A Comparison, Cuba and Tunisia

 Wealth is not about having a lot of money; it's about having a lot of options." Chris Rock                                   

Both countries had dictators, a revolution,are not very big in size and have approx. 11 Million citizens. While Cuba is like an open air vintage car museum (vehicles that the mafia left behind when Fidel Castro and Che kicked them out), Tunisian streets are congested with new cars (most of them "belong to the bank" I am told). Those cars in Cuba are well worth seeing. I asked my husband to pretend he is about to enter one, so I can take a nice picture. A man appeared and nicely asked whether he can now have his car back. By the way, getting spare parts being impossible due to sanction measures restricting/stopping imports, the inventive genius Cuban folks helped themselves with spare parts from Russia or created these themselves. In Tunisia bad streets lead to more repairs to vehicles and the owners facing bills they have difficulties to meet. Education and health services are considered a human right in Cuba, free and open to all citizens. People not only from other American countries, including USA, can only dream of this. In Tunisia much requires improvement, insufficient hospitals, in particular in the south, the poor are more or less supported, not everything is for free, medication is often maktur, meaning sold out, no longer available (may be stolen, given to non- untitled persons), in particular imports. In Cuba more is own production, now also  Corona vaccines. They even send medical specialists to help other countries, often poor ones. They are great people. It is amazing how much they can repair with little resources, here you quickly hear that items are beyond repair, so much, too much is thrown away. I love Cuban music, my favourite is Bona Vista Social Club. Tunisia has of course also good music, at festivals/ celebrations often played at an ear splitting sound level, unfortunately. Animal rights generally exist in Tunisia (Penal Code, article 310 and 317 Section IV 3), 4) ). This comes as a surprise to many, as cats and dogs (not all strays), are shoot or poisoned on the streets at night, many of them, through authorities, in various places. Frankly it depresses me and viewing photos or videos is hard, I often cry. The result of this murdering of innocent animals is that kids/youngsters seeing it become insensitive, lose empathy, throw stones at animals, hit them, treat them like vermin, seldom stopped by their ignorant parents, who may even kill cats and dogs themselves. It is sadly not unusual to kick out a cat or dog that becomes inconvenient, perhaps sick, has unwanted puppies (the little family may even get brutally murdered). So not all straits originate from the streets. It shows, lovely gentle  animals with a shocking destiny. When Cuban citizens demanded animal protection laws, these were introduced (sadly still allowing traditional cock fights and religious sacrifice): Animal welfare and raising awareness in our population on the care and respect of animals is a demand of our society objective to achieve a harmonies relationship between human beings and other species in despensinate condition for the existence of all. Animals must be cared for and protected by man.- At presence we  can only dream of generally animal rights in North Africa, why folks here can be so brutal and believe it's okay to abuse, torture or even murder them, only the devil knows. It is against the Moslem religion (HARAM). The Mufti of Tunisia declared those who kill dogs and cats will go straight to hell after death. We need to educate the ignorant and their kids, teach empathy, respect and appreciation for animals and nature. Too many strays on the roads? The solution is simple, learn to take responsibility for your pet. In order to reduce the number of unwanted ones get them spayed  and neutered, authorities could partly finance this instead of their killings. If you want tourists, don't shock them with inhuman senseless and gruesome actions. By the way, Prophet Mohammed (constantly praised here) loved and  kept animals, his advice: Have sympathy with the animals on earth and then Allah will also have sympathy with you.