The Worst Zoos I Have Been To: part 2

A medium sized zoo in Guilin, China is one of the worst zoos that I have been to. All of the animals are kept in small cages even the big pandas.
The scariest thing for me was that there were no guards to take care of the animals in case of emergency. And the visitors were feeding the animals all kind of food. There were no safety measurements for the visitors and for the animals.

A loose monkey who wandered the zoo and no guard was watching to make sure the monkey won’t attack any kids.

Even the goats were kept in small place.

I was sick that day and couldn’t stay long in that sad zoo, so I couldn’t take a lot of photos.
I truly wish that the zoo take better care of the animals.

The Worst Zoos I Have Been To. Part 1

I come from a family that respects animals. I grew up hearing stories about my grandfather and how he saved a horse from getting beaten by its owner. The story goes like this: a long time ago in the early 50s my grandfather was standing in his shop and saw a weak horse moving a big wagon and the owner was whipping the horse to keep moving.

The poor horse fell down. My grandfather couldn’t see that and stand still, and he fought with the owner. “If you’re that nice to the animals, why don’t you move the wagon and help the horse?” the owner said.

My grandfather, who was big and healthy, did it. He put the ropes around his arms and dragged the wagon all by himself for a few blocks. He did that to let the horse rest; he endured pain to relieve the poor animal from pain.

My love for animals made me hate zoos. I don’t like seeing animals in cages, especially small cages. However, I believe animals feel happy when they meet visitors who really love them. Yes, animals have feelings and they know happiness and sadness. And that is the reason why I go to zoos.
I’ve been to good and bad zoos, but the worst zoo I’ve been to is Crocodile Farm and Zoo Samutprakan in Thailand.

Elephants are in chain and their space was tiny

No safety measures in the hippo’s pool

3 lionesses in small cage

And a crocodile show

This zoo is one of the saddest zoos in the world.

Writing For the Animals and Writing Contest Entry

When I visited Thailand I felt I was in heaven. The beauty of nature there was breathtaking, and everything else there was beautiful except one thing. which broke my heart. I saw a lot of animal abuse going on there. I’m not talking about stray dogs and cats. I’m talking about elephants. Unfortunately, a lot of owners are abusing their elephants, chaining them, make them beg for food, beating them and making them work in rides. And, unfortunately, some of the government offices are letting that abuse continue.


I visited the elephant nature park where they rescue the abused elephants, and I saw the amazing work of people who want to save the animals and give them the lives they deserve. The Tourism Authority of Thailand Newsroom is having a contest about what inspired you the most in Thailand. Once I found out about this writing contest I knew right away what I want to write about. I wrote an article about the Elephant Nature Park. I had to take this opportunity to tell people how great the elephant park is and also to make the animals lovers’ voices heard.

Please read my article and hit like on the top left of the article, the link is below.
hearts for the elephants

Beartree Park In Cheonan Review

The park is kind of out of the city. It’s very beautiful and very green. Has a lot of good sculptures. However, it is one of the cruelest places for bears and deer. The park is big wide green space but they’re keeping the poor animals in a cage with concrete ground, 20 bears in the same small cage and the pools are small, dirty and shallow.



The deer cage wasn’t any better.


And the worst thing, there were bears cubs that were very young and were separated from their mothers. Unfortunately whoever designed the place thought only about making it pretty and didn’t think of the animals.

Kofta El-Haty

El-Haty means the kofta restaurant or a kofta’s cook. Usually people just go out to the haty to buy this kind of kofta. El-Haty cooks it on a big professional grill. However, you can cook it at home on the ordinary grill and it doesn’t take long. Also you can cook it in the oven.

Serves 2

Ingredients:
1- 500g of ground beef.
2- Teaspoon of salt.
3- Teaspoon of black pepper.
4- Teaspoon of chili powder.
5- Tablespoon of dried or fresh parsley.
6- Half teaspoon of cumin powder.
7- Skewer.
8- One onion, shredded and keep its water in a different bowl.


Preparations:
1- Bring a deep bowl and mix the beef and the shredded onion.
2- Add all of the spices and mix it very well.
3- Put the skewer in the onion water and make it wet.
4- Take a small piece of the beef and roll it on the skewer and make it long.
5- Softly withdrew the skewer and repeat this step until you finish all of the beef. This step is important so the heat can escape through the hole.
6- Keep it in the fridge for 1-2 hours.
7- Heat the grill and grill them.
It took around 20 minutes on the electric grill. Serve it with green salad, tahini sauce and rice if you like.

Yi Sun-Sin Festival

Asan city celebrate the birth of the great admiral Yi Sun-Sin who defeated the Japanese navy during the Imjin war in the Joseon dynasty. This year the festival is from April 26-28th which takes place in Onyang Oncheon area.


The admiral's house which became a museum.


The admiral's family tombs.


The pond.


Martial art performance in Onyang area.

The festival is ongoing until tomorrow so if you're near Asan city go and check it out.

FEMEN And Hypocrisy

As I read that article I felt anger and rage, FEMEN members acts were very offensive to me on so many levels. Ever since I started my travels in 2008 I’ve met a lot of racist people, they didn’t like talking to me because I’m Muslim, because I’m Egyptian and some of them didn’t like me because I’m a feminist.

The internet has tons of false information about Islam, Muslims and Arab countries, I’ve always told myself that I can’t change the hearts that filled with hatred, ignorance and racism. I wasn’t just offended because those women who call themselves feminist insulted my religion. A lot of people insult Islam every day and I think they should be ignored. The act of FEMEN members offended me as a woman and as a feminist and because they’re liars. They claimed that all of Muslim women, millions of women and every single woman who is wearing Hijab were forced to wear it. And women in Middle East are slaves and stupid and FEMEN should save them.

I chose to be Muslim , I lived 25 years in Egypt and no one ever forced me to wear Hijab, The men in my family have never abused me, they loved me and took good care of me, my family have never told me what to do. I went to schools in Cairo, I went to college in Cairo, I have a business administration degree from Cairo, and I’ve worked in Cairo in the public sector with men and everyone in my position men or women had the same salary, I’ve traveled to three countries solo, I’ve learned three languages in Cairo other than Arabic, I love my religion and I’ve never felt I’m less than the men in my family because I’m a woman, I love Egypt I don’t live in Egypt now because I met the love of my life while traveling in Korea, I stayed in Korea and we got married, I didn’t leave Egypt because I hate it or because I felt less any man there. FEMEN members believe women have the right to be naked but women don’t have the right to cover their hair or bodies. What hypocrites you are FEMEN members.

FEMEN protested to support the Tunisian activist Amina Tyler which is fine and I believe Amina has the right to protest with any mean she chooses and as for Islamists who want to punish her they just want media attention. To FEMEN members guess what you aren’t any better than those extreme Islamists they denied Amina’s right to do what she wants with her body and you are doing the same thing to millions of women who chose to wear Hijab. Yes there are some women who were forced to wear Hijab and there are some abusive men who happened to be Muslims and Arab. Abusive men are everywhere in the world not just in the Middle East.

FEMEN you are the worst group to speak of women’s right, if you really want to help Muslim women why don’t you start with protesting against the discrimination against Muslim women who wear Hijab in countries like America, France and other countries in Europe? Of course you won’t do that because you really don’t care about those women who have to fight every day for their right to choose to cover their head.

If you think I’m stupid because I’m a Muslim I would say you are racist and you don’t believe in the freedom you talk about, and if you say I’m a slave because I’m Muslim I would say you are slaves to your own ignorance.

This is the article.