An American Abroad

Archives for November 2014

Terrorist Threats Against Foreign Teachers in the MENA Region

Yesterday I attended a meeting in Tunis about safety and personal security here in Tunisia. It was led by David Santiago, a former U.S. Marine who was stationed at the embassy here and who now is the Security Director for the American Cooperative School of Tunis. He gave an excellent presentation, after which I checked out his expat security blog and subscribed to his Twitter feed. I recommend both.

We discussed the fact that recently there has been discussion on ISIS and other jihadist websites about attacking foreign teachers and foreign schools in the Middle East, North Africa, and elsewhere. American and international schools are viewed as “softer,” easier targets than embassies and other more secure institutions. Various American embassies have put out warnings about this. Reportedly, schools in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Sudan, Nigeria, Morocco, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia — and Tunisia — were mentioned in the jihadist discussion.

An article that came out yesterday states that Egypt has arrested someone who posted threats against foreign schools and teachers on jihadist websites. But the discussion is out there. I hope my friends and colleagues who teach abroad will be vigilant.

Halloween in Tunisia

We had a Halloween party for our students at Amideast last Friday. Despite the appearance of many ghouls, zombies, hippies, witches, Marilyn Manson, and even yours truly as Death himself, it was really refreshingly normal. I wish that at least sometimes the American news media would publish photos like these in addition to the constant stream of images showing Arabs as psychotic, fanatic, and alien. But maybe I have a warped sense of normal.

DSC_0237

DSC_0207

DSC_0206

DSC_0196

DSC_0189

DSC_0188

DSC_0183

DSC_0180

DSC_0168

DSC_0142

DSC_0136

DSC_0133

DSC_0127

I suggested to my students that we parade through Carrefour, a nearby supermarket. They goggled at me for a second, as if I had just suggested something radically transgressive, and then exploded in delight. And so I led a group of about 40 students through the grocery aisles. Halloween is not widely known or understood in Tunisia, so the patrons and staff there had no idea what we were doing and reacted with a mix of alarm, feigned disinterest, and curiosity. When we all returned to Amideast for classes the next day, I asked my Access class what part of Halloween they liked best, I was delighted that most of them said that the Carrefour visit was the high point.

DSC_0218

One thing I couldn’t do during the party was take pictures. Fortunately, Khalil Khelifi, a professional photographer, was on hand to document the festivities. He was also kind enough to allow me to post these photos here (with all rights reserved to him). If anyone needs a photographer in Sousse, I strongly recommend him. He can be contacted at khalil khelifi khelifikhalil50@gmail.com.

5000

I logged onto Google Analytics this morning to discover that this blog now has just over 5000 unique “users,” almost 20,000 “pageviews” and almost 10,000 “sessions.” Very small potatoes compared to big commercial sites, but the numbers still make me happy. I appreciate everyone who’s tuned in.

Also, I now have readers in 113 countries (or country-like web domains):

Algeria
Andorra
Argentina
Armenia
Australia
Austria
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Belize
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Brazil
Brunei
Bulgaria
Cambodia
Canada
Cayman Islands
Chile
China
Colombia
Costa Rica
Cote d’Ivoire
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Djibouti
Ecuador
Egypt
Estonia
Ethiopia
Finland
France
French Polynesia
Georgia
Greece
Germany
Guam
Guernsey
Haiti
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Jamaica
Jersey
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kuwait
Laos
Latvia
Lebanon
Libya
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macau
Malaysia
Maldives
Malta
Mexico
Mongolia
Montenegro
Morocco
Myanmar
Namibia
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Qatar
Romania
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Serbia
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sri Lanka
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Trinidad & Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
Zambia