ProudlyTunisian

Last year was an exciting year for many nations, as General Elections took place in different continents from the United States of America to Sierra Leone, Ghana to Japan, France, Serbia, Netherlands, Armenia as well as elections of transitional governments in Libya and Egypt. However, this year, all attention is directed to Kenya. Having visited Kenya twice myself, I’ve fallen in love with the country, the culture and the people. The story started even from the airport when I was taking my visa and the officer said “shukran”! I thought maybe he was trying to speak my language as he saw that I am from Tunisia. But, within a few hours of being in Kenya, I heard even more Arabic-sounding words, like “marhaba”, “Ahsante”, “sabah al kheer”.  I found out that Swahili, the official language of Kenya, is actually derived from Arabic, my mother tongue!  Since then, my stay in Nairobi became a continuous learning journey. I was walking in the street and saw “...

Yesterday, I was asked by American freshmen students during the Arabic Cultural Hour I organized : "Do people in Tunisia live peacefully with each other". My answer was: "We do because we have been raised on a culture of tolerance and solidarity". I was even giving examples of how we saved and hosted the Jews during the Holocaust or how the extended family stand together in crises. However, what I see today in Tunisia is none of our culture, spirit or grandma stories about the 50s and 60s. Under two dictatorships, people were exiled, jailed, tortured, oppressed by those in power but NEVER assassinated. Though all the frustration it has been through these last two years, the Tunisian society has started to take a political shape, from over 100 emerging parties in 2011 to three major blocs today, from bullshit discussions and unknown figures on media outlets to diverse constructive debate, solid views and interesting figures and leaders' positions, from...