#Bambamboozle

A few days later, a local newspaper proclaimed the regrettable death of Halluma happened by accident. Later, a Human Rights journal, reported the event as “the most disgusting bamboozle of the century”, tragically “one of the saddest crimes of the century”. The report condemned in a straight line Capitalism as the murderer of Halluma, and declared Halluma, a victim of modern grand-narratives and historical class division from tribal to feudal to modern and recent times.  

Capitalism is no longer the pinkish legendary economic system nations originally aspired at. Among its four types, the oligarchic is the worst. State capitalism might be somehow helpful and remedial. Big-firm capitalism and entrepreneurial capitalism, critics state, work well in a cluster. Nevertheless, the absolute mythological deification of capitalism has been demystified by the late-20th-century postmodern deconstruction of capitalism itself as an ideology and a system of class relations. Human fatalities, notably harsh poverty and rough social injustice have been deepened by the economic, cultural, societal anthropological aspects of transnational Capitalism.

Halluma ‘elzayena’ was the bridal beauty specialist for most women in Beni Maaguel (a typical countryside in Djerba) and the neighboring regions (Cedouikesh, Chebabiya, Mahboubine). She is, on her own, a movable beauty salon. A traditional one, no doubt. In the past decades, a bride’s beauty would pass unseen unless assisted by ‘elzayena’.  In a typically conservative environment, it was uncommon for women to go to beauty salons, except in very rare cases.  Halluma was the hairstylist, hair-removal specialist, and make-up and tattoo artist for most brides. You may have avant-gardist opposition to this conformist traditional way of violating your own privacy, for she would escort you in every bridal stride, yet, you have to swallow your pride and resign to tradition.   Halluma used to be a prominent bridal specialist, but later on, she went visibly past her prime. Halluma was over the hill, and it was never her fault.   

In a world of increased interdependences, anthropologists share the conviction that social change is embedded in unequal distribution of political and economic power. After the Second World War, people raised an awareness of societal and cultural transitions characterized by the recognition of cultural hybrids and a mix of “low” and “high” cultures. The rise of a mass-mediated consumerist culture has hastened the abandon of traditional popular crafts for the sake of modern industry.

Liberalism and Feminism enabled women to debunk traditional marital relationships with patriarchy and, ultimately, undermining the concept of the traditional view of women and family.

According to Adrienne Rich, “patriarchy is the power of the fathers”.

 [it is] a familial-social, ideological, political system in which men — by force, direct pressure, or through ritual, tradition, law, and language, customs, etiquette, education, and the division of labor — determine what part women shall or shall not play, and in which the female is everywhere subsumed under the male.

To be sure, the modernization of Tunisian Bedouin lifestyle and the democratization of private lives have helped Capitalism create an unfair economic system under which the elderly and the downtrodden were not only economically unbalanced but socially disregarded as well.

Recently, Pope Francis has condemned the evil face of modern capitalism. Expressing his disapproval of the Trickle-down economics, he declared: “There was the promise that when the glass was full, it would be transferred over and the poor would benefit from it.  Instead what happens when it is full to the brim, the glass magically grows, and thus nothing comes forth for the poor.”

 

Halluma yielded to the tsunami of capitalism without giving much heed to the triggering of the revolution. Now, she is away from the business race, no more producing, and no longer paid for her services. Halluma was smashed by capitalism. “Le ras el mal est jaban!” or “capital is a coward”, as Hammadi Jebali, former Tunisian PM would have it.

The ‘hash tags #Halluma, #Tunisia, #capitalism, #bamboozle, #myth’ rapidly mushroomed on Twitter. Everyone shared Sagan’s criticism of Capitalism as ‘a charlatan power’. In The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, Carl Sagan states:

If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back. 

 

Confession:

I want to confess that Halluma is not dead. I owe her every breath of this text and many sincere apologies. She still lives in Beni Maaguel, in the island of dreams where she strives to survive.