When it was announced last week that the entry of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his horrible in-laws would be denied by Tunisia’s former colonial protector, I was about to depart from my usual course and say something kind of the French government. Then I learned that Jean-Claude Duvalier was back in Haiti, and the disgusting dictator-coddling aspect of the French establishment was once again at the front of my thoughts. A great deal of guilt-based French shilly-shallying preceded the eventual taking of a definite position (i.e. not to snuggle up to the expelled President), a fact France’s Foreign Minister, Michelle Alliot-Marie, appeared to be glossing when she said that “the constant principles of our foreign policy are non-interference, support for democracy and freedom and the implementation of the rule of law.” Continue reading The Tunis Commitment, The Commitment to Tunisia →