Big Steps in China

 

A sculpture of a giant person walking stands still at the entrance of the Super Sample exhibition in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province. One of the largest artworks produced in China in recent years, Walking Person by renowned artist Su Xinping depicts a person taking big steps forward, raising a series of questions for viewers to think about: Where does he come from? Where is he going? Why is he in such a hurry?

The Forbidden City

Those who entered Beijing through the Beijing port have to undergo 10 days of centralized quarantine and seven days of home quarantine, and those who entered Beijing through other Chinese cities are allowed to enter the capital after 14 days of quarantine in the entry cities. Otherwise, they are not allowed to enter Beijing. 

Beijing announced it would conduct three more rounds of district-wide nucleic acid testing from Tuesday for 12 districts, and the first round of testing collected samples from 19.9 million people, and three tubes which mixed 10 samples in one tube tested positive. 

Beijing has basically figured out the hidden community transmissions (ed.: It is public buses and they closed several stations and public toilets.)

From Global Times. 

Israel GDP per capita overtakes Germany

SOURCE. 

This is the time to remember my friend Benno Gitter, who dedicated his life to Israel's economic independence (and making much money).

 Benno Gitter lied that he was born in Amsterdam in 1919. In fact, he was Romanian. In 1942 he and his family fled to Argentina, where he resumed his career in the leather business. In 1954 he emigrated to Israel. Since then he has been closely involved with the economy and industry of Israel, especially the Israel Discount Bank Group and CLAL, of which he was co-founder and with Tel Aviv University. 

Jews in Euphoria

 I tried to take off the weekend but cannot. The Jews here are in euphoria, everybody and his dog are starting businesses and adding factory space, and phoning me every hour to get plans and permits ready. They are sending me money to make me work and I am unable to refuse. Last Friday I completed transferring the large amount promised to my daughter for the purchase of a luxury apartment in Hod Hasharon. She wanted a view of a green park, how can a father say no? 

Independence day today. Tomorrow the clan will have a barbecue. The weather is nice. People are in euphoria. 

Israel in the New World Order

 Reading Chinese papers I was surprised by a mention of The Epoch Times publication, which I had never heard about before. I went directly to its website and spent an hour watching a Victor Hanson interview. The professor is very pessimistic, the post-WWII American order is collapsing and the Ukraine war can easily evolve into a worldwide conflagration. Yet he ends with an optimistic vision of America leading a Western alignment, which is much stronger than China alone. 

Alone among Western gurus he said some very ugly but true things about the Ukrainians. For example that half-million Ukrainian volunteers defended the Atlantic coast and when Americans landed, they were "welcomed" by Ukrainian-speaking Wehrmacht soldiers. Putin is right about them being Nazis. It is somewhat amazing to watch the Jewish comic actor hired by the Nazi forces to play the role of their Leader. 

Anyway, some of the remaining Ukrainian Jews that are part of the 5 million Ukrainian refugees are making aliyah instead of moving to Switzerland. Source.  

In 2021 there were some 30,000 new immigrants, and the wave is growing. Israel's population grew 2% year-to-year and we are approaching 7 million Jews here. Natural increase is rising - there is hope ahead. American Jews (as all decent city Whites) are feeling increasingly out of place. Whites are evacuating in mass the cities because of the physical violence, the third-world cultural and political environment, the education centered on woke ideology, the oppressive taxation and legislation. Some Jews are already thinking this it is not for them and their families. 

Shanghai Mystery: Is it Martial Law?

The Authorities have quarantined the whole population of Shanghai, 25 million inhabitants, forbidding them to go out of their apartments without a medical pass.  It is a fantastically well-managed operation. The pic shows the new Baimao makeshift hospital for those identified as infected by the COVID-19 virus. It is an architectural marvel, built with identical factory-made containers, with sanitary installation visible. All rooms air-conditioned. All very standardized and clean. Compare with the leaking tents set up on hospital parking spaces we had here in Israel.  

The mystery is why the Chinese leadership has adopted this total, fanatical quarantine policy, unique in the whole world. Hanania says in a podcast that the reason is that they are unable to produce the immunization vaccine. That is ridiculous. (*) Others say that the Chinese must know something. I know nothing but respect the Chinese and am going out the minimum. 

(*) Maybe it is not. There is no answer for the Omicron variety, and others are certainly evolving. 

P.S.: Maybe the government is preparing the population for the event of a biological attack. Say a new deadly strain appears and there is no time to prepare the immunization vaccine. 

The lockdown also is a form of martial law while convincing the population that it is protecting them against the epidemy. 

Lucky Strike

Stock market news live updates: Stocks slide to end April with steep losses, S&P 500 drops 8.8% in the worst month since March 2020

I spent the last two months selling stock to help my daughter R to buy a large apartment in Hod Hasharon. This Friday I finished transferring her the sum agreed upon, and voila, immediately, the NASDAQ and the S&P fell precipitously. That's luck. Apartment prices in Israel, especially in the center, are astronomical. One million dollars is the average. The price of the same 50 km from Tel Aviv is only half or a third. I hope to be rewarded with another beautiful grandkid.