Difference between revisions of "Blog/November 2008/Nov 14th"

Latest revision as of 15:58, 21 November 2008

November 14th (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

The election season is now behind us. The municipal elections in Israel were heatedly contested, and thankfully the assault of election literature and phone canvassers is over. I have a 100% accuracy record: no-one I voted for (neither in the US nor in Israel) won. Perhaps I should hire myself out as a prognosticator?

I'm doing better in the personal realm: my company (well, the company I work for) is in the news. This is the project I'm managing, and which is giving me enormous headaches. The main problem is that though we all speak English, we don't all seem to mean the same thing when we use the words. For example, I send an email to my Indian counterparts and ask later, "did you read the specification?" -- to which they answer, "yes, we did" (imagine an Indian accent there). Later on, when discussing requirements I find that not only did they not read the specification, but they didn't even open the document. GRRR!

In preparation for the local elections, the Jerusalem Post sponsored a "meet the candidates" forum (in English) here in Maaleh Adummim, which ended up being more entertaining and informative than I would ever have imagined. Of the seven "lists", four sent representatives and a fifth sent a person for only five minutes. We got to hear the lists' representatives answer questions of interest to locals, and we also got to hear the opposition candidate for mayor (the incumbent didn't show: despite the fact he "dissed" us, he got 75% of the vote. I guess we really weren't an important demographic for him). As the night wore on, we were witness to escalating rhetorical violence, which b"h didn't manifest itself in a physical manner. Who knew politics could be so exciting?

As we came into the room and took seats, a friend of mine sat next to me, and a friend of his next to him. I introduced myself to his friend, "Hi, I'm Ron Aaron". He said, "I'm Mr. Rogers". I thought he was being a smart-ass, so I asked him, "Oh, do you want to be my neighbor?". My poor wife, overhearing me, whispers to me, "No, his name is really Mr. Rogers". But I didn't get a chance to talk to him again after that -- maybe he won't talk to me now. Anyway, who says "I'm Mr. so-and-so" these days? Particularly in Israel!

One thing we weren't prepared for was the decidedly "low tech" election system. Votes are cast by placing a pre-printed slip of paper in an envelope, and placing that envelope inside a flimsy cardboard box (like one of the boxes you might get at Office Depot to store documents in). We both thought it couldn't be too hard to commit election fraud and get away with it.

Esther is volunteering at an ulpan for young kids who are new immigrants. She says she envies them their ease with acquiring Israeli accents (even if they don't know many words). Sarah is volunteering (as part of her schoolwork) with young kids in a different school, who are also recent immigrants. Both my ladies are finding it a much more challenging task than they had thought it would be.

We asked a gardener to give us a bid on how much it would be to clean up our "yard". There are climbing vines on the outside of the house which we want to remove, the trees need professional pruning and the ground needs to be cleaned up and prepared. There is more to be done, but we just wanted a quote for that. I expected it wouldn't be cheap, but I didn't expect 3500 NIS (about $1000)... not including tax (16%) or the dumpster. So I think I'll invest in some good quality gardening tools and for much less, take care of the mess myself. The only problem is one of time -- by the time I get home it's dark; but to save that much money I am willing to do the work myself.

Until next week,
Shabbat shalom!

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 {{blog}}
-{{bheader|November 7th|Devar/5769/Lech Lecha}}
+{{bheader|November 14th|Devar/5769/Vayera}}
 Hi again!
-Well, it's a '''black day''' for America.  (I've been waiting all week to say that - if you're offended, tough).  [http://www.theonion.com/content/video/obama_win_causes_obsessive?utm_source=embedded_video Obama's supporters] pulled it off after all.
+The election season is now behind us. The municipal elections in Israel were heatedly contested, and thankfully the assault of election literature and phone canvassers is over.  I have a 100% accuracy record: no-one I voted for (neither in the US nor in Israel) won.  Perhaps I should hire myself out as a prognosticator?
-It is my fondest wish that my numerous concerns about the new president-elect of the US, {{wiki2|Barack Obama|Barack Hussein Obama II}}, be nothing more than the fevered imaginings of my paranoid mind.  Unfortunately, given the facts, I fear that this presidency will be bad for America -- and disastrous for the Jews of America (and not so great for us Israelis either).
+I'm doing better in the personal realm: [http://classifeye.com/ my company] (well, the company I work for) is [http://www.centredaily.com/business/technology/story/951948.html in the news].  This is the project I'm managing, and which is giving me enormous headaches. The main problem is that though we all speak English, we don't all seem to mean the same thing when we use the words.  For example, I send an email to my Indian counterparts and ask later, "did you read the specification?" -- to which they answer, "yes, we did" (imagine an Indian accent there).  Later on, when discussing requirements I find that not only did they not read the specification, but they didn't even open the document.  GRRR!
-A man who surrounds himself with anti-Israel (and anti-Semitic) advisors, who associated for the past 20 years with an anti-American (and -Semitic) "church"; whose plan for revitalizing the greatest economy on earth is to steal from the rich and give to the poor, and whose election [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/05/13/2008-05-13_barack_obama_understands_hamas_view.html Hamas supports] -- no, I'm afraid the portents are worrying.  However, America has elected her next leader.  Let us pray he is not as dangerous as I fear.  Maybe it's not so bad, but [http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20081105 who knows]?
+In preparation for the local elections, the [http://www.jpost.com/ Jerusalem Post] sponsored a "meet the candidates" forum (in English) here in Maaleh Adummim, which ended up being more entertaining and informative than I would ever have imagined.  Of the seven "lists", four sent representatives and a fifth sent a person for only five minutes.  We got to hear the lists' representatives answer questions of interest to locals, and we also got to hear the opposition candidate for mayor (the incumbent didn't show: despite the fact he "dissed" us, he got 75% of the vote.  I guess we ''really'' weren't an important demographic for him).  As the night wore on, we were witness to escalating rhetorical violence, which b"h didn't manifest itself in a physical manner.  Who knew politics could be so exciting?
-And what better time than this week, parashat [[Devar/5769/Lech Lecha|Lech Lecha]], to encourage my fellow Jews in the American diaspora to think seriously about making [[aliyah]]? If you come here, your vote will actually mean something, and you'll have a chance to live a Jewish life in the Jewish Land -- instead of praying the surrounding Gentiles continue to let you live in peace.  I'm afraid the "golden era" of Jewish life in America is coming to an end.
+As we came into the room and took seats, a friend of mine sat next to me, and a friend of his next to him.  I introduced myself to his friend, "Hi, I'm Ron Aaron".  He said, "I'm {{wiki2|Fred_Rogers|Mr. Rogers}}".  I thought he was being a smart-ass, so I asked him, "Oh, do you want to be my neighbor?".  My poor wife, overhearing me, whispers to me, "No, his name is really Mr. Rogers".  But I didn't get a chance to talk to him again after that -- maybe he won't talk to me now.  Anyway, who says "I'm Mr. so-and-so" these days?  Particularly in Israel!
-Regarding the vote here: it's a bit overwhelming.  No "two party" system for us!  We've got dozens of parties, with a bewildering array of platforms.  Just here in the local municipal elections in [[Maale Adummim]] we have seven "lists" (not parties, but lists) running for the city council.  Three are overtly religious lists, one is the current mayor's list, one is the Russian's list... it's a bit difficult to sort them out.
+One thing we weren't prepared for was the decidedly "low tech" election system.  Votes are cast by placing a pre-printed slip of paper in an envelope, and placing that envelope inside a flimsy cardboard box (like one of the boxes you might get at Office Depot to store documents in).  We both thought it couldn't be too hard to commit election fraud and get away with it.
-But to help the people sort things out, the local paper publishes the lists' positions, as well as the details of who is on the lists.  When I say "details", I mean name, address and year of birth!  Now ''that'' is democracy -- can you imagine an American election where the addresses and ages of the candidates are made easily public?  But here, we get full disclosure -- at least of this information.  Noone from my street is running on any of the lists.
+Esther is volunteering at an ''ulpan'' for young kids who are new immigrants.  She says she envies them their ease with acquiring Israeli accents (even if they don't know many words).  Sarah is volunteering (as part of her schoolwork) with young kids in a different school, who are also recent immigrants.  Both my ladies are finding it a much more challenging task than they had thought it would be.
-Just for your edification, the lists are (as listed in the paper):
+We asked a gardener to give us a bid on how much it would be to clean up our "yard".  There are climbing vines on the outside of the house which we want to remove, the trees need professional pruning and the ground needs to be cleaned up and prepared.  There is more to be done, but we just wanted a quote for that.  I expected it wouldn't be cheap, but I didn't expect 3500 NIS (about $1000)... not including tax (16%) or the dumpster.  So I think I'll invest in some good quality gardening tools and for ''much'' less, take care of the mess myself.  The only problem is one of time -- by the time I get home it's dark; but to save that much money I am willing to do the work myself.
-# "Atid" (future), led by Yisrael Betsalel (1982)
-# "Kulanu Bema`aleh" (we're all in Ma`ale), Nuriel Getz (1960)
-# "Ma`ale beiteinu" (our home is Ma`ale), Boris Grossman (1954)
-# "Kachol Lavan" (blue and white), Benny Kashriel (the current mayor) (1951)
-# "Tova Ha'arets" (the Land is good), Gidon Ariel (1963)
-# "Tsedek Hevrati" (social justice), Avraham RaHamim (1959)
-# "BeyaHad" (together), Rafael Ben Hur (1951)
-Not only do we have the local elections this coming week, but since the national government has collapsed we'll have national elections in January or February (but who's running? not [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1225910043950&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull the current criminal] I hope, but we'll find out...).  And there is a [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1225199637901&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull new religious/right party] just formed, which coalesces four existing parties into one -- and everyone in the country who is not currently a member of some other party, can vote in the primaries for the leadership of that party.  So we have up to three elections in as many months to look forward to.  Let us hope and pray that we elect a national leadership which can withstand the overwhelming pressure the Americans will now bring to bear to divide Jerusalem and reward those recalcitrant savages, the Fakestinians, who just this week in celebration of the election results in America, sent [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1225910044760&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull over 50 missiles] from Gaza to the surrounding Israeli areas.
-To end on a lighter note, all those of you who insist that women are cleaner than men (you know who you are!) should note that [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1225715333146&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull research has found] that women have considerably more bacteria on their hands than men do...
 Until next week,<br>
 Shabbat shalom!
-{{nav|Blog|Blog|Blog/October 2008/Oct 31st|Oct 31st||}}
+{{nav|Blog|Blog|Blog/November 2008/Nov 7th|Nov 7th|Blog/November 2008/Nov 21st|Nov 21st}}

Difference between revisions of "Blog/November 2008/Nov 14th"

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Latest revision as of 15:58, 21 November 2008