Nearly One Year After the Tunisian Revolution Sidi Bouzid Remains a Neglected Town

Graffiti in downtown Sidi Bouzid

It has been nearly a year since a now world famous fruit vendor, Mohammed Bouazizi, lit himself on fire in Sidi Bouzid.  The feeling of neglect is still prevalent in the large agricultural community of the Tunisian hinterland. Widespread poverty, unemployment, and severe underdevelopment are all conditions that define the town where the Tunisian Revolution started. There are still large areas of the governorate where people live under severe substandard housing conditions. Unemployment is high and investment is low. Large numbers of youths spend their days in the center of the towns’ many cafes.

“We all want the same things: democracy, human rights, regional equality, dignity and development,” said Amine Nsiri, a young man in his twenties sitting in a café with his friends.  “The government never cared about people.  We need a new direction, new administration, new everything,” he added.  Sidi Bouzid seems to be defined by unfinished construction, seemingly endless empty lots and very little new development in site.  The movie theatre has been closed for over 20 years and a small building with fussball tables seems to always be full with young men seeking the little entertainment their town can provide them.

While the region is Tunisia’s breadbasket, agricultural production has lost it’s profitability.  “Each year the conditions for us get worse and worse,” said a tomato farmer who did not want to be named.  “I can sell one ton of tomatoes for 108 Tunisian Dinars but the fertilizer to produce a ton of tomatoes will cost 150 Tunisian Dinars.” For every five acres of land used for agriculture, ten people  can be employed, however, there are large tracks of arid land not used at all in Sidi Bouzid. “Agriculture must be reformed in Tunisia, and we can only hope our new government will be up to the challenge,” concluded the farmer.

Agriculture is not the only area of Sidi Bouzid in complete despair, the education system has almost totally failed it’s residents.  “We have the highest percentage of unemployed college graduates in the country in Sidi Bouzid” explained Adil, a guidance counselor at a local high school.  The rate of unemployed college graduates is near 16% in the northern coastal regions, but it is over 40% in Sidi Bouzid.  The youth of Sidi Bouzid continue to live on with little hope, their lives devalued to jobs paying below subsistence wages.  Although the former President Zine El Abddine Ben Ali made university education free, he did not build a single university in Sidi Bouzid.  Parents of students in Sidi Bouzid have to send their children to the coast to attend university and pay for their housing which is often unaffordable.

Rachid Fetini is the owner of a textile company in Sidi Bouzid.  He produces clothes for United Colors of Benetton, one of the largest clothing chains in Tunisia.  Before the revolution he was producing 6000 pieces of clothes per day but after the revolution his production declined to 2000 pieces per day. While he has hope for Sidi Bouzid he sees a need for great reform in the administration of the town.  ”We have an alarming amount of administrative corruption here in Sidi Bouzid,” he said.  Although the Governor was replaced, the former regime’s administrative structure is still in place and decisions are not made by decisive leaders.  ”Most investors who come to Sidi Bouzid have turned out to be opportunists exploiting our misery.  They don’t care about improving the standard of living here,” Fetini added.  According to Fetini, the Ministry of Industry has been giving promises but has been slow to act and local investment is not half of what it should be. Security has been a particular problem in Sidi Bouzid with the police and even the army in a total chaos.

One positive breakthrough according to Fetini is the only new business entering Sidi Bouzid after the revolution.  Delice, the first milk company in Tunisia, will set up a dairy in Sidi Bouzid.  The company will employ 300 people.  Fetini hopes the venture will be successful and a model for future projects in Sidi Bouzid.

During the Tunisian Election campaign, many candidates proposed eliminating all taxes for investors who invested in Sidi Bouzid and the hinterland regions.  In May, the World Bank and African Development Bank announced a $1 Billion loan program for the Tunisian government to develop infrastructure in the underdeveloped regions.  But, according to some in Sidi Bouzid, the promises are not enough.  “We don’t trust the World Bank and African Development Bank because we never saw results of the loans they gave to Ben Ali’s government,” said Gaith Yousfi a computer science graduate living in Hiy-al-Nour, the same neighborhood as Mohammed Bouazizi.  “We want to see manufacturing, more government transparency and better working conditions for people who have jobs,” he added.