If only politicians could thus be tamed...

Thanks to Mark Forrester for the inspiration.

Stop This War Now! Lebanon, Cairo, Revisited...

I've just found this important message in my e-mail.

In 1993, he was the Director of the Israeli Academic Center in Cairo, Egypt. I was researching for my "Noffey Haneffesh" - encounters with international women writers telling the story of Childhood Emotional and Spiritual Landscapes.

For a full week he put his entire staff at my assistance, in in our endeavors to meet with Egyptian women writers. A most warm, special person.
Here come his words of wisdom, uttered almost two weeks ago.

Our politicians choose to cover their ears and sadly enough, are able, as so often in history, to delude a majority of fools scared into blind submission.



End this War Now

To: Every Concerned Person
From: Emanuel Marx

Armies are trained to destroy enemies and conquer their territory. An army that runs out of control will find and fight more and more external and internal enemies, always in pursuit of an elusive victory.

That has happened to the Israeli Army on several occasions. Whenever it was allowed free rein, its campaigns ended in humanitarian disasters. Just now we are witnessing another instance: while the campaign against the Hizballah terrorist organization did not save the Israeli civilian population from rocket attacks, it rapidly turned into an assault on the Lebanese civilian population. Within days it deteriorated into a humanitarian catastrophe. Half a million innocent Lebanese civilians lost their homes and became refugees.

The Israeli Government must reassume control of the Army and stop the fighting immediately. Negotiations will surely achieve better outcomes.

July 21, 2006

(Emanuel Marx is a professor of Social Anthropology at Tel Aviv University.
He is a jubilee year (1998) Israel Prize laureate.)

Lebanon and the Anthem: The Cult of Glory

Yet Charity is blissfully present - which gives way to hope.
Or is it the reason the Cult of Martyrdom seeks to overcome the Cult of Charity?
My heart goes to the people of Lebanon. Like us, like all people on this anguished Earth, they deserve a sane life.

All for the country, for the glory, for the flag
From the beginning of centuries, our pencil and sword
Our field and mountains are making the men
Our word and work on the way of perfection
All for the country, for the glory for the flag

Young and old at the voice of the country
Lions of forest at the time of violation
Our east is its heart forever Lebanon
Its God protects it all over the time
All for the country, for the glory for the flag

Its sea, its land, are the pearl of the two orients
Its symbol, its charity, fill up the two poles
Its name is its triumph since the time of our grandfathers
Its glory is its cedars, its symbol is for the end of epochs
All for the country, for the glory for the flag

Iran: The Cult Of Martyrdom is our Doom

The Flag and the Anthem, the words and the image, all directed to move our senses toward the prevailing mottif: You are but a tool in the hands of The-Power-Driven, who swirl your heart into the false, manipulating message:

Martyrdom Is Bliss. Life Is Hell.

Hence, to prove it they'll do everything in their power to create this hell on Earth - for you:


Three equal horizontal bands of green (top), white, and red; the national emblem (a stylized representation of the word Allah in the shape of a tulip, a symbol of martyrdom) in red is centered in the white band; ALLAH AKBAR (God is Great) in white

Arabic script is repeated 11 times along the bottom edge of the green band and 11 times along the top edge of the red band:



Upwards on the horizon rises the Eastern Sun,
The sight of the true Religion.
Bahman - the brilliance of our Faith.
Your message, O Imam, of independence and freedom
is imprinted on our souls.
O Martyrs! The time of your cries of pain rings in our ears.
Enduring, continuing, eternal,
The Islamic Republic of Iran.

War, Israel, Lebanon, Hizballa, The Other Side of the Moon?

Oh, how tired I am, and not just owing to the late hour - past 01:00!
Reading through Raja's report from Beirut and the multitude of comments brought me to see behind the clouds of war and all the Hizballa mighty presentations of innocent patriotism: there is an intention there, so I detect, to create an atmosphere of despair and, wait and see! soon we'll have demonstrations of calls to Syria to drop by and save Lebanon from its weak goverment.

Yet, since we are not just on the same moon but actually mirroring each other - I fear the day such a call will spread here, to bring about a strong leader.

Meanwhile our civilian Ministers, play hostages to our generals.

All in all, the boys games go on ad infinitum.

Or until we step in and stop them for awhile.

Raise the Black Flag, people. Let's have some rest of all these stupid games of war.

Thanking Laila

Thanks, Laila for your words.
Unlike some of the commentors, your dignified attitude is quite touching.

I'm back home from a few hours of holiday gift shopping. All along I was thinking, with a trembling heart, here we are and there they are, so close by and yet all this aimless suffering. There is no justification for all those power fights, bringing disaster on the innocents in an endless circle of mindless cruelty.

Thank you for being.

In Hebrew Laila means, Night. So persistent is the feeling that Night itself closes upon us. Yet your words, paradoxically, point to the opposite, give hope, crossing above walls of concrete and fire. I have close friends on the other side of the wall, in farms and kibutzim, mothers trembling for their own innocent babies.

It's time for us to get up and issue an order to those leaders playing ping-pong with our lives: Stop all power games. Enough is enough.

Take Note, Chopin, Shubert, Sharon,

When concerts are free and people are less than free:

Piano against the Wall
report by Beate Zilversmidt
just received in the mail from Gush Shalom


The idea of "a protest recital" by pianist Jacob Allegro Wegloop on one of the Friday happenings in Bil'in came about in August, in an Amsterdam cafe: "I would gladly come and offer my music to Palestinians as an expression of my sympathy."
There happened to be already a piano in Bil'in. It had just been donated by the Pollak family. Without it, the whole idea may have evaporated. And Zamir Barlev - activist & piano tuner -had been so kind as to come on Thursday and repair some broken keys.

Friday Sept. 16, a minibus arrived in Bil'in already before dawn. It had been decided to go to the West Bank village straight from the airport - as to arrive before the army would close the access roads - as has become its new practice on Fridays. Gush Shalom had hired a van for the occasion, and Uri Avnery was there, too.

The ground floor of the Abu-Rahme house has been transformed into a kind of youth hostel, with matrasses spread out, and a self service kitchen corner. Apart from the more permanent internationals, it hosts every week a group of Israeli activists who come on Thursday in order to be in Bil'in at the weekly event.

"It's nice to be woken up by piano music, and not by the army megaphone imposing a curfew" said one the guests.

From where all the kids came was not clear, but they surrounded the miracle - the piano had been moved meanwhile into the front guarden. And when Allegro could not decipher the handscribbled notes of the Palestinian anthem - given to him at the spot to be added to the repertoire - the children sang it for him enthusiastically.

Jacob Allegro played and played - melodious pieces of Schubert, and some Chopin - as to force the somewhat stubborn instrument to open itself up. "What is your message" was a question asked by different interviewers who started to appear: "Sympathy for the suffering." "You are a Jew, a holocaust orphan" -- "That did not make me blind to the injustice done to others." "What do you say to the building of the Wall right through the middle of our lands?" "It's a shame! A big shame."

It's not easy to say where the preparations stopped and the concert began. Several times the crowd of the front guarden ran to the street at rumours of army patrols arriving. But the invasion of this day was of TV crews: several Palestinian stations, Al-Jazeera, Reuters, Egyptian TV , the Israeli Second Channel, etc. They had all been invited by Mohamed al-Khatib of the Bil'in Popular Committee to come at 10.30am and shoot pictures inside the village, as it was expected that the army would be far from helpful when a truck, and on it a piano, would arrive to the site where the wall is being prepared.

On Israeli TV the scene appeared after all not on Channel-2, but on the respectable first channel, using Reuters material. It was one more amazing report from Bil'in, from people who now already for months capture the headlines with their imaginative, non-violent ways of protest, undeterred by army violence.

There is still much struggle ahead; there is an appeal on the way to the Supreme Court, which this week created a precedent not without hope in the Qalqilya region. But one achievement already stands and is visible from the faces: this struggle, and the support shown for it is strengening the people in Bil'in in times where one either becomes stronger or sinks down.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was not there in person, only in spirit, yet I'm gladdened.
I admire those courageous people:
Their gestures tell me that the world is not empty of humanitarian support.

Yet a world in which it takes courage to attend a peacefull, non violent rally, is not a good place.

Oh, my beloved country and region, Wake up.
Enough is Enough.

Is it Hurricane Symbol, or Just a Shadow?

Do you remember 13 September 1993?
The day The Oslo Accords were officially signed in Washington DC before our mostly thankful.
Twelve years to the day.

Today, the very politicians who had denounced and stomped upon it - its very fierce opponents - have now led the exodus from Gaza.

Still every drama has a farce. Bathos is following in the footsteps of Pathos.
True to life Shakespeare was.

After the demolition of all the settlers' houses, at the very end were left the synagogues.

Time after time there were appeals to the court to leave them intact.
The State solemnly explained to the High Court of Justice that it is out of question.
The judges left the final decision to the government.

Overnight, at the last minute, on the eve of the final withdrawal, the Minister of Security, Mr. Mofaz, solemnly changed his mind.

Overnight, Sharon and all his Ministers except two, have changed their mind.

What happened?

The Head Rabbis decreed the synagogues are to be left intact.

A very good decision: Now, not one of the politicians fearing the approaching elections will be held responsible.

So what if the Palestinian had refused again and again to take responsibility?
Their hooligans will burn our synagogues?
Ours might burn their mosque of mosques.
So easy, so simple to incite the mother of all wars.

Here we are with those buildings: What for one is a holy symbol of Jewish suffering throughout generations - for the other is the leftover symbol of the sufferings of occupation.

That's what happens when symbols turn sour and become taboos.

This disengagement was planned ahead for two years. There was plenty of time to think ahead.

Ours is The Only Democratic Country, led by nose by Chief Rabbis, and a complying government with a straight face.

From now on, In Fear We Trust.

The Downfall: Der Untergang

Coming out from among the Berlin ruins to the luxury of a high scale mall in Tel-Aviv - only then composure sheds and pain pushes tears to my eyes.

The memory of the days in the shelter, the exit to the light and the sight of the saviors. All of a sudden our enemies are waving and throwing flowers at the Russian army.

"The Downfall." In Hebrew, "Hanefilla". Yet from the same root we have the "Han'fillim" - the huge immortals visiting us as they have fallen from above.

The Nazis aspired to be seen as N'fillim. They forced their way into so easily addicted minds of millions. Fallen they had, yet the seeds of and evil and mass induction are sprouting everywhere, as they themselves have been sprouted from earlier seeds.

As long as there is on the face of this planet even one single soul willing to sell itself to blind obedience, to regard Obedience as the Basic Law, above all human rights, as long as Obedience is not unmasked for what it is, the obliteration of the human spirit - then Tyranny will keep visiting us under its modern disguises.

As I walked among the well dressed people, passing past shops and huge modern buildings, a clearly named shiver groped my heart.

But tomorrow I'll be speaking at the Activism Festival, so here is something to look forward to - a glimpse of light.

When do you realize something was lacking?

Mostly, when it re-appears.
For instance, in Spring, when you organize your cupboard and move up the winter clothes - and there all of a sudden you see a long forgotten blouse, a letter, a hundred shekel bill.

What I'm finding nowadays, and has been long forgotten, is the re-appearance of Smiles.
It has taken only a few quiet months to bring those back to people's faces.

Like today, on the bus, the driver was asking people to get off at the rear door.

A senior lady rings the bell and comes to exit at the quite narrow front door.
The driver says, "Why from here, why not from the rear door?"
The lady answers, nonchalantly:
"So I could say Shalom (good-by) to you."

The driver and all of us laugh heartily. She gets off and leaves us her gift of smiles and good humour.

It took only a few months of quiet. Driver and passengers are no more tense with suppressed worry, Will we arrive home in one piece?

Sanity should be the norm. Is it now, can we be indeed content?
No.

As long as on the other side of this horrible Wall, a million and a half people of all ages are brought to lead insufferable anguish - we are still on the mouth of a volcano which might and will erupt upon us.

Our Spartan generals want us believe there is no option but endless war.
Can we overcome this brainwashing and build here a Culture of Peace and Equality for all and each human being?

I'll rather smile with a clean conscience.

On Gratitude

I love this medium - so much in apposition to my, mostly lyrical, prose. Direct, immediate, keeps me in touch with the outward world. Enables me in Commentary and Satire to react right away to the daily political and social upheaval and have an immediate impact on my community, instead of boiling inside helplessly.

People write to ask, "Do mention my work at your blog."

I say, Take the fishing rod. Start a blog of your own. The technique is as simple as a.b.c. The content makes all the difference. As long as you have something meaningful to say.

Most of the time they do open their own blogs.
Most of the time, most of them remember to express their thanks, online, and with a link to this blog, or to the Hebrew one, entitled: "Writer, Publisher, Trouble Maker".

To-day I had for lunch an impressive young lady. She's organizing my meetings with readers. The upcoming one is scheduled at the Festival of Activism (site in Hebrew), this coming Friday at 13:00.

Israel is brimming with people active in building a culture of peace. I feel grateful.

Still, the question nags, especially at this late hour: Do we stand a chance?

What a nice day was yesterday

And what made it so nice?

A tentatively new Flower Market. In a central garden in town, Flower Growers from around the country exhibited and sold their flowers and even some plants, at low prices. For a few weeks, on Fridays. I went there yesterday for the first time.

The garden was full of smiles, people of all ages, flowers with their multitude arrays of colors, and full of smiles was, still, the sun.
It seems that we are like people out of shelters, happy and grateful for the small joys of life. Or are we like the dancers on the Titanic?

Ayalon, the Army departing Commander in Chief, has some grim message for us.
To sum it all up in one sentence: "It's not Us, It's Them - we carry no responsibility."

Let's hope he'll never be a Prime Minister here.
One Ariel Sharon is more than enough, as far as I am concerned.

Concerned I am, indeed.

How To Turn The World Upside Down

A. Now: Olive Trees

I should have known.
I didn't know.
I have not seen.
I didn't hear.
I stayed silent.

Here and there I saw large signs
No nursery name mentioned, no address provided - just a mobile phone number.

Olive trees seem to be multiplying, in the boulevard opposite my place and right throughout the city. They are almost like the papaya trees: it is enough to toss the seeds on the ground and they grow all by themselves.

I got to the "Kibush" web site and it was almost like a movie. The turning over [1] of olive trees. They get turned over and turned over and then they get transported to some place, by the authority of so and so, with not-so-anonymous people turning a blind eye.

Journalist Meron Rapoport (now at Haaretz) had his investigative feature on the subject published at the Yedioth Ahronoth daily back in January 2002.
He won a prize for it.
Not in Tel-Aviv. In Italy.

You can't love all the people all of the time.
But trees - how can you not love them, all of them and all of the time?
There are greater lovers than me. Their love breeds blindness.

I wrote in my Hebrew blog at the "Notes" web site:
"Let's see you, Agatha [Christie], solving my cryptic riddle."

Answers started arriving from far-flung places like the Technion in Haifa, a mansion in mighty Savion [2], a boulevard in Ramat Hasharon, town squares and village squares, rural communities and kibbutzim.
It's spread like cancer.
I had a second go: "Agatha Christie is not silent."
Then I had a third go:
"An interim report: the Truth Situation.
Along with explanations and clarification in response to readers' comments.

Eclipse.

Here and there someone wrote about the supply of olive trees; their point of origin.
People tsk-tsked about the heartless uprooters and oppressors. So distant from us. So much not like us. What are you on about, Corinna?

Who we forgot along the way? Who should we not avoid considering? Who should we raise hell about, till they blush?

We have to keep going till "An ancient olive tree" will no longer be a expensive fashion statement that dropped like a tendril into our lap, out of nowhere. It has to be acknowledged as to what it has really become: a symbol of blind or feigned innocent collaboration with an evil deed.

B. The First Victory

Strom Thurmond was a leading opponent of desegregation between Blacks and whites in the United States. Even though he was a member of the Democratic Party (sounds familiar) he stood against Harry Truman and won only in the southern states (such were the Democrats there). He lost but didn't give up. In 1956 he initiated and wrote the Southern Manifesto opposing the Supreme Court's ruling for the abolition of segregation. He topped it all and excelled himself in a filibuster of non-stop 24 hours and 18 minutes speech against the USA civil rights legislation in 1957.

Obviously, he never made it to be President. He did make it to his own hundredth birthday party, on December 2002.
On that occassion, Mr Trent Lott, then Senate Majority Leader, raised his glass in admiration: "I want to say this about my state [Mississippi]: When Strom Thurmond ran for president we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had of followed our lead we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either."

A statement praising racism made by the Senate majority leader 45 years after equality of citizens was enshrined in law.
You would have expected a political storm.
It was mentioned as a two-second, light-hearted, item on the news.

By 2002 there were nearly a million bloggers in the United States. One after another the bloggers grabbed the story and didn't let go. The whole thing spread like a bushfire in the blogosphere.

Journalists read blogs. They had no choice but to invite the honourable Trent Lott to the TV and radio studios and ask him the inevitable questions.
He apologised more than once.
It didn't do him any good. He had to resign.

Then a loud voice was heard from the forty corners of the blogosphere. Yes!
And I, who was watching from the sidelines, said to myself: when can We do this here in Israel, when?

C. Hear this word [3], oh nation of bloggers and readers in this holy land:

There is one of me and many of you.
Arise you people from your slumbers! [4]
Go write in your blogs.
Raise hell, write to your city and shire mayors.
Call on your neighbours and on the mansion owners.
Ask them: where is this tree from?

Have you checked the wandering path that it traversed to get to your garden or boulevard?

If you find out that it is indeed stolen, would you be willing to return it to its owners, as you should by law?

Go and check: Is there a brave editor who would publish interviews with Savion residents who are paying 25,000 shekels for "a truly ancient tree"?
Go find out how far are newspapers and TV channels willing to disengage themselves from the wrath of the rich and powerful.
More than 100,000 olive trees have been uprooted and stolen from the Occupied Territories.
In the Savion mansion and at our town boulevards, the olive tree is a brand name - an instrument for displaying a pretend authentic Novo-Israeliness.
For the Palestinian olive grove owner, the tree is his/her life and soul.
Sad is the matchstick. [5]



"Ancient olive tree for sale."

Translated by Sol Salbe from the original Hebrew;
Translator notes:
[1] The word can also mean a revolution in Hebrew.
[2] Savion is just about the most prestigious address in the whole of Israel.
[3] Hear this word, ye king of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink. (Amos 4,1)
[4] "Arise you workers from your slumbers..."(The Internationale).
[5] "How fortunate is the matchstick which flared up a fire..." famous poem by Hungarian-born 2nd WW Jewish heroine, Hannah Senes, symbolizing selfless courage.

There is a BlogRunner in your cup!

Blogrunners collects and links to blogposts on specific themes and even from NYTimes.

I'm game, so I went to NYTimes to see what they have to say today and was astonished to find out that their main concern is not the Middle East, neither the Disengagement from Gaza, nor the growing poverty here and not even the last gem of this or that rabbi now submerged in politics.

They are still relating to Pope Benedict XVI, known before his anointing as Cardinal Ratzinger.

An interesting article, with some astounding revelations, which made me once again realize why I could have never become Catholic:

"Once, about 10 years ago when I was visiting him in Rome, he told me, 'I have my personal sense of freedom, my sympathy for freedom. I have to keep it to myself. I have to obey the pope. The pope told me that it is my biggest religious obligation not to have my own opinions.'

"Ratzinger told me this after I hadn't seen him in a long time and he felt the need to explain to me why he is so strict," Professor Seckler continued..."

"Kill" me, but my biggest religious obligation was/is/will eternally remain, to have my own opinion.

So, sadly, I had to give up on Catholicism. Or, for that matter, any institutionalized religion whatsoever.

International Action Alert and The Greatest Enigma

I've just received in the mail this disturbing message from Gush Shalom.
It touches me in person, as I well remember the time when Rumanian soldiers presented my mother with a similar letter back in 1943.

I well know that some people, instead of confronting the issue at hand, will jump to evade it with: "Do you compare to the Holocaust?"
No, I do not compare to the Holocaust. Does it translate into belittling suffering which does not reach the Holocaust magnitude?
No, and never.

Does it, should it translate into sensitivity to The Other's anguish?
Yes, and always.

In my eyes, the greatest enigma remains: Why have we come to be divided into two groups - the ones who close their eyes and hearts and go forth unheeded and the ones who wish all those deeds done in our name were just a nightmare, and then wake up, frustrated, to send another e-mail, like passing on a glimmer of hope that none of us is ever alone.

Sharon and the Amazones

A group of Likud Ministers and Knesset members, nicknamed "the rebels", are threatening to vote down the proposed budget, which might bring down the government and at least postpone the "Disengagement" - the army withdrawal from the Gaza strip and the evacuation of settlements from the Gaza strip.

Never mind. Sharon had a solution:
Acknowledging Women's immense capacity to influence men, on March 8, The International Women's Day - a day to celebrate Equality - our mighty PM came to speak to a gathering of the only Israeli real women - Likud women activists.

Facing the only important section of our world, at the Amazones conference, he states that women's place is not equal to that of men but much higher, high above of even plain Knesset members and simple Ministers:

Women, at least in the Herculikud - and how have you not noticed this until now - women are those who dictate to men for what to vote.

New Times, 2005 splendor.

See for yourselves: If women won't be behind men, but, God forbid, Knesset members and Ministers - they'll lose their power for nothing.

There'll be no one left to influence.

You girls know exactly what he has in mind.
Don't tell me Hercules does not read Greek. What, at his native Mallal village they did not teach the Amazones story?
At least part of this word*** was in use in the Army (In Hebrew the plural is Amazonot; for the rest, see the dictionary).

Pay attention, you mighty Herculikud Women:
By all means, the Budget must not be voted down!
The men rebel against their king?
You must rebel against men!

Put on Brave Hyppolita's belt and sing out loud and clear:
Bring the Budget! Bring power and hunger - or you'll see soon some disengagement! Day and Night there will be no one to influence you!Well said, Hercules?
Where is he?

Shhh! He's counting eyes, on the knitting needle.
Who gave him wool, who?
He dismantled the old woman's sweater, the one in the hospital's corridor.
Oh. What's going to come upon her?
Shrouds.
Rightly so. Who could she influence anyway?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
read it in Russian;

Duet: Sharon and Abu Mazen

(Standing at the two corners of the stage, while tearing one by one petals of red carnations):

"I'm very tired to-day, what with all this hand-shaking, and more handshaking - to the last photographer and cameraperson. My hand has grown soft and delicate from being that unused.

"Now, does he really mean it, or is it again another game, to gain time for another not-surprising surprise?

"Am I going to get killed, Rabin style?"

"What's the name of that Egyptian who started all this commotion. Hah, Saadat. Yes. They shot him. That was not a nice thing to do.
Well, he was skinny.

The very irony: they did not want Rabin and got their own Sharon forced to perform his job - same Sharon who prior to the assasination was so heated and heating. Now the whole world can see that the guy was just upset for not being invited to the regal Nobel Prize dinner."

"Ha-Ha, laughs who laughs last: and who was Not invited to the sumptuous Sharem summit dinner?
little peres.
I left him in Tel-Aviv with his Nobel diploma."

(turning to each other, hands outstreched):

"Shall We Dance?"


read it in Farsi;

Naive Questions, God-knows-why

I've been wondering lately:



Is the Titan planet in the same state Planet Earth was some one hundred and forty bilion years ago?



Is Titan The New World we'll turn our face to from now on, some of us in terror, some in hope?



Is it going to become - like The New World who beat no bush while hastening to tour with its army in our neighborhood - the criminals' deportation location, the place to transfer over there stubborn nations, or leaders who've lost favor, who've done one wrong too much, who've committed crimes against humanity?



Shall we dare send over there world hugging-to-suffocate industrialists?



Or is there a danger lurking in the invisible future- that ages later they'll lash back to punish us here?



Should we set out for a seven-years exodus, escorted by angels and getting there - proceed to build a strong wall of defense?



Even there?



How should we act so to avoid transferring or, even better, avoid keeping here even one single Trojan virus?



read it in Farsi;in Russian;

On Trolls, Re-visited

A new blogger has recently joined the Hebrew site "Reshimot" ("Notes") - where I happen to publish my posts in Hebrew. We are a group of some 80 independent bloggers.



Sure enough, the trolls made their appearance.



As a veteran blogger, I wrote her with some words of comfort and advise. The following is my last letter:



Everybody gets visited by trolls, they are not that choosy.

You do not see them at my blog because I erase them as fast as possible.

People know that if they leave an enlightening and to the point comment, it will not get smeared by trash or drowned in it.



Trolls get where there is a crack in the door. When they are kicked out they try the window (like commenting on you at someone's else "Reshimot" blog. When it happens at mine, I erase them on the spot, as common courtesy demands.)



Trolls are especially attracted by the new blogger. Some of them have tried to get a blog at Reshimot and were refused - so they have good reasons to try destroy the site.



People are violent in Israel at a growing rate and in growing numbers.

This is another good reason for me to keep my blog clean of violence and so build my own model of rational, benign, friendly communication.



After all, we are the majority, why let the few take over?

Tsunami vs. Mechanics

1.

"...Thousands of lives in countries such as Sri Lanka, India and Thailand could have been saved if an early warning system similar to one that exists for the Pacific Ocean had been in place. U.S.A. Officials said that they wanted to warn the countries but that there was no mechanism to do so..."

Maybe there was too much mechanism, too little humanism?



It's December 2004, mind you. CNN is open at all the hotels worldwide. You have TV, the internet, cellular phones, radio - an endless list of communication means.



Has even one of them been employed?



Who are the anonymous "Officials"? How could they have gone on about their lives and work, knowing well that a disaster is about to hit and doing, What?



Save me from the Officials.



2.

Who are those anonymous Officials?

Their heads we know. Loudly and shamelessly they refuse to sign the international accords meant to minimize - not obstruct entirely, just minimize the pollution endangering our Planet.



We know now well that the warming is man made, we know that mechanism.

Time is running yet Bush & Co. Are playing mechanism games.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) -- U.N. talks on climate change ended early Saturday with few steps forward as the United States, oil producers and developing giants slammed the brakes on the European Union's drive for deeper emissions cuts to stop global warming.

Oh dear accomplished Humanity, where are your bicycles?



read it in Hungarian; in Hebrew;