A Recurring Nightmare

Deja vu all over again. Every time that a new provocation threatens to deepen the violence between Israel and the Palestinians is yet another time of anguish and despair. Why is this conflict so intractable? The reasons are many and complex.
But nobody really wants to hear them, on either side. In the now hysterical echo chamber of social media, it boils down to one thing on both sides of the divide: propaganda.
I don't trust that most people, regardless of their stance on the matter, can tell the difference between information and propaganda. Propaganda is manipulative, easy to digest and aims to inflame passions. Information, on the contrary, is hard work. It relies on facts. It's supposed to be objective and most importantly, it makes you think, consider, weigh, make up your mind. It's too much work, so people go with propaganda.
Well, I'm sick of the propaganda on both sides. I'm sick of scrolling down to rivers of  hatred unleashed upon Israel, the likes of which other terrible crises, indeed even worse crises, never manage to provoke. I don't hear such passionate outrage about Assad's ongoing genocide of his own people, or about the depredations of ISIS in Iraq, about the horrifying perennial conflicts in Africa, about America's drone attacks, or even about the humanitarian crisis of undocumented immigrant children right on our border. Such outpourings of virulent outrage are reserved exclusively for Israel because Israel is perceived to be the sole bully, the oppressor, the eternal aggressor in this conflict. Also, in many cases, because it allows antisemitism to come safely out of the woodwork. And please don't tell me that I perceive antisemitism because as a Jew, I am too sensitive. Antisemitism is like porn: I know it when I see it.
Newsflash for both Jews and non-Jews alike: being critical of the policies of the State of Israel does not make you an antisemite. Many Israelis and Jews, myself included, disagree with the continued occupation and other right wing policies of the current Israeli government. We are appalled and concerned by them. That does not mean we do not support Israel. On the contrary, we are worried that they are detrimental to Israel's survival. We want a better way.
Hating Israel, on the other hand, claiming that you are an anti-zionist, questioning Israel's right to exist, and spewing vitriol against Jews, that is a different story.
I am equally sick of Israeli propaganda about thousands of Hamas missiles (not remotely hitting anything, yet) and how the kind Israeli army sends leaflets out to warn Palestinians, and how restrained it is. And what would you do if your neighborhood was showered with rockets every day? These spiffy memes neglect a fundamental issue: they neglect to consider the occupation. They neglect to consider that the Palestinians living under it in permanent humiliation and distress, have a right to fight it, just like Israel has a right to its self-defense.
No one looks at a map. Well, here's another map:

No one cares about the geopolitics, the demographics, and the frightening political complexities of the Middle East. People are busy posting pictures. Of fizzling flying missiles, to Israel's public relations misfortune, rarely landing on top of as yet unscathed civilians; on the other side, and far more damaging in every sense, of scores of Palestinian children killed and maimed by the Israelis. You tell me what provokes more outrage.
But much worse than the propaganda are most comments. Caught between two sides of a world citizenry that, with the advent of social media, has taken it upon itself to be the bearer of bad news, defender and apologist for one cause or the other, one is at the mercy of unrestrained lunacy, bordering on idiocy, on both sides.

Israel's occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is a rapidly spreading cancer that threatens its existence. It is morally untenable. It is fraying the fabric of civilization, let alone democracy, in Israel. In my view, it has become a grave strategic error. All it has unleashed is a threat to Israel's survival as a modern nation, from the oppression of the Palestinians to the unconscionable coddling of religious Jews in the expanding settlements. If Israel continues its path towards the extreme right, it may survive as an obscurantist theocracy, but that, my fellow Jews, should be cause for alarm and our most vocal opposition. Because if that happens, it will be the end of Israel. 
Having said this, many people see this conflict as Israel's sole responsibility. They choose to ignore the fact that the Palestinians are also oppressed by the vested, byzantine interests of the Arab world, to whom the Palestinians are a convenient tool for directing elsewhere the frustrations of their own oppressed citizens.
The only way out is to find the political will of all parties involved: of Israel, of the different Palestinian factions, of the neighboring Arab states and the rest of the Arab world, of Iran, of the US, the EU, Russia, China, etc, to sit down to serious negotiations and commit political will and economic resources to find a viable Palestinian state or some other option that ensures Israel's right to exist, preferably in peace.
Good luck with that.
Still, nobody, it seems to me, is thinking creatively. Part of my despair comes from realizing that Israel always falls right into Hamas's traps. I admire Israel's technological ingenuity and its human capital, but it amazes me that it has been unable to come up with a surprising, out of the box strategy against its enemies that does not entail a massive show of force, making Israel look like the worst villain the world has ever known. Think of something that will find its enemies off-guard. It can't be easy, but the predictability of the reaction is getting to be very depressing.
I have no solutions, but, perhaps unlike most people screaming like banshees about the conflict, I think about them. What's more, I've seen a map, and I have lived in Israel. I am not a Pollyanna (see maps). I am well aware of how a hostile Arab world in turmoil must look like from Israel's vantage point (hint: not good). But at this point, there has to be a more intelligent way to protect and defend Israel.
In the meantime, this is it. I will refrain from posting or commenting, defending or attacking, arguing and wasting my breath. If you bother with a screed for or against, don't expect an answer. I'm tuning out of this nightmare. Wake me when it's over.

Lost in Detention

Yesterday I was flippantly flipping TV channels when I landed on this devastating Frontline documentary about the horrible policies of the Obama administration re the deportation and incarceration of illegal immigrants in this country. This dismal state of human rights abuses is going on in this country every day, and gets reported regularly by the Spanish broadcast media in the US, but it is as if it did not exist at all on the mainstream media. It is a hidden shameful secret, sort of like the Japanese internment camps in WWII. Particularly shameful, since it is happening on the watch of Barack Obama, who should have the decency to know better.
Because of the unwillingness and the inability of Congress and this hypocritical president to enact immigration law reform, what is happening right now is sheer enforcement without legal reform; that is, a police state nightmare. The amount of human rights abuses committed against illegal immigrants has soared. The Bush administration privatized immigrant detention centers, and currently there are 250 of them, some of which are notorious for having housed hardcore criminals in the past. These centers are not under public scrutiny, nor are immigration detainees guaranteed the right to a lawyer. The documentary focuses on one specific center in Texas (hellhole of the Western world, it seems), where scores of sexual abuses of female inmates as well as beatings and racist taunts have been denounced.
A program called Secure Communities is supposed to deport criminal illegal aliens exclusively, but instead stops people because they had a broken taillight or did not signal a turn, and if they find they are undocumented, it sends them to detention centers that treat them as hard core criminals.  The Obama administration has made this program mandatory in every state and it requires the cooperation of local law enforcement, which basically turns the local police force into informers for the immigration authorities. There is something about this entire exercise that seems a violation of human rights. If a cop stops you for a broken taillight, and finds you are undocumented, is that his job, to rat you out to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (the cynically named ICE) so that they can detain or deport you?  There are many hardworking men and women who get separated from their families in this way. If you see this movie without sound, you'd think it takes place in China or the former Soviet Union or some such totalitarian nightmare.
The Obama administration has not only ignored the promises it made to the Hispanic community about immigration reform, it has hardened its stance on illegal immigrants, surpassing the number of deportees and detainees of the Bush years. ICE needs to fill a quota of 400,000 deportees a year, so innocent people get swept into this nightmare. This may include people who entered the country legally but let their visas expire, or simply good people without papers. 46% of illegal immigrants now have families in the US, many of which are comprised of American born children. Mothers and fathers are being deported and held in detention indefinitely, never told when they are going to be deported or released. Families are destroyed, and all this is because Congress and the White House refuse to deal with this dire national policy crisis.
Now, those on the right say that illegal immigrants are criminals and are breaking the law. But as Anthony Romero of the ACLU points out, immigration enforcement is an administrative matter, not a criminal matter. Coming into a country illegally cannot be treated in the same scale as other more heinous crimes. There are degrees of malfeasance; anti-immigration hysterics have got to stop pretending that coming here illegally is tantamount to murder, rape, or other hard crimes.
And why are only the workers penalized for illegality and not the businesses who hire them and encourage them to stay? The people who give illegals jobs are also breaking the law and should also be punished. But Americans want to have their cake and eat it too. They want cheap, unregulated labor for their businesses but at the same time they want to criminalize the workers who are trying to make a living. The sheer hypocrisy is revolting.
I am disgusted with Obama for many other reasons, but this is more than a disappointment; it feels like a huge betrayal. Democrats think that liberals don't have a choice in this coming election, and are scared of a Republican victory so they are going to vote Obama whether they are disenchanted or not. This should not be the case. Hispanics, as one expert said, are not going to vote Republican, since that would continue the same inhumane policy, but they can certainly threaten to withhold their very significant vote until something gets done to correct this situation.
I will not vote for this president unless I see real change, and from what I've seen so far, this is very unlikely. So what if the Republicans win? A Republican administration could not be much worse than what we already have.

China is a PR disaster

I'm afraid the Olympics will not make it look better. Trying to stifle dissent in Tibet or nudity in the movies certainly does not help their cause. It doesn't look good.
Of course China should not be hosting the Olympic Games. It is a repressive, corrupt regime with a dismal record on human rights, including the right of actors to get naked on screen or to shill Pond's cream afterwards. But now it is too late, isn't it, to start a silly boycott? Why didn't we think of this when countries were bidding for the games?
If any of you still entertain any goofy thoughts of Olympic ideals, consider this:
China must have greased the sullied palms of the decrepit dudes who run the Olympic fiefdom in as massive a scale as they are destroying their own country with over-development and pollution.
At this point, we all know that a lot of athletes, particularly those from countries with wealthy Olympic budgets, cheat. They are professionals, they are hormonally enhanced, and the whole carnival is a circus of deceit. Judges rig outcomes in favor of host countries, etc.
I love the Olympic games, but one needs to be clear eyed. Do not let those corny NBC "Triumph of the Will" promos fool ya.
As we have said in these pages before, only relatively well-behaved countries should be able to apply to host the Olympics. This would probably whittle down the field to San Marino, Lichtenstein and Bali.
The Chinese government has a couple of months to clean up their act, and not in the way they think, by bullying everybody into submission.
Also, there is like a 16-hour time difference between China and here. I bet this will mean mayhem for the broadcasts. And I ain't waking up at 3 in the morning to watch the ping-pong.

Favorite Internet Topics

I check out my stats everyday to see what interests readers. People ask all sort of questions of the Google oracle. This week the most popular in this blog are:
• The Hong Kong celebrity porn scandal. A huge story, it seems. I've gotten more than 50% of my readers this week from the far East. Hello friends from Malaysia, Japan, Korea, Singapore and one lonely soul from Beijing (hopefully not from the censorship bureau). Nihao!
• The ever fascinating topic of Mexican Japanese peanuts, I kid you not, seems to be of great interest to readers in many Hispanic-heavy states here in the US, and someone in Britain.
• There Will Be Blood. People want to know the name of the typeface. I have no idea.
• Albania, my old, trusted, pageview boosting friend, is still making appearances here and there.
• Once in a while, people inquire over Hoquy berets.
Me, I'm glad to be of service.

I am Little Grasshopper

(That's me in the middle)

For I am taking Tai Chi lessons. I am becoming a veritable Buddha of calmness. NOT.
BUT. I do like the Tai Chi. I love that it looks deceptively simple but it takes concentration and mastery to do it well. It makes you aware of your body in a different way, somehow more organic. And it is beautiful and non-competitive (meaning, even a klutz like me can do it). It does not try to turn you into a human pretzel.
First week I was like: WTF is this?
Second week I was like: WTF is this that I still don't quite get it?
Third week: suddenly the body starts remembering on its own and certain movements follow others almost naturally.
The teacher tells me I'm adding a movement. And I am convinced he's on my case just because. But indeed I am adding a movement with the ball of my foot that I didn't even notice. This is how this exercise makes you conscious of how you move. I hope it will help me with my lower back pain, make me lose weight, give me great sex, make me look gorgeous, take away my cellulite, make me smarter, younger, calmer, better. If it doesn't do any of those things, I will still like it.
Best thing is nobody will come up with Power Tai Chi, although I'm sure there must be someone out there trying to market the hell out of it and make it what it is not.

Pity the athletes

If I were an Olympic athlete ready to compete in Beijing, either I would go there months in advance to get used to the pollution, or I would stay at home and breathe. Fuck the medals.
When I was there, it did not feel so bad because there were strong winds sweeping everything away. Still, if there are any sports scheduled for Shanghai, I advise the athletes to run with oxygen tanks strapped to their bodies. It is very bad.
All of China seems polluted. You go to Taishan sacred mountain and in the middle of the wilderness you can see the layer of smog, and we had a lucky, clear day, according to the tour guide. You go to the Yellow River near Jinan, it's a film of putrid yellow smoke hanging over you.
I don't think it is only the cars that pollute, but also the industry, the coal people use to keep warm. Luckily for the athletes that will not be the case in the Summer.
There is way too much unchecked development in this country. You can see it and breathe it.

Chinese Monuments

The Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium, Beijing.

The amazing Olympic Pool Center, Beijing.

Peking Duck.

The Confucius Mansion, Qufu.


The Confucius' Telephone, Qufu.

Carved Pineapple, Qufu.

Beijing

Tiananmen Square is so enormous, you just can't imagine the scope of it. It is like twice the size at least of the Zócalo in Mexico City.

At the north end of the square is the entrance to the Forbidden City. With a portrait of Chairman Meow still presiding.






Remember The Last Emperor? It was shot here in the Forbidden City.
Before the trip I knew it was going to be very cold in Beijing, for the forecasts said a low in the teens. I packed accordingly, but I did not count on the Siberian winds. The Siberian winds were very bad in Beijing.

At the entrance of the Temple of Heaven, which is not in the Forbidden City, a man writes poems with a big brush and water. It is so cold, the letters become ice on the stone tiles.



The Temple of Heaven. Beijing. A park surrounds it, where Chinese people exercise in the freezing cold doing Tai Chi, singing Communist anthems, spinning Chinese yo-yos, playing a Chinese racquet sport that demands not force but elegance and grace. The Chinese notion of exercise is not devoid of beauty. And they've been doing it for thousands of years. It's hard, even with the quite greasy Chinese diet, to see fat people on the street. They say it's the green tea.

Ancient Chinglish Wisdom

In other words, don't litter. Or don't set the place on fire.

This is my all time favorite. Translation: instructions on how to pee in a Chinese toilet.

For those of you not yet acquainted with the ways of the Chinese, they eschew our sitting toilets for latrines. As far as I could tell, there are 3 kinds of latrines in China.
1. Seldom seen spiffy ones, shiny and clean. These may actually make you into a latrine convert. You just squat, without touching any surfaces and then you flush, just like any other toilet. Seems quite hygienic and easy.
2. Not so squeaky clean, smelly of ammonia and festering human refuse but tolerable, usually found in most public places like department stores or restaurants.
3. Unspeakably foul, unforgettable miasmas of shit not even Dante could have dreamed of. I ran into one (or rather ran away from one at supersonic speed) at the holy mountain of Taishan. I have a pretty strong constitution when it comes to grossout stuff but this one latrine is forever lodged in my olfactory memory as the foulest place I've ever seen or smelled, gag reflex and all.

This wall in Beijing was rather puzzling, for the patterns inside the vases depict naked women. Could this be a sign for a porn store?

At the Yellow River: Monument to the Laptop. Carved in stone. Words escape me.

All is well and good. But why is this sign displayed in the lobby of a hotel? We entertained ourselves a good while trying to discern the logic of this. It shall remain a mystery.

Kings of Neon

East Nanjing Rd. Pedestrian Mall. Shanghai.

You have to love the picture of the roast duck...

More funky foods

Thousand year old eggs.


Ancient looking soft shell turtle.


Green eggs, no ham.


Dried rabbit, duck and fish and unidentifiable beast.


Sauteed silkworms.

You may not believe me, but most of the food we had in the tour was really good (none of the funky stuff above for us tourists). They took us to group restaurants for the most part, but the food was very diverse, and very tasty. Yummy Chinese food like kung pao chicken, lots of really fresh sauteed vegetables, nothing to complain about. In several occasions I got headaches after lunch but I can't decide if it was MSG or the pollution or both. But for one Peking duck dinner we had in a real restaurant, however, we missed the experience of eating with other people that weren't tourists. The Peking duck dinner place in Beijing was full of Chinese people having a ball and the table next to us were getting joyously smashed, making lots of noise. That was fun.

Eat your Chinese Veggies

The amazing indoor market in Old Town Shanghai. Not everything looks like "Alien".
The highlight of my trip were the markets. In Jinan we went to a "free market" that is, a place where vendors can quote a market price rather than the government controlled prices. In Qufu, instead of going to buy souvenirs, we went the other way and found ourselves looking at men making noodles on the street, selling stuffed buns, pineapples, candied fruit, you name it. Like yours truly, the Chinese are obsessed with food, bless them, and there is so much strange food to look at.

Lots of citrus fruits, but no fresh orange juice anywhere (or at least anywhere we went). Fruit vendors tend to display plastic bananas as a sign. Cute.


Cherry tomatoes. The best apples I've ever tasted, I tasted in China. Crisp and intense.

Water chestnuts.

Pickled everything.

A stunning radish.

Chinese markets

Live frogs. For you to eat.
In Shanghai you can choose to spend your days shopping in an outdoor mall that would not look out of place in LA or Miami with all the brands you've come to know and love. Or your tour guide can take you to the "Chinatown" in China which is a huge trinkets mall for tourists that feel the urge to part with their hard earned money buying Chinese tchotchkes. You cannot take one step in Shanghai without someone telling you "Watch/Bag". At first I thought they were kindly telling me to watch my bag, but then I realized they were hawking fake bags and fake rolexes (5 bucks each). A guy who looked like a public accountant looked at me and whispered "hashish, marijuana" as if I was the poster child for Western drug dependence. He looked so square that I told him, "are you kidding me?" and he burst out laughing. Our wonderful tour guide did remind us on more than one occasion that the penalty for drug dealing is death.
The biggest "Chinatown" in the world is in the Old Town, which is being torn to shreds to make way for more condos. But if you walk a block away from the very nicely designed tourist trap, you will come across a hardcore street market where most of your nightmares about what is really in Chinese food (except cats and dogs) will come alive.

Giant eel. There are also many other kinds of eel, all alive and slithering in plastic containers. They will be freshly killed in front of your very eyes, as is every kind of fish known to man. The fish is so fresh, alive, that it doesn't even smell like fish. They kill the fish and spill the guts on the sidewalk and someone scoops them up with a bag, no doubt to turn them into something edible or medicinal. You can also get still breathing fish heads to go, their detached bodies still wriggling next to them. This market was a marvel, but not for those with weak constitutions.


Look up and you will see dried chickens and skinned fish hanging from windows, many times right next to the family's drying underwear.

There are razor clams and manila clams and giant clams and these clams that seem to be marinating in some kind of blood. Yum.

But there are also the freshest, most fragrant vegetables. I could smell this cilantro from half a block away.

Shanghai Surprise

The fresh, crisp smog of Shanghai at 8 am.

Same view at night.
Shanghai is the closest thing to Blade Runner on Earth. It makes New York City look positively modest, quaint and dainty. I loved it. But the air was so foul that after walking its streets for four hours I felt dizzy and short of air. In China, you blow your nose and black soot comes out.
Beijing is to Washington DC as Shanghai is to New York: government vs commerce. Beijing is vast and grandiose, gray and sober. Shanghai teems with activity. There are street markets and luxury malls and the best neon signs ever.


The Bund. Shanghai still sports the monuments to its recent colonial past in a series of European buildings that were the sites for great banks, insurance companies and hotels. Some of them you peek inside to see banks of magnificent grandeur, lovingly preserved, but no photos allowed. The Bund is what remains of the foreign concessions and it is a marvel to walk in. On the other side is Pudong, the new development with the futuristic buildings. Shanghai is ruined forever but it is still one of the great cities on Earth.