Klimt: Mural in the Vienna School of Medicine

Asado

The good life in Argentina. Parrillada mixta.

Lake Atitlan Poisoned

The satellite pic in natural color shows that Lake Atitlan in Guatemala has been invaded by cyanobacteria, a poisonous blue green algae that thrives in nutrient (sewage) rich warm waters. Fish must be dying by the millions, as well as cattle drinking from the Lake. The smell of masses of putrid algae must have killed the weekend tourism that used to arrive from Guatemala City.

About ten years ago, I had been invited by the Intendente Municipal of Panajachel, a turist village on the Atitlan Lake, Guatemala, to consult on the contamination of the Lake. I remember well the day spent in the area, because he organized a banquet in my honour and the cold beer and the beef was memorable. The European Union had donated a wastewater treatment plant and it was not working - why? Did the Europeans dump on us a badly designed plant? With your Israeli connections, could you write a letter to make them return to repair and run in the plant for at least a year? After the usual lies by the maintenance people, it became obvious that no water was inflowing, the plant was recirculating the same water. The plant was supposed to be fed by a pumping station on the other side of the river, and it was discovered that had no pumps (they had been sent to repair, probably stolen) and had no electricity (the Municipality had no budget for the plant and the pumping station operation, and was not paying the bill. They were decided to make the Europeans pay for it). There was a municipal sewage system, but the hotels were not connected to it dumped their sewage directly into the lake. Typically, the person in charge of the plant was a native of Panajachal who studied and worked in Germany and returned with a German wife. He spoke good German, and back home he had adopted the typical Latin attitude that nothing can be done. Effectively, nothing was done, as shown by the picture.

Jacobo Timerman Remembered

The Tablet carries a long analysis of Jacobo Timerman and the people of La Opinion, a Buenos Aires newpaper of my times, the early nineteen seventies. It was Argentina's most intelligent paper, supportive of the military dictatorship that was decimating the middle class.

Timerman published a statement in September 1976, in which he had told (American Ambassador) Hill that if the Americans would just stop overreacting, stop being so loud and concerned about anti-Semitism, the issue would disappear. Timerman’s position was in line with the public stance of Jewish communal organizations like the Delegation of Argentine-Israeli Association. In June 1977, several months after Timerman’s arrest, the president of DAIA, Nehemias Resnizky, whose own son would later be kidnapped, told the Argentine Jewish community that though Argentina was not an anti-Semitic country nor was there any official anti-Semitism, there were “powerful economic groups who always make the ritual offerings of the Jewish minorities as a scapegoat” for other national problems.

Then, La Opinion's director Jacobo Timerman "disappeared" and the paper was closed (Illustration: Timerman's police master file. It refers to several other large files they had on him).

When I arrived to Israel, we Argentinian Olim were received as refugees just saved from the SS jails. That was 1976 and there was serious pondering in Israel if Argentine Jewish community should be "evacuated" to safety in Israel. I was indignant. I shared La Opinion's opinion that the military regime was a necessity to put order in Argentina, and that it was not antisemitic, just most Jews happened to be middle class leftist and naturally suspect of "subversion". I was totally brainwashed yet didnt know it. I read (with help) an article in then powerful DAVAR paper about Argentina by Aharon Megged, a famous writer, that said that Argentine Jews were in danger and no time should be lost in evacuating them to Israel.

I am a lifelong Zionist yet I wrote a long and indignant letter to Megged saying that he is wrong, Argentine Jews are not in danger, there is no antisemitism, and explained (ie defended) "El Proceso". DAVAR published the letter and Megged came to interview me. He was a skinny Polish survivor, and he was convinced that ARgentine military were exact copies of East European fascist regimes. I opposed this perception with conviction.

If interviewed today, I would not be so sure. The military intelligence schools had elaborated a comprehensive picture of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy to occupy the Patagonia. That bizarre story maintained that the Zionist movement had decided in Basel (seventy years before) to establish a second Jewish State (for "insurance"?) and Patagonia was selected. The story had a name: El Plan Andinia. From the school I was aware of this fabrication but it was so absurd and deranged that I never gave it any importance.

Yet The Tablet says that the only cause of the persecution of Jacobo Timerman was the belief by the military intelligence that he was an agent of the Plan Andinia conspiracy. In a way, this very belief saved his life, because the military feared the consequences of "disappearing" an important figure of the "Elders of Zions" (I am not imagining it). In retrospective, Argentine Jewry WAS in danger, and the situation could easily slip to widespread arrests and disappearances. I mean, some 30,000 young people WERE "disappeared", many of them Jews, and there were voices within the military to extend the operation to whole sectors of the population, as it was "better to kill 9 innocents than let one subversivo escape". While I was hotly maintaining that Argentine Jews were in no danger, in total denial of reality, I left Argentina as fast as I could. My survival instinct was more alert than my conscient mental world. A few months later, my apartment in calle Cespedes in Belgrano neighborhood was raided and the inquilinos (renters) disappeared. In the end, nothing serious happened to Argentine Jewry during the Proceso, there were no mass disappearances, yet we were then in a dangerous, uncontrollable situation. I should say "Sorry" to the late Aharon Megged, who had been closer to reality than I was in 1976.

Canicula in Argentina

From Clarin's front page: It is very hot in Buenos Aires (pic).

Blue Baby Syndrome in Gaza

Palestinian sources are starting to report cases of Blue Baby Syndrome in Gaza. The disease is caused by high nitrogen level in the drinking water. The WHO maximum level allowed is 70 mg/lt but in many places, for example in our Sharon area, well water has concentrations over 90 mg/lt. The situation will improve when desalted seawater will be more widely available to dilute the nitrogen. In Gaza the nitrogen concentration is about the same as in the Coastal Strip of Israel, and they sufffer from the same kind of overexploitation and saline intrusion. The worst wells in Gaza are in the Khan Younis area:

No Well name and code Location Conc. NO3/ppm
1. Temwin K-41 Khan younis 300
2. UN camp K-L86a Khan younis Camp 50
3. Al Sada K-L87 Khan younis 311
4. Al Ahrash K-L127 Khan younis 346
5. Amel K-L159 Al Amal 380
6. Al Tebaha T44 Al Qurara 87
7. Al-N9 Absan Kibera 300
8. F2-N22 Absan Kibera 120
9. S-M2A Bani Sohila 240
10. S-M2B Bani Sohila 120

It is interesting that the UN managed well (number 2) has good quality water, while the Palestinian wells contain higher levels of nitrites. Obviously, part of the problem is management. Also the UN camp has sanitation: there is less sewage infiltration into the aquifer.

The problems of drinking water supply in Gaza are said to be related to Israel's actions. However, I think that Gaza's situation is not different from other Third World (North Africa) places, and the problems can be attributed to the chronic weakness of the governance. By continuously accusing Israel of being the cause of their difficulties, they have succeeded in blackmailing us to supply them our expensive desalted water - for free. That seems to be our historical fate: peoples see us as a magic source of riches and they manage to tax us.

Water Wall in Gaza

Egypt is building a saltwater curtain in its frontier with Gaza. The idea is to stop underground traffic by wetting the sand and collapsing the tunnels. Palestinian sources describe the project (pic) consisting in a 10 km long main line with a sea intake, and every 30 - 40 meters a 20 - 30 m long perforated vertical pipe. They dont need to operate it all the time, it is enough to "irrigate" the soil once a while to turn tunelling dangerous or impossible. The Palestinians say that the pipe will be be in their side of the border, increasing the salt content of their aquifer but less so in the Egyptian side, protected by a 35 m deep iron wall.

First We Take Savion

Today I was invited by the supermarket project owner to assist him bargaining with the contractor. I had written the bill of quantities and the contractor filled it but the owner wanted to pay less. We went over item by item and succeeded in reducing the price about 5%. The owner decided to ask for more offers. The alternative is a semi-Judaized contractor from Kafr Kassem, sure to be cheaper but the quality of the work will be lower.


The project is in Savion, possibly the most expensive neighborhood in Israel. The houses are big and the building density is the lowest in metropolitan Tel Aviv area. The neighborhood was created in the late fifties near the abandoned Arab village and ma'abara (Jewish refugee camp) of Kyriat Ono (see the historic watch tower against Arab attacks). Then it was considered far from Tel Aviv and to attract buyers, the plots were extra large. Aharon Wiener and other bosses from TAHAL bought plots and built their homes there. It was the best investment of their lives. The other pic shows an environmental sculpture of the rusty iron style pioneered by Tomarkin. It looks like someone has forced a big stone in the mouth of the figure. The artist probably intended to protest that he/she was forbidden to say something. The political repression in that millionaires's neighborhood of Savion must be really ferocious, must be ...

Sadness (cont.)

Since my Mother's death three months ago I am feeling sad and depressed. The advice-giving sites say do not repress your sadness and feelings, go give free rein to your melancholy, appoint a day of sadness, dedicated to crying and memories. Ceremonies to symbolize and express one's sadness are proposed.

If I am going to do something like that, I shall follow the ways of my Fathers, of the traditional Jewish rites of saying kaddish for the dead.

May His great name be exalted and sanctified

Yitgaddal veyitqaddash shmeh rabba

You may find me next Friday evening at Kever Benjamin's Grand Synagogue.

The Toshka Project

The largest development project in Egypt is the Toshka Depression aimed at settling millions of Egyptians in a desert area. This is an Egyptian unilateral project, started in 1997, requires 5 Bm3 of water annually. Egypt has been transferring water from lake Nasser to the Toshka depression area through a spillway and a huge pumping station. (The pic taken by a NASA astronaut shows the artificial lake and many circles of center pivot irrigation systems. The lake has been contracting because of the draught in Central Africa). Toshka depends on continuous withdrawal of Nile waters which may be interpreted by upriver Sudan and Ethiopia as against their interest. Should one day decide to claim this resource by force, the giant pumping station is indefensible and easily subject to sabotage. But the whole 100 million strong Egypt lives under the (almost physical) shade of the mass of water retained by Lake Nasser; they, like everybody else, have learned to live under the shade of sudden death.

Things are changing. Sudan, Ethiopia and the equatorial riparians are building up their bargaining power and are determined to develop their water resources. They have a new external partner, China, which is keen to assist them in those ventures. Unilateral trends upstream are becoming more visible, such as the construction of the Merowe dam (Sudan), the Tekezze dam (Ethiopia) and the Bujagali dam (Uganda). Moreover, it is not only the upstream riparians who are going ahead with unilateral projects but Egypt too, as mentioned above.

This is a zero sum game, when one wins, the others must lose. The slow motion dynamics of the geopolitical situation leads to a confrontation.

New Brown Hope

Jewish and non-Jewish support for President Obama’s Middle East policies has fallen sharply since his “reaching out to the Muslim world” speech in Cairo last June, when he called Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria “illegitimate’ as well as illegal. He also called for Israel to halt all building for Jews in the same region as well as in eastern Jerusalem.

It appears that the Republican Senator-elect Brown is more popular than the President. Obama has lost the middle, and losing the middle means he is going to lose the presidency. Obama could try, for example, stop making speeches on Israel.

It is Good to be a "Friend of the Power"

The drama in Argentina is unfolding. The Presidenta Cristina (pic with his husband) decided to spend the country's foreign reserves but the Central Bank's Martin Redrado did not co-operate. The rebel was sacked but the next day reinstated by a judge. Cristina sent the police to stop Redrado from entering his office. Redrado said he intends to publish a list of "Friends of the Power" (alias friends of Cristina) who were allowed to buy cheap dollars after Argentina's recent currency regulations.

Big mistake. Now Cristina is asking to jail Redrado because the Central Bank is supposed to be in control of foreign exchange transactions, and Redrado is (?) its President. Someone should remind Redrado that in Argentina it is better to be "A Friend of the Power" than its enemy.

KOOR accumulates Credit Suisse

After a long period of paper profits, IDB Holding Corp. Ltd. (TASE:IDBH) unit Koor Industries Ltd. (TASE:KOR) is losing money on its holding in Credit Suisse Group AG (NYSE: CS; SWX: CSGN; XETRA: CSGZ). Koor's investment is losing NIS 560 million, on paper. Koor has invested NIS 6 billion altogether in Credit Suisse, and its current stake is worth NIS 5.44 billion.

The paper loss is dwarfed by Koor's accumulated NIS 3.2 billion in realized capital gains on its investment in Credit Suisse to date.

IDB chairman and CEO Nochi Dankner has exploited the share's weakness to increase his holding. Koor in recent days bought an additional 0.5% of Credit Suisse for NIS 1 billion, increasing the stake to 2.78%.

How he does it?

Scandal: Israelis Impersonating Maori Dancers

A New Zealand tour operator is in trouble for enlisting Israeli backpackers to entertain tourists by impersonating the native Maori, Australia's ABC news reported on Monday.

Instead of employing Maori, the tour company Discovery Heritage Group, based in the North Island city of Tauranga, paid backpackers visiting from Israel to dress up in feathered robes, draw tattoos in pen on their faces and go aboard cruise ships when they pulled into the Port. The company's director, Terina Puriri, told a local newspaper, that she had no choice but to use fake dancers, because local Maori are so lazy.

More Sadness

My friend "Mark" had found another friend of ours from the times of immigration to Argentina. "Adam" was a Jewish boy who played the violoncello (illustration) and had mounted an impressive electronic lab in his room. He came from a good Budapest family: grandfather had a seat on the stock exchange, father chemical engineer, mother teacher. At age 18 he took his motorcycle to Cordoba (800 km from Buenos Aires) and fell in love with a native girl at a roadside ice cream stand. He married her, left school and went to work in a factory, had three boys and bought a house in a bluecollar neighborhood. Once I visited him and found that one of his cherished treasures was my joke collection album that I had given to him.

Our meeting after almost fifty years turned out badly. "Adam" had retired at age forty a rich man, living off the rents of his numerous properties. He had left the factory after becoming its manager, and had much money, some of it in numbered accounts and much hidden under the soil. I wrote him that it was a very bad investment decision, because something could happen to him and no one would know where is the money when he needs it. Why doesnt tell his sons? We are not young, that money will be theirs soon anyway. Then he revealed me that his sons are the deception of his life: the big one is a drug addict with criminal record, and the other two are retarded. He told me: "Imagine a forty five years old man selling chorizos (Argentine hotdogs) at dance clubs's doors, because at night there are no municipal inspectors". He was bitter. I told him to find a good cause to leave his money, say a Jewish school. "What for, for producing more Jesus Christs?" he wrote. He was spending his time in affairs with fifty - sixty years old women. I must have written something offensive, because he too answered with anger that I should not insert my nose in his private affairs. Did I suggest that having married a native ice-cream salesgirl it is not surprising that his son turned out a street chorizo (hot dog) man? Well, there goes another beloved childhood friendship.

The loss hurts, and I am sad. It is raining outside, getting old is having to say good bye to one loved thing after another. And seeing how things have turned out on the long term, being less than excited at new starts and new relationships.

Sadness

Aging is a continuous loss and contraction. I had a childhood friend in Argentina, lets call him Mark, who searched for me on the internet for years and when he found me, we started to write to each other on Facebook. Today he cut me off and cannot access his page. He had accused me of turning into an acidic, bitter, sarcastic old man and he didnt want to maintain the relation. He lives in Southern Patagonia, married to a native woman, with children and grandchildren, fulfilling Alberti's goal of "peopling the Patagonia". He loved to write me about his military adventures. He had been in an intelligence unit during the Guerra Sucia and had infiltrated Chile to photograph military facilities during "the war". Innocently, I asked what war, since I dont remember any Argentine-Chile war, and it surfaced that some forgotten border skirmish has grown, in his memory, into a World War. He has turned into a fanatic patriot and idolizes Argentine military. I didnt want to criticize his idols, but I count stop myself from obseving that on a strictly professional criteria, General Gualtieri and his colleges had been very poor officers, as they had chosen to attack well armed Britain and led their soldiers into defeat and death. I received a long ideological tirade on "El Proceso" by which the pure and patriotic soldiers saved Motherland. He included some antisemitic references to the Plan Andinia (an Argentine obsession that imagines a secret Jewish program to occupy Patagonia) and I reminded him that his mother was Jewish and he is Jewish. He answered curtly that he is Protestant and before that he was Catholic. And that he does not want to receive more communications from me.

It is sad, because we had been good friends. Fifty years ago we had taken a long and heavy wood trunk in the Delta of the Parana and floated down on it by the Tigre River (pic) till the Port of Buenos Aires. It was a nice summer adventure, the memory of which I had cherished all my life. Now it is lost, and I am poorer for it. And sad.

Oil in Israel

The partners in the Tzuk Tamrur 4 oil exploration well today notified the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) that they found oil at the well, north of the Dead Sea. Should I be in the oil business? It is the only sector rising in the TASE.

Rahm Called Traitor to the Jewish People

Kahanist leaders are planning to protest White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel's coming visit to Israel. "You advise President Obama against Israel, and incite and instigate against us. You are a traitor against the Jewish people," they wrote. Last week, Rahm Emanuel said that the United States is sick of the Israelis.

מפולת בבורסה

TASE, our miniature stock exchange in Israel, is collapsing. Thanks, Mr Obama. Following his populist approach, the American President continues destroying America's financial structure, only one week after he proposed a new tax on large financial institutions to recoup projected losses from the 2008 bailout.

In Hungarian we would say "Kibujt a szog a zsakbol" (the nail is out of the sack, or something to that effect). We are starting to see the hard populist, anti-capitalist edge of the President. The Chinese must be laughing (but worried for their investments).

تهامة

Tihama al Yemen: That is the border area between Saudia and Yemen, on the Red Sea. Very hot, humid and malaria infested. It is the soft underbelly of Saudi Arabia and the smuggling route to Makkah. The population is mostly yemeni, erithrean, somali. All the Turks left after 1920, all the Jews have left in 1950 and there is no memory of them. Saudia's problem is to isolate the growing focus of unrest in Yemen from spreading to Makkah and destroy the hajj industry. As remembered, al Quaeda's basic aim was to liberate the Country of the Two Mosques, not to fight The Occident. The pic shows the Fazah mosque on the Red Sea. The veritable end of the world. I have never been there - an excellent reason to dream of visiting that God-forgotten hell-hole. DEBKA files writes:

Yemen has been on US radar for some time, certainly since al Qaeda blew up the American destroyer USS Cole in Aden harbor on Oct. 12, 2000, killing 17 American seamen. Both the CIA and the FBI have maintained a covert presence in this Red Sea country in the past year at least, along with American civilian counter terror experts and small special units. Their mission is to help President Abdullah Salah's regime to survive in the face of two insurgencies.

Flash Flood in Israel

Flash Flood in Israel. Two people died.

Elliot Wave Theory

For the second time in my investing life, an esoteric "inside-knowledge" investment fund ended badly and was liquidated with heavy loss to the investors. Paying 5% up front commission was a bad decision. The eternal lesson is re-learned again and again. Those smart looking people sitting in the corner office of the bank know less than you do, dont give them your money to manage. They are out to steal your money. Anyway, now I have to think what to do with the surplus greenish thingies that have turned liquid.

Elliot wave theory predicted the 2008 bear market. Now the same people is saying that "2010 is the year when the bear market in stocks returns in full force." The situation is like the short-lived rebound after the initial break in 1929, and "a meaningful close" below 10,489 should see a similar collapse to new bear market lows.

What is the Elliot Wave Theory? It is a model of how human mass behaves. It reveals swings from pessimism to optimism and back in a natural sequence, creating specific and measurable patterns. Elliott Wave Principle measures investor psychology, which is the real engine behind the stock markets. When people are optimistic about the future of a given issue, they bid the price up.

Wave 1 : The stock makes its initial move upwards. This is usually caused by a relatively small number of people that all of the sudden (for a variety of reasons real or imagined) feel that the price of the stock is cheap so it’s a perfect time to buy. This causes the price to rise.

Wave 2 : At this point enough people who were in the original wave consider the stock overvalued and take profits. This causes the stock to go down. However, the stock will not make it to its previous lows before the stock is considered a bargain again.

Wave 3 : The stock has caught the attention of the mass public. More people find about the stock and want to buy it. This causes the stock’s price to go higher and higher. This wave usually exceeds the high created at the end of wave 1.

Wave 4 : People take profits because the stock is considered expensive again. This wave tends to be weak because there are usually more people that are still bullish on the stock and are waiting to “buy on the dips”.

Wave 5 : This is the point that most people get on the stock, and is most driven by hysteria. Contrarians start shorting the stock which starts the ABC pattern. We are now in a pessimistic phase of the cycle, a bear market.

Learn and Think, J, what is to be done!

Ayla Brown (almost) Elected to Senate

Her Father was.

Who is Richard Hoste?

No, I dont know and if I knew, I wouldn't out him because I dont want to lose him: He is the last of the readable conservative bloggers out there. The man has a very inquisitive and analytical mind, has a wide humanistic (self)education and writes clearly. A few days ago he wrote about the American Senate's composition. He approached his subject as a foreigner, studying it with a cool, objective and quantitative eye. His approach is cosmopolitan, he is no American patriot and has little to say against immigration. In college, he took four years of Arabic. He describes his colleges as CIA material and girls converted to Islam. A fast look at Anthropology - Arabic departments indicate the presence of many American Jews - Hoste never mentions them. He is a loner and thinks it is because his high IQ: "up to 125-130 you can get along with the common folk, but anything beyond that and they become difficult to stand." He has yet to enter the war zone of making a living and maintaining a family. Then he will learn that IQ is not much. Lets hope his blogging lasts.

The pic illustrates Richard Hoste's interests. He is a good film critic and wrote a perceptive note on that film. He is bothered by young African males bedding redheads and blondes, which is an instinctive animal reaction (most mammals have this instinct, they kill foreign males approaching their females). Hoste reaction is very elaborated and intellectual.

Roissy Is Infusing Societies with Salsa

Is hedonist Roissy's prose deteriorating or improving? Judge by yourself:

The adamantium foundation of core values that buttresses all other values is the sexual market. The constant flux of sexual energy between men and women is the force multiplier that breathes life into cultures, and infuses societies with everything from salsa to skyscrapers.

For us aliens who do not live in Marvel's universe, adamantium is an indestructible metal alloy that simulates the unique properties of vibrantium, the metal contained within Captain America's shield.

Salsa is for us Spanish speakers, sauce, like the tomato sauce we put on the spagetti.

Iraq hit by salinization

Once more, Mesopotamy is being destroyed by soil salinization. al Quaisi, Iraq's Agriculture Minister, says that increased salinity and desertification has reached very scary levels”. Salinity is affecting at least 40 percent of agricultural land, mainly in central and southern Iraq, while 40-50 percent of what was agricultural land in the 1970s has been affected by desertification.

They will live off oil, like Saudi Arabia.

Hors de combat

Dennis Mangan interrupts his blogging. For some reason, this hits me as another loss, it depresses me. Maybe it is the weather, it is cold and raining.

Israeli girl

KELUTRAL forbidden in China

Kelutral in the Na'vi language (there is such thing) is the Hometree. Pity that Na'vi is forbidden language for the Celestial subjects. Their government has ordered to stop screening Avatar out of fear that the revolt by the indigenous Na'vi population shown in the film would ignite the Chinese people's imagination to instigate a similar popular revolt. I am, once again, scratching my head. Of course I was aware of the film's subversive, revolutionary message. I assumed it was an American Anti-American film, and most bloggers thought the same. Who had believed that the Chinese government would fear it?

Reflexion: America's ideological message is considered the most revolutionary, most corrupting, most dangerous to authoritarian dictatorships - from Islamic to Communist ones. Incredible. We are all wrong about America: It is not decaying, far from it, it is the revolution.

Arutz Sheva: We Are the Universe's Navel

The Democrats lost Massachussetts and Arutz Sheva right-wing internet site thinks it is because Obama's Middle East policies,

which have starkly contrasted with the Republicans' demand that the Palestinian Authority fulfill its Roadmap obligations before Israel makes yet further concessions.

President Obama last year called Israeli communities in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria “illegitimate,” and later accepted and promoted the Palestinian Authority demand for a total halt in building for Jews in the areas. Leading Republicans have strongly criticized the Obama administration, charging that he is ignoring reality and paving the way for a possible explosion in the Middle East, similar to the Second Intifada that followed the PA’s rejection of an opportunity to establish itself as a state.

I am ethnocentric as the most, but to me Arutz Sheva appears to have been infected by the "Jerusalem fever". But it also could be they are right and we, in fact, are the navel of the Universe.

Scratching my Head: American Imperialism?

Randall Parker wrote:

You might think that at least American capitalist oil companies will make massive fortunes off of the trillions of dollars the United States wasted invading and occupying Iraq. But no. US oil companies got no long term oil contracts in the latest round of bidding for oil service contracts in Iraq.

Those who claim that the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003 to get control of the country's giant oil reserves will be left scratching their heads by the results of last weekend's auction of Iraqi oil contracts: Not a single U.S. company secured a deal in the auction of contracts that will shape the Iraqi oil industry for the next couple of decades. Two of the most lucrative of the multi-billion-dollar oil contracts went to two countries which bitterly opposed the U.S. invasion — Russia and China — while even Total Oil of France, which led the charge to deny international approval for the war at the U.N. Security Council in 2003, won a bigger stake than the Americans in the most recent auction.

The winners didn't even win much. The companies that did win contracts will get pretty measly fees per barrel of oil they manage to produce.

Russia's Lukoil, CNPC, and RoyalDutchShell accepted fees of between $1.15 and $1.40 for every barrel they produce — that's about 2% of Friday's oil futures price of $73 a barrel.

I for one expected the cartoon result.

Har Hotzvim Industrial Area

This morning I had a job in a factory at the Har Hotzvim Industrial Area, in Jerusalem, near the Haredi (pious) neighborhoods of Kyriat Sanz and Kyriat Belz. Very modern, like the new industrial areas being built in China. The factories are not the "diabolical mills" of 19th Century England, but I saw people working like ants in badly lighted underground halls, under an unholy mess of water, sewage, gas, electricity etc. piping and conduits. Everything connected ad hoc in the high, leaking. The pic shows one of the pretentious buildings, our architects are dreaming up impressive facades but oblivious to infrastructure.

Syria's Water War

Syria, like Israel, has been affected by drought during the last decade. One million inhabitants of eastern Syria have lost their livelihoods and face extreme hardship and they live on a diet consisting of bread and sugared tea. The area is adjacent to Turkey and the nearest water sources are the Euphrates and the Tigris, dominated by upstream Turkey. Turkish foreign policy is "No water concessions". In 1988 the late President Turgut Ozal said: "We don't tell Arabs what to do with their oil, so we don't accept any suggestion from them about what to do with our water." He may have not been aware of the fact that Syria has no oil.

The dams built by Turkey upstream on the Euphrates have degraded the quality of the water reaching Syria. It has high salinity and causes erosion since it runs faster after being deprived of silt. Turkey says it has nothing to discuss.

In 1989 Turkey turned off the water flow to Syria and Iraq but two weeks later resumed it, fearing that Syria and Iraq would find a common cause to start a war.

God sent to Hezekiah a Message from the High

God sent to Hezekiah
A message from on high,
"You better set your house in order,
For you must surely die."

He turned to the wall in weeping,
We see him there in tears,
He got his business fixed all right,
God spared him fifteen years.

There's a little black train a-coming,
Fix all your business right.
There's a little black train a-coming,
And it may be here tonight.

I see that train with engine
And one small baggage car.
Your idle thoughts and your wicked deeds
Will stop at the judgement bar.

Answered Prayers

A few days ago the Chief Sepharadi Rabbi asked the Jews to pray for rain (see note below). Today the country is flooded (see pic). Let each one extract his own conclusion.

No Government in Haiti

I dont know what I can learn from the situation in Haiti. There was an earthquake and the Haitian State collapsed. As in the New Orleans disaster, shops are being vandalized. There is no police nor security. Haiti is no different from Liberia, only that is very near to Miami. Possibly the Americans under the United Nations flag will occupy it and administer it. As they did it in the past.

Nostalgy: Eating Out in the Mar del Plata Port

A variety of fried seafood in wooden plates, and not expensive at all. Mar del Plata, Argentina.

Insight

A commenter on Sailer's blog proposes:

Humans are irrationally risk averse. On average, they feel the pain of losing X dollars twice as much as they feel pleasure for gaining X dollars. This means that they are systemically biased to overreact to bad news in the stock markets. A straightforward elaboration of this will get you to value investing a la Graham and Buffet, which is a long term proven strategy for beating the market.

This is the first learnable idea I collect in this decade. I had settled more or less on this strategy but I didnt know why it was working. Another straghtforward elaboration of the same is that panics are opportunities. The situation is never so severe as everybody thinks and panics are the time to buy. A smart investor should always be searching for panic situations, where people is afraid and pessimistic. One should search for people who thinks that the world will end tomorrow.

Klimt: Hope

Yemeni Water War

Yemen has no functioning government yet no one seems to notice. Like Bolivian Indians, people survive masticating narcotic leaves, the djat.

There is no perennial surface water anywhere in Yemen. Annual average precipitation in the Sana’a Basin is 700 to 800 million cubic meters (MCM), and only 5 percent of it infiltrates in the soil. The remaining 95 percent evaporates.

In the Sanaa plateau, total recharge is estimated between 80 MCM and 120 MCM. Total abstraction is about 250 MCM a year, which is 100 percent to 150 percent higher than recharge. More than 80 percent goes to irrigation, half of it for the djat, and the balance to domestic use. Water abstraction is uncontrolled, unmetered, unlicensed, and unpaid for. There are 15,000 wells, 70 of them were state owned for public water supply. As said, all the water is pumped from aquifers. There are two unconnected aquifers: the shallow alluvial one to depths of 30 to 80 meters, and a deeper Tawilah sandstone aquifer, at 100 to 1,000 meters. The Tawilah is a fossil aquifer, its exploitable potential is about 2,000 million cubic meters (that is, at current rate it will dry up in 8 years. In reality, its yield will fall but the deeper wells may be able a little water even after 2020).

The picture is of a semi-drugged society living in an unimaginable water scarcity, yet spending half of the little water they pump up from the soil to grow narcotics. An enterprising young man could install a deep well and sell water to the public: if he can maintain the business working, he will make much money in the coming years in Sana'a.

A Strong Shekel

The exchange rate a year ago was 3.2 shekel to one dollar and now is 3.7. The shekel is once more one of the strongest currencies in the industrialized world, despite dollar purchases by the Bank of Israel.

This phenomenon if of great significance and it is making me relatively better off, yet I cannot find its place within my life. What is its meaning for me? My daughters are starting to visit and to care for each other without my knowledge. Thay are now fully autonomous. I am feeling lonely without them and I cannot integrate all in one meaningful life plan. The death of my mother took out a key element in my mental structure and I have to rebuild myself. I am lost.

de Jasay's Sad Commentary on (Economic) Intelligence

Anthony de Jasay was born at Aba, Hungary in 1925. (The original spelling is Jaszay). He studied Agriculture in Szekesfehervar. After the war he worked as free-lance journalist, fleeing Hungary in 1948. After two years in Austria, he emigrated to Australia in 1950 and took a part-time course in Economics at the University of Western Australia. Then he went to Oxford in 1955 and was a research fellow of Nuffield College where he stayed till 1962. Then he moved to Paris and worked there as a banker, first as employee then on his own account. In 1979, he retired to Normandy with wife and three children. He ended like all Hungarian Jews becoming something of a philosophy writer. On the new European financial regulation:

Other than "pruning" investment banking, Franco-German inspired regulation is likely to focus on solvency and on the whole modern generation of innovative financial products. Banks are already under pressure to increase their solvency ratios, and it would not be surprising if the present standards of about 8 per cent of a bank's "risk-weighted" liabilities being their own capital, were gradually raised to 10 or even 12 per cent. Skeptics would remark that in case there is a "meltdown" in the market for one major asset class, such as mortgages, a few per cent more or less of their own capital will not make the difference between solvency and insolvency, while a more massive increase in solvency ratios would suck the rest of the economy dry of capital, for far too much would be needed to fill up bank balance sheets. The only way out for the banks is to de-leverage, shrink their balance sheets to make their existing capital amount to a higher percentage of it. This result, which some authorities seem to want, is achieved by restricting credit—the "credit crunch" the authorities untiringly condemn.

The other main target area of regulation is bound to be all the recent innovative financial products. They include the transformation of non-marketable into marketable assets by securitisation, as well as such derivatives as credit default swaps, put and call options, currency and commodity futures and interest rate "swaps". Their common function is to help distribute risk by creating instruments for insuring against it and for underwriting the insurance. They also serve as more efficient vehicles for the speculation that everybody bitterly hates and wants to eradicate, failing to understand that its function is to smooth out price fluctuations by buying low and selling high. Thus pulling the price up in the trough and pushing it down at the peak. If it does the opposite, it bankrupts itself.

Tristesse

This morning I took another loan and bought Koor. They say that if you are not worried, then you are not risking enough (or you havent heard the news). I am not worried. I am sad; I have no one to tell. I miss my Mother.

Why Koor? Reason One is that I made a nice profit with it in 2009. Koor took a loan from Goldman Sachs to speculate with Credit Suisse shares and made much profit, which distributed as dividends. Very Decent Folks. Reason Number Two is Psagot analysts theory that Koor is going to be closed. The fact is that according to TASE rules, KOOR had to have 1% of its shares in the MAOF market, which it could easily do but didnt. Psagot thinks that they want to retire the stock from TASE, and they are buying it back. KOOR is selling about 25% below the total worth of its holdings, so it is cheap and it is a good moment to close it down. KOOR is a holding company that adds no value to its owner: it could be closed down and Nochi Dankner could manage its holdings directly.

SINOCHEM failed to buy Australian NUCHEM and is searching for another agrochemical company. One of KOOR's largest holdings is Machteshim Agan, a large agrochem company that is battling the Chinese in many markets. It makes much sense for KOOR to sell it to its competitors, because the Chinese are outcompeting Machteshim. The Chinese probably would close the Israeli factory and move production to China. This may be the reason why the Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz visited Nochi Dankner in a very unusual move. Israel doesnt want to lose this important factory in the Negev.

How to Influence people

Reciprocity: people will repay favors.
Commitment and Consistency: people will stick to commitments made publicly.
Social Proof: people will do what other people do.
Authority: people obey authority figures.
Liking: people are more influenced by those they like.
Scarcity: people desire what is perceived as scarce.

Water Blackmail in Israel

From Globes: Mekorot National Water Company, a government company, is threatening to break the rules in their struggle against the Ministry of Finance's intention to cancel an agreement for the company to build and operate the Ashdod desalination plan unless the company accepts the price of water set for it. Mekorot's workers union announced its intention to disconnect the Ashkelon and Hadera desalination plants from the national water system.

AVATAR: Pervert Sex or Imperial Decadence

AVATAR was commented also on the Chinese internet. No Chinese gave a second thought to the sexual meaning of the story, they all understood it as a parable of American decline and defeat. Example:

The Na’vi only drove away the English speaking human beings. After one or two decades, there must be another wave of intruders. This time, they will be Chinese speaking, which is in accordance with the current pace of development of different nations. What should the Na’vi do then?

Tijuana Drug Boss El Teo Betrayed

The legendary Mexican Drug Boss El Teo was captured by the Army in Tijuana. He was betrayed by El Pozolero, the gang employee in charge of cooking POZOLE (a typical Mexican dish made with meat, maize and chile) of 300 of his boss's rivals, or by one if his sidekicks, La Perra or El Kaibil (the owner of a much-used 9 mm pistol with golden skull inscriptions).

No rain because of our sins

Israel's Chief Sephardic Rabbi has issued a plea to the public to fast and pray for rain as another winter season of paltry precipitation begins to fade away. In a letter written on official stationery of the State of Israel, Rabbi Amar called to fast and pray on Thursday, the 28th day of Tevet. He finished the letter with a blessing given by the patriarch Isaac to his son Jacob (Genesis 27:28): "And He will give us dew of heaven and fat of the land, and bounty of grain and the vine."

He may keep the fat. I am ready to take the vine (vodka will also do).

Idle thoughts and wicked deeds

There's a little black train a coming
Better set your business right
There's a little black train a coming
And it may be here tonight

Go tell that ballroom lady
All dressed in the worldly pride
That death's dark train is coming
Prepare to take a ride

God sent to Hezekiah
A message from on high
You better set your house in order
For you must surely die

He turned to the wall a weeping
We see and hear his tears
He got his business fixed all right
God spared him fifteen years

We see that train with engine
And one small baggage car
Your idle thoughts and wicked deeds
Will stop at the judgment bar

That poor young man in darkness
Cared not for the gospel light
Til suddenly he heard the whistle blow
On the little black train in sight

“Have mercy on me please
Please come and set me right”
Before he got his business fixed
His train rolled in that night

There's a little black train a coming
Better set your business right
There's a little black train a coming
And it may be here tonight

The Crime of Building

Samaria, 2010. It is forbidden for Jews to build. The Goyim and their Jewish collaborators are making lists of who is secretly building, so they can destroy it and punish the criminals.

I miss my Mother

This afternoon I checked my portfolio and the numbers have changed - an exotic instrument doubled its worth. All my life I used to run and tell my Mother of my little thriumphs. She died three months ago and I miss her. What shall I do.

Karney Shomron

"The time will come when you'll plant vineyards in the Shomron". Entrance of the Karney Shomron village.

The time has come.

Mekorot at its end

Mekorot, the Israeli Water Corporation, is at its end. It was founded by Simcha Blass before the independence, and has a glorious history of providing water to isolated Jewish villages during our wars and to agriculture in the South (Pic.: Tkumah Reservoir, 1956. Third from right: Dr Shaul Arlozoroff). But organizations age and when they go bad, like Mekorot is going now, they should be terminated.

This introduction is a propos of the Ashdod Desalting Plant scandal (Not everybody thinks it is a scandal). Mekorot traditionally operates on a cost plus basis, that means that the Treasury pays its bills. The economists of the Treasury tried for ages to discover Mekorot's real costs, but being a monopoly, it was impossible. We never knew if Mekorot was overcharging for its services or not, and no one wanted to annoy them too hard and risk their stopping supplying water. (I correct myself: Mekorot always paid and pays Israel highest salaries, triple of Israeli average, so it is obvious that Mekorot is mighty expensive).

Ten years ago the Treasury decided that the future desalinated water sector should be private and not state-owned. Mekorot argued that it was the only company in Israel with experience in water desalting, supplying water to Eilat from the Red Sea. They had a small plant there, they had a well organized public relations team but the operation of the plant (if it operated) and its costs were state secrets. The Treasury wanted to cut out Mekorot of the desalinazation business but they lost in an epic battle with Mekorot. now we know that they did not lose, they won. How? The Treasury agreed that Mekorot should have a leg in the desalination sector, and one of the new plants would be erected and operated by a Mekorot company (on a commercial basis). The small letters stated that Mekorot would sell the water for a price equal or lower than the private companies.

Last week the bidding for the last of the plants was completed and the price offered is very low, about 2.6 shekel per cubic meter. This price caused an earthquake in Mekorot, because they are unable to produce water at that price, and the Treasury (in hands of free-market fanatic Philosophy Professor Yuval Steinitz) is unwilling to subsidize them any more. Mekorot's lack of competitivity has been exposed to all to see, a fact that had been suspected but hidden by accounting manipulation, and even experts like me could never demonstrate that Mekorot's prices were inflated. Now that the situation is crystal clear, there is no economic reason to continue subsidizing this obsolete organization.

Eli Ronen, my former boss and now Mekorot's CEO, did something that should not be done. He is a former submarine officer, tall and charismatic a la Obama. Instead of defending the interest of the public, which is to have an efficient water supply system, he chose to defend the organization he heads ie his job. He did it in an ugly way, attacking the international bidding process that produced such a low offer, engaging Mekorot's legal team to invalidate its rival's proposal. This is amazing. If Mekorot exists and works toward the public's best interest, it should share the public's success in buying water at a low price. But Mekorot 2010 cares little about the public good, it cares only about Mekorot's own good, which is opposite and uncompatible with the State's interests, and it has now demonstrated that it will not hesitate to use any weapon to destroy its more efficient rival

Mekorot is acting against the interests of its owner, the Israeli public, and against its mandate to provide water at a reasonable price. Eli Ronen should be thanked for his services and Mekorot disbanded.

Another blogger hits the dust

In Mala Fide has arrived to the conclusion that blogging does not pay.

It annoys me when bloggers I enjoy reading disappear without explanation (*cough cough* Roissy *cough cough* Ganttsquarry *cough cough* Cless Alvein), I’m giving you fair warning - In Mala Fide is going quiet.

Somehow the internet is turning a policed place, everything is being recorded forever, people is afraid of saying something that later can be used against them. The internet is left for old farts like me, that have nothing to lose. And highly processed public relations efforts. Pity, for a few years, the internet was a place to meet great people that one never meets in real life. Pity and something to think about.

Follow Up: Ferdinand Bardamu reports that he is NOT DEAD.

The New Elite

Falkenblog points out that a new elite has taken over in America, and mentions Peter Orszag. Of course he is another Hungarian Jew, with brilliant academic credentials. Orszag means "country" and it is one of those excessively Hungarian show-off names that assimilated Hungarian Jews adopted. When Jews changed their German names into Hungarian ones, they did not adopt standard Hungarian names like Szabo, Kovacs, Kocsis, Kadar, etc. - they had to have super-Hungarian names like Orszag.

America's new socialist regime has created a larger government and regulatory oppression. Obama is not succeeding: the economy is not recovering, foreign wars are not being won, there are no achievements to show. He has nationalized wide economic sectors, has imposed severe regulatory supervision on Wall Street, the government is growing while the productive sector is contracting.

Here in Israel we are disappointed with his lack of direction regarding the Iranian nuclear project, and worried about America's losing the initiative against the Muslims. The latest airport X-raying small girls is not only immoral but also ineffective. It shows a defeatist mentality, as well as inability to do the obvious thing, which is not look under the skirts of young girls but harshly interrogate all Muslims. It is starting to paint rather bad.

Temptation

During the last two weeks ALL Israeli shares related to oil and gas exploration doubled and tripled. The shares of Zion Oil, an exploration venture formed by an American Christian Fundamentalist, who drills according to the Bible, rocketed. We are shamed by his strong faith. Has oil been discovered in Israel and I am the last one to know about it? Should I interest myself in oil? I was burned once.

The view from The City of The Thousands of Menashe

I had some business in Northern Samaria and coming down home to Kever Benjamin City I took this pic. In the foreground we see Palestinian pocket of Kalkiliya with the green light of its mosque, in the background the profile of Tel Aviv. Very nice winter day: the air is fresh and clear. The City of the Thousands of the Tribe of Menashe is called "Alaphey Menashe" in Hebrew and it sounds less bizarre. I was involved in the design of the first factories of its industrial area. Its development is amazing - there were hundreds of cars stationed around and it was full of people.

The Revenge of Lady Raine

The HBD blogosphere is following the revenge Lady Raine is raining on the head of Roissy in DC. Roissy wrote for two years about the art of seduction applying THE RULES, one of them is to be rude to the ladies. True and true but he crossed a red line when published the pic of blogger Lady Raine's son, unleashing her fury:

He (Roissy) is now in the same realm as a child abuser or molestor in my mind and yes I have every intention of using every and any means possible to destroy him slowly and painfully with no remorse whatsoever.

The punishment was terrible: the photograph of Roissy himself in DC was posted, and his real name and the address and his employer. Since then, the Roissy blog is dead.

Since I have finished my "gaming life" time ago, I did not follow Roissy's cynical experiences and seduction advice. He seemed a smart Jewish boy, working in some well paying but boring DC job, unaware how people reacts when faced with a travelling salesman playboy. A figure like Roissy cannot be tolerated in decent society. He is applying and teaching others sexual seduction techniques that cause pain to the victims. He induces girls to hope for a stable reproductive relationship, then uses and abandons them. He is a danger to public morals, motherhood and children: he is pitchfork material for the peasants. And he talks too much.

As the poster says, talking is dangerous.

Half of South Africa's Whites Gone

There are no reliable statistics, but my estimate is that half of South Africa's White population has left. Rural areas are emptying. Zimbabwe's White population, which reached its zenith during the war, is almost all gone except for two or three urban concentrations.

War Paint Art

AVATAR and the Amazon Oil Fields

Ecuatorian Indians of the Amazon Oil Basin are sueing Chevron and other Oil Companies (which have been expulsed from the area) to pay reparations for environmental crimes. With some personal knowledge of the area and the people, it is absolutely clear to me that this is a blackmail operation. After 500 years of European conquest and occupation, no authentic Indian tribes are left in Ecuador, Amazonas people speak Spanish and are Christians, they have not the remotest idea what ecology is except what American missionaries and NGOs told them, and walking in the area, there are no visible signs of Chevron ever having been there. If crude was spilled on the soil, it has long been biodegraded and consumed by natural organisms. Pre-AVATAR Hollywood films have created an image of the noble savages in the rainforest, and the poor peons are trying to fill that image, encouraged by American and European NGO volunteers. Once I was treated to an Indian ceremony spectacle, and the Indians were dressed exactly as Hollywood imagined them in the thirties (see pic), a phantasy mix from the mind of Korda Zoli and other Hungarian directors.

We are now facing the fourth generation of these noble rainforest Indians (BTW heir ancestors were called chuchos and wee the most miserable af all creaurs walking on two), they have organized in faux tribes with agreed faux traditions of sacred burying fields and mountains. A new generation of American eco-turists pay to see the already traditional Indian dances and spiritual ceremonies, believe they are thousand years old and authentic, and we have a feed back vicious circle where the computer-created Na'vi and the blood and flesh mestizos are all mixed up in the public's mind.

I would say Chevron should pay now and run, because AVATAR is reinforcing an anti-colonialist environment where American companies have no chance of fair hearing. Their fields are now being operated by PETROECUADOR, a corrupt and inefficient State-owned dependency, who pollutes at wish because the faux-Indians know well that the Ecuadorian State doesnt believe in made up tribes nor sacred valleys or rivers. And Ecuador is now a "Bolivarian" state aligned with Hugo Chavez's Venezuela and Evo Morales's Bolivia, who are the "good" guys in the AVATAR story.

Conclusion: Amazonas Oil fields will be unexploited till the AVATAR phantasy passes away.

AVATAR (The Investment)

400 million dollars were invested in making AVATAR. The project was orchestrated by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., that invested 150 $ million in promotion and $ 250 million in production. News Corp. shared the risks -- and profits -- with investors, who bore an estimated 60 percent of the budget. AP writes:

As a result, investors are now more focused on the fact that the movie didn't bomb than on how much profit it will make. News Corp.'s stock started climbing since positive reviews came out of sneak peak showings Dec. 10, and it's now up about 12 percent since then. What you hear is a sigh of relief, not the triumphant cry of the Toruk Makto, the name bestowed upon hero Jake Sully after he tames a huge flying dragon in "Avatar."

400 million dollars are much money and I am sure it was invested after 4 million dollar research and deliberation of what the public wanted to see. If that infantile bad capitalist vs noble natives story was the result, it means that mentally, the public is an infantile idiot. It is not true that smart Jews in Hollywood are degrading American culture as The Occidental says. Those Jews are carefully studying American culture to produce what sells. Steve Sailer knows the process and he at least does not believe that Hollywood creates American taste. It is a risky business as most films bomb and lose money. The fact the AVATAR is a runaway success means that this is what Americans want to see. The fable will continue, as the characters are already made and a sequence will cost much less to produce.

There is another aspect. The film is a 3 dimensional computer marvel. Fantastic scenes of rocks floating in the air, multicolored flying dragons, ten foot tall blue creatures, no one can yet equal American film technology. Despite all the defeatist talk about American decadence, AVATAR shows that Hollywood is well and alive, and not yet following the American auto industry into oblivion.

HBD investing

Half Sigma mentioned the HBD investing idea but no investable ideas were mentioned. Yet I have been doing that for a decade now and my results are encouraging. I started with Lynn and Vanhanen's ground breaking book "IQ and the wealth of the nations" which I read through "Godless Capitalist", a smart Brahmin fellow founde of GNPX. Somewhere in the blogosphere cloud floats a table comparing the average IQ of nations and their (circe 2000) GBProduct. The corelation is beautiful, yet imperfect - the USA had a GNP of 55,000$ with an IQ under 100, while South Korea was a third of Japan, and the PR of China had a fraction of Singapur or Taiwan. This irregulaties are investment material. It was obvious that selling everything American and buying anything Chinese and South Korean would be rewarding. The HBD idea is playing out itself according to Lynn's book.

Lo and I looked around my table in the konditoria of Weizmann and Rothschild streets. I was sitting in one of the planet's IQ hotspots. In addition to Kinga, the pretty Hungarian waitress, we have here TEVA, Sandisk and others. We have Potash Company which was linked to POT from Saskatchewan. I watched its CEO's video messages. The man had an evil plan to corner world potash and looked decided. Mr. William Doyle is a clean cut American business leader (pic) of the times when America was young and potent, possessed that thingie called charisma, he was a leader. I put my money on that goy and he rewarded me mightily.

Conclusion: In business, as in war, IQ is nothing. Leadership, having a plan and making it happen, is all. I am searching for leaders and invest in them. My last one is Nochi Dankner, and he has not defrauded me.

AVATAR

We too went to see it. The Good Guys have blue skin with green stripes, small heads with ugly monkey faces, are very slim and tall, jump from branch to branch in the high canopy or chant in boring Indian ceremonies. The Bad Guy: American White Soldier. The blue monkeys are connected to Gaia, live in a family and talk to the animals. The American Tribe is is a well run organization, with no religion, spirit or sex. The Americans's soul is saved by a Latin woman helicopter pilot, who in the middle of the battle changes sides and attacks friendly troops, and by a sensitive American Marine, who becomes so identified with the natives that leads their attack in the American base. The story is a composite of high school tree-hugging anti-capitalist cliches, and provides three hours of visually impressive computerized fantasy. Its ideological message is so childish that is not worth discussing.

Avatar's magic is not in its infantile weltanschauung. I felt it this morning when I woke with an unusually strong erection. It is the explicit daydream of leaving our heavy and disabled bodies moving painfully, for a young weightless body walking barefoot on the wet soil and jumping and fying around effortlessly in a low-gravity world. For a fat aging person, after a painful and tiring day of climbing dangerous buildings and exploring underground infrastructure tunnels, the phantasy of a young Na'vi physical world of barefoot, effortless running on the tall branches is something. And the sex. Americans have no sex. The Na'vi do. An extremely infantile kind of sex, but they are such infantile kind of savages.

Racially, the Na'vis have small heads and ugly monkey like faces. They live in families and tribes. The Americans are Mediterraneans, mostly white with about ten percent fat black (dressed and part of the American mass) as they really are, with one Nordic face (the necessary stereotype bad guy). The other "Bad man", the CEO of the mining operation, is an olive skinned good-looking man, carrying no physical signs of his evil or sadism, appearing rational and thoughtful. Living in this shitty Middle Eastern country, the American tribe is notable for its perfect organization, everybody knows his job and everything works with no conflicts or failures. But within this corporation there is a conspiracy of dissenters who under leadership will sabotage its effort to the point of turning Na'vi.

Follow Up:
The military confrontation proved ineffective, mostly because of low ideological motivation of the Company's forces: the female helicopter pilot changed sides in the middle of the battle, the agents sent out to the Na'vi went native and joined the enemy, the translator and HQ radio-communication person were secretly collaborating with the conspirators. It is obvious that the Colonel was unfit for the job, he did not inspire loyalty among his soldiers and was unaware of the budding conspiracy. Apparently he had no corporate intelligence nor security personnel to weed out traitors in time. Alternative strategies should have been explored.

The Na'vi had a connection port in their hair (or tail?), they could have been easily connected to a Company computer and re-programmed. The idea of rewarding them with some electronic sex is promising, the company could have developed special Na'vi porn for their enjoyment. Once the connection was established with the Na'v and through them with the rest of Pandora's beings, the whole planet could have been operated as producion unit, just as the Na'vi connected their hair with the birds and they became their robots.

With the correct approach and a good programming team, the whole planet would have joined in the mining operation. Brute force (pic) should be left to adolescents. War must be waged with intelligence.