Leon's No News Bulletin (50)

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Shalom everyone,

Yesterday for the first time in several weeks I met my friend Shaul for coffee in the Shuk. That is Shuk Mahaneh Yehudah where all the nobodies of town come to expound their opinions to each other on the pretext of doing the weekly shopping.

The media even asks our opinions on the unimportant matters of the day on the pretext of getting public opinion.

Yesterday they put a microphone in front of me and I told them I didn't think the Winograd report on the conduct of the last Lebanon War was important to me. I take myself as a representative of the man in the street.

I'm not saying it wasn't important. I'm only saying that for the man in the street it's not important. Its only importance is for the heads of the government and the army. I, Mr. plain citizen am only interested in the outcome.

So far the outcome has been quite good, namely for nearly a year there has been peace and quiet on our Northern border for the first time in about 30 years. I am sure that the longer this tranquil situation continues the more permanent it'll become.

The trouble is we don't appear to have been victorious. That's what bothering everybody. People like to appear to be victorious. They absurdly prefer that to peace and quiet. I prefer peace and quiet.

Yesterday I spent a good half hour noting all the concerts, lectures and movies available in May and June. Israeli society has this bad habit of cramming all my kind of cultural events into these two months. Naturally it's because March and April are holiday times and academics and artists are off entertaining in other parts of the world or they're just busy with Purim, Pesach, Independence day, Memorial day and all sorts of other religious non cultural events.

At the same time I had a few requests for tours. So I'll have to jump around between entertainment and work. I also have to find time to visit the library.

We have a magnificent library in Jerusalem called the National Jewish Library. It's located on the Givat Ram campus of the Hebrew University. Thank God they're not on strike like all the students. I wish that students could study at university without the need to pay. In my opinion there should be a special education tax, so that students would be accepted at universities on the basis of ability only and not on the basis of the ability to pay.

Yesterday I was determined that Summer is here and walked around without my jacket. I was okay in the middle of the day when temperatures hit about 26 but was chilled to the bone waiting for the bus at 10 in the evening after seeing the movie "Sunshine".

I have never seen a less heroic looking bunch of people (teenage looking kids) doing a more heroic thing (saving the sun) than I saw in that movie.

Those kids, despite all their childish squabbles actually saved the world from destruction by a religious fanatic who was set on preventing the world from getting saved so that in death all mankind could unite with God.

Wishing you a great no news day.

Yours truly.

Leon.