Being the Revolution, Living the Revolution

 

Before working as a taxi driver, I was not working. I was unemployed. I decided to learn how to drive. I took the exam, and passed it. I looked for someone who had cars, so I could drive one of them. This is not my car.

 

I hope for the future that I will one day own my own car. I will drive a car which is mine. And for my family, I wish that we will be able to live in peace. Before everything, in freedom.

 

The persons who are going to take the power have to really pay attention to what they are doing. They are so controlled by us, by the people, and so they are now afraid that the same people could do the same thing to them. They know we really want our freedom.

 

It is Fidaa. Kind of a symbolic name actually. It means “dying for your country”. For your cause. For someone you love so much. I was named Fidaa because I was born on the day the Palestinian militant Abu Jihad was assasinated in Tunisia. He died for the cause of Palestine on April 16, 1988.

 

It depends. When they try to understand what is happening and try to see if they can do anything to help, that is good. But if they do not even bother to understand, if they come with ready-made solutions, and if they try to convince that what they bring is the thing to do, that does not make me happy at all. I believe that we should come up with our own democratic transition for our own situation here. What we have here is not the same with what happens in Spain, or in South Africa. We should have our solutions for it. It really bugs me when they come with their ready-made solutions.

 

They witnessed the independence. It was not long ago when we got our independence from France, which was in 1956. My grandparents lived the whole thing. Older people are relating what is happening today to those days. The feeling, the enjoyement… Today is similar to that period.

 

I could knot know what kind of a feeling that would be. Not long ago, I was in a press conference where they were talking about the mothers of martyrs and how frustrated they were because they could actually identify the people who have killed their sons. Those people are still at the policemen. This is sad and frustrating. I really cannot imagine how the families would feel.

 

However getting beaten up was very common during that period. You kind of get used to it and I have seen a friend of mine getting beaten up. It happened in front of me. You just need a couple of days and then you recover. And you go out on the street again. The police did not change after the revolution. The way they think is that they have to do their jobs. They are trying to pretend they have changed. That’s going to take a while. The police forces is going to be the hardest thing I believe.

 

It is amazing to think of it… What they used to do was to drive by the very same prison when the political prisoners were in there once. They were living their lives. The only thing is that the real responsible people are not in it yet. So it is not enough. We wish them to get what they really deserve. Ben Ali’s main crime was financial corruption. But I believe what he did to people, his oppression was worse than financial corruption. It is good that some are in prison, but for sure it is not enough.

 

One of my wishes came true already. My father is a politician and he has been involved in the opposition forever. He is a lawyer and they used to threaten his clients and civil police would get into his office regularly. Once in 2006, they burned down his office and it was not easy at all. They gave us and him a really hard time. He is now free to do whatever he is convinced of. He is not having problems, he is still politically active and doing much better now. I know he was not the only one living that; there were hundreds of people like him. A lot of them were on exile, and they could not even come home. It is now amazing to see they can live a better life. They fought for it and it finally happened. I know that change takes time and democracy will not happen overnight. We have to be patient.

 

That was my wish and it came true.

 

The political change in the constitution, laws or the parliament… That’s not necessarily what I wish for. The politics and the people in the parliament can be good, but the society will not be as healthy as it wants to be. It is not easy to get over the 50 years of dictatorship because Ben Ali was not the only dictator we have had. It has been the French colonisation and then years of dictatorship, so what I dream of is not really a democratic state, but a democratic society. What I wish for is people getting over the fears in their heads. Even if the police is not there, people have fears. People being democratic in their families, with their kids, their wives, their parents, their neighbors and being open to changes are what I wish for. That’s the real change because if that changes, everything else becomes easy. When mentality changes, politics won’t be that hard. That’s the remaining challange.

 

 

 

It’s Lobna.

This used to be my grandmother’s place. It now belongs to my uncle who lives in England. She made the businessmen come, and my uncle came to Tunis to do the project. I run the place but it is not mine. My grandmother died. The place and the name are dedicated to her.

 

No.

 

The material is very expensive. The prices have changed. They should put the normal prices. It was better before, now the goods I buy are very expensive. Since the 14th of January, all prices has gone up.

 

Yes.