December 7, 2024
In 1982, Tunisia became the center of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, a militant and political organization based in the capital Tunis.
Tunisia’s constitution declares Islam as the official state religion—and the absolute majority of its population, or around 98%, report to be Muslims.
Tunisia has a long history of corruption. The First Lady is described as an “unabashed shopaholic” who uses the state airplane to make frequent unofficial trips to Europe’s fashion capitals. Tunisia refused a French request for the extradition of two of the President’s nephews who were accused by the French State prosecutor of having stolen two mega-yachts from a French marina.
In 2010, chaos erupted in the country. The catalyst for mass demonstrations was the death of Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old Tunisian street vendor, who set himself afire on December 17, 2010, in protest at the confiscation of his wares and the humiliation inflicted on him by a municipal official. This is similar to the act I described in my blog of March 24th of Thich Quang Duc the Buddhist monk who died by self-immolation on a busy road in Saigon in protest to how Buddhists were being treated. John F Kennedy said of the photo that circulated around the world of this monk setting himself on fire to protest the harsh treatment of Buddhists, “no photo in history has generated more emotion than that one”. The protests in response to Mohamed Bouazizi, inspired the Arab Spring, a wave of similar actions throughout the Arab world.
In 2015, Tunisia was hit by two terror attacks on foreign tourists first killing 22 people at the Bardo National Museum and later killing 38 people at the Sousse beachfront.
In February 2022, Tunisia and the International Monetary Fund held preliminary negotiations in the hopes of securing a multibillion-dollar bailout for an economy beset by recession, public debt, inflation, and unemployment
Yet, corruption continues. On October 6, 2024, President Kais Saied won a second term with more than 90% of the vote in the Tunisian presidential election. Five political parties had urged people to boycott the elections
The consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine for the global food supply are being felt particularly strongly in Tunisia.
So why even visit Tunisia? I assure you the majority of passengers choose not to. Being a history buff, I wanted to see the remains of the city of Carthage. By the third century B.C., the city of Carthage grew to be an impressive collection of lavish homes and had a staggering population. The city is believed to have housed at least 700,000 people and contained streets lined with towering homes that were, on average, six stories high.
This is what I found on the supposed grounds of the City of Carthage.
That’s it! A street sign! No remains of towering homes. No six story buildings! No remains of 700,000 people. A street sign! Next time I’ll do better research!
What I did see were mosques and plenty of them. One of the most impressive was the Zaytuna Mosque, founded in the late 7th century by the Umayyad dynasty. Most of the Mosques are constructed with the finest marble, the Bianco Dolomiti imported from Italy. It’s beloved for its gentle white hues and faded grey veins.
Yet, all in all, Tunis remains, in my estimation, a depressed city. I saw only one Muslim family on the beach, and I had to take the photo from a distance so as to avoid confrontation.
Chongae and I went to the Tunis Medina to keep our tradition of sampling different country’s coffee. It was bitter. The best photo I took was of a mother cat with her baby kittens outside one of the shops.
And I don’t even like cats!
Thanks for travelling with us.