It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
Unfortunately, democratic markets do not work that way and are capitalistic in nature. Oil is only one of the resources that the Tunisa govt owns but is shared by Coporations who fund the infrstracture for oil exploitation while the govt offers the labour, and then gets a cut in profits when the oil is sold. ( and therein lies the corruptions)
Tunisa has also other industries and 11% of its GDP is based on agricultural products. The problem is not about imports of foodstuff that raised the ire of the citizens, but its rising costs by the middlemen and owners who had been profitting immensely from raising their prices arbitarity, while the corrupted govt does nothing such as controlling it or creating govt cooperative food enterprises to break the monopolies held by the elites.
Just two days after the overthrow of President Ben Ali in Tunisia, videos are circulating of disturbances in neighbouring Libya. Needless to say, this is causing a good deal of excitement on Twitter.
Colonel Gaddafi has been in power for almost 42 years, compared with a mere 23 for Ben Ali. In his second-to-last speech as president, Ben Ali referred to Gaddafi as "my dear brother" and thanked him for support. In a speech reported by the official Libyan news agency on Saturday, Gaddafi reciprocated:
"I am very pained by what is happening in Tunisia ... Tunisia now lives in fear ... What is this for? To change Zine al-Abidine? Hasn't he told you he would step down after three years? Be patient for three years ..."