What is the biblical disease "tzara'at"?

This week we should be reading the chapter Tazria about the skin disease that affected the Israelites of the Bible. Tzaraat is habitually translated as leprosy but the sympthoms of the Bible are completely different. In my opinion, it could have been stress hives (pic).

The Bible prescribes several purification procedures which are ineffective against anything we know but may have been effective to cure some spiritual, mental condition. It certainly caused no harm, and it was shorter (and cheaper)  than psychoanalisis. 

The Fernandez of the Casa Rosada

Alberto Fernandez is a serious university professor, and according to The Economist, is doing a good job as President of Argentina. He is divorced and lives with Fabiana, a 22 years younger actress. He has one son with his former wife, called Estanislao (pic), whose professional name is "Dyhzy". His profession is the oldest of the world, that is, he is a famous drag artist. His/her husband completes Argentina's presidential family.

Argentina has progressed a lot since I made aliyah in 1976. Those were the times of the dictator General Videla, a fanatic pre-Conciliar Catholic, imposing inquisitorial morals on the nation. Argentina is now poor but a democracy. 

Financial Chaos

Students at the University of Miami have filed a class action lawsuit claiming they have paid for in-person courses at a higher rate and, with online instruction, they aren’t getting what they paid for this semester. Students at Drexel University in Pennsylvania have filed a similar suit asking for tuition refunds. In Israel no one is asking for refunds - yet.

The online teaching through ZOOM is definitely not the real thing. It takes much effort to prepare the classes because the students prefer to watch unseen (I presume they are watching, probably not) and ask no questions. And the classes are recorded and downloaded and probably circulated. 

The financial world is in chaos. The Central Banks of all the countries are buying their own bonds, and also stocks. They have to do it because the pensions are based on stocks hedge funds. Already much of the financial assets are owned by the State, which assumes large debts to buy and stabilize the markets. I imagine that much of the stocks are also owned by the State, meaning a silent nationalization or expropriation of the industrial and other companies. Just as Marx predicted, Capitalism leads to the social ownership of the means of production, which is the definition of Socialism. 

But definitions are unimportant, there is no economic activity without the permitting of the State, limiting the concept of "ownership" to a fiction. 

Back to 2018

This corona-crisis destroyed some 20-25% of my savings, to the level of end 2017 - mid 2018. My gas and oil shares are now almost worthless, as the price of oil is 11 dollar a barrel. Two months ago it was sixty. Cheap oil is a potent economic stimulant, so after May the stock exchange may emerge stronger.

But just now, after a month of solitary confinement, and the growing anger against China, I am less optimist than generally. New projects are coming in, but somehow it fails to make me happy.  

Germany Preparing the Demand for Compensation

Julian Reichelt, the prominent editor-in-chief of the Bild, wrote to Jinping that “Your embassy in Berlin has addressed me in an open letter because we asked in our newspaper Bild whether China should pay for the massive economic damage the coronavirus is inflicting worldwide.”

"You [Jinping], your government and your scientists had to know long ago that coronavirus is highly infectious, but you left the world in the dark about it. Your top experts didn't respond when Western researchers asked to know what was going on in Wuhan. You were too proud and too nationalistic to tell the truth, which you felt was a national disgrace.”

The best-selling paper Bild calculated prior to Reichelt's editorial that China owed Germany €149 billion for coronavirus damage, triggering the angry response from the Chinese embassy in Berlin.

Bild said the compensation amounts to €1,784 per person if Germany's GDP drops by 4.2 percent. The Bild article was titled: "What China owes us."

Pic.: 1901 - China occupied and divided between 8 occupying powers.  If I were in Xi's shoes I would be worried because of this German quasi demand.

Argentina is in "Virtual" Default

President Alberto Fernández said Sunday night that Argentina is in virtual default, comparing the economic situation to the 2001 crisis – the worst in the country's recent history.

The country is in recession and has suffered 18 months of economic crisis sparked by a currency crash. Its economy is expected to shrink by 3.1 percent in 2019.  

Again, the country will not pay its debts. I see nothing virtual in its default. The IMF tried to solve it insolvency but it only accelerated the process. It is difficult to explain why Argentina is suffering so much.

Free Oil

Nigeria is giving out oil at 12 dollar a barrel and it cannot sell it all. The low price of energy is stimulating world economy, preventing recession.

Argentina's Health Authorities are discouraging contact sex during the quarantine, and recommending masturbation and videosex. They warn of complications of the stress for cohabiting couples. Buenos Aires is the world capital of Freudian psychoanalisis.