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| Please, Lord, tell me there was Jimmy Buffett playing in the background. |
• Ben Ali's private photo galleries. Almost make him seem human. Almost. For the record, I'd have loved to have seen the one of him sipping umbrella drinks three stories tall plastered to a building.
• Also, according to @SultanAlQassemi, Ben Ali may have forgotten to pack a change of clothes when he left.
• Today was quieter than previous days. It was OK to get out and about, says one of our friends.
• Late reports claim Ben Ali's sister Naima died of a heart attack while attempting to slide into Algeria with her sons.
• Articles like this one from HuffPo keep repeated a phrase that just ticks me off; always a riff on "Wikileaks confirmed what many Tunisians suspected..." It's the most patriarchal, jack-assed thing you could think. Did any Tunisians really doubt what the Trabelsis were up to? Were they unaware that the best business contracts went to the family? Did they somehow not notice Leila's stomping of the lycee in order to build her Carthage Academy? They somehow missed the largesse flaunted in the seaside towns? You can stop giving Julian Assange credit for this revolution at any time - the only thing Wikileaks did was confirm among WESTERNERS what Tunisians had known for the past decade. That is all.
From traditional media
• A really wonderful article about the new-found media freedom from the FT. It eloquently puts together the vibe I've been getting from our media friends in Tunisia.
• AJE: Ghannouchi and Mebazza quit the RCD. Opposition members have quit the Cabinet until RCDistes are purged. Marzouki returned today.
• Warning signs - the Communists and the Islamist party are, as expected, looking to play a role. Here's the real test of democracy.
• Tunisie Actualite: Sakr el-Matri's old piggybank, Zitouna Bank, is being nationalized. Nevertheless, there's a run on the bank, and they're losing $1M in deposits a day.
• Also from TA: Is Big Ben planning on heading to the Great White North?! Let's be sure to get him the French lyrics to 'O, Canada.'
• VOA: Crowley's saying all the right things.
• NPR: 1st really good story I've heard about the Trabelsi gang in American media.
• Nice, succinct piece from Esquire about who should worry about the Tunisian situation. Thanks for the heads-up, Vince!
I do what I can.
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