Béji Caïd Essebsi: "My three goals as Tunisia’s president"

Earlier this week, Béji Caïd Essebsi became the first Tunisian freely elected president of the country.

"While Tunisia's commitment to elections and other democratic processes has been inspiring, building deep roots for the democratic institutions and values that can stand the test of time will take years. Still, the country offers more hope than any other Muslim country shaken by the 2011 political upheavals and deserves as much political and economic support as the United States and Europe can muster."

-- the conclusion of a NYT editorial, "Tunisia Wins Again"

by Ken

The corner in the middle of the coast of North Africa which is now Tunisia once held considerable strategic importance as a meeting point for shipping lanes to the eastern and western Mediterranean Sea and as the gateway between northern Africa and southern Europe. Even those of us with dim memories of high school World History are apt to have some glimmering of the time when Carthage, located in modern-day Tunisia, was a rival to Rome for regional domination.

It could well be lucky for Tunisians that this ancient land and sea crossroads doesn't have the strategic importance it once did, and that Tunisia itself isn't blessed with the richness in natural resources of any number of other North African and Middle Eastern states. If this doesn't sound to you like the kind of great good luck that calls for celebration, look at the fates and ongoing ongoing struggles of the countries in the region that do have significant strategic and/or resource importance, where local citizens' interest in how their countries should be governed tend to be overwhelmed by powerful political and economic forces from within and, especially, without.

I imagine that, like me, DWT readers have been generally aware that Tunisia, the country that pretty much alone survived the once-hope-engendering Arab Spring as a cause for hope, has been undergoing the delicate experience (I first wrote "experiment") of electing a president after enduring a rocky transitional period since the January 2011 ouster of longtime dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, with first-round elections in November and the decisive second round this past week.

A New York Times editorial earlier this week, "Tunisia Wins Again," responding to the second-round voting that gave the country its first-ever freely elected president-elect, began:

With the election of its first freely chosen president, Tunisia has taken another important step on its post-Arab Spring transition toward democracy. Although the country faces many difficult challenges, it remains a symbol of hope and sanity in a region consumed by chaos and dominated by authoritarian governments.

Mr. Essebsi served as interior minister under Tunisia’s repressive first president, Habib Bourguiba, and as speaker of Parliament under Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who was ousted in the 2011 Arab Spring revolution. During the campaign, he promoted himself as an establishment figure whose experience could help ensure Tunisia’s security. Mr. Marzouki, a former human rights advocate, embodied the ideals and fervor of the revolution.

A lot of hopes are riding on the shoulders of the 88-year-old president-elect. A country with more than its share of problems to contend with is rife with forces, internal and external, that are far more interested in "getting theirs" than in contending with those problems. Which is why I think a lot of readers may be curious about the Washington Post op-ed piece in which President-elect Essebsi himself sets out "My three goals as Tunisia’s president":

* "solv[ing] daunting economic and social problems;

* establish[ing] security in a country surrounded by insecurity; and

* strengthen[ing] our young democracy at a time when hopes for democracy elsewhere in the region are failing to take root."

Or, to be more specific (links onsite):

Tunisia’s extraordinary political experience since the Arab Spring stands as a testimony to the openness, tolerance and moderation that Tunisians owe to their 3,000-year history as a Mediterranean state crisscrossed by invaders, traders and missionaries of all kinds.

It was trade and exchange with Europe — in particular, with France and Italy, Tunisia’s closest Mediterranean neighbors — that opened the country to the Enlightenment. Sadiki College, established in the 19th century, provided a strong bilingual education for the country’s elite: the modern sciences were taught in French, Arab history and Islamic heritage in Arabic. The leaders who built the postcolonial state after securing Tunisia’sindependence from France in 1956 were largely Sadiki alumni.

Those founders brought to their task a commitment to anchor the young republic in modernity. They instituted universal education, gender equality and separation of religion and state, and they promoted a strong work ethic in a country that lacked the oil wealth of other countries in the region — which has proved a blessing in disguise.

Thus, when revolution swept the Arab world in 2010 and 2011, the vision of our founders paid off. The protesters who ended both Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali’s corrupt dictatorial reign and now the Ennahda party’s recent Islamist regime are the educated sons and daughters of the large, secular middle class that was built over decades by the independence generation.

The constitution agreed to by both Ennahda and the secular camp after the Tunisian Revolution followed the example of the one adopted in 1959 under the leadership of President Habib Bourguiba, the father of Tunisian independence. Both constitutions are devoid of ideological intent and state that the country’s religion is Islam while affirming the civil character of the state.

In 2012, I formed a new political party — Nidaa Tounes (the Call of Tunisia) — to challenge Ennahda following the Islamists’ victory in the first post-revolution elections. Thanks to Bourguiba’s modernist legacy, which helped us mobilize the large, educated middle class, and particularly women, to vote for our candidates, Nidaa Tounes met with success in theOct. 23 legislative elections and again in the Dec. 21 presidential elections.

Winning democratic elections is, however, only a means to an end.

For Nidaa Tounes, and for me as Tunisia’s new president, our goal has three interconnected parts: We must solve the daunting economic and social problems that began in the Ben Ali era and were aggravated by three years of incompetent Islamist administration. We must establish security in a country surrounded by insecurity. And we must strengthen our young democracy at a time when hopes for democracy elsewhere in the region are failing to take root.

On the economic front, we face high youth unemployment, a struggling middle class and unacceptable disparity in regional development, which divides the country into coastal “haves” and interior “have-nots.” These challenges are exacerbated by the persistent economic slump in Europe, which is Tunisia’s principal trade partner. We must invest in youth employment, particularly through training for new jobs in the digital economy and service sector. We must also integrate the regions of the interior by upgrading their transportation systems, improving health care and creating jobs in solar energy and agricultural industries suited for these arid lands.

Security concerns add to these challenges and affect both foreign and national investment. Despite a robust tradition, our tourism suffers — as does our enchanting environment for lack of means to protect it.

We must also confront the fact that poverty is producing terrorism, a new phenomenon for Tunisia. The scourge of terrorism should have been addressed more decisively by Ennahda. Instead, the Islamist government allowed in radical foreign preachers who lured thousands of vulnerable young people to join al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. The same extremist ideology motivates others to take up arms — made readily available by the turmoil in nearby Libya — against their fellow Tunisians.

To fight extremism, we will need to pursue a two-pronged strategy: both “hard,” through stricter control of our borders and a more robust and technologically advanced security response, and “soft,” based on better intelligence-gathering, working to return our mosques to their spiritual function and barring entry to foreign preachers.

Despite all these challenges, the Tunisian people have hope: Our recent elections were some of the most impressive democratic achievements in recent times. Peacefully, fairly and with full transparency, Tunisians voted for accountability. Voters punished the Islamists for their failures of governance and offered secular democrats a chance to solve the country’s problems.

Particularly impressive to me — as a marker of our culture of democracy — is that the leader of Ennahda, Rachid Ghannouchi, called last month to congratulate me for Nidaa Tounes’s victory in the legislative elections. I truly appreciated his gesture and look forward to working with him and all Tunisians to overcome our difficulties and establish our nation as a solid democracy.

We hope that Tunisia’s Islamists will continue on this path. If they opt to be a normal part of a functioning political landscape, Tunisia will prove to the world that, after all, an Arab Muslim country can indeed be a full democracy.

I don't have a clue how this is all going to work out; I would just point to the conclusion of that NYT editorial, quoted at the top of this post. Although recent world experience doesn't provide mountains of optimism on any of the president-elect's three counts, I sure hope Tunisians can defy those odds.

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Will Morocco Be The Next Domino To Fall? Or The One After That?

You can easily tell a real revolution from a staged one

Dictators like Mubarak, Ben Ali or Yemen's Ali Abdullah Saleh (who has just promised not to pass the presidency along to his son) can pack up their Swiss bank account safety deposit bank combinations-- maybe dropping in on the national bank and stealing whatever's left of the country's gold deposits-- and take off for France or Saudi Arabia. But it's harder for a king. Some of them actually believe all the divine-right crap and the dynastic stuff. This week King Abdullah of Jordan, like all of them a self-proclaimed descendent of the Prophet Mohammed, replaced the billionaire crook running his cabinet for him with a military crook and promised cheaper food prices, in the hopes of staving off the inevitable. Syria, ostensibly a republic of sorts, seems to have a hereditary dictatorship and looks to me like the next country to blow, although I suspect the dictator there, Bashar Assad, will feel less constrained than Mubarak has been about just slaughtering everyone who gets wild. After all, his father pretty much leveled the city of Hama in 1982 when the Muslim Brotherhood got feisty, killing 30-40,000 people.

Syrians are organising campaigns on Facebook and Twitter that call for a "day of rage" in Damascus this week, taking inspiration from Egypt and Tunisia in using social networking sites to rally their followers for sweeping political reforms.

Like Egypt and Tunisia, Syria suffers from corruption, poverty and unemployment. All three nations have seen subsidy cuts on staples like bread and oil. Syria's authoritarian President Bashar al-Assad has resisted calls for political freedoms and jailed critics of his regime.

On Sunday a group of 39 activists and opposition figures issued a statement hailing Egypt and Tunisia's protesters, but Mr Assad has shown no signs of flinching.

The case of Morocco is different. Next-door neighbor Algeria's stability will probably have more impact there than will monarchical Jordan's or thuggish Syria's.

President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who has ruled the country since 1999, was elected on the promise to end the violence that had plagued the country for much of its history since independence from France in 1962.

To a certain extent he has succeeded, and after years of political upheaval the country is beginning to emerge as a centre of enterprise, heavily assisted by the country's huge oil and gas reserves. It has estimated oil reserves of nearly 12 billion barrels, attracting strong interest from foreign oil firms.

However, poverty remains a serious problem and unemployment high, particularly among Algeria's youth. Almost 50 per cent of Algeria's 34.6 million people are under 25, and the youthful population coupled with a lack of jobs has made Algeria something of a simmering cauldron. Endemic government corruption and poor standards in public services are also chronic sources of popular dissatisfaction.

Mounting grievances over spiralling costs and unemployment triggered the riots earlier this month, encouraged by public protests in Tunisia that forced its president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to flee.

I hope I'm not boring everybody with all the talk about Morocco, which I realize most Americans haven't been terribly aware of since it became the very first country in the world-- yes, even before France-- to recognize our revolution and our independence from the tyranical British superpower, in December 1777. I first went there in 1969, when I was just a kid, and I've been writing about it ever since-- mostly at my travel blog. I lost count of how many times I've been there after a dozen, and I've yet to meet a Moroccan who's been to as many places in Morocco as I have. (I can always pull Sidi Ifni or the Erg Chigaga dunes south of M'hamid out of my hat.) 

I just spent most of December in Marrakech, where I rented a riad next to King Mohammed VI's palace in the medina. Most of the traffic that comes to the travel blog comes from people on search engines who find the post Is Morocco A Safe Place To Visit?. And believe me, I usually try to keep the two blogs separate. I sometimes have to restrain Ken from posting the travel pieces on DWT when I'm travel-blogging from the road. The short answer to the question about Morocco being safe is YES. But in light of the revolutionary spirit coursing through the Arab world, especially in North Africa, we need to take a look again. 

Can tranquil, scenic, touristic, ever more cosmopolitan Morocco go the way of Tunisia and Egypt? Short answer is the same: YES!

I didn't want to be rude to my Marrakech neighbor, but like I wrote, Mohammed VI-- when you strip away the 21st=century P.R. veneer-- is an authoritarian despot, not all that much different from any king or Emperor or sultan or tsar. In fact, one thing I noticed a lot, and eventually started questioning people about, is that many Moroccans sounded exactly like pre-Revolutionary Russians believing that if only their Little Tsar knew what evil the terrible men around him were perpetrating against his people, he would take care of it! 

Mohammed calls all the shots in the family business, a business that owns at least a piece of almost everything in the country, from the big hotels to the drug-trafficking bonanza that a WikiLeaks cable from a U.S. diplomat asserts is the only bigger source of income in the kingdom than the tourist industry. And remember, it was the release of WikiLeaks cables that opened the floodgates against the dictators in Tunisia and Egypt as well.


Even members of the royal family believe Morocco's monarchy can't go unscathed by what is sweeping the rest of North Africa right now. The King's cousin, Prince Moulay Hicham, third in line to the throne and popularly known as the "Red Prince" because of his criticisms of the monarchy, is reported as having said that "the political liberalisation launched in the 1990s after Mohammed succeeded his authoritarian father Hassan II had virtually come to an end, and reviving it while still avoiding radical pressures would be 'a major challenge.'" 

Everyone is counting on the spiritual bond between the King and the people, a bond, they hope, makes him different from a grubby usurper like Ben Ali or Mubarak or Algeria's Abdelaziz Bouteflika. On the other hand, dissident journalist Aboubakr Jamai wrote in France's Nouvel Observateur, "If Morocco goes up, the disparities in wealth are such that the rebellion will be much bloodier than in Tunisia."

Afrol News appears to be as anti-monarchical and down with tyranny as we are here. This week, with Egypt exploding, they seemed to try stirring things up a little for Mohammed, who they reported was off in one of his fabulous palaces... in France, plotting, no doubt, contingencies in case any radicals decide it's time to follow the example of Tunisia and Egypt and throw off the chains of oppression and kleptocracy.

Discontent is ample in Morocco, the poorest, least developed North African nation, and many are inspired by developments in Egypt. Meanwhile, Morocco's King Mohammed VI rests in his French luxury chalet.

Morocco so far has been spared from larger protesting groups as those in Tunisia and Egypt, much thanks to the King's quick reversal of boosting prices for basic foods. The same move proved a good assurance for authorities in neighboring Algeria.

But discontent is very widespread in Morocco. Despite an economic boom over the last years and some careful reforms ordered by King Mohammed VI-- most prominently regarding gender equality and education-- Morocco remains the poorest country in North Africa, with the least employment opportunities and the lowest literacy rate.

The King, claiming to descend from the Prophet Mohammed, has an almost divine role in Morocco. Very few dare to criticise him, even in the mildest form.

Among the Arab majority, loyalty to the King is great, while the government-- appointed by the King-- and age-old ruling "Makhzen" class-- controlling the administration, police, army and much of business-- are the popular focus of hatred. In the streets of Casablanca, it is often said that the King is honest and wants to rule the country well, but the Makhzen is corrupting everything.

Minorities, however, to a wider degree dare to blame the King for their mischief. This includes large parts of the indigenous and disadvantaged Berber people. Estimates of the Berber population wary from 20 to 60 percent of the Moroccan total, with official estimates being the lowest. Unemployment is highest among Berber youths, of which many view the Arab King as a foreign imposer.

...As the tourist market in all North Africa now is crumbling-- many travellers fear Morocco could be next-- the kingdom's greatest growth and employment sector could soon be strongly impacted. A sudden growth in unemployment due to falling tourist arrivals could spark revolt.

Blogging from Fes, Matt Schumann is a Fulbright scholar and English teacher at the S.M. Ben-Abdellah University, a graduate of Rice University and an incredibly well-informed and very perceptive observer of the Moroccan street, far more so than anyone you're ever going to hear on the utterly clueless CNN or the ideologically sociopathic Fox News. Last week he wrote about being in Morocco and watching the Moroccans watch the developments unfolding in Egypt. His conclusion, though, is that Morocco is immune to the upheavals sweeping the Arab world. I disagree, but I want to offer his arguments, since they make a great deal of sense and include important information we'll need to look at when the revolution does, inevitably, come to Morocco.

It's been strange to be in Morocco during all of this. There's no lack of information. When you walk into a cafe, people are watching coverage of Egyptian protesters burning police vehicles or tearing down posters of Hosni Mubarak. But these images and ideas don't seem to be penetrating. A glance through two of the biggest newspapers, As-Sabah and Al-Masa', lead you to believe that the protests are only tangentially relevant to Moroccans. There are no attempts to apply Tunisians' and Egyptians' grievances to a Moroccan context. On Facebook, my students have posted pictures of the Egyptian protesters along with words of support and solidarity, and then proclaim their love for Morocco's King Muhammad VI. How can you identify with the protesters of two revolutions against authoritarian governments and still do that?

Why have the events in Tunisia and Egypt failed to generate the same reaction in Morocco as they have elsewhere in the Arab world?

Reading reports from the past weeks has made it clear to me that life for the average Moroccan is very different than that of a Tunisian or an Egyptian. Yes, Morocco is a poor country with high unemployment. The GDP per capita is significantly lower than Egypt's and nearly half that of Tunisia. Yet, the poverty is not oppressive. Life necessities are cheap in Morocco. People are poor but do not starve. The Moroccan government also tolerates "underground economic activities" which provide money and support for many young, uneducated Moroccans. The most notable of these is the drug trade, which according to WikiLeaks, generates more money than tourism, the largest sector of the Moroccan economy.

A second, key difference, concerns education. As one commentator pointed out, Tunisia is an exception in the Arab world in that it has a large, educated middle class. The middle class' dissatisfaction with the country's economic prospects fueled the protests that eventually led to Ben Ali's downfall. Egyptians, while not nearly as wealthy as Tunisians, are similarly educated. Both countries post literacy rates in the 70s and both protests movements have utilized social (especially Tunisia) and print media (especially Egypt) for organizational purposes. Morocco is a completely different story.

At best, 50% of Moroccans are literate and many well-educated Moroccans are ex-pats living in Europe or North America. While this may seem insignificant, I think it's a huge factor. Moroccans' illiteracy hampers the spread of information in general, and would definitely impede the organization of any type of protest movement. Additionally, the Moroccans who identify the most with Tunisia and Egypt don't live in Morocco. They've already exercised their discontent by leaving the country... [T]here is no credible opposition to the King [inside Morocco].

Morocco is a parliamentary monarchy that has a prime minister, political parties and elections. But in reality, it's something else. Parliament and the lesser bodies of government are where corrupt officials take bribes and appoint their sons- and daughters-in-law to influential posts. This corruption is obvious and derided by the Moroccan people. It's not uncommon for a Moroccan to say that the best way to make money in the country is to get into politics, but that you can only do that if you know the right people.

The King is seen as the only credible member of government despite his overwhelming and unquestionable political powers. And there's good reason for this. Royal initiatives, like infrastructure development and some social reforms, are completed on time and relatively efficiently. In other words, he gets things done when other Moroccan politicians don't. Combine that with the legacy of the Alaouite Dynasty, which has ruled Morocco for nearly four hundred years, and Muhammad VI is seen less as a despot and more as a benevolent and beloved monarch.

Now it's true that the King has the power to end the corruption that plagues parliament, the police and the military. Allowing his political opponents to profit in their subordinate positions decreases their desire for change. Additionally, their corruption draws the ire and attention of the people. So while his policies may leave something to be desired in the eyes of some Moroccans, the alternatives are much much worse.

The commentator who describes Tunisia as an exception in the Middle East may be eating his words in the next few days depending on Egypt's outcome. This doesn't mean Moroccans are happy with the state of affairs in their country. Poverty, unemployment, education, and political freedom are just a few issues that Moroccans feel must be addressed. But for now, the situation does not seem dire.

More than anything, Moroccans love stability. This is why they love the King. They tolerate the political and social status quo because it still meets their needs and because they don't have to worry about what tomorrow will bring. Because of this mindset, I don't think radical change is anything many Moroccans feel is necessary. Speaking to a Moroccan friend he said that while things here are not good, they are getting better. "Maybe five or ten years from now, but not now," he added. As long as this attitude persists, Morocco will stay stable.

Everybody loves stability. But it costs Morocco an awful lot to keep the King-- much more than he's worth, not just in my estimation but in the estimation of more and more people. When Egypt falls and things get ramped up in another country, Mohammed VI is going to be very happy that his family's corporation has all the billions of dollars they've stolen from the people of Morocco separate from the state's funds. Like the rest of the kleptocrats, they and their spawn will be living on it for generations-- in other countries.

Spring Time of The Peoples-- Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen... Is England Next?

The title refers to something that happened in 1848, even before McCain was born. It can be described as series of political upheavals-- or revolutions-- that began in France and spread throughout Europe, including Italy, Germany, Denmark, Poland, Switzerland, Belgium, Romania, Hungary and then on to Brazil. Russia's relative stability while the rest of Europe was burning is usually attributed to the revolutionary groups' inability to communicate with each other, the czar having shut down Facebook and Twitter, just the way Hosni Mubarak did in Egypt. Alexis de Tocqueville, in Recollections: "society was cut in two: those who had nothing united in common envy, and those who had anything united in common terror."

Fast forward over 160 years and we find that Tunisians have just kicked out their dictator and has issued an arrest warrant to have Interpol bring him back to stand trial. The current Spring Time of The Peoples has now spread-- with a vengeance-- to Egypt and Yemen. Someone in Syria must have read about how effective the czar was in 1848 and has already preempted on-line preparations by shutting down the Internet.

Wikipedia makes the point that the Revolution of 1848 missed Great Britain because the middle classes there "had been pacified by general enfranchisement in the Reform Act 1832; the consequent agitations, violence, and petitions of the Chartist movement came to a head with their peaceful petition to Parliament of 1848. The repeal of the protectionist agricultural tariffs-- called the "Corn Laws"-- (in 1846) had defused some proletarian fervour there." This time England may not be so lightly spared. Instead of nurturing-- or even just placating-- a growing middle class, the British elites are shrinking it and pushing it to the brink. Remember this clip from the U.K. elections that brought in a Conservative government. Well, it's all coming true:



And British working families are stirring out of their lethargy.

Union leaders warned today of a growing mood of militancy over the government's "gamble" on the economy if the coalition refuses to change course.

Paul Kenny, general secretary of the GMB union, described mounting industrial unrest among normally moderate rank-and-file members across the public and private sectors who are "very angry" at the government's economic plan.

Bob Crow, leader of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers' Union, ramped up the pressure as he warned that there was "no question" that unions would mount co-ordinated action to protect workers' living standards.

But Boris Johnson, the Conservative London mayor, signalled today that the government is planning to hit back by tightening laws against what he described as "vexatious strikes" by workers employed in essential public services.

Kenny issued a broadside against the coalition government as it made clear its intention to stick to its plan of multibillion spending cuts, and rejected calls for a change of economic course in the face of shocking figures that showed the economy contracted by 0.5% in the last quarter of 2010.

The figures, which raise fears of high unemployment and inflation with stagnant growth, mark the first serious challenge to the coalition's political and economic direction.

In an attempt to reassure volatile markets, Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, urged the cabinet to stand firm and warned of many shocks to the economy before it settled down to a consistent pattern of growth.

But Kenny said today that the government's strategy was a "gamble" without a "plan B" to adapt to the situation. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We are seeing, frankly, from areas of our membership, areas that have traditionally been very, very moderate and quiet, we are seeing calls for industrial action ballots.

"We are seeing people very angry about the fact that there doesn't seem to be a balance of justice in this. They do not see that there is a strategy that says we are going to win this fight."

He said people wanted to see that the government could adapt to the situation. "There's a growing level of concern that there's no light at the end of the tunnel. It's all bad news," he added.

Kenny said that people who have not had a pay rise for two or three years wanted to see King do more about the "rampant, greedy nature" of the banking industry in the country.

"This is a really important point for people in this country," he said.

Yes... this one too. Do we have unions still?


And what about our own government? American firms may be complicit in the weapons being turned on the Egyptian people and in Mubarak's order to shut down the Internet, but... what about our government? At what point do "we" side with the Egyptian people against the tyrant? Robert Naiman, with a little help from Mohamed ElBaradei, tackled the question very well over at Daily Kos this morning:

If Western leaders, who have backed the dictator Mubarak for 30 years, cannot stand before the Egyptian people today and say unequivocally, "we support your right of national self-determination," when can they do it?

That's the question that Egyptian democracy leader and Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei has put before Western leaders today.

Speaking to the Guardian in Cairo, before the planned protests today, ElBaradei stepped up his calls for Western leaders to explicitly condemn Mubarak, who, as the Guardian noted, has been a close ally of the US:

"The international community must understand we are being denied every human right day by day," he said. "Egypt today is one big prison. If the international community does not speak out it will have a lot of implications. We are fighting for universal values here. If the west is not going to speak out now, then when?"

Baby Doc Duvalier Didn't Show Up At The Wedding... I Don't Think

Baby Doc & Papa Doc-- there may be a chicken or pig left to steal

You may have guessed that I don't spend a lot of time with rightists; not my cup of tea-- and I have so little self-control that I just fight with them. But... my friend Jean-Michel was different from the rest. My old boss has homes around the world, always fabulous places sitting in exactly the best place in every city. That's what happens when you're the guy who signs Madonna. Problem with all these fabulous homes is that he's a pig beyond belief. Every home was uninhabitable. It isn't only because he doesn't like having strangers coming in to clean, it's because strangers refuse to! He's an "art" collector-- one of the world's most notorious... and "art" is very much stretched to cover a lot of ground even beyond one of the world's most complete homoerotic collections and so much art deco furniture that he could turn his mansions into warehouses-- which, of course, he has. But he's not the rightist I'm talking about.

When I worked for him I used to have to travel to our affiliated companies around the world. He suggested I could save a lot of money on my expenses if I stayed at his places instead of hotels. But his places turned out to be gross. I tried hiring someone to clean one of his 3 London flats but I wound up having to hire a whole crew-- for three solid days. However, a block and a half from l'Étoile, oui, oui, the Arc de Triomphe he had a place that needed no cleaning. That's because Jean-Michel lived there full time. We became good friends and just avoided talking about politics, not always easy since he had been a paratrooper for Kataeb, the Lebanese Phalangist Party (oui, oui, fascists-- the real thing)-- led by the Maronite Christian Amin Gemayel and funded by Israel-- in the 1980s.

He was my boss' most handsome and cultivated boyfriend but he eventually got married (to a woman) and invited me to the wedding. It was spectacular. The lovely bride's papa had been the Minister of Finance in Baby Doc Duvalier's Haitian kleptocracy until they fled the country in 1986-- with the national treasury. Mon. Minister bought a lush park with gently rolling green hills just outside of Paris with a château that you'd expect to see Marie Antoinette's ghost running around looking for her head. The park was big enough to build his daughter and Jean-Michel a classic-looking château of their own a couple kilometers away. What a nice place for a wedding.

The most fundamental problems of the Haitian economy, however, were economic mismanagement and corruption. More avaricious than his father, Jean-Claude Duvalier overstepped even the traditionally accepted boundaries of Haitian corruption. Duvalierists under Jean-Claude engaged in, among other activities, drug trafficking, pilferage of development and food aid, illegal resale and export of subsidized oil, fraudulent lotteries, export of cadavers and blood plasma, manipulation of government contracts, tampering with pension funds, and skimming of budgeted funds. As a result, the president for life and his wife lived luxuriously, in stark contrast to the absolute poverty of most Haitians. Allegations of official corruption surfaced when Duvalier appointed a former World Bank official, Marc Bazin, to the post of finance minister in 1982. Bazin sought to investigate corruption and to reform fiscal accounting practices in connection with a 1981 International Monetary Fund (IMF) economic stabilization agreement. More zealous than Duvalier had anticipated, Bazin documented case after case of corruption, determined that at least 36 percent of government revenue was embezzled, and declared the country the "most mismanaged in the region." Although quickly replaced, Bazin gave credence to foreign complaints of corruption, such as that contained in a 1982 report by the Canadian government that deemed Duvalier's Haiti a kleptocracy.

Jean-Michel's more amenable father-in-law followed a quickly dispatched Bazin. I can't say I've kept up with any of them-- except my old boss, and it is through him I found out that Jean-Michel split up with Baby Doc's Finance Minister fille. Jean-Michel is no doubt still in France, in all likelihood supporting the rise of Marine Le Pen. But what about Jean-Michel's ex-wife (and child)? As you no doubt know by now, Baby Doc's back in Haiti, broke... but did he bring the pillager of the national treasury (and his family)? And will there be trials? A wikileaks document from 5 years ago indicates that the U.S. was worried Baby Doc might try to come back. Duvalier says he's back to help, not for politics, but no one believes that.

Coming against the backdrop of an earthquake that killed 250,000 and reduced sections of the capital, Port-au-Prince, to dust, paralysis in the efforts to rebuild, a fatal cholera epidemic, a presidential election crisis and crippling social conditions, the playboy president's re-emergence put one more bizarre twist in Haiti's chaotic landscape.

However, after stepping off an Air France flight from Paris and kissing the ground, the 59-year-old insisted that his intentions were pure. "I am not here for politics," he claimed. "I am here for the reconstruction of Haiti."

It had been an "emotional return," said his second wife, Veronique Roy, who was asked at the airport why they had come. "Why not?" she replied, claiming that they planned to stay for only three days.

...Duvalier presided over a dark chapter in Haiti's history, becoming the world's youngest head of state in 1971 when he assumed the title of "president for life" at the age of 19, following the death of his father, Francis "Papa Doc" Duvalier, who had ruled since 1957.

Their successive dictatorships brought decades of savagery, corruption and the wholesale theft of state funds while the population cowered in fear, poverty and starvation.

Both executed a campaign of bloody oppression, torturing and killing political opponents in their tens of thousands and handing free rein to a bloodthirsty militia known as the Tonton Macoute-- Creole for "bogeyman"-- to silence detractors. Trade unionism and independent media were crushed. Those who spoke out or agitated for democracy disappeared, sometimes assassinated in broad daylight, their corpses often strung from trees as a warning.

Up to 30,000 people were murdered and hundreds of thousands more driven into exile.

"It is the destiny of the people of Haiti to suffer," Baby Doc once declared, as his people scratched for survival.

By the time a series of popular uprisings finally destabilised his dictatorship in 1986, the international community was ready to help show him the door.

President Ronald Reagan's administration provided a US air force jet to spirit him out of the country under cover of darkness and France, Haiti's former colonial ruler, granted him and his 20-strong entourage asylum-- an arrangement that it intended to be temporary, until realising that no other country would take him off its hands thereafter.

UPDATE: Baby Doc In Custody-- Where All Tyrants And Sociopaths Should Be

Jean-Claude Duvalier has been charged with corruption. How could it be otherwise? Well, the Tunisian president and his family got away with $20 billion (+ a last minute ton and a half of gold). And just like morons in our country protest that Congress passed a health care bill, idiots in Haiti are protesting that Duvalier may have to face the consequences of his 15 year kleptocracy, not to mention an abysmal record of human rights abuses.

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, among others, have urged the authorities to prosecute the former dictator for jailing, torturing and murdering thousands of people during his time in power. His longtime companion, Veronique Roy, when asked whether Duvalier was being arrested, simply laughed and said nothing.

The scene evoked memories of 7 February 1986 when crowds danced in the streets after widespread revolts and international pressure led to his departure.

His Swiss-banked fortune long used up in divorce and tax disputes, Duvalier returned to Haiti without warning on Sunday on a flight from Paris, saying he wanted to help. "I'm not here for politics. I'm here for the reconstruction of Haiti."

A spokesman for the UN high commissioner for human rights said it should be easier to prosecute Duvalier in Haiti because it was where atrocities took place but that the judicial system was fragile.

It remained unclear why he returned and what impact it would have on the year-long post-quake crisis which has left a leadership vacuum and a country in ferment, with near daily street demonstrations by rival factions.

Better Forget Carthage For A Bit! Let's Go To Juba!

[Cross-posted from the AroundTheWorldBlog]

I just keep going to Morocco again and again. True, I once spent a month in Egypt, but when it comes to North Africa I fell in love with Morocco in 1969 and was just there again-- maybe the 15th time?-- for most of December. Roland is always bringing up Tunisia and Libya (not to mention Ethiopia and Mauritania, where as many as one-fifth of the population are still slaves) as places we should go. We drove down an endless rutted road to sleepy, art-deco Sidi Ifni once and we spent a month in Mali once, but that's about as close as I'm getting to Mauritania and I don't care how groovy the beach is near Nouakchott or how ancient Ouadane, Chinguetti, Oualata and Tichitt are.



I read Skeletons on the Zahara, about Americans who were captured and made into slaves there, and I'm staying away. Even if Algeria isn't, Tunisia has always been a lot more plausible and Europeans flock there, mostly for the shiny new beach resorts around Monastir, especially the cheap ones catering to pachae-tours-- although I have to admit I've always been captivated by the history of Carthage. Tunisia has been trying hard to develop tourism as a major economic sector and as many as 11.5% of the population depends on it for their livelihood. It's overrun with Libyan, French, German, Italian and British tourists; plenty of Eastern Europeans have also been coming, but Americans stay away. With the uncertainty of this week's events, Americans are likely to stay away for the immediate future even more resolutely. Russia just evacuated all its nationals today, and the uprising devastated the tourist industry... at least for now.

While most Tunisians celebrate the victory of the people in ousting Dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the country's key tourism industry sees a large negative impact from the riots and revolution. Tourists are already being evacuated from Tunisia.

While President Ben Ali was a totalitarian leader, tourists from Europe and the Arab world kept streaming to the country at an ever-increasing rate. Only few of the arrivals did even know that Tunisia was a dictatorship, even if they came year after year. Superficially, Tunisia seemed a country in balance.

This widely held picture of Tunisia as a peaceful and safe Mediterranean destination has been completely tarnished during the last week. The Tunisian revolution has been followed closely by media in all of the country's main markets.

With the state of emergency declared in all of Tunisia, and with the unclear political situation after the fall of President Ben Ali, governments from Spain in the south, via Switzerland, Germany and the UK, to Norway in the north have issued travel warnings for Tunisia.

Typically, these travel warnings state that "unnecessary" travels to Tunisia should be avoided. "Unnecessary" travels of course include tourist trips.

In most countries that are Tunisia's main markets, this has great implications. It means travellers can, without extra costs, cancel their trips. Further, it often means charter companies must cancel their trips. In many occasions, it even means travel insurances lose their value, further limiting travellers' ability to visit the country.

In the case of Tunisia, the development has been even more dramatic for the travel industry. Borders, including the Tunisian air space, were closed this afternoon, preventing tourists from entering or leaving the popular destination.

Reports from Tunisia indicate most foreigners on holiday in the country are reacting with relative calm to the ongoing political turmoil. Although the death of a Swiss-Tunisian woman-- who was shot as she watched the protesters clashing with police from her second floor balcony-- has led to an unease among many travellers.

The unsafe situation has prompted several tour operators to consider an evacuation of charter tourists. British operator Thomas Cook has already started repatriating 1,800 holidaymakers, the company stated today. Six extraordinary flights have been ordered to organise the evacuation, although the closure of Tunisian air space may complicate the operation.

Also some German and Belgian tour operators have made arrangements to evacuate their holidaymakers. The move followed a call by the German Foreign Ministry saying tourists in Tunisia could demand an earlier return given the dangerous situation.

Meanwhile, one cancellation after the other is ticking in, with tour operators and ordinary airlines cancelling most planned trips to Tunisia for the weeks to come. Even cruise ships have started announcing cancellations of stop-overs in Tunis.

While the Tunisian economy is very diversified and the tourism sector only contributes with around 7 percent of the country's GDP, the sector is among the largest employers in the country and gathers for a large number of small and medium-sized companies. Tunisia's tourism sector is estimated to provide some 350,00o jobs, representing some 12 percent of the country's entire workforce.

A longer downturn in the tourism sector due to continued turmoil therefore would deepen the social problems related to a high unemployment rate in the country. These social problems were the direct cause of the protests starting in December, which led to the political riots that finally led to the fall of President Ben Ali today.

Tunisia, along with other North African countries, has experienced impressive growth rates in its tourism sector during the last decade, even during the financial crisis. The sector was among the most promising to further reduce unemployment in the country, with many new resorts being planned along the country's Mediterranean coast.

On the other hand, the weeklong successful-- and relatively peaceful-- referendum, which is resulting in independence for southern Sudan, offers intrepid travelers a new destination that few have seen. The oft-repeated thing about tourism in Sudan: it's hard to get in, but if you manage to, you can visit some awesome tourist attractions without ever seeing another tourist. All through Sudan the people are reputed to be among the friendliest and most hospitable on earth. Travelers are still a novelty for the people there, so they are really as excited to experience you as you are to experience them. On the other hand, you can't use American credit cards there and in the South there are malaria, deadly "drinking" water and poisonous spiders and snakes to worry about.

But you can fly into Juba, the capital of the world's newest country, directly from Nairobi, Cairo, Entebbe and Addis Ababa as well as Khartoum. Juba is small enough to walk all through in a day. Trip Advisor readers recommend 3 hotels and 3 restaurants, but Juba is going to be a boomtown really fast now, and things are going to get crazy for the next year. Remember, southern Sudan-- like Mauritania-- was predominantly a source of dark-skinned slaves for lighter-skinned Arabs. There's a lot of change that will be happening in the new nation now.

A tribal chief preferred not to ponder the meticulous nature of turning aspirations into a nation: "Look at those happy men over there," said Yout Manyual. "They have been here for three days and every night they dance with drums until morning. This is our right until all the votes are counted. We know then that development will come and children will be taken to school."

Beyond the roadside money-changers and the old army trucks half buried in the dirt, Dr. Hassan Awule made rounds at the unfinished Morobo Clinic he started during the war. He said life would improve in coming years but worried that corruption and tribalism-- the spoilers of many African nations-- might jeopardize a new country. As a lizard scurried up a wall, he opened the door to what he hopes one day will be an operating room.

"We began with just a pharmacy," he said. "Then we added one bed, then two, then three, and now we have 40 beds. They are not enough. We are treating malaria, typhoid, HIV, intestinal worms and infection. Many families can't afford care so we give them credit. You can't turn them away."

Children lay curled next to mothers, two women cut squares from a roll of gauze, and thin men slept on beds in tiny rooms and hallways. The dry season has left the clinic's well nearly empty and Awule pays money he barely has for water trucked in from the river. A genial man with a shaved head and a mercurial demeanor, the doctor said that one day he would open a pediatrics unit and a morgue.

"We had slavery," he said as a stray cow grazed outside his fence, "and now it's time for liberation."

The word "slavery" echoes in the south, seared into the public consciousness, an heirloom that makes independence sweet, if undefined. Southern Sudanese are more eloquent in explaining past persecutions and wars wrought by the Arab-controlled north than they are at rhapsodizing about the future. They know only that it's out there, and should soon belong to them.

Don't forget your Bradt Guide. Meanwhile, the situation in Tunisia today is tense and there have been gun battles in Tunis. Ben Ali's head of security, Ali Seriati has been accused of fomenting violence and taken into custody while a power vacuum ads to a sense of anarchy.