Unfortunately on Sunday the 28th of September Georges Adda, legendary figure of the left wing in Tunisia, deceased.
We want to commemorate him with his own words:
“I come from far away. The Berbers, my ancestors, met Phoenician, Romans, Vandals, Arabs, Normans, Turkish and French that occupied my country…so, Tunisia is my country, and Tunisians are my people. All women and men who suffer politic and social injustices are my sisters and brothers. In the process of  liberation of my country I have known prisons, concentration camps and deportation of French colonialists. Today I must give my solidarity to the Palestinian people”.

•    From the 24th to the 28th of may there had been a show called “Tunis in Naples. Five days of debates, cinema, meetings”, sponsored by the “Osservatorio Euromediterraneo e del Mar Nero” and with the help of the Tunisian Consulate in Naples. Showings and debates gave a modern and laycal idea of Tunisia that used to be a meeting and cultural contamination place for different groups and nationalities. Actual and mutual knowledge and comprehension had been promoted which goes beyond a stereotyped image that is too often given by mass medias.
•    The main part of the event was a festival of Tunisian movies and documentaries on films or dvcam showed at Cinema Academy-Astra in Naples, with a big audience success.
•    Four important Tunisian directors attended, Nouri Bouzid, Hichem Ben Ammar, Ferid Boughedir and Mohamed Challouf, who met the audience and stimulated lively debates.
•    On the first day the movie about terrorism “Making off” was discussed by by Nouri Bouzid was shown. Prof. Pasquale Ciriello, previous rector of the Orientale University and now a deputy, the lawyer Vincenzo Siniscalchi, keen of cinema and member of CSM, and Paolo Iannotti, manager of the newspaper Ateneapoli.
•    On the next days “The silence of the palace” by Moufida Tlatli, which involved the gender issues, the documentary “Oh, capitain of the seas” by Hichem Ben Ammar about fishermen, “Halfaouine” by Ferid Boughedir and the documentary about African cinema by Mohamed Challouf, had been shown and followed by debates.
•    It had been very important to show at the end of the festival the 1992 documentary “Italians of the other shore”, along with interviews to Claudia Cardinale and Maurizio Valenzi.
•    On the 28th of May, at the Palais du Mesnil, home of the Orientale University’s rectorship, there had been the convention “Euromed: crossed glances. A dialogue among cultures for a dialogue between Europe and Mediterranean”, during which university teachers and traders have discussed about the perspectives of development in the economic field that can be achieved among UE and Maghreb countries, about the role of culture that can create a real partnership and about the potentialities of Naples to have a key role in the Mediterranean.

“Dido”, that is the Latin name of the Queen of Carthage, intends to underline the historical connection between Italy and Tunisia.

We want to promote dialogue and exchanges between these two countries, particularly between the two cities of Naples and Tunis, with particular attention to the genders’ viewpoint.

Tunisia has been for a long time a meeting point for different groups and nationalities, Europeans, Arabs, Jewish and Africans. Naples is considered as a point of reference in the Mediterranean, it helps dialogue and peace among different cultures.
The previous mayor of Naples, Maurizio Valenzi, comes from the large and active Italian colony that had been present in Tunisia since the XIX century. These connections have lasted despite the dispersion of the Italian community after the independence. This initiative starts in Naples also for this reason.

The association “Dido” was born to promote positive actions of international cooperation and intercultural dialogue with one of the Mediterranean’s countries whose culture is not well known and well considered, even if this is a country rich in history and tradition and even if it has a large volume of economic and commercial activities with Italy. The rediscover of its importance isn’t an end in itself, but it is an instrument that facilitates the integration and it overcomes the fundamentalism.

We want dialogue and exchange to start from women. Recently the comparison between Islam woman, with her veils and her condition of wife among wives, and the “modern” western woman is getting more and more space in mass medias and in the public opinion. It is in fact more based on stereotypes than on a real knowledge of the women’s condition in the two countries.

• Tunisian production of a cinema exhibition in Naples at the Cinema Astra, Via Mezzocannone, from the 24th to the 28th of may 2008

• twinning between the boards of the lawyers Associations of Naples and Tunis about family and emigration legislation

• researches, publications and congresses about sociological, juridical and historical features of Italian presence in Tunisia.