ESUJ Lecture (in English)

Ambassador's Lecture Series!

Ambassador Hannachi's Lecture: Hannibal's Great Expedition began in Tunisia

The third lecture in our Ambassador's Lecture Series took place at 6:30 on March 27 at the Japan National Press Club in Hibiya, with Tunisian Ambassador Salah Hannachi as our speaker. More than 50 members and others braved the inclement weather caused by strong spring winds to attend, filling the hall.

Tunisia lies only 190 kilometers from the toe of Italy's boot-shaped land mass. It takes an hour to fly to Rome, two and one half hours to fly to Paris. It takes three and one half hours to get to Cairo, even though it is on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, showing why from ancient times Tunisia has had a very close relationship with Europe. From Carthage, which is ancient Tunis and was built by the Phoenicians in the 6th century BCE, the western Mediterranean was conquered. Using overhead projector illustrations, Ambassador Hannachi described in detail Hannibal's trajectory, crossing the Pyrenees, traversing France and ascending and descending the Alps to attack Rome. Due to these geographical particulars, Tunisia has since ancient times enjoyed prosperous trade with Europe and the East. The country became renowned as the cradle of the olive industry, supplying olives far and wide to Spain, Italy, and Greece. Delicious wine is also produced. With its ancient history, Tunisia has been influenced by both Judaism and Christianity. Saint Augustine was born there. Today, Islam is the largest religion, but other religions are also tolerated.

The second half of Ambassador Hannachi's lecture concerned Tunisia's relations with Japan. He emphasized that, while Japan has flourishing trade and exchanges with Asia, America and Europe, Japanese should be more aware that there are also major possibilities for everything from capital investment to cultural exchange with other regions. Referring to the recent world state of affairs, he mentioned that European unification had been peacefully achieved by steady negotiation over a 50-year period, something that neither Napoleon nor Hitler had been able to accomplish with military power. Citing this, he indicated a solution to the North Korea problem should be found without resort to military power, through consensus among China, Korea, Japan and the US. He also mentioned his concern about the Iraq problem. Question-and-answer time was lively. Speakers included a person who had been a student at Indiana University at the same time as the Ambassador as well as a recent visitor to Tunisia, who said what a wonderful experience the trip had been.

H.E. Mr. Salah Hannachi, Tunisian Ambassador Plenipotentiary to Japan, received a Ph.D. in Management in Quantitative Analysis from Columbia University in New York and taught at the University of Tunisia. He has held various posts such as General Director of Tunisian Institute for Strategic Studies and Deputy Minister for International Cooperation and External Investment in the Government of Tunisia. In 1997 he became Ambassador to Japan. In 1998 he was also appointed Ambassador to Australia. In 2000, he became an honorary advisor to AMDA (The Association of Medical Doctor of Asia).