BlaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhG!

I have no idea why anyone would want to read this ridicullious c*&@ that I write because I am bored, but this blog is about stuff. You know Israel, cooking, family life, politics, entertainment...stuff. Whatever is on my mind! Enjoy!

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

On Israeli Bank Reform, Global Warming and Spongebob

It's amazing that my brain can churn out any thoughts on this 100+ degree day, but there are a few things on my mind. Obviously the first of which is the weather. We are having a heat wave, in case someone hasn't noticed, and the commentators are all abuzz with talk of accelerated global warming. (not to be confused with regular old global warming, which I will get to in a moment.) I am not closing the door to this theory but a couple of heat waves just doesn't justify this verdict to me.

First and foremost there has been a heat wave just about every summer of my life. That's 34 years now for those who are counting. Heat waves are a fact of summer. Second, we had one of the coldest summers on record here in Michigan a few years ago. I remember how bummed we all were when we were wearing our jackets in July. Yet the next time the mercury hit 95, they were again talking global warming.

While the evidence does show a very slight climate change across the globe, (this is regular old global warming, not the accelerated theory which is being touted this week), I am not sure that we have actually caused it. We only have records dating back 100 years or so. Geology has shown that there were several severe climate changes throughout history. So we are to believe we are causing this one. What caused the ice ages and former tropical climates? Dinosaur farts? We may just have to deal with the fact that not everything is in our control. We religious people will refer to it as an act of G-d that the weather is changing, and at some point the followers of science might just have to call it random climate change - a natural process.

The second issue on my mind is this month's reform of Israeli banking laws. This came to my attention when a friend who lives like most Israelis, by overdrafting her account until she gets paid at the end of the month, had her ATM card eaten by a machine. She was later informed that the new reforms that went into place have done away with the whole culture of overdraft.

Anyone who knows anything about life in Israel knows that this will cause much of society to collapse. I understand that this was a move to strengthen the economy, but with studies showing that %50 of the population are "working poor," this could devastate the economy. Sure it will lead to people watching what they buy, but it will lead to many people not being able to buy the essentials. How will that impact the economy?

Apparently 2 American style credit card companies have entered the fray (traditionally Israeli credit cards were tied to bank accounts and had to be paid at the end of the month, similar to overdraft), but in a society of people living month-to-month, this just might not be enough.

Last but not least on my mind today is Spongebob. Specifically Spongebob carrots. I have heard about them for a while. Apparently the anti-sugar, anti-fun, lobby was inflamed that Nickelodeon was using its characters to promote only sugar filled products (AKA: junk food). So Nick relented and bags of mini baby carrots were printed with Spongebob on them.

Since Y s a giant Spongebob fan, and has been know to eat an occasional (very occasional) carrot, I was happy to hear this news. Today I finally bought a package. When I was unpacking the groceries, I showed them to Y with great anticipation of his excited reaction. His reply when I told him that Spongebob was on the bag of carrots? "Cool - can I win anything?" Alas, it is not the characters on the box of fruit loop flavored waffles, or sugar-filled chocolate chip cookies that entices the kids. It's the promise of a contest. Sorry anti-sugar lobby, but strike one for you.

Jenn