Tunisia......

Pakdokter watched the events taking place in Tunisia with mixed feelings. Pakdokter had visited Tunisia some ten years ago and was very impressed by the development of this North African state then. It was ( at least it seemed so then to pakdokter) prosperous, modern and with a highly literate population. Pakdokter's own contact with some fellow Tunisians at international psychiatric conferences also gave the impression that they were as developed as any of the European countries then. And Tunisia had so many tourism sites of great historical values -coming from the days of the Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans and finally of the Arab-Muslim sweep of North Africa. And their tourism infrastructure was as sophisticated if not better than the other equally interesting North African state of Morocco. And pakdokter would not forget the great safari into the southern Sahara desert and the many lovely oases and some of the beautiful sites where many Hollywood movies were shot.

Pakdokter's tour of Tunisia started from the eastern sea-side holiday resort of Hammamet. From there we took a Toyota Land-Cruiser to go down south into the desert. We visited Kairouan where one of the oldest mosque in the world still stands after which we stopped at El-Djem where a 'colloseum' more well preserved than the one in Rome was still presently in existence. Further south we went to Matmata where the Berbers ( the orang asli of North Africa) still live in 'troglodytes' - holes dug into the mountains or into the earth to become their homes. The Berbers were pagans before their conversion with the spread of Islam across the Maghrib. From Matmata the desert safari took us to the site in the desert where the movie "Star Wars" was filmed. From there we crossed the salt lake of Chott el Jerid before we reached some lovely mountains and oases near the border of Algeria. We then trekked up north back to Tunis and spent a day at the beautiful sea-side resort of Sidi Bou Said where the rich and famous of Tunisia had their holiday villas.

a family picture at the Great Mosque of Kairouan...

this Colloseum was in the central part of Tunisia...

crossing a part of the Sahara on camels...

It came as quite a surprise to pakdokter that Tunisia has suddenly erupted into this revolution which brought down the government of Zein-al-Abidin. Pakdokter must admit that pakdokter was not aware of the reported "excesses" and repression of the populace by this regime.

above were scenes from the set of the movie "Star Wars"

put up in the desert of Tunisia....

sunset in he desert...

On hind-sight - the development and modernisation of Tunisia - giving it a higly literate and internet-savvy population - must have also facilitated its downfall through that revolution so easily. This is what would happen when there is a disconnect between the ruling elites and the population. They think they could repress and suppress the masses by control of the media and freedom of association - but the world of virtual connectivity today has enabled these young people to go around all these restrictions. The ruling elites would have done better if they had allowed a more open society, engaged the young people and address their problems effectively, and they would probably still be in office today.

above are some of the pictures taken at

Sidi Bou Said, a seaside resort to the

north-east of Tunis where many luxurious

villas were located....

Perhaps there are a lot of things to be learnt by the "powers that be" here in Malaysia from this incident in Tunisia.

In the meantime pakdokter hopes that Tunisia will not be brought down into ashes from civil strife and conflicts. This would be a pity for such a beautiful country.