{"id":1273,"date":"2026-05-05T02:18:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T00:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adham.elshahabi.com\/blog\/?p=1273"},"modified":"2026-05-05T02:22:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T00:22:40","slug":"carthage-diaries-02-kidnapped-fed-and-welcomed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adham.elshahabi.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/05\/carthage-diaries-02-kidnapped-fed-and-welcomed\/","title":{"rendered":"Carthage Diaries 02: Kidnapped, Fed, and Welcomed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRevive me today and kill me tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are the words of my taxi driver in Tunis. Taxi drivers are a great source of inspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tunisians are kind and generous. On the street they seem a bit more serious than Egyptians who are joking in any possible situation. I always wonder what events in the history shaped the collective mood of a nation. Whether it is winning\/losing a war, or for example works of literature or art that influences everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I visited the Punic and Roman ruins of Carthage, a city of big history that was completely destroyed by the romans. Before that destruction, its general Hannibal marched his army through Spain, crossed the Alps, and spent fifteen years fighting and winning the worst lost battles of the Roman Empire. He marched from the north to Cannae, further than Rome. He did not march to Rome. Nobody knows why.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n


The problem is that we may never know, because the history that survived was written exclusively by the Romans, who later burned Carthage\u2019s libraries with all the books in Carthage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar to civilisations, unless we document things ourself, what will remain of us is what the others tell about us. I guess this is one reason I am writing here. But also interesting is to imagine, what others would tell about your \u201ccivilisation\u201d when you are gone. Probably the truth is distributed between what you think of yourself and what the others think of you. And as. They say, each of us exists differently in every mind that thinks of us. The versions of you that live in your mother\u2019s perception, in a colleague\u2019s, in a stranger\u2019s who watched you once on the metro are not the same person. And none of them is actually you. Neither is what you think is you! We are probably the overlapping region of several Venn diagrams: some of what we believe about ourselves, some of what the others perceive, and what remains true beyond both. I spent a lot of time alone in Tunisia, reflecting and sorting out my thoughts about my life. On the other hand, I have had a few great conversations, specially with Amel, the English language university professor that definitely enriched my perspective on Tunisian lives as well as mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve read this far: I invite you to also enrich my perspective, There\u2019s an anonymous form below. Tell me something I should change or some aspect I could improve. Just be a bit kind hehe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n