Don't Judge Me

It is an historic day here in Tunisia as the first elections since the 2011 revolution are taking place. Although Islamist parties are slated for big wins, it seems at least some Tunisians are not enthusiastic about further moralizing and restrictions on individual freedoms from political and religious leaders.

The Morning Fix

Moving inland toward the west, away from Tunisia's Mediterranean coast, I arrived in Kerouan yesterday morning. Because of its ancient and imposing Grand Mosque, this town is known as the holiest Islamic site in North Africa. I found a small and very basic room at the Sabra Hotel for about 8 dollars, whose best feature by far is a view of the towering main gates of Kerouan's ancient souk (market). The downside of the location is I abruptly woke up at 4:30 this morning to the imam's call to prayer over the nearby loudspeaker at a mosque, along with the racket below at the hotel's cafe (see photo above) where a waiter was busy outside noisily setting up dozens of tables and chairs. After prayers at the mosques, male worshipers were at the cafe by 6 am getting their early-morning fix of coffee and cigarettes.

Land of the Lotus Eaters

The island of Jerba is as far south as I will go off Tunisia's Mediterranean coast. As you can see from how I am dressed in the above self-portrait, it is cool on the island now (and also very windy). From here I will start heading inland toward the west, where it will be warmer. Jerba is known as the island of the lotus eaters, and although I haven't seen anyone eating lotus here (whose root, by the way, is delicious when cooked Japanese-style in soy sauce and toasted sesame oil), there are a lot of pomegranates and dates for sale.

Elections will take place in Tunisia on 23 October, and it is predicted that the Islamist parties will win a majority of seats. This is exactly what many westerners fear as one of the outcomes of the Arab Spring -- a stronger foothold for the conservative Islamists in countries like Tunisia and Egypt.

On the other hand, it looks like no threat of revolution anytime soon in the Unted Arab Emirates. The UAE's leading sheiks are dealing with the five activists arrested (see 26 April 2011 blog posting, "Prisoners of Conscience in the UAE") by keeping them locked up in prison without access to open and fair trials for "publicly insulting UAE officials," the insult being a petition to UAE leaders requesting, among other democratic reforms, the right of UAE citizens to vote (http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/10/08/uae-families-plea-free-activists). The following comments off the web give one an idea of how many Emiratis feel about the imprisoned activists.

Many UAE citizens have expressed support for the trial, staging pro-government rallies in front of Abu Dhabi’s Federal Supreme Court at every hearing.One of the demonstrators, who asked to be identified only as Thabet, says many Emiratis are highly offended by criticism of their leaders. "They are our fathers, they are the people who took care of us. They are the people who took us from our mud houses to what we have today, so in that sense it was very hurtful. My anger towards (political activist) Ahmed al Mansoor was the anger I would have towards a brother. He’s part of a family and the head of that family is Sheikh Khalifa," he said. Abu Dhabi resident Ahmed Jumaa had similar words. “Maybe I will allow you to attack my brother, but I will not accept you to attack my royal family," he said. Rights groups say the five defendants, their families and their lawyers have received death threats as a result of what they say is an “ongoing campaign of intimidation.”

Well Done, Please

I arrived in Sfax yesterday. Located south of Tunis on the Mediterranean coast, this is Tunisia's second largest city. Toward evening I headed for In Time, a small pizza and sandwich restaurant recommend in my guide book. I settled in at an outside table and after waiting fifteen minutes or so for a waiter to come and take my order I finally got up to go inside the restaurant to find him. Just before entering, I heard a woman screaming and then saw waiters frantically running around. Then I noticed the flames and smoke coming from the rear of the restaurant, inside the kitchen. Some of the restaurant staff ran around to the back, hooked up a garden hose, and began spraying water into the kitchen window to try and douse the flames. After about fifteen minutes a firetruck arrived and by this time a crowd from the nearby apartments had gathered, holding handkerchiefs over their faces to try to block out the nasty smelling smoke. I hung out for a while and snapped a few photos as the fire was eventually extinguished, then decided to head to another restaurant as it didn't look like the In Time would be serving up any more meals on that particular night.