كل واحد يقول خبزي سخون

Everyone claims that his/her bread is hot and I'm no exception. Winston Churchill said once "When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home."

I'm no Churchill but every time I'm asked about Tunisia here, I smile and tell that the bread has just gotten out of the oven "ylachlech"!

I'm no follower of the bread party either i.e I'm not a "khubzist". I know the same applies for a vast majority of the Tunisian people (i.e they are not khubzists) and that it's not "all-cake" out there. All we need is some housework, a good clean up of our internal kitchen under one leadership because otherwise, and it's well known, too many cooks spoil the broudhou (it's actually broth but I'm Tunisifying everything right now).

When I compare Tunisia to the rest of the Arab world, the same image always percolates in my mind. It always occurs to me that Tunisia is a loaf of Tabouna amongst a set of "baguettes". We Tunisians hate right angles and sharp turns. We like ambiguous semi-circles and fuzzy logic. If you look at the history of Tunisia, even way before President Bourguiba, the people have always been very good at coming up with ways to cushion invasions both with rhetoric and a natural quest for friendship. The worst enemy couldn't help but sit and have coffee with the local people and maybe stay for lunch and dinner. If not, why do you think the military leaders sent from the Arab peninsula had a very hard time taking full control over Ifriqiya (today's Tunisia)? Local people would play the smoke and mirror game all the time: they would claim themselves believers in the morning but would rebel the following day! The Islamic army had to go back and forth from Algeria and Morocco to Tunisia several times until the population really settled and was convinced about the new beliefs. But boy that was a war of attrition for the Islamic troops and its leaders often needed more resources to take over. In comparison, the Algerians resisted and fought teeth and nails but once they were beaten, that's it, they never rebelled again.

Forget about what is taught at the International Relations schools at John Hopkins or Harvard: the policy of containment was made in Tunisia. You can forget about finding the "ga3moora" with us and that what makes this country elusive, mercury and diplomatic. After all, didn't our grandmother manage to lay her hand on a whole city out of a bull's skin? ;)

Sorry for keep talking about bread and food but aren't we the people who made an uprising only for the sake of bread? wasn't one of our military leaders named Ali Bor3'ol because he fed his troops bor'3ol all the time? (if you ask me now, I'd have loved to be one of his men :)) Didn't you notice that our political lexicon is all about bread and kitchen? here are some examples if you're still confused: khubzist, 7ar9an, 9offa, t3'arbeel, 9hiwa (and of course that bad word for flour in the Tunisian dialect).

Not that there's a problem with our love story with food and politics. On the contrary I find it quite exciting and I'm pretty sure it would be a consistent topic for a PhD thesis. I'd even suggest "The Tunisian Cauldron" as an excellent title for a Weekly in English in Tunisia :)

I said there's no problem being "bread-ish" so to speak. I only wish we used all these skills in our foreign policy not in our internal affairs. Isn't diplomacy all about sticks and carrots after all?

Now if you'll excuse me, I just got a bit hungry and am right off to kitchen :)

Tounes ya 5adhra wsamra,
Nejma dhawia kif el gamra

http://slaim.podemus.net/Audio/116_amina__lirrili.mp3