Half of Tunisia’s population wants to be French, the other half wants to be Saudi. Tunisia’s secret support, and weapon, its chief civilizing instrument, is the French language, and the ability to access and understand, French radio, television, French-language newspapers. It is a success story that the officialdom of La Francophonie don’t wish to discuss publicly, because it would imply a certain superiority, of France, of the West, of non-Islam over Islam. That superiority is obvious to many, but they just don’t want to be caught speaking, or even thinking, in such terms.
Tunisia does not have the easy money of some other Arab states. It has to work for a living. There is agriculture — the dates on a stick, still drippping with juice, that you can find in any Monoprix in France. There is the Tunisian olive oil, usually mixed into a “mediterranean” blend with Spanish and Greek and Turkish oils, then bottled in Italy to be passed off, for some unwary consumers, as Italian olive oil. There is a modest amount of foreign aid, but right now France, its chief benefactor, is not doing well, and the Gulf Arabs so far have been giving their money to Egypt, though they may now extend aid to the Tunisians. And there is, or was, tourism — but the killing at the museum will damage, possibly desttroy that. I wouldn’t travel to Tunisia or any other Musliim country now –or ever. Would you?
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