As a Tunisian Fulbrighter, I was so jubilant to discover Kantara, a Tunisian-American group that epitomize the cross cultural exchange, openness and tolerance through art.

Kantara is a celebration of melodies, colors and perfumes across the Atlantic from Tunisia to America. The rhythms bring a well balanced mix of two seemingly different yet harmonious styles. Kantara is a call to acceptance and diversity. Kantara is just what the humanity needs: not walls but Bridges.

I interviewed Kantara’s lead singer and multi-instrumentalist Brennan Gilmore via e-mail in late February and would like to thank him and his mates from this tribune on behalf of all Tunisian Fulbrighters and Plusers here in the US.

Undoubtedly, between Tunisia and America, it is much more than mutual understanding and respect.

---


Let’s begin from the start. How did the idea come up in the first place? How did the group get together?

Kantara was born in Sidi Bou Said in the fall of 2005. I met Riadh Fehri in the summer of 2005, and knew that he was renown in Tunisia for his music and his work at the Sidi Bou Said conservatory. Riadh and I began to jam informally and over the months began to compose and arrange together. At first we hadn’t planned to create a new group. I played guitar with the last performance of Riadh’s Minaret et la Tour project,and following this we decided it would be interesting to develop a group that fused Arabic and Appalachian music. We played our first performance in Italy in November 2005, and were joined by Lassaad Hosni on darbouqa and bendir, and Amel Boukhchina, who sang. In March 2006, we played our first concert with the current line-up, including Ann Marie Calhoun on violon, Brian Calhoun on guitar, and Zack Blatter on bass, in addition to the Tunisian musicians. This concert took place at the Theatre Municipal in Tunis .


Tell us more about your music? How did you find that fine balance between two seemingly different musical styles whether in terms of instruments or rhythms?

Our music brings together Appalachian and Tunisian traditional folk melodies. However, we also compose much of our own material, using this fusion as a base, and we are influenced by musical styles not limited to these genres. Our compositions and arrangements take elements unique to each musical tradition, but create a sound that is entirely new. For example, we use Appalachian harmonies, with Arabic melodies, or Tunisian rhythms with Appalchian songs. Finding the balance is an ongoing process, and we only arrive at that balance after much experimentation. When the whole group is satisfied with the arrangement, then we’ve found the balance. Every musician does what comes natural in their respective traditions with an ear to opening their perspective to the music of their counterpart. When we work together we try to compliment, not overshadow, each other.


Both your band and music are a celebration of the Tunisian American long friendship. Your titles (Kantara, larmes, Way faring stranger, Encuentros, Tempérament, Awtar, Middle of the road, Pureté…) convey a message of diversity, tolerance and openness regardless of languages, origins and ethnicities. In your understanding and experience, how can music be an efficient tool in an existing environment where mutual understanding is very much-needed?

We have seen through our experience with Kantara that music is truly the universal language – five members of the group don’t even have a common language to speak with, yet have still become great friends. Our music highlights the beauty of two different cultures, and is an active example of positive collaboration that transcends national or cultural identity. From the reactions of our audiences both in Tunisia and abroad, we have seen that there is a thirst for this message. There has been a focus in the media on anti-Americanism or anti-Arabism, to the point where in the minds of many, the gap has become almost to wide to bridge. Kantara proves on stage that this is not the case. When audiences have left our performances, they constantly remark on the sense of fraternity among the members of the group – the harmony, not just of the music, but of the family of musicians on stage.


Are there any plans to extend the band to more nationalities for the sake of more diversity?

Kantara is a small group, that is focused on combining two distinct musical traditions – Tunisian and Appalachian music. Of course, these musics are themselves derived from diverse traditions – African, Irish, Spanish, Turkish, etc.

Beyond Kantara, Riadh has created several other projects which bring in many more musicians of different nationalities. With Minaret et la Tour, he combined a Spanish guitarist, an American pianist, and Tunisian musicianis. The project Vent 440 combined Kantara, with the Venezuelan-American flute maestro Pedro Eustache and American pianist Tom Rosenkranz, and Tunisian musicians, all backed by the Vienna Opera House Orchestra. This summer, Riadh is planning a similar concert experience with an Italian orchestra and another diverse cast of musicians from around the world. Called “Ouverture”, these concerts are scheduled to take place in Italy and in Tunisia at the Carthage and El Jem festivals.


You have been doing concerts in Tunisia and Italy. When will your public in the States be able to attend your concerts? Any CDs to be released soon?

We are planning our first mini-tour in the U.S. in late May/Early June. Fans can check out details at our website: www.kantaramusic.com. At this time, we are also planning on heading into the studio to record our first full-length CD. In the meantime, four songs from our demo are available for free download from our website.

Would you like to say a word for your Tunisian fans here in America?

Aslaama. We look forward to showing our friends and fans in the U.S. the unique beauty of Tunisian music and culture, and hope to see you at a Kantara concert soon!

90 miles from Cuba! Key West I love you!

On Monday December 25th, 2006, Tunisian bloggers will rally to protest against the censorship of some Tunisian blogs including Samsoum-Usa, SamiIII , Felsfa and others as well as the decaying state of freedom of speech in general.

Bloggers who want to show their support can join the Blank Post Action. This action consists in publishing a blank note on their blogs, and nothing else (no posts, no comments) during 24 hours.

If you cannot publish a blank note in your blog, you can use suspension points in the title section and also in the note itself.

Those who don't want to join the action by publishing a blank note can support it by stopping any blogging activity during that day.

You can announce your participation to the action in your blogs before December 25 by using the logo we designed for it (English, French or Arabic version) and linking it to the present post. You can add it in your template or in a special post using an off-the-shelf HTML code that you can find in this web URL given at the bottom of this post.

Your help is needed and appreciated to make others know about this action, soplease try to spread the word among your fellow bloggers or any person who might be interested.

For further details, please refer to the following web address (English, French and Arabic):

http://attounissia.blogspot.com/

Chinese dinner with some guys from all around the world!

Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson, Arizona, July 2006

Forty seven Fulbrighters from four continents gather in the fifth continent (did you say America?) and share with us their experience and thoughts on the Pre-Academics program in the University of Arizona in Tucson for the Fulbright scholars. Here are the testimonies of four of them, one from each continent!

“A cactus, the Grand Canyon, Hoover’s dam, and maybe a coyote and a road runner: that was the image of Arizona I had conceived in my mind until… July 2006 when I attended the Fulbright Pre-Academics program hosted by CESL in the U of A”, says Slim Menzli, from Tunisia. Slim will be studying Mechanical Engineering at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.

Irina Avkhimovich from Russia agrees “When I knew that I would be spending three weeks in Arizona, the first thought that came to my mind at once was that there was the Grand Canyon in this state. But I would never have thought I would see it so soon.” Irina who will get a master’s degree in British Literature at the University of Missouri was among a group of Fulbrighters who spent three days exploring what is undoubtedly Arizona’s most prominent icon.

The Fulbright scholarship is the most prestigious scholarship awarded by the US government to promote mutual understanding between people through better knowledge and experience exchange.

Back in 1945, the huge mushroom cloud left by the two Atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the death of thousands of innocent people and the devastation of the two largest cities of Japan was a true human calamity but at the same time turned out to be the beginning of the peace making process in the world. One senator in the United States initiated this process - Mr. J. W. Fulbright – wrote that the disaster that followed the bombing was the immediate driving force to set up an exchange program. In the aftermath of this tragedy, he realized the importance to get to know people from different countries, foster mutual understanding and develop ties among people because nobody would drop A-bombs onto the country where his or her friends are living.

“For Japanese people, August is one of the special months in the year. In 1945, two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan for the first time in the history of Mankind. We traditionally spend this month praying for eternal peace in the world.” says Yuka Minagawa, who will be heading to Harvard for a degree in Political Science. “To tell the truth, even after having been selected as a principle candidate, I did not fully understand the true meaning of this scholarship. For me this was just a very good ticket that would take me to a graduate school in the US but looking back now at those three weeks in Tucson, I believe that it was the Pre-Academics orientation in University of Arizona that made me finally realize what Senator Fulbright really wanted to establish through this exchange program”.

The aim of the Pre-Ac program is to make the prospective Fulbright scholars more familiar with the US education system. For three weeks from mid July to early August, Fulbright scholars were offered a cornucopia of diverse activities.

Our Fulbrighters especially recall the soccer game, the visits to the Sonora Desert museum and the Heard museum in Phoenix, the barbecue, the food bank and the dinner out. “How can I ever forget all the laughs we had in the shared dorm kitchen, spending whole hours discussing how we would change the world and make it a better place for everyone (that is when we weren’t in the lab working on a writing assignment, a group project or dancing Salsa in a local club)”, reminisces Slim.

The students of the U of A who happened to be on camps during this summer must have been amazed at the diversity of the group who was heading to the CESL, Harvill and the ECE buildings every morning.

“From the first day it was evident that the whole world was represented in the classrooms” says Maria Teresa Azahar, from El Salvador. “People from different cultures, religions and races yet so similar.” Teresa, who will be a Master’s student in Organizational Development at Antioch University in New Hampshire, says she is happy she learned a lot from this experience. “It was like traveling around the world without actually taking the plane. I could finally learn the real meaning of the word “world”. It was a chance to meet all those big-hearted and intelligent human beings who felt so united that they identified themselves in each others”.

“After spending three weeks with my fellow Fulbrighters from so many different countries, laughing and talking about everything and nothing with them, I can truly appreciate the significance of getting to know people and of understanding them. Now I even feel that if there were any politicians who planned to invade one of the countries where my fellow Fulbrighters live, then I would be ready to lay my own body on the line to stop that person. This is what we learned in Arizona, a lesson we would never learn from a textbook” says Minagawa. “Now August is for me the most special month in the year. It is a time to think about the past, pray for peace in the world and look at the bright future that I would build with my fellow Fulbrighters whom I met in the summer of 2006.”

Teresa states that “this program was not only about learning how to fill out papers or how to be more acquainted with the American culture but also about how to survive academically and spiritually in the United States”. Slim also thinks that the Pre-Ac might turn out to be not only a survival guide but a success package so that he and his fellows would be up and running from Day One in their grad schools.
“I personally liked being able to work on an interesting topic in our Group Project. It was a nourishing and challenging experience having to work on how to improve access to education in the developing countries as a way to achieve social justice. It was a project that was sketched from the ideas and experiences of people from Ethiopia, Mauritius, France, Honduras, Tunisia, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Senegal and El Salvador. That helped me realize that no matter where we are or where we happen to be born we have the same aspirations of social justice.”
“I might have missed the visit to the Grand Canyon but I gained something more worthy: lifelong friendships. I might not have liked the Smores but I’ll definitely say Gimme some more! just for the sake of getting together again.” Arizona is no longer just a cactus and a canyon for me and CESL stands for a Cool Experience in a Sunny Land, for Colorful Ethnicities with a Single Language (ok besides English!): Tolerance.”

“We parted different ways in the quest of the achievement of our individual dreams in the hope that we will eventually go back to our countries with hearts and minds eager to promote the change that we all ambition”.

The four Fulbrighters on behalf of the whole group would like to thank everyone in CESL (especially Ms. Helen and Dr. Suzanne Panferov), the University of Arizona, all the Fulbright scholarship staff from the IIE, the Amideast and the Laspau, their peer group counselors and their host families for giving them this wonderful, rewarding and empowering opportunity.

Note the sunscreen on my cheeks :-) it was too hot that day! I love the name Hatshepsut! I imagine she was so pretty and...authoritarian :-)

Thursday May 4th 2006 was a special day at the Ecole Polytechnique de Tunisie. The flagship of the Tunisian engineering schools hosted in this day the signing ceremony of a collaborative agreement between the Alumni Association of the EPT (ADEPT) and the AMERICA-MIDEAST EDUCATIONAL AND TRAINING SERVICES (AMIDEAST).

This ceremony was held in the presence of Mr. Slim MENZLI President of ADEPT; Mr. Henry L. JENNINGS the Country Director of AMIDEAST; Mr. Habib MAAGLI the EPT director; Mr. Bechir BOUAICHA the Language Department headmaster at the EPT, Mr. Riadh ROBBANA, the Director of Studies and Internships; Miss Sarra MRABET, the Cultural Affairs’ Officer of the ADEPT; Mrs Sarra BELLAGHA, an economics’ professor at the EPT; Mr. Mohamed SAKLY and Mr. Firaz SAMET.

The agreement aims at attaining a common ground for both parties to promote the English language learning at the EPT and offer opportunities of graduate studies both for alumni and students.

Examples of areas of potential collaboration are:

• Regular exchange of information regarding cultural or educational activities organized by each organization, such as guest speakers at EPT, films at AMIDEAST, etc.
• Regular exchange of information regarding linkage programs between institutions of higher education in Tunisia and the USA.
• Timely information to ADEPT of all US Government scholarship programs that are managed by AMIDEAST.
• Information regarding tests to measure and/or certify English language proficiency, such as the ITP, TOEFL and TOEIC.
• Reduced rates for ADEPT members to take TOEIC Preparation English language classes at AMIDEAST.
• ADEPT members serving as resource people for students coming to Advising/Information sessions at AMIDEAST regarding higher education in the USA.
• AMIDEAST offering ADEPT space for meetings, conferences, etc.

The agreement will mark the birth of a new era of collaboration since it offers a good launch pad to build on for more initiatives and common achievements in the field of education and culture.

AMIDEAST is a non-profit, Non Governmental Organization (NGO). Founded in 1951, AMIDEAST aims to encourage understanding and friendship between Americans and the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa. In Tunisia, it was settled down in 1973 after an agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ever since, AMIDEAST has provided services in the areas of Educational Advising, Testing (the ITP, TOEIC and TOEFL etc), Cultural/Educational Exchange Programs, Professional Development and English Language Training.

Special credits go to the students Rawia TAKTAK, Marah NAJJAR, ASMA MAALEJ & Mohamed NAJED KSOURI for their help in organizing this event.

In one of the chapters of his best-seller on Globalization - “The Lexus & the Olive Tree” Thomas L. Friedman, the famous New York Times Foreign Affairs’ Columnist wrote (1) : “What we are going to see in the globalization system is a continuation of this trend […], only now the differentiation is going to be increasingly within regions and within countries of the same region – as some choose prosperity, get wired, become shapers and adopt the habits of effective countries, and others do not. For instance, you will see a gap emerge in the Middle East between Tunisia – which in the 1990s put the Golden Straitjacket, signed a free-trade agreement with the European Union and adopted many of the habits of effective countries – and some of its Arab neighbors, which have not.”

As an emerging country that has managed a sustained five percent GDP growth for over three decades, Tunisia’s economy is inevitably showing an increased appetite for oil and gas vital for powering its industry, transport, tourism and residential needs. According to the National Agency for Energy Conservation, the energy balance evolved since the beginning of the Nineties from a surplus situation of approximately 1.5 million MTOE (2) to an energy deficit of 0.6 million MTOE and it is still growing. In 2004, the growth of the primary energy consumption was around an average annual rate of 4.1 percent while our energy resources grew at the rate of only 2.4 percent per annum.

While bringing the energy balance back to the safe side is everybody’s responsibility and a shared national duty, this positive shift will have to be spearheaded by highly skilled, motivated and committed individuals who can “pull the sketch out of the page” and turn their know-how into value.

Among those are Rym BAOUENDI, a consultant in Green Buildings in Montreal, Canada; Mehdi ZAHAF, a University Professor in Ontario, Canada teaching Environmental Economics and Slim MENZLI who kicked off his career as project engineer working for an oil company here in Tunisia.

“As engineers and scholars – and therefore as driving forces for higher living standards for our people and our nation - we cannot sit idle watching out there: looking for every possible way and turning every rock to lessen this dependency is an obligation and no longer an option”, says Rym.

Attraction to Energy Engineering is no surprise to anyone. El-Khadra team likes to quote Paul Roberts in his book “The End of Oil”: “the obsessive focus on oil is hardly surprising, given the stakes. In the fast moving world of oil politics, oil is not simply a source of world power but a medium for that power as well, a substance whose huge importance enmeshes companies, communities and entire nations in a taut global web that is sensitive to the smallest of vibrations. A single oil event - a pipeline explosion in Iraq, political unrest in Venezuela, a bellicose exchange between the Russian and Saudi oil ministers sends shockwaves through the world energy order, pushes prices up or down and sets off tectonic shifts in global wealth and power”.

Slim adds “seeing me switching from fossil fuels to green fuels is like jumping over a high fence in a whole different world: I am committed to doing it because I am one hundred percent sure that the other side of the fence is really greener!”

The three of them are involved in a promising project: El-Khadra , a web site (3) dedicated to vulgarizing Sustainable Development concepts, disseminating up-to-date environmental news and events and investigating various ways to alleviate not only the burden on the environment but also on the state and the everyday citizen’s wallet by encouraging a smooth shift towards a less oil-dependant economy and a society of energy-literate people!

Renewables might be the most cost effective solutions to our energy shortage in the long run. In fact, Tunisia enjoys a sun time over five months a year! An ambitious program of promotion of the solar water-heating in the residential and tertiary sectors was launched in 1985. 70 000 m2 of solar collectors have been installed so far and approximately 60 000 MTOE of cumulated energy savings over the period 2002-2006 are expected. Photovoltaics are also of interest and development of uses of solar energy such as street lighting, pumping and desalination of water is also possible and worth the investments. Tunisia has also long shores for prospective hydraulic and wind energy. Another program had been launched aiming at adding up a wind power of 300 MW including 100 MW in a first phase. The elaboration of a detailed wind map is underway with the help of experts from Spain.

The trickiest part now is to find out how to get more and enough grants to fund such cash- absorbing projects. Obviously, front costs are the main hurdle but all will be paid back in the medium term. Huge savings will be reaped over a project life cycle with the oil barrel hitting the $72 line. Tunisia might be one day the Denmark of Africa.

But pursuing aggressively an energy policy of conservation besides that of generation is a must-do task in the context of the energy bottleneck the world is going through right now, Tunisia being no exception.

“Luckily we have a legacy that abounds with our ancestors’ genius in the field of energy efficiency” says El-Khadra team “just look at those troglodytes in Matmata or those skylights in the old baths just to name a few, we believe it’s both a duty and an impetus to continue that legacy and add to it with what today’s technology can bring.”

Slim, being the youngest of the three, thinks he might still need some more training to reinforce his technical know-how and experience in the field of green energy. An alumnus of the prestigious L’Ecole Polytechnique de Tunisie (Tunisia Polytechnic School) in La Marsa, he obviously has a good launch pad to seek the cutting-edge in the field.

As an engineer, he likes to understand the nuts and bolts of everything he steps into and so he believes that some further academic studies will be much worthwhile. “Since my vision is an applied industry-oriented one rather than research-oriented, a master program in building systems and renewable energy would be just the right thing for me.”

Big chances are that Slim will be awarded the prestigious Fulbright scholarship this year to go for a master’s degree in the field of Green Energy in an American University. This will undoubtedly give him an invaluable hands-on experience as well as an edge to later transfer some state-of-the-art technological advancements in this field to his homeland.

Slim’s ultimate goal is to found a thriving and growing business starting in Tunisia and then moving on to the whole MENA region (Middle East & North Africa) in the filed of energy management, a knowledge-based business where value is added by the most valuable asset: People he says. He is thinking of an energy audit firm after having been keeping a close eye on the Tunisian government energy policy during the last couple of years, the legal texts promulgated and the incentives offered.

For his part, Mehdi points out that entrepreneurship in the field of energy management and renewable energy should be very encouraged by granting some large fiscal privileges to young Tunisian entrepreneurs as well as offering quality trainings and looking for international cooperations all the time.

So far, many positive measures have been taken and further efforts have to be deployed to reinforce this trend towards a less oil-dependant economy. With the Kyoto convention having already entered into effect in 2005, an increasing public awareness about the environment but more importantly our national energy policy witnessing deep but positive changes, there are few reasons such high potentials should dither about pursuing a career in green energy.

Let us end here just as we started: by a quote from a book ‘The Future of Life’ by Edward O. Wilson “We have entered the century of the Environment, in which the immediate future is usefully conceived as a bottleneck: science and technology, combined with foresight and moral courage, must see us through it and out”.

We hope that through their quest for a truly greener Tunisia, El Khadra team and its peers will be gaining both knowledge and courage!



(1) Chapter XI, “Buy Taiwan, Hold Italy, Sell France” p.212
(2) Million Tons of Oil Equivalent
(3) www.el-khadra.net

I'm sharing you an e-mail I got several months ago from a friend. I think he's told it ALL!!

Dear Slim,

I read your thoughts with a lot of interest. I understand that you feel you're not in the right place, that the world around us (our country and all the related stuff) is far from perfect, etc.

"If I were elsewhere, I would have been ...": This sounds like a grammar exercise "à la Bouaïcha” [ Mr. Bouaicha is our dear English professor and whom I greet warmly by the way! ]

But seriously, who could you be if you were not the Slim with all this background and all these [stupid/obsolete/...] cultural references you have?

You're Slim (the Slim I know) because of all this junk. If you were born in the U.S., you'd probably be an average troll living to save some dollars and to enjoy an empty life.

There are a lot of smart people here that do not have enough courage or self-esteem to refactor their world. They only need some smarter people to coach them. But smarter people are obviously too ignorant when it comes to the laws of mechanics.

How much does it take to start moving a heavy object by a foot? How much does it take to move it a foot further? Less than for the first! (Assuming you're constantly spending the same effort.)

I admit that there is a lot of inertia here. But if you choose to observe facts only, you'll be doing no better than Ibn Khaldoun or other imminent Arab scholars: they wrote lengthy books describing the society. None of them wrote a book explaining how to fix the inefficient rules and how to improve things.

If you want to bring change and to stop the mediocrity, you'll have to protect yourself from this same mediocrity. The elite is usually living far from the stupid crowd (even in developed countries, even in the antique Greece.) This preserves it from low level problems and common sense (which is always closer to wrong!).

We're in a freshly created country. Everything is still under construction. So why let mediocre people do the work for us? Our parents’ generation got corrupted by the social customs and habits. Where are they today? Certainly not where I want to be in 20 years.

Have a nice day :-)

--M.

The benchmark is no longer your father!

In the past Cold War system [where the world was still split by thick and high walls], leaders forced citizens to compare themselves to their fathers. They would say: are you doing better than your father? Yes? Can you afford to buy bread, milk and tomatoes? Yes? OK then Shut up!

But now [decent and smart] people no longer compare themselves to their fathers. They have so much information; they’re much more open and thus much more demanding. Now they compare themselves to their neighbors- everywhere because they can track them all over the world on television, over satellites, on DVDs and through the Internet. Benchmarking against the best has never been easier! And yes! Enough is good but more is even better!

So when you cannot deny a common citizen the right to access a higher living standard [like by affording gas besides milk] how could you react with the would-be elite of the country - inevitably comprising us engineers, unquestionable driving forces of the economy? Therefore, some more attractive packages [like higher pay, more benefits, better quality trainings and much more access and “exposure”] are a well deserved quid pro quo.

Tactics or Strategy?

Switching jobs is a tactic. It’s not an aim in itself! The decision of walking away from a company is of course subject to several push/pull factors: Remember every time you change a job, you’re like shifting gears in a car: the engine regime falls down right away but not for long! You’re already one gear up after the second job so all you have to do is to kick in a higher regime real fast by working smarter [instead of harder] to gain a higher speed. Yes! Some people do change jobs to get a better pay, some to have more mobility and some to have more “exposure”! Whether this or that, switching jobs can be a good sign that the individual is shrewd and that he has enough self confidence! A willingness to job hop can indicate good judgment since the employee recognized an opportunity wasn't working.

There’s an old cliché that whoever changes jobs must have failed somewhere or that he’s unable to sustain the stress of the post, while this can be true for some cases and to a certain extent but on the other hand, isn’t changing jobs sort of a punishment to the company? A sign that it’s not able to retain its staff? According to Barbara C. Neff in an article published in Graduatingengineer.com website (an American website offering tips, articles and outlooks on the engineering profession), “in the early 1990s, employers were more skeptical of resumes that demonstrated a tendency to job-hop. The impression was that the candidate was not focused or dedicate”. Not anymore! Neff even “finds those to be more aggressive, direct and forthright, because they've had to be. They take more ownership and may be more cautious.”

There are even some few who spend some time working for companies learning as much as possible, absorbing invaluable data like dry sponges and meeting as many ad hoc people as they can [yes! you guessed it right! Some of their would-be future customers/suppliers!], only to end up as entrepreneurs, giving a big door slam [and an even bigger laugh] at the corporate world while trying to make the second big bang happen!

But for the most, not every job move should be regarded as a rite of passage! Again, it’s a tactical move; the approach should be holistic: attain your life goals and fulfill your raison d’être! After all, job is just there to make a living not a life!

Super-empowered individuals still exist out there! And shifting paradigms too!

People used to imitate a worn résumé, send it by regular mail and wait for a phone call! Now people can customize, store and send their CVs online. They can even do interviews without leaving their homes. Undoubtedly, the internet in the hands of those not-so-dumb engineers can yield miracles! Tele-working is getting more and more fashionable and viable with companies shifting to cut their workforce and keep only the core key staff. The job market might have just gotten freer!

Mindsets are also changing…slowly but they are! People’s conception of employment is changing at last! One alumnus confided to me that he was astonished by his daddy’s thinking when he told him once: “you know your own value on the market so if you feel like you’re not getting enough, send that CV, do some networking and hold tight. Son! Being a maverick has never been as good as it’s now and conformists are just swept under the carpet these days!!”

Remember to be patient…enough!

While change is a good thing, it’s like chocolate, moderate consumption is recommended. Change is not a “one-size-fits-all” jacket and “cunning” patience is recommended until another safety net is found! Back to Nizar again:“Finally, I seem to start to calm down. My plans are now stretching over 10 years. I think I don’t have the time to play and hop anymore. I’ve now a family to look after. My daughter is waiting me around the corner and there’s simply no room for mistakes anymore!”

Again, patience is important, and fresh graduates must particularly realize that they won't be running the company right away (or ever, if they lack personal leadership and interpersonal skills). Conflicts often arise between employers and employees in technical fields after employees have, in their minds, mastered a new skill or process. The young engineer, fresh out of an educational environment, is generally eager to move on and conquer something new; the employer wants the employee to apply the new skill for a while “It's a real conundrum!”

So when you’re fresh out of the college oven, when you feel like the heat is still rising in your feet, don’t feel guilty, just walk away and go get something else out there! Self confidence coupled with some sound planning and love for risk-taking might just be the right recipe for “Renewable Success”!

And HEY! It wasn’t a big deal anyway so also do remember to breathe again afterwards!

When Nizar was faced with two offers upon his graduation: a thesis in France and a job in Italy, he didn’t dither about much. The next day he was in Milan! After just four months of some Italian Job, he thought it was too risky! He came back to Tunisia, did some R&D for several months, taught some math courses in a university for a year and a half then went back to France as a Consultant Engineer. “Success is ephemeral” says Nizar - now 30 – “Therefore one must succeed every day! Sometimes this means choosing career paths and options that all your entourage and your own intuition would cry out against and describe as blithe, reckless or improvised!”

In a globalized world where change is the rule and where all verbs conjugate either in the past or the future with no such time as the present, mobility emerges as a must, says Peter Drucker, the guru of modern management. Some even go far to claim that in times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy!

Yes! No! Employers should not frown upon fresh graduates and employees who hop for all the following reasons:

It’s not all about the money!

While pay is probably the most important factor to consider when deciding whether to look somewhere else or to stay, other factors are often taken into account: access to promotions, trainings, a good bonus system, a flexible working pattern and ideally an international career among other things. That’s exactly what Abdelkarim did. Although he got lured at first by a seemingly generous salary for a fresh graduate, he soon figured out the job [civil engineering] would lead to nowhere, “you gotta be kidding me!” He said as he jumped over the fence and went to work in an HR-software-developing company for a while only to end up as a reservoir engineer in a state-owned oil company where he seems to have found his hidden gem!

This “switch-until-you-get-satisfied” approach is worth the try, especially during your first years after graduation! Noureddine, a “job hopper” himself puts its bluntly “After all, it’s you who got to manage your career, not the HR department!”

Others such as Mohammed may even wear a completely different hat just because their target field seems to be trendy and promising: network engineering, auditing, bioengineering or whatever looms up as the next big thing!

The “Nail-in-wall” theory is obsolete!

It has always been so but it has never been more obsolete than as it is now! Take Japan for instance: the Japanese economy is growing again after over a decade- long recession. Experts say this wake up couldn’t happen haven’t Japanese accepted to go through some painful measures like massive lay-offs and no more life-time employment: the old Japanese corporate culture is already a thing of the past! Some HR experts even argue that “Corporate loyalty is history. Employees are more mobile, sometimes switching jobs as frequently as every few months, and prospective employers no longer automatically dismiss resumes fraught with job hopping”.

Breaking the routine may be another push factor and some may still wait until their feet are on automatic pilot each morning on the way to job and then it’s TIME to make the switch!

Is there anyhting more refreshing than listening to your favorite song on the radio early in the morning ? Experts say that the very first minutes after the wake up are decisive in shaping your mood for that particular day so better make happiness happen early in order to sustain it later. A hot [or cold!] shower, a good breakfast and your favorite melodies are some of the great ways to win your day in advance.

OK BUT with each new day ( and the more I live and see ), I am increasingly convinced that staying in a company – even a good one - waiting for the salary every end of month [ I have no shame mentioning Pavlov’s dog here !] will lead to nowhere [ financially, intellectually and psychologically ].

Sometimes I envy my company for a good job I did ( if only it was for my own project’s good, I would feel much more inner-satisfaction but until now, I am just on a Rolling Stone wave : I can not get no satisfaction! ).

I wake up in the morning frustrated at the fact that I am doing my best and sacrificing some delicious minutes of warm sleep in my bed, preventing myself from meeting friends, from enjoying life as it should be and even making much more money and that at the same time I am contributing in filling the pockets of some lazy, fat, greedy and short-sighted shareholders sitting idle out there, enjoying their lives and always waiting for their fat dividends every now and then!

This is nasty and I perceive it as a modern and soft form of slavery, If I am to pursue all my career as is now, then I am doomed to feel as a dependant and miserable loser not only on the finanacial level but also and most importantly on [again] the mental and psychological sides as well and I deserve it becasue I am the one who must have control over my career not anyone else!

I know that markets are sometimes all but perfect and that not only don’t you have access to information [ let alone straightforward information ] most of the time or to an equal-opportunity entry to markets but also that all odds work against you so if you further add up yourself to the list of your hurdles then Good Luck and Bye Bye! If you are ready and willing to drop your job and start a career as an entrepreneur , chances are that you may belong to the class of those few who deserve acess to an even better life.

The solution lies in us, we’ll live only once and we will be we really want ourselves to be! If we want it badly, we’ll get there…no doubt!