Rat Disease Epidemy in Israel

The Ministry of Health has forbidden the access to the Northern rivers because a dozen boys caught the rat disease, Leptospirosis. No, the boys did not turn into Splinter (pic) but it is to early to make a judgment.  When I was lecturing in hospitals and occupational safety groups, I used to emphasize that no sewage-related disease is recognized by the Social Security, except one:  Leptospirosis. Should anybody catch the disease, he/she/it is entitled to receive disability payments for life. No one ever claimed this benefit, because the disease was not present  in Israel. Now there is, but I doubt if the children will be able to claim occupational disability.

The truth about the Falashas finds its way to HaAretz

A ranking Haredi linked with the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi (pic) writes in today's HaAretz, my favorite extreme left-wing fishwrap, that "Yes, They are Jews-in-Doubt". "They" are the Ethiopian Jews. There was no Ashkenazi rabbi who opined that the Falashas are Jews, and it was the act of a sole individual - the late Chief Sepharadi Rabbi Joseph - who certified their Jewishness and forced the State of Israel to bring them all from Ethiopia. His motives were clear: to increase the "Sepharadi" voting mass and gain power through his Shas party. The article accuses the Sepharadi Haredim of hypocrisy and racism, because their Yeshives (high schools) reject Ethiopian students and they never marry Ethiopians. 
 The Ashkenazi Haredim, more honest, declare them non Jews and deal with them as human beings. They will not certify as Kosher the wine touched by Ethiopians because religion forbids drinking wine touched by non-Jews. There is a ferocious power dispute within the Haredi community, for a variety of issues. The Haredim are less than 10% of the population of Israel. 

Girls

Maggie Tabibi, a TV personality. In fact, more than personality, she is an image. Israel has girls. 

INTEL NVIDIA ET AL

Regular INTEL chips are losing popularity and newfangled accelerated graphic chips are interesting. They consume much electricity and emit much heat, creating refrigeration problems. I am betting in Nvidia but INTEL is bigger and interesting. It is difficult to displace a monopoly. The 36 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Intel Corp have a median target of 58.00,  +19.71%
increase from the last price of 48.45. The question is what are doing the Chinese and the Japanese. China depends on foreign-made chips. It imported $227 billion worth of integrated circuits in 2016. 

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.