Sunday, May 24, 2009

A piece of iron wire

Sometimes when I see how people are running things, I recall the Hebrew expression "A piece of iron wire – חתיכת חוט ברזל". 

Only the "Old-Timers" remember it, so it is really old-fashioned. The expression reminds us of the times Israel was poor and so were most of its citizens. There was no money to repair things properly, so a piece of iron wire was the default solution.

Instead of taking a task and to plan it "from A to Z" or as the Greeks used to say: "τ Α κα τ Ω", it becomes something like a Quilt. Don't misunderstand me I love Quilts, but only if they are on beds.

When I visited the Erets Yisrael Museum in Ramat Aviv not far from Tel Aviv University I saw an art piece, a mug with a broken handle "fixed" with a piece of wire. It is the Metaphor of the 21st century and the way we plan things.



Wednesday, May 13, 2009

The Wave

Some twenty years ago I saw a film called "The Wave" for the first time.

It is about an American teacher Ron Jones.

He ran an experiment with his students. In the experiment he showed how avarage normal students, can adopt Nazi theories in an innocent way, without realising it.

The experiment is actually an answer to the question, how could the Holocaust happen and how did it start.

The way Ron Jones handled the material was a problematic one, as he actually showed his students, how far they could go and what could have happened if he hadn't stopped the process.


It teaches us an important lesson: when you see injustice - do something, raise your voice and don't stand aside.