taking up the fight

Neve Tzedek (Nehushtan) tower as seen from the rooftop next to the rooftop. Another six are planned along the same road, two adjacent to this one.

The local Neve Tzedek community centre was buzzing with activity the other night with about 100 local residents cramming in to hear speeches and sign up to volunteer and contribute. Even some of the local celebs could be seen among thge locals. There was a catalyst for this sudden spurt of community action in our normally placid and increasinghly gentrified neighbourhood. This came in the form of a policy documentadopted by the Tel Aviv local planning and construction committee recently approved a policy document for building in the mesila (old train tracks) area running along Rehov Eilat/Derekh Yafo.

The document refers to an area of 128 dunams and includes seven towers. The new buildings will add some 650 residential units to the 750 now existing in the area. Included in the buildings referred to in the document is the 38 storey Neve Tzedek (Nechushtan) tower that was built 5 years ago and can clearly be seen from the rooftop. The additional towers slated for construction are the Lieber Tower, a 32 storey tower for residential or office use which will be even closer to the rooftop ; the Niva Tower, 28 floors slated for residential use; The Ha-atad Tower, 32 storeys for office or residential use (next to Lieer and therefore also highly visible) ; the Lapid quarter that will include two towers containing 150 apartments and the Eliphelet area that will hold two additional towers.


In view of the latest development, the ‘Residents for Neve Tzedek’ non-profit association believes that if action is not taken soon the battle will be lost. Neve Tzedek will quickly find itself surrounded by busy roads and high towers and will become a “traffic island” choked by car pollution and darkened for most of the day by the shade of the towers.

Hence the emergency meeting. Now the idea is to continue to fight the plans through the various planning authorities and at worst, to ensure that the area receives the green spaces and schools it needs. At best, the plans should be overturned and the whole vision rethought but it seems that too much money and too many interests are involved to completely halt the juggernaut of a planning process from steamrolling on.

Anyone interested in making a donation to the cause can do so by making out a cheque to

Residents for Neve Tzedek
c/o Advocate Roy Amsel
Rehov Har Sinai 5
Tel Aviv 65816

Oy Jerusalem

A Palestinian neighhbourhood in East Jerusalem. Click not to see details like paved roads, public transportation, pavements, sewage and refuse collection.

A few days ago I took leave of Tel Aviv for a rare visit to Jerusalem , or more specifically to what is normally called 'East' Jerusalem (despite much of this being in the north and the south of the city) The occasion was a tour with the Ir Amim NGO whose optimistic motto is: 'An Equitable and Stable Jerusalem with an Agreed Political Future'.

Thus, only a 90 minute drive from the fleshpots of Tel Aviv, I found myself meadering (in a van) through the potholed roads of Um Tuba and Jabel Mukabar, Suhr Bahr, Ras el Amud and Silwan - in other words, places that most Israelis have barely heard of, let alone visited. There were no pavements, the garbage was collected only infrequently and some 9,000 children would not be going to school in September because of a chronic lack of classrooms. This is what Israel's 'eternal capital' looks like from the Palestinian side. To cap it all, the security fence (in some places an 8 metre high wall) snakes around most of 'east' Jerusalem cutting off hospitals from patients, children from schools, farmers from fields and customers from businesses. As much as it protects Israelis from terror attacks it seems also to demarcate which part of 'Jerusalem' Israel intends to keep for itself.

Here and there in the heart of these Palestinian neighbourhoods (some of them former villages annexed to Jerusalem after the 1967 war) , settler organisations with complete governmental collusion are buying out Palestinian houses and land to set up difficult-to-move Jewish "settlements" - 20 units here, 150 there. This is the same tactic the settlement movement has always used. Establish enough "facts on the ground" and they will never be able to budge us. This sort of activity has been stepped up in recent weeks and months.

The wider picture is of course Obama's renewed effort to jump start negotiations between Israel and the PA, negotiations that will never be concluded positively without a resolution to the status of Jerusalem. If there are to be two states, then Jerusalem is to be the capital of both of them. This demands redrawing the map of Jerusalem and dividing the city into sections of Israeli , Palestinian and probably some form of international sovereignty. The clumps of Jewish settlement inside densly populated Palestinian neighbourhoods are designed to place physical spokes in the wheels of this plan by further complicating an already complicated situation.


Under various peace plans, the 'holy basin' containing Temple Mount/Haram el sharif as well as the Mount of Olives and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (among others) would fall under international sovereignty and administration.

Indeed, even without this sort of malicious sabotage it is hard to fathom how the city can be both divided yet remain open and maintain several sovereignties without them continuously clashing.

President Clinton's "parameters" of 2001 talked of freezing a snapshot of the status quo: neighbourhoods containing Jews to Israel, Palestinian neighbourhoods to Palestine and the holy places under a special regime. But few other practical details of how all this might work in practice have emerged. For example there would have to be some sort of external barrier that would prevent militant Palestinians from exiting Jerusalem to carry out a terror attack in Tel Aviv or zealous settlers from doing the same in Ramallah.

But all of this is speculation, a long way down the road. Tonight at 8pm Netanyahu will address the world and we will have a better idea of whether he will submit to the American demand and say out loud that the goal of the process is a two state solution. If he does, Obama wins. If he doesn't Obama still wins because his confrontational position with Israel will raise his standing in the Arab world. Knowing Bibi's coalition contraints and sincere world view, the latter scenario is the more likely .

We - here on the rooftop and in other reasonably sane households throughout Israel - feel that entering a confrontation with our greatest friend and ally over semantics and settlements is lunacy but have also always belived that the entire settlement enterprise is lunacy.

This certainly feels like the beginning (if we're not already in the middle) of Israel's gradual decline to the status of international leper.

A Palestinian boy in the Old City of Jerusalem. What future for him and Jewish children in west Jerusalem?

For balanced information on the Jerusalem question: http://www.ir-amim.org.il/Eng/

Fallen king of the ratings

Dudu in brighter days

With relations with the Obama administration rapidly deteriorating to crisis proportions, one would have thought that the possible loss of Israel's most stalwart ally would be dominating the headlines 24/7. One would be wrong. In fact the top story of the last few days has been the involvement of entertainer Dudu Topaz in physical assaults against TV executives

"Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court ordered an eight-day extension of the remand of one of Israel's top television stars on Monday, branding Dudu Topaz the ringleader in a series of violent attacks on TV executives. Topaz was arrested Sunday over the attacks on TV producer Shira Margalit two weeks ago, the CEO of the Channel 2 Keshet franchise Avi Nir in November 2008 and actors' agent Boaz Ben-Zion some six months ago."

The babyfaced Dudu Topaz was (it seems only yesterday) Israel's top TV personality, the 'King of the Ratings', MCing peaktime shows which involved a combination of stand-up humour and elaborate projects designed to pull at the heartsrings. Before that he was a successful comedian, packing halls and wowing fans all over the country. But gradually the ratings faded, the wrinkles deepened, the blue eyed boy of the 80s lost his slot on Channel 2 and his career nosedived. By all accounts, Dudu's (gargantuan) ego punctured, he flipped and ordered the beatings of the above from a next door neighbour with criminal inclinations.

No we won't

On second thoughts, there might be hidden parallels between the Dudu Topaz story and the Binyamin Netanyahu story. Both were national heartthrobs in their younger days. Both have the gift of the gab. And both are now sweating.

Bibi's formerly renowned rhetorical powers seemed to have been replaced recently by increasingly jerky arm movements. The political king of the ratings has today something of the air of an ageing TV show host making a comeback. Now he's been knocked off balance by the cool onslaught of the Obama administration into the very narrow manoeuvering space between his hawkish coalition and the heat emanating from Washington.

Dudu seems to be in frail mental condition and could be facing years in jail or other institution. He made a lot of people laugh and it's a shame. However, he's not the prime minister.

On the other hand, Bibi's mental state is reputedly lachitz (given to pressure). And so, yet again, the question is who will press harder: Barack Obama and Team America or Bibi's hawkish chums from Likud, Yisrael Beitenu and Ha-Bayit Ha-Yehudi. Not to mention the settlers who are already heating up the West Bank and Jerusalem.

If history repeats itself , the combination of a committed Israeli right and a small and passive left will again succeed in upsetting Washington's plans.

But I'm rooting for Obama all the same.

Mid Life Crisis Plays Sublime

Mid Life Crisis in all its glory

Sunday May 10. A balmy evening. In Ramat Gan Stadium Fifty thousand fans have gathered to see Depeche Mode. Meanwhile, in a rock club in grimy south Tel Aviv, 'Mid Life Crisis' a four piece rock band, incapable of identifying even one Depeche Mode song, take to the stage.

This was MLC's second pro gig, this time at Sublime, an upgraded venue with a real stage, even a raised podium for the drums! We managed to run through 16 songs with a minimum of mistakes, the sound was reasonable, and a rocking good time was had by all.

Plans are afoot to upload some of the show to You Tube (depending on what it looks and sounds like). Meanwhile, to hear 5 Mid Life Crisis recordings including the newly added 'With A Bit of Faith', go to www.myspace.com/mlcisrael

Danny Zilberman playing those sneaky riffs in the foreground, me at the traps.

Danny Blumberg on bass guitar plays to dramatic effect



Danny Z in classic pose

Guitar lickin' Zev Labinger

Someone under 50 seems surprised to be enjoying himself

The audience - ok, consisting largely of the friends and family of the band members (special thanks to Z&W) - showered us with applause. Depeche Mode couldn't have had more of an adrenalin high.

Satisfied punters at Sublime. Could there really be a market in Israel for an ageing rock band playing original material in English?

Open House

A room in ha-blok

Following in the footsteps of other major cities, Tel Aviv has been holding an 'Open House' weekend for several years now. The local version is called batim mi-bifnim or 'houses from the inside'. The event, which opens up scores of private homes, workplaces and public buildings and spaces to the general public, becomes more popular ever year. After all, who isn't interested in peeking into other people's habitats? Consequently we met long queues at some of the buildings we'd planned to visit and decided to move on. There was still plenty to see though.

The day started on a green note at the community organic garden in Maoz Aviv, a charming quiet and very green neighbourhood in the north east situated next to the luna park. From small beginnings the garden is now used actively by 40 families in either general or individual plots. The municipality provided the land and the water. The families contribute 50 shekels a month to cover expenses like new plants. Even people who don't use the garden regularly leave their fresh garbage in the active compost heap. In fact we learned a lot about compost heaps - apparently a growing fashion (they don't throw meat and fish onthe pile in Maoz Aviv ). I resolved to start a communal compost heap in the back garden.

Moving on and still in green mode, we visited the "ecological apartment" situated on a picturesque corner of Bialik Square. This is the kitchen whose walls, according to the note, were painted with of flour and milk! The residents are eco activists who run an NGO called A Tree in The City. http://www.citytree.net/ (Hebrew only). Another lecture on compost (yes you can chuck meat and fish on the heap) and I was ready for some plastic and steel.


But first. more organic kitchen

Over the road, is 'bauhaus tel aviv' , a modest but stylish collection of Bauhaus artifacts, with stress on the tubular chairs that have become modern classics. This was not part of the tour but worth the visit.




Taking the time to see buildings not normally visited whetted the appetite for forays into corners often passed but never entered. Thus inspired, we stopped at Tel Aviv's first cemetery on Rehov Trumpeldor (which actually served the Jews of Jaffa before Tel Aviv was Tel Aviv).

Amidst the crumbling gravestones lie the remains of some of Tel Aviv's and Israel's luminaries: Arlosorov (Zionist leader), Dizengoff and Rokach (early mayors), Haim Nahman Bialik (national poet), Moshe Sharett (Prime Minister) and others - "All the streets ," as A put it.

Many of the old gravestones carry the photographs of the deceased, an un-Jewish custom I always thought but today too, you see photographs on the gravestones of immgrants from Russia so it may be an eastern European thing.

Next stop was a four storey building on Rehov Barzilai near the now trendy gan ha-chashmal (Electric Garden) area. This started out in the early thirties as a set of elegant apartments built in the international style. As the area deteriorated in the 60s and 70s, the building, with its well proportioned rooms, high ceilings and beautiful floor tiles, was let out to small businesses and left to decay. In the early 90s a young couple rented the entire building and tastefully converted it in to a busy post-production studio called 'Edit'

Walking up the central stairwell at Edit. Click to check out the different tiles on each floor.

detail of modernist, early 30s tiles.



editing corner at Edit - each room has different theme.

Next stop was to ha-blok (The Block) which , it turned out, is the location of an Isaeli reality show. I'm a bit fuzzy on the details of the show (and intend to remain so) but what we saw is that a nondescript abandoned 60s block on the corner of Mazeh and Begin had been partially converted into 6 very small apartments, each of which was named after a different young couple (Ma'ayan and Roi, say). Some sort of competition was involved. The rooms, all overly designed and none, to my mind, attractive, were obviously slapped together for the show. Here an ABBA video on a loop competes with Marilyn for no apparent reason.


A dispiriting room in ha-blok

This morning, together with another 300 people, we took a tour with environmental activist, TV journalist, foreign affairs expert and now Knesset Member Nitzan Horowitz through central Tel Aviv: from Dizengoff Square to Gan London next to the Dan Hotel on sea front. The theme was urban sustainability

Ma'onot Ha-Ovdim (Workers Residences)

Along the way, Nitzan (below) pointed out how once throbbing Dizengoff with its smart shops, bohemian cafes and vibrant street life had been handed over to the automobile in the 70s. Historic Tzina Dizengoff Square, surrounded by magnificent International Style buildings (see today's lovely Cinema Hotel for inspiration) was raised to allow cars to flow underneath. Once its connection to the street was severed the whole area went downhill. Today, this end of Dizengoff is a collection of run down buildings, felafel joints and cheap bazaars. The solution: restore the square (actually a circle) to street level and market forces will revitalize the whole area.



Further along the way we stopped at ma'onot ha-ovdim ('workers residences' - see above) built in the 30s in a utopian vision that, according to Nitzan, holds the secret to urban sustainability today. This was the "affordable housing" of an earlier age. Three sides of modest apartments surrounded a large central lawn , protected from the busy street outside , where children could play safely. The apartments were originally populated by a mixed bunch of factory workers, intellectuals and Labour Party workers. In today's terms this would (apart from the party hacks) be considered a good "mix" of types of population. Thirty seconds away and you are on busy Dizengoff street , hence also a good mix of residential and commercial use. The third elelement for sustainable urbanism - an efficent, integrated pubic transportation system with dedicated public traffic lanes and limits on private car usage - was less of a problem in the 1930s.


MK Nitzan Horowitz

Tel Aviv argued Nitzan, is already an "excellent city" but, with a bit of thought and planning, could be a "model".

Protection

A few days ago, a flyer appeared on the front door handle. It carried the slogan "Protect Yourself - Right on Time" (sounds better in Hebrew) and showed a map of Israel (and the West Bank) divided into brightly covered sections. Each section referred to the amount of warning time you'll have to reach your "protected area...in the case of an emergency" (read: "if your area is attacked by missiles").

If you live in Kiryat Shemona you have zero time. Lucky Jerusalemites have 3 minutes.The rooftop and the rest of Tel Aviv will have 2 minutes. We don't have a mamad (reinforced room) in this old flat but 2 mns would probably allow us to reach the bomb shelter on the ground floor in time - although the security window in there is stuck half open. If not, we'll head one floor down and seek protection in the stairwell. The folks from the Home Front Command advise us to keep water, food, batteries, first aid and even an internet link in our safe areas, since, it appears, we could be stuck in there for a quite a while...

The flyer is part of a campaign to better prepare Israel for the next war which, in all probability, will see missiles flying into major population centres. A nationwide exercise is planned for later in the month. Ask the Home Front and they'll tell you that it is better to be doing this now while Israel is not in an emergency situation. Ask other observers and they'll tell you that is part of the preparations to launch an attack against Iranian nuclear facilities.

The question of whether Israel will or won't do this has become a national obsession. Some say that the reason that Barak joined the government was because he shares Bibi's existential concerns regarding Iran. As if the flyer and the media attention were not enough, my day (unusually cloudy and cool) is being further darkened by an article by Aluf Benn in Ha'aretz with the catchy title Is Netanyahu bringing Israel closer to a 'second Holocaust'?

It starts with:

"Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's actions are shaped by a profound conviction that Israel will be in danger of extermination if Iran has nuclear weapons at its disposal. Removing the Iranian threat to Israel has been Netanyahu's main goal for years, and the Iranians' progress in this realm has only reinforced his
awareness that the fateful hour of decision is fast approaching."

and ends with:

"As long as the diplomatic process continues, and Obama is asking Israel to hold off on any action, it is too early to declare that a war against Iran is
inevitable. But Netanyahu's rise to power is clearly bringing Israel closer to
such a conflagration, because of the gravity he attributes to the Iranian threat
and his belief that he is tasked with saving Israel and the Jewish people from
destruction. Anyone who thinks of himself in such terms and is also talking
about history books will not want to be remembered as the prime minister who
served when the Islamic Republic, whose leader considers Israel a "filthy germ,"
became a nuclear power."

A Skpe conversation with S in the UK revealed that the Iranian issue hardly featured in the British press. When I told him that it was dominating ours, he dismissively waved one hand and, with the other, took another swig of whiskey. The fear and loathing that the Iranian nuclear enterprise understandably evinces in Israel is being talked up by our politicians in an orchestrated fashion. This is partly designed to convince the rest of the world of the seriousness of the Iranian threat but (judging by the British press) if the rest of the world remains unconvinced, this may also eventually paint the Israeli leadership into a corner. If diplomacy and sanctions fail, they may feel that there is "no choice" but to take military action.

My fear therefore is not that Iran will launch a nuclear strike against Israel (it knows it would get one in return) but that Bibi will launch a strike against Iranian nuclear facilities that will lead to (non-nuclear) war with Iran (and probably also Hizbullah and Hamas) in which thousands of missiles will be launched at the rooftop and the surrounding area known as the State of Israel.

Where did I put that flyer ??

Tel Aviv's spirit 100 years young

Carmel Market

Travels over and returned to roost on the rooftop, it's time to catch up with Tel Aviv's centenniel celebrations.

Despite the official opening - a successful big bash in Rabin Square with lasers, fireworks and major artists - and the year of parties and events to come, a tangible sense of excitement is noticeably absent, at least amongst Tel Avivians I know.

The explanation to this paradox is perhaps to be found in the article (thanks to A) by Tel Aviv columnist Ben Zilka that opened the special centennial year edition of Ha-Ir (The City) -"cool" local paper popular with lefties and the cultural circle. So, as a public service, here's a translation of a few passages. And since this piece eloquently sings the praises of everyday life in Tel Aviv, I'm interspersing a few of my photos of ordinary Tel Avivians.


Purim street party


Second hand book stall on Allenby Street

Today is Your Birthday by Ben Zilka

"....Despite one's professional duty to devote this column to the birthday, we wouldn't be telling the whole truth were we to say that excitement over the festivities is keeping us awake at night. After all, this coming weekend, like all the other weekends in the city, will be crammed with events that are no less attractive. And, with all due respect, we had already made other plans for our days off.


Bride and groom, Carmel Market

"In the south of the city for example there's a big buzz about an exhibition in which a lot of artists are going to take part and the word is that "everyone in town will be there."Clearly we're going to put in an appearance ourselves. At a club not far away from there there's a party, nothing special, the sort that happens here all the time, with famous DJs from abroad and similar attractions and we thought that maybe we'd drop in. Apart from that there's our regular evening at the bar that always manages to lift the fatigue accumulated during the working week, the regular Friday meeting at the cafe and perhaps also the beach, weather permitting. So, all in all, we don't have that much time to spare this weekend...."


Miko the mechanic, Florentin

"... Tel Aviv has traditionally turned its back on ceremonies and titles dictated by this or that establishment, and this time too, even though the party is being held in our honour, it's reasonable to assume that we won't depart from this custom . This is also how the history of Tel Aviv - born exactly 100 years ago - came into being.The sanctity of place never applied to us as it applied to , say, the city elders of Jerusalem where the divine aura emanation gazes at them from every corner of the city and and directs them to act according to its conditions. Nor does any spirit of heroism hover over us , and our city is not named after fallen soldiers whose legacy- whatever it might be - we are supposed to uphold."


' Matkot players' , hotels section of the boardwalk

Girl, Florentin


Young mums on the beach

"This does not mean to say that Tel Aviv is a city without a past, but rather that its past is woven into its daily experience: we sit in cafes just as Dizengoff and Rokach [former mayors of Tel Aviv] sat in them, we sip the same glasses of alcohol as Bialik and Alterman [renowned Tel Aviv poets] and the sea is, it goes without saying, the same sea. "

Beachfront

Fashion conscious street cleaner, corner Allenby/King George/ Sheinkin

Singing waiters, Tel Aviv Port

"The city's poets and authors sang praises to its cafes, to its nights, its streets, the trees along its boulevards, its women, its night life and its beaches. None of them ever glorified the memory of its dead or its fabulous past, just its daily routine and the joy of life that they experienced. In this way, for a hundred years, we have learned how to look back, to the point where the commemoration of any historical event, be it even the city's birthday, appears alien to us."

Friday afternoon drummers, 'Drummer's Beach'

Abu Hassan, "mythological" humous joint, Yaffo

Never too old to folk dance, Shabbat morning on the beachfront

If , nevertheless, we stop for a moment in Rabin Square, we won't be looking back to the day on which Tel Aviv was born, we will simply be celebrating what it is."

Shuk Levinsky

Fishermen, Jaffa port

Purim, Florentin



Yom Kippur, Yehuda Halevi

Berlin

'Museum Island', Berlin, formerly part of East Berlin

Considering that it embodies the two evilest empires ever - Nazism and Communism - a quick trip to Berlin revealed a pretty laid back city. Berlin's turbulent history seems to have been successfully subsumed into its flourishing tourist industry while its liberal zeitgeist has transformed it into a magnet for young people.

Berlin's devastation by the Allies and its subsequent West/East division also forged the nature of its revitalization. After the communist side closed off the border, West Berlin's need for working hands led to activist immigration and asylum policies. Today, about 14% of the population of the united city are of foreign nationality while another 12% are descendants of "international migrants" and have either become naturalized German citizens or obtained citizenship by virtue of birth in Germany. With about 25% of the population being "outsiders" it's not surprising that Berlin has become a symbol of the cosmopolitan, global city.

Street art in the borough of Kreuzberg, home to many immigrants from Turkey.

Reminders of Berlin's Jewish life and - more often - death, are scattered around the city. The stunning Jewish Museum tells the whole illustrious and painful story while the controversial, impressive Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (see pic below) covers an entire block but, at least for me, did not have a deep emotional effect. While some visitors seemed to be pensive, others, especially kids, treated the whole affair as a kind of maze, which, of course, it is. An official is on hand to shoo youngsters off the tops of the symbolic gravestones. Whatever your view on the monument, it is but one of many visible signs that Germany society has internalised the lessons of its dark past. Surrounded by sad monuments to the past and by the free roaming grandchildren of the war generation, it was difficult to complain about the way Berlin is transforming itself.

Today, Berlin's community numbers about 12,000 people. We saw armed guards outside every Jewish institution we happened to pass. This was a reminder that while another Holocaust is unthinkable, the Jews of Europe, sadly, still need protection from some of their neighbours.

Tourists at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

The nondescript park and parking lot shown below cover the site of Hitler's bunker, the site of his suicide together with Eva Braun. The relatively smart residential buildings in the background were built, in clear view of the West, by the East German authorities for their ruling and intellectual elite in a last ditch effort to show that they too could build stylishly. A neat spot to sum up the last days of these empires. Fake GDR memorabilia can now be purchased from Indian hawkers on street corners while we didn't see any Nazi memorabilia on sale at all, even at the flea market. Thus are the mighty fallen


Decadent Berlin, which the nazis hated, seems to have a sneaky way at poking fun at pompous politicians. The Fernsehturm TV tower (needle with a golf ball on top) - now Berlin's icon -was erected by the communists as a symbol of modernist, secular superiority over the tradition-laden religiosity of the bad old world. Trouble is that at certain times of the day the sun's rays create a cross on the globe, thus gaining it the nickname, The Pope's Revenge.


Even the dramatic impact of Kennedy's 1963 "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech in West Berlin has been dampened somewhat by the controversy over whether these words can be taken to mean "I am a doughnut."

Tourists on Trabi (lousy GDR car) Safari near one of the last remaining stretches of the wall


There's a certain style that, judging by the number of hat shops encountered, never seems to go out of fashion in Berlin.



War becomes war tourism. Choose your bike tour: Berlin's Nazi past or the dungeons of the Stasi?

But all that's behind us now. After reuinification once depressed and still cheaper East Berlin attracted students and artists thereby transforming neglected and grimy neighbourhoods into cheerful places with a bohemian edge and upwardly mobile real estate prices.

Hanging out in a neighbourhood flea market. The stallholders were terrible bargainers. If you offered a significantly lower price, they immediately agreed. In the Middle East this is considered to be unacceptable practice. Could this be the secret of peace in Europe since WWII?

You can see more photos of Berlin here

and the whole of my webgallery here

Playing for change thru-you

Kutiman live

As a Pessah present I wanted to upload two amazing music videos that have been circulating recently. Apart from being superb musically and visually, both are uplifting in that they involve so many musicians from so many different countries. They also both use carefully blended performances of music to tie everyone together. The musicians, who have never seen each other, are linked either actively or by the producer to one another. Everyone is in a different place yet everyone is doing the same thing in perfect synch. It's probably that aspect that gives the viewer that uplifted feeling. The multiculti mix also enriches in ways that would be impossible in an ordinary production.

Since blogger won't let me upload the videos from you-tube, I'll just give the links and hope for the best.

The first is by an Israeli musician Ophir 'Kutiman' Kutiel who, after after months hunched over a computer in Tel Aviv emerged blinking into the sunshine to announce that he had completed the thru-you project. In this he has mixed you-tube clips from anonymous and (formerly) amateur performers to create 7 superb tracks Go to http://thru-you.com/

or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tprMEs-zfQA&feature=PlayList&p=88C4BAB8ACE6684C&index=0&playnext=1

According to music site The List "Israeli producer Kutiman has become an overnight internet sensation by mixing an album entirely from samples of YouTube videos. The online album Thru You (thru-you.com) has become so successful that (at time of writing) the site hosting it is down due to "overwhelming traffic"."

The second is Stand By Me performed by street musicians from all over the world. This was produced by the Playing for Change foundation programme whose goal to create a "music movement" that would "inspire and improve communities in need around the world through music". The on-site recording technique is different but the results are equally inspiring.

I've just seen that they have a new song recorded with the same technique -Bob Marley's 'One Love' . This includes contributions from an Israeli singer called Tula filmed in Yaffo.

Enjoy.

Armenia 2

A few more impressions of Armenia, particularly the capital Yerevan , which is home to a third of Armenians. The photo above of a photographer's display window includes a few national heroes, including Charles Aznavour.

A warm, inviting office building from the Soviet period. Smart new shopping parades are however beginning to erase the oppressive Soviet architectural legacy.

Stunning sheshbesh (backgammon) boards on sale in a Sunday morning Yerevan street market. The game is popular all over the Middle East as well. Although almost 100% Christian, Armenia felt like part of the Middle East too and there was an obvious mixing of cultures.

Banjo-playing old dude, Yerevan street market. We heard some traditional Armenian music at a restaurant, belted out by a mixed duo in traditional dress. A bit too strident and Balkan for my taste.

The cathedral-like food market in Yerevan suggests a Soviet stab at capturing the atmosphere of the east. As soon as you walk in, determined moustachioed men wielding knives, hack out slices of fruit stuffed with nuts and stuff them into your mouth: an aggressive (and effective) marketing ploy.

Laying a wreath at the memorial to the Armenian genocide. There is a nearby grove where various international figures and bodies have planted a tree in memory of the victims. Jacques Chirac, for example. However trees planted by US, UK or Israel were not to be found (there was a tree planted by the Armenian Jewish community). All these countries, and more, are wary of infuriating Turkey, but upon exiting the well-documented exhibition of the Armenian genocide, this knowledge didn't help me feel less ashamed.


Armenia is proud of its cultural heritage but as a strageically located small country with very limited resources it needs to find a more stable niche in the chaotic post-Soviet era. Conversations with locals and a bit of reading revealed a pretty sad political picture of Armenia today.

Following the (Feb 08) election result, opposition protests began in Yerevan's Freedom Square, in front of the Opera House. On March 1st, the demonstrators were violently dispersed by police and military forces and President Robert Kocharyan declared a 20-day state of emergency. This was followed by mass arrests and purges of prominent members of the opposition, as well as a de facto ban on any further anti-government protests. (Wikipedia)

Locals told us that you could distinguish the cars of the different business oligarch clans by their number plates. If they ended with 500 for example, they belonged to the oligarch who had the monopoloy on the import of concrete.. or whatever. And in fact the black SUVs of these powerful families could be seen all over Yerevan. As if to verify a story I'd been told, we pulled up at some traffic lights next to a smart black van driven by the 14 year old son of an oligarch. He fleetingly peered down his nose at our scruffy taxi before returning his attention to a pretty and heavily made up 14 year old girl. The lights changed and he left us in the dust. The police, I was told, are too scared to enforce the law against these characters.

A police car circyling a bust of Sakharov....