I saw a stunning full lunar eclipse last night. Picture this: long palm-lined avenue, an illuminated mosque in the distance, a full moon hanging in the sky just to the right of the tower, gradually turning from silver to red to black, to red and back to silver as the earth's shadow passed over it. Breath-taking. Wish I had a really good camera and a tripod so I could capture such moments.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Monday, May 2, 2011
Windy, with a chance of sand
I had a new experience when I logged on to my iGoogle home page this morning. One of my widgets is a weather watch that. I have set to Victoria and Tunis. When I'm about to travel, I add other cities as needed. The standard icons appear. Fluffy clouds, golden suns, snow flakes, slanting lines for rain. Today, I saw one that was new to me. Good fun.
Saturday, April 30, 2011
Life in North Africa - post revolution
I've had a couple of people express concerns for my safety, and thought this was probably the best way to communicate to the larger group.
As you undoubtedly know, Tunisia was the first country in the Arab world to experience a popular uprising against their dictatorial and corrupt president. Led by the country's youth, this did so with amazing courage, literally putting their lives on the line for democracy. I was in Dubai, giving a session at a workshop there, having left Paige here in Tunis. She is the one who lived through the sounds of machine-gun fire, the constant passage of helicopters with searchlights, the smoke. I went through a different kind of hell at a distance.
Tunisia had the great good fortune to have a president who was a coward and who fled the country after four days of rioting, other members of "the clan" having taken to their heels even earlier. (The worst of those Belhassen Trabelsi, is now living high in Montreal, where he had taken out residency papers four years earlier.) Once The Family was gone, the primary goal of the protesters was accomplished, and Tunisians basically went back to work. (This is a bit of an exaggeration, but I don't have time to write up the whole process of a country discovering how to strike, for example. These will be tales told over a beer in the summer.)
One example of the kind of courage we saw here occurred January 12, two days before Ben Ali closed Tunisian air space and took off. Six Family members showed up at the Tunis airport and demanded places on a flight to Leon. The flight was fully booked, but that didn't matter. The airline chief was called and six people lost their seats to make room for the Trabelsi's. When the pilot heard who had just boarded his plane, he refused to take off. He told the chief that if "those people" were on his plane, he was leaving the cockpit. Which he did. His main concern was for the safety of his passengers. He knew that many of the Trabelsi's had warrants against them in Europe, that they must therefore have boarded the plane with weapons to make the pilot to fly to some other country. He wasn't going to put his passengers at risk so he refused to fly. The Trabelsi's were subsequently arrested and are still being held in the army barracks quite near my school. The audio link at the bottom of this article is a really good one.
Mubarak stood up to the will of his people longer in Egypt, and therefore the violence went on longer. He stayed in his country and is now in jail. In contrast, Tunisia's president and horror of a wife now live in Saudi, a country where they cut of the hands of children who steal food, but that shelters large-scale criminals like Ben Ali without batting an eye. Syria's willingness to massacre its own people because they want a voice makes me weep.
Libya is horrifying, with their mad dictator killing his own people with his considerable expertise and delirium. Estimated death toll is now 30,000, with perhaps triple that wounded. About 13,000 people seeking refuge stream across the Tunisian border every week. All are sheltered, fed and treated, some in camps, but mostly in people's homes. Italy, a country of 60 million, was horrified to have a few thousand Tunisians arrive in Lampedousa; tiny third world Tunisia has taken in hundreds of thousands. (I understand Lampedousa's pain. Almost all of the Tunisians who fled there are criminals, and they now outnumber the residents. That said, listen to this from a home-owner who gave a whole floor of his house to refugees in southern Tunisia. “If there is something to eat, we will eat it together. If there is nothing to eat, we will have nothing together.”
This week, Gadhafi has been shelling the Tunisian border town of Dhuheiba, killing not only Libyan rebels, but Tunisian citizens. The Tunisian military seems to be putting up with it, either withdrawing or simply escorting people back to their side of the border. I don't quite get it. Can you imaging what the US would do if a civil rebellion in Mexico spilled into Texas, killing a few US citizens?
And of course, a horrible event occurred in Morocco yesterday. An Islamic extremist - and they represent a tiny minority of Muslims - blew himself up in one of the most famous tourist cafés in Marrakesh. I feel surrounded by madmen and today can't wait to get home. That said, the area where I live and work is very quiet and secure, so I do not fear for my safety. It's just stressful to live in this environment.
Mostly I feel privileged to have been here and witnessed first hand this country's first steps toward democracy, and to see the inspiration they have given to all the dictatorships in the region. It will be a long, hard struggle, but a good one. Inshallah.
As you undoubtedly know, Tunisia was the first country in the Arab world to experience a popular uprising against their dictatorial and corrupt president. Led by the country's youth, this did so with amazing courage, literally putting their lives on the line for democracy. I was in Dubai, giving a session at a workshop there, having left Paige here in Tunis. She is the one who lived through the sounds of machine-gun fire, the constant passage of helicopters with searchlights, the smoke. I went through a different kind of hell at a distance.
Tunisia had the great good fortune to have a president who was a coward and who fled the country after four days of rioting, other members of "the clan" having taken to their heels even earlier. (The worst of those Belhassen Trabelsi, is now living high in Montreal, where he had taken out residency papers four years earlier.) Once The Family was gone, the primary goal of the protesters was accomplished, and Tunisians basically went back to work. (This is a bit of an exaggeration, but I don't have time to write up the whole process of a country discovering how to strike, for example. These will be tales told over a beer in the summer.)
One example of the kind of courage we saw here occurred January 12, two days before Ben Ali closed Tunisian air space and took off. Six Family members showed up at the Tunis airport and demanded places on a flight to Leon. The flight was fully booked, but that didn't matter. The airline chief was called and six people lost their seats to make room for the Trabelsi's. When the pilot heard who had just boarded his plane, he refused to take off. He told the chief that if "those people" were on his plane, he was leaving the cockpit. Which he did. His main concern was for the safety of his passengers. He knew that many of the Trabelsi's had warrants against them in Europe, that they must therefore have boarded the plane with weapons to make the pilot to fly to some other country. He wasn't going to put his passengers at risk so he refused to fly. The Trabelsi's were subsequently arrested and are still being held in the army barracks quite near my school. The audio link at the bottom of this article is a really good one.
Mubarak stood up to the will of his people longer in Egypt, and therefore the violence went on longer. He stayed in his country and is now in jail. In contrast, Tunisia's president and horror of a wife now live in Saudi, a country where they cut of the hands of children who steal food, but that shelters large-scale criminals like Ben Ali without batting an eye. Syria's willingness to massacre its own people because they want a voice makes me weep.
Libya is horrifying, with their mad dictator killing his own people with his considerable expertise and delirium. Estimated death toll is now 30,000, with perhaps triple that wounded. About 13,000 people seeking refuge stream across the Tunisian border every week. All are sheltered, fed and treated, some in camps, but mostly in people's homes. Italy, a country of 60 million, was horrified to have a few thousand Tunisians arrive in Lampedousa; tiny third world Tunisia has taken in hundreds of thousands. (I understand Lampedousa's pain. Almost all of the Tunisians who fled there are criminals, and they now outnumber the residents. That said, listen to this from a home-owner who gave a whole floor of his house to refugees in southern Tunisia. “If there is something to eat, we will eat it together. If there is nothing to eat, we will have nothing together.”
This week, Gadhafi has been shelling the Tunisian border town of Dhuheiba, killing not only Libyan rebels, but Tunisian citizens. The Tunisian military seems to be putting up with it, either withdrawing or simply escorting people back to their side of the border. I don't quite get it. Can you imaging what the US would do if a civil rebellion in Mexico spilled into Texas, killing a few US citizens?
And of course, a horrible event occurred in Morocco yesterday. An Islamic extremist - and they represent a tiny minority of Muslims - blew himself up in one of the most famous tourist cafés in Marrakesh. I feel surrounded by madmen and today can't wait to get home. That said, the area where I live and work is very quiet and secure, so I do not fear for my safety. It's just stressful to live in this environment.
Mostly I feel privileged to have been here and witnessed first hand this country's first steps toward democracy, and to see the inspiration they have given to all the dictatorships in the region. It will be a long, hard struggle, but a good one. Inshallah.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
This week's news.
On February 20, 60 Minutes did an excellent piece on the Tunisian revolution. It's called The Spark and taking the 13 minutes to watch it will give you a good deal of information on how and why the revolution happened.
Last Sunday, February 20, this news broadcast was made of a horde in one of the President's homes in Sidi Bou Said, less than ten minutes from where I live. The actual piece was about twice this long, but I didn't think I'd burden you with the full nine minutes of film with Arabic narration. It shocked Tunisians. The safes were hidden behind walls of fake books, some of them Korans. There were several floor to ceiling safes filled with tight bundles of Euros, Swiss francs, USD, TDN, Another floor to ceiling concealed safe held boxes and boxes of gems and jewelery, There was a case of false documents, and another of various alcohols.
This is only the tip of the iceberg - probably get-away money that they didn't have time to get to. But it's nothing compared to what they syphoned out of the country every year at the expense of their own people. If you feel like watching the whole thing here it is.
Last Sunday, February 20, this news broadcast was made of a horde in one of the President's homes in Sidi Bou Said, less than ten minutes from where I live. The actual piece was about twice this long, but I didn't think I'd burden you with the full nine minutes of film with Arabic narration. It shocked Tunisians. The safes were hidden behind walls of fake books, some of them Korans. There were several floor to ceiling safes filled with tight bundles of Euros, Swiss francs, USD, TDN, Another floor to ceiling concealed safe held boxes and boxes of gems and jewelery, There was a case of false documents, and another of various alcohols.
This is only the tip of the iceberg - probably get-away money that they didn't have time to get to. But it's nothing compared to what they syphoned out of the country every year at the expense of their own people. If you feel like watching the whole thing here it is.
Monday, February 14, 2011
How are things, you ask?
I don't think I know. My sense of Tunisia's stability depends entirely on whom I talk to. Every weekend, there is something bad going on in the south, and last Wednesday, there was an "interesting" event at our local mall. The employees struck because the mall reduced their hours from 8 to 6 and reduced the value of their meal tickets as well. The mall food court is too expensive for its employees, and they don't get enough time to go home, so it represented a real hardship. Well, in the middle of the walkout, "bad elements integrated themselves" into the crowd and tried to get back into the mall to loot. (Many people are of the opinion that these "bad elements" that keep popping up are part of Leila Trabelsi's militia, whom she continues to pay from her hideout in Libya. Who knows?) Anyway, there is a tank and armed soldiers in the mall parking lot, a new fixture, so these ne'er-do-wells did not go unnoticed. Shots were fired into the air to change their minds.
You see, I wouldn't have liked that if I had been there. I don't like hearing live ammunition while I park my car to do the groceries. The good news is that the mall employees got their hours and meal tickets restored. The bad news is that all the malls and large intersections and beaches and and and have tanks on them with armed soldiers. I am not getting used to that, and have trouble - unlike the Tunisians - associating their presence with security. Plus, they take up about 8 parking spots. ;-)
The downfall of Mubarek in Egypt helps a lot. There's no going back now. Eyes are trained on Algeria now. Tunisians are justifiably proud of what they started in this tiny country. What the US military couldn't accomplish in Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan in two huge wars and hundreds of millions of dollars, the youth of Tunisia brought about in a week. Amazing times.
You see, I wouldn't have liked that if I had been there. I don't like hearing live ammunition while I park my car to do the groceries. The good news is that the mall employees got their hours and meal tickets restored. The bad news is that all the malls and large intersections and beaches and and and have tanks on them with armed soldiers. I am not getting used to that, and have trouble - unlike the Tunisians - associating their presence with security. Plus, they take up about 8 parking spots. ;-)
The downfall of Mubarek in Egypt helps a lot. There's no going back now. Eyes are trained on Algeria now. Tunisians are justifiably proud of what they started in this tiny country. What the US military couldn't accomplish in Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan in two huge wars and hundreds of millions of dollars, the youth of Tunisia brought about in a week. Amazing times.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Just got home from my first day back at school. We are the first to re-open in Tunis, but are on a limited day (9-2) until the US Embassy tells us otherwise. I kind of like it. No school buses yet, so only those students whose parents can drive them can attend. Parents were made welcome to stay all day if they wanted to, and I had several in the library - a good chance to talk about books and reading. Apparently, we had 60% in attendance.
Took Paige to the airport at noon for her 2pm flight. No problems. She'll miss her connection from Paris because her original 9 am flight was cancelled, but they'll put her up somewhere for the night and she also knows several people there if she's stuck. She won't get into Victoria til 7:30 pm Friday, poor thing.
I took a different way home today, and saw three burned out vehicles at the side of the road. The Ben Alis and Trebelsis owned every car dealership and auto plant in the country, so new cars became targets of the revolution. People broke in to dealerships, took a car, drove it til the gas ran out, and then stripped it for parts before setting fire to whatever was left. Why not just steal the car, you ask? May I remind you that with all possible documentation, it took four and a half months for me to be able to drive my car here. There is no way a Tunisian could drive a car without plates, or get plates for a stolen car. Best to take those shiny wheels and rims and put them on your Fiesta.
Anyway, all is calm. Last night was the second in a row without low-flying helicopters or gunshots - or so say the people who were here to experience it. I'm guessing that Monday will be school as usual with a full schedule, but maybe without extra-curricular activities. I am very impressed with the service provided by the American Embassy, and disappointed at the Canadian equivalent. For example, the US had a town hall meeting on Tuesday so that everyone could voice concerns and listen to experts. The US just announced that ATMs were eating off-shore cards in an attempt to foil the Ben Ali/Trabelsis from taking out their money, and advised expats to go into the bank to make transactions. I would have lost my card today if I hadn't been part of the American School. The Canadian Embassador's children go to our school, for heaven's sake!
Not as bad as the French, however, and I do love the downward comparison model. Six mothers and their children were isolated by a sniper inside the French School here. The army came to the rescue, but since the school is officially on French territory, they could not move in without the OK of the French Ambassador. That approval did not come in until 10 am the following day. The youngest child was 2. Can you imagine keeping those children low, away from windows and quiet for 15 hours?! Not I.
Took Paige to the airport at noon for her 2pm flight. No problems. She'll miss her connection from Paris because her original 9 am flight was cancelled, but they'll put her up somewhere for the night and she also knows several people there if she's stuck. She won't get into Victoria til 7:30 pm Friday, poor thing.
I took a different way home today, and saw three burned out vehicles at the side of the road. The Ben Alis and Trebelsis owned every car dealership and auto plant in the country, so new cars became targets of the revolution. People broke in to dealerships, took a car, drove it til the gas ran out, and then stripped it for parts before setting fire to whatever was left. Why not just steal the car, you ask? May I remind you that with all possible documentation, it took four and a half months for me to be able to drive my car here. There is no way a Tunisian could drive a car without plates, or get plates for a stolen car. Best to take those shiny wheels and rims and put them on your Fiesta.
Anyway, all is calm. Last night was the second in a row without low-flying helicopters or gunshots - or so say the people who were here to experience it. I'm guessing that Monday will be school as usual with a full schedule, but maybe without extra-curricular activities. I am very impressed with the service provided by the American Embassy, and disappointed at the Canadian equivalent. For example, the US had a town hall meeting on Tuesday so that everyone could voice concerns and listen to experts. The US just announced that ATMs were eating off-shore cards in an attempt to foil the Ben Ali/Trabelsis from taking out their money, and advised expats to go into the bank to make transactions. I would have lost my card today if I hadn't been part of the American School. The Canadian Embassador's children go to our school, for heaven's sake!
Not as bad as the French, however, and I do love the downward comparison model. Six mothers and their children were isolated by a sniper inside the French School here. The army came to the rescue, but since the school is officially on French territory, they could not move in without the OK of the French Ambassador. That approval did not come in until 10 am the following day. The youngest child was 2. Can you imagine keeping those children low, away from windows and quiet for 15 hours?! Not I.
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