The rise and fall of tyranny

I ask for not at once no government, but at once a better government -- David Henry Thoreau

The swiftness with which the Tunisian president was ousted out of power this week, was very reminiscent of the manner in which president Ceausescu’s regime of tyranny in Romania, came to a startling end.

In Tunisia, the popular uprising was sparked by the suicide of Mohammed Bouazizi, a fruit and vegetable seller after his wares were confiscated by the council leading him to despair. Only days before the people took to the streets, president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali must have been going to bed confident of his position in the world, only to receive a rude awakening to a reality that required him to get out of the capital Tunis fast.

As a man in self-imposed exile in Saudi Arabia, I wonder if Zine El Abidine Ben Ali will be pining after his country despite everything. That is what the former president of Haiti Jean-Claude Duvalier who was removed from power through a popular uprising in 1986, tells us he has been doing during his exile. As Ben Ali was packing his bags to leave Tunis (at first it was thought for France) Baby Doc, as Haiti’s former president is popularly known, was packing his to leave France for Haiti.

In his words, Baby Doc went back, ‘because I know the people are suffering.’ What he seemed to forget is that in the years during which he was president, people suffered. The recent catastrophes that have hit Haiti have exacerbated a situation that was already dire. However, Baby Doc had his chance to make a positive change. Instead, he used his time on the reins to plunder the coffers and terrorize the people with the help of the Tonton Macoutes.

Yet Baby Doc would have us believe that he has had a change of heart. Perhaps he has, twenty-five years is a long time. He may have ruminated over his despotic reign, and learnt to embrace democracy like a long lost lover. Whilst that may be the case, I think the only place where Baby Doc should be is in the dock, to answer for corruption, human rights abuses, and for charting the path that led the people of Haiti into abject poverty (although admittedly it might be hard to make the last one stick in a court).

Dictators who have become intoxicated by their own power need humbling lessons. These usually come in the form of uprisings in which the people, driven to destruction by an oppressive system, rise up and fight for their rights. The downside to this is that lives are often lost in the process and the subsequent power vacuum it creates can lead to a state of anarchy, temporary or otherwise. This is the undesirable part of change. However, in taking these risks, the people are rejecting a leadership that has let them down. They are asking for a better life for themselves and their children. When, if, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali ever goes back, I hope the people of Tunisia remind him of that.

Women in Sport

I am deeply gratified to see two women in today’s sport section in the Independent on Sunday. Admittedly, the first two pictures are meant for the boys with Heather Watson aged 19, in a patterned black and white dress showing shapely legs. In the second one she is wearing tennis gear, and is on one knee, both hands on the court, with her leg splayed open.

Maggie Alphonsi is the subject of an article by David Flatman (well done man!) with a photograph that is in my opinion, a true sporting gem. She of England’s women’s rugby team, is depicted with the ball tucked under her arm, muscles bristling, lips curled over a mouth guard, and face creased in concentration. Let’s just say that she looks like you wouldn’t want to tackle her.

For years now, the sports pages for me have been only good for fire-lighting. A quick browse through never turns up any women and my reaction is always, ‘Seriously? In this day and age?’ I love a good work out. I swim three times a week, I used to run nine miles daily until a knee injury put an end to my participation in any impact sport, and I generally try my best to stay active. As I also like to read about sport, I am always looking to see what other women in the world of professional sport, are doing. I like to spectate at their amazing feats and inevitably compare myself to them, even though I am aware I could never measure up to their sporting talents. Unfortunately, every time I pick a paper up, I am met by the same conspicuous absence of women, interspersed occasionally with a scant coverage of some major women’s sporting event that even the male-dominated sporting side cannot ignore.

Don’t get me wrong I love men’s sport too, but my feelings are that there are a lot of exemplary sportswomen out there, and they too deserve a day in the sunshine. To me it seems a rather lopsided view of the sporting world to exclude them.

Some will argue that women are not interested in the sports pages, which is why newspaper publishers try and focus them on men. This is a self-perpetuating situation, where women don’t read them because they are not in them.

I am still holding out hope though that I will live long enough to enjoy the pleasure of seeing sportswomen fairly represented, and not just relegated to the back pages of sport sections (if at all they make it in there). I want to see them in their full sporting glory - action shots complete with drops of sweat, saliva and such passion for the game it makes you want to bolt out of your seat and run straight to the gym.

The photographs of sportswomen in beautiful dresses dolled up for some celebrity event have their place, but the idea that they can only be depicted this way, or that a woman’s sports picture should be mitigated with a glamorized version, should be gone faster than Maggie Alphonsi can run and hit. Editors, I am looking in your direction.