Simmering Confrontation with Turkey

Turkey and Turkey dominated Lybia signed a maritime accord declaring the East Mediterranean their property (Map left below). We condemned the declaration as “illegal”, but  that doesn’t mean we are sending battleships to confront Turkey. Greece, which is a close ally of Israel and is at odds with Turkey over a host of issues, called the accord absurd because it ignored the presence of the Greek island of Crete between the coasts of Turkey and Libya. Greece's claims in the map right. Many countries are dividing the seas among themselves. China did it with the South Sea. Without an hegemonic power, as was the US, the world is sliding towards a catch-as-you-can-catch situation. Bad. 

People Wants to Stop Development

Because of mass protests against the new gas development ten kilometers away from the coast, the Ministry of Environment stopped the launch of production at Israel’s Leviathan natural gas field. Phantom fears of unknown contamination and global catastrophe have paralyzed a very important project. It could not happen in China. 

醉翁谈录

Let's Have Another Cup Of Coffee

Just around the corner

There's a rainbow in the sky

So let's have another cup o' coffee

And let's have another piece o' pie!

Trouble's just a bubble

And the clouds will soon roll by

So let's have another cup o' coffee

And let's have another piece o' pie

Let a smile be your umbrella

For it's just an April show'r

Even John D. Rockefeller

Is looking for the silver lining

Mister Herbert Hoover

Says that now's the time to buy

So let's have another cup o' coffee

And let's have another piece o' pie!

China Assimilates Uighur Females

From an Australian paper:

Han Chinese men had been assigned to monitor the homes of Uighur women whose husbands had been detained in prison camps. The reports came out after an anonymous Chinese official gave an interview with Radio Free Asia, confirming the program but denying there was anything sinister about it.

As part of the “Pair Up and Become Family” program, Han Chinese men stay with and sleep in the same beds as Uighur women. According to the Chinese Government, the program is designed to “promote ethnic unity”.

J reflects: Does the Pair Up program take into account what will happen when the Uyghur husbands complete their education and return home and find a Chinese man in the bed with their wives? Or that scenario will never happen? 

Real Money

A humbling thought. What is wealth? A big house in Tel Aviv? The sale of 1.5 percent of Aramco was oversubscribed 4.65 times and the total worth of the company approaches 2 Trillion US dollars. Owner: Saudi King. 

Why are Israeli teenagers so stupid?

The question, formulated more politely as "Why Israel failed in the PISA exams?", is the title of an article in today's fishwrap HaAretz. Prof. Irit Keinan * (from "Women Make Peace" movement), one of the top mandarins of the educational establishment, observes the paradox of Israel's very high investment in education and the very poor results. She writes that it should not be like that, since she KNOWS that children fail in exams because of poor facilities and lack of teaching equipment. And in Israel, education is well budgeted. The government school is frequently the only building in Bedouin tent encampments in the desert.

She discovers the solution to the paradox in the "bizarre alliance" between the right-wing political indoctrination and liberal multiculturalism. Ah! this may be an important insight! But no, she goes on protesting against the politicians in education, and proposes more humanities. To understand the idea, I try to identify the politicians in education and yes, the Minister is a politician, but under her, the bureaucracy is "technological", "professional", career-administrators with Ph.D.s in Education. What is what she wants? Whom she hates? Only she knows. **

Regarding humanities, yes, the latest directive is to emphasize mathematics, and a fifth advanced math subject has been added to the curricula. Is she against it? It is unclear.

I should moderate my criticism of the article because it provides a clear answer to the title question, why are Israeli teenagers so stupid and cannot match Equatorial Guinea *** PISA ranking. It is because Israeli educational leaders are confused and stupid. ****

----
*   She has a nice smile.
** May be she does not.
*** Equatorial Guinea does not participate in the PISA.
**** There is another possibility, but it would invalidate the gist of my criticism. May be Israelis are not very bright, could that be possible?