Consider a Tree: It Leaves

Further news : After Chokri Belaïd’s assassination on Feb. 6, the Tunisian Prime Minister announced that he would form a new government of independent technocrats (which the opposition insists upon) to run the country until elections could be organized, thus putting aside his allegiance to the ruling religious party. His party did not support him and sabotaged his efforts, thus requiring him to resign.

           The ruling religious party then proposed the Minister of the Interior to become Prime Minister and form a new government within two weeks. When a Minister of the Interior moves up, it usually signals something worse to come. Although the new Prime Minister attempted to find new alliances and partners among the opposition parties, all refused except for the two parties that currently form the ruling "Troika" alliance and have high stakes in the government. Last Friday, the Prime Minister announced his new cabinet of 30-some ministers, which will undoubtedly increase up to the preceding 80 ministers (!) once the cabinet is approved by the Constitutional Assembly. This new cabinet can be described as totally incompetent for the job of running a government. Musical chairs comes to mind. Supposedly, independent technocrats filled key ministries (Foreign Affairs, Defense, Interior, & Justice), however, it is common knowledge that those people actually favor the ruling religious party and are therefore not independent. So childish.

            In the meantime, international banking institutions are turning their backs on Tunisia as rankings sink, inflation continues to push prices up, unemployment continues to rise, salaries continue to stagnate for those who have jobs--with the exception of the Ministers and Constitutional Assembly members. There remains little hope that the government of the ruling religious party can affect any sort of change or improvements, and, even more worrisome, future elections for a permanent government are not being planned. The country continues to limp along in a netherworld of "transition."

And so, I bury myself in my art. I finished stitching on the twelfth and last segment of pomegranates. 

Stitching on the pomegranates inspired me to play with thread just for the fun of it in my sketchbook. 

Ahhh, those shiny threads. An abstracted pomegranate (or a red ball)--pure pleasure. 

Pomegranate leaves provided the next idea for the sketchbook. 

However, the political scene informs this page. It reads: "Inept Tunisian Ministers should consider a tree: It leaves." 

Difficult to resist playing with words. At this point, that may be all that Tunisians have...words....