Philippine heaven
Old house in Neve Tsedek . Avinoam , the barber, is one of my few connections to the world of amcha yisrael which is a polite way of saying the common people, the hoi polloi . The time before last I had him trim my locks (if only) he was waxing ecstatic about the virtues of Philippine women. He had visited a friend who had recently met and married one (a foreign worker) through a dating agency. Avinoam thought he had died and gone to heaven. “Such tranquility! Such respect! She waits on him hand and foot and she’s always cooking him meals and worrying about him. And the apartment! Not a speck of dust! That’s what I want! A woman like that. A woman who will respect me and love me and look after me!” (A, aged 50, is single, on ideological grounds, having allegedly suffered a series of humiliations and rip-offs at the hands of Israeli women). “And what about her?” “ Wa ?” "Her. What about her? What does she get out of it? “Well, he looks after h...