Tunisia: Prelude to an Arab Spring – Zarin Machanda

Tunisia:  Prelude to an Arab Spring – Zarin Machanda

Located along the North African shores of the Mediterranean, Tunisia has a rich history dating to before the 12th century BCE and is a crossroads of Berber, French, and Arab cultures.  In December 2011, Zarin and her family rented a car and spent an incredible ten days driving around the entire country.  She will share some of the highlights of this trip, including impeccably preserved Roman ruins, sleeping in a cave hotel, a night in an oasis in the Sahara, and playing with light sabers on the original sets where Star Wars was filmed in 1977.  Zarin arrived in Tunisia a week after a young fruit seller had self-immolated to protest economic conditions in the country.  That event is widely considered to have set the Arab Spring in motion, and protests erupted just two days after she left the country.  Zarin…