Tunisia: “Lessons for a Small Place”

• Ben Ali seized prime real estate along the coast, through shady legal and illegal means
• Convicted of embezzlement of public funds; and smuggling of arms, narcotics, and archaeological objects
• Tailors laws to enrich their friends and family and bankrupt the population – treated the country’s wealth as his personal property
• Continuously promised a middle class in order to silence opposition, and never delivered.

(pages 13 – 15)

• A lot of groups are vying for power and political recognition
• Religious movement clamoring for a unification of church and state
• Fighting Ben Ali throughout all of this

(pages 22 – 23)