Friends of Tunisia Newsletter
December 2005
(an affiliate of the National Peace Corps Association)
P.O. Box 25245
Washington, DC 20027
Tel. 202-526-0897
fotrpcv@yahoo.com

WORLD SYMPOSIUM OF THE INFORMATION SOCIETY: A LIMITED SUCCESS.

After two years of anticipation and preparation, the second meeting of the UN-sponsored World Symposium on the Information Society (WSIS) took place in Tunis on November 16-18. The first meeting was held in Geneva in December, 2003.

Approximately 16,000 participants attended, including several heads of state, UN Secretary-General Kofi Anan, representatives of non-governmental organizations, and business executives from over 50 countries. Although there wasn't much coverage in the American press, numerous reporters from the rest of the world covered the symposium, and approximately 300 exhibitors had booths at the main exhibit hall, which was located in the Tunis suburb of Le Kram. Among the exhibitors, Tunisia provided 46, France 36, Japan 14, Germany 13, US 8, UK 6, and Israel 4. The American exhibitors included Intel, Microsoft, USAID, and the Center for Women and Information Technology.

Three main issues were addressed at the symposium. First was the delicate question of internet governance, which had earlier pitted the US against the EU and other countries that called for UN control of the internet. Second was the "information divide" that exists between developed countries and the rest of the world. Third was another delicate question: free access to information and unfettered usage of the internet.

According to most observers, the symposium was only a partial success. On the first question, the US, which currently governs access to the internet through its control of internet addresses, agreed only to a worldwide forum on the future of the internet. Other countries object to this control. Why, ask China and other countries, should someone in China or Brazil have to appeal to the US for an address on the internet? In response, Americans point out that, while UN governance sounds appealing, this drive to wrest control from the Americans is being led by some of the world's most repressive states: Iran, Saudi Arabia, China, and Cuba. According to Arch Puddington, research director at Freedom House, this is "the same alliance of dictatorships [that] has already left the U.N. Human Rights Commission in shambles." Indeed, after the WSIS concluded, a Washington Post editorial claimed that the argument for reforming internet governance is "attractive in theory but dangerous in practice" and pointed out that "the striking feature of the U.S. oversight of the Internet is that abuses have not occurred." On the other hand, the Post argued, if the UN's International Telecommunication Union (ITU) took over, multilateral regulation would likely become "inefficiently political."

On the second question - the information divide - the star of the show was undoubtedly the introduction of a hundred-dollar, hand-cranked laptop computer (developed at MIT) that could make computers available to schools in poor areas without electricity. Yet, while some 200 initiatives were proposed to eliminate the information divide, there was no commitment to fund any of the proposals. Commented one participant from Senegal, "In 2000, they promised to connect all the small villages far away from the big cities in Africa to the internet. Five years later and nothing has happened." (Tunisia, however, has not waited for some international organization to fix its problems.
Several weeks before the conference, Tunisie Telecom announced that it will install solar-powered repeater stations in the Saharan region of the country to bring telecommunications to small communities that are not yet on the electrical grid. Tunisie Telecom is buying the repeater stations from a French company Apex-BP Solar.)

Finally, the question of free access information and unfettered usage of the net brought Tunisia some unfortunate publicity. Even before the WSIS began, human rights groups were complaining about the choice of Tunisia as a host country for the symposium. Human Rights Watch issued a 144-page report, "False Freedom: Online Censorship in the Middle East and North Africa," that singled out the Tunisian, Egyptian, and Syrian governments for arrests of bloggers.

Subsequently, just before and during the conference several reporters and camera teams who turned their attention from the conference to the issue of human rights in Tunisia were roughed up. The worst episode was when Christophe Boltanski, a reporter for the leftist French publication Liberation, was beaten and even stabbed by four thugs who made off with his notebook.

Such events got press coverage in Europe, but not in Tunisia. Indeed, when it came to the stabbing, which did not injure Boltanski enough that he required hospitalization, the Tunisian government insisted that "it is inappropriate to blow up this incident beyond its real proportions." The government claimed it had arrested two men and was conducting an inquiry into
"this criminal aggression."

Otherwise, however, the symposium seems to have gone smoothly. Logistics were handled well, and, as the Tunisian newspaper La Presse rather grandly summed up the conference, "Tunis became, in the space of three days, la capitale d'intelligence."

VERY LITTLE INTEREST IN TRIP TO TUNISIA OR ’66 and ’68 REUNIONS.

Only about fifteen people expressed any interest in a group trip to Tunisia, and many of those who did respond simply said "keep me informed." Nor was there any consensus on what time of year was preferred. Nonetheless, several travel agents continue to offer tours to Tunisia. Those interested in taking a tour can contact FOT to get the addresses of these travel agents who are organizing upcoming tours of Tunisia.

The response to inquiries about reunions for the '66-68 and the '68-70 groups was even lower. Only two people expressed interest in the '66-68 reunion, and no one expressed interest in the '68-70 reunion. The only reunion that did succeed in attracting people was the one held at the Hyatt Regency Riverwalk in San Antonio on October 29-30. This was organized by Jack and Marty Martin and was attended by about 20 people who served in the Tunisian Peace Corps in the early '60s.

FOT AGAIN SENDS MONEY TO THE TUNISIAN RED CRESCENT.

This year FOT again sent a $700 donation to the Tunisian Red Crescent to support its annual Ramadan campaign. This year the Red Crescent is struggling to deal with migrants from sub-Saharan Africa who have come to North Africa seeking a way to reach Europe.
Most such people go to Morocco and try to reach Spain, but Tunisia is now seeing some of these migrants showing up on the streets of its cities with little or no money.

30-DAY HUNGER STRIKE.

On October 18, eight Tunisian political activists, ranging from a member of the communist party to lawyers and a journalist, began a hunger strike to protest what they said was a lack of freedom of association, of _expression, and of recognition of all political parties and associations. The strikers also demanded freedom for "all political prisoners." This came after several weeks during which the Tunisian League for Human Rights and other similar organizations complained of police harassment and repression just prior to the opening of the WSIS.

Indeed, the upcoming WSIS, with all its visiting dignitaries and press, seems to have been very much on the minds of the strikers. The strike, which eventually added three more participants, lasted until just after the WSIS opened, when Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi from Iran visited the strikers and told them that the world had heard their message and advised ending the strike. The strikers did so, although no one was released from prison and the Tunisian government gave no indication that it saw merit in the group’s allegations.

THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN MOROCCO.

In 2003, Morocco's new king proposed changes in the laws governing the status of women in that country. These changes were enacted into law that took effect in February, 2004. Among the changes: the legal age of marriage for girls was raised from 15 to 18; polygamy is more tightly controlled (a man who wants more than one wife must convince a judge he can support a new wife and the first wife must agree to the new marriage); wives are no longer required to obey husbands. New types of divorce are also allowed: divorce by mutual consent and divorce because of irreconcilable differences. However, older forms of divorce, including repudiation of a wife, are preserved. A major concern: many judges may not implement the revised law just as they did not implement revisions made in 1993. (Source: The Friends of Morocco Newsletter)

NEWS OF TUNISIA********TUNISIAN NEWS********NEWS OF TUNISIA***

- One of the two teenagers whose accidental deaths led to the recent burning of cars and other property in France was from Tunisia.

- Tunisia has four major marinas: Yasmine Hammamet (south of Hammamet), Il Kantoui (Sousse), Sidi Bou Said, and Tabarka. There are now plans to build three more. The largest (700 to 1,000 boats) will be in Bizerte. Another, with capacity for 200-400 boats, will be north of Tunis. The third, with a capacity for 600-900 boats, will be in Monastir.

- The Mediterranean School of Business (MSB), a private Tunisian institution, recently concluded a partnership with the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland to provide a one-year master's degree, offered in English, in the management of information and technological systems. The program will begin March, 2006. (As reported in the last newsletter, the University of Georgia is working with a Tunisian university to implement online learning.)

- The number of tourists arriving in Tunisia on cruises in 2004 totalled 421,476, an increase of 11.5% over the previous year's total. The most numerous (119,406) were Italians, followed by 59,581 Britons. Americans totaled 8,884, and Canadians 5,129.

- Two American scientists from NASA visited Tunisia to view a solar eclipse on October 3. Afterwards, as part of a 2004 US-Tunisian agreement, the scientists left behind six solarscopes to help students interested in planetary science. NASA is also providing ten thousand educational posters about solar eclipses in Arabic, French, and English. The NASA scientists came from the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland In southern Tunisia 91% of the total surface of the sun was hidden during the eclipse. In Tunis it was 83% at 10:15 in the morning. The next solar eclipse that will be visible in Tunisia will be on March 29, 2006.

- In the first six months of 2005, the crucially important "foreign direct investment" (FDI) in Tunisia totaled 453 million dinars, an increase of 9% over the same period in the previous year. Of this amount, 214 million went to manufacturing and 152 million in the energy (oil) sector. The top three investors in Tunisia are France, Japan, and Germany. Over half of the German companies operating in Tunisia are involved in textiles and clothing.

- Tunisia has obtained two more loans from the African Development Bank to increase the Tunisian banking sector's competitiveness. The loan is financed by European Investment Bank and the World Bank with the objective of increasing stability in the economic environment and increase the contribution of Tunisia's financial institutions to the country's economic growth.

- Seventy-seven percent of Tunisians now own their homes, according to the latest census.

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