Maghreb. By Uncle Monty.

*****

*****

New Maghreb.

By Uncle Monty at London.

Story Photos By Alex Albion.
Other Images From The Web.
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:: Tunisian News Update - Feb. 7, 2011 ::
Tunisia Suspends Former Governing Party.
The announcement was made after crowds pillaged

and then burned a police station in the northwestern

city of Kef. On Saturday, the police there shot and killed

at least two demonstrators and injured at least 17 others.
It was the worst violence in Tunisia since its autocratic

president, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, was forced into exile

on Jan. 14 after a month of nationwide antigovernment

protests. The country is currently run by a caretaker

government. By The Associated Press.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/07/world/africa/07tunisia.html?_r=1

...
Evacuated safely from Tunisia in the

past 24 hours, the horrific scenes of the
Tunisian Uprising are now firmly etched

forever in my head. Almost like a nice birth-

day gift, I escaped the carnage and bloody

revolt unscathed and in one piece although

at times sheer anarchy prevailed all around

me on the Tunis streets of pure pandemonium

and violent death and unleashed rage of the

nation's people.

*****

They rightly reacted against the now fallen Ben Ali
autocratic regime of 23 years of tyanny, thuggery,
and calculated repression against their Maghreb

nation. I solidly salute the Tunisian people!!

*****

The danger with any revolt is it begins and

ends with its goals and aims totally distorted

from its initial inception and impetus. Such

could well be the case with the Tunisian

Uprising that could see the people being

ruled by a new regime that is not much

better than the past one of Ben Ali's 23 years

of absolute rule over the defenseless Maghreb

people. That may be the final outcome, but

for now all I can see are dead bodies, blood-

soaked street protesters, trigger-happy

copz, violence at every turn, destroyed in-

frastructure like the burned out railway

station that I had travelled to and from

during my train trips here and there in

Turnisia before the start of the people's

revolt; the looting of supermarkets and

businesses, and general anarchy all

around me. Revolts are rarely pretty,

although the Jasmine Revolution is

oddly pretty to those of us who support

it whether we're Tunisian or not.

*****

In Tunisia there are basically three social classes:

an emerging Westernized and Americanized

middle class of young educated and computer

savvy adults and high schoolers of 18 to 35 years;

the older Bedouin, Islamic and Muslim tradition-

alists of 40 to 65 years of age; and the rural and

urban poor of all ages that suffer huge lack of

work skills and educational attainment. It was

from the young and angry educated classes that

finally brought the country to open revolution

after the terrible treatment by the Tunis police
against a young university graduate seeking to
sell his market produce to feed himself while
the dastard cops stopped him trying to earn a
living along with them confiscating his food cart.
Out of utter dispair, the young man then doused
himself in petrol to protest the true tyranny of
Tunisia. What he did was to create the seeds
of the Jasmine Revolution that should bare
his good name forever - Mohamed Bouazizi of

Sidi Bouzid. He was a honest street fruit vendor.
*****
Of the many countries that I have visited -
perhaps some 35 or so - I was struck by
the friendiness of many folkz I met inside
Tunisia, especially by the young guyz and
galz who would not only wave at me but
more times than not even stop on the streets
to chat with me and to try out their taught
English on me. I was more than glad to
share our time together. At Carthage-
Presidence, I was almost mobbed by a
group of very friendly high schoolers as
I by chance walked by the high school
during their school break. We were finally
asked to move along because we blocked
the sidewalk big time ... Whatever, I was
amazed at such friendliness from complete
strangers. I cannot imagine such happening
anywhere inside England or Europe or

America thesedays. What a pity! I just hope

the revolt does not inadvertently change

or reduce the friendliness of the Tunisians

toward foreigner visitors like me and the

thousands of other Brits and Europeans

who love the people and the country.

.

Tunisia: how does it compare to other countries

in the region? Is the uprising in Tunisia likely to

happen in other similar countries? Here's the data.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/datablog/2011/jan/18/tunisia-data-store
*****

On a practical level, Tunisia is remarkably

inexpensive to stay compared to the rip-off

costs and prices in the UK and all over

Europe. One of my 300 mile round trips by

train cost me a mere 7 quid while a similar

trip inside Britain by train would

have probably cost me at least 85 quid!!

Eating out was a delight at finding meals

that cost me a couple of quid by avoiding

tourist traps at Sousse and elsewhere.

Hotels are cheap, too, as along as you don't

stay at Hammamet's or Monastir's swanky

hotels designed exclusively for Europeans

to pay through the nose for hotel care.

*****

One problem, however, that should be noted

is while you can change British Sterling easily

into Tunisian Dinars - just over 2 Dinars per

quid - when you come to leave the country

the foreign exchange operators refuse to covert

your Tunisian money back into British pounds.

They will only give you Euros and/or U.S. bucks.

No information is given beforehand about that

by the Tunisian Tourist Centers to those

visiting the country. Only when you're about

to depart do you find out.

*****

As for The Jasmine Revolution, whatever happens

in the future will now result in the rise of The New

Maghreb inside Tunisia. Whether that will be

good or bad for the people, that remains to be

seen. The old dictator Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali

is finished - "Game Over" - and his greedy and

lawless family members - and, of course, the

greedest of them all is his hated wife Leila

Trabelsi, who allegedly walked off with £37.5

million in bullion or gold bars. Presumably

stashed away either in Saudia Arabia, where

they have been given asylum, or at some fancy

and corrupt bank somewhere in the world.

*****

Having been a small witness to the first

people's true revolution in the Arab world,

there by the grace of God I witnessed

something quite extraordinary for its

sheer speed and finality against those

who just days before could have never

imagined it could happen in of all places

like Tunisia against the tryanny and

criminal power of the Ben Ali family and

their cronies and gangsters like it has.

Bravo!! Bravo!!!

*****

Hopefully, they will be hunted down and

put on trial and sent to the same inhumane

Tunisian prisons where they sent their

opponents for years to suffer and rot

away as political prisoners against the

Ben Ali strongman regime. Whatever

they get they will deserve with some 33

relatives of ex-first lady Leila Trabelsi

having been already arrested, thankfully.

.

New Cabinet first meets.

Tunisia cabinet to lift party bans. Interim

government decides to recognise previously

banned parties and adopts an amnesty

for all political prisoners.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/201112014107109184.html

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Switzerland freezes assets of ex-Tunisian leader; It

estimated he has $620 million in Swiss bank accounts.
http://www.mail.com/int/news/europe/140822-switzerland-freezes-assets-ex-tunisian-leader.html#.1258-stage-subhero-3
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Ministers quit new Tunisian govt. Troops

battle protesters on the streets as at least

three ministers resign from the country's

new 'unity government'.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/201111810106847770.html
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I shall watch with intense interest as more

unfolds after post-Ben Ali. I so much want to

explore Tunisia alot more and I have already

forgiven my Sousse robber of my main camera

in light of all that has happened inside his

country. Maybe he was so desperate to

survive and so poor, too, he just took it

out of me thinking I was a rich foreigner

with everything while he had little or

nothing. Not that such justified his

robbery against me, but I can now see

the economic pain that so many young

folkz lived under. That probably drove

him to robbery and others like him.

*****

My secondary camera - or my backup

camera - was soon used to capture the

last few images I could before being

evacuated from Tunis. As for taking

images of the uprising, I felt it best not

to push the envelope by taking photos

that would draw too much attention to

me as a foreigner and the risk of getting

a bullet in my head or getting attacked

physically on the bloody and dangerous

streets when my major concern was to

focus entirely on getting out of the country

in one piece. That I did, by the grace of

our Good Lord!! Praise Him, Always!!

*****

After I have now rested up from my re-

markable first-hand, yet gruelling and at

times rather dangerous, experience in

Tunisia, I cannot wait to undertake more

adventures around the world for 2011.

.
Truly, Uncle Monty.
+St. Anthony, 2011.

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:: Feedback & Comments ::

thebiggerissue@k.st
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At Sousse's Play Park 3 Dayz

Before The Tunisian Uprising, 2011.

.
3 Dayz Before Tunisian Uprising, Sousse Soccer

Fans Celebrate Cup Win All Around The Medina.

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Just 1 Day before Uprising, view of a Tunisian

town from my train window on my way back to

the capital Tunis. The revolt was then brewing

unbeknown to the rail passengers and me!!

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Good old gal, she is!!

.
Ministers quit new Tunisian govt. Troops

battle protesters on the streets as at least

three ministers resign from the country's

new 'unity government'.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/201111810106847770.html

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Wife of Tunisian president fled riot-torn country with

1.5 TONNES of gold (that should help feed the son-

in-law's pet tiger). By David Williams.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1347938/Tunisian-presidents-wife-Leila-Trabelsi-fled-riots-35m-gold-bars.html
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Tunisia forms unity government in effort to quell unrest.
Serving ministers of defence, interior, finance and foreign

affairs all keep their jobs alongside with newcomers from

opposition. By Angelique Chrisafis in Tunis & Ian Black.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/17/tunisia-forms-unity-government

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Anglicans For JPII - Great John Paul II Will Be

Beautified May 1, 2011, By Pope Benedict XVI at Rome.

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The Big Issue:

Helping The Homeless or A SCAM?

By Andrew Coates.

Edited By Uncle Monty.

http://allaboutthebigissue.blogspot.com/

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