Posted on 08/23/2011 2:54:09 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Takriz began as a tiny self-described "cyber think tank" in 1998. Although it has grown into a loose network of several thousand, the Takrizards, or Taks, rarely cooperate with journalists and carefully guard their anonymity. "Takriz" itself is an elusive word. It's a street-slang profanity that expresses a feeling of frustrated anger... But what Le Monde called the group's "irreducible insolence" belies a professional focus. úFoetus, a technology consultant with an MBA and half a dozen languages, is a slight figure with a booming voice. He plays off his childhood friend Waterman, a big but more retiring man with a gift for writing. Takriz quickly got under the skin of the regime and has stayed there, even after the revolution. Hunted and exiled for years, many core Taks can still enter their country only with extreme caution, often undercover.
For Takriz, Ben Ali's removal has changed little: the group believes that Tunisia's interim government is cut from the same corrupted cloth as its predecessor. The situation is similar elsewhere in the region. Activists in Egypt are wary of the repressive Supreme Council of the Armed Forces that replaced Egypt's president, Hosni Mubarak. Meanwhile, founding members of Morocco's February 20 movement, who seek constitutional reform rather than revolution, perceive changes recently proposed by King Mohammed as mere political theater. The elderly regimes of the Middle East and North Africa are unwilling to leave the stage, yet unable to satisfy the political and economic demands of a demographic youth bulge: around two thirds of the region's population is under 30, and youth unemployment stands at 24 percent. Inevitably, the rapidly changing landscape of media technology, from satellite TV and cell phones to YouTube and Facebook, is adding a new dynamic to the calculus of power between the generations.
(Excerpt) Read more at technologyreview.com ...
The tactician: "Foetus" guards his anonymity. The chief technology officer of the Tunisian organization Takriz, which excited the alienated youth of the streets to overthrow the government of President Ben Ali, took this photograph with his mobile phone and sent it to the author.
Classic Muzzie headwear.
Interesting article.
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