Postscript Pets, Winter Season and other Events

 "When a herdsman dies, his son inherits his cows, but whens a professor dies, his certificates become waste." "The tree that bears good fruits receives more stones and trouble." Ubuntu African Proverbs.                                                                                            Everything just about seems to become more expensive, even though the old year isn't finished yet. The inflation is high, more cats appear to be put out on the street. Among them presently well fed real beauties that would be expensive breeds in Europe. I would love to feed them all or even offer shelter, but this I cannot manage. Croquettes have become so expensive and in view of the raising number (inside and outside my house) plus a good appetite during the winter season, a 20 kg sack doesn't last long. In addition kids sometimes steal or ask for croquettes to feed their cat. I shall have to change my little treasures' food to include more cooked meals. It is either due to poverty or an act of revenge that 2 plain buckets were recently stolen in which I used to put our rubbish outside for collection. For quite a few kids and youngsters around here instant revenge is normal. One "wrong word" can be enough. In theory playing football every spare minute should allow these kids to become great football players. Unfortunately, though, they frequently lack respect, empathy and self-control. A football trainer of a German well known team said that he would send the best player in the world back home if he doesn't know respect and self-control. Just imagine players on the field wishing to take instant revenge on various occaisons. - Sugar and milk remain rare, now also oil, butter and coffee. Lack of sugar in a country where folks never seem to get enough of it (many products are much too sweet for my taste), came as a surprise. As many suffer from Diabetics, it could be a chance to get accustomed to a lower consumption. Higher meat prices likewise. Since I love animals I stopped eating meat many years ago and don't regard less meat on the table as negative, providing one eats fish from time to time. - Reading advice for expats. " Tunisians like to be punctional and are very reliable." Well yes, if you are well off, life is so much easier. You can live in a bubble. My experience is different, "Roundez-vous Arab" is very common. This means appointments are rarely met and recommendations are not very reliable. Sometimes folks ask me how can I live in Tunisia, a country without animal protection laws (they do exist, little known, but not as strong as one would wish), where cats and dogs are all too often treated like vermin, cats get poisoned and dogs shoot. Well, you can find the good, the bad, the educated, the ignorant, those with excellent manners and the hooligans, animal abusers and those who do their best to help and protect cats, dogs and/or other animals. A woman from the neighborhood informed me that a cat enters her house and pees there. What should she do? I suggested that she closes her door so the cat can't enter. Wondering how many cats fit on my lab, on top of me, if I put my feet up. My little treasures demonstrated that there is enough space for 6 of them providing they are not all heavy weight. They are so beautiful and gentle, great having them. I shall never understand folks who want to hurt or even kill cats and dogs. Pets enrich our life. Citizens leaving Ukraine, forced to become refugees with limited luggage, often take their cat or dog as well, even carry the pet over a long distance if need be. If they make it to Germany these folks receive donated food and pet supply items. I know of 14 Europeans who stopped visiting Tunisia: "a country where cats and dogs get abused or even poisoned or shoot on the road". Strange, some believe here that "tourists' eyes feel insulted" if they view stray cats or dogs. As a matter of fact for those who regard pets as family members, seeing their ordeal is unbearable, many are willing to help and support the poor strays. I have seen a few stray dogs, several obviously had an owner without responsibility, no empathy for their dependent dog. Anyhow, I never felt endangered (unlike some citizens), all were non-aggressive, just looking for a bit of food. Sometimes guys suggest that we stop providing for cats and donate for them/poor folks. My husband replies: "You can work and earn money, cats can't. There are many vacancies on the country side, e. g. harvest, there aren't jobs for everyone in the town." In addition we experienced that not all who appear to need help deserve it. If you try to help strays there won't be anything to regret. 

Pets, Winter Season and other Events

 "A lion doesn't loose sleep over the sheep's opinion."  "A rat who doesn't like digging its own hole but loves using holes abondoned by other rats, will one day find a hungry snake in it."  Ubuntu African Proverbs.                                   With temperatures still above 20 degrees centegrate folks ask: where is the winter? Well it takes place at night, though still pleasant unlike extreme temperatures as in Europe. Nonetheless several cats, in particular the littles ones are not well, there is virus and those that were torn too early from the loving paws of their mother, suffer from a too weak immune system. Ignorant people can do a lot of harm, it depresses me seeing very young kittens die in spite of all effords. You don't save unwanted cat babies by placing them in front of animal loving guys' doors. The best way to support them is to allow nature to function, let their mums care for them, give them milk, love and education. In view of the large number of kids in the neighborhood that seem to be constantly screeming and running, out on the street most of the day, (surely not the behaviour of happy children) I feel some human mothers could learn from cats. The street is not suitable to educate children. Besides, the boys here are not interested in reading a book, just want to play football, never get tired of kicking balls against the house walls. If a ball lands on the compound or roof of a house they won't necessarily ask for permission to fetch it but often will help themselves, after all they are good at climbing. Surprisingly there are hardly ever accidents, even though the children don't pay much attention to the traffic, including pedestrians. Times are changing. Nowadays it seems to be fashionable among youngsters to keep a dog, if possible an exotic one. Unfortunately on the other hand all too often there is very little respect for the dog's nature, his requirement, knowledge how to treat a dog properly. Dogs and cats serve as toys for the kids entertainment. Playing with the dog, having fun, to them it means pretending to attack the dog, letting their comrades also join in with shadow kicking and hitting, laughing when the poor dog gets frightened, barks, etc. Then they say: Look the dog is agressive..... I reply: No, you are aggressive and you don't know how to play with the dog so that he also enjoys it. Then they say: We are just making fun. I answer that the dog isn't laughing and that they are at fault if some folks are frightened of dogs. - At present one cannot find potatoes, sugar (was available for a short period), cement on the market, milk occasionally, some medication and cosmetics also, in particular imports. Hopefully it won't concern pet food also. Having to feed such a big hungry feral family that would mean a lot of stress, to say the least. Kids brought me a handicapped lovely black kitten, they found at the Mosque. The right back leg looked as if it may be broken. It turned out that Johnny, as I named him, is 4 months old, the left leg has an old fracture that more or less healed, while the bones of the right one have a complicated fracture, one bone sticking outward, no connection with the other part of the joint and partly broken in pieces. Finding a specialst to carry out such a complicated operation in Tunisia may be impossible, perhaps in Tunis the professor who teaches future veterinarians could, but I can't finance that, in addition it would mean several trips to Tunis and it may all yet be in vain. Johnny is still very young, a difficult decision. The alternative is to let my sweet little treasure carry on as long as he can. He is a quite gentle kitten with fur like velvet. Jeremy, my adult black and white tomcat, with lovely big eyes, looks confused and tumbles. He either fell and suffers from concussion, has a nerve problem or there is yet other cause. It may be necessary to x-ray his head at a later stage, hopefully his medication and a good rest will, though, restore his health. Thank heaven we still have a lot of sunshine during the day time. But when the sun goes down, at approximately 17.00 hrs, it quickly gets dark and the temperature drops. The sky here, in a coastal town, is too beautiful for words. Nature is the greatest artist. In addition Tunisia has the sea, a beech with very fine sand, historic buildings, lovely flowers, the most gorgeous cats and dogs, (as well as poor strays) unfortunately a lot of this is not appreciated. When you are poor and have problems making ends meet, life of cause isn't easy. Nonetheless, my wish: May life treat you the way you treat cats and dogs. 

 

Postcript Education, Languages, ect.

 "Unlike the stomach, the brain won't alert you, when it's empty." "When you marry a monkey for his wealth, the money goes and the monkey remains." Ubuntu African proverbs.                                                                                                                                                 A young girl, approx. 10 years old (not sure of her exact age or nationality) with a very special talend for learning foreign languages, presently masters 9 languages and intends to continue. The most difficult languages in her opinion are Arabic and Chinese. Well, it is easier for children to hear and speak the exact pronunciations and memorise the vocabulary. Once you reach the age of 30 it unfortunately  starts to becomes more difficult to hear the differences. Reference learning Arabic as a foreign language this presents a real problem. If your pronunciations are not quite correct various folks won't understand what you are trying to say, some kids laugh while surprisingly others manage to understand you none the less. Cats seem to be able to learn any language (at least a few sentences), but will reply in their own language. They manage to quickly know not just the name humans give them but also that of their comrades/ other "family members".  This of course also applies to so called street cats. I was surprised to note how few folks know the word Baguette (in Arabic called Hobes), considering that it is the most common and pretty cheap bred here and also in other countries of this continent, a heritage of the French colonies in Africa. On the other hand quite a few kids use the English word "bitch". If you are aware that a bitch is a good mother for her puppies (and sometimes also for other animals), sensitive, really caring mum, no need to feel insulted. Neglecting the young onces is less common among them than among humans. We could have a better world if we would try to learn more from animals.  Mother: "Son time to get up."  "Son: " I don't want to go to school, nobody likes me there, the teachers don't, the pupils, even the staff there. " " Mother:  "You must go, my son, you are the director....."         Heinrich Boell's "Anecdote on Lowering the Work Ethic" was published 1963. Recently I discovered an altered version of this famous short story as of "African origin". Likewise some proverbs exist in various countries. While in Germany it is considered to bring you good luck to find a small coin ("Wer den Pfennig nicht ehrt, ist den Taler nicht wert."), people in Portugal believe that if you need to bend down for a small coin, you are not worth possessing big ones. Occasionally I find Millim coins and then I say, if money lays on the street here, folks can not be so badly off.... 

Education, Languages, etc

 "A stubborn fly will follow a corpse to the grave and be buried with it." "You are not judged by the height you have reached, but from the depth you have climbed. ." African Ubuntu Proverbs".                                                                                                                   Tunisians are said to be very talented when it comes to learning foreign languages. I noticed that those working with tourists more or less speak various languages, not unlike other countries that attract tourists. French is the 2. language (typical for ex-colonies, in Algeria many demand to change this) just as well as it means not everything is written in Arabic, makes life easier for non - Arabic folks here and also for international trading. A recent study brought to light that 70% of Tunisian pupils' French is of a poor standard, they would prefer to learn English, the language mainly used for computers and generally in the world of science (the common language of the later was German until Hitler made great men and women, scientists and others, flee the country). Anyhow, translation of English to  Arabic and via-verse, including by the computer translation program, appears to be an extremely difficult task. Often it is not at all easy to make sense of it. Some examples that I repeatedly found:  " I eat cats and dogs every day. I drink it. The cat is dead. I shake it to the vet."    You what? Sounds horrible! It should have read:  "I feed cats and dogs every day. I give them water/ something to drink. The cat is tired/exhausted. I take it to the vet." Some written words exist in 2 languages but with a different meaning. While Fluss is an Arabic word for money, in German it means river. Since money flows out of the pocket like water, not so far fetched. In Germany some French words changed their meaning, Fisage is used for an ugly face, Rendez-vous in German means a dating with a boyfriend/ girlfriend, the English word Gift stands in German for poison, Rat for advice, Gymnasium for grammar school, a student studies at the university, a Professor often lectures at the university, the academic title higher is than that of a teacher. The different use in various countries of can lead to misunderstandings. - If a high percentage of my pupils get bad marks, I would suspect that they are either exceptionally stupid, lazy, are neglected by their parents, or my teaching methods are boring, e. g. teacher talking most of the time, pupils are restricted to listening and repeating instead of actively participating. Some teachers believe in discriminating pupils of poor families and/ or those with darker skin. Such rasism in Africa? Since when does the colour of skin reflect the value of a person and isn't it a protection against skin cancer? Teachers with an attitude like that proof that they themselves lack education and should look for another job. Tunisia can be proud to have abolished slavery on 23.01.1846 two years earlier than France, 16 years before US and many European countries, the sale of slaves was already forbidden wef. 09.06.1841. In my opinion there are too many school holidays here and the standard of general knowledge could be improved. In particular neglected kids from brocken and/ or poor families could do with that. I just found out that 3 members of my big feral family are are a special breed of short haired black American cats crossed with Burmese in order to achieve that black panther like appearance. Indians named them Bombay cats. Superstitions here believe black cats bring you bad luck, such a believe dates back to the middle ages. One should think we advanced since then. Education of the ignorants, starting with the kids, a rewarding task for teachers, so much needs to be done.