Tunisia: The Cry of Protestors Echoes Around the World
This post is part of our special coverage of Tunisia Revolution 2011.
The cries of Tunisians, protesting against corruption and joblessness for the past two weeks, is gathering momentum on the World Wide Web. Netizens from around the world are rallying behind them and echoing their calls.
It all started when an unemployed man set himself on fire in protest against his unemployment in Sidi Bouzid. According to the Los Angeles Times:
The death triggered violent clashes between young demonstrators and
police forces that resulted in the death of an 18-year-old after
National Guard members opened fire on angry protesters in a nearby town
two days later.Further marches and protests later spread to the capital and the cities of Sfax, Sousse and Meknassi.
From India, Anja Kovacs hits the nail on the head. She tweets:
Tunisia's seen a genuine revolt over last few weeks, but outside of Middle East, it's hardly reported. Why? http://bit.ly/he2Let #sidibouzid
She adds:
To know more abt what is happening in #Tunisia & get continuous updates, good people to follow are @ifikra , @weddady, @nawaat #sidibouzid
Egyptian Wael Nofal poses a similar question in this tweet:
@stephenfry Are you following what's going on in #SidiBouZid #Tunisia ؟It's odd why western media turned face away, unlike #Iran last year
And DanersB, who splits her time between Beirut, Dubai and Montreal, notes:
Ever the optimist! @dr_davidson: Heavyhandedness from #Tunisia ‘s despot, #BenAli, may well set the tone for the #Arab world's next decade
From the US, HarvardDr brings up yet another reference to Iran – this time referring to the end of the Shah's era. He writes (Ar):
From Washington DC, Priyanka Joseph is stunned by the wall of silence. She writes:
Someone's channeling Kundera. Shit's going down in #Tunisia, not a word of it on the news here (no surprise) nor on TTrends/my timeline.
Anne Eksten, from Denmark, notes:
Government #Tunisia respond to peaceful protest by Live Ammunition, Security Siege, Violence http://goo.gl/rnL0p /@Elicoopter_mid @RamyRaoof
And from the Netherlands, Mark adds:
“We are unhappy with the policies in Tunisia, we are unhappy with everything – it is not just unemployment.” #tunisia
Egyptian writer Mona Eltahawy urges her colleagues in the media to make a stand:
Friends, esp those with media connections, please tweet and RT #Tunisia and #SidiBouzid. Let's stand with Tunisians fighting oppression.
And Hisham Kassem, also from Egypt, is baffled:
Meanwhile, from Portnoy, from Taiwan, is left wondering:
For more tweets on Tunisia, check the hashtags #Tunisia and #sidibouzid
This post is part of our special coverage of Tunisia Revolution 2011.
11 comments
All my support and all the Algerian are supporting brothers in #SidiBouzid #Tunisia
just a comment on the above that say its weird that western media didn’t react in the same way it did with Iran, they always like that media their attack where politician point
to them.
As an aside, the translation of Hisham Kassem’s note is incorrect, he correctly refers to the former Israeli PRESIDENT – not Prime Minister.
Otherwise, the silence in the Western media is an English language silence. French langauge press has shown quite a lot of interest in Tunisia. The Anglo and Anglo-Arab silence is merely a reflection of the wider ignorance of the Franco-Arab Maghreb. A google news search on Tunisie manifestations will get you a metric tonne of French coverage of Tunisia.
Of course, the level of censorship in Tunisia is stunning, right up to the wide-ranging blocking of social media sites and other internet fora and tools. The Tunisian regime, it should be noted, is not well loved by the West as such (the American Wikileak memos refelct that).
Oops.. Of course President! Sorry about that!
Thanks for pointing that out.
Hi
I’m not sure if you are following this campaign here:
http://www.anonnews.org/index.php?p=press&a=item&i=118
http://gawker.com/5723104/anonymous-attacks-tunisian-government-over-wikileaks-censorship
https://twitter.com/search?q=%23sidibouzid#search?q=%23optunisia