Chris Hitchens writes about Tunisia and makes it sound like a halfway decent place. Actually, it sounds like Tunisia could be the best place to live in Africa, but as always there are some caveats.
But first, the good things about which I previously didn’t know before reading “At the Desert’s Edge”:
[T]he country is one of Africa’s most outstanding success stories. In the 2006–7 World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report, it was ranked No. 1 in Africa for economic competitiveness, even, incidentally, outpacing three European states (Italy, Greece, and Portugal). Home ownership is 80 percent. Life expectancy, the highest on the continent, is 72. Less than 4 percent of the population is below the poverty line, and the alleviation of misery by a “solidarity fund” has been adopted by the United Nations as a model program. Nine out of 10 households are connected to electricity and clean water. Tunisia is the first African state to have been accepted as an associate member of the European Union. Its Code of Personal Status was the first in the Arab world to abolish polygamy, and the veil and the burka are never seen. More than 40 percent of the judges and lawyers are female. The country makes delicious wine and even exports it to France. The Tunisian Jews make a potent grappa out of figs, which is available as a digestif in most restaurants. . . .
Sounds great doesn’t it? Yep it does, but it’s still in Africa, wedged right in between Libya and Algeria, two nations definitely not known for peace and stability. Also, since 1956, Tunisia has had only two presidents, not exactly my kind of style, but it seems to have worked for them so far.
But anyways, I really dig that there seems to be a nice-sounding African nation whose Muslim population seems to be rather progressive.
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