zabouti |||

Urban Tunisian Children

I wrote the following comment to Michael Kaplan’s FB photos of Gafsa children.

These children are beautiful and often very sweet to deal with.

On the other hand, houses in Gafsa were closed to the outside world, with only a closed door to the street and a few small high windows. Their outdoors was in the courtyard (a wonderful invention, especially if it had a garden). This meant, as far as I could tell, that children in the streets were basically unsupervised. They gathered in groups of a dozen or more and wandered about. One of their sports was to harass helpless people, mostly old people, women and foreigners. I remember a tiny curly haired girl of about 3 who knew to sing Bonjour Madam, Gaddesh el 3tham?”, an insult, when she saw me. I remember looking down a dirt street and seeing a doomed cat being swung by its tail in amidst a group of small torturers. Sort of Lord of the Flies.

Some days I avoided going outside at all because I didn’t want to face the children. I was in no danger, but it could be extremely unpleasant.

Things were different in the Gafsa oasis. People lived in huts made of palm fronds or in tents. People of all ages were usually outdoors, where they could see their children. I loved walking in the oasis, especially visiting my best student’s family.

I came to believe that when a family moved from the oasis or the countryside into a town, they went from a culture where little was hidden to one where much was hidden, especially the women, and where children lost their supervision.

Yet, as Michael’s photos show, these children were supremely beautiful and a joy to be with individually.

Up next I take a jab at “jab” I find myself defending the Super Bowl Letter to a Brazilian Friend I understand your reluctance to watch the Super Bowl, but, much to my surprise, I find myself wanting to tell you why
Latest posts Election Day Canvassers - Reminders and Updates Vocabulary lesson Iris and I had an interesting discussion with Google Bard this morning. Iris and I had an interesting discussion with Google Bard this morning. Discussion on the Pomona College class of 1964 listserv I’m illiterate Elon Musk I love photographing the artists at Wildacres Eating a Mouse It Really is a Fascist Flag (at least to some Americans) I love the New York Times Metropolitan Diary Watching The Ten Commandments in Gafsa, Tunisia, in the sixtes I wanna be like these guys when I’m their age! The insignificance of photography Enough photos from our trip to Japan MoveOn wants to amend the Constitution? Google Sheet Number Formatting Summer Brake Romantic technologies and ideologies PITY THE NATION Basho’s poem, Even in Kyoto War in Ukraine - an explanation Timothy Snyder’s History of Ukraine Fake Email Senders More on language learning Effect and Cause Soros is my Co-Pilot Note à une chère amie Arnold Schwarzenegger Why Purim upsets me