Breathe Tunisia Breathe….by Jamil Shawwa…

The winds of change and freedom are blowing all over the Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Iraq was the first and now Tunisia with a popular uprising that within less than a month forced the brutal dictator "Bin Ali" to flee the country. Few demonstrations ended a rule of almost quarter of a century. Nothing stopped the people; the army could not shoot at the unarmed, the poor, the hungry, the suppressed and the oppressed. The voices of the hungry in the streets of Tunisia was as thunder that no military apparatus could have stopped, and even if they could, they would have not. On a Facebook post dated 01/10/2011, just four days shy from Bin Ali’s departure, I wrote the following-In the mid 1980s the ailing late Tunisian president Bourgeba appointed Bin Ali to be minister of interior, few months later in a coup d'état, Bin Ali removed the historic yet senile leader and appointed himself president. It is time now for Tunisia to remove Bin Ali, hold elections and appoint a new president. North Africa is crying for reforms, and it is just the beginning of historic reforms in the Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa. It is time for those corrupt dictators to retire- and to my surprise, the dismissal of the dictator came much sooner than I expected. I knew that he is gone, but not that fast. Tunisia is starting to breathe fresh air that it never had before, it kicked out a manipulative dictator. The rest of the Arab countries are watching, and learning and reading the story of courage to apply it and copy it to their own versions of Bin Ali. The Arab kings, presidents, princes and oppressive commanders are now scared, contemplating in their palaces of fear about their next step or planning an exile, they are hoping to escape and be as lucky as Bin Ali and run rather than be put on trial- if they are that lucky- and be exposed on their crimes against their people. The hungry have spoken, the oppressed are talking and the deaf are listening. The world is watching a story that consists of twenty two chapters, the number of the Arab countries, and so far two chapters have been completed and in the process of getting finalized, the Iraq chapter and the Tunisia chapter. Not long, the whole story will be done, and the whole twenty-two or twenty-four chapters will be completed. The big domino effect has started and there is no way to stop it or go back to business as usual.