Hantavirus Epidemy

The Hanta virus has mutated and now it is able to travel in small drops emitted by sneezing. It appears as a regular cold that takes up to forty days to disappear. That is when it does not kill the next day of the infection. The focus of the mutation is in the Province of Chubut, Argentina, and already there are three people dead in La Plata, some 2000 km north. The Hantavirus normally lives in the country mouse in the Argentine pampa. Just now, I have a serious cold and can't stop sneezing, also my daughter Nomi is ill in the kibbutz. I hope this mutated virus did not reach Israel yet. If this blog dies, now you know the cause. It is looking at you in the pic.                

Leadership in Beowulf

Leaders in the Beowulf poem are called Kings, Givers of Treasures, that is, they are who distribute a raid's spoils between the fighters. That seems to be the source of their hold on the retainers, and the necessity for having them in the group. They don't really seem to rule, but mostly they give presents, rings and twisted gold chains. Therefore I am a bit surprised by the election as representative of a New York barrio this 29 old healthy good looking portorriquena, Alexandria. I have difficulty in imagining her as an effective politician, although the fact that she made her peregrination to the Holy City of Flint before her campaign is indicative that she has good instincts.

The leadership of the socialist movement in America is heavily Jewish, I mean Jews (not real Jews in my opinion, but in a general sense) are its hard core. Only recently the movement was dying of old age, when it renewed itself by putting in the front visibly non-Jewish furiously anti-Israeli candidates. Not only two colored women were elected (Alexandria and Rachida) but suddenly the movement grew from 30 to 150 chapters. The strategy works. In a metaphorical way, it can compared to Jewish anti-Communists funding the national socialist party in the early nineteen twenties. I feel uneasy with Alexandria and Rachida, but success is success.

Interestingly, in Beowulf there is not one dispute about leadership. The main activity of the Vikings seem to be robbing gold and taking slaves, as well as revenging blood offenses. There is no one lording over them and giving orders. In comparison, the proto-Greek raiders of the Illiad are always competing for leadership - the whole Illiad is the story of the rebellion of the leader of the Mirmidons (the Ant clan) against the authority of the organizer and supreme leader of the expedition. Apparently the Vikings have evolved better genes for co-operative activities. 

Arab-Uyghur Love Affair

I am wordless. 

Disaster at Ayalim Hedge Funds

Add caption

The Marker (a supplement of the infernal HaAretz) writes about Ayalim Funds that lost in 2018 about 9 billion sheqels = 2.5 billion US dollars. It is a lot of money for Israeli savers. Apparently the fund invested in high-yield corporation bonds, like Kardan, Africa Israel, IDB Pituach (I have all of them) and lost over 30%. Well, I still believe that it is paper loss, those companies will pay their debts or renegotiate them in better terms. The 5% loss in sheqel managed funds caught my attention, how that happened? I went to Ayalim website and checked that fund, and it sent me to the TASE website. Seems the page was deleted and the link changed. Not nice. In 2016 Ayalim was the star fund, and that may have gone to their heads.

My portfolio has a positive yield in sheqalim, but I am losing in dollar terms. The reason is the strength of American economy and possibly the imperceptible devaluation of the sheqel vis-à-vis the dollar, possibly because the political uncertainty in Israel. I think that the robots that trade following key-words (trying to evaluate the political-economical sentiment of the country) are to blame, that is, they read the media that is consistently anti-Israel (in the word) and anti-government (in Israel). Reading HaAretz one could think that I am living in Equatorial Guinea and not in prosperous Kever Benjamin City.  

America Should Assist Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan

The brutal sinification of the Turkish Uyghurs is increasingly generating national-racial radicalism and we are hearing more and more about Uyghur fighters escaping to Afghanistan and Central Asia. ISIS had several Uyghur units fighting in Syria and Iraq, and Uyghurs have been carrying out terror acts in Europe and Turkey. Since America has concluded that China is a hostile rival not to say enemy, it needs to find allies whose interest are aligned with the anti-Chinese sentiment. The Uyghurs are a potential asset and should be assisted. Since the only friends they have are Muslim guerillas in Afghanistan, those friends of our potential friends should be organized into the Asian alliance America is trying to build.  Video: Uyghur folk dance. 

The Hui Muslims of Western China also have differences with the Han and their dictatorship. They have no territorial demands but their religion and their contacts with Central Asian Muslims are inacceptable. The Chinese are notoriously arrogant and insensitive (they believe in nothing - only bureaucratic promotion and money) and they are unable to distinguish between Jews and Muslims, and their subdivisions seem bizarre and incomprehensible for them. The last time I was in China, they assigned an Uyghur muslim secret policeman to look after me. I did not care and accepted his presents (enormous peaches and apples) but it was very strange. I asked him to take me to the Jewish street of Kaifeng, which is in the middle of the Muslim quarter, and I also entered mosques, and it was clear that the Huy recognized my escort like the policeman he was. I wondered if the Chinese authorities were aware of the difference between a Turkish Uyghur and the Arabic Huys. I wonder how are doing the Jewish-descendants in Kaifeng. Some have made Aliyah.  

Shuffling the Deck in Israel

We are entering a hotly contested pre-electoral period here in Israel. Political Alliances that held for years are dissolving and everybody is scrambling and positioning for the coming contest. Netaniyahu secured for us seven years of no-war and prosperity, the natives were pacified and the University of Ariel was funded. I wonder if the new political constellation can follow this act.

I am also worried about Oumuamua. 

Wishing the Best to Rashida

Her family’s story is typical of many Palestinians, with relatives scattered across the West Bank, Jordan and the United States. Rashida Tlaib (42) (pic: Pelosi swearing in  the new representative) is the eldest of fourteen children of a Palestinian immigrant to Detroit. The mukhtar Mohammed Tlaib said some 50 people from the illegal Arab settlement on Road 433 have immigrated to the US and now have children in schools and universities in America. 

“It’s a great honour for this small town. It’s a great honour for the Palestinian people to have Rashida in the Congress,” said Mohammed Tlaib, the village’s former mayor and a distant relative. “For sure she will serve Palestine, for sure she will serve the interests of her nation. She is deeply rooted here."

Let me add my congratulations and sincere best wishes for Rashida. I am happy that she and her numerous family have left Israel and are prospering far away. Already I feel safer driving on Route 433 to Jerusalem knowing that fewer Shahabs are throwing stones to Israeli vehicles. And Hon. Muhammed is wrong, she is not deeply rooted here, since she and her hamoolah abandoned their ancestral land for the Goldene Medine. Many Palestinians have reached high political positions in Latin America and now in the USA, and caused us no further problems. From this Kever Benjamin settlement, I wish 

All the Best, Rashida!