A jasmine seller makes maqmoum, small bouquets made of jasmine, in Tunis, Tunisia, August 6, 2022. (Xinhua/Xu Supei)
“Food prices in Tunisia are very high. The working class has to meet their daily needs. We cannot save money for the future,” says a part-time jasmine seller. Tunisia’s inflation rate rose to 8.2% in July, the highest in 30 years.
Xu Supei, Ayten Laamar and Huang Ling Xinhua Writers
TUNIS, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) — The global decline in business, prolonged by the lingering COVID-19 pandemic and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, is being felt in nearly every profession in Tunisia, including also includes street flower vendors. .
Mohamed Bugera, a man in his 40s, has been selling jasmine, the national flower of Tunisia, since 2015 in front of a famous cafe in Monastir, a city on the central coast of the country of North Africa. He told Xinhua that this is a seasonal job with low income.
For the rest of the year, he makes a living by selling homemade bread baked by his aging mother.
Furthermore, “due to my state of health, I cannot walk from one place to another to make more money,” the Tunisian man sighed as he sat in his wheelchair.
Bouguerat, like many other Tunisian jasmine sellers, has become harder to come by in recent years. The pandemic nearly brought inbound tourism to a halt in 2020.
A jasmine seller advertises makumum, small bouquets made of jasmine, in the town of Sidi Bou Said, Tunis, Tunisia, June 14, 2022. (Xinhua/Xu Supei)
In May, Tunisia’s central bank raised its key interest rate by 75 points to 7% to combat high inflation. That lifted him to 8.2% in July for the 10th straight month, the highest in 30 years.
“The cost of living is getting higher and life is getting harder. Governments have to find solutions to keep prices from rising,” Bouguera warned.
For Mohsen Nsibi, a construction worker in his 50s, a part-time job selling jasmine is both fun and challenging.
“I usually go to Gammarth Beach on the northern outskirts of the capital to sell jasmine to tourists, where I can chat and joke with customers,” he told Xinhua. Told.
Despite his optimism, Nsibi confessed to feeling pressured even as a part-time seller.
“Food prices in Tunisia are very high. The working class has to meet their daily needs. We cannot save money for the future,” he said with a wry smile.
Tunisians gather in central Tunis, Tunisia on December 17, 2021 to mark the 11th anniversary of the Jasmine Revolution that broke out on December 17, 2010. (Photo credit: Adel Ezzine/Xinhua)
Jasmine reminds people of the riots that broke out in Tunisia at the end of 2010. Through a campaign of civil resistance later dubbed the Jasmine Revolution by the media, Tunisians overthrew longtime president Zin El Abidin Ben Ali.
For a long time, Tunisia was seen as “the only successful model of democracy” to emerge from the Arab Spring.
However, recent research published by the Arab Barometer, a public research network in the Arab world, shows that Arabs believe Western democracy’s ability to bring about economic stability in the Middle East and North Africa, especially in countries demonstrated a loss of trust in Countries like Tunisia, Lebanon and Iraq have all had their most meaningful elections in the last decade.
Tunisia’s GDP per capita is still lower than in 2011. Surveys show that Tunisians are now 50 percentage points more likely to believe that democracy has its limits than a decade ago.
A Tunisian woman attends a rally in central Tunis, Tunisia, on December 17, 2021, to mark the 11th anniversary of the Jasmine Revolution that broke out on December 17, 2010. (Photo credit: Adel Ezzine/Xinhua)
Doubts about Western democracy inevitably lead to low voter turnout. In Tunisian elections since 2011, participation rates have fallen from 68% in 2014 to 42% in 2019.
“We all know that the Jasmine Revolution was named after the national flower of Tunisia. The jasmine symbolizes tranquility, purity and happiness… As a Tunisian who has experienced the Revolution, I am aware of other Like many people, I still dream of a better life,” Bugera said. ■
.
Comments
Post a Comment