NYT: "This ancient Mediterranean hamlet, advertised as the Tunisian Saint Tropez, has long been the favorite summer getaway of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his large extended family, many of whom have built vast beachfront mansions here with the wealth they have amassed during his years in power.
But their new and conspicuous riches, partly exposed in a detailed cable by the American ambassador and made public by Wikileaks, have fueled an extraordinary extended uprising by Tunisians who blame corruption among the elite for the joblessness afflicting their country. And on Thursday idyllic Hammamet became the latest casualty of that rage, as hundreds of protesters swarmed the streets, police fled and rioters gleefully ransacked the mansion of a presidential relative, liberating a horse from its stable and setting aflame a pair of all-terrain vehicles.
That outburst was just a chapter in the deadly violence that flared around the country and in Tunis again on Thursday, making the government appear increasingly shaky. The mounting protests threaten not only to overturn a close United States ally in the fight against terrorism but also to pull back the veneer of tranquil stability that draws legions of Western tourists to Tunisia’s coastal resorts."
5 comments :
Mojo finally catches on
Catches on to what? What the 3arab jarab in Canada want to read?
The Angry Arab has the 3arab jarab covered: "The Tunisian dictator received crucial training in the US: Senior Intelligence School (Maryland, USA) and the School for Anti-Aircraft Field Artillery (Texas, USA). It did not do him much good at the end, I guess."
Do you know how to pronounce the letter Ayn ?
Some say you don't know arabic, because you were transplanted at an early age.
I was transplanted at the age of 6 years, but we went back to Iraq when I was 11 and we lived in Baghdad for two years. I still speak Arabic in the Iraqi dialect.
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