I loved my trip to Tunisia -- lots to see, very friendly people, easy to get around. But doing a little reading after I came back, I discovered that it is an amazingly un-free country. I knew going in that it, like many countries in the region, was fairly politically oppressive, but the only way this was at all noticeable when I was there was that there were a few too many pictures of the president around and one point where a police officer told me not to take a picture of an intersection. (This one. Can't imagine why they cared.) No advance visa requirements, no challenge at immigration, no sense of limits on where I could go or what I could do, no feeling that I couldn't discuss anything with anyone (except for the language issue!), and not even a slightly intimidating feel from the police (even the one who stopped my picture taking).
But according to the people who make up 'freedom indices', Tunisia rates very poorly. The Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index rates Tunisia 2.96 out of 10, good for 'Authoritarian' and 141st place, behind the likes of China (136th) and Cuba (125th). Freedom House rates Tunisia 'Not Free', its lowest category, though it does manage a 5 for civil liberties (with 7 being worst). According the Index of Economic Freedom, Tunisia is 'Mostly Unfree', the second worst category. And the Worldwide Press Freedom Index finds a "Very Serious Situation" there.
I'm not entirely sure what to make of this. The 'glass half full' view is that oppression just isn't what it used to be. You can be in one of the world's least free countries and barely even know it. Sure, there's still North Korea, but it's a real outlier, maybe even unique. I had a similar sense while in China, Vietnam, and a few other countries that I knew intellectually to be un-free without actually feeling it. On the other hand, it can also be seen as a cautionary tale, illustrating how much freedom you can not have and barely even notice it's missing. Until it's long gone.
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