M: Tunisia’s government has been overthrown.
U: i heard about the protests
M: The president has fleed to another country.
U: to saudi arabia
M: It’s said the starting story is a youngman tried to kill himself by set himself on fire since the police took away the vegitable and fruits he tried to sell.
U: it have read such story
U: i went to work today and just read the news from the internet
U: didn’t feel like work
M: I just knew it. In China, so many people have set themselves on fire because of desperation, but the gov’t seems so stable.
M: Someone on his blog said that in the news of Chinese official media, this part about that young man is ignored
M: do you think that Tunisia will get better?
U: probably not
M: oh, maybe because the society will be unstable
U: i think the muslim religion gets in the way of progress
M: oh, it seems complicated.
M: The muslims like fighting for their benefits.
U: yeah…it is…i don’t much about it
U: i pay more attention to what goes in the real world
U: i mean…no big 21st century technology will come out of tunisia
U: so…i keep up with asia, europe…etc
M: oh, do you mean that you ingore that country?
U: i don’t ignore it…i have the opinion that nothing will change in such countries
M: oh, i c. I have just known where that country is, but that story about that youngman is so similar with many miserable stories in China.
U: their religion keeps them behind the rest of the world
U: i know tunisia from history
U: the place where the protests began…Kasserine…was the first battle between germans and americans during world war 2
M: oh,
U: a huge victory for the Afrika Korps (germans)
M: oh,
U: but the Americans recovered and soon pushed the german army out of North Africa
U: in 1943
M: there was a famous German general
M: Badun?
U: Rommel (german)
U: Patton (american)
M: Barton?
U: never heard of that name
M: Rommel is named desert fox, right?
U: yes
U: i’m impressed
M: Barton = Patton
U: ok
M: it’s said that Patton asked the people to put his skin on a battle drummer when he died. Is it true?
U: no
U: i know of no such thing
M: Oh, maybe it’s not true.
U: thats crazy
M: It shows that he loved wars.
U: An American general would never allow such a thing
U: that is true
U: patton loved war
M: oh, i c
U: so i guess he was crazy
U: and maybe did say something about his skin being on a battle drum
U: who knows
M: Rommel failed in Egypt?
U: yes…his army ran out of fuel and ammunition and had to retreat across North Africa to tunisia
M: oh, and Italian army also surrendered to Americans there.
M: right?
U: a very long retreat…if you look at the map
U: yes
M: I heard a bit from that history teacher’s video.
U: which history teacher?
M: I have told you about him.
M: Yuan Teng Fei.
U: oh yes
M: He talked about “Thanks U.S. pilots”
M: in his class.
M: He said that Italians are very incapable at the battle field.
U: the Italians aren’t very good warriors
U: but they are very good soccer players
M: They just wanted to go back home to watch opera, drink wine, that teacher said.
U: ha ha
U: perhaps that is true
M: That teacher told a story. Two American pilots dropped in the desert and were kind of lost.
M: Thousands of Italian soldiers emerged and surrendered to them.
M: Those soldiers just ran after the Americans to surrender. They were happy to find this two at last.
M: That’s that teacher said. it may be sort of exaggerated.
U: i think so…dosen’t seem realistic
M: 🙂
U: so…that is how I know about Tunisia
M: 🙂
U: from World War 2 history
M: I heard of this country’s name many times before.