are weekends time for politics? or were they just made for Michelob?

i try to read and catch up on what is going on.

here is an argument between 2 people. based on the two, whose side would you take?

Man 1: … he is a small man, devoid of any sense of justice, a technocrat with no real understanding of …

Man 2: I would say that the his comments are specious and ill-befitting his post…I am content to be judged by my actions over the course of my career

read the haaretz article below to find out more on these two people

the issue is crucial. if israel mis-manages our tactics on this matter, the UN security council can approve the goldstone report. some of our soldiers and generals will be subjects of trials by the ICC in the Hagu. that would make a lot of people, which  i do not like, happy

should israel carry an independent audit of what happened in gaza? are there lessons to be learned?

____________

South African jurist Richard Goldstone lambasted President Shimon Peres on Thursday for a personal attack on him, which the president launched in response to a damning report he compiled on Israel’s winter offensive in Gaza.

“I would say that the President’s comments are specious and ill-befitting the Head of the State of Israel,” Goldstone said in an interview with Haaretz.

	Advertisement

“I am content to be judged by my actions over the course of my career both in terms of my professional judicial career and my voluntary service.”

The jurist was referring to comments Peres made on Wednesday to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during a meeting in Brasilia.

Peres told his Brazilian counterpart that, “Goldstone is a small man, devoid of any sense of justice, a technocrat with no real understanding of jurisprudence.”

Goldstone added in the interview that while he anticipated there would be considerable criticism of the report from Israel, he was surprised at the many “nasty attacks” made against him personally.

By José Adán Silva

MANAGUA, Oct 19 (IPS) – If they could, about 60 percent of Nicaraguans
under 30 would go to live abroad, according to studies on migration,
which find that the country’s chronic poverty is the main reason for
wanting to migrate.

Between 1990 and 2005, more than 800,000 Nicaraguans left the country,
and 400,000 more could migrate by 2010, according to the United
Nations Development Programme’s Human Development Report 2009, devoted
this year to the topic of migration. But local projections put that
figure even higher.

The report, “Overcoming Barriers: Human Mobility and Development”,
adds the caveat that its estimates for 2010 of migration for economic
reasons are based on long-term trends, and may not exactly predict the
effects of unexpected short-term fluctuations like the ongoing global
economic crisis.

According to Bayardo Izabá, the head of the non-governmental
Nicaraguan Human Rights Centre (CENIDH), the statistics in the UNDP
report are an underestimate. Although the report was released this
month, it is based on surveys carried out by the Economic Commission
for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in 2007.

“Over one million people have left the country because of poverty,”
Ibaza told IPS. “No one leaves the country for any other reason, and
there are another million or more young people who want to migrate.”

CENIDH publishes an annual report on the general situation in
Nicaragua, including the number of people who migrated and those who
were deported back to the country.

The Human Development Report indicates that Nicaraguans living abroad
represent 13 percent of the country’s population, which was 5.5
million in 2007. Nicaragua is ranked 124th out of 182 countries in
terms of its human development index, a measure of a country’s success
in providing citizens with a long, healthy life, education and decent
living standards.

Nicaragua has the lowest human development index in Central America
and the second lowest in Latin America after Haiti. The UNDP puts the
poverty rate in Nicaragua at 48 percent, and extreme poverty at 17
percent.

The head of the non-governmental Permanent Commission on Human Rights,
Marcos Carmona, told IPS that people migrate for two main reasons:
chronic poverty that was aggravated by the 1979-1990 civil war, and
government neglect because the administration’s economic policies are
focused on meeting financial obligations to multilateral lenders.

The overthrow of the four-decade Somoza family dictatorship in 1979 by
the leftist Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN) was followed
by the counter-revolutionary (Contra) attacks by former members of the
Somoza armed forces and other opponents of the Sandinistas, financed
and equipped by the United States. After 1990, right-wing governments
implemented neoliberal free-market economic policies.

Carmona said Nicaragua’s economic troubles have been accentuated by
the global crisis that originated in the United States last year, and
by a halt to international aid as a result of allegations of electoral
fraud in 2008.

The FSLN, which returned to the government in January 2007, was
accused of fraud in the 2008 municipal elections by opposition parties
and civil society, religious and economic groups. As a result, major
donors like the United States and European countries stopped sending
aid, which had amounted to some 500 million dollars a year.

This brought about lower levels of funding for social projects, a
contraction of the economy and no employment growth in the public and
private sectors.

“Young people, our greatest human capital and the driving force in any
economy, want to migrate, which is a clear sign that we are failing as
a society. They have lost confidence in their future and in the
ability of their country’s leaders to provide answers to their needs,”
said Carmona.

Figures from the state Youth Secretariat and the Nicaraguan Institute
of Information for Development indicate that 69.9 percent of the
country’s 5.7 million people (according to 2009 estimates) are under
30.

In a 2007 study by the Nicaraguan Civil Society Network for Migration,
60 percent of respondents under 30 said they would like to leave the
country in search of employment and opportunities for personal growth.

The official unemployment rate in Nicaragua is under nine percent, but
private sources put it as high as 14 percent.

Companies in the industrial free zone are the main source of
employment, but more than 30,000 people have lost their jobs there in
the last two years.

Fifty-five percent of the economically active population works in the
informal economy, scraping a living as street vendors or in different
microbusinesses. Nicaragua’s per capita GDP is the lowest in Central
America, at 2,570 dollars, according to the UNDP. A survey by the M&R
Consultores polling firm found that 59.4 percent of Nicaraguans
between 16 and 55 were considering leaving the country because of
economic difficulties.

This means that approximately one-and-a-half million people would be
willing to cross Nicaragua’s borders to seek better opportunities
abroad.

In 2007, Nicaraguans working abroad sent home 740 million dollars in
remittances, equivalent to 12.1 percent of GDP, according to the Human
Development Report.

The UNDP report also analysed social and economic characteristics and
educational achievements among Nicaraguan migrants.

It found that 40.7 percent of migrants had been to primary school,
41.1 percent had studied at secondary or technical schools, and 18.1
percent had some higher education.

These figures are similar to those provided by other international
studies, such as the World Bank’s International Migration, Remittances
and the Brain Drain report of late 2005.

The World Bank study estimates that nearly 30 percent of those who
leave the country are skilled workers or professionals, and 67 percent
are under 29 years old.

Mario Quintana, a member of the board of Coordinadora Civil, an NGO
which observes social indicators and analyses the socio-economic
situation in the country, told IPS that migration is rising in
response to a lack of public policies to foment job creation.

“There isn’t a single report, official or private, that predicts
economic improvement in the country in the short or medium term. On
the contrary, everyone expects the local financial crisis to get
worse, and that at least another 100,000 people a year will fall into
poverty,” said Quintana.

“What will all these people do? The same thing that over one million
have already done: leave their homeland,” he said. (END/2009)

Ever thoughts about going into politics?

felt like making change?

well, i do not see myself entering politics.

however, this blog will.

main reason is that people in other countires need help. they need their voice to be echoed.

and for us israelies, i think it is important to realize we are not in the center off the earth.

i will try to echo voices of friends

we are in a period where every tribe is trying to close up to other tribes. it feels a bit isolated

so once in a while, when you here some politics here, it is for a reason. to hear people from another corner of this planet. a lonely planet.

a great article by my friend jonny, regarding how we are communicating. “The Israeli Way”

http://www.globes.co.il/news/article.aspx?QUID=1055,U1258011085926&did=1000503129

if you do not like to lick on links

during a discussion, when you reply to a thought or claim, start the sentance with ‘כן’ as opposed to ‘לא’

familiar with this word? if the answer is ‘yes’ read on

if the answer is ‘no’ please do as well.

ever feel like you have done great work and nobody notices?

aglets are not recognized by many on-line spell checkers.

_____________

from the urban dictionary:

Quite possibly the greatest invention of all time, aglets are those plastic thingies on the end of shoelaces. Without them we would not only be unable to put the laces into the shoe holes, but the laces would become unraveled and absorb dirt and other unwanted materials.

example of usage of the word aglet in a sentence:

I’ve worn my shoes for such a long time that the aglets came off, I think I need new shoes.

_____________

my advise: keep the shoes. by new shoe laces.

if you are a men, and over 50 you better know your PSA

(on a yearly basis)

1. what is PSA?
2. below a letter i got from a friend

PSA is not the acronym for the Peugeout group, not the photographic society of america, and not pharmaceutical society of australia. it is not even a public service announcement.

click here for PSA

it is a measure of your prostate cancer antigen

____________

please see the letter i got below

what is cool about it is:

• mustaches are cool, but  out of fashion (with the exception of turkey)
• the social manner  to increase awareness of prostate cancer. manly, in your face, noticeable but gentle
• the fact that we can all donate on-line for one person’s sacrifices

____________

I am growing a moustache this year for Movember.  I have decided to put down my razor for one month (November) and help raise awareness and funds for men’s health – specifically prostate cancer.

What many people don’t appreciate is that one man dies every hour of prostate cancer in the UK, more than 35,000 men will be diagnosed this year and that prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK.  Facts like these have convinced me I should get involved and I am hoping that you will support me.

To donate to my Mo, you can either:

•    Click this link http://uk.movember.com/mospace/403198/ and donate online using your credit card, debit card or PayPal account
•    Write a cheque payable to ‘The Prostate Cancer Charity – Movember’, referencing my Registration Number 403198 and mailing it to: Movember – The Prostate Cancer Charity, First Floor, Cambridge House, Cambridge Grove, London, W6 0LE.

Movember is now in its third year here in the UK  and, to date, has achieved some pretty amazing results by working alongside The Prostate Cancer Charity.  Check out further details at: http://uk.movemberfoundation.com/research-and-programs.

If you are interested in following the progress of my Mo, click here http://uk.movember.com/mospace/403198/. Also, http://uk.movember.com has heaps of useful information.

feel good with your work-life balance?

think that work has too big a part in your life? your identity?

bought a nice lamp from this store in Venezia. in the part where locals live.

check out the store hours. works every day. monday-friday 5 in the evening to 8:30. when people come back from work? perhaps.

on weekends, both saturday and sunday 3-8:30. longer hours. hey, this guy works 7 days a week!

seems to me this guy has figured things out that we hi-tech savvy people have not. ( for other references to us champagne socialists take a look at this post). i bet you he will work till he is 75. you should have seen the smile on his face too.

The NY Yankees win the World series in 6 games

mitsui is the MVP. of course, 6 RBIs in the winning game. Mitsui, the mvp, is the first japanese born player to win the title. we are becoming globalized.

notice the following:

• MVP is in the winning team (which i think should often be the case, but it seems to be ALWAYS the case, at least lately).
• the MVP of the series is actually the MVP of the last game.

how about Alex Rodriguez, or Rivera? A rod was pivotal in two pivotal games, especially game 4. and Rivera was part of every win.

it seems to me the underlying reason is the ‘recency effect‘:

• we place more importance on the latest occurrence than we should.
• we ask people what they have done for us lately, forgetting what they have done for us in the past.
• in the compilation of the best songs in the past 50 years, or the best movies,  songs and movies from the last year or so get a dis-proportional weight.

call mom or dad and say ‘thank you’.

just saw the movie revolutionary road for the 2nd time, and i think it is better than i remembered.

my friend Moshe says movies should be watched twice. the first time is to get the plot out of the way. especially for us israelis who spend most of the time looking at the subtitles at the bottom of the frame.

kate winslet is becoming one of my favorite actresses.

mike shannon, was nominated for best supporting actor  because of this scene. seems a bit of an underrated actor. expect great things from him.

check out this scene. extremely powerful

i love it when ‘the truth’ comes out.

it is there. we all know it. we do not forget its existence. we just live every day to hide it. deeper. then, it pops out. when you least expect it.

i believe most people like the truth in small doses. the beauty of this scene is that it comes in large portions. ’super-size’. a bit too much to swallow.dreams are crushed.

the price people pay to live within expectations of others.

“It is only by selection,elimination, emphasis that we get at the real meaning of things” . O’keeffe’s words are relevant for the VC job as well.

went to the Georgia O’keeffe exhibition at the Whitney, called abstraction. the whitney is a nice building, by the way, designed by Marcel Breuer. its windows are unusual, and can be considered upside down.

i was greatly impressed by

• how ground breaking O’keeffe’s work was and the pain it caused her to be misunderstood
• her ability to break taboos and live away from the city
• her relationship with alfred stieglitz and what it did artistically for both of them. his photographs of her are genius. for their letters, there is a great archive at the yale library . i really am impressed how he saw the light in her early, and promoted her, championed her despite their large age difference ~24 years.

with the fire inside her, and the confidence of a mentor, she had the poise to produce in a prolific manner; and as an avant-garde and true to herself, she had a great, long life.  a bit like matisse’s paper cuts, in her late years she was ill, her ability to produce was reduced, resulting in a new use of color, barely recognizable as O’keeffe.

i really want to spend more time photographing. would love to produce some great photos. good composition, good lighting. and making people satisfied. good art makes my stomach turn. after an hour at a good exhbition i need to rest. the exhiliration i reach is rarely matched by other experiences. a bit like runners high, or falling in love.