סושיBaba

Ahh, the holiday of trees - or ecological destruction….
Most of you who are reading this probably think I have fallen of the deep end, but Tu B’Shvat -the holiday of planting trees, has come to symbolize the destruction of natural ecosystems.
I am sure you remember at Sunday school or for any important Jewish event in the life of a Diaspora Jew, you would plant a tree in Israel, or one would be planted in your honor. And what an honor it was, to help the Land of Israel flourish - make it green, make it bloom. Little did we know that our money was going to planting pine tree forests all throughout the land. Where are there are some endemic species of pine in Israel, these forests did not grow in the desert. And why should they? The desert has it’s own unique beauty of openness, serenity, unique landscapes and formations, the ability to examine the historical geology of the area, cleanliness. It’s lack of plant and animal life is what makes it special. So what did the JNF do? They went and planted a thick pine forest in the middle of the desert. Not only does it not belong, not only does it destroy the natural ecosystem that existed prior, but they planted pine trees in perfectly spaced columns and rows - nothing natural looking about it.

And even though in recent years the JNF has made efforts to plant other types of trees as well, they still continue the practice of planting pines - whose needles cover the forest floor, suffocating the other plant life that grows beneath.

So think again when you are looking for a Bar-Mitzvah present. I recommend the New Israel Fund.

Udi and I watched Michael Moore’s “Farenheit 9/11″ tonight. I realize it’s been out for a while, and that the corruption and scandals it reveals are already well known, but still, it got me thinking. First of all, if it is true, most of it, you don’t even need all of it to be true, it just makes no sense - how the American people (me included) let Bush hold his first term (he wasn’t really elected), let him get by on the whole 9/11 fiasco without having to give testimony to a tribunal proving that he did everything in his power to prevent such an attack, let him take out all the nation’s aggression on an innocent country such as Iraq, let him continue the attack even after it was proved to be based on a lie, and then let him be re-elected. It makes absolutely no sense.
As I was watching the movie, I recalled how Clinton’s sexual escapades led him to impeachment, how the media focused only on that for the better part of the year, how he had to defend himself infront of Congress, and all for what? Cheating on your wife is something you should be ashamed of, but starting a war that has resulted in the deaths of thousands and thousands of innocent people, a loss of thousands of American soldiers and the utter destruction of a country - where is that impeachment? Where is the Congressional inquiry? Hello????

And that brings me to my current country of residence - Israel. The last few weeks have been overrun by the President’s sexual misconduct and maybe even rape of his former personal assistants. I am not saying it isn’t something to be ashamed of, and the President (who has no real policy related resposibilities) should be released from his duties, but those crimes can not be compared with the travesty of the war that afflicted this region over the last summer. A second political scandal involving the former Minister of Justice (how appropriate) and how he slipped the tongue when kissing a flirtateous young girl who asked to take a picture with him. She is not to blame - he probably did something wrong and overstepped boundaries. But I just don’t care. This country is overridden with so many problems - a never ending war, kidnapped soldiers, an oppressed Palestinian population, major water pollution (that’s my job), vast poverty, conjestion, air pollution, failing municipal governments, and the list goes on. Yet our judicial resources are being devoted to a french kiss. It only took six months before the case of the kiss was heard and decided on in court. I am involved in a court case at work regarding the illegal construction of sewage lines adjacent to drinking water wells. Our court date was set to over a year after the complaint was made.
These kisses take up time in our courts, take up pages and pages of our stupid newspapers, and aremaking us stupid and complacent. Instead of focusing on the real issues, instead of gathering in public squares, protesting the lack of vision, the lack of solution-seeking on behalf of our political “non-leaders”, we are busy following the soap opera of who kissed who. Keep your penis in your pants and focus on running the country.

When will we ever wake up?

The minute we left our plane in Indira Gandhi Airport we understood what we didn’t miss anything outside North India: The heat wave, together with unexpected pre-monsoon moist was really unbearable.
On the other hand, the shopping was much better…. The Main Bazaar street, one of the prototype of hangout places for backpackers is packed with really cheap (and sometimes even good quality) shops and ‘emporiums’ selling many many different kinds of Indian merchandise, mostly clothing, pillow cases, bed covers, incense, musical instruments, bags but also very good looking antique furniture.
We didn’t do alot except for shopping, and arranging our bags for Sarit’s departure. We tried to visit the Bahai Lotus Temple, taking an autoriksha there just to discover it was ‘closed on Monday’ like most of Delhi sites…
Some rain signaled the arrival of the monsoon to this area, making the ugly main bazaar also very muddy… I took a sight-seeing tour, just to discover that sight-seeing is not so exciting, and the very nice New Delhi picnic area around the India Gate, every sunset.
To summarize, for us Delhi was mainly the end of our trip together and also a good shopping place… Sarit got on the plane, leaving for her new job that starts on Sunday, and leaving me behind, for a couple of weeks, to get another small glimpse of the Himalaya before I come back home.
Hey! You still have a chance to leave a comment and greet Sarit before she starts her new job!

For more aerial fotos - click here

The flight from Leh to Delhi took us over the endless Himalaya mountain range and I said my goodbyes (for now) to the mountains that have accompanied our travels for over three months.

Can’t get enough pictures? Then click here!

Our last few days in Ladakh were spent in the Nubra Valley - the northern-most point in India foreign tourists are allowed to go. Since the buses were fully booked, we again had to hitch a ride - this time in style, as part of an Indian army supply convoy (we were in the commander’s truck). With turbo-power, we drove on the highest motorable road in the world as we crossed over a pass at an altitude of 5,603m! The highest we have ever been! Apparently the Indian army likes to take many “tea breaks”, and so we switched vehicles and hitched a ride with a hydrologist who was on his way to drill new wells at the base of a glacier. We then transferred to the truck carrying the drill and finally arrived at our destination of Panamik. This small village lies along a wide river bed (mostly dry with meandering streams of water). From the hills above flow hot springs which are collected in mikva-like hot tubs where we enjoyed a bath at night.
After a nice, relaxing day and a half there, we took a bus to the village of Hunder which lies next to large sand dunes and where we went for a ride on two-humped camels.