Israel is expensive

Tel Aviv is the world's ninth most expensive city, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). It is the second most expensive city to buy alcohol. I don't know, maybe I got used to crazy prices and keep drinking wine. I don't smoke, but I notice that cigarettes are so expensive that people started rolling their own cigarettes. May be it is not tobacco. 

Witnessing a Miracle in Israel

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As the sole descendant of my family, all Hungarian and Czech Jews starved and gassed in Auschwitz, I was always worried about Jewish fertility. The Jews in post WWII Hungary had abysmal rates, to the point that of the some 200,000 survivors, today there are not more than a few thousands. Not enough children to fill the Lauder kindergarten, generously maintained by American donors. That's why I consider the total reversal taking place in Israel as a miracle, something contrary to the expected and the explainable (*). 

I quote the Wiki: "Jewish total fertility rate increased by 10.2% during 1998–2009, and was recorded at 2.90 during 2009. During the same time period, Arab TFR decreased by 20.5%. Muslim TFR was measured at 3.73 for 2009. During 2000, the Arab TFR in Jerusalem (4.43) was higher than that of the Jews residing there (3.79). But as of 2009, Jewish TFR in Jerusalem was measured higher than the Arab TFR (2010: 4.26 vs 3.85, 2009: 4.16 vs 3.87). TFR for Arab residents in the West Bank was measured at 2.91 in 2013, while that for the Jewish residents was reported at 5.10 children per woman. 

The ethnic group with highest recorded TFR is the Bedouin of Negev. Their TFR was reported at 10.06 in 1998, and 5.73 in 2009. TFR is also very high among Haredi Jews. For Ashkenazi Haredim, the TFR rose from 6.91 in 1980 to 8.51 in 1996. The figure for 2008 is estimated to be even higher. TFR for Sephardi/Mizrahi Haredim rose from 4.57 in 1980 to 6.57 in 1996.^" 

I have seen this process with my own eyes in Samaria. From nowhere appeared young boys and girls and went to live in containers in the middle of hostile Arab population. Forty years after, not only that they had established themselves and build beautiful villages and industrial areas, but their example has diffused into the urban, secular Jewry of the country. Yesterday we went to a country club, and there was a surprising number of pregnant women and babies. We live in Kever Benjamin City, an upper middle class (number 8 in the socio-economic scale) city that always had left wing majors, with our own gay carnivals. A miracle.

(*) I presume that the Jewish religion has something to do with it. But looking in detail to that religion and the motives of the religious, it seems impossible, incredible. HaAretz today writes about a religious dispute about the kashrut (purity) of the Barkan and the Tepperberg wines. The Haredi Religious Court forbid drinking Barkan because non-rabbinical/doubtful Jews were employed in the winery (Ethiopian immigrants) and the Tepperberg because women (possibly menstruating) could come into touch with the wine. HaAretz makes fun of our holy religion ("Santa Fe" in Spanish) asking if male babies could be breastfed by their mothers. Illustration by  Dr He Qi, The miracle of Jonah and the fish.

How Argentina's pillage was organized

Argentine jails are these days filling up with construction industry managers and public servants.  The discovery of the gang's delivery man's diary naming names and dates has opened a can of worms. The methodology was holding meetings between building companies and the Minister of Planning in charge of public works, to distribute the contracts. Once awarded, the advance payment - about 20% of the worth of the contract - was "returned" to the gang. This was compensated by allowing non-payment of the VAT (Value Added Tax), which was written down as to be paid some later date or effectively, never. In addition, the companies were asked to make political campaign contributions to the Peronist party, that were more or less legal.

Jose Lopez (pic), the Subminister of Public Works, had an important role in the chain. He had been caught with zipped bags containing million of dollars while trying to get rid of them. He was throwing the bags over the gate of a monastery. He declared that the money was not his but property of some un-nameable top politician. Except the content of those bags, the rest of the money has disappeared in an ocean of fake companies and secret accounts. 

Of course, we cannot compare Argentina (200 years of independence) with young Israel (70 years) but we too had our little public works scandal, in which was implicated my former boss Alex Vizhnitzer. We have yet much to learn from Argentina, they have elevated corruption to its highest level of perfection. 

Digester Egg! There I come!

I am planning my visit to New York with my little daughter and her fiancée. First things first! Digester Egg!

Nestor Kirchner Legacy

Kirchner was a self-made lawyer in Santa Cruz, the windswept Patagonian province. When he won the Peronist party's candidacy, he was already a very rich man. Once in power, he imposed quotas "aportes" on each Ministry, which had to be delivered in dollars (cash only) to the Government House. The cash had to be counted and signed by his accountants and delivered in handbags, three times a week. Vicepresident Boudou was his controller, he too got very rich. The cash was then transferred to secret accounts in Seychelles and other islands. Another source of income was Techint, Argentina's largest building company. Its Venezuelan filial was nationalized by Maduro and the compensation was channeled to Kirchner in 100,000 dollar monthly payments. Techint says that they never paid anything to Kirchner, and the prove is that they were never awarded any public project under Kirchner.

When Nestor suddenly died, his widow inherited this well oiled "public monies collecting machinery" and the fattening of the family fortune. The Kirchner children are, apparently, not up to their parents, so there will no Kirchner dynasty. Although corruption was always a feature of Argentina's government, there was never such a systematic plunder as organized by the talented Nestor Kirchner.  

The Weekly Portion

This week we are reading the portion of the Bible dealing with Moshe's instructions before starting the conquest of the Land. 

First of all, the Israelites must destroy every sign of the religion of the natives. 

Second, the Israelites will create an organized religion centered in the "place the G-d will choose" and only there they will offer sacrifices. The Bible does not define the place, although Mount Gerizim and Mount Avel are mentioned.  

The Samaritan Jews still consider that the Temple is in Mt. Gerizim (pic) in Samaria (Shomron). A second priestly center developed in Judea, with center in Jerusalem, which competed with the Samaria priesthood. Contemporary Jews are descended from the Judeans and our temple is in Jerusalem. 

The chapter calls to give ten percent of the agricultural produce to the assistant priests tribe living all around the country, called Levi'im, as they are the only Israelites with no land of theirs. 

Now it is the third time we are following his program. 

The Sacking of Argentina

The former vicepresident of Argentina has been condemned to six years of jail for corruption. The case was abruptly solved with the finding of the diary of the messenger the network employed (pic) and the confession of the people mentioned in it. Presidents Nestor Kirchner and her widow headed the operation. Argentina had been systematically pillaged by a criminal gang that even ordered the secret service to kill the Attorney General while he was under heavy police "protection". The jailing of former rulers is a standard procedure in Argentina to "cure" crimes and corruption, a magical ritual that purifies the country and let's it start anew virginal and immaculate. Maybe this time it will work, although the current President Macri - the head of a vast family business (see Forbes's list of Argentine billionaires), has been linked to the 'Ndrangheta or whatever they call themselves. Since the leak of the Panama accounts, all this has been public knowledge.