Walking Tunis streets

This is the president of Tunisia, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and you will find his picture everywhere on billboards and in frames. Most show him looking directly at the camera friendly like and, well, really teddy-bearish, with his hand over his heart in the Arab tradition of glad to meet you. He's been in office for 20 years and gets just under 100 percent of the vote in every election. In its modern, post-French protectorate history Tunisia has had only two presidents. The first was also given this saint-like adoration and he may have deserved it. The main street here is named for him Haqbib Bourguiba. He gave rights to women and modernized the country. He tried to end fasting furing Ramadan, for example, to show how radical he was. The New York Times compared him to Ataturk in Turkey.

Tunis is westernized and modern looking as these scenes in the Medina (above) and Nov. 7 Place here show.