Whither the Revolution?
Tunisia’s revolution inspired the world. Now its troubles reflect the world’s turmoil
Nearly three years ago the Tunisians filled the streets, shouting “Dégage!” (Get Out!) as one. In a few weeks, they threw their autocratic dictator out of power and out of the country.
From here in Tunis the fire that lit up in this little Mediterranean country has burned through the world, inspiring governments to be overthrown, protests and reform movements of one stripe or the other over the majority of the planet. Nothing has been restful since. But eyes have turned away from the little country that started it. In the mean time, Tunisia has tried to reinvent itself.
Elections ended up putting the previously marginalized Ennahda Movement into power, Tunisia’s relatively mild Islamist party. Now, Ennahda is stepping down to end a political crisis marked by assassinations of the opposition and ever-rising unemployment, to await new elections.
A year ago I visited the clock tower at the heart of Tunis and took pictures of it. Returning today, the place I stood is barricaded and covered in razor wire.
What started as everyone’s revolution has become no-one’s country. There are many reasons for this, some discoverable, many beyond the scope of a monolingual American reporter in Tunis. One is always trapped, as an English speaker traveling to try and understand the world, in the viewpoints and agendas of those around the world who, for one reason or another, speak English.
But one thing Tunisia is telling the world is this: in the vast interconnecting forces shaping our lives and driving the planet down this present course come hell or high water, your average autocratic dictator may not have nearly as much say of your country as you thought.
Right now, Tunisians are struggling under a national debt incurred by a corrupt regime — but one that didn’t run the country that much worse than various democracies have around the world, from an economic point of view. This may not so much say good things about Ben Ali as bad things about modern democracies.They’re trying to figure out how women fit into society, how the secular and the Islamic live together. The Tunisian government is jailing protesters for speaking out, and surveilling the internet. It’s struggling with loan requirements from international lenders and regional political problems that spill over into people’s lives.
This city is a very old place, new again in this strange age.
Tunisia seems small and obscure from much of the world, but it was not always so. Over 2500 years ago, this place had its turn at ascendancy as the Carthaginian Empire, which ringed much of the Mediterranean Sea. The Carthaginians were some of history’s great badasses, too. It was a Carthaginian general named Hannibal who marched elephants over the Alps into Rome from the north. They won the battle, but lost the Punic wars largely due to Roman sea power. In the end, when Rome decided to sack Carthage, it was one of history’s more brutal sieges. The Romans leveled every building and killed nearly a half million people. What scant remains of Carthage is a a few pillars and wall fragments in a rich suburb north of Tunis.
According the historian Polybius, the ravaging of Carthage was so terrible even Scipio, the general who commanded it, wept.
At the sight of the city utterly perishing amidst the flames Scipio burst into tears, and stood long reflecting on the inevitable change which awaits cities, nations, and dynasties, one and all, as it does every one of us men…
Another still more remarkable saying of his I may record… [When he had given the order for firing the town] he immediately turned round and grasped me by the hand and said: “O Polybius, it is a grand thing, but, I know not how, I feel a terror and dread, lest some one should one day give the same order about my own native city.” …Any observation more practical or sensible it is not easy to make. For in the midst of supreme success for one’s self and of disaster for the enemy, to take thought of one’s own position and of the possible reverse which may come, and in a word to keep well in mind in the midst of prosperity the mutability of Fortune…
2200 years later, life goes on along the edge of the sea. It goes on in sweet mint tea, and the crowded and colorful souk, with the future always ominous and the past always tragic. But right now the night air is warm and soft and smells of jasmine, and the hum of traffic is broken by the sound of cutlery clattering and women laughing. Tomorrow morning I will be awakened at 5am by the singing of the call to prayer.
More soon.
This article has been corrected. It previously read the the Tunisian government is filtering the internet, which was incorrect. It has been updated to say the Tunisian government is surveilling the internet, which is unsurprising.
