Com a Tunísia e o Egipto nas ruas, exigindo mudanças totais nos regimes que os governam, o Guardian pediu a dez escritores oriundos da região que se agita para comentarem os acontecimentos. O resultado está aqui.
(fotografia retirada daqui)
Nouri Gana, tunisino, escritor e professor, diz assim:
Grassroots change in the Arab world is inevitable. Egyptians, Algerians, Libyans, Jordanians, Yemenis, Palestinians – almost all Arabs are struck by Tunisian fever. It is no longer a question of place, only a question of time. The real achievement of Tunisia is that it demonstrated that the hope for change is alive and well. The worst crime of dictatorships is the politics of fear they use to engineer the consent of their people – the slow and steady dispossession of all will to freedom and self-determination. When this fear insinuates itself into the mind, not only does all memory of freedom disappear, but so too does the willingness to pay the price for it. The crucial importance of what happened in Tunisia is that Arabs no longer recognise who they are without it.
The other real achievement of the Tunisian grassroots revolution is that western Europe and the United States are put on trial by the people they have for so long pretended to care for. The Tunisian message speaks volumes: you cannot continue fighting what you call Islamic extremism by supporting Arab despotism. You cannot go on pretending that you’re the only harbingers of democracy. Real and lasting democracy emerges from within the singular context of each Arab country and cannot be imposed by outside intervention or manipulation. It is not a Euro-American speciality. Lastly: you need not support Arab dictatorships to ensure your own and Israel’s security. Rather than urging Arab despots to ride out the whirlwind of revolution coming from Tunisia, it’s high time you supported the Arab people’s efforts to foster grassroots democracy.
Não era mau que o ouvíssemos.
