Had there been no Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Al Jazeera, what happened in Tunis would have remained in Tunis
For the millions of young people watching Al Jazeera last Friday, or those glued to their laptops, history was being lived, made, and appreciated, not only in Tunisia, but throughout the Arab and Muslim world. Many immediately changed their Facebook profile picture, replacing it with the flag of Tunisia. Others typed in the status "Viva Tunis".
The show reached its climax when an exhausted and defeated Zine Al Abidine Bin Ali was finally given permit to land in Jeddah where reportedly he will temporarily stay at the same villa given to Ugandan president Idi Ameen, who was also toppled when Uganda collapsed, back in 1979.
Ameen — a brutal dictator by all accounts — never returned to the country he had held with an iron grip since 1971. Like Ameen, Bin Ali's term was marked with corruption, unemployment, and human rights abuses.
Ameen died 24 years after leaving office, dreaming of a comeback to power in Uganda. Like Ameen, Bin Ali probably currently has one thing on his mind: returning to the Presidential Palace in Tunis and taking revenge.
Ameen — a brutal dictator by all accounts — never returned to the country he had held with an iron grip since 1971. Like Ameen, Bin Ali's term was marked with corruption, unemployment, and human rights abuses.
Ameen died 24 years after leaving office, dreaming of a comeback to power in Uganda. Like Ameen, Bin Ali probably currently has one thing on his mind: returning to the Presidential Palace in Tunis and taking revenge.
The generation of overnight Tunisia-fans in the Arab world is a phenomenon worth observing. These young people, mostly aged below 25, know little to nothing about Bin Ali. He was never in the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict and generally, non-Tunisians were neutral about him simply because they knew very little about the man who had ruled Tunisia since 1987. He was never a Jamal Abdul Nasser or Anwar Sadat, certainly no Yasser Arafat or Saddam Hussain. These young Arabs, born and raised during the Bin Ali era, were nevertheless able to put a name and face, to an Arab head of state.
They grew up with a fairly straightforward fact: Saddam Hussain was Mr Iraq, Yasser Arafat was Mr Palestine, — and Zine Al Abidine Bin Ali was Mr Tunisia. The sudden interest in Bin Ali and Tunisia actually has very little to do with Bin Ali and Tunisia.
Many Arabs were inspired that perhaps someday, somehow, they would get rid of their aged and ailing presidents, in similar fashion — through the street, and not through US assistance, as the case of Iraq in 2003.
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