Another Tunisian Attack - Sousse
Discussion
Stayed in this very resort thrice before the Arab Spring. Very sad to see. Death toll at 27 and rising quickly.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/tunisia-...
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/tunisia-...
Shocking news.
Had more than one Holiday in Tunisia in the past. The topic came up last weekend over Father's Day dinner about going back perhaps on a late deal at the back end of summer. I dismissed it due the recent museum attacks. Great shame really as we found it to be a welcoming place with nice people. I feel for them a bit because over 15% rely on tourism and a couple of nutters have probably descended tourism into the abyss.
Had more than one Holiday in Tunisia in the past. The topic came up last weekend over Father's Day dinner about going back perhaps on a late deal at the back end of summer. I dismissed it due the recent museum attacks. Great shame really as we found it to be a welcoming place with nice people. I feel for them a bit because over 15% rely on tourism and a couple of nutters have probably descended tourism into the abyss.
HarryW said:
Shocking news.
Had more than one Holiday in Tunisia in the past. The topic came up last weekend over Father's Day dinner about going back perhaps on a late deal at the back end of summer. I dismissed it due the recent museum attacks. Great shame really as we found it to be a welcoming place with nice people. I feel for them a bit because over 15% rely on tourism and a couple of nutters have probably descended tourism into the abyss.
Collectively I've spent probably a few months in North Africa. An amazing people and a beautiful land. The missus hasn't been outside Europe so I've been trying to tempt her into Morocco or Tunisia later this year.Had more than one Holiday in Tunisia in the past. The topic came up last weekend over Father's Day dinner about going back perhaps on a late deal at the back end of summer. I dismissed it due the recent museum attacks. Great shame really as we found it to be a welcoming place with nice people. I feel for them a bit because over 15% rely on tourism and a couple of nutters have probably descended tourism into the abyss.
Funkycoldribena said:
Art0ir said:
Collectively I've spent probably a few months in North Africa. An amazing people and a beautiful land. The missus hasn't been outside Europe so I've been trying to tempt her into Morocco or Tunisia later this year.
Why would you put her at risk?Joey Ramone said:
Parents in law were booked into this very hotel later in the year. They changed the booking to Fuertaventura last week. Correct decision.
Last week we were on the verge of booking a week to Egypt in october & we decided to leave it while . Probably safe as houses but you know , nah...My son in law is Tunisian. He came to England after Arab Spring. We spent a lot of time in the resorts and in his home town El Kef, up in the hills towards the Algerian border. It was a good country, peaceful except for petty crime and the punishments under Ben Ali's hard line rule were severe for the most minor transgression. Life was hard, the police were corrupt and everyone was in some fear of them, especially the young but it was a peaceful existence. The better off looked after the poor quite well, for example taxi drivers would always chip into the pot of a beggar walking between traffic in towns, and the drivers were by no means wealthy.
Post Arab Spring , the people all suddenly had "rights", and many had weapons but with little knowledge of what that freedom and capability meant. Hence life became very different with groups and individuals raiding other towns at will. In his words, the country is now fked. Everybody is out for themselves with massive escalation in prices for staple foods like tomatoes which were only a few millemes for a kilo, which soon became many dinars per kilo as they could be sold to Libya at that price, and the farmers lost all notion of selling them to locals at anything except that price. As he says, the general population of Tunisia is not too intelligent, and from scraping a living under the old regime with a barely affordable lifestyle, life has become even harder with many people forced to turn to criminal activity to live. The extremists always existed but now have more scope to do their work and people are seemingly happy to join them for the necessary dinars.
Back in the day, some of the roads we travelled were heavily policed, and on a two hour journey we would be stopped 4 or 5 times with the police looking for drugs being run between Algeria and Tunis. Now if you are stopped, it will not be the police, more likely bandits whit some dire outcomes. The place is just not safe now in many areas outside of the tourist belt.
10 years ago I would advocate Tunisia as a place to go to experience a simple, peaceful and very old fashioned lifestyle away from the tourist areas with very peaceful and welcoming people. Until this year I would still have hit Hammamet and the like. Now, I would not go anywhere near the place. That is what regime change has meant for them, poor souls.
So these acts by exremists are terrible, my heart goes out to the victims and families, but the way I could safely visit their country is long gone before today. Tunisian people will be very upset by this, tourism is a massive contribution to their economy and this can only make things worse for them.
Post Arab Spring , the people all suddenly had "rights", and many had weapons but with little knowledge of what that freedom and capability meant. Hence life became very different with groups and individuals raiding other towns at will. In his words, the country is now fked. Everybody is out for themselves with massive escalation in prices for staple foods like tomatoes which were only a few millemes for a kilo, which soon became many dinars per kilo as they could be sold to Libya at that price, and the farmers lost all notion of selling them to locals at anything except that price. As he says, the general population of Tunisia is not too intelligent, and from scraping a living under the old regime with a barely affordable lifestyle, life has become even harder with many people forced to turn to criminal activity to live. The extremists always existed but now have more scope to do their work and people are seemingly happy to join them for the necessary dinars.
Back in the day, some of the roads we travelled were heavily policed, and on a two hour journey we would be stopped 4 or 5 times with the police looking for drugs being run between Algeria and Tunis. Now if you are stopped, it will not be the police, more likely bandits whit some dire outcomes. The place is just not safe now in many areas outside of the tourist belt.
10 years ago I would advocate Tunisia as a place to go to experience a simple, peaceful and very old fashioned lifestyle away from the tourist areas with very peaceful and welcoming people. Until this year I would still have hit Hammamet and the like. Now, I would not go anywhere near the place. That is what regime change has meant for them, poor souls.
So these acts by exremists are terrible, my heart goes out to the victims and families, but the way I could safely visit their country is long gone before today. Tunisian people will be very upset by this, tourism is a massive contribution to their economy and this can only make things worse for them.
Funkycoldribena said:
Art0ir said:
Collectively I've spent probably a few months in North Africa. An amazing people and a beautiful land. The missus hasn't been outside Europe so I've been trying to tempt her into Morocco or Tunisia later this year.
Why would you put her at risk?You only need a small group of self radicalized freaks to cause chaos pretty much anywhere.
Because there self radicalized there's no chain of command so even harder to keep a eye on.
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