[governance] From Free Tunisia

Thu Jan 20 19:29:41 EST 2011

I'm not sure if this relevent but I've been moved to put some thoughts
down...

http://gurstein.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/tunisia-they-have-the-tools-now-wha
t-do-they-do-with-them-thinking-about-what-happens-next/

M

-----Original Message-----
From: governance-request at lists.cpsr.org
[mailto:governance-request at lists.cpsr.org] On Behalf Of Ginger Paque
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2011 5:00 AM
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org; Khaled KOUBAA
Subject: Re: [governance] From Free Tunisia

Thanks for this post! It is very interesting, particularly in juxtaposition
to Evgeny Morozov's posts. See
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/12/st_essay_totalitarians/?utm_source=fee
dburner
<http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/12/st_essay_totalitarians/?utm_source=fe
edburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Inde
x+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher>
&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28T
op+Stories+2%29%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

First paragraph:
The Internet advances the cause of freedom more effectively than ballistic
missiles and Hellfire-equipped
<http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Predator-surveillance-drone-equipped-Hellfire
-missiles-US-missiles-have-killed/photo//101122/photos_wl_pc_afp/c90fce2dbd8
26f3ea6145570029d0a02//s:/afp/20101122/wl_asia_afp/pakistanunrestusmissile>
drones; at least that's the conventional wisdom among US diplomats and
policymakers. "Information freedom supports the peace and security that
provide a foundation for global progress" is how Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton put it in a speech last January, her first on democracy and the
Internet. George W. Bush's "freedom agenda" is out; the Twitter agenda is
in. Unfortunately, this kind of technological romanticism relies on false
historical analogies and sloppy thinking. Modern communications technologies
are already being deployed as new forms of repression.

Best, Ginger

On 1/20/2011 8:18 AM, Khaled KOUBAA 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 
____________________________________________________________ 
You received this message as a subscriber on the list: 
    governance at lists.cpsr.org 
To be removed from the list, visit: 
    http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing 

For all other list information and functions, see: 
    http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance 
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see: 
    http://www.igcaucus.org/ 

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t 

-- 

Ginger (Virginia) Paque
IGCBP Online Coordinator
DiploFoundation
www.diplomacy.edu/ig 

The latest from Diplo...
http://igbook.diplomacy.edu  <http://igbook.diplomacy.edu/> is the online
companion to An Introduction to Internet Governance, Diplo's publication on
IG. Download the book, read the blogs and post your comments. 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.igcaucus.org/pipermail/governance/attachments/20110120/603a81a2/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t