We live in a Global village. I am sitting here in north London, at the comfort of my home and I can see an oil pipe gushing into the Gulf of Mexico in real time [I hear they capped it but I don't believe them, they just changed the video feed]. Moreover, I can actually be there in less than 24 hours if I choose to and I wouldn't even need to mortgage my house to afford it. And, most importantly, I am not unique. More than a billion people can view the pipe on the Internet and about 1/2 a billion can afford the trip to Miami. So, as I said, we live in a Global village. But do we? Really?
MGF M&D were over for lunch today. D works for a major news network. One of the big American ones. He works in the London office which is now known as the International office and as of tomorrow the office is going from 24/7 to 9-5. You see, the network's viewers are mostly American. It appears that they are leaving in droves, which means advertising revenues are down and the network cannot afford such luxuries as reporting about things happening outside the US.
Now you may be thinking [not that you ever will but, to be honest, I may be thinking]: "Off course. These Americans are narrow-minded arrogant bastards who cannot see beyond the end of their noses!" And I would say, you [or in this case I] are absolutely right. I would however suggest that the same is true for most of us.
Now, you may call me a snob [not that you ever will] but I consider myself in the top 50% of broad-minded people. And still, the only reason I know the name of the Governor of California - one of the world's 20 biggest economies - is that he was the Terminator. The Japanese Prime Minister? I have no idea. I Googled it and it names Naoto Kan, but I am not sure if there were elections since that Guardian article. How much do I know about the US in the last decade? Bush, 9/11, Iraq, Katrina, Obama, the Great Recession. That's about it. No wonder that the only thing most Americans know about the UK in recent history is that Princess Di died in a car crash.
So, even though, in theory, we live in a Global village, although we can all find information just about anything, anywhere, the reality is we just cannot be bothered.
PS 720km down. 280km to go.
Sunday 29 August 2010
Saturday 28 August 2010
Bloody technology
It's 22:29 on a Saturday night and Match of The Day started 4mins ago. Since I am writing this post you probably realise that I am not watching it. Why? It is not that I have better things to do. In general, there aren't many anyhow. MoTD is one of life's more relaxed moments. So why then? They call it Virgin Media now, but deep inside it's still NTHell. Bloody set top box died on me. No worries. An engineer is on the way . . . . in 4 days!
The problem is we expect things to work. I did not even make a plan B. And, believe you me I am not alone in relying on technology. Take MBH. A few weeks ago she and the 2 bigger little ones went to watch Toy Story 3. I was with the 3rd little one and was picking them up after the movie. Like a trained terrier I waited in the car outside the Everyman. And waited. And waited. 40mins after their ETA I got a muffled call from MBH: "I can't talk. Come and pick us up. We're in Primrose Hill". So I did. As I pulled over next to them I lowered the passenger's window only for MBH to throw her shiny new iPhone into the car as if it were a ballistic missile shouting: "This f***ing piece of s***!!!!!!"
The kids' silence was deafening. A double of not-to-be-uttered words. Naturally, MFBD reacted first: "You can't say that. You deserve an 'onesh' (which is Hebrew for punishment for kids)! You are not allowed to eat salad for an entire month!". Now, any one who knows MBH knows MFBD was hitting her where it hurts. A month without salad for MBH is like 24 hours without oxygen for me.
Anyway, the reason for MBH losing it was the mobile dying on her. She had to find a phone booth and, as any Londoner knows, phone booths are for drugies. And pervs.
You see, we've become dependent on technology. We take it for granted and genuinely struggle when it does not work. Too dependent in my opinion. I often feel like giving it up for a while. Maybe spend a few weeks without mobiles, TV or Internet. And still, if I have to be honest, and I am not really happy about having to, I bet I will miss it all within a day or two.
PS 710km down. 290km to go.
The problem is we expect things to work. I did not even make a plan B. And, believe you me I am not alone in relying on technology. Take MBH. A few weeks ago she and the 2 bigger little ones went to watch Toy Story 3. I was with the 3rd little one and was picking them up after the movie. Like a trained terrier I waited in the car outside the Everyman. And waited. And waited. 40mins after their ETA I got a muffled call from MBH: "I can't talk. Come and pick us up. We're in Primrose Hill". So I did. As I pulled over next to them I lowered the passenger's window only for MBH to throw her shiny new iPhone into the car as if it were a ballistic missile shouting: "This f***ing piece of s***!!!!!!"
The kids' silence was deafening. A double of not-to-be-uttered words. Naturally, MFBD reacted first: "You can't say that. You deserve an 'onesh' (which is Hebrew for punishment for kids)! You are not allowed to eat salad for an entire month!". Now, any one who knows MBH knows MFBD was hitting her where it hurts. A month without salad for MBH is like 24 hours without oxygen for me.
Anyway, the reason for MBH losing it was the mobile dying on her. She had to find a phone booth and, as any Londoner knows, phone booths are for drugies. And pervs.
You see, we've become dependent on technology. We take it for granted and genuinely struggle when it does not work. Too dependent in my opinion. I often feel like giving it up for a while. Maybe spend a few weeks without mobiles, TV or Internet. And still, if I have to be honest, and I am not really happy about having to, I bet I will miss it all within a day or two.
PS 710km down. 290km to go.
Tuesday 24 August 2010
A fragile country
Maybe it's the holiday season? Maybe the fact that, relatively, not that many people perished ("only" 1,500 so far)? Or, maybe, it's because it is a possibly-dangerous Muslim country? Whatever the reason, one of the most severe humanitarian crises in years is inflicting Pakistan and the UK and world media barely mention it.
Unusually harsh monsoons have caused the Indus to overflow and flood 1/4 of the country leaving 20m people homeless and destroying crops and killing the livestock that feed 185m Pakistanis. Diseases and starvation are threatening the lives of tens of thousands. And still, whilst the Secretary General of the UN declared this the greatest humanitarian disaster he's ever seen (and he's seen the 2004 tsunami and the Haiti earthquake), governments and individuals around the world are slow to react.
On the face of it one would think that richer nations will be especially driven to assist the Pakistani government and people. The country is a fragile, swinging like a pendulum between democracy and military rule. The Afghanistan war has fuelled the emergence of the Pakistani Taliban threatening to convert a secular nation into a theocracy. And, worse of all, Pakistan is a nuclear power with a rich and notorious past of driving nuclear proliferation from North Korea in the east to Libya in the west.
So why are most countries slow to react? I tend to believe the answer lies in the failures of such interventions in the past. Partly it's to do with corruption and lack of governance; the funds donated often find their way to the wrong hands. More significant, however, is that the richer countries have realised, finally, that they actually know very little about places like Pakistan. Countries like Iraq, Afghanistan or North Korea, we've learnt "thanks" to the NeoCons, is to foreign govenrnments like a Pandora's box; you really want to open it, but have no idea what you will find when you open it. More importantly, you have no idea how to undo the harm created by opening the box to start with. As a consequence, doing nothing feels safer than doing the right thing. In the meantime, 20m people are suffering.
PS 700km down. 300km to go.
Unusually harsh monsoons have caused the Indus to overflow and flood 1/4 of the country leaving 20m people homeless and destroying crops and killing the livestock that feed 185m Pakistanis. Diseases and starvation are threatening the lives of tens of thousands. And still, whilst the Secretary General of the UN declared this the greatest humanitarian disaster he's ever seen (and he's seen the 2004 tsunami and the Haiti earthquake), governments and individuals around the world are slow to react.
On the face of it one would think that richer nations will be especially driven to assist the Pakistani government and people. The country is a fragile, swinging like a pendulum between democracy and military rule. The Afghanistan war has fuelled the emergence of the Pakistani Taliban threatening to convert a secular nation into a theocracy. And, worse of all, Pakistan is a nuclear power with a rich and notorious past of driving nuclear proliferation from North Korea in the east to Libya in the west.
So why are most countries slow to react? I tend to believe the answer lies in the failures of such interventions in the past. Partly it's to do with corruption and lack of governance; the funds donated often find their way to the wrong hands. More significant, however, is that the richer countries have realised, finally, that they actually know very little about places like Pakistan. Countries like Iraq, Afghanistan or North Korea, we've learnt "thanks" to the NeoCons, is to foreign govenrnments like a Pandora's box; you really want to open it, but have no idea what you will find when you open it. More importantly, you have no idea how to undo the harm created by opening the box to start with. As a consequence, doing nothing feels safer than doing the right thing. In the meantime, 20m people are suffering.
PS 700km down. 300km to go.
Sunday 22 August 2010
It's back!
The Premier League is back. Finally. The World Cup was nice, but it happens too quickly. 4 weeks and it's over. The League stays with you the entire year. It's like a friend. And so far, so good. It's the second week and the goals keep on flying in. 3x 6:0 matches in one weekend. Newcastle, just promoted from the Championship, demolished Champions' League contenders Villa. Better still, Man U dropping points at the Cottage. Nothing really like it anywhere.
No wonder then that the Premier League is the most successful league in the world. Not only is BSKYB paying more for the local right, it appears that the League has £475m international annual revenues. To put this in context, La Liga, aka the best league in the world, home to Barca and Real, at the second spot is making £132m.
So yes, there are more goals in the Premier League. And true, the smaller clubs stand more of a chance against the super-clubs - Real only lost points to Barca last year, Barca simply didn't. But is it worth x4 in football terms? My guess is, it has less to do with football and more with language: English. You see, even in football the picture doesn't say it all. The commentators have a major role to play. They are not there to explain the game. They give the game its tone and rhythm. So, in monetary terms, English is earning the Premier League about £343m per annum. Not bad. One way or another, I'm just glad it's back.
PS 695km down. 305km to go.
No wonder then that the Premier League is the most successful league in the world. Not only is BSKYB paying more for the local right, it appears that the League has £475m international annual revenues. To put this in context, La Liga, aka the best league in the world, home to Barca and Real, at the second spot is making £132m.
So yes, there are more goals in the Premier League. And true, the smaller clubs stand more of a chance against the super-clubs - Real only lost points to Barca last year, Barca simply didn't. But is it worth x4 in football terms? My guess is, it has less to do with football and more with language: English. You see, even in football the picture doesn't say it all. The commentators have a major role to play. They are not there to explain the game. They give the game its tone and rhythm. So, in monetary terms, English is earning the Premier League about £343m per annum. Not bad. One way or another, I'm just glad it's back.
PS 695km down. 305km to go.
Monday 16 August 2010
A question of identity
A while back I wrote about the multiple ways one identifies oneself; a father, a football fan, an employee etc. From the perspective of national identity I always saw myself as an Israeli living in the UK. Coming back from holiday in Israel I realised the concept of Israeli identity has evolved in the last few years.
The biggest change, in my opinion, is the gradually apparently-prevailing view that to be Jewish is a national rather than a religious concept; more like being French or Italian rather than Christian or Buddhist. Also national rather than a political definition, like being an Irish American or a Pakistani who is a British citizen. This allows a political definition of 'Israeli' which is inclusive of Israel's Arab citizens who are 20% of the population. Moreover, it makes the definition of Israel as a Jewish, Democratic country acceptable to more people. This way Israel is Jewish in the sense that it is the home of the nation of Jews, like France is the home of the French people.
Obviously, this topic is way more complex and I have very little, if anything, to add to the discussion in terms of the appropriateness of the definitions. The only thing I kept asking myself whilst running was: "how do I see myself?"
I am an Israeli - I grew up in Israel and it shaped much of who I am. There is an entire Israeli community in London which is distinct from the British Jewish community. Yet, I have very little in common with most Israelis living here and count just a couple as friends. Still, I am member of the Jewish people. I am Jewish in terms of religious definition, yet I am a secular Jew - I celebrate the Jewish holidays but am, at the same time, an atheist.
Confusing for you? Just imagine how much worse it is for me.
PS 685km down. 315km to go.
The party pooper
Part 5 - No one likes to be criticised. I know I don't. I take it as a personal offence. An affront. An assault on my integrity. What's worse, my reaction bears no correlation to the magnitude, scale or scope of the criticism. "There is a speck of fluff on your trousers" is as bad as "You are a bloody idiot". My first reaction is to get hurt. Badly. Let's call it the Can't Take Criticism Syndrome or CTCS.
Imagine my surprise when, on hols, I discovered new levels of CTCS previously not known to man. Or, at least, to anyone who has been away from Israel for a while. I am not even going to tell you about MOB who started signing his emails to me as 'Spoon' after I suggested he may be human in an earlier post. Or MLB who said: "I don't do offended. Don't know what it feels like". Yeah. Right.
You see, in the UK CTCS is a passive reaction. In Israel CTCS is active. Take my cousin-in-law H. She is the nicest person you'd ever meet. Gentle, sensitive and warm. She wouldn't hurt a fly. If she accidentally did she would give it a proper burial service and send white lilies to its family. And still, when I jokingly called her a party-pooper when she said she may be too tired to go out at midnight on a work day, she didn't really take my comment in the spirit it was intended. At this point I should mention that H, whilst glamorous and fun-loving, is not necessarily of the Keith Richards school-of-partying. Midnight on a work day is not necessarily her thing. Anyway, at a quarter to midnight she stomped authoritatively into our flat, slammed a bottle of fizzy on the coffee table, and said: "So you call me a party pooper!? I am staying 'til sunrise. You'll beg me to leave!"
So, for all of you planning on going to Israel, remember: if it's not a hagiography it must be an insult; and if you insult someone, expect a reaction. And as it is in Israel, often it would be slightly disproportionate.
PS August 13th 675km down. 325km to go.
Imagine my surprise when, on hols, I discovered new levels of CTCS previously not known to man. Or, at least, to anyone who has been away from Israel for a while. I am not even going to tell you about MOB who started signing his emails to me as 'Spoon' after I suggested he may be human in an earlier post. Or MLB who said: "I don't do offended. Don't know what it feels like". Yeah. Right.
You see, in the UK CTCS is a passive reaction. In Israel CTCS is active. Take my cousin-in-law H. She is the nicest person you'd ever meet. Gentle, sensitive and warm. She wouldn't hurt a fly. If she accidentally did she would give it a proper burial service and send white lilies to its family. And still, when I jokingly called her a party-pooper when she said she may be too tired to go out at midnight on a work day, she didn't really take my comment in the spirit it was intended. At this point I should mention that H, whilst glamorous and fun-loving, is not necessarily of the Keith Richards school-of-partying. Midnight on a work day is not necessarily her thing. Anyway, at a quarter to midnight she stomped authoritatively into our flat, slammed a bottle of fizzy on the coffee table, and said: "So you call me a party pooper!? I am staying 'til sunrise. You'll beg me to leave!"
So, for all of you planning on going to Israel, remember: if it's not a hagiography it must be an insult; and if you insult someone, expect a reaction. And as it is in Israel, often it would be slightly disproportionate.
PS August 13th 675km down. 325km to go.
How much is a year worth?
Part 4 - The Americans, or at least one or two of them, say "time is money". Always doubted that. And still, if time is money, it raises the question: "exactly how much"? Is a minute worth a penny? A pound? A tenner? Never thought I'd find the answer. Until I met MOB a couple of weeks ago.
You see, MOB recently had his 20th wedding anniversary. When going for a gift for HBH he went for the obvious, yet-not-cliched option: rocks. Tower of London style rocks. It should be said HBH was delighted. Unreservedly. Until she met their snooty neighbour (SN):
SN: "Oh, nice earrings!"
HBH: "Ta"
SN: "What's the occasion?"
HBH: "20th wedding anniversary"
SN: "Oh" with an expression of compassion
HBH: "Why oh?" with raised eyebrows
SN: "Well, 20 years . . . that's at least 5 carats!"
So now you know it. A year of marriage is worth 1/4 a carat diamond, or in market prices £1,000 pounds. Having been married for 13 years I feel rich already.
PS August 11th 665kn down. 335km to go.
You see, MOB recently had his 20th wedding anniversary. When going for a gift for HBH he went for the obvious, yet-not-cliched option: rocks. Tower of London style rocks. It should be said HBH was delighted. Unreservedly. Until she met their snooty neighbour (SN):
SN: "Oh, nice earrings!"
HBH: "Ta"
SN: "What's the occasion?"
HBH: "20th wedding anniversary"
SN: "Oh" with an expression of compassion
HBH: "Why oh?" with raised eyebrows
SN: "Well, 20 years . . . that's at least 5 carats!"
So now you know it. A year of marriage is worth 1/4 a carat diamond, or in market prices £1,000 pounds. Having been married for 13 years I feel rich already.
PS August 11th 665kn down. 335km to go.
Public vs private enterprise?
Part 3 - Israel has a tradition of public-driven enterprise. A 20 year-old country with a population of 3m and GDP of Guilford decided to build world-class fighter-jets. And it did. Even before Israel the country was founded the leadership decided to build world class universities. And it did. All through public-led projects.
For many years private enterprise was frowned upon. The Kibbutz took this ideology to an extreme. Even children were considered a group activity. For those of you with their minds wondering off piste, I am not talking about the first steps in the process procreation. Rather, 9-months later. The moment babies were born they were taken from their parents to the children's quarters and taken care of by whoever was on shift at the time.
Like most extreme behaviours, it generated a major counteraction. About 30 years ago Israelis started taking care of Number 1. Themselves.
The positive side of this reaction was an emergence of entirely new industries, e.g. Hi Tech, Medical Devices, Solar Energy, and the privatisation of older ones, e.g. private security experts (aka mercenaries). This resulted in GDP per capita growing from stone-age to mid-EU levels. The negative side was that most people started neglecting the community and environment in which they lived. Nowhere is this more evident than in central Tel-Aviv.
You see, centre Tel-Aviv is an architecturally wondrous place with the largest concentration of Bauhaus buildings in the world. Property prices are as high as Hampstead and the properties are refurbished to palatial standards. From the inside that is. Staircases, communal areas and "gardens" are reminiscent of Mumbai slums. Anyone considering investing in regenerating the communal areas is considered a "frier", a sucker, someone who is being taken advantage of. Not many insults are considered more offensive by Israelis. As a result, Tel-Aviv is at the same time one of the most exciting cities and one of the most run down. Efforts by the authorities to force change have failed.
And still, I can feel a change. In our visit we saw many newly refurbished buildings where the developers invested a lot in the shared spaces. Surely, they do so since this drives up property values. The nice thing is, however, that once enough properties meet these standards, others must follow. And now that the tide has started turning, the local authority is driving regulation that will enforce the maintenance of the communal areas. Gradually I can imagine Tel-Aviv living up to its great potential. This time, through a compromise between private and public enterprise. And in Israel, any sort of compromise should be cherished.
PS August 8th: 655km down. 345km to go.
For many years private enterprise was frowned upon. The Kibbutz took this ideology to an extreme. Even children were considered a group activity. For those of you with their minds wondering off piste, I am not talking about the first steps in the process procreation. Rather, 9-months later. The moment babies were born they were taken from their parents to the children's quarters and taken care of by whoever was on shift at the time.
Like most extreme behaviours, it generated a major counteraction. About 30 years ago Israelis started taking care of Number 1. Themselves.
The positive side of this reaction was an emergence of entirely new industries, e.g. Hi Tech, Medical Devices, Solar Energy, and the privatisation of older ones, e.g. private security experts (aka mercenaries). This resulted in GDP per capita growing from stone-age to mid-EU levels. The negative side was that most people started neglecting the community and environment in which they lived. Nowhere is this more evident than in central Tel-Aviv.
You see, centre Tel-Aviv is an architecturally wondrous place with the largest concentration of Bauhaus buildings in the world. Property prices are as high as Hampstead and the properties are refurbished to palatial standards. From the inside that is. Staircases, communal areas and "gardens" are reminiscent of Mumbai slums. Anyone considering investing in regenerating the communal areas is considered a "frier", a sucker, someone who is being taken advantage of. Not many insults are considered more offensive by Israelis. As a result, Tel-Aviv is at the same time one of the most exciting cities and one of the most run down. Efforts by the authorities to force change have failed.
And still, I can feel a change. In our visit we saw many newly refurbished buildings where the developers invested a lot in the shared spaces. Surely, they do so since this drives up property values. The nice thing is, however, that once enough properties meet these standards, others must follow. And now that the tide has started turning, the local authority is driving regulation that will enforce the maintenance of the communal areas. Gradually I can imagine Tel-Aviv living up to its great potential. This time, through a compromise between private and public enterprise. And in Israel, any sort of compromise should be cherished.
PS August 8th: 655km down. 345km to go.
Dress code
Part 2 - So, as mentioned in Part 1, Israel is a place struggling with the weight of its own history. And yet, surprisingly, not all the thoughts occupying my (puny little) mind during my runs were as weighty. Some of them clearly not worthy of your precious time. For example, the acceptability or not of a specific item of clothing. Namely, the Hot Pants (HPs).
You see, I have never seen a person (and by person I mean a woman, I would not, naturally notice a man) wearing HPs in real life. Only in music videos. Obviously, Kylie's golden HPs. More often though, the hoes in hip-hop videos.
So imagine my surprise when I took the kids to the highbrow Tel-Aviv Museum and a photographer visitor, making genuine efforts to capture the displays from all (and I mean all) angles, was wearing a pair of HPs too small to fit over MLOs (My Little One) nappy.
Not necessarily the most obvious dress code in the UK. At the same time, I guess that when one is bearing the weight of history any additional weight, if only of a pair of trousers, is a bit too much.
PS As of August 5th, 645km down. 355km to go.
You see, I have never seen a person (and by person I mean a woman, I would not, naturally notice a man) wearing HPs in real life. Only in music videos. Obviously, Kylie's golden HPs. More often though, the hoes in hip-hop videos.
So imagine my surprise when I took the kids to the highbrow Tel-Aviv Museum and a photographer visitor, making genuine efforts to capture the displays from all (and I mean all) angles, was wearing a pair of HPs too small to fit over MLOs (My Little One) nappy.
Not necessarily the most obvious dress code in the UK. At the same time, I guess that when one is bearing the weight of history any additional weight, if only of a pair of trousers, is a bit too much.
PS As of August 5th, 645km down. 355km to go.
The weight of history
Part 1 - Just back from holiday in the Holy Land. For those of you who don't know me well, it is where I come from - Israel. As you will know, it is a small place rich in history and quarrel. Most of it centring on Jerusalem. More specifically, focused in less than 1/4 of a square mile of the Old City.
It is the place of the Jewish Temple and its single remaining wall. Where Jesus was crucified and resurrected and where Muhammad rose to the heavens to hear the word of God.
Less than 1/4 sq mile that is at the heart of the 3 monotheistic religions followed by, starting from the youngest, 1.5bn, 1.5bn and 15m people.
Not bad for such a small place? Very bad! For the people leaving there. On and off the place has been the focal point for wars for the last 2,000 years. In the last 70 years it is definitely 'on'. The weight of history and religious importance are weighing on the place and its inhabitants. If only it wasn't such a significant place.
You see, if every stone and every hill weren't so important they would not be worth so much fighting over. There is no way the Jewish state will give up on the only surviving wall of the Temple. Equally, how can the Muslim world give up on the oldest surviving Mosque?
Taking that into account it is surprising the Crusades are over. The Christian world seems to be comfortable with taking a tour bus to its holy sites rather than an armoured personnel carrier. How odd.
PS I did not relinquish my commitment to running whilst in Israel. Despite the heat and humidity I managed to stick to the usual mileage. In the next few days I will make up for the fact I didn't follow the runs with the promised blog-posts. On Aug 3rd, 635km down, 365km to go.
It is the place of the Jewish Temple and its single remaining wall. Where Jesus was crucified and resurrected and where Muhammad rose to the heavens to hear the word of God.
Less than 1/4 sq mile that is at the heart of the 3 monotheistic religions followed by, starting from the youngest, 1.5bn, 1.5bn and 15m people.
Not bad for such a small place? Very bad! For the people leaving there. On and off the place has been the focal point for wars for the last 2,000 years. In the last 70 years it is definitely 'on'. The weight of history and religious importance are weighing on the place and its inhabitants. If only it wasn't such a significant place.
You see, if every stone and every hill weren't so important they would not be worth so much fighting over. There is no way the Jewish state will give up on the only surviving wall of the Temple. Equally, how can the Muslim world give up on the oldest surviving Mosque?
Taking that into account it is surprising the Crusades are over. The Christian world seems to be comfortable with taking a tour bus to its holy sites rather than an armoured personnel carrier. How odd.
PS I did not relinquish my commitment to running whilst in Israel. Despite the heat and humidity I managed to stick to the usual mileage. In the next few days I will make up for the fact I didn't follow the runs with the promised blog-posts. On Aug 3rd, 635km down, 365km to go.
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