26 January 2014, the moments that put tears in my eyes..

National Constituent Assembly president, Mostapha Ben Jaafar (Ettakattol, socialist) extends his arms forward and invites the deputies with a "please vote".  Seconds later, a storm of green quickly dominates the display panel indicating a massive yes vote and a wave of applause fills the assembly.
 

The operator in charge of the second panel deletes the term "draft" to leave the new title as "Constitution of the Republic of Tunisia".  The votes were 200 yes, 4 abstentions and 12 no.  The 217th member, Mohamed Allouche (no-affiliation), passed away of a heart attack days before the final vote.
 

The national anthem plays from loud speakers and some members are seen holding portraits of deputy Mohamed Brahmi (left-wing), shot dead on 25 July 2013 by religious fundamentalists.

At 3'37", the video shows deputy Haitham Belgacem (CPR, centre-left) saying a prayer.  Some attendees could not hide their football fanaticism and screamed the famous italian expression "Campione! Campione!".

12"00 shows deputy Jawhara Ettiss (Ennahda, islamist) who was elected single and will be leaving the assembly married with a baby.. and a constitution.

A long sequence of hugs, tears and kisses follows, but out of all the hugs, the one at 16'06" is particularly telling:  Habib Ellouze (Ennahdha, islamist, but seen fundamentalist) hugs Mongi Rahoui (Popular Front, left-wing), nobody ever expected these two to even look at each other before.

The fact that this is the first democratic, progressive constitution with strong institutions in the entire region is an impressive achievement by itself.  However, the context in which it was drafted makes of it no less than a small miracle:

1. the electoral code under which the assembly members were voted in used a Hare-Niemeyer method (largest remainder), the objective was to give more chances of representation to smaller parties and political trends which is a wise choice to improve the acceptance of the chart. However, it created an insanely diverse mosaic of very differing, and even warring, ideologies. In my opinion, getting all this diversity to agree on anything is much more important than the constitution text itself, because it's a definite proof that this nation decided to live together and to accept difference which is the _key_ to success. The form and system of government is, in perspective, a mere detail.
2. the Tunisian people, after decades of stiff dictatorship, does not have any parliamentary tradition nor a culture of debate, criticism and dialogue, so getting it right from the first shot was a divine mercy. Obviously, we did have a parliament, but it was as vocal as the walls of the assembly.  An anecdotal, revealing example is the case of the "bread events" in 1984:  when the then authoritarian president Habib Bourguiba ordered the lift of subsidy on bread, the parliament voted anonymously yes, when the same president ordered the re-establishment of the subsidy weeks later, the same parliament voted anonymously yes!
3. dictators in this region kept telling us "it's either us or the islamists" and since it was very difficult to claim that dictatorship was good, it was easier to demonstrate that islamists were bad, hence the infinite waves of vilification. Unfortunately, this latter exercise was not too hard with all the horrors some islamist factions have committed. The western powers put their democratic values on hold and decided to support dictatorships all in the fear of the islamist threat. Therefore, when this constitution is produced under an islamist leadership (40% of the assembly seats) securing unprecedented civil and public rights for men and women, for believers and non-believers, it speaks volumes about the imposture entire nations lived in for decades and made them cheer bloody dictators. I am sure some of us have heard the famous "Islamists use democracy as a one-way street: when they reach power in election, they'll never relinquish it", so when the Islamist-led government in Tunisia willfully resigns to hand power to a non-partisan government in an answer to opposition mistrust around the upcoming elections, it certainly bewilders the likes of Daniel Pipes and David Horowitz.
4. the security context is suffocating:  our Libyan neighbours to the south are struggling with an armed chaos and a weak state. The police was despised as the strong arm of dictatorship with pandemic corruption and wide spread torture, so it struggled to provide effective security under the new democratic system. The military coup in Egypt emboldened the anti-revolutionary forces and gave them strong hopes that they can actually stop the transition to democracy. The general amnesty law passed weeks after the revolution have released hundreds of prisoners convicted under unfair trial conditions, however, some of those turned out to be dangerous terrorists for real. With the military incursion in Mali, some militants fled the combat zone and seem to have settled in the mountainous areas bordering Algeria. Needless to say that those were the most unwelcome guests causing dozen of casualties in confrontations with the security forces and two political assassinations.
5. the economic context is suffocating with our primary markets (France namely) in steady decline. Since the main motives of the revolution demonstrators were economic and social, the lack of significant and rapid economic growth left the entire democratic transition process sitting on a powder barrel.

Noori Al-Maliki: best goalkeeper 2008

Al-Baghdadya TV journalist Montathar Al-Zidi threw a pair of shoes at President Georges W. Bush at a press conference in Baghdad today. The aljazeera.net readers have made about 5000 comments on the news on the web site, mostly approving of what the journalist did.

I did not post a comment on the article, but I would have approved of Montathar's action had I commented. However, on a second thought I tend to pity Georges W. Bush for what he got himself into after years of random destruction.

Full video here

Teeless cisco.com

On Thursday 25 September 2008, a coworker noticed that the cisco.com web site was not rendering correctly:

On closer inspection, I noticed that all the "t" letters were removed from the HTML document. As you can see on the shot above, the style sheet did not load for instance because the statements "stylesheet" and "text/css" lost their t's.

I'm speculating that someone in the web development team decided to "clean up" the pages from tab characters and wanted to ran something like:

$ sed 's/\t//g'

.. but ended up forgetting to quote the "t" or maybe, influenced by web scripting languages, ended up double quoting it.

Blogging in Arabic, English or both?

I started this blog about a couple of years ago, but I didn't really write much. I was posting roughly about an article per two months. One question which keeps coming to me is: which language should I use to write? Being an Arab, I'm supposed to write in Arabic. Being in the UK, it made sense to write in English. Actually, as a Tunisian, it wasn't entirely odd for me to write in French even.

Most of my writing went in English because I felt like I needed to tell the West so many things, not about myself, but about where I come from. However, I think I still feel a massive urge to write in Arabic, so I created a new blog where I will only post Arabic articles. Jeeran means "neighbours" in Arabic which is, in my opinion, what blogs are about.

This blog will receive, from now on, only English posts.. with an Arabic touch, of course.

The Tuninter 1153 ditching

Tuninter is a small airline company operating mostly within Tunisia with some short services to southern Europe. On 6 August 2005, flight Tuninter 1153 between Bari, IT and Jerba, TN, on board an ATR-72 aircraft crash-landed in the sea near the Sicilian coast of Italy. 16 of the 39 occupants died including 2 crew members. Tuninter got only two aircraft, the picture on this post shows the very same plane which crashed (Habib Bourguiba الحبيب بورقيبة). This is the first fatal accident in the history of Tunisian civilian air traffic since it started in 1948.

The Aviation Safety Network have a record for the accident. It seems like the aircraft was fitted with the wrong Fuel Quantity Indicator which was reading fuel quantities about 2000 Kg higher than the actual levels. The Fuel Quantity Indicators for both the ATR-42 and the ATR-72 looked the same and were fitted the same way, but used different algorithm to calculate the fuel level.

I know very little about the airline industry, but my basic engineer's guess tells me that such a critical subsystem should not leave room for confusion. Design common sense would suggest using as many common parts as possible across models to reduce manufacturing costs, but not when people's lives depend on them.

I recently found the 5-minute recording from the blackbox:


The conversation was a mix of Arabic, French, English and Italian. A blogger has published a transcript of the conversation. The mechanical engineer Chokri didn't make it, but the pilot survived although he was badly hit. A survivor said: "I saw the pilot on the wing. He was in a terrible state and blood covered his face."

Here is the same transcript with little corrections I made. The commander is Chafik Al Gharbi (شفيق الغربي), the second pilot it Ali Kebaier Lassoued (علي كبيّر الأسود).

Hours 15,34' 33"
- commander: check whether it started. Leave it, leave it.. in the name of God, most compassionate, most merciful. What's the ditching procedure?
- second pilot: [incomprehensible] (with Palermo air traffic control)
- commander: confirm the distance, please.
- Palermo control: [incomprehensible]
- commander: confirm the distance, please.
- Palermo: the distance is now 20 miles.
- commander: I think… we are not able, we are not able to reach the terrain. We are at four thousand feet and we are not able, we loose both engines. Can you send for us helicopters or something like that?
- second pilot: ditching.. ditching (talking to self while going through the procedures manual)
- commander: fast, fast.
- Palermo: I can advise.
- second pilot: preparation. . Cabin crew: notify. Sign: on. DPWVS: off. Set it to off there. Cabin and cockpit door: prepare.(reads out loud the ditching procedure)

3'33" to the splash down
- commander: it's better we turn towards that ship, it's better if we turn towards that ship.
- second pilot: should I put [incomprehensible], no?
- commander: no, no, the wind is strong, the wind is strong. Oh! God be clement. In name of God the merciful one, the clement one, in name of God, the merciful one, the clement one...
- second pilot: cabin and cockpit: prepare.
- commander: so this one still doesn't start?
- second pilot: no, it refuses to start.
- Palermo: 1153, Palermo, be informed that we informed ... the ships... Your position is about 22 miles now radial 20… 036,… radial 036, 22 miles.
- commander: uhhh, the battery! Unable, unable to reach, 2200 feet. There are two boats, we are going to join them, left side, heading 180, can you call them please?
- commander: try again, try again (trying to restart the engines)
- Palermo: heading 180, confirmed?
- commander: which one have you ignited, which you have ignited? (stressed tone)
- second pilot: the right one.
- commander: go, go. The other one, the other one!
- second pilot: already did, it refuses to start!
- Palermo: Tuninter 1153, Palermo, say again!
- commander: there is a boat, there is a boat… left side… I'm going to put there. 1100 feet. In the name of God the merciful one, the clement one.
- second pilot: auto, press, dump.
- commander: prepare for emergency ditching.

Less than 1' 55" to the ditching
- Palermo: you are at about… now the position is approximately… 20 miles to east of the field
- commander: Unable to reach, unable to reach
- second pilot: not in a position to reach land. Tuninter 1153 unable to reach the field, we see two ships on the left side, big boats. We try to land… to ditch near of them. If you can call them, please…
- Palermo: [incomprehensible]….we call the military.
- second pilot: before ditching. Optimal ditch altitude. Minimise impact slope. Brace for impact (reads out the ditching procedure)
- commander: good
- second pilot: [incomprehensible] (reads on, seems nervous)
- commander: did it start? try the other one

Less than 27" to the ditching
- commander: is that the sound of the engine?
- second pilot: the same, the same, it does not want to make anything
- commander: God be clement, God be clement
- second pilot: gear level… up… ditch push button before.
- commander: go, it's over now, help me Ali. Be alert Ali. Chokri, get ready, Chokri get ready.
- Chokri: I am ready
- commander: we're touching the sea.
- commander: in the name of God the merciful one, the clement one, in the name of God the merciful one, the clement one

Splash-down hours 15,38' 53"

Recent readings: Orientalism

Edward Said is an American academic, he was born in Palestine and lived in Egypt for some time before immigrating to the United States.

Orientalism is a classic that Said had put with great care, the book had simply changed the way the West looks at the "Orient". It had even created a negative tone to the word "orientalism", modern western scholars are apparently distancing themselves from being called "orientalists".

The book re-examines the term "orient" and what it actually means to the Western reader, or maybe what it was made to mean to the Western reader. Orientalism argues that the West actually made its own Orient and that the Orient as know in the West is actually the Western discourse about it.

To illustrate the idea, Said gives as an example the way Orientalists made their "scholarly" analysis of the revolutions and rebellions against the colonial rule in Africa and Asia. For instance, in their analysis of the Arab revolt in Egypt, some Orientalists gave the impression that the Arab "violence", is somehow due to inherent tendencies to chaos rather than to legitimate pursuit of freedom and independence. Colonialism needed to be justified with orientalist theories like "Arabs/Africans/Indians are incapable of self-governance".

The book goes through the representations of the Orient since medieval times, this was essentially anti-Islam rant fuelled by the religious authorities in Europe. Said spends a good part of the book describing the orientalism of colonial times which is the period when "Oriental Studies" in Europe became of great importance to the colonial mouvements in Britain, France, Belgium, Germany and others. Indeed, one of the most central ideas in "Orientalism" is that the orientalists were essentially serving the colonial interests. Some critics blame Said for ignoring other orientalists who were not affiliated with colonial authorities and seemed to be solely interested into Oriental arts for instance. Mahmoud Darwish put this in his stunning beautiful symbolic style in a poem called Tibak (طباق):

نيويورك. إدوارد يصحو على كسل الفجر

يعزف لحناً لموتسارت

يركض في ملعب التِنِس الجامعيِّ.

يفكِّر في رحلة الفكر عبر الحدود

وفوق الحواجز

يقرأ نيويورك تايمز

يكتب تعليقَهُ المتوتِّر

يلعن مستشرقاً

يُرْشِدُ الجنرالَ الى نقطة الضعف في قلب شرقيّةٍ

يستحمُّ. ويختارُ بَدْلَتَهُ بأناقةِ دِيكٍ

ويشربُ قهوتَهُ بالحليب

ويصرخ بالفجر: لا تتلكأ

Orientalism, just like Said described, is still alive and well. Bernard Lewis, a British now living in the US is probably the best example of Said's orientalists. Despite his strong disagreement with Said, Lewis is regarded as a major figure of modern Middle Eastern studies. When Lewis justified the war in Iraq with "we free them or they destroy us", he summarised what Said has been trying to tell us in his book.

Despite my disagreement with some of Lewis analysis, I think his extensive research may give the Muslim world some very useful clues on how to regain more status and accelerate development. I will try to make my next politico-historical reading a Lewis.

هذه المدونة في إضراب

.