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.”