Paradise lost

More sad stories emerge from Tunisia as it descends into rioting and chaos. I have a huge soft spot for that country: it was the scene of my first overseas fieldwork as an impressionable archaeology student, and the thrill of working abroad has never left me.

I've returned a few times over the intervening years, each time to some sadness that Tunisia just doesn't seem able to make a better fist of providing for most of its people. Simon Tisdall has written a rather smart commentary on some of the underlying reasons why Tunisia and many of the other Arab states are as they are.

On my second trip there, I was caught up in the last major urban unrest -- the so-called Bread Riots caused by the decision of the then-President-for-Life Habib Bourghiba (who was probably senile by that time), who'd removed the subsidy on bread. Impoverished people stormed the streets, and in one particularly uncomfortable moment I found myself in a, er, sandwich between crowds of unhappy protesters and a phalanx of armoured personnel carriers. Discretion being the better part of valour I ran like a madman, only reverting to a more dignified Englishman's stroll about half a mile away.

The current President is clearly a corrupt autocrat who hasn't exactly impoverished himself in the service of his country. In fact, his extended family has become suspiciously wealthy (his wife and children spectacularly so).

It's easy to forget when travelling as a tourist that this is a police state, and, despite the good things there (a long history of emancipation of women, relatively high levels of religious tolerance), the state still routinely engages in torture and human rights abuses. Presidential elections regularly secure almost Soviet levels of support for the deeply unpopular incumbent.

But I have such beautiful memories -- of places like that (above), the ruined Roman city at Sbeitla (the photo above that one is of Carthage, the capital of the Carthaginian Empire which was so brutally suppressed by Rome; and the first photo in this post is of the ruined Roman city at Dougga).

Modern Tunisia has a decidedly French flavour (France only granted independence in 1956), so there is good bread and wine along with extraordinary Islamic monuments like Kairouan:

Lush coastal lands and vast, desolately beautiful deserts; the tail end of the High Atlas and beautiful Berber tribespeople. Tunisia is a beautiful place much of whose income is now generated by tourism: unfortunately, current events are likely to make that business much tougher.

Tunisia is a beautiful country and I have experienced nothing but warm hospitality from its people. I hope it finds a peaceful resolution soon.

A few hours later...
Good news: The President has apparently fled, taking his parasitical family with him. I can't claim this was as a direct result of him reading Top Scoff but, then again, I can't prove it wasn't. I very much hope this is the start of a better future for Tunisia.