Covering the Tunisian Uprising

My Twitterfeed is going crazy - thanks to the fast paced developments in Tunisia and it doesn't look like things will slow down anytime soon. I am fortifying myself with an assortment of tea and banishing my gang of seven cats to another part of the house to sit back and watch and report on the unfolding historic events in what is now becoming a Twitterised Revolution.

My brain seems to have had an information overload, which is all the more ironic since mainstream media first gave the Tunisian uprising the cold shoulder, before being lured back to covering its shocking horrible details after the blood of the unarmed and the helpless was splattered across our screens. The complaint was that there wasn't enough information to justify covering a story. Online, the virtual reality is a different story. There, you can find a chronology of blog posts and photographs, videos and tweets, petitions and solidarity calls from far and wide, which provide the backdrop for a live uprising, which we have been witnessing from our little computer screens and handheld toys since December 17.

What started as a revolt of the hungry and unemployed soon found root in a country that has been strangled by Ben Ali and his clan for 23 years. The West's model of a stable country turned out to be a sham and their double standards, particularly following Wikileaks' Cablegate expose, has become a screaming shame for anyone with decency.

Is it an uprising, a revolt or a rebellion? Who cares? What matters now is that Tunisian people are making their voices heard, using the very tools their government had suppressed since their creation. Videos in the hundreds were posted online showing how the police used live ammunition to suppress protests in a country that had banned and blocked YouTube and other video hosting sites since 2007. The #sidibouzid hashtag became a constant on our Twitterfeed, in the same country activists were arrested in and bloggers and netizens bullied in order to shut them up.

In the land of censorship, the world's Enemy of the Internet, is waking up to see that the medium it suppressed all along came to bite it in the dark. I hope there is a lesson for all of us to learn from this and my wishful thinking begs me to hope that it is a lesson of more openness and transparency.

Tunisia's woes did not start on December 17 - they go way back. And people were talking and expressing themselves and their worries and concerns in the only medium open to them (online), and they were muzzled.

To all the Enemies of the Internet out there, get close to your people and listen to them. Their requirements are in line with all the charters you have signed for as members of the United Nations, as part of your universal responsibility towards your herd. If you do just that, we will have a win-win situation. You can continue to rule your people for life and ensure that you stay in your seats forever after!