Year: 2017

Tunisia tells ports to deny anti-migrant ship entry

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A port director in Tunisia says authorities have instructed commercial ports in the North African nation to deny access to a ship rented by European identity groups and sailing the Mediterranean Sea with an anti-migrant message. Fishermen and human rights activists in the Tunisian city of Zarzis unfurled a banner reading “No Racism” as the C Star, the flagship of operation Defend Europe, sailed in international waters off Tunisia’s coast over the weekend. Zarzis port director Karim Nouira told The Associated Press the ship never asked to dock at Zarzis…

Cutting Tunisia’s public sector wage costs ‘paramount’, says IMF

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Tunisia’s growth is slowly improving, but strong consumption is fuelling inflation and the public sector wage bill is among the world’s highest by proportion of GDP, the International Monetary Fund has warned. It said the country’s exchange rate flexibility, tighter monetary policy and fuel price increases had started to address the imbalances, and the recent launch of a campaign against corruption had improved confidence. Reducing the fiscal deficit was still critically important and would require additional adjustment, including to the cost of public wages. Björn Rother, who led a recent…

Tunisia End-of-Term Report 2014-2016

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In early 2017, the Independent Reporting Mechanism (IRM) published the end of term report for Tunisia’s first action plan. The report covers the full action plan implementation period of September 2014 through September 2016. Jazem Halioui, an indepdendent researcher, wrote this report. His findings are summarized below: The Tunisian government made significant improvements in budget transparency by launching an open budget portal. However, the majority of the action plan saw limited completion. The Joint Commission could enhance its monitoring efforts to improve implementation of the next action plan. The version…

Tunisian actor reportedly in talks to star in Aladdin as the villain Jafar

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Dutch-Tunisian actor Marwan Kenzari is reportedly in negotiations for a potential role as Jafar in Disney’s live-action remake of Aladdin. News of his potential role has been going viral in the Arab world, with many excited for the adaptation of the much beloved animated film already confirming the lead role of Aladdin being played by Egyptian-Canadian actor Mena Massoud. Kenzari speaks Arabic, Dutch, French and English and won a Golden Calf for Best Actor at the Netherlands Film Festival for his role in the feature film Wolf in 2013. Will Smith…

External powers targeting Arab identity, unity, says Syrian president

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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says foreign powers have desperately attempted to divide Arab nations by targeting their identity and igniting strife among them.  “The external interventions will continue with the aim of changing our identity and dividing us into communities and small groups,” Assad said on Monday, Syria’s official news agency, SANA, reported. The Syrian president made the remarks in Damascus during a meeting with a parliamentary delegation comprising members of a number of Tunisian parties headed by Mbarka Brahmi. The external powers use similar methods to divide Arab nations,…

Stability in Tunis requires stability in Libya, Tunisian president tells Serraj

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Meeting in Tunis Monday, Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi has told Presidency Council head Faiez Serraj that it was very much in Tunisia’s interests to see stability and security restored in Tunisia. He also again declared that ultimately it was up to the Libyans to make the compromises needed for peace to become a reality. The most that neighbouring countries such as Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, or the wider international community could do was to facilitate and encourage Libyan dialogue. Libyans, he said, had to sit down together and take part in…

Tunisia’s industrial selling prices rise 4.5% in June 2017

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The index of industrial selling prices went up by 4.5% in June 2017 year-on-year, as a result of rising prices of manufacturing products by 4.1% and mining products by 8.2% due to higher prices of energy extraction products by 10.4% and non-energy products by 0.8%. According to the National Institute of Statistics, the increase in the prices of products of the manufacturing industry is mainly due to the 6.5% rise in prices of products of the food industry, the mechanical and electrical industry by 6.8% and the rubber and plastics…

Clean Energy for 5 Million EU Homes: Gigantic Solar Plant to Be Built in Tunisia

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A number of renewable energy developers are interested in building a huge solar power plant on the edge of the Sahara desert which will bring clean energy to 5 million European homes through undersea cables. The project called TuNur hopes to make use of the desert’s untapped potential to provide solar power. The consortium of the energy companies has applied for permission from the Tunisian energy ministry to build the facility in the southwest of the country that will produce 4.5GW of power. CEO Kevin Sara said that an initial…

A new security-structure for the Sahel

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In June, shortly after having won the second round of the French presidential election, Emanuel Macron went to Africa. As his first foreign visit after the election, he choose an area that France has been involved in for a very long time. His choice of destination was no accident. The meeting in Bamako, capital of Mali, was set up to pledge French support for a new military force to combat the on-going and raising threat of Islamist violence in the Sahel. Alongside France were Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Chad and Burkina…

Trump’s Immigration Policy V.s. The Soul Of America

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Immigration is a personal matter for me, as it is for many Americans. Unless you are a Native American descendant of the indigenous peoples who were displaced by the settlers who first came to this country, or an African American descendant of those who were brought here in bondage as slaves, we are all immigrants or the descendants of immigrants. Because of the central role immigration has played in shaping the American experience, many families are defined by why and how their ancestors came and started their lives in this…