Night in Tunisia inadvisable

[BillF]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/14/tunisia-thomas-cook-evacuates-britons

[brownie]

Daylight at least appears on the Tunisian skyline. Hope the Night is really over even if I have strong doubts about the country's future.

Ben Ali fled the country and left it in shambles with no worthy successor on the horizon!

[sidewinder]

And up until recently the property porn shows on TV were peddling this place as a great place to buy a holiday pad. Jeez !

[brownie]

and quite a number of French elderlies settled there to retire on the cheap and take advantage of the local facilities! Good luck to them!

[sidewinder]

Just shows that there's no such thing as a 'free lunch'. Same thing goes for retiring to Greece, I guess.

[BeBop]

Sad. I've (non-Brit) spent a bit of holiday time there - en route to Libya or Algeria. Not my favorite spot, but pleasant-enough. And, at the time, seemingly stable.

Years ago, of course. When I got holiday time!

Edited January 15, 2011 by BeBop

[gmonahan]

I imagine things will calm down. Young Tunisians finally got a little tired of 50+% unemployment and a dictator for life. I don't much blame them. Still a lovely country, and I imagine the retirees are doing ok.

gregmo

[Van Basten II]

Wonder if Algeria won't be next, although the political conjecture is rather different.

[gmonahan]

Wonder if Algeria won't be next, although the political conjecture is rather different.

Algeria is a different case. Civil war has been the issue there, between "modern" Islamists and the old, now established anti-French revolutionaries who've controlled the government for years.

Selfishly, I hope things stay quiet in Morocco. My daughter just went there for a semester of study-abroad!

gregmo

[brownie]

One of the good thing about Tunisia is that the muslim fundamentalists had a very minor presence in the country. One of the rare arab country where the women have had a strong role and non-veiled presence.

Doubt that Morocco will face a fate similar to Tunisia, at least in the next few years!

But I would not like to be in Egypt's Mubarak shoes right now!

[sidewinder]

But I would not like to be in Egypt's Mubarak shoes right now!

Yes, I have read that mayhem is predicted in Egypt over the next year or so. Damn shame.

[gmonahan]

But I would not like to be in Egypt's Mubarak shoes right now!

I think you might be right there. I'm glad I visited it a few years ago. It's an amazing country.

gregmo

[JohnJ]

By coincidence was in Tunis on business in mid-December just before the rioting started. No sign of trouble then that I could detect, massive portraits of Ben Ali seemed to be everywhere. To be honest, I thought it was fairly sleepy and uninteresting as capital cities go but definitely had a secular atmosphere, I see more Burkas in my hometown of Luton! Also one of the cheapest places I have visited, a good meal with a couple of beers in a local restaurant cost around $8.00.

[brownie]

But I would not like to be in Egypt's Mubarak shoes right now!

Yes, I have read that mayhem is predicted in Egypt over the next year or so. Damn shame.

It only took several days after the Tunisia riots for Egyptians to take to the streets!

[Jazzmoose]

Interesting times.

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

Hmmmmm......how interesting.

"The Polish Foreign Ministry said it had learned that some Polish tourists had rented vehicles to travel to cities where demonstrations were taking place.

"We consider this very irresponsible and urge them not to do that," ministry spokesman Marcin Bosacki said."

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/01/29/tourists-scrambling-to-leave-egypt-amid-protests/