Tel Aviv Diary - December 28, 2013-January 1, 2014 - Karen Alkalay-Gut
December 28, 2013 Since so many of my friends seem to want to act their age and go to bed at 10, I fear I will be alone tonight at Tmuna. However, there is an alternative: The U-Sophia Live Stream Tune in tonight at 10 and watch. Then let me know if you like how it was. Never mind. it didn't work. But the show was great!
December 29, 2013 I'm not right wing but i oppose the release of murderers, the guys who visit you at night and murder you in your bed, the guys who knife a scientist on his way to his research lab university, you know - the ones who prefer killing babies and old people because it's easier. Prisoners of war are one thing, but prisoners who set out to murder citizens - Oh, come on, we all know Bibi is releasing them instead of freezing settlements. The only problem is that settlement freeze can be reversed, but these guys and the effect they produce in their release is irreversible. December 30, 2013 Hooray - abortions will be easily accessible to young women again! It's just a little sign of life returning to the middle-east. no I don't like abortions, but i don't like people meddling in my life. Even though it looks like one of Ezi's medications may no longer be covered by free health care, he can still buy it. We have the choice. And it isn't all that expensive. We were supposed to go out tonight but I've now caught the same virus my grandson had on Friday when he fainted and cut his head open. Headache, dizziness, whee. I'm so glad I'm not living in one of those homeless tents in the middle of Namir Blvd. Reviewing this year, I suddenly realized this has been the worst year ever for my faith in politics. Anywhere in the world. December 31, 2013 Political mistrust has to be universal. Except maybe in Venezuela. I mean when it was first announced yesterday that funds were being cut for education but subsidies were being introduced for sweet cream, I thought - right - that's going to help the struggling middle classes. We can drown our sorrows in whipped cream. Then i thought - maybe because the price of sweet cream is so ridiculously high, the government is trying to break the dairy cartel. Maybe my blanket mistrust is not allowing me to evaluate things clearly. May this be a year of new beginnings and new directions for us all. January 1, 2013 Who rides buses?Not people who have alternatives. I stopped long ago when I got a car. And the price hike today of 30 agorot is not that great. the problem is that the big oligarths around here are getting millions of shekel debt erased, and Bibi is spending enormous amounts of our money all over the place, and the poor get poorer. As we sit around waiting for Ariel Sharon to go to his final resting place, I cannot but think of my father's last days. My mother and I sat by his bed, my mother barely able to move from grief, and the doctor asked me for permission for a procedure to put a mainline in his heart. I asked him what would be accomplished by this and he said he might last a few more days. With my mother's agreement I declined. Then he asked me if he could give him a transfusion. The thought of my father dying from lack of blood made me ill, and I agreed. And what about nutrition? How could I say no? The decisions were so hard, and my mother kept asking me to get up and check if my father was breathing. So I understood why the family of Arik Sharon wanted to keep him alive despite the expense and perhaps the suffering. Nevertheless, at least when I was making these impossible decisions I didn't have to consider the expense that was being added to the burden of the society.