David Victor Vector: Tunisia's Elections

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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Tunisia's Elections

In an interview in Deutsche Welle with human rights advocate Sihem Bensedrine on the Tunisian elections, Tunisia's "Iron Lady of the Tunisian Opposition" comments on the victory of the (admittedly moderate) Islamist party Ennahda in the Arab Spring's first free election, saying "Tunisians have spoken and we must all respect that." I agree with her, but I have to admit that the Ennahda victory makes me uneasy. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15488046,00.html

Ennahda means "Renaissance" in Arabic. I hope that the party maintains the open mind of the European Renaissance. In any case, I trust Bensedrine who was herself a former political prisoner of the Zine El Abidine Ben Ali dictatorship. As she points out, Ennahda won just over 30% of the vote, not an outright majority. She goes on to argue that to ignore Ennahda's win would be to ignore the rule of democracy. That too is true, even if the choice of the people is disappointing from other people's perspective, it is indeed the voice of the people. Finally, Bensedrine goes on to say "If, as winners, Ennahda do not keep their promises and pledges - if they don't respect the rule of law, human rights and our hard-won democracy - then the people who brought them to power can topple them in the next elections." As one of the strongest voices in bringing down the ben Ali dictatorship, Bensedrine is someone whose position I respect. For now, then, her view will be my view on this subject.

What are your thoughts?

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More About David Victor's Academic Experience

I teach at the Eastern Michigan University College of Business I am also editor of the Global Advances in Business Communication. http://commons.emich.edu/gabc/

Among other subjects, I teach Managing World Business Communication, Fundamentals of Global Business, international business ethics, international business, Business Ethics/CSR, and International Management as well as a series of "Doing Business In..." seminars for business in specific countries and regions. My course at EMU in Managing World Business Communication first designed and taught nearly 20 years ago was among the first regularly taught on cross-cultural business communication in an AACSB-accredited school.

From 1996-1997, I was President of the Association for Business Communication and helped to establish the European and the Asia/Pacific regions of that organization. In 2010, I was honored to have won the Meada Gibbs Outstanding Teaching Award, an international prize given by the Association for Business Communication. Over the years, I have received 6 grants from a variety of sources including the US Department of Education and the Federal Government of Canada. .

In 1992, I was the first recipient of the Distinguished Visiting Foreign Professorship (Graduate Level) of the InstitutoTecnologico y EstudiosSuperiores de Monterrey. I was also a Visiting Professor at the University of Antwerp in Belgium in 2008 and at the Universidade do Caxias do Sul in Brazil in 2010. I also hold classes for Saint Mary's of California's TransGlobal Executive MBA students.

About David Victor’s Consulting Experience

I have consulted since the mid-1980’s, mostly in the area of international business communication, expatriate relocation and diversity management for a range of clients including school systems, hospital networks and city and state governments as well as a wide range of companies working domestically in the United States as well as in Canada, Mexico, East Asia and Europe. I have consulted and run programs for over 150 companies and organizations, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to the state governments of Idaho, Iowa and Michigan, the American Bar Association and the US Army as well as several city governments and health systems in the US and abroad.