Audio Tape: Tunisia – The Arab Spring Ten Years After Sidibouzid Street Vendor, Mohammed Bouazizi Immolated Himself: A Not-So Sentimental Analysis. KGNU Boulder. Hemispheres, Middle East Dialogues Hosted by Jim Nelson. Tuesday, December 22, 2020.
December 23, 2020
Ferry from Djerba to the Tunisian mainland. 1966. Photo Credit: Tom Rochon
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What follows is an edited audio tape of last night’s (December 22, 2020) KGNU – Hemispheres – Middle East Dialogues with Ibrahim Kazerooni and myself. Middle East Dialogues is produced and hosted by Jim Nelson.
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View from the Left Bank: Rob Prince's Blog 
Thanks Rob and Abe for another informative discussion. I have been to Tunisia twice since the revolution. The first time I went was right after the terrorist attack, and tourists were scarce item. I went to the Museum and saw all he bullet holes in the wall and to the beach that was part of the attack. This year I went back. I flew from JFK into Rome with a plane of Chinese, two weeks before Italy shut down. I went to Tunis from Rome after a week and the first gift I got in Tunisia was Covid-19 (after a week incubation in Italy). I am 75 years old and I have five co-morbidities. I treated it with Tunisian Beer and Lunesta and spent about three days sleeping. The first two days were pretty difficult and I got well enough to hobble around around by the third day. I had a horrible lung issue but by the second week, I went into a Tunis drug store and got a Z-Pack, finally cleared it up . At that time I didn’t know I had a killer disease. I had all the symptoms, a temperature of 102, severe tiredness, extreme lung distress, but I survived. Then Italy closed down and I got stuck in Paris. Emperor Trump closed down the planes and there were thousands of people lined up in Paris trying to get home. When I finally got back to the states, I was well and they asked me where I flew in from and Paris was hunkey dorey, Rome would have been a problem. I would probably have been quarantined in Trump Tower if it weren’t for that Z-Pack clearing up the bronchitis.
Both Rob and Ibrahim advocate democracy in Tunisia but seem to feel it doesn’t exist. Both also see the first election after 2010 to be a result of the lack of political organization in Tunisia by anyone other than religious parties. But what isn’t clear to me: do you both think that none of the subsequent elections of the past ten years reflected the views of Tunisian voters? If that’s what you think, do you both think there has been significant voter suppression? If not, how do you explain the results of these elections? ( You both see foreign influence operating in the region, and I can believe that France, the US, and the IMF can influence the Tunisian government, but i have a very hard time thinking such outside forces can totally influence elections and voters.)