Saving the Israeli Garlic

A large infrastructure facility in the Negev is protected by powerful floodlights at night. That is, it was. These days the regulators forced it to dampen the illumination because it bothered a rare, endemic species, the humble and barely visible Allium Kolmannianum, the Israeli garlic (pic). The strong light confused the poor garlic and could lead to its extinction. The facility was causing light pollution in the desert. One is learning new things all the time.

BTW the vegetable grows only in the Dimona - Beer Sheva area. Foreign satellite image analysts must be wondering why the area has been suddenly obscured at night. Clue: "Garlic".

Uber-capitalism in the UK: The Carillion Bankrupcy

The extremist capitalist concept of privatizing State functions had been first implemented in Britain - surely in the water sector that I am familiar with. Public (their shares are sold in the stock exchange) companies like Thameswater seem to be working, but the failure of Carillion may provide an argument against privatization and for socialization.

We all know that pens in the post office do not write, so it is assumed that private enterprise can do the job better and cheaper. Yet the experience in water is mostly negative. In Argentina and Latin America, several water monopolies were privatized (with World Bank assistance) but they did not last much. The Israeli experience with the Taagidey Maim is a total failure: they evolved into another bureaucracy and not even one of them tried to sell shares or bonds in the stock exchange as was intended.

I have no experience in other areas like public works where Carillion was operating. Now, thousands of staff of the collapsed construction firm Carillion will have their wages stopped. The firm also manages British jails and schools and other public institutions. 30,000 small firms are owed money by Carillion.


Apparently, efficiency is not always improved by privatization. It is agreed that Statism/Socialism does not work. What works?

Nuclear missiles inbound to America

The panic episode in Hawai is intriguing. Was it a psy war exercise to see what would happen? How did the people react? Is America expecting nuclear attack? Is North Korea intending to conquer South Korea or it just want to dissuade outside attack? Is North Korea's nuclear capability unacceptable? To whom? China? South Korea? The USA? No one?

The Jewish Doctors Trial in the SSSR

Stalin, in his final years, became a rabious antisemite. The trial of the Jewish doctors was intended to prepare psychologically the population for the mass transfer of Russian Jews to BiroBidjan. We shall never know what went on in his senile mind, ruined by lifelong alcohol abuse. In the 20th. Century it was more dangerous to be a Jew than during the 13th Century Crusades. In Europe, one had a 70% chance of being assassinated and the Jew trapped in the SSSR barely escaped.

Marx as Lobbyist for Jewish Rights

Who imagined that Karl Marx would fight for the political right of German Jews? I always thought of Marx as a ferocious antisemite who hated his Jewish roots, but I see that I am wrong. I am over seventy and always learning new things and forced to change my ideas. It has to be understood that Marx lived and fought for Jewish emancipation within a society with deep prejudices, where actual, real Jews, were a tiny minority. In France, for example, there had been no Jews in the last 800 years. Most of the German-speaking lands were also Judenfrei. Like, say, Malaysia today, a country without Jews where violent prejudice reigns against the imagined Jew. Marx's approach was that only a general revolution could make life livable for German Jews, and that particularist projects were doomed. The historic fact is that European Jews were emancipated little later, but a hundred years later it did not save them from expulsion and Auschwitz.

Bringing Tigers and Flies to Justice

Mao had his little red book. Xi Jinping has Thoughts on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era. Some thoughts:

The Party's eight-point frugality rules must be strictly followed, and undesirable work styles including hedonism, extravagance, formalism and bureaucracy must be firmly opposed.

Officials must say no to thoughts of privilege, stay loyal to the people, get down to the grassroots, and make efforts to resolve problems that dissatisfy the people.

Zero tolerance and complete coverage in the fight against corruption. Xi said that both tigers and flies－higher and lower levels of corrupt officials－must be brought to justice.

How do you say "shithole" in Chinese (without offending the shithole people)

Blake Stone-Banks‏ @blakestonebanks

Ha! Here's how friends are saying "shithole country" in Beijing: 垃圾国家 ("trash country"), 破点儿 ("broken place"), 鬼地方 ("haunted spot"), 穷山恶水 ("barren mountains and evil waters"), and the best: 粪坑国 ("manure kingdom").