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Generational Dynamics World View
*** 12-Jan-18 World View -- Tunisia anti-austerity activists call for huge protests on Friday

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
  • Tunisia anti-austerity activists call for huge protests on Friday
  • Tunisia protests evoke memories of the 2011 'Arab Spring'

****
**** Tunisia anti-austerity activists call for huge protests on Friday
****


[Image: g180111b.jpg]
A female protester cowers in front of the police in Tunis on Tuesday (AFP)

Tunisia police have arrested over 600 people since Sunday, when
widespread peaceful anti-austerity protests began to turn violent.
Protesters in 20 cities, including the capital city Tunis, have
attacked police stations and government buildings and set tires on
fire in the streets. Over 50 police officers were wounded.

Anti-austerity activists are calling for large new protesters
across the country today, after Friday prayers.
The protests were triggered by new austerity laws that came
into effect at the beginning of this year.

Tunisia has been pursuing a strategy of economy reform geared towards
cutting government expenditure and devaluing its currency. The
protests were triggered by the 2018 Finance Act that came into effect
on January first, with the goal of reducing the budget deficit. It
raised value-added tax (VAT) on cars, alcohol, phone calls, the
internet, hotel accommodation and other items,

The austerity measures were put into place based on requirements by
the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In 2016, the IMF gave a
four-year $2.8 billion loan to Tunisia, but payments are tied to the
Tunisian government carrying out economic and social reforms.

After a review of Tunisia's economy in October of last year, the IMF
statement said:

<QUOTE>"IMF staff and the economic team of the new government
agreed that front and center of all reform efforts is the need to
create jobs and contain debt. Better managing the public-sector
wage bill, which is among the highest in the world and absorbs
half of total expenditure, will be indispensable. ...

Specifically, the budget bill would focus on reducing the deficit
through comprehensive tax reform and rationalizing inefficient
expenditure. It would also dedicate more resources in support of
SMEs. Executed within an adequate framework, investments through
public-private partnerships (PPP) could improve the quality of
infrastructure and help free up resources for other high priority
spending on health and education.

Ensuring the sustainability of the social security system,
improving governance and oversight of loss-making public
enterprises, and modernizing the civil service remain critical
structural reforms to reduce fiscal risks and make the overall
economy more competitive."<END QUOTE>


So prices have been rising significantly since January 1, but salaries
have been frozen.

Tunisia's unemployment rate is high, with the result that more than
60% of working men and 83% of working women are part of the country's
growing informal economy. AFP and Express (London) and International Monetary Fund (6-Oct-2017) and Middle East Eye

****
**** Tunisia protests evoke memories of the 2011 'Arab Spring'
****


The so-called Arab Spring was triggered a Tunisian food vendor,
resulting in protests about food prices that seem remarkably similar
to those occurring today.

By January 2011, there were massive protests and gun battles in
Tunisia, forcing the president to flee the country. The protests
spread to Egypt, resulting in the resignation of long-time dictator
Hosni Mubarak.

The protests also spread next door to Libya. By February, the
bloodbath in Libya spread from Benghazi and Tobruk in the east to
Tripoli in the west. Dictator Muammar Gaddafi threatened to shoot to
kill protesters, and said he'll crush any enemy. This caused a
massive refugee crisis in Libya, with hundreds of thousands of
refugees pouring into neighboring countries. It's this huge
destabilizing refugee crisis in Libya, along with the threat of a
flood of refugees crossing the Mediterranean to Europe, that led the
Arab League to demand that the West implement a no-fly zone, and
approval by the UN Security Council. The no-fly zone eventually led
to the war in Libya, and the death of Muammar Gaddafi.

There was also a refugee crisis in Tunisia, sending thousands of
Tunisians across the Mediterranean Sea to Italy.

In the end, Tunisia's president Zine el Abedine Ben Ali stepped down
gracefully, and left behind a secular government. Tunisia is
considered by many to be the only country that weathered the Arab
Spring in a successful manner, emerging as a secular democracy.

However, the last six years have not been kind to Tunisia.
The worst occurred in 2015, when there was a major terrorist
attack at a museum in Tunis in March.

But this was followed by an even more horrific attack in June, when a
gunman disguised as a tourist opened fire at a Tunisian hotel in the
beach resort Sousse, killing 37 people. He arrived at the beach in a
boat, and hid his weapons in an umbrella. He removed the weapon, a
Kalashnikov assault rifle, from the umbrella and strolled through the
hotel grounds, opening fire at the pool and beach, reloading his
weapon several times and tossing an explosive.

This has been devastating to Tunisia's tourist industry, which
accounts for 15% of its GDP and most of its foreign currency revenues.

Now the new round of violent street protests are raising fears that
the country is becoming unstable. Tunisia escaped the worst of what
happened to other Arab countries after the Arab Spring, but it may
turn out that the worst was simply postponed. Euro News and Foreign Policy (3-Jan-2011) and CNN

Related Articles


KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Tunisia, Tunis, International Monetary Fund, IMF,
Arab Spring, Zine el Abedine Ben Ali, Sousse,
Libya, Muammar Gaddafi, Egypt, Italy

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12-Jan-18 World View -- Tunisia anti-austerity activists call for huge protests on Fr - by John J. Xenakis - 01-11-2018, 11:08 PM
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