Dyslexic enablement

This week, a cousin of mine, David Rifkind, died at the early age of 51. He was a very successful real estate promoter in Los Angeles. During our last conversation in the summer at his house, we discussed dyslexia and its effects on our lives.  It turns out that we also had that "disability" in common. His comments expressed my feelings exactly and hopefully can serve as an inspiration to those who have it and those who work with them.

He enthusiastically stated that dyslexia was the key to his success.  Specifically, he noted that his ability to think differently allowed him to find solutions that "normal" people could not imagine. Instead of handicapping him, it gave him a leg up. If a task needed more analytical and less intuitional skills, he hired the appropriate person. So, dyslexia is not a curse but a blessing in many situations.

Naturally, depending on the type of dyslexia, other tasks can become difficult or even almost impossible. Dyslexics require great concentration to execute specific routine tasks. On the other hand, everybody finds certain simple jobs quite complicated. Most dyslexics find a way, granted unconventional, to attain reasonable success in these deficiencies. These strategies include proper scheduling, extra time, and no multitasking, to name just a few. Ultimately, dyslexics can achieve their goals no less successfully than others, sometimes on their own and sometimes with the help of others. The road is not always smooth or conventional but does lead to Rome.

Depending on the level and type of dyslexia, working with dyslexics may involve showing some flexibility and understanding. The price is well worth it. In a rapidly changing world, every company needs people that grasp the situation quickly and think outside the box.

So, to all those feeling frustrated by dyslexia or using it as an excuse for failure, I suggest that you embrace it and appreciate your unique approach to the world. Accentuate the positive, overcome the negative and find the niche in which your special talents will shine.

In memory of David Rifkind

Ultimate justice

I am a great believer in ultimate justice. It is sometimes the only ray of light in a depressing situation. I insist on being sure that those who consciously do ill to others will eventually pay the price in some manner. In my case, it is not any belief in the justice of some god but instead much closer to the concept of karma, i.e.  what goes around comes around.

This ultimate justice can be in both the personal and political spheres. I had a relative, who shall remain anonymous out of respect to his offspring, who created by acts of omission and commission great pain to the closest people in his family. I agree with my mother that it is right that he had a long, painful life if only on the basis of his choice to run away from responsibility. I have seen nasty bosses been unfairly treated by their bosses, showing that two unfairs make one fair. In politics, Stalin, Hitler and Mao are remembered by most people as murderous tyrants, not as the visionary leaders they supposedly strove to be.

I recognized that ultimate justice has a fundamental fault. Like all justice systems, it is notoriously slow, taking years or even decades to happen. In the meantime, hundreds, thousands or even millions suffer. Also, there is an intrinsic dichotomy between the suffering caused to others and that experienced by the evildoer. Still, the faith that some kind of justice will eventually be given is a candle in the dark. Today, as I see too many similarities between the Tolkien landscape in the middle of the third book and the current international policies situation dominated by Putin, Trump and Erdogan, to name just a few, I strongly hold on to my main hope: they too shall pay.

Israeli Training

I have chosen to live in the quiet north of Israel, affectionately called the "periphery" by official sources, for many reasons. One of them is the fact that the roads here are generally (still) open most of the day, rendering driving and breathing much healthier. Yet, I am occasionally obliged to descend to the center of the country for a day. To avoid the pleasure and fatigue of crawling in traffic jams, I take the train, which shall become even more convenient in a year when the train line to Karmiel is completed.

As any baseball statistician can tell you, nothing is perfect.  Even taking the train has its negative sides. Common with many systems, parking is often in shortage at the stations while the trains are often late. In other words, you know you are not in Northern Europe. An even more striking difference is the behavior of the passengers. As a measure of comparison, I remember taking a TGV from Paris to Quimper (Brittany), a trip of some four hours. The carriage was comfortable and quiet. In fact, I only noticed that there were quite a few children near me after almost three hours when I looked around. I recall thinking that the parents must have slipped their children some tranquilizer to get them to sit so quietly and for so long. Of course, the children's behavior followed societal expectations, which require even adults to avoid loud conversations and disturbing their fellow travelers.

Back to the Acco-Tel Aviv line, we have quite a different story. To be direct, children would be more tranquil than your average Israeli adult. Not that it is all negative. Upon a returning from a long flight abroad on a train from the airport, our train was stuck in the train station for almost an hour due to a suicide on the tracks (for which the train management was not responsible, clearly). The reaction of our fellow travelers was quite genial. Everybody took out some snacks and shared travel stories. If we could have lit a campfire, we would have done that. It was a rather happy delay.

Unfortunately, this openness is frequently not so positive. It is hard to identify which behavior is the most annoying. The candidates are long personal conversations about breakups or surgery conducted in the "privacy" of the carriage; personal attacks on train representatives with the poor luck of being in the carriage during a train delay; soldiers and students that create obstacle courses in the aisle by placing their cumbersome bags in strategic locations; parents that don't care if their children play noisy games on telephones or portable computers as long as they leave them in peace; and groups of youth that profit from the lack of parental supervision to sow their oats.

Don't get me wrong. With the correct attitude, any of the above actions can be entertaining and help the time go wrong. Also, many trips are quite unremarkable. To be fair, this behavior is not unique to Israel. Still, for me, the best solution is to limit my trips to Tel Aviv to the minimum and enjoy my quiet life in the north.

Head and shoulders, knees and toes

Every child learns the names of the body parts very early in life, often by song. Later on in life, they learn that these same words for body parts have meanings as verbs. The latter use is generally but not always related to the body part itself.

Starting at the top, to head a project is to run it while to head a ball in European football is to hit with your head, of course. To be scalped is to lose your head, literally, while scalping is privately selling tickets at higher price. Staying in the area, people must face their problems in order to solve them, i.e., deal with them directly. If someone is eyeing you, you are being observed while nosing around involves asking questions. Bad mouthing is making unpleasant references whereas teething is process of babies growing, well, teeth. While cheeky is not a verb, it is definitely not polite.  For that matter, chin-chin refers to the sound of glasses clinking (for a toast) and has nothing to do with the body part. Finally, as long as an argument is limited to jawing, the police will not intervene as it is all talk.

Descending, necking is what teenagers do in the back of the car or on a bench seat, i.e., long kisses, probably because of the various angles the neck takes (Interesting to know whether and how teenage giraffes do it). To shoulder a load is to bear it, as any backpacker knows. It is real fun to rib people, to make fun of them, as long as you know they have a sense of humor, with the other direction significantly less amusing. To arm people is provide them a weapon, something more dangerous than what nature provided them. For getting through crowds, you need to know how to elbow your way through, which involves using that joint aggressively. Handing something over does involve that appendix but not necessarily in a friendly way, even sometimes at gun point. If you are fingered, you should feel identified or insulted, as applicable. Thumbing is hitching for ride, which is signaled in the United States putting out your thump. Finally, couples need to back each other when dealing with children by supporting the other's decision.

On to the southern hemisphere, to be hip (grantedly not a verb) is to be cool and up to date, at least in the language of the a few generations ago. Once upon a time, when you ran out of gas in a remote location, you had to leg it to the next gas station, meaning to walk. Being kneed is very painful because the knee is a very hard joint. If you have to foot the bill, you pay out of your wallet. Getting your dog to heel on command is a basic part of canine training.  Finally, to toe the line (not tow!) is obey the rules and not go over the line.

Some of these examples are clearly prime material for Amelia Bedelia while others are child's play, so to speak.

News blackout

I come from a political family. My parents came from politically active families. At the dinner table, we discussed the Vietnam War and Watergate, not the price of bread. My father at the age of almost 91 still religiously reads two newspapers every day and discusses the articles with my mother.  I myself followed events in the recent US election with close attention and voted in every Israeli election since I have been here.

So, it is with great sadness that I have gradually but almost totally entered a self-imposed news blackout. To explain, I am very upset about policies developments around the world, to put it mildly.  I despise what Putin and Erdogan mean for their countries and the entire world. The elections of Natanyahu and Trump have driven me into despair. Their elections depress me not only because of their policies, which are based on negative visions in my opinion, but also because of the large number of people that share and bought that vision. In short, I am politically depressed.

My reaction, alas, has been to withdraw. I do not want to hear about Trump's appointees or Netanyahu's decisions. I know that they will disturb me very much. Like the old Jew in the Warsaw ghetto that kept on complaining that the new landlords did not want to heat the flat and consciously ignored that the Germans were trying to starve the Jews until they could find a more efficient way to kill them, I choose to ignore (not deny) the current situation. I deep in my heart want to wake up in few years to a better world, where tolerance and peace are the norm, not hatred and violence. Of course, I will do my civic duty and support anybody with those ideals but recognize that this is a waiting time until the tide turns, as it always does eventually.

Of course, my news blackout is not total. I still check the scores of my various teams, who also are not doing very well (Lakers, Bengals, Pirates), but there is hope for next year. I do check the weather report as well as look for any changes in the VAT rate since these items has a direct effect on my life. Yet, I refuse to peer into the bigger picture although I know I will bear its consequences no less. I cannot say that my response is very mature or brave but for now it is all I can do. To destroy Descartes, I don't think so it does not exist.

Teaching then and now

Computers have changed all aspects of life, including in Israel.  It is hard to imagine how people coped without instant, mobile and powerful computing devices.  After finishing a lesson a few days ago, I thought remembered how I used to prepare and teach a lesson when I began my career, some 30 years ago. The comparison with today really brought that message home.

I recall how careful I had to be organizing the materials in those days (for high school).  Photocopying had to be organized a few days in advance.  My teacher's briefcase was very wide and filled with numerous nylon bags, each with its handout, my "kit" if things went wrong as well as for that day's lesson. In a sandwich bag, I kept my chalk, which had almost been replaced by markers but not yet. At the start of the lesson, I checked role and confirmed that each student had brought his/her book or pamphlet (without which they could not participate in the lesson). Any change in the lesson required me to write on the board, preferably legibly, quite a challenge for me since I have the great ability to write illegibly in three alphabets, Latin, Hebrew and Russian. Of course, teaching was always in the framework of the book chosen by the staff. In other words, the material was not always relevant or up-to-date nor were the exercises exactly what I wanted. Bringing auto-visual materials to class was such an administrative hassle that I never did. At the end of the lesson, students handed in their homework handwritten on paper, adding to the paper load In other words, lessons were heavy, teacher centered and very structured.

My lesson this week was quite different. I walked in some five minutes early with a very thin portfolio bag, almost empty, basically containing attendance lists, pens and my glasses (the last change is not positive).  I downloaded the word texts from the Moodle site and turned on the overhead project and setup the YouTube video I wanted to show. I began the lesson by showing the students (college this time) a video on public speaking technique. After a short discussion, I had the students discuss in groups the organization of an article, which they downloaded from that same Moodle site, followed by the writing in pairs of a summary based on that discussion in class, of course in Word. I reminded them to use spell-check before sending it to my email and told them that I would return their graded summary by email with all editing clearly marked in track changes. One of the students had a question about sentence syntax. I opened up a blank Word document and wrote several versions to help explain my point.  My feeling was that we, or at least I, had had a stressless lesson.

It should be noted that the changes are truly fine and dandy as long as the computer and Internet work properly. If not, we are back to good old days, without the chalk of course. Still, to paraphrase, teaching sure ain't what it used to be.

Ode to Hamin

Some regions have four distinct seasons.  Spring and fall are sufficient distinct and long to have an identity of their own.  Alas, the Middle East has only two seasons with vague transitions between them, both almost identical in terms of temperature and far too short to merit more than a "feeling" of change. So, when winter finally arrives, there is a celebration of change after endless months of sun and hot weather.  Unfortunately, this year it arrived one week too late in Israel. The last week in November was marked by high winds, drying everybody's skin, creating shocking amount of static electricity and, the worst, feeding the series of fires, both natural and man-made, that scarred the country.

To everybody's great relief, winter finally arrived on December 1.  Rain, clouds and coolness opened December.  Granted, it was not exactly arctic. Depending on the location, the temperature was in the 10's during the day and above freezing at night. Nor was the rain that steady or strong as in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Still, this is a normal winter, Middle Eastern style. Winter rites could begin.

Winter clothing comes out of the closet. Long lost sweaters and scarves are pulled down and appreciated anew. Boots of all sizes, colors and forms replace the faded sandals and sneakers. The distinctive sound of women's boots can now be heard in every institution. The local version of a winter jacket is now hung prominently in the entrance way.  Those with more sensitive skin or systems already put on their gloves. Winter is definitely here.

Yet, the most salient sign of the new season is the smell of Hamin (or Chulent) this past Friday. In hundreds of thousands of households, religious and non-religious alike, dinner was this traditional Jewish stew. For generations, Jews have prepared this dish, each family and each region in its own manner. This simple dinner brings on multi-sensory connotation, a bit similar to a Thanksgiving turkey to an American or a bouillabaisse to some French.

To those unfamiliar, hamin or chulent, its alternative name, is a slow cooked stew using whatever ingredients are available. On Friday morning, a combination of wheat, potatoes, beans and/or whole eggs are placed in a pot, generally with some meat, such as chicken and beef. After around a half hour on the gas, the pot is put in an oven at round 140 degrees centigrade (284 degrees Fahrenheit), to be served that night or the next day. In many places in the Diaspora, there was a custom for a whole village to use a common oven and not to mark their pot.  This way, poorer families might get luck and get a "rich" meal. If the Sabbath is also a celebration of food, this was a sure-fire method of guaranteeing both happy tongues and stomachs. Believe me, nobody gets up from a Hamin feeling hungry and cold. Also, for the person who has to do the dishes, it is a one-pot meal, making for quick clean up.

So, I, my wife and our two cats (passively in their case) marked the arrival of  winter in a tried and true method,  with a wonderful plate (or two) of hamin.  I can say that after a good dinner, a short walk and a cup of tea, we sat contently the rest of the evening. Now that is winter.