A Different Angle

A man talking to his friend: "You know what, my wife talks a lot with herself." The friend:"This really surprises me, she doesn't seem to be the kind." The first man: "Well actually she believes I am listening, but I am not, thus she's speaking to herself......"                        Information (INC) on my mobile phone, if you buy a dangerous toy you can injure a child. I am sure quite a few folks never think that far. While e.g. in Europe many parents worry what can happen to their children, in particular while they are playing outside, folks are much more relaxed here. The children know how to scream and run, in addition they are with their gang, enough protection, even for the very young until after midnight!  At the crossroads here up to 20 or even 25 kids arrive daily, dressed with football t-shirts, shorts and shoes. It looks very professional, only there is no football/ sports field and the surrounding houses bear the markings of all those balls and there would be many broken windows in addition, if they weren't protected with iron bars. Perhaps a sign is required advising:  "Crossroads, Not Sports' Field." - The town authorities (Belladia) decided to upgrade and clean the outside area around the lycee (grammar school) opposite the mosque, where various rubbish used to be dumped by thoughtless kids and adults. Thanks to Belladia it soon looked neat with a narrow gardening strip, different kinds of plants, benches, new slap pavement. The other day I viewed a middle aged man of considerable proportions walking his large roundish long fur dog on a leash. He guided his dog to what this mentally under-illuminated poor man mistook to be designated as dogs' toilet, the garden strip. He walked his dog all along this narrow garden, in order to allow him to do his urinating, leave his excrement, do his digging, etc., perhaps another sign is required here, advising: " Not a public dogs' toilet. " And: "Please don't decorate with your litter", as some kids/adults already dropped their rubbish  between the plants and I guess in order to gain more space for this, pulled out or bend a few, and like that it looks more like home to them. Talking about the environment, my neighbour's son keeps on and on trying to repair his motorbike (his garage is adjacent to our sitting room.) at 23.00 hrs.  The result of his attempts: stinking black clouds, burning my eyes, extreme noise, the floor shaking, feels like a slight earth quake. We are forced to keep our windows shut. Life never gets boring among the ignorant, you never know what they come up with next. I guess one can't have environment protection without employing folks who control and monitor that laws and regulations are not being ignored. If you want your town, village or community to be clean and an enjoyful sight, you need folks, some  with and some without payment motivated to protect the area. And it is very important to educate and educate, teach the ignorant, make them see and stop them having a blinkered attitude. Tunisia is lucky, there is such a large potential, many citizens with university diplomas, several even from poor and/or uneducated families managed to study. Yet 62 % are unemployed, very strange. Is there too much intelligence? Not the impression one actually gets. It does of course depend on where you are and whom you meet. Eid holiday, end of Ramadan, 4 o'clock in the morning, my husband asks some boys not to be so noisy, they retaliate with throwing stones. Later on a small boy, nicely dressed up for the holiday, spits at a cat in front of my entrance door and throws stones. I happen to view another one (approx. 6 years old) kicking a cat, just because he is stupid and bored or diturbed? Nicely dressed up women and young girls proudly walk past -is this the spirit of Eid? - A sick, nervous woman in the neighbourhood, fed up with having fiercely kicked balls damaging the walls of her house (our common problem here), getting angry, telling hooligans to disappear from this area. They retaliate by pulling down her door curtains, writing an insult with blue paint on her wall, smashing the large stones she had fixed on her pavement to prevent cars from parking there. I heard folk say, whatever you do, always expect their retaliation, one "wrong" word can already be enough. At the bank, I try to explain to a middle-aged man that since he arrived later than me he should queue up behind me. He looked so surprised, then laughed and went to another counter, expecting to be served first. (To be fair, some guys have excellent manners, some kids actually know respect, are educated with good manners.) Plenty of work for intelligent unemployed persons, just a question of financing? Retraining courses for lets say teachers to qualify them as social street workers should be more rewarding than having frustrated academics unemployed or taking on any odd job. In addition those kids growing up without rules, knowing no borders, no respect for anyone, abusing animals without empathy, will one day grow up and if nothing is done will most certainly not become "an asset" to society. Prisons are expensive and rarely make inmates better. Money is better spend on professionals qualified to interfere in good time, on anti-aggression training, educating the ignorant, teaching basic values, etc. We don't need an elbow society. Don't allow greedy, lazy, ignorant and corrupt folks to dominate. Tunisia is beautiful, whether it's a good place for living or not depends on the citizens.