We have reached a decision recently to buy a car. It’s first function must serve my new hummus business needs, and if possible, it should also function as a family car for weekend getaways.

Obviously, we ended up looking at the VW’s Caddy model.

For those of you not familiar with the above model, I can say only one thing: its designers must get some automobile noble prize. I never encounter a car design that was so fitting for its average user. Basically, the designers of the Caddy realized that the median driver of the car would be a small business owner with two kids, who can’t find his left or right hand because he is so occupied and discombobulated.

The automobile answer to this is genius: the Caddy designers created a car that allow you to leave in a mess. There is a place in a car to put papers… weiter lesen

“True Stories” is a movie that came out in 1986. It was directed by Talking Heads’ lead singer, David Byrne who also was the movie’s main character.

Despite bad reviews (I think that the movie was way ahead of his time), I really liked the movie, but it was also released at a time when I thought Byrne couldn’t do anything wrong.

There is one scene in the movie, taking place in a fictional place in Texas, that I remember very vividly. There are two white people sitting in a mall. The camera is following what they are staring at. First, they are looking at three old white women, and then their stare, and the camera, wanders to three young and very attractive black girls.

“What do you think?” One of them asks the other.

“Hmmmm, too old for me,” comes the answer.

Yesterday I went to buy a costume… weiter lesen

A short time after the last election in Israel I attended a birthday party of a close friend in Berlin. We sat in a nice café, drank coffee and lemonade. Someone asked me about the election. I am moving here in certain circles, very leftist and liberal, from very certain neighborhoods in Berlin. Sometimes I feel like they like to hear me talking about Israel, that it reinforces their views.

But not this time. This time I told them that I think that the strong showing of Liberman is great. People there stopped drinking their coffee, the lemonade became really sour. In ten minutes I was sitting alone. I have a point here. It is the same point that lead me to say that Thilo Sarrazin is Germany’s man of the year.

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Other then gender I don’t think that I share anything with Liberman and Sarrazin. But I do… weiter lesen

Istanbul, where I am visiting these days, is a breathtaking place. It is not just the geography, tourists attractions, the TV’s broadcasting football at every shop, or the fact that you can eat here gourmet food at every corner, but it is more its demographics.

Istanbul is vibrating with night life, with gay people walking hand in hand in main streets, with open mindedness. You look one way and you see a striving society, looking to the west, trying very hard to keep its space and learn (even though asking five times if a guest needs room service is a bit over the top).

But if you look the other way, you can see a growing movement trying to pull Turkey back to the orient. Some of it is a global movement, some is political maneuvering with consideration to its neighboring countries. Some has to do with the EU rejection.

A… weiter lesen

One of the things I keep hearing when people discuss the subject of integration here is how the new immigrants, mostly Muslim, should change their all attitude and approach toward women.

And it is a right argument.

But let’s imagine. Let’s imagine that one of us would get a great job offer to go and work in a certain country, where the social standard is to beat your wife in retaliation for something she, even kill her. (I am not arguing about the justification, but just stating a realistic situation here).

How long it will take you to integrate? How long it will take you to adjust to these standards of behavior? A year? Decade? Three Generations? Why do we have different expectations from those who traveled the other way?

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I would like to add two objections to what I have written above. The first is that as part… weiter lesen

The hardest thing about integration to a new place, new culture, new life, are not the major issues. It’s not what you read about in the papers. It’s not the language, or the leading kultur, not even your horned leaders spitting on our heads their darkest thoughts.

It’s a taxi drive.

When you get into a taxi in Israel it’s basically the only sure thing that you can say about this ride, you entering the car. From here everything is possible. You will sit in the back, and the first thing you will hear is: “meter or 50 shekels”, which is basically an offer to you to help the driver cheat the tax authorities.

From there you can talk politics, or they will tell you about their problems at home. My wife was even offered a marriage in a back seat of a taxi in Israel.… weiter lesen

Let’s play a game. This game should come with a warning: don’t look in the mirror a few hours after playing it.

Here’s the game: let’s keep Thilo Sarrazin’s thoughts and words just like they are. The only tweak we are going to make is change one word: every time Sarrazin is saying Muslims we will delete the word and write instead Jews. Try it.

What would be the response? Will it be any different from the original response?

And if yes, does it make the respondents racist?

In my previous post I had written about linkage being made between the treatment of German Jewry in the past and how the Muslim population is being treated now.

One of the things that I wrote was that the German Jews were exterminated even though they were integrated in the society. They spoke the language, they held the fork with their left hand, and they even stepped into the train before letting the other passengers step out. The Muslim now are being asked to integrate. You know: run to the head of the line when a new cashier is opened, turn your head to the other side and pretend to not notice when a pregnant woman is getting on a full bus.

This is Confusing for me. Do the Germans want other or not. It makes me even think if Sarrazin was right with his gene theory.

(to my few… weiter lesen

Every day I check our mailbox. Actually, what I do is check the mailbox to make sure it is empty. There are only bad news coming in the mail in this time. Usually you owe someone money or somebody want something from you. Good news travel electronically. If there are any envelopes in the mailbox, I check them quickly and leave them to the Frau.

But the other day there was this mysterious envelope coming from the employment office. I left the other bills in the mailbox and took only that one. I tore the top of the envelope and learned that the employment office wants to meet with me.

When the Frau came from work, I handed her the letter very proudly. I have two degrees from universities in New York, I am fluent in two languages and I have a document showing that I passed my German course… weiter lesen

I went with my wife to the public viewing of the Germany-Turkey game in Kreuzberg. Naturally, we were following every move and the reaction to every move of Mesot Ozil, the German middle fielder of Turkish descent.

Some how and without ever wanting it, Ozil became the face (if not the hero) of something much bigger. Maybe it was just a football game, but it was played with the air still not clear from Thilo Zarrazin poisonous remarks, and with the newspapers reporting that his book is still high on the best sellers list. I will write about Sarrazin later this week, but I will say this: his crazy ideas and his many followers occupied a vacuum. If the German society had the courage to make an in-depth, national debate about immigration and integration, it might avoid this vacuum.

(The taxi driver on the way back… weiter lesen