The aggravation that is Israel

This morning had a meeting at Mey N. (a city), the water corporation. The bureaucrat in charge of evaluating plans had rejected my plan (the supermarket in case had been operating for the last forty years on a plot zoned for "industry", and to be legal, the zoning had to be changed to "commerce"). (What is zoning?) What was the reason my plan was rejected? It did not follow the five page rules posted on their website. But I did, could you please specify what is wrong? Everything! he smiled. 

With the experience of the normally lazy bureaucrats, that just want me to pay homage to their power and need my finger to point out everything, because the mental effort to look carefully at the drawing and try to make sense of it may damage their grey cells, I felt depressed by what was expecting me. My expectation was fulfilled when sitting in front of the smiling bureaucrat. Where is the water main? I pointed out. And what is this thing here? It is an hydrant. And so. At last he found that the supermarket was part of a building complex and I did not prove that water supply will be sufficient for the thirty different shops in the place. I said I am not going to enter each shop and investigate their water demand. You do it ! He felt he had gone too far, so the negotiation (because that is what it was) ended by agreeing that the surveyor had done a faulty job and will be ordered to measure everything anew.

While in the office, two men were shouting and banging the receptionist's desk. I never stole anything in my life and you say that I stole 20 cubic meters of water! How! It is the water corporation's meter, I had to pay for it, and you made the connection. If it is wrongly connected, it is your fault and should come and correct it. I am wasting my time for the third visit here and no one does anything! What a shitty country (verbatim!). מדינת חרא  The man was really excited and worked up, my companion said leave fast because they will call us as witnesses to violence. That's Israel, my country, the dream of two thousand years. Not exactly what Herzl intended. He wanted us to speak a cultured European language, German or French.  Pic.: The Israel Young Philharmonic.

P.S.: Why I accept these depressing jobs? (1) I am so old that no one will employ me. (2) Most of the work is planning done at home (3) It is relatively profitable. Zoning regulation is a matter of life and death for this supermarket. (4) Teaching in the university is not less depressing. (5) Life itself is depressing, but what is the alternative?