Difficult Times

A tradesman looking for a job finally found someone willing to employ him: " Okay if you are that keen, but I must point out there is a snag to it." Being asked what he means by this, he said: "I'll explain later." The tradesman started to work and his employer continued to say: "I'll explain later, it is still too early." When all the work was finished, the tradesman got really curious as he hadn't discovered any "snag". So his employer told him: " You did a good job, thank you very much, now I can tell why I warned you, the snag is I can not pay you. - The new year started with bad information for most of us, as the government has to repay a loan from the World Monetary Fund, granted with stipulations, taxes and prices increased for many items like basic food, electricity and cooking gas, coffee and tea, telephone, Internet, alcohol, medicine, imports, vehicles, etc. For those with very little or no income a real problem. I was in the past already surprised that some folks buy bread (220 Millim approx. 10 Ct) and ask the seller to write it down in his book with outstanding bills, to be paid at some later date. On the other hand streets are congested with masses of new expensive cars, which can only mean many have plenty of money or managed to obtain a bank credit that will cause a problem at a later date, as quite a few new cars on the street are for sale again, one must assume this. One pharmacist declared he will try not to charge more in spite of higher taxation, as he fears many of his customers won't be able to cope otherwise. - The other day a man handed me a sheet of paper in front of my house and said: " Belladia (town administration authorities) tax." When we tried to pay the requested sum, the reaction was a real surprise. The woman stated  that we would not only have to pay that amount for 2017, but also in addition for the last 5 years. Strange, we never received such a request before. The first explanation for this: Students tasked with distributing the bills were too lazy to do a proper job. Second explanation: People were after the revolution frightened to hand these bills to the concerned house inhabitants. How about then making use of the letter boxes, where ever possible? Nonetheless, Belladia even demanded a surcharge on account of late settlement of their bill, thus pay interest for bills we never received and were not even aware of. Strange, but the world is really full of surprises. Always expect the unexpected. By the way, various folks in the neighbourhood remarked they can not and will not pay Belladia, their very limited means won't enable them to do so. Well, the government is aware of existing poverty and intends to help these people: free medical aid for unemployed youth, increased state pensions, a housing fund to make housing more affordable, increased financial assistance to poor families (hopefully in such a way that the children will also benefit), government decisions as a result of the demonstrations on account of the imposed austerity measures. While 2018 won't be an easy year it is supposed to all get better from next year on as the economy is expected to improve. Let us hope so, frustrations are understandable, aggressions, destruction frenzy, looting, any kind of violence, though, is not helpful and it doesn't solve any problems. If we want more tourists to return to our beautiful beeches (some tidying up would be a good idea), historic sites, and much more that Tunisia has to offer, it can be done and creates jobs yet again. When folks with an academic background can't find work that matches their qualifications that is so sad and at the same time means a lot existing potential in the country is wasted. According to the OECD unemployment among Tunisian graduates amounts to 62 per cent, this is really tough. During school and later on semester holidays I often used to work, jobs like: factory works, cleaning, tree nursery, selling in a department store, warehouse, sweetshop, copy shop, potato harvest on farm land, washing up, kitchen help and waitress in a restaurant.This was an interesting experience and helped me understand a lot, at the same time I was happy to know these jobs would not be what life holds for me and I appreciated having to do them only for a few weeks. I can therefore understand how difficult it must be for people with an academic education to be forced to work in a factory, or as a taxi driver, etc. just so that they can make ends meet. They invested a lot in money, energy and time, so sad when it seems to be all wasted. While the foreign lenders of the 2,8 bn Dollar loan demand cuts to civil service and broader austerity measures, their usual demands (often not taking into account a country's special situation), 15 per cent are unemployed, even more in the less advantaged south and other parts of the country. There is so much work to be done if it could be financed. We need playgrounds for children, some require anti-aggression training. The other day 3 pre-school children climbed on top of the roof of a one-floor building, amazing, without a ladder, only had some difficulties climbing down again, one kid fell, cried, just suffered some bruises. A construction site on the other side of the road (owner decided to add another 2 storeys to his building, happens here everywhere) is regarded by the local children as a playground, there is a heap of sand, there are staked bricks, piles of pebbles and other stones, their favoured "toys", that they can not walk past without picking some up to throw at cats, dogs, buildings, people or each other. Whenever I tried to explain why they should stop this, the usual answer is: "It wasn't me." And yes, they are willing to stop - at least for a couple of minutes. While their parents take little interest (if at all) how their siblings spend their days out on the road, I feel the kids need to be taught how to play and creating playgrounds would be very helpful. I'd wish there would be donations from better-off countries to further this. Some folks with a short memory say it was all better when Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was in government. Well, he ruled for 24 years and what did this dictator, his greedy wife and equally greedy in-laws do for Tunisia? If they loved this country they could have done so much, e.g. playgrounds for children I only saw on hotel grounds for tourist children, there were many more plastic bags polluting the country site than nowadays, did Ben Ali get any waste-processing plants built, etc? And last not least, would they have robbed the country? We don't need a "saviour" like Ben Ali, Tunisia deserves better. Latest update: more than 6000 jobs are promised to the people from Kasserine, approx. 250 000 families will receive financial support from the government. Investigations into allegations of corruption will be carried out. Sounds promising.