I juxtapose a huge billboard, featuring the portrait of Tunisian president Ben Ali, against the figure of an anonymous Tunisian waiting for a bus or taxi. The president clasps his heart in a gesture of compassion, but the man below the billboard pays no heed. The scale incongruity of the image expresses my point – this president rules his country uncontested. In 1999, two alternative candidates were permitted for the first time to run against Ben Ali. He was reelected with 99.66% of the vote. In 2004, he was reelected again with 94.48 % of the vote. Asked to run again in 2009, he accepted.
In January, 2011, Tunisian president Ben Ali was driven from office by a mass revolt triggered by the social media. He fled to Saudi Arabia, and a new, presumably more democratic, regime took over the Tunisian government.