Bad Neigborhood

There is a terrible article in ZERO HEDGE about the situation Egypt.  Its foreign debt reaches 100 billion, and the interest payments consume 65% of its budget. The problem is more hopeless than Argentina ever. 

The logic is simple: increased spending on mega-projects, financed by high-interest debt, has allowed the military to rapidly expand its wealth  while the repayment of debt is financed through the appropriation of public resources, which is in turn financed by a regressive taxation system. This creates a diabolical cycle of structural poverty impossible to escape.

The mechanism is well known in Argentina where ten percent (or more) of every public infrastructure project was delivered in cash to the governing clique, while the projects were financed partly by foreign debt. More projects - more money into the pockets of the military rulers. Who cares about what the projects are or pretend to be?  It is irrelevant if it is the purchase of expensive weapons, an irrigation scheme, or building a new capital in the desert. The bigger and the stupider, the better. 

The increased influence of Gulf capital in the Egyptian economy comes with grave economic consequences. Last September, an Emirati firm acquired a 30 percent stake in the government-owned Eastern Company, which controls 70 percent of the country’s tobacco market. The deal was valued $625m.  

The article warns of increasing pauperization of the Egyptian people. This neighborhood never was good and is fast getting worse. 

 

New Project in the Shomron

 

I started a new project in the Shomron, in the Industrial Park of Ariel. The Park has developed since I worked there at its foundation, and today is huge and impressive. The trees on the streets had grown and there was much shade (It was a very hot midday). To my surprise, there was a lot of parking space as the Palestinians leave their cars outside. Currently, there is a big problem with the water and sewage infrastructure, that was not developed to follow the success of the Park. 

The pic was taken from the site. Opposite the wadi, one can see the Industrial Area of Barkan. I planned some of those big hangars, and they are all occupied. I spoke to friendly Palestinian workers, they were interested in what I was doing, and they helped me to get around. 

Indian under the Sun (1980)

 

Based on a story by Adam Baruch, this film is the first of the Epos 11 series. It is about a Cochin Jew in the army, led to prison by a Tel Aviv redhead. On the way, he allows the Indian to visit his village and see his pregnant wife. The Indian wants to escape, and the ginger knows it and allows him to run away, but the Indian refuses. In the end, he escapes after being delivered to the prison, saving the ginger from punishment. The film was projected only on TV because it was about sensitive racial/ethnic differences, although its message is not confrontational, on the contrary. The visual description of a Cochin Jews moshav in the Jerusalem mountains is very realistic, I know them, and the young people sitting and doing nothing is exactly how it was. 

Adam Baruch was an Israeli writer who emerged from the ultra-religious Mea Shearim neighborhood. I bought his book "Lustig" to learn Hebrew, it is about a half-hearted shooting of an Arab.  

War of the Worlds

 

1953 film based on H.G. Wells' classic novel is brought to life in this tale of alien invasion. The radio version presented a piece of real news, caused mass panic. How tall and skinny were those Californians.

Chinese ink brush paintng of a snow tiger

 

 Nice. Minimalist. I have a tiger ink painting in my bedroom, but it must be a copy. 

West Nile Virus

The Virus looks like a complicated chemical machine, designed to kill humans. West Nile virus (WNV) is a neurotropic flavivirus that cycles between mosquitoes and birds but that can also infect humans, horses, and other vertebrate animals. In most humans, WNV infection remains subclinical. However, 20%–40% of those infected may develop WNV disease, with symptoms ranging from fever to meningoencephalitis. It is now present in Israel, carried by mosquitoes.  Don't we have enough troubles that this thingie comes to make our life even more dangerous?

 

Getting Ready for the War in the North

Pic from today's military leaders meeting in preparation for the coming Northern war. No one is smiling at the camera. There are things on the table that the Censor doesn't allow us to see. Cigarettes? Cheetos? Bamba? Bibles?

They use Panasonic Thoughbooks.