[governance] From Free Tunisia

[Charity Gamboa]

Hi Khaled,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this. When I was a kid, I have
experienced the terror brought about by a dictator toppled by the will and
power of its people. I have been in 3 revolutions in my lifetime in the
Philippines and I would always tell my students here in the US how important
freedom is until you do not have it anymore. During those times, we did not
have the Internet to help us with our fight against social injustice. I
wonder sometimes what it would have been like if the Internet was around and
we were able to speak freely without being condemned. People in other
provinces were not even aware of what was going on in Manila because TV
shows were censored. We had no medium to speak but Filipinos were able to go
out in the streets and prove that freedom cannot be suppressed even by
violent means. That was 25 years ago. But more than 300 years of Spanish
colonialization and Spanish oppression, the Philippines learned, too, that "
*the pen is mightier than the sword*" - or perhaps, if another dictator
comes along, we can say that the "Internet is mightier than an uzi." On the
other hand, people in their ivory towers also get "smarter" each day and I
am very much aware that they will also use the Internet to suppress the very
freedom we fought for.

Regards,
Charity


On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 6:48 AM, Khaled KOUBAA <khaled.koubaa at gmail.com>wrote:

> All,
> For those who don't know Tunisia : Tunisia is a Small country, great
> nation. First Arab country that abolished slavery in 1848. First Arab
> country to establish a constitution in 1861. First Arab country to abolish
> polygamy in 1956. First Arab country to legalize abortion in 1973. Tunisia
> is the first Arab country to kick out its dictator and this without the help
> of any foreign nation!
> Today Tunisia has reached a critical and important point in its history
> after succeeding in its revolution. President Ben Ali has left the country,
> and government has collapsed leaving the country in an unpredictable
> situation.
> A new “Coalition Government” has been announced bringing old dissidents and
> Human Rights activists in team with a main focus of preparing a democratic
> transition.
> Friday January 14th 2011, ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeLT2PEmnDI ) I
> have been inside the huge protestants in front of the ministry of Interior
> and I witnessed brave people asking clearly their dictator to leave.
> Since then Tunisian retrieved their freedom lost many years and began
> interesting politics.
> Young people went on the street asking for more n and more social change
> without being politically coached.
> I have witnessed, and have been part, of the strength of the "real"
> Tunisian Internet community to use Internet and Web 2.0 ( Blogs, Video,
> Facebook, Twitter, … ) to support the revolution and everyday’s riots
> showing to the world what’s happening due to a lack of official local media
> coverage.
> My life has been different during these days : my house is in a hot spot;
> near El Aouina Army Casern and just between the Airport and the US Embassy.
> So I took my wife to her father house, and I stayed alone during 5 days.
> Everything was different each day; night riots with fire shooting between
> protestants and police during the first 2 days , near helicopter
> surveillance between army and snipers belonging to Ben Ali Presidential
> militia during the last 3days.
> I have never felt the importance of the security before that. It was the
> same feeling that had the Tunisian people which led them to go out and
> organize “Population committees” in each city to protect each city from Ben
> Ali militia.
> Tunisian Internet community is free today and will show to the world what
> we are capable to accomplish.
>
> Vive Internet and thank you Vint and Internet pioneers to gave us this
> wonderful tool that helped our revolution.
>
> From the free Tunisia
>
> Khaled Koubaa
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