Woke up quite early, couldn't sleep well though from involuntarily planning my Sunday. I hate it when my mind does that to me. And since I planned even my breakfast the night before in my sleep, I had a very quick breakfast, packed my stuff and got a ride with a student shuttle coming back from the primary school here, on his way to Ramla. Faiz, that's his name, had to take me to Lod since the trains from Ramla don't work. It was interesting to witness him transitioning himself and his car from a school shuttle to shared ride service. He picks up people whenever they stop the car, and pay 6 Shekels for the ride. The train was packed probably because it was early in the morning. People are rude while getting on and off the train or the bus. It's really getting to me. Drivers are nice though. Anyway, I went straight to my hostel first, Hayarkon 48. I simply loved it. It's BY the water, as in the Mediterranean. Here's how the view from my room, excuse me, my balcony was:
The interview was at 1 and Tel-Aviv is not a big city but I rather be early and wander around Friends of the Earth ME then being late. I settled in and hit the road in about an hour. Allenby Road that goes all the way down to Hayarkon Street (one street away fro the sea) has LOTS of photo shops where they actually develop pictures. There are antique camera and historical pictures shops as well. And an old printing house with an old Jewish printer (a pressman) with long, white beard and round eye glasses, and his young son. The cam shop was closed and I didn't have enough time to check out the old photo store but from what I saw briefly, there were b&w pictures of first and second wave aliah, or the land with its Jews and Arabs in general. I'll go there again for sure. It's a very central location so it took me about 15 minutes to get to the offices of Friends of the Earth Middle East across from the old bus station, which is now an abandoned, spooky-looking cite. I walked around the neighborhood for a while and I realized the place being occupied mostly by black Jews (or perhaps also black immigrants). There was a pedestrian market area where, you know, cars were not allowed. Gambling seemed to be in full swing. I don't actually know what this game is called in English, or in Turkish, but 10-15 steps away from each other, these guys were doing tricks with three cups turned upside down with something inside one of them, he mixes them with hoky poky... Well, you get the idea.
Moving on. The interview was quite good; we only had an hour but we got to talk a lot about what they do, the general environmental crisis in the region, whether the benefits of envr. protection is quantifiable, the Ministry of Environment in Israel and the water authorities from both sides (Israel and Palestine), new Good Water Neighbor projects, the impact of cross-border cooperations on the conflict, why the governments fail to cooperate in solving the pollution problem, the restrictions on the Palestinian Water Sector, the responsibility of Israel, PA and PWA, partnering with PA, Water privatization in Israel, previous works with Turkey... I'm now in the process of transcribing the interview which once I'm done I'll put it on here. On collaborating with Turkey, I'm surprised to hear they had worked in the past with TEMA, Turkey's biggest environmentalist foundation who used to be directed by my big uncle. Huh! Robert T. Cole, the Secretary-General of the the Int. Advisory Committee of the FOEME was with us, all the way from DC -no, not for me- I guess I'll be contacting him once I go back to the States. A very nice gentleman. During our talk Mr. Bromberg told me about the newest Good Water Neighbors project they implemented this month between East and West Jerusalem. On Feb 10, I'll be joining them for a visit to the sites included in the project. Isn't that amazing? I'm starting to work on the proposal to the Int. Media Center at UM about a "cities" version of Jerusalem, possibly including this particular project between two communities in conflict. The Good Water Neighbor is very impressive and proved to have tangible results, great success stories and to me an important step for a peace in the future. It won several awards, national and international, has been duplicated by many similar projects around the world including Bosnia. It's worth even skimming through:
After the interview I met Pablo Utin, the Israeli film scholar I met in Miami. Had a very pleasant walk from the old bus station to Dizengoff Center, taking Rothchild Ave all the way up to King George. This whole area looks just like Istanbul. How weird. I was starving when I met Pablo after 2pm so he took to this place where they make the best falafels I've ever had so far! Actually I had something called sabich, apparently originally from Iraq. It's pita bread with tahini, falafel, roasted eggplants and eggs! To die for! And it's only 12 shekels! It's always best to dine with a local. We talked a lot about his projects, the academia in Israel, his plans for moving to Miami, and collaborating for a Moving Image Lab Israel section in Neve Shalom, in which we may screen Ajami (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajami_(film)) followed by a discussion. Apparently, despite the blooming film sector in the county, film, among many others, is not the best area to be specialized in, in Israel. Not many film schools in the country, as in a film department at a university. There are college-like institutions here, but they're not actually universities. There's so little room for new faculty, and those who already have the positions, are holding on to them for their life, even though some are way past the retirement age. Not fair, but that's the situation. Plus, you don't get paid well so you basically travel the country to teach at several universities. Traveling professors. Interesting idea.
After this great lunch, Pablo took me to his hairdresser. I needed a haircut. On the way, we passed by the Rabin Square, where Yitzhak Rabin was murdered in 1995. There are metal markings fixed on the pavement, representing where Rabin, his assassin and many bodyguards were standing at the time of the shooting. Very creepy and sad crime scene this was. It feels so odd when you realize the arm's length distance between the shooter and Rabin. Here's how it looks like and a blurry shot of the incident:
Took this photo and the caption from somebody else's blog post: "The circle closest to you is where Yitzhak Rabin was standing when he was murdered. The one directly behind it, looking forward, is where the assassin stood. ALL the other circles are security people's positions."
The hairdresser was, as Pablo says, a typical Israeli hairdresser. Two guys, in a little store, very hospitable and talkative. Got a cute hair cut me thinks, Nikita style. ;) We had a nice chat, part of which involved me asking him what he thought about the mandatory military service in Israel. This is one of the many -and the recent- discussions me and Sean have been having almost every day. I say it doesn't have to be mandatory, he says it does. Well, we decided on me asking as many Israelis as possible what they think. So the hairdresser was my first sample. He said he's fine with the mandatory service but the fact that it's 3 years is a waste of money. He thinks only those who volunteer should do it for 3 years, the rest should be fine with a 6 to 8 months of it. That way you still have an active army ready to defend, and all people have military training -that is thought to be more necessary than being involved in collaborative works with the "other." Aaaanyway. I think I'll be meeting Pablo again soon. It was a nice chat.
I had to rush to the hostel to change real fast and get ready for my first GAGA class at Suzanne Dellal Center. Met some people at the hostel, from the States. Mostly birthright-ers. Anyways, I took a cab. Shame on me, but I couldn't risk being late for the class, and I had to make sure I could be able to pay for one class rather than a full month. The first time I was here I didn't pass though the first building into the main courtyard. So pretty at night. As I was afraid, though, they wanted me to pay the whole month. I would have, but it was too expensive for a commitment I may not be able to keep. But I must have looked enthusiastic and disappointed enough that the girl let me pay for two classes only, for now. I'm sure I can make it to another class. There were almost, maybe more than, 20 people of all ages. I was one of the two new students and the instructor woman pulled us aside before she started it. I was told we were going to be given instructions while paying for it so I was expecting it. I was NOT expecting the one-line instruction though: "Do not stop until the end of the class, but you can slow down if you like." I have good feelings about the class already. It took me couple of minutes to get used to letting my body do whatever it needs to do among so many people. Then it was all okay, so much fun, liberating indeed, joyful and certainly a good work out. Even though I have no one to compare her with, I think that the instructor did a very good job. I have a feeling that most of her instructions were spontaneous. It was as if tonight's concept was fireballs. The commands ranged from "your feet have no bones, they're so soft, you can bend them however you like!", " the floor is so hot!", "no, actually it's your feet! They have tiny fireballs in them", "oops, the balls are behind your knees now, both on the left, both on the right", "in the pelvis", "in your rib cage", "finger tips", "hips", "shake your body", "earthquake in your body", "shake and earthquake at the same time", "shoulder blades want to get away from your body", "knees together with a giant fireball in your belly"... See, lots of fireballs, but so good, so good. This kept on and on for an hour and a half, always moving, adding more commands on top of others. After such a great and exciting work-out, I had to walk back to the hostel and enjoy the sea breeze. Well, actually it was the wind, something between wind and a storm. Plus the drizzling rain, around 8:30pm. It wasn't cold though, it was as if the wind was playing with you, strong but careful, you just have to go with the flow! Three kids on the same bike singing some Hebrew song out loud passed me by, made me happy. Got yogurt and fruit on the way. Went straight up to my room to rest my body and get some good sleep before waking up 6am in the morning. Have to be at work around 9am. Such a nice and busy day.
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