December 14, 2005

Oy vey

Hmm. Let's move Iran (and Egypt, Syria as well as several other countries).. to the moon! The Gulf States with its oil can stay, but the inhabitants gotta follow their Persian friends.

Well if others can fantasise, then why can't I?

Posted by Maria at 10:14 AM  Permalink | Comments (15)
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December 13, 2005

May these bastards drop dead!

I knew these were a bunch of anti-semitic, Arab loving scum. But I thought they might want to be a little more passive about it.

Israel wiped off map in U.N. event

Map of Israel from which all communities were wiped off displayed at official U.N. event to mark solidarity with Palestinians. Organization's Secretary General Kofi Annan attended ceremony, calls incident 'regretful'

Palestinian propaganda in the United Nations? The Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Annan, who recently attended an official public event at the organization's headquarters two weeks ago, was unaware of the fact that he was taking part in a propaganda campaign against Israel, Israel's leading newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported Tuesday.

The ceremony was held on November 29 this year, to mark the historic date in which the U.N. General Assembly in 1947 voted in favor of a resolution that adopted the plan for the partition of Palestine.

Over the years, November 29 became a day of "solidarity with the Palestinian people" in the U.N., in which anti-Israeli events take place.

The particular event in question was organized by the Palestinian delegation in the U.N. and the Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Nasser al-Kidwa, and hosted all of the organization's high ranking officials.

During preparations for the event, the flags of the U.N. and Palestine were placed on the central stage, and a map depicting the territory of Israel was hung on the wall behind it.

However, the map was titled 'Palestine' instead of 'Israel', and all Israeli communities have been curiously erased from it.

In a related story: The madness of Iran

I'm sorry to say so but I'm scared to death. I'm scared to sit and watch the world on the verge of repeating its worst mistakes.
Well what can I do except hold on to hope, and.. get back to my exam studies.

Posted by Maria at 09:34 AM  Permalink | Comments (1)
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December 05, 2005

A fresh perspective, and the lights of the Jews

I am somebody, who never gets very (if at all) excited about Christmas. Infact, I always wait anxiously for this holiday to be over.
Here in Iceland, Christmas preparations begin as early as in October or November. This means that early December (aka right now), our society is literally swimming in Christmas, eventhough it's almost 3 weeks away.
I must admit, that eventhough I dislike this holiday to the extent that it practically begins to resemble an allergic reaction, my experience this year has been completely different. The reason is not that I've acquired a sudden love for Christmas, but that I have been seeing all the preparations and customs through the eyes of somebody unfamiliar with the process, somebody seeing it all for the first time, and finding it all to be a spectacular cultural experience, as opposed to something that's simply always been done. I am, of course, referring to my boyfriend, Shlomi, who has always celebrated Jewish holidays in his native Israel. His questions, fascination and interest in what I've always found to be banal, gives me a fresh perspective on things I've always looked upon.
An example of something that really blew Shlomi's mind, was the fact that pretty much every single household in Scandinavia (at least Iceland) puts a so called "advent light" in their window in December. Everybody knows that the custom was taken from Jewish tradition, and the light also goes by the name "Jew light" (Gyðingaljós).

stjaki.jpg
Advent light ("Light of Jews")

The story of the lights arriving to Iceland, is as follows (in a nutshell):

An Icelandic business man called Gunnar Ásgeirsson traveled to Sweden in 1964, where he purchased these lights. They were brandnew in Sweden, and had been based on the idea of the Jewish Hanukkah lights. After Gunnar brought it back to Iceland with it, it became a great success in Iceland, but didn't gain popularity in Sweden until 1980.
The lights have received much attention from foreigners, who have often asked if Judaism is of great importance in Iceland.

Interestingly enough, the article also mentions that the man, Gunnar, comes from the same small fishing village in the West Fjords as my mother, Ingibjorg. For curiosity's sake I looked him up in the "Book of Icelanders" (an online program that enables Icelanders to check how they are related to one another). And what do you know? The man who brought the "lights of the Jews" to this remote piece of ice & fire, was my mother's cousin.

Posted by Maria at 12:23 PM  Permalink | Comments (11)
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Death of the innocent, again

A day of terror, once again. Homicide bombing in Netanya

Posted by Maria at 11:51 AM  Permalink | Comments (0)
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