Post-war and uni politics

My stress levels have gone down considerably since the cease fire. I'm not so naive as to think that this is the end of the war; indeed it was just one battle. But still.
Last week I met with a new PhD student who just came here from Israel. We talked about his research and the software he's using. Then he told me how his best friend from uni had died in Lebanon. He was the last soldier to be killed before the cease fire came into effect. He left a wife and 10-month old daughter. Then we talked about his scholarship, and a conference he wants to attend.
Later that day I just couldn't handle the whole surreal situation any more. I had to go out for a walk and a bit of a cry.
Here everything is going on as usual of course, the sun is shining and we're getting beautiful weather after a cold winter. Even the Swedish exchange student was complaining about the cold. Now we have a nice, early spring (thank goodness for global warming!) and flowers are blooming.
Things at the uni are also going on as usual. There are lots of "activists" handing out brochures and putting up posters all over campus. Most are by the Socialist Alliance and usually feature rather histrionic vitriol against Israel, the US, and capitalism. Apparently some Jewish students were harassed, spat on and yelled at. This morning we got an email from the Vice Chancellor warning that offensive behaviour agains Jews will not be tolerated. Not surprisingly, there has been no anti-Muslim behaviour.
I must admit that I sometimes feel scared when confronted with these crazy Marxists and their friends in some of the other student groups. I've heard that some Jewish students choose to wear hats over their kippas so they won't be harassed. I don't "look Jewish" so I don't have that problem, and I don't walk around campus all that much either. But it's sad to think that this is the situation here.

Bad thoughts

Hippy "Peace Now" activist in Tel Aviv: "This won't end till we annihilate Beirut"

I'm usually a very rational person who abhors violence in all its forms. But lately I find myself in a bellicose mood.

Yesterday while watching the news I could only think of one thing: one mushroom cloud over Beirut, one over Damascus, and one disproportionately big one over Tehran.
The war would be over that same day.

I don't like what this war is doing to me. I want to go back to my good old optimistic self.

Comfort food

Maybe it's the stressful times, but lately I've been preparing and eating more and more comfort food. For example, I bought some semolina and I've been spending quite some time in the mornings lately stirring pots of cream of wheat (I found out that this is what solet is called in English) trying to get a lumpless bowl of yummy cream of wheat, sweetened with cinnamon and honey, or brown sugar and vanilla. mmmm.
It reminds me of my childhood when grandma used to cook solet for me. It also reminds me of the hospital that we were forced to "volunteer" at when we were in high school. We would spend nights there on alert. In case of a chemical weapons attack from Saddam, our job was to wear plastic clothes and gas masks and shower the injured before they were admitted to the hospital. Looking back I'm appalled by the whole thing, but back then it was just one big co-ed slumber party. In the morning we'd have breakfast at the hospital dining room. The solet was lumpy and not at all as yummy as savta's.
Anyway, I've found out that you can make all sorts of things with semolina: bread, cakes and cookies. Yum!

What he said

An English translation of Ben Caspit's proposed speech for Olmert.

Now it's personal

My cousin has been called up for reserve duty. My brother-in-law was told to be ready to be called up any day. They both have pregnant wives at home.

It's a tough job

...being an IDF spokesperson right now.

Making life easy for academics

I'm writing a paper: a process that is long, stressfull, and fun. Paper-writing also reminds me why I love linux so much, and specifically Latex and Bibtex and all that good stuff that makes life easy for academics. Of course, they work on Windows and Mac too, but Linux is the ultimate enviornment.
I share my office with several coleagues and I constantly hear them grating their teeth, pulling their hair, and complaining loudly about MS Word and such. They spend so much time editing, formating, losing images, changing font sizes, and typing out bibliographies by hand. What a waste of time!
I'm not a Linux evangelist. I don't hide it, but I don't try to push it on people either (mostly for selfish reasons; I don't want them coming to me to solve all their problems if they do decide to try it). But I'm working on another paper that's mostly written by one of our PhD students, and I asked him if he would be willing to write it in Latex. Apparently several other students started looking into it and got hooked. Now if I could only get him to actually sit down and write!
Latex and Bibtex work best with a good frontend. I started out using Lyx, which is nice, but then I switched to Kile which I've been working with for years and really like. (I'm an avid KDE fan so Kile is a natural.) For bibliography management I use Jabref which is a Java Bibtex frontend. It's awesome!! It integrates well with Kile too (ctrl+L pushes a citation to Kile). It can do all sorts of neat tricks, like direct Medline search and import, journal abbreviations, automatic local PDF searches, custom Bibtex key automatic generation, and other cool stuff.
Having the right tools for the job makes life easy. But at the end of the day you still have to write the paper yourself!

Some good news from Israel, for a change

A heart-warming story about the transfer of two African elephants, Yoki and her son Yitzhak, from the safari in Ramat Gan to their new home in Hungary. Yoki was reunited there with an old friend, Ninio, who moved to Hungary a few months ago. (Sorry, the links are in Hebrew and Hungarian, but there are pictures.)
The Ramat Gan safari has had a huge success with breeding elephants; 19 sabra elephants have been born there. The airlifting operation was not simple but ended with success.
Yay elephants!

Pendant shock

I was window shopping at a local shopping centre today when something caught my eye at a jewelry store. There were several chains on display with swastika pendants. My heart skipped a beat. I didn't know if I should talk to the salesman or not, I decided not to because I didn't feel comfortable about it. I continued my window shopping and tried to forget about it, but I couldn't.
I went to the mall management and filed a complaint. I was pleasantly surprised at their reaction, since I wasn't sure how they would take it. Well, I had to explain to the lady what a swastika is, but once she got it, she was very understanding of my state of mind. She had me fill out a complaint form while another guy went to the shop to see for himself. They promised me they would take care of the matter.
I didn't stay around to see what they actually did, but I hope they do something.

Small world

Why am I not surprised to see this picture here and also right at home, here in Sydney.


Lisa has all the background info on this picture.

Tzippi and Condi

Two women I admire.
Condi for president!
Livni for PM!

We interupt this war and go on with life

I'm suffering from news overload. I am forcing myself to limit the amount of time I spend reading news because it's just depressing. If you get your news from the Australian media you would probably think that Israel is attacking Lebanese civilians and killing children for no reason other than blood lust. If you listen to talkback radio all you hear is the anti-Lebanese venom coming from Australian rednecks.
So, excuse me while I go back to writing about normal things for a while.

Wartime humour

"How was I?"
"Zilzal"

Stress and a rosy picture of the near future

I am suffering from news overload. Earlier this week I was spending hours reading news and blogs and getting way too stressed, so much that I couldn't work. I decided enough is enough, and I will limit my news consumption. It's not like I can change anything anyway. This morning I listened to NPR on the radio on the way to work. They were interviewing and Arab professor in Berkley and a NY Times journalist who is openly anti-Israel. I nearly puked. Then I remembered that I am trying to cut down on news consumption... I have a CD player why not use it? Hey, it brought my blood pressure down to normal levels.
Yesterday I made the mistake of getting into a tea-room discussion about the war with my colleagues. Big mistake and I regret it. I've decided not to talk about it here any more. It's no use souring relationships with people I have to work with.
At this point all I can do is trust in the people who, unlike me, do have the power to make decisions, and hope they do the right thing.
My most optimistic, rosiest dream for the near future: Hizballa will be shattered, Syria will be driven out of Lebanon, and the Lebanese people will get on with, once again, rebuilding their country. This time they will be in control, and the cherry on top: they will sign a peace accord with Israel. Money will flow in from around the world for rebuilding and the region with flourish. Oh, and the Iranian nukes will somehow be taken out. Amen.

The war is across the ocean

I'm deeply concerned about the war in Israel. Not like Kofi though. I really am worried. I'm sick of this low-grade war that has been going on for decades. I'm sick of a bunch of maniacs making life hell for millions of people whom I believe really do want nothing more than to live in peace. (I have to believe this, otherwise there is no hope for a solution ever.)
I'm sick of having to worry about my family and friends, having to ask who has been called up for reserve duty and where.
Yesterday I was listening to the news on the radio. First item was the war with Hezbollah and in Gaza. Second item was about the unemployment rate in Australia; apparently the past year has seen the lowest unemployment rate in three decades. The reality of it all hit me at once; my body is living in a sane, normal country, and my mind is at the other side of the world in a totally different state.
It reminded me a bit of the first gulf war. I was in high school and we were woken up every other night by the siren outside my bedroom window telling us to go into the sealed room. I would count 4 1/2 minutes from the beginning of the siren, listen for the muffled booms of the scuds (and later of the patriot missiles too), and then breathe freely in the knowledge that our apartment building is still standing. At some point my parents had the bright idea to send me to stay with my aunt and uncle down south, away from the threat of scuds. I stayed there for a few days. There, when the sirens sounded, the family would sit around the television and watch the news. I went nuts with worry. 4 1/2 minutes passed and I had no idea if my family were ok. I could take the stress, and I went home the next day.
Life is good here. The main news stories lately are about minor squabbles between the prime minister and the treasurer. But damn, sometimes I feel like a schizophrenic.

Gotta fly....

From Instapundit, check out kite flyers! They

are basically go-karts bolted to hang gliders, with giant engines on the back driving pusher props.

Ooooh that sounds like fun....
The main thing I miss about living in California is being able to fly... It's not impossible here, just inconvenient and expensive. So I haven't really flown since.. well since 2001. Wow, it's been too long. I've gotta go flying.

Gaza

It's hard to tell from the little reporting coming out of Gaza what's really going on. I presume we'll know more once it's all over.
My thoughts have been with the Israeli soldiers doing what they are good at in Gaza. May they and the 2 kidnap vicitims return home safe and sound... And it certainly looks like this time the IDF has been given the go-ahead to clean up a lot of the mess that has been festering in Gaza.
Hamas leaders arrested! I like that.
Sonic booms over Baby Assad's palace in Damascus! I like that too.

Like all (or nearly all) Israelis, I hope and wait for the day when the Palestinians establish their own free, democratic state side by side with Israel, with fill economic, political and cultural cooperation.
But this is not possible with crazy Hamas in power who want to kill all the Jews.
I'm afraid that there's only one way to solve this mess, and that's with war. It can be long and drawn-out, or it can be short and decisive.
Let's hope it will be short so we can get on with more constructive activities.

In the meantime all my thoughts are with the IDF soldiers, go and do a good job and come home safely, so you don't have to go back any time soon.

Socca

I'm not much of a sports person, but it's hard not to get caught up in the world cup madness. People here are going nuts, but in a good way, about the soccer (or 'socca' as the Aussies say). They stay up all night to watch the games, and then half the country takes a sickie on Monday because they can't get out of bed in the morning.
It's all good fun, and while everyone wants the Soccerroos to win, it's all done in that wonderfully light-hearted Australian way. "Goooaalll!!! Wait, who scored? Ahh, have another beer mate!"
I was happy to see the Ghanian player wave the Israeli flag, and not at all surprised by the childish and stupid reactions from the rest of the world.
I was also very happy that Australia lost to Brazil "only" by 2 points. I was worried they would get totally creamed. Nobody seriously expected them to win, but after the sensational win over Japan, people are starting to get optimistic. Even the Brazilians admit that the Soccerroos played a great game. All they need to do now is win or tie with Croatia, and we're off to the next round!
Go Soccerroos!

Baby Boom

The Australian government wants us Aussies to have more babies. At least three, in fact ("one for mum, one for dad, and one for the country"). Two years ago the government started paying new parents $3000 for every new little Aussie brought into the world. And it worked! People were cynical, and said that nobody would have a baby just for the $3000.... true, I don't think anyone did, but it sure helped them decide to have one when that was added to all the other reasons. In fact, more babies were born in Australia on July 1, 2004 than on any other day in the last three decades.

When the baby bonus policy was first announced, in the big-spending pre-election budget of 2004, the families minister at the time, senator Kay Patterson, was asked whether it would have been better to have announced and introduced the policy on the same day. She said: "Well, I don't believe mothers would put (their babies) at risk."

Yeah right!! Hardly any babies were born on June 30!
This year the baby bonus will be increased to $4000 and this time they are expecting another mini-boom.
I just hope the government is planning to increase the number of day care workers and centres because even now there is a 2-year waiting list for some of them, especially in Sydney.
I know what would make me keener to have another bub: better maternity leave benefits at work. The only reason I'm waiting with #2 is because if I wait a bit more, I'll get better benefits. I couldn't imagine having nothing more than 12 weeks off. What am I supposed to do, put a 12-week old baby in full time day care so I can keep my job? As it is, with the waiting lists I wouldn't be able to even if I wanted.
Having extra cash to help with the expenses involved in caring for a new baby is great. But I need more than that; I need to know that I'll be able to raise my kid and keep my job, if only part-time, until I'm ready to go back to full-time work.

Home?

I spent waaay too much time this morning reading this article in ynet. It's written by an Israeli who has been living in Canada for 10 years and will soon be moving back to Israel. Most of the time I spent reading many of the hundreds of comments. Roughly half say what I figured they would say: you are crazy for wanting to come back here, and can I please take your place? I was quite surprised to see quite a lot of comments welcoming the writer back home and telling her she's making the right choice. But the comments that scared me most were those that said "your children will hate you for forcing them to leave their home and growing up in a much worse country".
When we think of leaving Australia of moving back, the most important thing (well, the only thing really) that we miss is our families and good friends. It's hard to raise a child so far away from his grandparents, uncles and aunts and cousins. And it's not fair to our parents to raise their grandchild so far from them. But will my son really have a better life there? What with the terrible education system and all? I look at Israeli kids and I see spoiled brats who walk all over their parents and teachers. I'm not sure I want that for my son.
I'm very, very keen to see with my own eyes what things are like "back home". I'm glad we have the opportunity to be in Israel for a much longer visit this time, because you don't get enough time to see and do much in the standard 2-week family and friends whirlwind visit tour.
I'm hoping that our visit later this year will answer a lot of questions, but I have a feeling that it will only create many new questions instead...