Endless Mourning and Suffering

My intellectual wife and daughter took me to the Cameri Theater to suffer endlessly a long psychodrama by Chanoch Levin (see script in Hebrew if you dare): "Endless Mourning". A man loses his only son and in his crazy mourning, re-acts yearly the death and mourning through killing a child like his son. Lamentation and crying in High Hebrew, literary and poetical words we never hear in the shuk (market). The play may relate to the Israeli experience, but it is too esoteric for this drunken mujik.   

Itching palms

If your left hand's palm itches, you will lose money or be punished. Right hand itching, you will receive money soon.

It was common knowledge in my infancy in Hungary. 

One million Syrians moving to Europe

The fighting in the north Syria border has caused the uprooting of a million Syrians and they are moving to Europe. Europe does not want them, so they will settle in Eastern Turkey. Russian forces are in the field supporting the Syrian army, while the Americans have retreated. The last peaceful era in the area was the French Protectorate after WWI, a hundred years ago.

Breaking News

Recession?

Active fighting going on in the Turkey - Syria border. The pic shows the 23 mm antiair cannon we had in the Israel Defense Forces in my time, based on recycled Soviet made weapons taken during the Lebanon war. I could take it apart and re-assembly it even today. Pic source.

The Bourse is falling 5 - 7%. For one, it is the fear of coronavirus flu, that suddenly closed down borders and made people quarantine themselves. The facts show that its mortality rate is similar to winter flu epidemies, less than 1%. Maybe China's reaction was overdone and caused universal panic. I am sure in April-May it will be over.

Today's NASDAQ reaction is attributable to Bernie Sanders' victory march in the Democratic Party. The candidate is a left wing Socialist, and he promises to abolish personal debts (like medical bills and student loans). In the Greek cities of the Antiquity, abolishing debts and re-distribution of the land was a permanent feature and every once in a while it was done in a revolution. As an old man, I value stability more than revolutions.  

The Economist Turns Racist

The British liberal magazine turns 180 degrees and takes a far-right "racist" position AGAINST non-European immigration. The Economist wants to Europe's most homogeneous country - Poland - to stay, Sacrebleu!, White. Quote:

"Another mistake is the assumption that since (apart from the Ukrainians) migrants are relatively few, they will not be noticed by Polish voters. Small numbers can have a big impact. In 2019 Poland granted long-term visas to about 24,000 people from Nepal, India and Bangladesh. By comparison, Britain accepted migrants from the Caribbean at an annual rate of about 16,000 in the 1950s. With a population of 52m at the time, Britain was hardly swamped. But it was enough to trigger the rise of racial politics. In 1955 Winston Churchill suggested “Keep England White” as an election slogan."

Italia anziana

Italia anziana, ecco perché 2-3% di morti
Per Giovanni Rezza, direttore del dipartimento malattie infettive dell'Istituto Superiore di Sanità, "in Italia c'è una popolazione anziana e si spiegano così i tassi di mortalità del 2-3%. Gli anziani sono più fragili, lo vediamo con l'influenza. Da quest'ultima possiamo proteggerli con il vaccino; non essendoci il vaccino per il Coronavirus c'è la mortalità. L'unica maniera per proteggerli è circoscrivere i focolai come si sta facendo". 

Italy is old and that explains the 2-3% mortality. Old people is fragile, we see that with the flu. We have vaccine for the flu but we have nothing against the coronavirus. The only way is to isolate the foci as we are doing. 

Rejoice!

Regarding people saving for retirement: Given that that’s how they are investing, why would they want the markets to go up? ‘Cause the higher the market goes, the shares cost more, the less shares their money buys, the less money they make, in the long run. So with this dip, and if it continues to go down,they should just stay the course and actually be quite happy because the market is still incredibly high.

Since I am a buyer of shares and not a seller, I too should rejoice that there is a correction going on.

Suze Orman (pic) looks like the wife of my uncle Lucio, an original poylische yiddene. She emptied his bank accounts and left him for his best friend. At ninety something she still looks like the pic and is very active. 

Springtime for Us

Kleine Schneeglöckchen / Common Snowdrop - meaning, Spring is Near

The WHO is worried about stigmatizing diseased people as well or more than the disease itself. From their site:

Here are some examples and tips on possible actions to counter stigmatizing attitudes: 

• Spreading the facts: Stigma can be heightened by insufficient knowledge about how the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is transmitted and treated, and how to prevent infection.
 • Engaging social influencers such as religious leaders on prompting reflection about people who are stigmatized and how to support them, or respected celebrities to amplify messages that reduce stigma.
  • Amplify the voices, stories and images of local people who have experienced COVID-19 and have recovered or who have supported a loved one through recovery to emphasise that most people do recover from COVID-19.
 • Make sure you portray different ethnic groups. Materials should show diverse communities that are being affected, and show communities working together to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
 • Balanced reporting. Media reporting should be balanced and contextualised, disseminating evidence-based information and helping combat rumour and misinformation that could lead to stigmatisation.
 • Link up. There are a number of initiatives to address stigma and stereotyping. It is key to link up to these activities to create a movement and a positive environment that shows care and empathy for all.

P.S.: Steve Sailer locks it: W.H.O.: the Greatest Enemy We Face Is Not the Virus Itself; It’s the Stigma That Turns Us Against Each Other.

My humble comment: Stigmatizing transmissible diseased persons is a natural self-defense mechanism. The World Health Organization, an influential United Nations branch, tries to convince us that the problem is not the disease itself, but our instinctive reaction to it. I think the United Nations as a whole has been infected by a mental disorder, it is not doing its job and should be replaced.

Situation Report

Enlivex Therapeutics Announces Plan for Increased Production Capacity of AllocetraTM in Preparation for Potential Treatment of Coronavirus (COVID-19) Patients with Organ Failure

WHO:  No new countries reported cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours. 

Living with the Virus

My daughter and husband are vacationing in Haifa. Their 7 months old daughter (pic) has been deposited with us and the two years old boy with the paternal grandparents. The baby has the flu and breaths with difficulty. They left us an inhalation steam machine for the baby to breath. We must be infected with her flu virus but no effects. She has a good temper, is very alert and talks to the toys. Loves to pull my beard and tear out my eyes with her sharp fingernails. 

We may be immune to the Wuhan Flu

From Gail:

COVID-19 is incredibly contagious. COVID-19 transmits extremely easily from person to person. Interpersonal contact doesn’t need to be very long; a taxi driver can get the virus from a passenger, for example.

The virus likely remains active on inanimate surfaces such as paper, plastic, or metal for many days. Human pathogens may remain infectious for up to eight days.

The only way to avoid spreading COVID-19 seems to be geographic isolation.

Perhaps 80% of people seem to get a fairly light form of the COVID-19 illness. Groups that seem particularly prone to adverse outcomes include the elderly, smokers, those who are obese, and those with high blood pressure, diabetes, or poor immune systems. Males seem to have worse outcomes than females.

People with East Asian ancestry (Chinese, Japanese, or Vietnamese) may have a higher risk of adverse outcomes than those of European or African ancestry. One of the things that is targeted by the disease is the ACE2 receptor. Hungarian Jews have few of them.

"We also noticed that the only Asian donor (male) has a much higher ACE2-expressing cell ratio than white and African American donors (2.50% vs. 0.47% of all cells). This might explain the observation that the new Coronavirus pandemic and previous SARS-Cov pandemic are concentrated in Asia."

My conclusion is in the title. I am the most optimist person on Earth and the Illegally Occupied Territories.

Water consulting is bad business

My alma mother TAHAL Water Consulting is in trouble and its CEO Bracha has resignes after the failure of selling the company to FIMI Funds. The agreement was that FIMI Funds will invest up to US$35 million in Tahal and float the company on TASE. From the money collected from buyers of the shares, FIMI would pay part of the purchase and have total control. The banks holding the loans of TAHAL and the monstrous amounts guaranteed for the completion of ongoing projects had given green light to financial operation. But the transaction failed somewhere. Simply, agricultural and infrastructure consulting in the Third World is no business. For one, Israeli experts are very expensive and two, water and civil engineering has become low tech and foreign experts are not needed anymore. 

The Guns of August

I am reading Barbara Tuchman's book on WWI. It describes the details of the calculations of the French and the German armies. The armies marched (imagine walking from Aachen to Paris with a bayonet in hand) and roads and marching days had to be calculated with precision while there was no wire communication among the units. Generals strategized without precise information and they were under tremendous stress and used to blank out. All those flanking maneuvers suddenly brought up the memory of my readings in the Circulo Militar of Buenos Aires. I was 14 and searching Buenos Aires public libraries for information about the rocket technology for the project we were doing with a Dutch school friend, he was fabricating the explosive fuel and I was trying to design and procure pipes. The Military Club was sited in an impressive palace in the most elegant neighborhood, surrounded by elaborate iron work gates. Inside there were large brown leather lounge chairs and sezlongs, with quiet old people reading the papers.

I took out the Military Science journals and read the articles. Remember one about artillery and rockets, with simple equations to calculate range. There were articles about the Triple Alianza (Paraguay) war, that struck me as uninteresting. Horsemanship and river crossing. I soon dropped out of the rocket project, the others were obsessed in building wood and iron pipe pistols, which they did.

Cursed Computer

I am desperate finding a file received yesterday. They sent me a DWG and a PDF version, and they do not match. Asked to send it again, and once more the DWG is different. The architect insists that I do not know how to open the zip file, showing his autocad literacy and my ignorance. Yet still I have two different versions and the contractor already is boring holes and demolishing walls. Oh, sweet gods of the computer, please lift the curse from my machine! 

The Deep State takes over

 

STASI  was the East German State Security Organization. Its motto: Schild und Schwert der Partei   (Shield and sword of the Party). Every State has an organization of that kind, from the Krypthaya of the Spartan State to President Putin's alma mater to Germany's Defense of the Constitution something. That is the real Deep State. The real source of power. The Chinese State is in crisis mode and has drawn the sword from its scabbard and replaced all local authorities with heavyweight political police officers. Pic. Ying Yong, the new boss of Hubei province. 

The rules have changed, it is hardball from now on. 

Cutie

cutie

High IQ people doing crazy things

The Chinese people are among the most intelligent so I wonder what to do with Emperor Jingdi's tomb. He built an underground tomb (pic. Han Yangling Museum in Xi'an, China) full of clay sheep, pigs and other domestic animals, so he would not starve in the netherworld. His colleagues were even crazier, they manufactured clay soldiers by the thousands to guard them. My father explanation was that there is something wrong with the human mind. 

Worse than first estimated

I did not want to blog about the new non-flu Wuhan disease, but it is becoming too important and urgent, so I have to follow its development. A recent Los Alamos Lab paper estimates that it is unstoppable..." the number of infected individuals during early epidemic double every 2.4 days, and the R0 value is likely to be between 4.7 and 6.6."

This bad flu kills mostly over 50 males already with some disease, like me. Young people is safe. Should I be afraid? I have completed my life cycle and am surviving only to help the next generation. Of course the new flu worries me. Half of Japan's budget goes to pay pensions and health care for the elderly. After the epidemy they will have a balanced budget. It is a godsent disease to heal the economy. 

The 1914 worldwide epidemy killed mostly babies and children. When I visited the Jaszbereny Jewish cemetery, saw many monuments with syrupy inscriptions for dead children. It must have been horrible. 

STETL - Budapest Jewish Rock

Hungarian Jews are not what you imagined.

The Weeky Portion: Yitro

This week we Jews are reading the chapter where the African  priest Yitro visits Moses and Zipporah and the grandchildren. The Jews are torturing Moshe with their moral questions, so the old man advises: Write down the Law and appoint judges. So Moshe went up the mountain and after fasting and consulting with God, produced two tablets with ten simple rules. From then on there could be no more doubts what was to be considered politically correct.

Commenting on the chapter, Rabbi Tarfon asked himself why is that only the Israelites received God's commandments? Why not the "Children of Esau" tribe? Obvious, answered Rabbi Tarfon, those Esau people are warlike, "You shall not murder" is not for them. What about the sons of Ishmael, the Arabs? "You shall not steal" was not for them since they live robbing caravans in the desert. Presumably, the Greeks would never accept a bodiless god having beautiful naked marble statues of their nubile goddesses and muscular athletes? Having run out of worthy candidates, God noticed Moshe starving on the hilltop and offloaded his stone tablets on him. On us. Left: Hebrew tablet found in the ruins of Gezer. 

China Today

I feel I have to post this picture of China today. A family trying to escape wrapped up in poliethilene bags, from shoes to head. It reminds me of Saddam Hussein's missile attack on Israel, when we expected poison gas  and protected ourselves and our homes with plastic sheets and tape. It seems effective. Hope we shall be spared of similar views in Israel. But we may be not.  

Argentina Defaults Again

The Peronist government decided to post-pone the payment of bonds till September. Only widows and orphans will be spared: holders of less than 20,000 dollars worth of bonds that can prove they are "humans" will receive the interests. The others will receive "YOCK" (Hebrew slang for nothing and now get lost).

It was not unexpected.

The United Arab List

About 20% of the population are Arabs with voting rights. They have formed a block, the United Arab List (see pic) that is kingmaker and decide who will be our next Prime Minister. They are exercising their power to annul land expropriations. Land expropriated for public water works has been returned to Arab farmers. Land is the vital resource in this densely populated country and already there is tremendous problem for public infrastructure planners. There is no place on the seashore to site desalination plants (water sector) nor yacht ports (tourism). The Arabs think that it is not their problem and do not co-operate with the State. 

Weapons and Counterweapons

Elbit won a large order for Directional Infrared Counter Measures (DIRCM), a system to protect aircraft from infrared homing ("heat seeking") man-portable missiles. It is a lightweight, compact system designed to provide mission-vulnerable aircraft with increased protection. Thanks Arafat, we had to develop twenty years ago many thingies that we can sell now. 

In the South of Israel, we are suffering from helium filled balloons carrying explosives. The wind blows from Gaza towards the mainland, carrying these weapons deep into the country. A startup developed laser guided countermeasures, it is working but the border is 70 km long, so it can protect only a limited sector. The enemy keeps us alert and vigilant, thanks God.  

Mayn Yiddische Meydele

Lyrics

I have seen many women;
among every people they are different.
But none is as beautiful
as a Jewish woman.

A Jewish girl immediately enchants you
with her glance.
And if you just take a peek at her,
you feel that “Jewish feeling” inside of you.

My Jewish girl, she is so pretty.
My Jewish girl, she has a certain Jewish charm.
Her golden hair, her teeth like pearls—
only a Jewish girl could be so beautiful.
A million dollars won’t help you find among other peoples

Bestiality

Lower Left: Is that a Bat? 

Lipton takes the fall

The International Monetary Fund granted Argentina a 57.100 million dollar loan a year ago, to save it from another default. I wrote then that they were crazy and Lagrade would pay with his head this imbecility.  u$s 57.100 million is the largest ever loan of the IMF and about the 60% of its capital.  

Well, Lagarde was kicked upstairs to head the European Union's Central Bank, and his second, David Lipton (pic) took the fall and was sacked. Kristalina Georgieva, the Bulgarian replacement of Lagarde, is reorganizing the IMF leadership. The Argentine loan intended to help pro-USA President Macri to win the elections, but the populist, irresponsible Peronist party returned to power and the loan will never be paid back. 

The Pangolin Virus

It appears that the bat coronavirus was transmitted to humans via the pangolin in Wuhan wet market. Pangolins are hunted and eaten for their erection enhancing (imagined) virtues.

The poor beast does not ruminate nor has other signs of being kosher. A normal, non-starving  person would not eat it.   

Shaar Benjamin

Yesterday I travelled to the Shaar Benjamin Industrial Park, a stone throw distance from the Qalandia Palestinian Refugee Camp. Twelve years ago, a Sepharadi baker from the nearby Adam settlement, was the first to move to the new business park, and contracted me to design a three floor building. He added a restaurant. There was nothing in that stony desert but a Rami Levy Supermarket, built - I think - for Ramallah Arab customers. He later rented the building to the police and built a larger bakery on the main street (pic). Planned by me too. Now he is expanding and called me. It seems to me that Arabic speaking Jews feel at home in the Shomron, bought land, started businesses, built large buildings and made money.

The GPS is not working well in the West Bank so I followed Google Map route that made me ramble all over Samaria. I arrived at midday dead tired. The place has grown but still is quite empty. The Palestinian contractor explained to me that Ramallah has developed and is full of supermarkets and shops which are cheaper and people do not need Shaar Benjamin. The man dreams of joining his brother in Sevilla, "for his children". There are five or ten very rich people in Ramallah, he said, the rest are poor.  A typical Middle East dictatorship. The next door Qalandia Refugee Camp is not a camp but a typical Arab East Jerusalem neighborhood, from the road it looks clean and well maintained. 

Look How Old I Am

My America.

Diversity in Swiss Banking

In order to inject new ideas into the uber-conservative Swiss banking, the country's largest bank handed it to Chief Executive Officer Tidjane Thiam, an athletic, talented Senegalese, who started a deep revamping of the organization.  The stock is down by almost half since Thiam took over in mid-2015, after he tapped shareholders for fresh capital. 

Worse, the bank's internal workings have been exposed as slightly un-Swiss, as its top wealth manager Iqbal Khan was spied on following an altercation between Thiam and Khan. Swiss bankers used to be dumb, boring and reliable. This is hardly good for business. In fact, a campaign for sacking Tiam is being fought, but that would look racist.  

Tunnels Under London

Under London there is a labyrinth of infrastructure: underground trains, WW2 antiair refuges, secret nuclear bunkers, power tunnels, Victorian era sewage tunnels and more. To install new infrastructure the bureaucracy is worse than the Israeli red tape, because under today's London there is the London of the Roman era, whose remnants are untouchable. The new sewage system had to be built under the river Thames and the paperwork comprised some one hundred large books. I have visited that work and shall write about it. But see the power infrastructure, which is most impressive. The English are still capable of large, complicated  projects.  I don't notice decadence.  

Kushnir's Peace Plan

Kushnir, President Bush's son in law, has proposed a peace plan for Israel that includes a map that is very similar to the Oslo accord, and sovereignty in all Eretz Israel this side of the Jordan. For all the good intentions, I think it will get no traction, first because the Palestinians plainly rejected it, and second, because the Israeli right and Israeli Arabs are fiercely against it.

Apparently, the Plan includes moving the frontier in the Triangle (that is the area where I live and am familiar with) so the three or four Arab villages (cities, in fact) would lose their Israeli citizenship and find themselves ruled by the corrupt and violent Palestinian government. I say that it will not work, since Israeli Arabs are aware of their privileged status, that includes an effective police, social security, free medical care, unemployment payments, and participation in Israel's dynamic economy, and will not accept any change. Most Arabs work in nearby Jewish towns and enjoy labor rights and high salaries - on the other hand, they fulfil vital roles as construction specialists and contractors, health care workers, supermarket cashiers and so. These cities have also developed a class of wealthy entrepreneurs (I did work for them and always paid me, something Jews … well, leave it) and a powerful political lobby.

Depriving of citizenship a large segment of the population, like Modi did to Indian Muslims, cannot be done in Israel. It is true that no one cares about the many millions of Indian Muslims, and no one really cares about Palestinians. But they care for the Jews and they hate us virulently. The whole anti-Semitic world is just waiting for an alibi to condemn us and much worse. We must avoid giving them a cause.

If the real intention is to restart the negotiations or to frighten Israeli Arabs, then it may accomplish its objectives. I assume Bibi would not have agreed otherwise.

P.S.: On the other hand, The Triangle is foreign body incrusted in the heart of Israel. Politically, it is passive today, and gradually integrating, but could become hostile during a Jew vs Palestinian war. As always, I am uncertain and undecided. 

China Closed

The picture of the deserted Nanjing Road in Shanghai shows the degree of the panic that seized China. The government decreed that the New Year holiday will be extended till Febr. 10. I do not know if the panic is justified but closing down a country is a tragedy in itself. The internet is buzzing with conspiracy theories, as it always does.

Anyone who has been in China in the last two weeks is turned back at Ben Gurion airport. Air crew included. Not nice, but this disease seems very nasty.

P.S.: Received a mail with a comprehensive updated report on the disease. Here 

Heaven is Withdrawing its Mandate

In the USA vs China confrontation, I am with the USA, but I feel sad for the suffering of the Chinese people (pictogram left). Now it is Hubei as the quarantine has been extended from Wuhan to the entire province.

The population is impatient and angry. The disease is a natural disaster, but in China the legitimacy of the rulers is function of the mandate of Heaven, expressed through good harvests. If the ruler follows the right rituals, Heaven favors him. Natural disasters are caused by the ruler's impiety.

Fuelling the anger was the publication of a new paper in The New England Journal of Medicine by a team of researchers affiliated with the Chinese Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the Hubei Provincial Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Drawing on data from the first 425 confirmed cases in Wuhan, the paper states that "there is evidence that human-to-human transmission has occurred among close contacts since the middle of December 2019".

Chinese people online were incensed, asking why the government had waited until Jan 20 to inform the public that the virus was capable of being transmitted from human to human. "I'm about to explode, I need an explanation!!!!" Professor Wang Liming of Zhejiang University wrote in a widely shared social media post that was quickly deleted.

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P.S.: The epidemy is becoming a red hot sensitive issue on the internet. I do not want to be part of it and shall stop commenting on it. For now.