Category: Tunisia

A bit earlier, I was flipping through news channels when I found “Inside The Middle East” on CNN, and they were talking about the Tunisian island of Djerba and how it could teach the world a lesson about religious tolerance.

The show talked about how Jewish Tunisians have been living in Tunisia for over 2000 years and how they’ve always lived in peace and harmony with Muslim Tunisians.

There were a bunch of interviews with both Jews and Muslims who all talked about how they lived as brothers and how they always put country before religion.

The show also mentioned the terror attack that took place a few years ago in Djerba at the Ghriba synagogue, and how it didn’t affect the relations between the Jewish and Muslim population and how they’re always getting along together great.

I too think that Djerba is a great example of religious tolerance and that more people should learn to accept each other, respect each other’s beliefs and co-exist peacefully.

Street Lamps on the sides of La Marsa’s Boulevard.

Picked for you from my photolog.

The Handball World Championship has been taking place in Tunisia ever since January 23rd.

Most of the matches are being held in the newly constructed Rades indoors stadium and in the Menzah indoors stadium.

The Tunisian team has been doing pretty great and tonight was their last match in the first round putting them first in their group after defeating Angola, Canada and Denmark, and tying with France and Greece.

I wish the Tunisian team the best of luck in the second round and hopefully they’ll go on doing a great job and improving their game more.
They’ve made us all very proud already.

I also love the logo they made for this championship. It’s really simple, straightforward and nice.

For more information on the championship, check out the official Tunisia 2005 Handball World Championship site.

Houssein has gone on and started a directory for Tunisian blogs at TN Blogs.

I think it’s a great idea and a great way to group and promote Tunisian blogs.

An aggregator for Tunisian blogs could be in the works too. That’d be really cool.

Thank you Houssein, great work 🙂

Picked for you from my photolog.

The Punic bay in Carthage / Tunisia.

The city of Douz , in the Tunisian south, will host the 37th edition of its international festival, December 25-29, 2004.

The desert-city Douz, known as the gateway to the Saharan desert, is a small town in the country’s South, located some 450 kilometers south of the capital city, Tunis. The city’s exotic charm, rich fauna and flora, and typical bedouin lifestyle make it a great destination for desert lovers.

As it is the case each year, during the period from December 25-29, Douz will host the 2004 edition of its international festival. The 5-day festival, which was originally created in 1910, represents an important cultural and touristic event. It attracts annually a total of more than 100,000 visitors.

The Douz festival promotes the rich civilizational heritage of the people of the desert as well as their typical customs and traditions. During the festival, visitors attend camel and arab horse races as well as hunting scenes featuring the local hunting dog or ‘slougui’. Various colourful scenes of desert life are enacted

Many international dance and music bands perform during the festival . Poetry readings are also held . This year, an international conference on the theme: ” Creation and the Sahara” will be organized by Gabes University.

A friend of mine from Douz has a portal dedicated to the city which also provides real-time coverage of the festival (in French and Arabic). To check it out, go to Douz.org.

I’ve visited Douz twice and gone for great camel rides in it’s desert. It’s so beautiful and I can’t wait to visit it again.

Picked for you from my photolog.

According to an international survey conducted by the Gallup International public opinion and market research company, Tunisians are the most optimistic when it comes to believing that the coming year will be better than 2004.

Asked whether 2005 would be better than 2004, 72 percent of Tunisians replied in the positive.

Poll results show lower “optimism scores” in other countries of the world.

These include 71% in Georgia, 70% in Kuwait, 66% in Panama and 65% in the U.S. 61 % in Australia, 60% in Argentina and 60% in New Zealand.

Other nations score high on the “pessimism index”.

[Source: Gallup International]

Mahmoud Messaadi, 93, a renowned Tunisian writer, a former minister and speaker of parliament, died Thursday in Tunis.

Born in 1911, editor of Al-Mabahith Review (1944-1947), secretary-general of UGTT (Tunisian Trade Union from 1948-1953), minister of national education (1958), he was also a general inspector of education.

Messaadi published in 1955 a play called ‘The Dam’ (Assadd), which was highly praised by the Egyptian Taha Hussein and was studied by the orientalists Massignon and Berque.

According to Taha Hussein, Messaadi succeeded to reconcile in this play Muslim philosophy with existentialism.

Messaadi is also known for his landmark literary work, “Haddatha Abu Hurayra” (Abu Hurayra said), also published in 1973. He is the author of a book in French about “Tempo in Arab rhyme,” published in 1981.

Under his watch, the University of Tunis was created in 1960.

He also served as minister of culture and speaker of parliament.

[Source: Tunisia Online, Middle East Online]