Tunisia and Algeria are no Exception Mohammad El-Ashab Al-Hayat, 13-01-11 Because they had been considered unlikely, in light of the tightened grip of control, the events in Tunisia have attracted concern. And perhaps what has added to drawing the spotlight towards them is the fact that the infection has spread to neighboring Algeria. Indeed, there is a prevalent belief that when flames erupt, the winds direct them. And indeed Algerian torpor was moved by nothing more than seeing the anger of the Tunisian street, which has exceeded all boundaries. The situation is quite different between Algeria and Tunisia. Indeed, the enticing oil revenues of the country of a million martyrs cannot be equaled by all the touristic revenues in Tunisia in past and future decades. This is aside from the fact that the political experiences of the two neighboring countries have been quite different in their nature and in their impact. Nevertheless, the two meet at the crossroads of fears from the vacuum that might be caused by the absence of political leaders. In addition to this, the differences between the center and the periphery in terms of benefiting from the fruits of imbalanced growth have become increasingly aggravated, and have exposed many facades that were hiding much dust under the carpet. These events are not the first of their kind, as the decades following the independence of the two countries have never been devoid of weariness, anger and expressions of a real tendency calling for change. Perhaps the least that can be said about such alienation is that what has been happening in the street has remained far from those who would hear it, especially among young people, who represent both countries' promising forces, and whose aspirations find nearly no place in the sun. This is because the change that has taken place at the level of the demographic makeup of two countries has imposed itself as a matter of fact, yet without finding a vital outlet in political decision-making and in the protective measures that precede mounting tension and breakdown. Tunisia and Algeria are no exception. Indeed, the changes that took place in the bases of the ideological structure after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc require efforts to contain the fact that no place on earth was left unaffected by the repercussions, and that the collapse of regimes and fortresses would not be an unlikely result of these storms that have shaken the world. Moreover, the unipolar global system in turn was not left unaffected by economic and financial crises, the effects of which are ongoing in Western countries and their extended economic and commercial relations. Perhaps the mistake made by some countries was imagining that this would only happen to others, and not paying heed to the technological revolutions that have brought worlds closer together, conveying with them crises, difficulties and tensions. Strangest in how some crises are dealt with is the fact that they are viewed as falling outside the framework of the movement of society. Indeed, it is not sufficient for protest to fall within the category of social demands to be reassured to the fact that it is not due to political concerns. In fact, political choices lead to negative repercussions that have economic and social aspects, as they exclude the inductive viewpoint that ties consequences to their direct and indirect causes, and whether political party leaders join the movement of direct confrontations does not negate the political aspect of any crisis of this kind. The threats of a security-related nature that have long been and continue to be present in North Africa have not decreased. Most likely some formulas for security measures to confront the threats of terrorism and extremism have taken up a large part of concern. Moreover, Western countries, and in particular European Union countries connected in various partnerships to Arab Maghreb countries, seem most likely to assimilate such threats, on the one hand because they are the unnamed destination of illegal immigration that seeks safe havens in European countries North of the Mediterranean, and on the other because focusing on the concern of security challenges drives them to overlook practices that disagree with commitments to respect human rights. However, those threats that are being given priority do not negate the presence of other threats, threats that reside in popular anger, social unrest and the dangerous spread of phenomena of frustration, depression and grievance. And what the governments of the countries concerned with those plagues that lie within the folds of the bigger picture have failed to pay heed to is the fact that poverty, unemployment, growing corruption, as well as the absence of popular oversight and of good governance are all tantamount to bombs that could blow up like suicide-bombers, car bombings and desperate adventures. The aspects and manifestations of unbridled crises are interconnected. And just as the security approach failed to ward off the phenomenon of terrorism, which is growing in the shadows, it cannot represent a weapon for confronting the eruption of political, economic, social and cultural crises. Indeed, the time has come for placing these challenges under the broad banner of the democratic formula, which guarantees participation in decision-making, as it derives from the preoccupations of the new generations that stand before a dead-end.
