Postcript Not Always What You Expect

 "Be yourself everyone else is already taken."  "You can never be overdressed or overeducated." Oscar Wilde.  "Comman sense is not so common."  "Every man is guilty of the good he did not do."  "Optimism is the madness of insisting that all is well when we are missable."  "Think for yourself and let others enjoy the priviledge of doing so too."  Voltaire. "Don' t do to others what you don't want to be done to you." German Proverb    My lovely Malcom X loves the croquettes and in particular the sausage I provide for my little treasures in- doors and at my Cats' Table, being able to walk again approximately one week ago he disappeared after eating his food and did not re-appear when I called him. Did this several times in vain. Seemed he may have gone back to where he came from. Since he was not undernourished when kids brought him to me following his accident, I hoped the gentle boy may have a family, a garden, a house, more or less for himself, as he doesn't like the company of many cats. In any case, Malcom knows my house and feeding times. Well, this morning Malcolm returned, not in perfect shape, patches of tar and sticking pebbles on his back thigh and tail. I offered him his favourite food and manged to remove a lot with a brush and cats' shampoo. Not at all a pleasant procedure for the poor darling. He demonstrated this by biting my hand - without injuries to my skin. Not sure how he managed this, (done it before) my special honey. Malcolm was feeling tired, may be had to do a lot of walking, so he decided to rest in his box, like he did in the past. I was happy my lost son was okay and returned to his foster mum. - Strange, bananas sold in Tunisia are not an African product but come from the same middle/south American countries as those in Europe. Comparing prices makes you wonder why they are more expensive here. For a while actually quite expensive, up to 15 Dinar a kg. The government arranged that 200 tons are supplied by Morocco, to be sold at 5 Dinar during Ramadan, according to Internet. All we found were offered at 9 Dinar and 

for a couple of days none at all, then again sold at 9 Dinar per kg.

Found on the internet, don't let this be our Ramadan!!! 

Yesterday we enjoyed a lovely sunny day and so did 2 kids on a motorbike, naturally without a safety helmet (pretty rare item here) and even top-less, hopefuly their skin works well as an air bag...... Among the ignorant not just the environment but also road safety is not much of an issue. Kids are seldom advised not to overstep a certain line. A case of try and error, learning by doing? Adoption appears to be handed in the open, I know of some kids that have been adopted. Do I need to know? Don't think so, wonder how the concerned kids feel, inferior because their parents didn't want them, or wondering whether these were no good? One youngster is playing mad, his foster dad doesn't know how to handle him. If I had adopted a child I would say: "You are very special, chosen. Love at first sight." As a teenager I admired Josephine Baker. She adopted a large number of children from different nations and taught them tolerance, you are all equal, the colour of your skin is of no importance. Instead of adopting children I ended up as a foster mum for numerous beautiful homeless cats of all colours. -There was a time when it was of great importance to have many children. Not all lived long, all too often died at a very young age. The survivors  were a kind of old age aid and protection. Nowadays it is mainly the poor who have big families and the more educated tend to have just one or two kids. At the same time folks live longer. This resulted in several, mainly European countries, but also those like Japan, having a population of predominantly eldery citizens. With other words, their economy and social services require young immigrants to fill vacant posts. In Germany 60,000 foreign doctors are presently working and still not all doctors who wish to retire because of old age can hand over their practice to a successor, in particular in the countryside (less attractive place for academics). The Dean of Tunisian engineers declared: "Tunisia annually gifts about 650 Billion to economies of foreign countries."  "Brain drain, 6,500 engineers leave Tunisia annually after finishing their university education. Approximately 100,000 Dinars are spend on education." This means not just a big economic and financial loss, but also missed chances for local innovations. And it is not just engineers. So rich countries profit on a big scale, it allows them to quickly fill important, profitable posts, save time and investments. Shouldn't they in return compensate the often poor countries who shouldered the enormous costs? Sadly it is not just the educational expenditures that cause a big problem to poorer countries, the situation is even much worse concerning the exodus of e. g. Tunisian physicians. Khemaies Zeyed, the president of the Tunisian Union of Free Exercise Physicians stated that in 2023 there were 1,325 young doctors leaving the country while between 400 and 500 graduate each year. "Currently the majority of doctors operating in hospitals are 50 years old or older." One can easily work out when this drain of medical men will lead to a collapse of the health system if nothing is done quickly to make Tunisia more attractive and a good reason to stay. It is not mainly a question of low pay, but circumstances like badly equipped hospitals, the quality of infrastructure, the environment in general and security that make others countries like France, Germany more attractive. Those who leave and maybe decide to return one day are hopefully welcomed with open arms, which in my experience is often not what expats encounter, but rather a lot of envy,  little understanding and appreciation of  support given to Tunisia while abroad (e. g. money sent to relatives) and now on return. I don't want to grumble, not all is bad, we met some great folks and discovered gorgeous gentle cats who definitely appreciate our presence.