Are Tunisians "Happy"?

(photo belongs to its original owner)

I woke-up that morning after a similar one where those news were all over the country: terrorists are being chased, surrounded, shot and arrested at different locations.

“God bless the police!” shout old people. “They are finally doing their real job” say younger people. “The assumed murderer of Chokri Belaid has been killed only 2 days before his one year memorial funeral”. “What a coincidence!” noticed nearly everybody.

“Coincidence? It’s all my eye! This is one failed governmental play in order to calm down the opponents” said a colleague of mine at the university.

Where am I in this chaos of opinions, doubts and accusations?
I’ve always been skeptic.That’s why now I feel totally lost.
What/who shall I believe?? I am unable to judge; there is no trusted evidence. Everyone is accusing everyone and everybody hates everybody…
Well, not everyone.

There are still some young people at this confusing period of our history who are still enjoying life, who are sure of what they want, who inspite of all odds, of all the mess going on, of the ambiguity and threatening insecurity, are unapologetically “happy”.

It has started about 2 months ago I guess; many amazing young people have been shaking both my YouTube home page and my soul with beautiful video covers of “Happy” by Pharrell Williams.

They are Youth, from many Tunisian cities, who still radiate hope and create work of art that brings smile and warmth.

This cyber phenomenon which had started earlier at famous capitals such as Paris and Berlin, accrues now in Tunisia to surprise you at the time when many Tunisians feel really depressed.

Those people make you feel better, see life in this country differently, treasure what you have and especially make it work.

No matter how simple it may seem, this artistic gesture has a real psychological impact on web surfers. It is, indeed, the kind of spirit we need to build a country.

Today, youth challenge extremists and prove that terrorist attacks failed to break their spirit or disfigure the country’s image.
They smile, dance, have fun and share their love of this country which I thought no youth did…

I think that these young people reminded me of a basic though crucial lesson of life: if you want to defeat the hands of death, then be a soldier of life.

Ps: you can check-out some of these covers (in the order put by Youtube) in the links below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGilnvH1eNc (Bizerte)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GU6u_cbnWn0 (Tunis)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuckpIx8Ps4 (Nabeul)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5HvUGSGHcY (Marsa)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6R6dnfhC0U (Carthage)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNQ1xQpcyTg (Monastir)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6a5AZAF5Io (Sfax)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZotzDKub8U (Djerba)

Enjoy the positive vibes!