Human nature

January 2, 2009 - 2:29 PM by David · 2 Comments
Filed under: Environment, Israeliness, Travel

An SPNI hike - great even if you're not a VIP

Here’s a fun story, a testament to something Israeli, not that I know exactly what.

Our American friend, let’s call her Lauren, was planning her son’s bar mitzvah celebration in Israel. In addition to the bar mitzvah itself, she was also organizing other activities that her family as well as parents, cousins, etc would enjoy during the week.

She emailed the Society for Protection of Nature in Israel and inquired as to whether there were any organized trips/hikes during the 10 days they were going to be here at the end of December. She was told no, but if you hire a van, we’ll provide you with a guide to take you around.

“I wrote back, thanks, but we’re trying to keep our budget down and we can’t really afford to hire a van,” said Lauren. Next thing she knew, the SPNI contact had written back and said, the van is on us, and one of our director will be taking you around.

Flabbergasted, Lauren didn’t quite know how to respond. “We’re not even members of SPNI,” she responded. “But we certainly wouldn’t mind joining.”

On the predetermined day, her family gathered at the agreed upon spot, and sure enough, a van showed up wth one of SPNI’s head honchos, and they spent 10 hours hiking in the Judean hills, through Sataf, and having a splendid time. The SPNI suit was atttentive, informative and treated the family like VIPs.

At the end of the day, he said to Lauren, “You have to meet Naomi Tsur. I’ll make an appointment for you.”

Uh, ok, who is Naomi Tsur, Lauren responded, and she was told that Tsur was one of Jerusalem’s new deputy mayors on Nir Barkat’s list, and as a former head of SPNI, was going to spearhead efforts to ‘greenify’ Jerusalem.

The next day, Lauren, her husband, and three of their four kids were escorted into Tsur’s office in Safra Square.

“So, tell me, why exactly are you here?” Tsur asked the family of American tourists.

“We have no idea, we thought you wanted to see us.” answered Lauren.

“Right then, we could have admitted that this must be a big mistake and we were obviously thought to be somebody that we weren’t. Or we could have carried on this charade and continued this painfully awkward dialogue,” chimed in Mr. Lauren. “We chose the latter.”

45 minutes later, they were ushered out of Tsur’s office, still having no idea why they had been singled out for special treatment by the SPNI.

“It was as if the United States took each family of tourists that entered the country, and gave them a van for the day, a guide, and a personal meeting with President Obama,” said Mr. Lauren.

Somewhere, I’m sure, there’s a big SPNI benefactor who’s wondering why the van and VIP day has been cancelled.

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Tags: bar mitzvah, jerusalem, nature, Nir Barkat, SPNI

This Year I’m a Voter…The Next Mayor Election Vote for Me, Your Deputy Mayor

November 9, 2008 - 8:33 PM by Molly · 1 Comment
Filed under: A New Reality, General, History and Culture, Israeliness, Life, Politics

Our future Did you know that Jerusalem has six deputy mayors? And each one gets paid NIS 35,000 a month. So now you are thinking, how do I become a deputy mayor? Me too. But it’s too late for us because the election for mayor and city council are just two days away and we’re not on any of the party lists so chances are that we’re not making a career change any time soon. But for those of us voting it is important to understand that we actually get two votes, one for mayor and the other for city council. It is on the city council that these deputy mayors will sit as part of the 30-something coalition and make the crucial decisions affecting me and you.

It is also important to know that while the deputy mayors are making the big bucks, the rest of the city council is doing volunteer work–that is, they are not making a penny, or shekel, if you will. As Shira at The Big Felafel informs us:

“While the two highest elected municipality positions, mayor and deputy mayor, are paid positions, the other 29 seats on the council are volunteer positions. The mayor’s salary comes from your taxes, has his/her hand most tightly around the budget and has the best chance of passing his/her policy decisions. But the council members are either a part of the mayor’s coalition, thus helping the mayor pass policy and allocate money, or they are a part of the opposition, with a unique opportunity of exposing the improprieties of the coalition to the public and leading a strong opposing stance to the ruling force. So both votes are extremely important.”

Like Shira points out, both of your votes are crucial and with just a few days before the elections these “volunteers” are campaigning down to the wire trying to get you to vote for them. This past Thursday Hitorerut-Yerushalmim (Wake up Jerusalem) and Jerusalem Will Succeed made one of their last hits on the campaign trail in an English forum hoping to inform Anglo voters and make them vote for their team.

The head of Wake up Jerusalem’s list, Rachel Azaria, stressed the fact that their party does not answer to anyone. They are the people and they answer to the people and no one else. This list is dedicated only to the residents of Jerusalem and therefore does not have an adjacent party in the Knesset that they must take their cues from. They are young and most of them come from careers in social change.

And while youth can mean a fresh start for the city, Naomi Tsur of Jerusalem Will Succeed holds that against them, for the usual reason of inexperience. Tsur, former head of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Jerusalem decided to make the switch to government after her long battle with creating a sustainable Jerusalem. She explained that their party comes with mayoral candidate Nir Barkat. And if he is elected he will need the support of his coalition to help him implement his policies, thus he will need people from his own party to be a part of the coalition since they already agree with everything he stands for. As far as the young and fresh thing goes, Tsur said they have a young person on their list, as well as other representatives, like a native Russian speaker, French speaker, two pensioners and an Ethiopian.

So as you head to the startup capital of the world’s technologically advanced polling system – placing a paper in an envelope inside a cardboard box – remember to vote for mayor and city council. You can find a list of all the city council choices on The Big Felafel.

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