Backwards in comming forwards
Having just returned from a few sun packed mellow weeks in Tunisia, I'm relieved to discover that my mail box is not quite full to over flowing and that the weather is not quite as white as the overseas British post might like its ex-pats to expect. Its been an interesting few weeks, learning how to barter with taxi drivers and local tradesmen for goods, after getting used to the fact that if you look western, or European, everyone wants to "make you good price". More than often a "good price" is based on where your from, the strength of our pound leads most salesmen to think that charging quadruple local prices for items is acceptable, after all, "8 dinnias is the cost of a sandwich" here, over there, it is probably at least a few days work. But every things relative, and if you argue, which is perhaps all part of the experience you tend to pay what you think things are worth, rather than, what the locals think your worth. Its an interesting concept for buying and selling. Sometimes as a customer I feel undervalued by retailers or shop floor managers, in-fact sometimes, I don't even get a buy your leave from who ever is manning the store, in Tunisia, it was the complete opposite, people fell over themselves to communicate, barter, swap, attract attention to themselves and their products, even if most of the time what they were selling was somewhat antiquated, the cajoling and shouting was never any less or enthusiastic. However, shopping in Tunisia is not recommended to those with a gentle disposition, as you will get ram roded into buying things that you don't want for ridiculous prices. What struck me most, is the seemingly complete contrast between both countries. Several English people in our hotel, grouped together every day to complain about one thing or another, mainly the lack of infrastructure, the nothing to do line that we often hear as an excuse for teenage behavior seemed to apply here to very 'grown up' groups of visitors. It got me thinking about how spoiled we are, both in terms of the simple things that we take for granted, and for those endless entertainment channels, both inside and outside our own front rooms that serve to keep us amused. Here everyone shops, we absent mindlessly rely on food chains, delivery and supply chains to bring us what we want when we want it. We have the infrastructure to support this and we rely on this to get buy in our 24hour lifestyles. We have intensive farming, appropriate health and safety procedures; for example you wouldn't see builders working in flip flops, or people mixing cement by hand, or hauling bricks up hundreds of feet on a bit of string, or road workers working without barriers or lights or speed restrictions. Nor would we see a single man with a hoe working acres of land, or rubbish and rubble dumped any old how throughout our roads and green areas. Saying that, our current infrastructure has taken years to build and establish, our jobs currently afford us the lifestyle we have and our religions don't impinge on us as perhaps we perceive they might do in countries like Tunisia, which is predominantly Muslim. And we also might like to take into consideration, that if we hopped over the boarder to Libya, you can fill up a two litre diesel car for the equivalent of about 25 pence. In a way, Tunisia has the best of both worlds. Its economy is supported by the influx of foreign visitors, giving local people the chance to double if not triple their weekly wage. Its food is locally produced, organic, fresh and affordable, something concerned consumers in the UK can pay through the nose for. While fuel is cheap, and cars are abundant throughout the larger cities, in rural areas, transport is still the good old horse and cart, safer for the environment, and retailers are salesmen, who not only sell through their own locally established trade routes, from soil to table, and manufacture to shop floor, but know how to drive a bargain and communicate effectively, if sometimes over zealously to consumers. It makes me wonder, if that in being more advanced, in trading at higher prices and allowing technology to simplify all our lives, we as consumers find ourselves striving for the sort of service and relationships that my parents had with the local butcher, tailor and farmer, the sort of consumer lifestyle that the Tunisians have that we as such a well developed country might regard as backward, and indeed I heard that many times over my fresh eggs, tomato's and bread at breakfast, where a large man often complained, " I came here for a relaxing time, they are about 50 years behind here man, their's no Bacon, and I even have to keep my finger on the toaster. I'm gonna go to Tesco's when I get back and send them one...."
