The National Agronomy Institute of Tunis has collaborated on several projects with the US Grain Council over the past decade. Now they are launching a new project in the country’s animal feed sector. On March 1, Minister of Agriculture Samir Taieb and US Ambassador to Tunisia Daniel Rubinstein convened at INAT to announce the creation of a regional training center for feed manufacture engineers and technicians. With the aim of improving feed and livestock production in Tunisia, the project promises to serve consumers but also farmers and feed manufacturers. The USGC is clear in its communications that the project also serves to promote American grains in Tunisia’s import-saturated market.
Trump’s decision about Jerusalem has Tunisians, indignant, out in the streets
In Tunis, the decision announced by Donald Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel has thrown a cog into machine, breaking the rhythm of daily life. If public outcry was foreseeable following such a declaration, it has not lessened the sense of indignation that has been expressed throughout Tunisia since Wednesday, December 6.
Tunisia’s new PM: Youssef Chahed, a singular professional trajectory
While opposition parties have denounced the appointment of Youssef Chahed as partial and contrary to the idea of a coalition government, some decry the designation as a relapse to the old “all in the family” way of politics. Few, however, have paid much attention to Chahed’s singular professional trajectory prior to his swift ascension to Prime Minister.
الشاهد وشهود الزور
أعرض هنا ملخّصا لمحتوى مراسلة داخليّة للسّفارة الأمريكيّة بتونس بتاريخ جانفي 2010 تمّ تسريبها عبر موقع ويكيليكس المشهور أين يظهر جليّا الدّور المحوريّ للسّيّد يوسف الشّاهد في مساعي الولايات المتّحدة الأمريكيّة إلى التّأثير على الفاعلين السّياسيّين والمدنيّين والإعلاميّين من أجل فتح “السّوق التّونسيّة” لمنتوجات التّقانات الكيمياويّة والحيويّة في مجالات الفلاحة والتّغذية.
السيرة الأخرى ليوسف الشاهد
تكشف وثائق ويكيلكس جانبا آخر من السيرة الذاتيّة لمرشّح رئيس الجمهورية الباجي قائد السبسي لرئاسة الحكومة خلفا لحبيب الصيد. الصورة التي تمّ تداولها خلال الساعات المنقضية حول السيرة الأكاديمية والمهنية ليوسف الشاهد، تغفل حقبة مهمّة من تاريخ هذا الرجل الذّي كان مكلّفا بمهام في قسم الخدمة الزراعية الخارجيّة في السفارة الأمريكية في تونس كما تكشف المراسلة المنشورة في موقع ويكيلكس سنة 2010.
US State Department – Working for or Against a Pluralistic and Free Media in Tunisia?
The agitation that a democratic model allows represents a prompt for open, substantial discussion, create space for questions to form and answers to be formulated, for awareness to shift and public opinion to fluctuate and controversy to take its course … For over a decade, Nawaat has been a platform many of whose contributors are quick to question, criticize, and call out the Tunisian and foreign governments for hypocrisy, complicity, exploit, corruption…the very symptoms of defective governance that were renounced by youth and activists and journalists of the so-called Arab Spring, the same individuals whom Western democracies and international agencies have so effusively commended for their courage and commitment to changing the status quo. And so inevitably it feels like something of a betrayal when requests for more specific information and questions regarding political motives are consistently held at bay, excluded from discussions, or, most conveniently, ignored.