DouglasVB

September 26, 2004November 15, 2021

CITET

At CITET we were shown around the various labs and facilities at CITET’s disposal. We also were treated to a short presentation of CITET’s activities. It was particularly interesting to see the disproportionate number of women working in the labs and administration of CITET. I wonder if CITET has particularly progressive hiring practices or is mandated to hire a certain percentage of women to be shown off as a trophy agency that demonstrates the parity between men and women. More than likely the second is true. However, I will continue to believe the first.

The most interesting part of CITET for me was the five different demonstrations of sustainable and renewable technologies. Among them there was one to treat waste water, another to treat the byproduct of olive oil production, another to generate electricity from biogas created from vegetable market waste, two windmills and a solar array to generate power, and others. The ones that caught my eye the most had moving parts and were shiny. As any good engineer knows, shininess counts!

CITET is a very interesting agency. It doesn’t have any regulatory or other such power. The agency isn’t designed to protect the environment. Rather, it helps industry comply with environmental regulations and laws, monitors the coastline for other agencies and ministries, and monitors industry for violations of laws. The general public never sees the direct effects of CITET. Instead, other agencies fine companies and close beaches. CITET is for science – not for bureaucracy. I wonder how independent CITET is from the rest of the government and outside influence. If they were to find a gross violation of the environmental law from a company such as GCT, would it be reported or would such findings be kept quite for one reason or another?

The possibility of working for such an agency is appealing, especially with its large pool of highly talented employees. I feel slightly inadequate in my knowledge base compared to the researchers and technicians at CITET. Would I actually make a difference for CITET and for Tunisia if I took an internship there? It’s hard to say. I think that it’d not be as good compared to GCT or another firm to learn Arabic at. It appears that most scientific work is done in French, not Arabic. I would be interested to see which is spoken and used more within CITET as compared with other internship prospects.

All in all, I’m impressed that Tunisia has taken such a forward thinking view on the environment compared to other North African countries. Indeed, other countries are even calling upon CITET to train their people in the ways of sustainability. Were it not for colonization attempts on the Magrib, maybe there wouldn’t have been a time where the communities in question went from sustainable to unsustainable. With the help of CITET, I think that the pendulum will swing the other direction to make Tunisia and all of the Magrib sustainable once more.

September 26, 2004November 15, 2021

Visiting Some of the Institutions of Tunis: CEMAT, AMEN Bank, and CITET

At CEMAT. In French, CEMAT stands for Centre d’études maghrébines à Tunis while it can be translated as Center for Maghrib Studies in Tunis. CEMAT is an institution dedicated to facilitating scholars studying and researching in North Africa. It also helps North African scholars study and conduct research abroad.

AMEN Bank is one of the non-government-run banks in Tunisia. We listened to a presentation about the bank’s lending practices, funding sources, and the like.

CITET, Centre International des Technologies de l’Environnement de Tunis in French and Tunis International Center for Environmental Technologies in English is the main governmental hub of environmental technology and research in the country. After a presentation outlining the operations of CITET, we were taken on a tour of the labs and some of the outdoor technology demonstration areas.

September 26, 2004November 15, 2021

WWII North African American War Cemetery

The American World War II African Cemetery near Sidi Bou Said is a typical razzmatazz American installation commemorating it’s war dead. I’ve been to many of these cemeteries in Europe on past trips. This was the first one, however, where I was taken on a tour by a nice local man, and then met the ghost of the American director.

The cemetery is laid out in a typical tic-tac-toe pattern with the wall of the missing at the head of the cemetery, a chapel in one corner, administrative offices off to the side, and the stone or other such object commemorating all of the soldiers who lost their lives near the chapel. The grounds are very well kept with an immaculate lawn, no doubt fertilized by America’s fallen children. All of the stonework and marble crosses are as clean as clean can be. Nothing is out of place, not even a stray piece of gravel from the neatly raked gravel beds.

At this particular war cemetery the main attraction, aside from remembering the great sacrifice so many people gave to drive the Nazi’s and Fascists from power, is the director, Mr. Green. Most cemeteries are quite outposts of the war memorial commission. Ones I’ve been at in the past are usually run by old dried up men who either fought in the war that the cemetery is for or remember it vividly. Mr. Green appears to be a little younger than World War II. In fact, I don’t believe Mr. Green is there entirely to watch over the largely forgotten sons and daughters of America. I’d hazard to guess that he’s actually an operative in one of America’s many security services. If nothing else, the pure outlandishness of his dress and the born-again Christian attitude screams “agent”. Is Mr. Green his real name or a code name based on Tunisia being known as the country of green? Well, at least Lucas keeps telling me that’s what it’s known as!

Mr. Green’s entrance was truly that of a phantasm. He appeared to shimmer into existence in the middle of the cemetery in between the rows of crosses and stars. Truly, he is an odd bird in an odd job at an odd facility that is in a country who no doubt finds him very odd!

Aside from Mr. Green and his crazy dress and demeanor, the cemetery does a very nice job of remembering the American war dead. I wonder if there’ll be such a wonderful monument for the current conflicts. The respect that World War II veterans and the dead from that war received and still receive today is in stark contrast to the way that our soldiers are currently being treated. We don’t see the pictures of the coffins on the transport planes back to the USA. We don’t see the widows and mothers weeping. This war isn’t as real to us as WWII was. I fear there will be no monument for those men and women who died for their country in Iraq. Regardless of if a war is right or not, those who fought and those who died deserve respect and celebration for their sacrifice. Even the German veterans and dead from WWII have monuments built for them. I’ve sat and talked with the men and women who were in Hitler’s Youth Army and in the regular Nazi Army both as conscripts and volunteers. They fought honorably for their country regardless of if they believed it was a just and right war or not. They have been honored. Will the Americans dieing in Iraq and Afghanistan and soon to be other locations be honored as well? I hope so.