained development, a new vision for the future of the country. No, nothing but tears and a pot-pourri of similarly banal yet heartbreaking newsflashes. Tears for lost “comrades”, jailed dissidents or brutalised friends. In styles as in content, the opposition’s “literature” and manifestos has one thing in common: detachment from the real aspirations of the people. They kept on singing their usual “سلامية” for justice and respect for human dignity (a desperate attempt to reinvent the wheel), rotating from time to time for the role of the lead singer. As if the old laws of politics were for mortals, not for them. What is obvious here is that the opposition parties supposed role as an alternative to the regime no longer has any relation to their actual performance. “THIS” opposition, it seems, has based its vision and plans on the assumption that they were living in a new era* in which anything was possible, like acting politically but hiding behind the “veil” of human rights activism. It also seems that old rules and principles of political activism had become obsolete. Resistance to the regime could “safely” be “managed” today by way of the HEART not by way of traditional political activism. Taking the example of Allah who “compressed the laws of righteous conduct into few “سور”, our opposition too condensed its “uplifting” mottos(which have nothing to do with the aspirations of the people but reflects their own condition ) to 3-4 “slogans” with keywords such as :political prisoners ,freedom of speech, corruption, justice...., regenerated automatically in every text and every speech.
The latest in line to make use of those ready-made defensive tools is SBS (like IBM or LG, sounds like a multi-national), a very clever PR manager but, in my view, a poorly equipped politician. She furiously reacted [by proxy!] to the critique of Chams and others by arguing that “people of the web” had no business commenting on her [sometimes very bizarre] political statements-as it appears, oblivious to the fact that her own “statements”, like her endorsement for the “Initiative Démocratique” just days before the “thing” took place (to me it was a surreal moment, un-fucking-believable), had legitimised this “web-ripostes”.
One wonder if this is “faux naivety” or “faux sophistication” or both??

* that man has reached a “higher plateau” of social awareness and civilised behaviour(sic), but ... nothing could be further from the truth.

If I had an army I would invade Verona, rename it Corvina or Molinara (depending on my moods!) and put its entire population to work in my vineyards to produce for my personal consumption Amarone in abundance.

To be continued.

Adel Ayadi (Maherbaal)
25th-12-2004

Fear and Loathing 1

2005-01-23T19:02:00.000+01:00

There is an eerie sense of panic in the air, a silent fear and uncertainty that comes with once reliable truths that are no longer "safe" to believe in.

A presidential election was held few weeks ago, described by “gougeats” of the RCD as the tightest race ever to be held in the history of ... the RCD, well as tight as Jennifer Lopez’s jeans, she definitely have no room to manoeuvre her divinely shaped ass (perhaps Leila was such a Venus back in the 70’s, who knows!), but at least she have a choice (and by the way, I hope she will never change her mind on that specific issue!) ... we don’t have that choice.
The space "reserved" for the opposition to manoeuvre is so tight that most of our opposition leaders have developed signs of claustrophobic behaviours which mostly affect their own people, negatively of course. These last elections have been a painful [in the ass] experience for the opposition. Every one of them lost, that is; every one of us!
actually, never in the recorded history of my country have so many cheeps been knowing to vote for an early عيد (the day they will be slaughtered), that is; 90 something % of the “cheptel” voted to die "prematurely", the rest dispersed into nature in their search for new grassland خبزة and a few dozens of die-hard “farhouds” (in memory of the legendary فرهود the greatest كبش نطيح in the history of that game) moved to جبال خمير (Paris), as always in the recent history of this republic of “cheeeeeeps”, the last bastion of resistance. That was back in June of last year when the entire “cheptel” sealed off its fate in a collective surrender to the the town’s butcher, almost in a sect-like manner like that of the members of the solar temple years ago, they decided to "go for it" ... and die, ...and die they did.
A new parliament is elected too, but somehow there is no real parliament no real president, everything is fake, unreal!
Should we abandon all hopes? Prepare for the worst? Get familiar with it?
I don’t know, my sense of humour has tended to walk on the dark since the “elections”.
My own immediate reaction was bafflement and surprise, not because of the scores, that was expected. What was unexpected was the weird behaviour of some opposition figures (Ben Sedrine, Chebbi, Mestiri and others), just on the eve of the elections, but that’s another story.
Today’s story is about our future, the one we’re about to loose.
My question is: how many times must a man (or a woman) be brutalised-on the SAME street by the SAME person-before they call him a sadist? Are we sadists?
Ok, that’s a morbid observation ...but that’s exactly what is happening to us, we’ve been brutalized by the same brute (RCD) since the dawn of history which, in our case, began for exactly 48 years ago, and we seems to like it! Or ...?

Oh mother Venus and father Amarone
Make my prayers my guiding stars...

(Beuhhh, that’s a start!)
To be continued

Adel Ayadi (Maherbaal)
25th-12-2004

Twiglight of the middleminds (part2)

2005-01-23T10:57:00.001+01:00

RIHANAT 2005

This is the “rihanat” of someone in need of a monstrous dose of reality.out of nowhere comes OMAR with the miracle pill,as if everything else is settled and we only need to “fine-adjust” the voting tactics and to exploit the miserable state of the textile industry to get on track(so fucking sic!)

رهانات2005
تحدّيات ثلاثة أمام الديمقراطيينبقلم عمر المستيريمعظم المحللين يعتبرون حصيلة العام المنصرم
سوداوية بالنسبة إلى طموحات التونسيين مع تكريس حكم بن علي لنفوذه شبه المطلق ومروره من عقبة النيابة الرابعة دون صعوبة تذكر وبتزكية رسمية من كبريات الحكومات الغربية... هذا التشاؤم يتجلى أيضا لدى غلاة التجذّر اللفظي الذين توهّموا بقدرة الخطاب على إزالة الاستبداد في أكتوبر 2004 وذلك بمجرّد تبنّي الجماهير العارمة لمقترحاتهم البدائية. ندعو هؤلاء إلى التمعّن في حكمة سياسية - أظن أنّها ماركسية المصدر - ذكرها الناشط الإسلامي عبد الله الزواري (أنظر فحوى الحديث معه) "علينا أن نبدأ بأصغر مظلمة ونضع فيها كامل قوتنا لرفعها ليرى شعبنا ما قدمت المعارضة له ولو كان بسيطا. فالشعب يمكن أن يساند تحركا بسيطا لايكلّفه كثيرا... علينا تدريبه ليدخل غدا تحركا أرقى ثم في مرة لاحقة قد يخرج معك ليسهر في البرد احتجاجا على تزييف 1أو 2 بالمائة من الانتخابات..." . هذا الكلام يتماشى تماما مع ما صرح لنا مؤخّرا أحد الديبلوماسيين الأجانب : "رموز المعارضة التونسية يطمحون إلى إدارة البلاد والحال أنّهم يفتقدون حتى لخبرة إدارة مجرّد بلدية... "إذا تناولنا تقييم سنة 2004 بأكثر واقعية وحدّدنا رهانها في إحداث أكثر خسائر داخل المنظومة الاستبدادية لتفطّنّا أنّ النيابة الرابعة قوبلت شعبيا بفتور غير مسبوق وأحدثت إلى حد ما نوعا من الإحباط لدى أنصار السلطة التي اهترأ خطابها إلى أبعد الحدود حتى صارت غير قادرة على مواجهة أي منافسة ميدانية. كما جاءت التزكية الغربية مرفوقة بأكثر تحفظات من الماضي وفوق أي اعتبار آخر فهي عرفت أرقى درجة من الرفض المعنوي. ببساطة معركة النيابة الرابعة وإن لم تكن معركة حقيقية بل رمزية إنما كانت مناسبة لكشف مواطن خلل السلطة في معالجة رهانات 2005 التي قد تكون أعسر بكثير من سابقاتها.

. القمة العالمية لمجتمع المعلوماتأوّل هذه الرهانات يتجسّد في التئام الشطر الثاني من القمة 1العالمية لمجتمع المعلومات بتونس في نوفبر 2005 بعد أن احتضنت مدينة جينيف شطرها الأوّل. عديد المحلّلين يرون أن السلطة التونسية أسرت نفسها داخل مصيدة من الصعب أن تنجو منها بسلام وإنّها قد تُدفع هذه المرّة إلى الضياع من جراء لهثها المفرط وراء تلميع صورتها الخارجية مع المحافظة على واقع داخلي متخلّف. القيادة التونسية كانت سباقة وماهرة في تسويق تنازلات شكلية وظاهرية إلى شركائها الغربيين مقابل التزامها بتطبيق وصفاتهم الاقتصادية وتنفيذ التدابير الأمنية التي يعدّونها. إلاّ أنّ الأسلوب اهترى والمجهر العالمي الذي طالما اشتاقه الاستبداد قد يركّز أيضا على واقع الانغلاق الإعلامي الذي لم يعد يستطيع إخفاءه. أطراف دولية قوية سايرت طلبات المجتمع المدني التونسي في تحرير الإعلام وهي اليوم تعدّد الزيارات الميدانية التحقيقية وتنتظر تجاوبا ملموسا مع لوائح مضبوطة وفق معايير دقيقة ومن المستبعد أن تسكّنها الخطب الرسمية الواهية التي طالما أرضت الحكومات. مدينة جينيف التي احتضنت الشطر الأول من القمة أعلنت هي الأخرى التزامها بمقاطعة قمة تونس طالما يشرف على تنظيمها وزير الداخلية الأسبق الحبيب عمّار المتّهم بالتورّط في أعمال التعذيب.من المنتظر أن يساعد هذا الرهان المجتمع المدني على تدعيم الفضاءات الإعلامية المحررة وعلى إقتلاع أخرى. منذ سنوات نشهد نموّا إعلاميا موازيا بفضل تحدّي النشطاء الذين تجاوزا الترسانة القانونية القمعية وأصدروا المنشورات وفتحوا عديد المواقع الحرّة على الانترنيت تكريسا لحقوق مضمونة بالدستور وبالعهود والمواثيق الدوليةّ. من المنتظر أن تتكثّف هذه الإصدارات وتخترق أكثر فأكثر جدار الصمت الذي أقامته السلطة البوليسية وتعطّل آليات الرقابة حتى تطال المزيد من المواطنين مساهمة في دفعهم إلى الرفع من مساهمتهم في الحياة العامة. نتمنّى أيضا أن يتكثّف إنتاج الإعلام الحر التونسي ويرتقي إلى إمكانيات أوسع مثل البث عبر الإذاعات الحرّة والمحطات التلفزية. أمنيتنا كذلك في أن يتحلّى هذا الإعلام الحرّ بقواعد صارمة ومنهجية راقية حتى يصون مصداقيته ويتحصّن من سموم التضليل الإعلامي الذي أصبح الأسلوب المفضّل لأجهزة المخابرات.
2. الانتخابات البلدية. تتدارس ثلاثة من أهم الأطراف التي اعترضت - كل بأسلوبه - على النيابة الرابعة، وهي التكتّل والتقدّمي والمبادرة، مسألة المشاركة في الانتخابات البلدية المقبلة. مزيّة الانتخابات البلدية الأفضل هي كونها لا يسفر عنها تعيين سلطة – تنفيذية أم تشريعية - ذات بعد وطني وبالتالي فإنّها تعفينا من التجادل حول هل أنّ المشاركة فيها تعني آليا تزكية مؤسسة صورية أم لا. من أهمّ استنتاجات "انتخابات" أكتوبر الماضي أنّ السلطة أصبحت تفضل تجنّب النزول للفضاء العام للتنافس مع خصم له حدّ أدنى من المصداقية وبالتالي فهي تفضّل تبني خصومها موقف المقاطعة التي تساعدها أكثر على الإفلات من امتحان عصيب. كما أنّ تراكم المشاركات الجدّية من شأنه أن يمحو الوقع السيّء الذي خلّفه عقد كامل من المشاركات الصورية وأن يدعّم خبرة المعارضة ويدقّق معرفتها بالميدان وأن يرفع من مقدرتها على استغلال مواطن ضعف السلطة. المزيّة الأخرى للانتخابات البلدية هي كونها تسمح للأطراف المعارضة بتكييف مشاركتها حسبما تختاره من مستوى التجنّد - من الرمزي إلى الشامل - لهذه المعركة وحسبما تقدّره من أفضلية جهوية. السيناريو الأمثل يكمن في أن تتوصّل الأطراف المذكورة التي لها تقارب كبير على مستوى الأرضية إلى ترشيح قائمات موحّدة في عدد محترم من الدوائر. غير أن عوائق متعدّدة - التخلّص من موروث من التناحر يتطلّب مرحلية - تقف في وجه هذا التصوّر ويضفي عليه شيئا من اللاواقعية. تبقى إمكانية التنسيق في دعم القوائم الموجودة في دائرة معيّنة وتغذيتها من قبل الأطراف التي لايمكنها التقدّم بها. أمّا الحدّ الأدنى الذي من دونه قد تضمحل آفاق تقدّم قريب للديمقراطية في بلادنا فهو يتمثّل في إبرام صفقة بين هذه الأطراف تضبط بها التزامات واضحة للتعاون على مقاومة التزوير الانتخابي.
3. تبعات تبخّر قطاع النسيج تصادف بداية 2005 مع نهاية مفعول الاتفاقيات الدولية المتعلّقة بتجارة النسيج (تعدد الألياف). هذا الموعد يعني بالنسبة إلى مصانع النسيج بتونس نهاية الامتيازات التي تمتّعت بها طيلة عقود لتسويق منتوجها داخل السوق الأوروبية. والحال أنّ هذا المنتوج الذي أسّس حيويته التجارية بصفة مطلقة على تكلفة اليد العاملة النسائية التونسية الزهيدة انهارت قدرته التنافسية بالكامل أمام المنتوج الآسيوي (والصيني بالذات) المعتمد على المرتبات البخسة. نشكّ أن السلطة أعدّت القطاع بما فيه الكفاية لمواجهة هذه الرجّة المعلنة منذ سنوات عديدة. ولاريب أنّ الأشهر المقبلة ستشهد تصاعدا في وتيرة غلق المؤسسات وتسريح العاملات بصفة عشوائية ودون احترام أدنى الحقوق الاجتماعية مثلما بدأت تؤشّر له بعض الحالات خلال العامين الماضيين. من الأكيد أنّ العاملين والعاملات لن يستسلموا إلى التضحية بحقوقهم والتسليم في تطلعاتهم التي تعنيها العولمة المتوحّشة ممّا ينبئ بتنشيط سريع للجبهة الاجتماعية التي حرص بن علي على تجميدها منذ تولّيه السلطة وهذا يعني بالضرورة عودة قوية لاتحاد الشغل على الساحة وإخفاق ماسعى إليه الحكم في تقزيمه بشتى الطرق. إنّ أزمة قطاع النسيج المعلنة تعني أيضا - نظرا إلى ثقل هذا القطاع داخل الاقتصاد الوطني من حيث حجم التشغيل وقسطه من الصادرات - وأكثر من أي شيء آخر نهاية نمط التنمية المتبع منذ أكثر من ثلاث عقود والذي نجحت السلطة في صرفه عن أنظار الرأي العام وحصر تطويره على تأثير وصفات المؤسسات المالية الدولية والمصالح الطفيلية لحفنة من المقرّبين. من هذا المنظار ستكون التقلّبات الآتية فرصة لفرض إعادة نقاش للخيارات التنموية الرسمية وبلورة بدائل واقعية لها بتعبئة الفعاليات الوطنية. اختبار للمعارضةلا تكفي الأزمات الاقتصادية ولا التحركات الاجتماعية لإجبار الاستبداد على القبول بإدخال إصلاحات جدّية على نمط الحكم والتخلّي عن الانغلاق المطلق التي يفرضه على الفضاء العام. لقد عرفت بلادنا مثل هذه الفرص في أكثر من مناسبة خلال نصف القرن الأخير لكنّها لم تكن جميعها إلاّ فرصا استغلّها الحكم لتطوير أسلوبه والتأقلم مع تطور المجتمع وإحكام قبضته عليه. الشرط الأساسي الذي غاب إلى حدّ الآن في إحداث التغيير يكمن في إفراز قيادة سياسية قادرة على توظيف جميع الفعاليات والتحلّي بالرشد السياسي. توفير هذا الشرط ليس رهين الإعلانات ولا الترشّحات الفردية أوالفئوية... بل يتطلّب المرحلية والتراكم و تركيز الآليات. لنبدأ بكسب الخبرة في سدّ الشقق والمنافذ التي يغتنمها الاستبداد كي يمدّد في أنفاسه.

The jargon used in the text above is a symptom of political semi-literacy, it may be appealing to those who feel left by history, but who wish to present themselves to their “equals” as “avant-gardist”(sic):the language of the losers as the language of the winners.
This jargon is often used to bridge the gap between reality and myth and to confirm its adepts in their belief that they are on their way to success(sic). But to claim the merit of success one need to follow certain public criteria which determine whether the success is real and “thriving” or not, "looking into a mirror" is one of those indispensable criteria!I think the best image of what we are is the way we're acting and behaving politically in the wider social context ,not the individual state of mind.
our opposition figures may feel content with their individual contributions(1),but if they have failed to come up with an alternative to the RCD state(this is a fact),then they cannot say that their [individual]contributions have had any influence or effects on the political development during the last few decades .but even when faced with this miserable record of their past history of political activism as for the most part of it failures and deceptions,our opposition “figures” reaches instinctively to trim the balance:hasn't there being moments of splendor like Ben Brik`s/Nasraoui`s hunger strike(s!) or the beating of SBS and the subsequent “mediatisation” of the “TRIHA”,not to forget the “bravura” of Om Ziad and the sincerity of KHALTI FOUNA!(barra laouej echkoun:),or the numerous NGO`s created ,or......???
Yes, there has been such moments of “splendor”(sic),but to claim that the two (the total record and the moments of splendor) match each other is really to falsify reality .Bertolt Brecht once wrote “to feel good about yourself when you have no material grounds(2) for doing so is to do yourself an injustice”. Simply by being “around” for a long period of time is not enough to guarantee the merit and the privilege to lead others,one have to succeed .
to put it simply:individual actions may be good signs of [individual]political awareness but are not enough,in our socio-political context, to fulfill the aspirations of millions. In fact,these individual decisions,as the “individual contributions” of those behind l`initiative democratique lately demonstrated, have had an abysmal results on the combined efforts made by the opposition since the early 90s.what is really frightening here is the shilling silence of almost everyone “involved”,except for a few free-spirits. perhaps its not a surprise if we take into account the past records of these “involved”. here “introspection” is the first step one must take in order to make an objective evaluation of what has been achieved so far. but trying to be objective(introspective) if you're Omar.M/ SBS(3),M.M, M.B.J, N.C or others is an arduous and fatiguing business,especially when we know that these peoples are vying for power. For power breeds illusions and fantasies,the sages of all ages has repeted, reducing the “individual” to a state of primitive egocentrism . No political organization/party or else can claim to have left to [us]future generation a legacy of resistance,a path to follow,an organized structure of political activism, or even charismatic leaders with the gift to inspire. this is a fact not an illusion.
But how to redress such an appalling situation?For Aristotle,ethics and politics are intimately related:ethics is about excelling at being human and nobody can do this in isolation. thus ,virtue is not a state of mind as perceived by our “individuals”,it is rather a “disposition” to be virtuous at all times,which means being prompt to act in a certain way,even when not acting at all.ie. when thinking. In the same vein,Goodness is a habit and not a state of mind,one need to practice it in order to claim the excellence of virtuosity.

I hope I will be back after one or two or...........three..or.. AMARONE,now that I am armed to my teeth with AMARONE from all districts of Verona it has become very difficult not to think of the "riches" I`ve just bought home!

If I had power I would make some minor changes to the laws pertaining to the use of stimulants ,I will classify wine as medicine and Whiskey as vegetable ,so vote for me:)).
(1)see the latest S.Khiari
(2)except for “el akdamiya”,being the first mover(s).
(3)one of the three most famous “couple diabolique” who are still maintaining their “positions” as the number 1,2,3 on the hit parade of political diabolism(nepotism,opportunism,,even tribalism for the number 1 on the chart),the other two being:1:ZABA/LEILA
3:HAMMAMI/NASRAOUI

Maherbaal