Thursday, January 13, 2011

Ceauşescu of Tunisia

I was watching the Tunisian dictator (beloved by Western governments) give his speech: he said that he would not seek another term in 2014.  I have never seen him--or seen an Arab dictator--as nervous and hesitant as he was.  He so much reminded me of Ceauşescu in his last days.  He resorted to that line often invoked by Jordanian dictator, Khusayn among others, that he did not know what was going on.  That his aides did not tell him what was going on and did not know that there was a dictatorship in the country.  Theater of the absurd.  The correspondent of the King Fahd's brother-in-law (Al-Arabiyya TV) must be in the employ of Bin Ali.  He commented on the speech: and said that the speech will change "a lot" and that he seemed so close to his people because he spoke in colloquial Tunisian and that he made historic decisions that are expected by the Tunisian people.  I heard from a Tunisian professor there: she said that there are shortages of food and there is nervousness and that most of the killing is committed by Bin Ali's militias which roam the streets (and wait on rooftops) and kill people.