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Showing posts from July, 2013

Tunisia: Between Political Instability, Terrorism & Police Repression

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When journalists are arrested because they've taken photos for their articles, we ask, where is freedom of expression? When there is denial of accessibility, we ask, where is transparency? When the corrupt hands are out of jail, we ask, where is accountability? but when political leaders are assassinated during a "democratic transition", what shall we ask  for ? The assassination of  Chokri Belaid  on February 6th earlier this year, is a sorrow for Tunisia not only because it is an act of killing a human being but also an act of extreme censorship to a leader who revealed corruption and  vocally criticized Ennahda, the Islamist ruling party . This is not censoring YouTube or Daily-motion, hacking blogs, Facebook Pages and Tweeter accounts or dispersing protests with teargas. This is censoring the heartbeat forever. In less than six months of Belaid's  m urder, during the Republic Day which is our  annual celebration marking Tunisia's foundation as an indep

Peace by All Means

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Following the  Global Power Shift,  I flew to Trabzon, the beautiful city on the Black Sea coast of North-Eastern Turkey, where,  I spent 5-day workshop on conflict transformation, post-conflict peace building and reconstruction with 70 young activists and professionals from 47 countries.  As conflict, crisis and disaster academics, practitioners, consultants, activists and students, we looked beyond dominant theories relating to youth in conflict and explored the challenges of youth exclusion from peace-building activities and decision making. As such, the basis, rationale and formation process of young people’s relationships with societal structures and negotiation both through established and unconventional means, and how this impact on peace processes in contested and divided places were practically discussed and examined. At the plenary session of the last day of the workshop, I presented with few team members the digital tools and techniques to use f