The Crown of Creation

When the teacher asked: What do you think is the purpose of our life, little Husein replied: I know, to play football.....  I am told some of the population in Souse came from the countryside, folks who don't want to work there anymore, sold their land and are quite different from the usual town inhabitants, who are not happy with their and in particular the kids' behaviour. They misunderstand the new freedom as a freedom to let their children roam the streets, no restriction by basic rules of a civilised society, regard respect for animal life, each other, and adults of any age or education as just a burden. As parents it is quite enough to provide a bed space, food and perhaps a football......  Fast food, junk food, too much of that makes aggressive, while vitamins have a soothing effect. This is the result of an experiment carried out in a Scottish prison with very violent young men. The positive change achieved by just providing healthy food with the necessary vitamins, it gives hope, but it's a long road. But anyhow, bearing this in mind, I have some idea what kind of food the kids in my neighbourhood consume, in addition there is evidence, the wrapping I find every day in front of my house and on the road. This total lack of respect and empathy, daily throwing of stones at animals, each other, adults of any age or education, even women old enough to be great grandmothers, it is difficult to bear, in particular by expats. Lessons those children learnt from the street: Do what you want, the street belongs to you, climb over walls, damage plants & walls, other folk's property, mock foreigners trying to speak Arabic, you are superior, independent of their academic degrees, after all your Arabic/Tunisian dialect is perfect! Teach animals to fear you, you are superior, the crown of creation! Girls asked me to differentiate, not to say children/ teens, etc. but just boys, they are not right in their heads, mad! Boys are bad, girls are better behaved (I agree, they often are, not always). When I compare the behaviour of cats and those boys here, I certainly prefer the company of the more civilised cats, who never threw stones at me, they know love, gratitude, respect. They understand my language, listen to what I say and tell me by purring they are happy to see me and appreciate my caring for them. The money I spent on presents for children in the neighbourhood I had better saved for street cats. The people here (not all thank heaven) like to take new born kittens away from the mother cats, often put them in the garbage container, dead or alive. When I ask where the mother is they tell me she's dead. So either the kitten's mother died straight after giving birth, or they kill her, but hopefully it's just a convenient lie. By my experience the still blind kittens (for the first 10-12 days) can't survive on cow milk before they can open their eyes. Yesterday I found  2 blind little ones, still alive, in the garbage container. I took them home, knowing it will depress me to see them die, but leaving them there with any rubbish dumped on them, suffocating like that is not worthy of a civilised society. They meanwhile died hugging each other. To see them like that made me feel ashamed of my species, the so-called Homo sapiens, some believe the crown of creation. - Tunisia needs a lot of support. These boys must not be left to roam the streets, which are extremely bad "teachers"' . Among the unemployed are many Tunisians with academic education, who could (possibly with further special courses) help to solve the problem, but this requires money, which I  believe is  presently not sufficiently available. Education is costly, yet it pays off in the long run! Uneducated parents need to be made aware of their responsibility, the importance of healthy food (home cooking, fresh vegetables are cheap) and that envy is destructive, it will never make you rich! Appreciate Expats, they are good for the country and contribute a lot, each one more than several tourists. I would love to recommend holiday in Tunisia, but when this idiotic stone throwing continues, how can I? I am not giving up hope yet. In every country there are good and bad people, children are like wax and can be bend in either direction. Let us educate and give them a future, it will be good for Tunisia too.

Time to Speak up

Look away, keep quiet, if you agree with what is happening and "as ye have sown, so shall ye reap". All decent people here must feel ashamed of the savage act in the Belvedere Zoo in Tunis on Wednesday (reported by British & American media), when brain amputated visitors stoned a crocodile that died of its severe painful wounds. Crocodiles and lions appear to be the main victims of these vicious persons, it is particular bad during school holidays (there seem to be either school holidays or teachers on strike, most of the time, rather strange in view of so many uneducated who yet need to learn basic good manners.) In addition the zoo is often littered with plastic and other rubbish, a "special present" from children and adults alike. All of this is no way to attract tourists! When this stone throwing starts, where are the normal, civilised visitors? Is there nobody to stop it, contact security guards quickly, ideally via mobile phone? Isn't it possible to get at least one or two armed policemen to patrol the zoo, in particular where animals require special protection against stone-age hooligans? - I shouldn't be so shocked, after all I view this stone throwing every day - my fight against wind mills (beating the air). The other day I happened to see 4-5 year olds climbing without aid an approx. 6 meter high wall of a building in the neighbourhood. One little boy on top finally got frightened, didn't know how to get down again. Other playmates started to throw stones, hitting him once near an eye, this made them laugh, no empathy! A boy, approx. 10 years of age, climbed up, grabbed the little one, pretended to throw him off the wall, increasing his fright and making him cry even more. Great fun for the crowd of watching kids. Adults I addressed didn't care, "If a child gets injured, it's a lesson he needs to learn."  - In Sousse alone 40 000 people were employed in the tourist trade or directly linked business. There are repeated demonstrations for the return of deeply missed tourists. In this day and age people abroad learn very quickly what is happening in another country. Europeans usually love and respect animals, nature, the environment. Some change of behaviour can only be achieved by appropriate strict laws and in addition patrolling police to enforce these. Many young men ride motorbikes - letting off steam - without license plates, tuned to create almost unbearable noise and big stinking clouds - in Europe unthinkable, police would quickly stop them and confiscate.... thus preventing many illnesses like deafness, cancer, high blood pressure, nervousness, etc. I would suggest police patrolling on motorbikes also in "problem areas" where tourists are rare. -  Reference the zoo, how about trying "crowd funding"  for the installation of cameras, putting up signs advising visitors who view inappropriate behaviour how to react, phone a certain number to inform security guards. In addition allow children and teens to visit only if accompanied by sensible (hopefully) adults. All must be made to understand that Tunisia's reputation needs to be restored. Words of a famous German author (Berthold Brecht): "What do monkeys say about their visitors in the zoo? Thank heaven they are all behind bars!" If you hate animals, don't visit the zoo. Children must be taught respect. See the beauty of animals, nature, the environment. Buy books for your children, instead of plastic guns from China. I believe poor people can also be decent, love and care for their children, teach them values and dignity. If they don't their children are likely to lack empathy and become a disgrace to the family and even to Tunisia. Tunisia's future is in the hands of the inhabitants, everybody can contribute, so don't look the other way, speak up. The decent majority can achieve much - but only if they don't keep quiet when encountering hooligans, etc. I still have a dream, Tunisia can be beautiful!                                                                                                                         Postscript:    Tunisians demonstrated in Tunis against the atrocious killing of the crocodile, their message: these stone-age villains don't represent the modern civilised society we want, our demand is respect for human and animal life! Hopefully the suffering of several animals and death of the poor  crocodile was not all in vain, if at long last necessary action is achieved.     Information from the BBC: The Tunisian Environment Ministry said that the zoo will be closed temporarily. More guards and environmental police will be employed at the site after emergency cleaning and maintenance works. Measures will be introduced to manage visitors entering and exiting.