Articles published in this space do not necessarily reflect Nawaat's opinions.

By The local

To start, I’m a declared revolutionary since the 14th of January and that date is not a secret from anybody, it’s infecting every bit of my actual days: during my morning coffee, on the way to the café with my neighbor or brother, at home with my 5 years old nephew chanting “Khobz ou ma, w Ben Ali la”… I wasn’t on sit-ins or gun fights, just a common Tunisian from the suburbs.

By this time, I should been more busy, my phone should consumed more “dinars” taking care for all services our tourists requested!! I was good, and that profession made me as patriotic as I could been… to be franc, I didn’t engage or been “snatched” to do that civil duty (the army), I didn’t mind our national football team losing and they did it often, the sight of the “flag” for me is just another masquerade prepared from our “mostly hated” rulers, as for our police, I avoided all possible encounters with them and maybe I’ve should have been more active.

I see people suffer, regular people those making in this ever shrinking season from tourists what they spend for the whole year and desperately waiting for each April to get their kick from what their country offered and it wasn’t that great to start with… “my” people were used and left to use others by the same rulers they paid salaries to create such an obscure sector and leave the glamour of our country to the hands of a few, who cried for help and usually made the poor barman, driver or machmoum dealer… pay for their extravagances. All the owners (mostly parasites to the sector) were small Ben Alis; they couldn’t “assassinate” yet or didn’t have the opportunity but they surely gave the least to their employees, just enough to keep them quiet, mostly without any social coverage… it was rotten, but with seven million guests, it was still manageable.

It was routine, a bad one but I accepted it and a lot of others did… now, I got my ninety nine political party and they all confuse the hell out of me… now that I’m free due to this major cause, I can’t spell DEMOCRACY anymore, how many politically correct souls could evolve from fifty five years of successive dictatorships… I lose the conversations as soon as they start commending the doings of Bourguiba, sure he died poor, the country wasn’t any richer when he left it… his follower ZABA, was an excellent beggar, a great credit snatcher, we didn’t leave any UN or Europeans bodies or single countries not to spill on us some change and some doctor title for him but his real kick was that he lives like a king and his harem, sure his siblings liked it too. He was a hungry man, counseled by a younger cougar, a man-eater and a hair dresser diploma to top that, He won’t be missed.

Where my interest goes down on conversations also is when they call me paranoid of the non-harmful Nahdha, I’m against it but really scared of them consuming the virgin political brains of my countrymen… they will never let the beer flow in our hotels, no white skin will be laid on our beaches, it will be interesting to watch our hotels re-design to have 2 separate pools and from where we’ll get 32 million hotel nights? Mr. Trabelsi and his neighbors from La Ghriba should start packing? They thrill me with the Turkish slogan they’re using, I still want the tanks and old Hammers back to their base camps and surely no generals pulling strings behind scenes.

And here comes my hope, the common talking BCE, I can only have respect for the man only considering his age! we need things speeded up and nature dictates the speed on his age… what about some space for the more active, the young, the motivated. Counsel them! give them your wisdom, take a salary, I don’t care it’s not much from what we’re losing every day. I know it wasn’t easy for an honorable man like you to go beg for that money! In a way, your advisors aren’t idiots, cash will do magic, but you got to consider that it will destroy the mentality! Let us earn it! Sure it’s not a big help with all these 99 parties scratching your back or all these facebookers who want “anything” but you! Get over details, deal with your ministers and your few thousand employees, make Ghandi proud! Don’t give them a “fish”! I want to fish! watch the eight o’clock news: they’re ripping each other out for handouts and with all my respect: you have a big hand in all that!!

Conspiracies are common on such times and it’s accepted if served with moderation, we have our policemen everywhere now, army vehicles are still rolling around. The tourist won’t stroll on the pavement of Bourguiba avenue because of the barbwire, our tourist buses won’t cross Metlaoui because of the uprising (just to be correct!) to spend some euros with our countrymen in Nefta, Chebika or Matmata… Mr. Houas, get your jeans on, take the minister’s car and driver on our expenses, feel the dusty road to Ksar Ghilane, drive at night over the speed limit on the bumpy road to Tataouine, have a coffee in Mahres and a hot tea in Sidi Bou Said, take a jeep to Tamerza and help the camels in Douz by paying for a ride… then, when saying “I love Tunisia” they’ll believe you… humor works but it’s never a match to fear… you may be very mad when they play that Al Qaeda propaganda on us, you have a mission and their not helping you, get yourself a facebook account, get common! Hear Pulp! Don’t take sh** from the bureaucrats, move out of the scapegoat spot! ministers are made for that. Don’t bet on Algerians, we’ve been neighbors for a while by now, if Europeans will come sure they’ll visit us and it’s only a “one way” formula…

It’s time to get tough on these blood sucking hoteliers, our stars aren’t a scale anymore because of them… lets honor what we print in our brochures and leeflets. Ideologies didn’t change, but we have fewer then our needs right now and it never helps a hundred fifty rooms hotel with 11 clients in June for 10 € a night. Chaos doesn’t do us any good, I want my 7 million tourists back, I just “want to live like common people” then I’ll promise I’ll vote.