A Journey to Tunis

August Macke, a famous German expressionist painter, travelled with 2 artist colleagues, Paul Klee and Louis Moilliet, to Tunisia in 1914. August Macke got really excited by the lights and colours in Tunisia, as a result of this he did a series of water colour paintings (his  final period, luminist approach) that became famous titled : "Die Tunisreise", more than one hundred years go. What is strange, I have yet to meet someone who knows his name or has seen prints of his masterpieces (several originals are in the Museum (Landesmuseum) in Muenster, Westphalia, Germany, the sister town of Monastir). Pity, the folks here don't know this, could be a good advertising, a couple of his paintings are of Kairouan too, give you some ideas of the "good old days."- I guess a lot changed during the last hundred years, on one of August Macke's painting is a man riding on a donkey, looking quite relaxed, while nowadays everybody appears to be in a hurry, feels stressed, the streets are congested with traffic, too much of it, Taxi drivers complain it's no longer fun to drive, cars constantly overtaking, telephoning while driving is common, so is badly secured load on trucks, quite a few drivers appear to have more luck than brain. On the motorway I viewed 12 empty (winter time) storks' nests on electricity poles, we passed the vineyards of the famous Mornag wine, a pretty green landscape with some mountains. The capital has its famous historic sites, well worth visiting and other old beautiful buildings, often built by the French during their occupation (of course for themselves, not to do the local folks a favour). A lot of marble was used and fantastic tiles on a big scale. While marble and high ceilings are beautiful and great to have in a building when it gets really hot outside, during the cold season, though, it is quite tough to work in such a historic building without heating, you can be proud in summer but have to freeze in winter (at least I would, even in a warm coat). In order to obtain a taxi licence in London you have to know all streets, roads, sites etc. and as part of the training spend 2 years driving all over London (if this hasn't changed with the introduction of the navigation system in UK). In Tunisia it is different, while some drivers know the various destinations (even where road signs are missing, not uncommon in Souse), others don't and could really do with a navigation system. In Europe they make jokes that it is difficult to sell in Arabic countries because Arabs don't like a woman to tell them what to do (usually a female voice). By the way, all pedestrians in Tunis and elsewhere, when asked for help to find a certain place, were polite and trying to be helpful. In Tunis they often couldn't as "this area is so big", "this street is so long", "addresses keep changing." When you get really frustrated, sent from "Pontius to Pilatus", you may be lucky and entcounter at your destination a charming person. And may the sun shines, even though it's winter.

React in Good Time

It is no use to lock the stable after the horse has bolted. When we started to settle in Souse, I noted quite a few kids causing damage to other folks' property (cars, buildings, plants, etc) without showing any feelings of wrong doing and even worse, enjoy throwing stones at each other, us, animals etc. Trying to address neighbours, these shocked me by replying: "They are children, nothing one can do." I tried in vain to explain the need to make children understand the difference between right and wrong, mine and yours. Children must know boarders, they like to test how far they can go and they can learn empathy, respect, responsibility. If allowed to "get away with murder" while under age, they won't understand why this changes one day. Letting kids run wild doesn't give them the feeling of being valued and loved, but rather that no one cares for them. Now, years later, some of these wild kids turned into disturbing youngsters, mentally unstable. Four days ago I viewed one lad sitting together with 4 others on the doorstep of an unoccupied house, their usual meeting place, in one hand a large knife, in the other a small axe with which he knocked a hole in a newly installed down pipe. I said to him, if I call the police they will probably beat you (he's got a big mouth) and you may even end up in hospital, do you want that? He surprised me by given me his hand. Two days ago I watched one lad with a metal spear with a sharp triangle at the end. He threw this at the wooden entrance door of an opposite located house and created several holes, he acted as if his behaviour was normal. Yesterday another young man, topless in spite of a not very high temperature, appeared with a bred knife and a hatchet looking for a fight with another (or several other) guy(s), and sure enough, another topless keen fighter showed up, unarmed as far as I could see. While workers at a building site were just watching, and so were children happy to have this "entertainment", some middle aged worried women turned up, the usual men from the neighbourhood who would try to prevent the worst, I didn't view this time. Scene like "West side Story"? It could have ended up quite bloody, in which case the police would turn up. Pity they don't patrol this part of town, in my opinion it could work wonders. By the way, there is now another, even bigger hole in the down pipe, presumable also made by axe, which a bored disturbed young man used, sitting on the marble steps next door. Having these mentally unstable aggressive young guys running around here is kind of disturbing, I wish they would be taken away to a psychiatric ward before some disaster happens. Using violence, beating kids, youngsters, is no solution, it makes more aggressive, can result in mental disturbances, if it were a solution, we would have an ideal world here, only gentle people. Spanking children is practiced in many countries unfortunately, i.e. East Europe. In Germany police visits German-Russian families and asked them to stop doing so, their spanked youngsters fill German Prisons and it is against the law in Germany. Children need positive models, they should not regard bad behavior, putting it mildly, as normal and acceptable by society. In Kairouan I was surprised how well behaved the kids are there, no yelling, no disrespect, no stone throwing at cats, friendly, polite children and youngsters. I used to consider this as normal, I guess I've had too much of the other kind, thus staying in Kairouan is relaxing, unfortunately I can't move to Kairouan. It is not the lovely beech that's keeping me, I found beautiful fur angels (cats) in Souse, regular visitors to my cats' table, I don't want to leave them with those disturbed uneducated kids and young men.  The cats here trust, love and respect me, their puring makes up for a lot of stress that I have to put up with in this part of Souse. - Folks are not happy with Tunisians extradited from Germany. They are supposed to be criminals (or perhaps just naive young men that were dreaming of a better future in Europe). People suspect Europe made them criminal and at a demonstration there was a notice saying: "We don't want the garbage from Germany."  If those extradited are Tunisians where else should they go? No country feels that they could do with more criminals, besides, I don't think one should call human beings "garbage". The question is why have some become criminals, what happened, do they come from a bad or broken family, were they  neglected as children? Could it have been prevented if the right people had reacted in good time? Looking away, saying they are kids, it doesn't matter, nothing one can do, is certainly wrong. What can be done? As Tunisia hasn't got much money (following the big bank robbery by Ben Ali and Leila) a foreign country/EU financed project to build Kindergartens for kids from poor families would be a good start. The nursery school teachers would ideally be well trained and would be teaching children from an early age those values that are important for a civilized

country, including empathy, respect, environmental protection, to love and value their country. Yes, kids can learn a lot if they are taught in a playful positive way. No one is born a criminal, some may have bad genes, but the influence of their surroundings must not be underestimated and they must learn that violence is not a solution and yelling creates unnecessary stress, as does lots of noise. Let us work for a better Tunisia and enjoy the beauty of this country.