Tunisia:
If the country Tunisia sounds familiar to you, it is because
it had been in the news three years ago. Remember the Arab Spring? Tunisia is
where it all started. The uprising quickly spread through much of North Africa
before spreading to the Arab Peninsula.
Tunisia itself is located in North Africa sharing a border
with the Mediterranean Sea (to the North), and Algeria and Libya to either side
(both part of the Arab Spring).
The Arab Spring meant answering many difficult questions to
American leaders: do we support the people or do we support the leadership they
are trying to oust? The question stems from this: in many cases the Americans
were the ones who helped get some of these dictators into power. However, the people
were fighting for democracy, something that Americans believe in more than
anything else. Complicating this issue is the fact that there was a possibility
of the people electing into office a party that was associated with Muslim
fundamentalists and Surreal Law. So what do we support? Democracy even if it
means people voting for something we’re against? Democracy over a power we put
in place?
Tunisians were shocked as to how many of their countrymen
elected conservative Muslim politicians. The politicians in question fueled
violence towards secularism, and the response: Secularism started getting a
better hold on the country. Now, there seems to be a delicate balance being
formed between the two sets of beliefs, meaning compromise written in the new
Tunisian Constitution.
The Arab Spring was not the first time that Tunisia has seen
political turmoil. Prior to 1956, Tunisia was a French colony, during this time
many French and Italians were living in this country. During World War II the
Allied and Axis powers fought over this Country.
Movie:
“The Wedding Song” takes place in Tunisia during World War
II. While a majority of the people here are Tunisian, there are many living
here from France. Two friends, a Muslim Tunisian lady and a Jewish French girl
are friends, and they are both preparing to get married. The movie shows
differences between the relationships these girls have with their fiancés’. The
war opens hostilities against the Jews and places the two girls on opposite
sides of the war.
Food:
When I was looking up recipes for this country, I noticed that
all the recipes had chickpeas. They suggested putting the stews over fine
cuscus. One of the recipes that I found was for cabbage and chick peas, now I
did not follow the recipe: Instead I fried up some cabbage, boiled it, and then
I put a premade Indian Chickpea stew over it. It had all the ingredients from
the recipe, and it looked similar to what was in the picture. Quinoa has a similar
look and texture to cuscus, so I made a quinoa with chickpeas, parsley, onion,
lemon juice, olive oil, and diced red onions. I washed this down with an Arab
style tea.
Work Cited:
Albou, Karin. “The Wedding Song”. 2008
Beardsley, Eleanor. ‘Is This Arab Spring Country Finally
Getting It Right?”. National Public Radio. http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=262357235&m=262357236.
Published: 14 January 2014. Retrieved: January 17, 2014.
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