I’ve decided to start this blog mostly to satisfy my urge to talk about myself and keep track of everything happening here. I hope its not too boring. Feel free to call me out if it is. Anyway. I’ve decided to try and do one post per week, focusing on a topic that I think is interesting. Since I’m going to be here for eleven weeks, and certainly haven’t thought of eleven topics, you all should feel free to request something in the comments.
Topic One: Libyans in Tunis
When I (finally) got here last Monday, my main priority was finding an apartment. I’m going to be staying here for long enough that a hotel really isn’t an option, and honestly who wants to live in a hotel for more than two months. However it turns out that housing is at a premium in Tunisia right now. The conflict in Libya has caused an influx of refugees, and the ones who are wealthy (and lucky) are resettling in Tunis. This problem seemed very hypothetical until last Tuesday when I went to see an apartment only to find that a Libyan family had arrived literally minutes before and already claimed it.
Once you start looking though the Libyan presence in Tunis is very visible. I was walking by a hotel the other day and my Tunisian friend pointed out a series of cars with Libyan license plates. On the return journey from another apartment showing (which, by the way, made every frat house I’ve ever been to seem like a majestic, clean, palace) we walked past the Libyan embassy. It was surrounded by barbed wire and a Tunsian army truck was stationed out front. A fairly large crowd of Libyans were gathered around the building, clearly trying to get inside. Two women had crossed the barricade and were showing their passports to someone through a window. I can only assume these people were looking for visas or some other help from the embassy.
Being around all these Libyans makes me wish my Arabic was better all the time. The few stories I’ve heard are fascinating, and I just wish I could talk to more people. For example, one of my friends here was talking to a Libyan who got in trouble for blogging in Tripoli. Apparently he was writing about the mass rape and violence taking place in the city, angering the pro-Qaddafi forces. To ensure his and his family’s safety he had to drive across the country to Tunisia. I just saw this article on NPR as well, talking about another Libyan’s harrowing journey out of the country.
But there is much more to the Libyan refugee crisis then daring escapes from Tripoli. Literally tens of thousands of people are streaming across the Libyan border into Tunisia. This is going to be a huge refugee crisis- comparable to the situation in Sudan or Somalia. What I think makes it even more interesting is that Tunisia is going through its own political turmoil. While it would be hard for a country to handle this under normal circumstances, its going to be even harder for a country facing its own problems. Not only is Tunisia trying to plan for elections in October, but the revolution has really hurt the tourism industry (I’ve heard its down by as much as 50%), its main source of revenue. How can a country in this position even begin to support the camps that are being formed along its border?
I can’t say I know enough about Tunisia (or Libya) to make any predictions about how this will all turn out. There seems to be a fairly robust debate about the future of Libya (look here and here for more), and even when the actual fighting is done its impossible to say when people will actually be able to return to the country. What does this mean for Tunisia? What does this mean for elections? Only time will tell.
As I end this blog post, I just want to talk about another aspect of this refugee crisis- the incredible generosity of the Tunisian people. My current roommate, Alissa, stayed with a host family last time she was here and was hoping to live with them again this summer. However they are already housing a Libyan family that they knew through social networking (which raises even more interesting questions about social networking, the Middle East, and the current revolutions). The family tried to find us another host in the same building, but they also were helping some refugees. This article talks about similar situations across the country. None of the Tunisians I talk to seem to resent the Libyans and their influx into the country—indeed they only express sympathy. All I’m going to say is if this seems like the obvious attitude to have, imagine if there was a war in Mexico and thousands of Mexicans came into the United States. Of course these situations aren’t completely analogous, but I think we could all learn something from the kindness of Tunisia.
