It 's been a month after the escape of Ben Ali and the conquest of Carthage. Almost from the beginning of two lift, which broke out in the remote (and hitherto unknown) of the interior regions, while the transition to democracy struggles to take its first steps. Back where it all started ...
The long tongue of asphalt that cuts in half a lunar landscape, flat and arid, it stops just before entering the city. The road disappears into a path littered with potholes and stones, which jolts the car for a couple of miles into the heart of the village. "Raise your head, you're in Sidi Bouzid", is written next to the monument at the center of the square on November 7, renamed by the people "square Mohamed Bouaziz. The photograph of the martyr covers the shapeless sculpture, erected to celebrate from the past regime's rise to power of Ben Ali. Ousted the dictator, new heroes rise to the memory of the revolutionary Tunisia. First of all the young peddler di ventisei anni che il 17 dicembre scorso si è dato fuoco di fronte alla sede del governatore regionale, a pochi passi dalla piazza. Al gesto di Mohamed Bouazizi è seguito qualche giorno dopo il suicidio di Neji Felhi, gettatosi sui cavi dell’alta tensione al grido “basta miseria e disoccupazione”. Due episodi che hanno sollevato il coperchio di un sistema corrotto e repressivo. Due episodi che hanno infiammato Sidi Bouzid e i villaggi circostanti, scatenando la rivolta di una popolazione marginalizzata, consumata dalla hogra e stanca degli abusi delle autorità.
“Siamo tristi e allo stesso tempo fieri”
La casa di Mohamed Bouazizi è nascosta tra i vicoli sterrati della Cité Ennour-ouest. Minuscole baracche in argilla, appiccicate l’una all’altra, si susseguono anonime nel quartiere popolare, labirinto fangoso alla periferia occidentale della città. Dietro alla piccola porta di metallo, la famiglia Bouazizi è raccolta attorno al dolore della madre Manoubia. La donna giace distesa su un materasso appoggiato per terra. Rannicchiata, il volto è quasi nascosto sotto la spessa coperta di lana. Si intravedono appena gli occhi, di un azzurro pallido, e una mano che strige debolmente un sebha (una sorta di rosario) di legno. “E’ molto malata, dalla morte di mio fratello non è more out of the house, "says Basmah, fifteen years. In addition to her, living in badly lit, and there are Leila Samia, younger sister of Mohamed, and the small Zyad, eight years. Samia has black hair under the hijab, which stands east of cutting his eyes and beautiful facial features, nicked in the right cheek by a deep scar. And 'her to speak: "we live a state of emotional confusion. We are sad and proud at the same time. My brother is gone, but his act has changed the destiny of our country. " The death of the young peddler seems to have left a huge void in the family Bouaziz. "He was cheerful and polite. In cities all loved him, " Samia continues, nineteen, the last year of high school where he is following a course in Italian. "In class he was brilliant, he spoke French well, but finished high school he decided to quit school to help us. We buy food and pay the school, worried about our education. It was he who taught us to read to children. " With his work in the best day, Mohamed could earn from fifteen to twenty dinars (€ 8:00 to 10:00). Bought vegetables at dawn and then resold on the street with his cart. "He had presented many job applications in government and in public, never get a response. So he started working on the market. "
Il 17 dicembre scorso Mohamed Bouazizi si è visto sequestrare la merce e la bilancia da tre agenti della polizia municipale. Tra loro una donna, Fayda Hamdi, che lo ha insultato e schiaffeggiato, prima che i suoi colleghi finissero il lavoro a suon di botte. “Quella della licenza era solo una scusa. Quasi nessuno ce l’ha. Volevano estorcergli denaro”, tiene a precisare Samia. Per riavere la merce e la bilancia Mohamed avrebbe dovuto pagare trenta dinari, il guadagno di due giorni. Era questa la mazzetta corrente con cui i poliziotti arrotondavano lo stipendio nella Tunisia del “miracolo economico”, tanto osannata da Ben Ali e dai suoi sostenitori occidentali. Mohamed did not yield to blackmail. He protested, tried to recover the goods, then called the hearing to the Governor, in vain. Driven by despair and shame over the insult suffered, he poured gasoline and set himself on fire.
Bouaziz Mohamed died in a hospital in Tunis on January 3, after seventeen days of agony, because of the severe burns all over his body. At that moment the uprising triggered by his gesture in Sidi Bouzid had already infected the entire country was turning into revolution. Mohamed they have now become the symbol of a new martyr Tunisia is trying to close the accounts with the mafia and the old authoritarian regime. "I do not parlava mai di politica, non era un militante, ma amava la libertà e credeva nel rispetto”, ricorda la sorella Leila, ventiquattro anni e una laurea ottenuta da pochi mesi all’università di Monastir. “Appena la mamma si sentirà meglio partirò per la capitale in cerca di lavoro. Qui non c’è posto per me. Rimarrei ad ingrossare le fila dei disoccupati, come ha fatto a lungo mio fratello”. Sviluppo a due velocità
Sidi Bouzid, cittadina di cinquantamila abitanti situata 265 km a sud di Tunisi, è da sempre terra di emigranti. Le misere condizioni di vita e le scarse prospettive di impiego hanno spinto migliaia di giovani a cercare fortuna altrove, in Europa quando era possibile, nelle città della costa o perfino nella vicina Algeria. Negli ultimi anni la disoccupazione ha raggiunto livelli insostenibili, ben lontani dalle cifre ufficiali riconosciute dagli organismi internazionali. “La media nazionale si aggira attorno al 14%, ma qui da noi il tasso di disoccupazione è almeno il doppio. Se prendiamo in considerazione solo la fascia dei laureati, supera abbondantemente il 60%”, afferma l’avvocato Allem Hachi, che prosegue la sua analisi sorseggiando una tazza di café au lait ormai decisamente fredda: “le generazioni più giovani sono tutte ampiamente scolarizzate. Oltre ai licei, recentemente, sono state aperte due facoltà: Agraria e Conservazione cultural heritage. But the decentralization of universities was not accompanied by the redistribution of capital and investment projects. "
The development model has condemned the Tunisian city of the Interior to a state of economic and social exclusion. The coastal towns and ports in the Sahel (Hammamet, Sousse, Sfax), which combines tourism and commercial activities alone account for 90% of national investment. The country seems to move at two speeds, in the complete absence of a smoothing of earnings. A Sidi Bouzid, Kasserine and Thala as nearby, we survive on agriculture and livestock, without a subsistence economy of the industrial and tertiary sectors. "The main resource is oil, olive oil, but no real processing plants. We still need a small artisanal oil mills, "said a farmer in his fifties named Mounir, owner of an old mill out of town. The three weavers present in Sidi Bouzid, employing several hundred girls, but the gains remain modest. "At the end of the month, the workers receive one hundred and fifty dinars (about eighty euro), while the interns difficult to arrive at percent. The lucky ones are the employees of Shtaif, a German factory of stuffed toys. They are recognized at least the minimum wage (two hundred and twenty dinars), "the lawyer said with obvious irony Hachi. For all graduate and undergraduate, is the dream of recruitment in public offices citizens, a vain hope, since those places were allocated on the basis of patronage for decades under the constant supervision of local authorities. According to 2009 statistics provided by the employment office, job applications submitted on 3899 3864 went unanswered. Outside the Café
Libya, in the dirt path as it moves towards the center of the country, a lot of bottles was stored along the edge of the roadway. The label is the brand name Celts, the former property of the beer family Trabelsi of Tunisia. If in Sidi Bouzid factories are scarce, not same can be said of the bar licensed to serve alcohol. "There are at least four, not counting the black market, a merger surprising for a remote town in transition," says allem Hachi. The city, in fact, is barely touched by the busloads of tourists in transit to the Roman ruins of Sbeitla and palm groves of Tozeur. The two hotels, except for the invasion of journalists in recent weeks, are perpetually empty. Hachi for the lawyer, the exceptional distribution of alcoholic beverages is another symptom of the malaise suffered in the region, as well as an attempt to numb the anger and the frustration of youths. Attempt failed, as Recent events have shown.
Demonstrations continue
In the former place on November 7, next to the sculpture which dominates the photo of Mohamed Bouaziz, was mounted a small tent. The sign hung at the entrance says "Popular Resistance Committees. One of those present, the Tunisian flag tied on the shoulder, said: "We are here since 14 January, it's time to stop the protest. There is still much to do and every day we go down to the streets to remind the parties and the new government will not be able to steal our revolution. " A Sidi Bouzid
the demonstrations continue. Around noon on the main road which crosses the city from north to south, nearly five thousand people gathered. Turn down the shutters of shops, closed the doors of cafes and restaurants. The soldiers observed the human tide that floods the streets of downtown without mentioning the slightest reaction. "Today there is a lot more people than on other days because the union has called for a strike," comes close spontaneously Ahmed, a schoolteacher in writing to the Union's regional workers. Hard to believe, since the working class in the country is virtually absent and the teachers are the only part of a union that had bowed his head too much during the regime of Ben Ali.
Sciopero o no, la manifestazione ha tutta l’aria della protesta spontanea, proprio come le rivolte di fine dicembre. Dietro agli striscioni non ci sono solo ragazzi, ma anche donne e bambini, intere famiglie. Perfino i “barbuti” sfilano accanto alle magliette del “Che” per chiedere la dissoluzione dell’RCD (il partito-stato dell’ex presidente), la partenza del primo ministro Ghannouchi e l’epurazione dall’amministrazione locale di tutti quadri compromessi con il vecchio sistema, in primis il governatore. Un uomo sulla trentina brandisce un foglio su cui ha scritto a penna un elenco dei corrotti: “il primo della lista ha fatto assumere le sue due figlie in una scuola senza che avessero il certificato di abilitazione all’insegnamento!”. La città non si fida delle promesse fatte dal governo di transizione. Con l’avanzare del corteo si moltiplicano le rivendicazioni. “Hanno annunciato un nuovo piano di investimenti per la nostra regione. Io ho portato mio padre all’ospedale qualche giorno fa e l’ho dovuto lasciare su un letto sporco e senza coperte”, ricorda Selim, venticinque anni e un fazzoletto rosso legato al braccio.
La marea transita di fronte alla sede locale dell’RCD. Due soldati e un rotolo di filo spinato ne impediscono l’accesso. Un manifestante chiarisce: “è the only building in town that was stormed during the days of lifting. " The courtyard is deserted and the signs of devastation are still evident. A little further on, reached the governor's palace, the march will stop and a picture of Mohamed Bouaziz is hoisted on the gate barred. E 'at this point the young man who sacrificed himself shahid, setting fire to a fuse that is still inflaming the Arab world from Algeria to Yemen. Someone says: "It is a disgrace, the authorities do not want it to grant compensation to the family. They did not even a phone call. In addition, the policewoman who humiliated him, slapping him and insulting the memory of his father, was neither charged nor tried. They just moved. " After a minute of silence that has silenced the entire Sidi Bouzid, the procession starts slowly with the choirs and Youyou women. The crowd of colorful posters and banners is poured back into the tree-lined street, unconsciously touching a bus stop called Al Hurra, "Freedom." The most beautiful image in this return to the origins of the revolution ...
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