Category: Tunisia

Freezing Cold

It’s unbelievable.
Just this past Sunday, i was wondering how weird it was that winter hadn’t started yet, even though we were well into December.

And KABAAM!, i wake up the following morning and it’s freezing cold.

Ok, it doesn’t snow that often in Tunisia, and the only places it does are in the North-West of the country. So maybe it’s easy to think it’s not as cold as other countries that are always covered in snow, but well i disagree.
Tunisia is a coastal country with the mediterranean sea as most of it’s North and East side borders, which gives the coastal regions a certain level of humidity, that when combined with bitter cold goes straight to the bones and then introduces the ass-freezing syndrome we all suffer from 😛

Good thing is that our new home is kind of warm. And even in this cold weather, we still haven’t needed to use the heaters.
But the problem is when you’re outside, and no matter how much you’re wearing, you’re certainly gonna be feeling the painful bite of the winter.

Anyway, i still prefer winter over summer. In winter at least you can keep throwing on extra clothes until you feel warm. In the summer, you keep on taking off clothes, but then you’re naked and there’s nothing else to take off and you’re still dying from the heat.
So give me a winter anytime of the year, and take away those damned hot days of summer.

First 5+5 Dialogue Summit – Tunis 2003

So today and tomorrow, Tunisia is hosting the first 5+5 dialogue summit with the participation of ten leaders from the western Mediterranean region.

Our President is receiving the heads of state and government of Algeria, Morocco, Libya, Mauritania, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Malta.

The agenda of the Summit will include various items of interest to the Mediterranean countries such as those of common security, stability, political consultation, economic cooperation and trade, regional integration and various social and cultural issues.

I think it’s great how Tunisia is playing more and more of a pivotal and center-stage role in the world today, and how it’s pushing forward a lot of great initiatives and ideas.
Makes me more and more proud of being Tunisian every day 🙂

For more info, visit the official website for the First 5+5 Dialogue Summit – Tunis 2003.

Lablabi

Last night, after picking up my wife from her French course, we decided to go and have Lablabi for dinner.

Lablabi is a Tunisian speciality which is especially great in winter time, it’s basically bread crumbs, chick peas, some spices, an egg, olive oil, and a lot of harissa (our famous hot sauce).

I haven’t had lablabi in a long long time, maybe over 6 years. And my wife never tried it before even though she heard a lot about it since she came with me to Tunisia.

So, it was her first time and she liked it a lot, even though her mouth nearly caught fire with all the hot sauce that was in it, and as for me, i loved it, and it was a delight eating it again.

Winter is late this year, and is barely beginning, but i have a feeling that we’ll be eating lablabi more often this winter 😉

The Final Decision

Last night, a new game show started on Tunisian TV, which i have to say is the best game show i’ve ever seen on Tunisian TV in my whole life.

The show is called “The Final Decision”, and it’s kind of a hybrid of “Who wants to be a millionaire ?” & “The Weakest Link”.
The grand prize is 200 Thousand Dinars, which is pretty neat, i don’t think any other Tunisian game show threw away that much money, but well i just said it they’re Tunisians, so they’re not gonna just throw that away, they’re gonna make it damn hard and frustrating to get it.

The game starts with 6 contestants who are asked a number of multiple choice questions. The person who answers right the fastest gets to give any other player a yellow card, and if he answers wrong, he himself gets a yellow card. And of course, just like in football, 2 yellow cards means they’re out of the game.
This goes on until only 2 players are left, and they move on to the next round.

In the second round, each player is joined by a partner, and they are each asked 5 multiple choice questions. Each question has a value of 40000 Dinars, and they can split that 40000 and bet it on different answers if they’re not sure.
In the end of round 2, there’s another fastest answering question that decides who moves on to the final round.

The final round is all about putting your money where your mouth is, which is very frustrating and nerve wrecking.
The contestant and his partner are seperated, and the contestant has to answer 5 multiple choice questions, betting his money on the answers he thinks are right, and losing any money he bets on a wrong answer.
The partner has only one chance to veto the contestant’s answer, and if they do, they have to answer the rest of the questions alone.

Yesterday was the first show, and a young couple won. They got out of round 2 with 160000 Dinars, and lost most of it in the final round, only winning 15000 Dinars at the end.

The questions are mostly general knowledge questions and they aren’t that hard. But then again, home spectators always think so 😛

I think it’s really great and fun, and i’m truly considering giving it a shot.
Maybe, just maybe, i could get out of it with a nice amount of money 🙂

Thikra Mohamed R.I.P

I didn’t blog about this when it happened a few days ago, as i thought it was better to let the whole thing sink in and wait for the story to become clearer.

Thikra Mohamed, or as she was called in Egypt Zekra, a female Tunisian singer living in Egypt, was shot dead on Friday by her Egyptian husband, who shot her, her secretary, her business manager and then committed suicide.

It was circulated that the husband was drunk when he committed the crimes, but recent evidence proves that the whole thing was planned in advance.
And just a look at the details of the crime confirm that; she received 26 bullets, her secretary 22, and the business manager 18 before they passed away.
And then the husband changed the gun to kill himself.
That doesn’t sound like something you just do all of a sudden just because you’re drunk, it’s obvious it was planned.
He also left his brother a letter requesting him to smuggle all his money outside Egypt and sell all his lands and flee the country.

Thikra’s corpse was flown back to Tunisia to be buried in the Sidi Yahia burial grounds.
A large group of Arab artists and Tunisian figures attended the funeral.

Thikra’s singing career was a good and successful one. She started in Tunisia and then moved to Egypt where she found true fame across the arab world.
Her tragedic death came at the height of her career life, and is a true loss for the Tunisian and Arab music scene.

Eid Mubarak

Well Eid El Fitr is just around the corner (tomorrow or the day after), ushering in the end of the holy month of Ramadan, and giving us our normal food-driven lives back.
Ahhh, i miss those coffee breaks at work 😉

The Eid in Tunisia is a great occasion for extended families to see each other and stay in touch, as they go around visiting each other and wishing one another a happy Eid.

This year, just like last year, we’ll call my wife’s family in Jordan, then we’ll be going for a spin among my relatives wishing them a happy Eid.
I think my mom will be cooking Mloukhia, which is my favourite dish. So maybe we’ll be having dinner at my parent’s place after we finish visiting the relatives.

The second day of Eid will most probably be a day of laziness for me, as i’ll try to cover all the close relatives in day one 😛
Maybe we’ll go out somewhere or just relax at home and watch a movie.

The Douz Festival starts this week too, so going down south again and attending it would be a great idea, if only i had the money to afford it.

Anyway, Sneen Dayma and Eid Mubarak to everyone 🙂

An Artist

habib.jpgWe went to the Kram Ramadan Fair this last saturday and at the doorway of the fair we found a familiar face to anyone who has ever visited the Kram Fair, we found Habib (i think that’s his name).

Habib is a handicapped artist & painter, who i think gives the best example of how someone can overcome their handicaps and problems and succeed no matter what.
He sits there on his wheelchair, struggling to paint with his feet, pouring all of his feelings and emotions into the canvas lying in front of him, producing visual masterpieces portraying cities, towns and places in Tunisia.

I’ve always been fascinated by him, his strong will, his charisma and his art work.

This past saturday, i decided not to just look up to him in admiration, i decided to try and help him succeed and be part of it all. So i bought one of his paintings, one portraying the beautiful city of Sidi Bou Said (I’ll try to scan it and post it here someday), and i decided to write about him here and urge other people who read this post and who are in Tunisia to go to the Kram Fair and buy another one of his paintings.
It only costs 5 Tunisian Dinars, so it’s nothing to you, but it really means the whole world to him 🙂
So please be generous and kind and make this great guy’s day 🙂

Tunis: Like a bride

Went for a little drive downtown last night, and God was Tunis beautiful.
Decorated with thousands of Tunisian flags, and lights all around. Full of people and music and magic.

The mixture of Ramadan, it’s night life and breath-taking atmosphere and the decorations, lights, and other preparations for November 7th made Tunis look and feel like a bride after being prepared for her wedding night.

Didn’t take any pics, but i’ll try to go back this weekend for some pics to post on my photolog.

It’s this special magic of Tunisia that actually made me want to come home and not live abroad.

ICANN, Ok we know you can…

So the last ICANN meeting was held in Tunisia last week, and it was a success.
Tunisie Telecom, Sotetel & ATI were able to flex their muscles and show off after deploying a broadband connection of 100MB/s and a Wireless network throughout the hotel hosting the event, enabling real-time transmission of the debates on the internet.
All this in a record time and in an area of Tunis where there still is no broadband coverage.

Anyway, after reading this article on Tunis Hebdo, it seems that we regular internet users paid the price by suffering a loss in connection speed.

Oh well, honestly, if it’s for the good of Tunisia and it’s image abroad, i truly don’t mind a KB/s less, especially that dial-up connection sucks anyways.
I just hope that Tunisie Telecom and ATI get bumped in the head sometime soon and start thinking about us too and make broadband within the reach of us internet addicts.