First allow
me to point out that I'm not a specialist when it comes to habitat,
housing or spatial planning. That's actually the reason why I hesitated
when I was invited to this event. But I couldn't help but answer yes
when the kind organisers insisted on having me and also because your
country had been appealing to me ever since I came here for the
first time.
As I'm not
an expert, I've decided to go for an impressionist approach, as a tunisian
citizen determined to accept and carry out the obligations and duties
of her citizenship despite all headwinds.
Therefore
you won't hear me declaim numbers, statistics or references to legislations
or procedures.
However
I wish I could have shown you photos and images to show you what the
reality is like. But my other commitments, in particular my position
at the University of Tunis, didn't give any break and I've been unable
to update an appropriate picture library.
My father,
who's always been helping me a lot in my observations and studies on
the topic we're talking about, worked in urban upgrading and renewal
and told me two anecdotes which speak for themselves and that I would
like to use as an introduction.
Here's the
first anecdote:
A friend
of my father, half way through his studies, was unemployed and had a
hard time finding a place to live. He was too modest to ask for help
and, whenever he didn't have a place to stay, he would sit on the stairs
of the municipal theater.
The stairs
of the municipal theater have become a symbol of the Revolution as they
were the meeting point for many manifestations and protests taking place
in the city center. This is also where many artists and intellectuals
were attacked on World Theater Day (March 2012)
So this
friend sat on the stairs of the municipal theater, exposing what he
called "my home": a bag where he kept all of his belongings:
clothes, underwear's. He had his tooth brush in his shirt's pocket and
he held a book, making sure all passers-by could easily read the title.
It was Friedrich Engels's book: The Housing Question (1873)
And our
friend would sit there, as patient as a fisherman…
Here's the
second anecdote:
My father
was conducting a survey in the countryside about housing and living
conditions. The survey was compulsory in preparation for an aid program.
My father was very surprised by an older man who refused to answer the
survey and asked him, instead, to pass on his demands to the authorities
and if possible to the Supreme Fighter, the president Bourguiba himself.
This man also asked for money, saying he was only claiming his due or
rather his share of the national wealth and that he would never ask
for anything else ever again.
The reason
why I told you these two anecdotes is to give you an idea of my state
of mind and the state of mind in my country. It's made of the supremacy
of the State, of a power which pretends to be able to answer all needs
and take care of the destiny of the people - even though it can't afford
it. This led to the creation of what we call a mentality of assisted
people.
When France
finally put an end to the protectorate it had imposed in Tunisia, most
Tunisians lived in misery and insalubrity, in slums (houses made of
cob, clay and branches), spread through the countryside or gathered
in slums outside big cities.
The departure
of the colonists and the first social programs after Tunisia became
independent improved living conditions manifestly.
But in the
seventies, despite voluntarist politics, Tunisia saw a housing crisis
emerging. This crisis showed in spontaneous and anarchist housing which
had no infrastructures, no facilities.
When came
the eighties, the government got involved in upgrading these neighborhoods
but also on a smaller scale, in renovating the old city centers which
had been damaged through time.
Through
official programs, part of the national budget, and through semi-public
or solidarity programs, with the support of the World Bank and the UNCHS 'United Nations
Centre for Human Settlements' aka Habitat, it was announced that our country would
have any insanitary housing or impoverished neighborhood by the start
of the new millennium. From then on, our main focus would be improving
and embellishing our living.
I think we all believed in these announcements. Most of us, for sure,
believed in them.
Statistics were there: meticulous, confident and crystal clear.
You take the statistics of a certain group, number of households and
number of people per household, and compare it with the existing real
estate and find out that there is more housing than households.
Then you take housing conditions: facilities available, number of
rooms, construction materials - and you realize that we enjoy a good
density of population, that almost everyone has electricity at home,
that most of the urban population and half of the rural population has
running water - and you find out that Tunisia is a world champion when
it comes to property rate.
You can read official documents - both from the government, attached
organizations and international organizations, and you feel proud, relaxed
and all smiles because you realize you're living in a country of permanent
joy, a country investing in his people and their happiness and that
everything is just fine.
We even saw a neighbor country, withdrawing from Tunisia, ceasing
all aid programs, because all goals had been accomplished and there
were no needs left.
In 2005/ 2006, the publication of a new national census kept on being
postponed and the results when it came to insanitary or undeveloped
housing, kept on being re-evaluated as they didn't match the rate the
president had decided, a rate close to zero.
It looks like, we had forgotten then that life is constantly on the
move and that while we got rid of undeveloped housing, new ones kept
appearing. But there were a few other explanations.
Let me give you a few examples.
All social needs were said to be taken care of by the authorities
and the State took delight in getting rid of institutions and public
organizations, opening this sector to private companies which didn't
have neither the qualifications nor the skills but only the will to
make money. In less than five years, the number of private property
developers went from a handful to nearly 1500.
And we found out later that it actually was only a few individuals,
each of them using several companies simultaneously for misappropriation
of funds, tax fraud and illicit and unjustified access to public financings.
The State
pulled out from land control. Previously, plots of land were regulated
through granting state-owned plots to social housing, through exchanges
or expropriation, through taxation or involvement on different stages
such a financing, construction…
But of course, real estate prices went up, first twice as expensive
and then ten times more expensive and then hundred times more expensive…
The quality, however, didn't improve much and is questionable. It became
prohibitively priced for most families, especially in the middle class.
The anarchy that was typical of working-class neighborhoods, built
outside the legal frame, outside the city plan, outside urban regulations,
slowly spread over the entire urban environment.
Nepotism, corruption, restrictions of freedom of speech and influence
networks quickly overcame urban planning. As long as you could pay,
as long as you were introduced by the right person, you could
build as you liked.
With a magic pen, the use purpose could go from unconstructible to
residential; regulations relating to occupation surfaces and building
lands was increased. Well-located buildings were demolished even though
they belonged to a historical heritage, with for the sole purpose of
quickly making money. Many of our neighborhoods, many of our lovely
villages, became mutilated and slashed forever.
And then the revolution came.
First, some areas inland started to rumble and then the outlying neighborhoods
around Tunis and Sfax and a few other cities let their anger show and
people of all ages and all background joined the protest. The King immediately
rushed to his plane and left and without him, the reality of our country
appeared to us: naked, ashamed and difficult to manage.
When it comes to the topic we're discussing today, it can be described
as follow :
- Working-class districts, villages, cities and even entire districts
were, contrary to what we were made to think, abandoned to their fate.
There were hardly any urban program, social supervision or fundings.
An unfair planning scheme promoted developed areas and kept disadvantaged
ones as suppliers of raw materials and unqualified labour.
- National resources, public properties and funds were misappropriated,
stolen and exploited while we were constantly told about environmental
conservation and sustainable development.
- Families without means of support were packed in badly-served districts
and endemic unemployment affected hundreds of thousands of young people.
A third of them could complete their university degree only after their
families sacrificied much as an investment for the future.
- Some programs were nothing but empty shells or screens with nothing
behind. Some other institutions or organisations were meant to watch
and control districts and to serve shady interests.
The revolution broke out and the reality appeared before us. And we,
Tunisians, we realized that we didn't know each other. And another wall
collapsed.
Now we know each other better than before, we are more interested
in each other, each of us can be proud of his fellow countrymen and
discovers, as a child, other people, other districts, and realized how
deceived we were.
Now we don't recognize any longer the State infrastructures and organizations
we were fooled by. We unseated the municipal councils that weren't represented
us at all and we're ignoring the temporary councils which replaced them
without our consent. Now we dare to check, control, cross-check data,
investigate, ask, create our own associations, devote ourselves for
the general interest and refuse any diktat or oligarchy. Now we're courageous
enough to question ourselves and to call out government into
question.
The revolution broke out or rather, the revolution was set in motion
and still is in motion despite ups and downs and despite the fighting
spirit of those who took the power from us.
On a spatial level, this can be seen by winning back public spaces:
squares, avenues, city centers,
by taking over places which are ours but which had been taken away
from us,
by seizing walls and giving them to painters, graffiti artists and
young people looking for a way to express themselves. And this is promising
for the future.
On one condition: resisting against those who want to take us back
to dark times of obscurantism and to deny us human intelligence.
On an urban level, everyone is taking advantage of the situation.
It's both outrageous and beyond repair but everyone's building, in breach
of the law, without any respect for urban and building regulations.
But these people have to have a place to live and they're creating
it from scratch, in total chaos, without taking into consideration the
environment, the nature of the grounds or the possible risks of
building in an area liable to flooding for instance. These constructions
are set up in a rush, they're ugly and shabby.
These people are trying to deal with the most urgent matters first.
They're helpless and they're reacting against decades of deprivations.
I can't help but find them excuses. And I hope that in the future we'll
be have the intelligence and the possibility to improve everything that
needs to be improved.
However, these people are not the only ones taking advantage of the
decline of the State, of the incompetence of the governments and of
the loosening of the structures that usually control us.
Quite the contrary.
Others take advantage of the situation, to allot where it's not allowed,
to create an extension, at the expense of gardens, at the expense of
architectural features, at the expense of visual or thermal comfort
of the neighbors, at the expense of public spaces such as parks, sidewalks…
Some fanatics came out of nowhere and advocated for a return to basics
that weren't interpreted the same way by everyone. They stretched
to taking over religious places and settled there with their wives and
children in order to turn them into new places of recruitment, training
and propaganda. Some of them even demolished, mistreated and mutilated
historic monuments, claiming they were non standards. Obviously not
their own standards.
This is a quick outline of the situation, based on my observations
through my constant travels across my country, my readings, my discussions
with my father who's always encouraged me to be interested in everything
that comes my way.
I hope that each of you found something of interest in this presentation,
depending on your curiosity or interests. To conclude, allow me to get
back to the two anecdotes I started with. The housing question is still
crucial and the 30.000 housing units the temporary government plans
on building won't be enough of an answer.
The outcry of our architects, study offices and engineers denounces
procedures that still lack transparency and criticize both the materials
and the methods chosen for these new constructions.
As the man of the second anecdote asked, wouldn't it be better to
distribute the content of the envelope of this program directly to the
recipients and let them build their houses themselves?
Thank you for your attention.
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