Learn or Allow History Repeat Itself.

 "You can't just blame things on evil. Everyone's a human, so when people say that somebody's behaving inhuman, it's not. It is very human it's just not the nice side of it."  Eric A. Johnson.   "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple and wrong."  H. L. Mencken.   "There are good reasons to be tired of the Holocaust. And one of the reasons is because it's so bleak . It is an atrocity and with an atrocity you don't have the balance that comes out of tragedy.  In tragety, what you learn equals, or someone balances the prize that you pay. "   " Sometimes you shout at the world to change the world, and sometimes you shout at the world to make sure it doesn't change you. "       Enric A. Johnson.    " Pessimism goes. Optimism stays. " Michael Berenbaum                           Black feral beauty Jimmy calling. Does he want to order food or water? No, he's just complaining that Chiquita is sitting in his basket. Good to see our recently adopted family member  is feeling at home. He recovered well from his road accident, but his pupils are still not okay. It may take some time, I've been advised. It is getting warmer, our cats enjoy sunbathing on the roof terrace. Colder days are yet ahead, winter isn't over, wish it was, though. Lucky are those who  can live in a house, not just a tent or some kind of makeshift shelter. Human intelligence seems to on the decline, judging by the state of our  present world, blackmailing, threatening, violations of human rights, flexible truth, successful tools in modern politics, so it seems. Massive violations of internatinal laws make people lose trust. Brave New World. It is the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Ausschwitz concentration camp, freed by Russian and Ukrainian troops. Germans were very frightened of the Russians, fearing their revenge for the atrocities that Germans did to them. Hitler treated them like subhumans. Why he hated them so much I don't know.  Incredible and depressing what the "master race" (or Arier, term orginating from an Indian valley ) was capable of doing. According to Nazi believe Arier are a Nordic race, tall, athletic, blond and blue eyes, - neither Hitler himself, nor most of the big Nazis resembled this model, isn't it strange? The Nazis not only practised collective punishments, but also randum punishments to spred insecurity. They tried to kill the intelligence in Poland in order to facilitate enslavery of the others and clear the country for German settlements (land grab for "Lebensraum"). Trump's idea to clear Gaza and resettle Palestinians in Agypt and Jordania ("for a better life") is not acceptable for those concerned. Strange, Trump himself doesn't want immigrats in US........ UN and EU stressed the only solution is two states, Palestinians need to have their own state. Underneath the skin we all look alike, why rasism? It appears to be helpful to have scapegoats, allows exploitation, is welcomed by those who are full of envy, don't mind getting in an evil way rid of successful competitors. As James Baldwin once explained, those who deep down feel inferior, feel better if they can believe persons exist who are even less worthy than they are. The Nürnberg Trail was a good idea, but it ended too quickly, more war criminals and mass murders should have been held accountable and received harsher sentences. All too often Nazis who appeared to be useful, got away without punishment, even with the help of US government officials, not just in Germany. This included Shiro Ischili, the Japanese leader of Unit 731, a department of the Imperial Japanese Army that carried out horrible unethical experiments on prisoners and civilians. Shiro Ischili managed to offer his test results - "experiments that you could never carry out in your country" - in exchange for immunity, given by the Supreme US Commander of the Occupation, Douglas McArthur. Difficult to stomach. Animals could and would never do what humans are capable of doing. By the way, abused children, those who have been subjected to a lot of cruelty, if left to grow up without therapy, can either become very sensitive and develp deep empathy, or become hard and cruel. Lord have mercy. 

Postscript Expect the Best and Prepare for the Worst.

 "Human beings seem to have an almost unlimited capacity to deceive themselves into taking their own lies for truth." "Schizophrenia can not be understood without understanding despair." "The way out is the way you came in." R. D. Laing.  "The majority of men are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and are not accessible to reason, but only to authority."  "A pessimist is an oponist in full possession of the facts." Arthur Schopenhauer.  "Civilization is a helpless race to discover remedies for the evil it produces."  George  Wilhelm Friederich Hegel.                                                                                 Fierce knocking on my door. An unknown religiously dressed woman asked me to help a cat that got hit by a car, an emergency, the cat screaming with pain. I went to have a look, further down the road than I expected. There was some blood seeping out of the mouth, couldn't discover more injuries at first sight, but obviously lots of pain. Not sure whether any bones were broken, so I tried to place the poor feral victum as gentle as possible into my transport box. A young man and two ladies went with me to catch a taxi. It was Friday afternoon, couldn't reach my vet, tried 3 times in vain, we therefore travelled to a nearby veterinarian clinic. Their diagnosis : The cat is under shock, traumatised, concussion, tongue and mouth injured, his eye pupils (1 big, 1 small) in addition show there is something wrong with the poor treasure. Bones probably not broken, needs to be examined at a later stage. The cat received infusion with various medications and I was told I could take him home after 2 hours and than return the next day. I decided that it would be less stress for the poor darling to stay over night, and after consecutive treatments the next morning be taken to his "nursing home." I wasn't sure how my crowd of foster ferals would react to the new patient. Since the black beauty (male, approx. 3 years old) wasn't fit to leave the transport box, the introduction was a bit easier. Next problem feeding with a syringe, due to the injuries, and medication (3 different types of tablets, including pain killing pills, plus antibiotics), I was lucky the boy is gentle, no aggressions against me, thank heavens. I named him Jimmy. Meanwhile 3 people inquired about Jimmy's well being, speaks for them. The young man, who went with us to the clinic, by the way, paid the taxi fare. Still, I hope the word doesn't spred that I deal with the cost for injured street cats (I definitely can't). The veterinarian said they at least receive one cat a day hit by a car or motorcycle. Don't I know it!!! Speeding is around here unfortunately a big hobby of the folks, not just youngsters. Jimmy is slowly getting better, still a bit wobbly while walking. Thank heavens, nothing broken, but the neck was also effected by the crash (not visible, just sore). Further improvement of Jimmy's condition. He manages to eat croquettes meanwhile and simply loves his pieces of cats' sausage, even asks for a second helping. Only medication now is Tetra B for a month. Sweetie, a kitten young kids brought to me, after it nearly got hit by a car, has been with us for several weeks. Looks like she decided not to grow. After all, she's the only Baby in my house. May be she sees a certain advantage in this. The children were very persistent that she needs to be protected and they wanted to know her new name. I appreciated their empathy. Perl, a regular visitor to my Cat's Table, Persian blood, lost one eye due to an unknown cause. In addition she now also lost a tooth or 2, bleeding from her mouth. I tried to clean and treat her mouth with the blue stuff veterinarians prescribed for gum infections, mixed a pill against pain under her food and gave her antibiotics left over from Jimmy's treatment. . She remained very gentle, no aggression, better than some of my foster ferals indoors. She appears to be getting better, 2 days later. - The new "Emporer", Donald Trump, has big plans to reshape the world, supported by Dollar Billionars. Stopping the war (not just a cease fire) in Palestine and Ukraine has yet to happen. "Every idiot can start a war, but it takes hundreds of geniuses to end a war." Wise words of a former Russian president. Anyhow, Mr. Trump decided that the WestBank belongs to Israel and this is "God's will", biblical dominion. I thought that the Pope is supposed to be God's deputy on earth (at least according to Christian believe) , it will be interesting to hear what the Pope has got to say about this subject. At present the violence of Israelian settlers into the WestBank is escalating, more than 750,000 are - corresponding to international laws - living illegally on occupied land. Against some violent settlers the former US government (and several other countries)  imposed sanctions. Mr. Trump now lifted those of the US. The UN humanitarian official, Tom Fletcher, advised that up to 1 million children in Gaza are in need of mental health support. In view of what they have experienced and seen, what no innocent child should be subjected to, nearly 15 months of bombardements, parents that can't protect them, their homes reduced to rubbles, nothing to look forward to, their anxiety, depression and even suicidal thoughts are hardly surprising. Oh Lord, have mercy. - The population of the United States once all arrived as immigrants, in several waves, the First Nation (Indians) came from India, people from West Africa were probably the first who discovered America, much later mainly Europeans came (majority driven by famine or religious prosecutions). The Trumps originate from Germany, but Germans are not proud of them and Mr. Trump is aware of this. Strange, this urge to deport (illegal) immigrants. Effected by Trump's deportation orders are approx. 11 Million people, about 41 % work in 3 sectors: agriculture, building trade and health service. Deporting them not only reduces human resources in US but also largely increases costs and prices, creates suddden vacancies of unattractive badly paid jobs. It will be interesting to see how folks who applauded " the biggest scale of deportation the US has ever seen", will react once they realize the consequences. Manipulation of public opinion has never been as easy as nowadays, thanks to social media, more or less smart fake news and artificial intelligence. What goes around comes around. Heavens help us all. 

Siames beauty, once the most expensive cat in the world and only the Royal family in Siam was allowed to have her. 

Expect the Best but prepare for the Worst

 "Insanity  a perfectly rational adjustment to an insane world." "The range of what we  think and do is limited to what we fail to notice."  R. D. Laing.   "The first person who, having enclosed a plot of land, took it into his head to say this is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the true founder of civil society. What crimes, wars, murder, what miseries, and horrors would the human race have been spared, had someone pulled out the stakes or filled the ditch and cried out to his fellow men: "Do not listen to this imposter. You are lost if you forget that the fruits of the earth belong to all, and the earth to no one."  Rousseau.  "We can make our hell out of the people around us." Jean Paul Satre.                                                                                                                                       Kids from the neighborhood required "first aid", no, not Betadine and plaster but sweets. Well, they did make it sound like an emergency. One young lady brought me a handful of croquettes for the ferals, a pleasant surprise. Returning from the veterinarian with my lovely, gentle Nikola (urinary problems and stones starting to develop), a neighbour passing by greeted me with his thumb up. Folks occasionally do this and I am happy to see they share my believe that cats deserve good care. The new year is starting off well with daily household waste collection, much appreciated. Recently President Said made it clear that he wants to see clean streets and won't tolerate household waste piling up on roads. Raising coffee prices due to a bad harvest in Brasilia and other countries. Kenya and Uganda are the only countries with a twice yearly harvest of coffee beans. EU refused to make an advanced payment to these countries, so China bought the whole lot. One can at least hope for the second harvest. Perhaps we should try "Africa first."  The fees for medical consultation are going up wef. 01.01.2025, general practitioner 40 to 55 Dinar, specialist 55 to 80 Dinar (most of the later used to charge 70). The amount is about the same as in Germany (paid by the obligatory Health Insurance System) though, covering there a 3 months period, independent of how often a patient arrives during that time. Anyhow, folks who cannot afford to pay 80 Dinars for a specialist (plus possible extra costs, e. g. for injections) will just consult the pharmacy, not without risks. With a bit of luck the pharmacist is a qualified doctor. Several say they have enough problems already paying for their medication. CNAM (national health insurance organization) could be an alternative, but unfortunately mainly in theory. Waiting quite a while for a partly refund of a larger amound, I finally received just about the sum I had paid for the taxi. Don't expect much so that you won't get disappointed. Hopefully veterinarians won't decide to also raise their consulation fees.  Animals already suffer sufficiently because quite a few owners prefer to spend their money on essentials like cigarettes. A lady told me that I've got cats' eyes (well, not exactly the shining bright shade of blue famous for the Siamese). Some say pets and those who adopt them tend to resemble each other. With the cold nights some of my visitors to my Cats' Table arrive a bit later than usual. As long as all my feral friends are okay, I am happy. I have 3 beautiful new guests who obviously either still do or did until recently live in a house. They are gentle and enjoy cuddling. One lovely cat with Persian blood sadly has lost an eye, could be a reason for kicking him out, poor little darling. Still no sign of my one-eyed, 3 coloured, gorgeous, gentle, treasure Myriam. I fear she's no longer in the land of the living. I miss her. -  "No justification for Israelian continued attacks on Gaza." President Macron advised. The World Food Programm convoy was recently attacked, shoots fired at them (even though clearly marked trucks), their aid donations for Gaza robbed. Meanwhile at least 1,054 health workers have been killed. 16 of 36 hospitals are partly still working in Gaza, none in the North, 815 Mosques are destroyed, 150 damaged, 19 cemetries destroyed, 3 churches also (one dating back to the Middle Ages). Joe Bidden decided to send 8 Billion Dollar worth weapons to support Israelian " self defence." The Hind Rajab Foundation (based in Europe), named after an 8 year old, killed Palestian girl, tries to pursue legal cases abroad (e.g. in Brasil and Chile) against Israelian soldiers for war crimes. Proof of such is often produced by videos that the soldiers made and posted themselves. - Donald Trump declared that he wants to take over Greenland, the Panama Canal and Canada. Just dreaming or real threat of US Colonial actions? Greenland actually belongs to Denmark. Should he use military force, which Trump didn't rule out as "US needs Greenland for Security reasons" (experts suspect he is after the resources, in Greenland presently protected by their environmental laws), this could well mean war with NATO. At the same time war with Panama? Trump's offer for Canada is to become the 51st state of US, no import tax, a better life.... None of those countries concerned feel amused. In addition Trump, seemingly considering international laws as non-binding, suggested to change the name "Golf of Mexico" to American Golf. Claudia Sheinbaum, president of Mexico, replied: "Why not change the name of US to Mexican America....." (part of the US actually used to belong to Mexico. So when folks from Mexico try to cross the border, I always wonder whether they as a matter of fact are trying to visit old Mexico.........).