Night in Tunisia

Scrapping Population

I don't know why, but for some reason men here always seem to want to
fight. Maybe it's the hot-blood of the Mediterranean peoples? I'm
not sure. But since I have been here I have seen more street brawls
than I ever did at home. And not just in the slums of Hay Ettadhamen.
They happen in Ennasr, the wealthiest district in town, too.

You know where I used to see most fights? In high-school yards. That
seems understandable, since that's probably the most volatile and
insecure times of your life. But after that, for the most part,
people just don't scrap. Maybe a couple of times they might get into
something in a bar, but even that is rare (in my experience). Here,
though, people lose it and start swinging and their friends end up
breaking up fights all the time.

I can't even attribute it to culture. In Canada, it's considered bad
manners to lose it like that. Here it's explicitly illegal. If you
get caught scrapping you're hauled off to jail. Not the police
station, jail. If you are even a part of the argument that started
it, you can get shipped out in the paddy wagon. And remember they
don't have to have proof to hold you. You could be there for a while.

I get the impression that people here are way more abused than North
Americans in general. That's not to say life at home is a piece of
cake. But imagine if your whole life you had people yelling at you,
telling you you're incompetent, that your best is garbage, that you
have no rights, that your opinion doesn't count. Imagine how you
would start to feel. And now imagine that there's no where for you to
go. You can't leave the country, either because you don't have the
money or can't get the visa (after all you're Arab, right?) or both.
You can marry and have a family, but no matter what you do, you'll
never escape the oppressive environment.

So what happens when someone insults you or insinuates that you're
stupid or a loser? If he's stronger and more powerful than you, or if
you need that person (for a paycheck, to stay out of jail, to get a
permission slip, etc.) you swallow it, bitterly. If he's as strong or
maybe weaker or you don't have any ties? You probably let all that
rage boil right up, see red, and start swinging. I've seen kids,
boys, teen-agers, street youth, college girls (usually egged on by
boys), and full grown men hitting kicking and swearing for everything
they've got. There is always someone there to pull them off before
there's more than a nosebleed. Nobody wants to get picked up by the
cops. Though in Ettadhamen a real crowd can appear. I steer clear in
all cases.

I guess it's another thing I'm grateful for, that I come from a
population who for the most part is well enough in their society that
it doesn't need to lash out at the first thing that is potentially
defeatable.

That's my though for today. Hooray for conflict resolution!

posted by tiaraletourneau @ 12:58 p.m.