Tunis | ST McNeil

Combating declensionism and gauging coastalization

16 November 2012 by ST McNeil

People do not fit into neat categories, individuals defy stereotypes, and lines in the sand have proved both destructive and inane. Boundaries and borders wreak havoc. Yet, most importantly, we have seen systems of power transcend time, continually adapting to conditions on the ground and the sea by drawing political, economic, social and cultural borders in their interests alone. What classes profited from the enclaves and capitalist entrepôts like the vineyards of Pera or other Eschelles? What class is dispossessed [...]

Categories: Africa, Africa North, Middle East, Research, Tunisia • Tags: borders, coastalization, declensionism, desertification, Tunis

The Ants of God: Clashes, Curfews, and Art in Tunisia

16 June 2012 by ST McNeil

Originally published at SISMEC Yasmine Hamdan and Badiaa Bouhrizi’s opening songs will herald the beginning of the Carthage Alternative Music Festival today in the ritzy suburb atop Byrsa Hill in Tunis. But this showcase of Tunisia’s kaleidoscopic nationality and secular-Western cultural ties, rolls on warily, under a shadow of furious anti-secular riots sparked by a man long dead. Last week, seemingly from the grave, Ayman al-Zawahiri set off these protests with a recorded message criticizing the ruling Islamic party Ennahda. “They are inventing an [...]

Categories: Middle East, News, SISMEC, Tunisia • Tags: art, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Ennahda, Ghannouchi, La Marsa, Le Kef, Marzouki, SISMEC, Tunis, Tunisia

The Transcontinental Election Everyone is Kind of Looking at

21 October 2011 by ST McNeil

On this Sunday, Oct. 23, Tunisians will vote for the first time, for real, ever. Ten months after their revolution which sparked the Arab Awakening, les Tunisienes will cast ballots for the Constituent Assembly – the 217 women and men charged with forging a new constitution. Many will read in this election’s coffee grinds regional implications. How will democracy play out in the post-dictatorship Arab world? What about women and the diaspora? Tunisia could exemplify solutions, or problems, for say elections [...]

Categories: Africa, Africa North, Middle East, News, Tunisia, Uncategorized • Tags: Arab Awakening, election, Jasmine Revolution, Tunis, Tunisia, Zen El Abdine Ben Ali

Not another Twitter Revolution

23 September 2011 by ST McNeil

The Jasmine Revolution and the January 25 Revolution are not Twitter revolutions…sorry, but sometimes you just need to beat a dead horse. Only 131,204 Egyptians used Twitter as hundreds of thousands massed in Cairo earlier this year. Just 35,746 Tunisians tweeted along Avenue Habib Bourguiba and Le Kef during the days of rage and tear gas. Barely two percent of Egyptians and five percent of Tunisians log onto Facebook (nine million together), no doubt socializing with the Arab world’s other [...]

Categories: Africa North, Egypt, Middle East, Research, Tunisia • Tags: Cairo, Digital Evangelism, Malcolm Gladwell, Mark Zuckerberg, Moammar Gaddafi, Net Delusion, SISMEC, social media, Tahrir Square, Tunis, Tunisia, Zen El Abdine Ben Ali

Piss Pride Porcelain

22 June 2011 by ST McNeil

From Seattle to Jerusalem, I’ve pissed in hundreds of urinals. One has time to think in those sixty to six hundred-second leaks: aim, pressure, splash radius, urinal cake odor. If us men are lucky, we get to power-melt leftover ice from the hotel bar. Sometimes these recepticals of our fluid waste are simple troughs of cheap metal. Other times stately affairs of crafted porcelain accomodate our urine streams. On top of most urinals, though, is a clue to American foreign [...]

Categories: Research • Tags: American exceptionalism, American Standard, Cairo, Dahab, Egypt, Gaza, Ideal Standard, Libya, lion fight, palestine, Sinai, toilet philosophy, Tunis, Tunisia, urinals

Revolutionary road

22 June 2011 by ST McNeil

The rough plan, ladies and gentlemen, is to visit three revolutionary zones. Don’t worry, Misrata is not an objective. I am posting this from the Egyptian Sinai’s east coast. Saudi Arabia faded pink moments ago as the sun set over the still untamed sands of the Bedouin desert between Palestine and the land of the pharoahs. After a few days of rest and relaxation (scuba certification and freckle amassing), I will take the nine-hour bus to Cairo. My goal is [...]

Categories: Africa North • Tags: Al-Sayed al-Essawy, Cairo, Dahab, Gaza, Gulf of Aqaba, scuba, Sinai, Tunis

ST McNeil

Environmental Convergence Journalist

Archives

Combating declensionism and gauging coastalization

The Ants of God: Clashes, Curfews, and Art in Tunisia

The Transcontinental Election Everyone is Kind of Looking at

Piss Pride Porcelain

Revolutionary road