August 11, 2004
DISTANCE LEARNING:
An American in Tunisia (Michael J. Totten, 08/11/2004, Tech Central Station)
It was in Douz, Tunisia, an oasis in the deep south of the country at the edge of the Sahara, that I met the shopkeeper Jamel."Everything is free today!" he said as my wife Shelly and I approached his carpet and pottery shop.
"Everything?" I said.
"Everything," he said. "You're from England?"
"No, from America."
His eyes turned to saucers and he took a step back. Few Americans go to Tunisia. I didn't see one in two weeks. "Welcome to Tunisia!" he said and put his hand on his heart. "You must come sit and have tea with me." He didn't want to sell us anything. He just wanted to talk. That's how it goes in Tunisia if you're an American.
Word has it most Arabs hate America. That may be the case. Plenty are mad for one reason or other at least. You could be fooled, though, if you walk the right Arab "street." Tunisia is 98 percent Arab Muslim, but it's no hostile bastion of fundamentalism. Whatever gripes Tunisians may have about us, they certainly don't make it personal.
There must be some kind of mathematical equation you could draw up to express the phenomenon that the farther they are away from Arabia the more likely Muslim nations are to be democratically inclined. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 11, 2004 1:12 PM
A bit off-topic, but this reminds me of something that happened when I was visiting Morrocco in '88 or '89. Me & my traveling buddy had flown into Tangier. Known as a notorious tourist trap, we had determined to get out of there as fast as possible.
In the half-day we were in Tangier, hordes of children mobbed us, offerring to be our guide, or wanted money, etc. etc. etc. They seemed to know a little bit of just about every european language, and ask you where you were from in each language they knew until they hit yours. Me & my buddy decided to play dumb & only offer that we were from South Carolina and Georgia, respectively (which was true).
This ruse worked for a while. But then I was approached by a kid wearing blue mesh baseball cap backwards. Same routine -- and I said "South Carolina". He smiled, broadly, and turned around his cap. It was stitched with the letters "U.S.S. South Carolina" and the outline of a Navy destroyer. Turns out the ship (a guided missile carrier) had been in port recently. Busted!!
Posted by: Twn at August 11, 2004 1:44 PMIt's not often I find good things to say about congresscritters, but one at least has got his head on his shoulders, Randy Cunningham (R-CA). He had some interesting things to say about Arab/American long-term relationships.
I've quoted him on my blog Crossroads Arabia
Posted by: John at August 11, 2004 5:21 PM>the farther they are away from Arabia the more
>likely Muslim nations are to be democratically
>inclined
It's called "distance from the center of the infection". You used to get the same phenomenon in France -- the farther you got from Paris (especially into Normandy), the friendlier the French were.
Posted by: Ken at August 12, 2004 12:35 PM