It Ain't Exactly a Paradise

The 8 year old girl surprised her family one day by saying: "Salt is missing". Enquired her father: "Well I never, you can actually speak?" "Of course I can." "Why didn't you say a word, all those years?" "Because there wasn't a reason, everything was always there......."
One can hear that we have equal rights for men and women, I sometimes joke, the girls yell just as loud as the boys, only with a high pitched voice.  The other day some women were pretty close to having a fight, boys appear to be always fighting, they call it fun.  But in the classic old  cafe you usually see only men. Women have to do the cooking and clean the house, I am told, while unemployed men look for a job sitting in a cafe? Whenever I go shopping with my husband and give the money to the person behind the counter, the change is handed to my husband. Is this solidarity among men? Well no, women act likewise (only a couple of exceptions). When my husband pays, no one tries to give me the change. Very strange in view of how many women work nowadays. Yesterday I asked a young man to explain his action. He was surprised, laughed and said I guess we do this without thinking. Sometimes I am asked: " How much do you want to pay?"  Whenever I answer that I actually don't want to pay, but I'll take the goods anyway, the reaction is not what one might expect, folks just laugh and say okay, no one gets annoyed, it never happened! Great country! It is not easy though for those with rather limited income and rising prices. As the exchange rate of the Dinar drops, imports are getting more and more expensive, some goods are no longer available but with a bit of luck there are alternatives on the market. End of the year approaching, time to buy a new diary. The saleswoman in the shop advised me that she hasn't got any calendars. Briefly looking around I discovered a good choice of calendars on display (near her counter!!!), very strange. Was this mend to be satire? Some small food shops are facing financial difficulties, several shelves are more or less empty. Allowing poor customers to buy on credit can provide you with more customers, but even when the sum remains small, with many such customers it may add up to a sum the shop owner can't well afford to do without in the long run. When he or she says: "you need to pay your debt before buying more, I have to stop your credit," some promise to pay soon, others get annoyed, a few don't return anymore, a girl, approx 10 years old throw some coins onto the floor, showing her disrespect for the elderly shop owner. I wonder what values her parents teach her. These not exactly well-off minor shop owners fulfil an important function in this country, yet they are not appreciated the way they should be. It is sad to see folks buying even bred on credit (this French bred costs approx 6 ct a loaf). With a price like that nobody ought to remain hungry. By the way, I call these little shops which appear to be
everywhere (too many to secure a good turnover)
 "Uncle Ali Shop" (in Germany they were nicknamed "Tante Emma Laden"). In Paris I once saw in a pub a notice saying: "If you ask me for a credit and I say no, you will be annoyed, if I ask you to settle your bill and you say no, I will be annoyed, better if you are annoyed.