"If Israelis do not change their attitude and will continue with war, they will be expelled from there forever, just because Iran is militarily stronger. After all, isn't it how things are decided in Western world? If other nations will decide to interfere on behalf of Israel, Iran would have to use her nuclear arsenal. You should understand that we are fed up with you, guys, and if we have to go down we will, only we will take all of you with us. So, back off or die. There are no more choices."
Just what you expect from Ahmadinejad? Well, sorry, I cheated. Here is the actual text sent to me recently by an American acquaintance of mine - an immigrant from Russia:
"If Arabs do not change their attitude and will continue with war, they will be expelled from there forever, just because Israel is militarily stronger. After all, isn't it how things are decided in gentile world? If other nations will decide to interfere on behalf of Arabs, Israel would have to use her nuclear arsenal. You should understand that we are fed up with you, guys, and if we have to go down we will, only we will take all of you with us. Remember Gideon? Zealots? Masada? We'll do it again. So, back off or die. There are no more choices."
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
Thursday, 15 July 2010
Israeli art student scam
Having ploughed through several websites, I think I now know how the Israeli art student scam works. The paintings are produced in China, using inferior oil paints, sold to wholesalers in various countries for $5 each, and then picked up by backpackers, mainly Israeli, who sell them house to house for $150 or $200. The 'art students' profess a poor knowledge of English or whatever the local language is, perhaps to avoid awkward questions. They usually claim to have a contact who will frame the picture for a further fee. There is no money-back guarantee. Exactly what the arrangement with the wholesaler is I don't know; it may be a package including the air ticket to the target country.
It may seem innocent enough, young Israelis desperate to get out of Israel and finding a way to fund their trip, but the economics of it are horrible. The Chinese painters get a miserable wage, the wholesalers presumably make an excellent living, and the Israelis get a lengthy trip at the expense of the naive householders who buy the pictures. To put things into perspective, the GDP per head in The West Bank in 2002 was $759 per head and falling; in Gaza it was $576 and falling still faster - roughly the profit on three or four pictures!
There is a general case for making doorstep sales illegal. There is always an element of moral pressure, with the salesperson evoking pity. The longer the bargaining goes on the harder it is to turn him or her away without feeling bad. And vulnerable people - the aged, the infirm, the housebound - are always going to be at risk of exploitation. Short of banning such sales, we should publicize the scam. It only goes on because too many people fall for it. So tell all your friends: beware of Israeli art students! For my part, as long as there is no peace and justice for Palestinians, I am boycotting Israeli goods, even when they are made in China!
It may seem innocent enough, young Israelis desperate to get out of Israel and finding a way to fund their trip, but the economics of it are horrible. The Chinese painters get a miserable wage, the wholesalers presumably make an excellent living, and the Israelis get a lengthy trip at the expense of the naive householders who buy the pictures. To put things into perspective, the GDP per head in The West Bank in 2002 was $759 per head and falling; in Gaza it was $576 and falling still faster - roughly the profit on three or four pictures!
There is a general case for making doorstep sales illegal. There is always an element of moral pressure, with the salesperson evoking pity. The longer the bargaining goes on the harder it is to turn him or her away without feeling bad. And vulnerable people - the aged, the infirm, the housebound - are always going to be at risk of exploitation. Short of banning such sales, we should publicize the scam. It only goes on because too many people fall for it. So tell all your friends: beware of Israeli art students! For my part, as long as there is no peace and justice for Palestinians, I am boycotting Israeli goods, even when they are made in China!
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
Artist?
After Monday's visit from the Israeli girl, I regretted that I had not acted differently. I should have invited her in, offered her a cold drink, perhaps have offered her a bed for the night, before launching into a hopeless attempt to get through her ideological blinkers. But then I thought 'Don't be so naive, she's no artist; she's part of the new charm offensive of the Hasbara. She's not walking around Boars Hill with a sheaf of paintings; she has a minder waiting for her in a car round the corner.'
And then I remembered the strange case of the Israeli 'art students' in 2001. A whole lot of these fake students were caught in America and Canada visiting sensitive addresses and offering to sell paintings obviously made in China. The mystery was never cleared up. So I googled 'Israeli art student' and got 1,390,000 hits! It seems these people are popping up all over the world. Scary!
To add sauce to my week, I had the following e-mail from a chemist of my acquaintance, with whom I had tried to argue the case for justice and peace with Palestinians: 'If Arabs do not change their attitude and will continue with war, they will be expelled from there forever, just because Israel is militarily stronger. After all, isn't it how things are decided in gentile world? If other nations will decide to interfere on behalf of Arabs, Israel would have to use her nuclear arsenal. You should understand that we are fed up with you, guys, and if we have to go down we will, only we will take all of you with us. Remember Gideon? Zealots? Masada? We'll do it again. So, back off or die. There are no more choices.' Weltmacht oder Niedergang!
And then I remembered the strange case of the Israeli 'art students' in 2001. A whole lot of these fake students were caught in America and Canada visiting sensitive addresses and offering to sell paintings obviously made in China. The mystery was never cleared up. So I googled 'Israeli art student' and got 1,390,000 hits! It seems these people are popping up all over the world. Scary!
To add sauce to my week, I had the following e-mail from a chemist of my acquaintance, with whom I had tried to argue the case for justice and peace with Palestinians: 'If Arabs do not change their attitude and will continue with war, they will be expelled from there forever, just because Israel is militarily stronger. After all, isn't it how things are decided in gentile world? If other nations will decide to interfere on behalf of Arabs, Israel would have to use her nuclear arsenal. You should understand that we are fed up with you, guys, and if we have to go down we will, only we will take all of you with us. Remember Gideon? Zealots? Masada? We'll do it again. So, back off or die. There are no more choices.' Weltmacht oder Niedergang!
Monday, 12 July 2010
True believer
I was just enjoying a quiet evening when a very beautiful young woman called and started showing me a portfolio of paintings. She told me she was from an art school in Israel, so I asked whether there were any Arabs there. She proceeded to pour out a series of statements that could have come straight out of a Zionist propaganda pamphlet:-
In our Bible it says that God gave the land to us.
There is nowhere else in the world that we can go.
The Arabs want to kill us.
The Arabs started the fighting.
I asked her why her country continues to occupy the West Bank and pour settlers into it, but she claimed not to understand what was meant by occupation or West Bank. Nor was I able to interest her in the idea of equality. In the end she packed up her portfolio and left, no doubt pleased to have found further evidence that 'everybody hates us'.
In our Bible it says that God gave the land to us.
There is nowhere else in the world that we can go.
The Arabs want to kill us.
The Arabs started the fighting.
I asked her why her country continues to occupy the West Bank and pour settlers into it, but she claimed not to understand what was meant by occupation or West Bank. Nor was I able to interest her in the idea of equality. In the end she packed up her portfolio and left, no doubt pleased to have found further evidence that 'everybody hates us'.
Sunday, 11 July 2010
Clothes
Why do I always have too many clothes? I hardly buy any since all I need is 8 shirts (white because it goes with everything), 8 underpants, two prs. trousers, 2 or 3 pullovers and a few prs. socks. Actually one of each would be fine if they didn't have to be washed. And yet I have a cupboard full of clothes that I never wear! I don't even know where most of them came from.
I realize that other people are different. Most women seem to need lots of clothes because (a) they don't want to be wearing the same as another woman, and (b) they don't want to be wearing something too different from what other women are currently wearing. Strange how many men like to be in a sort of uniform (look at male MPs, differing only by their ties!).
For me, the beauty of having the minimal lot of clothes is not having to choose. Life is complicated enough already without adding avoidable choices. For the same reason I eat the same few dishes when I cater for myself - porridge for breakfast, salad for lunch, pasta for dinner. I hate the way governments keep wanting to offer us more choice - of schools, hospitals, railway companies, pension options...! Why not just aim at good provision for everybody without alternatives?!
I realize that other people are different. Most women seem to need lots of clothes because (a) they don't want to be wearing the same as another woman, and (b) they don't want to be wearing something too different from what other women are currently wearing. Strange how many men like to be in a sort of uniform (look at male MPs, differing only by their ties!).
For me, the beauty of having the minimal lot of clothes is not having to choose. Life is complicated enough already without adding avoidable choices. For the same reason I eat the same few dishes when I cater for myself - porridge for breakfast, salad for lunch, pasta for dinner. I hate the way governments keep wanting to offer us more choice - of schools, hospitals, railway companies, pension options...! Why not just aim at good provision for everybody without alternatives?!
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
OPIUM
Mrs Thatcher became known as TINA, short for 'There Is No Alternative' (to unbridled capitalism). Now George Osborne tells us his budget is unavoidable. I suggest a new slogan OPIUM 'Our Policy is Unavoidable, Mate'.
He even claims his budget is 'progressive', when it is the poorest who will suffer most from the rise in VAT and whose benefits will fail to rise with inflation. It seems rather kind to bankers, too, although the whole problem is how to pay the bill for keeping them afloat.
So think back to 1979, when the first budget of the Thatcher era threw Britain deeper into recession and unemployment. She became so unpopular that an election defeat became likely, until she was boosted by the Falklands War. So shall we get a new war sometime in 2014? Or will that simply be the year that we finally find an excuse to withdraw from Afghanistan?
He even claims his budget is 'progressive', when it is the poorest who will suffer most from the rise in VAT and whose benefits will fail to rise with inflation. It seems rather kind to bankers, too, although the whole problem is how to pay the bill for keeping them afloat.
So think back to 1979, when the first budget of the Thatcher era threw Britain deeper into recession and unemployment. She became so unpopular that an election defeat became likely, until she was boosted by the Falklands War. So shall we get a new war sometime in 2014? Or will that simply be the year that we finally find an excuse to withdraw from Afghanistan?
Saturday, 19 June 2010
Militarism
There seems to be a new militarism in Britain, fuelled by the regular return of bodies from Afghanistan and the parades and funerals that they engender. Now Mr Cameron tells us we should sing the praises of our military "more loudly and more proudly". He wants a massive display of enthusiasm next Saturday on Armed Forces Day.
And what is this Armed Forces Day? Looking through old diaries - and even this year's diary - I see no mention of it. Veterans Day is first listed in 2008, and it seems to be June 27th. What happened on that date? According to Wikipedia it was the day that America decided to send troops to Korea in 1950, and Yugoslavia invaded Slovenia in 1991 - nothing to do with British veterans. I don't grudge veterans their day, but now we are to have a whole military weekend.
Another sign of the times: my neighbour has booked Oxford Town Hall for a concert in aid of the charity Help for Heroes. Well, of course those wounded in our current war should be helped, but out of public funds. As I understand it, the government is trying to fight this war on the cheap, so it is their responsibilty to compensate the victims - and I would hope that would include Afghan victims. But what the hell are we doing there anyway, apart from continuing G W Bush's "Crusade"? You can't conduct other countries' revolutions for them.
And what is this Armed Forces Day? Looking through old diaries - and even this year's diary - I see no mention of it. Veterans Day is first listed in 2008, and it seems to be June 27th. What happened on that date? According to Wikipedia it was the day that America decided to send troops to Korea in 1950, and Yugoslavia invaded Slovenia in 1991 - nothing to do with British veterans. I don't grudge veterans their day, but now we are to have a whole military weekend.
Another sign of the times: my neighbour has booked Oxford Town Hall for a concert in aid of the charity Help for Heroes. Well, of course those wounded in our current war should be helped, but out of public funds. As I understand it, the government is trying to fight this war on the cheap, so it is their responsibilty to compensate the victims - and I would hope that would include Afghan victims. But what the hell are we doing there anyway, apart from continuing G W Bush's "Crusade"? You can't conduct other countries' revolutions for them.
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