Without Pain no Gain

 "People are lonely because they built walls instead of bridges." "Dirty water does not stop plants from growing." "When you see a poor man eating chicken it is either the man is sick or the chicken is sick." Ubuntu African Proverbs.                                                                    Cats are great companions, but living with just 1 or 2 is quite different from living with nearly 3 " football teams", yet strange folks seem to think that while they themselves are overwhelmed by just 1 in the house, we could take on more and hereby leave them with a good conscience. Cold, stormy weather with heavy rain recently, 2 girls knocking at our door asking me to please take their cat as their mother doesn't like cats. I felt very sorry for them and the lovely cat, but I had to refuse. My cats don't want more adoptions and would try to make the cat leave and besides, I am getting exhausted, physically and financially. There are so many hungry mouths to feed and when they look at me with their beautiful trusting eyes..... I left the poor nice girls with my message for their mother: "What you do is Haram. You have a bad heart. You don't like cats and Allah doesn't like you." Not sure whether this was the right approach to make that woman change her mind. She should be proud that her girls like cats and know empathy. We need more kids like that. - Surprising news, the president of the butchers' chamber asked the Mufti of the republic to cancel Aid Al Adha this year in order to rescue and preserve the cattle. Tunisia no longer has enough sheep and presently doesn't produce for the traditional slaughtering required by this religious feast. Imports are extremely expensive and costs are generally rising a lot. Aid Al Adha certainly would put much pressure on religious families. While adults may understand that they haven't got the means to buy a sheep or perhaps just a piece of meat, children often don't. They enjoy the tradition, feeding a sheep in the house for a few days, proudly taking the animal for a walk and then finally big meals with the family, lots of meat...... Frankly I am glad I was never subjected to this custom, I could never, not even as a child, eate an animal that I have seen alive before, or even worse, in whose eyes I looked. Listening to crying sheep in various houses before the big slaughtering takes place always makes me sad. In Saudi Arabia an incredible number of sheep get slaughtered every year, paid for by religious moslems arriving in order to fulfill Quran requirements. For them it is a good deed in the eyes of Allah. But there is too much meat, even after feeding the pilgrims and donating to the local poor, so a tremendous amount of sheep are thrown away, buried in mass graves. Frankly I don't understand this practice in a holly moslem country. Why can't the Saudis donate this surplus meat to poor countries in the Far East and Africa? (In Jemen many are starving.) In view of the millions of Dollars they spend e. g. on bribing politicians of the European Parliament, surely financing the transport etc. of the surplus meat shouldn't be a problem. Besides, such a donation would serve more effectively to improve the public image of the Saudis than bribing corrupt law makers in foreign countries. - In Sousse a car hit a big motorcycle and just continued his journey without stopping. The rider of the motorcycle suffered several injuries including an obviously broken arm, his passenger seemed to be okay and the motorcycle got badly damaged. My husband witnessed the accident while sitting in a taxi. This driver stopped his vehicle and immediately rushed to help and take the injured man to a hospital. He prior asked my husband to look for another taxi to continue his journey. I often noted that Tunisians are quick to help, not looking the other way or thinking that others should react. In Syria and Turkey Tunsians were among the first rescue teams to arrive from an Arabic country. In Syria a Tunisian rescue dog (German Shepherd breed) was hailed as a hero. He detected a child under 3 m of rubble and thanks to him it was possible to pull out the alive kid under the directorate of civil protection. I hope this case and the others of life saving dogs will make folks in Tunisia think twice before demanding the shooting of dogs.