“The Tunisian immigrant

is the messenger of his homeland…

The Tunisian community numbers twenty thousand..

Every Tunisian holds Tunisia in his heart…”

The Ambassador of Tunisia in the United States of America, H.E. Faysal Gouia elicits admiration with his diplomatic skills, his politeness, his humbleness, and his smile. He is the Representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and you could even say he was born to the diplomatic corps. He has filled so many positions successfully that he truly is the well-deserved servant of the homeland and the Tunisian community.

We have met with His Excellency, donning the traditional Tunisian clothing, in an interview during a reception where Tunisian civilization and traditions were being celebrated.

First of all we would like to welcome Your Excellency to Lebanon Times Magazine.

• We would like to acquaint our Arabic and American readership to Your Excellency, so our first question is: Who is the Ambassador Faysal Gouia, and where did he serve before being appointed the Ambassador of Tunisia in the United States of America?

Thank you for hosting me in the pages of Lebanon Times. I am the Representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I started my career in the mid-eighties as the Deputy Director of Southeast Asia within the Ministry, and then I spent 6 years in America during which I was promoted to Deputy Ambassador.

I then returned to Tunis where I was assigned to the post of Director of the Americas, and sent to Indonesia as the Ambassador in charge of the area covering the Philippines, Brunei, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Later on, I was promoted to the post of Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in a government of technocrats that was formed after the Tunisian Revolution. This transitional government supervised a free, impartial, and democratic election that gave birth to the elected government.

Directly after these elections, the President honored me with an appointment to the post of Ambassador of Tunisia in the United States of America.

• Your Excellency, what is the population of the Tunisian community in the USA?

It is an active community, numbering about 20,000 Tunisians residing in the eastern and the western parts of the USA, in addition to an important part in the southern region, especially in Texas; also in Ohio and Chicago.

• Your Excellency, what would be your assessment of the Tunisian community in the United States of America?

It is a very respectable community, mainly comprised of specialists. They are holders of dual citizenship, being Tunisians and Americans. They have great love and respect for this homeland that opened its doors for them and embraced them, while at the same time preserving their love for their motherland Tunisia.

• Your Excellency, do you believe that each immigrant is a messenger of his homeland?

Absolutely, each immigrant must be both a messenger and an ambassador of his or her homeland; a messenger of its culture, art, traditions, and civilization. Each immigrant must blend in and respect the country he or she lives in, its laws, its traditions, and its religion while preserving his or her roots, customs, and heritage as long as it does not go counter to the ones in the host country.

• Is an Ambassador at the service of his community and the homeland or is it just a question of honorific position?

I believe that anyone working in the public sector must serve the citizens day and night and not the other way around. What has harmed the reputation of Arabs in general in the past years and decades is the fact that the people had been serving the rulers, which is a clear indication of the lack of Freedom & Democracy. But in democratic countries such as Tunisia, the politician, and the heads of the administration or ministry or embassy are all at the service of the citizen and the homeland, and not the other way around.

• Any additional comments?

To the Tunisian community: Please preserve the excellent reputation that you have in the United States of America. I am proud of this community that holds the respect of officials, because they love both Tunisia and the host country by respecting its laws, traditions, and norms.

My word to the Tunisian community is also a cry of love where I ask them to help Tunisia economically as much as possible, because it needs its sons and daughters living abroad, now that it is going through a time Aof financial hardship. Every Tunisian must give back even a small amount of what Tunisia had offered him or her, such as free education and other social services. We ought to pay back its goodness even a little bit.

In my last word, I would like to address the progressive press that reports news and events.
I would especially like to congratulate the two owners of Lebanon Times in Houston, and invite them to visit the Embassy of Tunisia if they ever went to Washington, DC for you have a friend and brother in the Embassy, by the name of Faysal Gouia.