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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

In cradle of Tunisia’s uprising, new unrest over broken promises

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SIDI BOUZID, Tunisia: Shouting slogans and holding up placards outside a government office in the impoverished Tunisian city of Sidi Bouzid, university graduates have a message for officials — give us jobs or you will face trouble.


They are part of the spasm of anti-government unrest that spread nationwide this week, stoking another political crisis in a nation in turmoil as austerity bites hard under pressure from foreign lenders to get Tunisia’s finances in order.


It was in Sidi Bouzid that mass protests erupted seven years ago and rapidly engulfed the rest of the North African country, sweeping away autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in the first of the Arab Spring uprisings.


Now the young men and women who spearheaded the outbreak of unrest in Sidi Bouzid are back in the streets of the dusty, dilapidated provincial city, complaining that they never reaped the benefits promised by the 2011 revolution.


Tunisia is the only democratic success story of the 2011 uprisings, with a unity government comprising secular centrists, moderates and independents, but — materially — most people are worse off than before.


Several deadly militant attacks have scared off much of the foreign tourism and investment critical to the economy, knocking the currency down 60 per cent since 2011 and driving up inflation to a three-and-half-year high.


“We had hoped that our lives would become better, that we get jobs and housing, but everything has turned for the worse,” said Bashir Hussein, one of the disgruntled graduates.


He is embarrassed that at 32 he still lives at home, unable to find a good job since graduation a decade ago — a fate shared by many in a country where unemployment among the young runs around 30 per cent. “I cannot afford to marry. I don’t have hopes anymore that things will improve,” Hussein said.


He and his friends had hoped the 2011 revolution would translate into new jobs in public services, which Ben Ali had steadily expanded to buy loyalty — Tunisia’s spend on public wages is around 15 per cent of GDP, one of the highest levels worldwide.


— Reuters


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