Sunday, May 28, 2006

World Cup whims

Wow its been a while! Almost a month since my last post but here I am again. Working night shifts can mess up your daily routine. So its almost June, the summer is here and in just about 2 weeks one of the greatest sports festivals in the world begins and the whole world will be eagerly watching... If they can afford it.

Now I'm not sure how it works everywhere else on the planet but the Israeli broadcasters have decided to turn the Soccer World Cup into a money making fest at the expense of the consumer.

Yes every month we pay for premier sports channels in order to receive the licenses to broadcast the great sporting events. Well technically that's what we should be paying for, what we are paying for is the ability to pay for the event when it actually arrives.

Formula 1 is the most watched sport on the planet, every second weekend 1.5 billion people tune in to watch the creme de la creme of motor racing. Israeli broadcasters put the Formula 1 on whenever it doesn't interrupt their broadcasting of the Israeli skiing championships or the U.S. wood chopping league.

We have to pay weekly to watch the Premier League and now the biggest disgrace of all, we will have to pay an outrageous 400+ shekels to watch the World Cup.

My question is this: What are the cable and satellite tv companies doing with the money we pay them every month to buy these licenses?

I can understand them charging people who don't buy the sports channels year round. But I do and I sure as hell don't pay to be able to switch to channel 57 and say "Oh wow, look its channel 57 and they are showing the July tissue paper tearing championships!"

I think it is an absolute disgrace and nothing more than a money making scheme which I have decided to boycott. I have decided I will not give the Israeli broadcasters once cent of my money. I have signed up online to receive the World Cup for a quarter of the price and I will be canceling my subscription to the sports channels.

Obviously I am paying for wasted space considering the sports coverage on our television is appalling, the licenses I pay for, I have to pay for again and at the end of the day, I am being bullied into to putting extra money down when I and nobody else wants to.

So lets send a message to Hot! and Yes. Find an alternative, watch the soccer in a bar, or online or not at all. Lets teach them that the consumer IS always right and if we are going to pay for a service, we damn well expect them to provide it.

I am perfectly happy to watch my world cup favorites battle it out on my PC. I am personally rooting for the United States, Portugal and Spain as runners up to the best of the best Brazil. Its pretty much the first world cup I will be able to watch in its entirety and I can't wait for the first to blow and the world's greatest sporting festival to begin.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Yom Hazikaron to Yom Ha'atzmaut.


Every year on the 5th day of the Jewish month Iyar, the people of Israel celebrate their independence. Yom HaAtzmaut is an amazing and beautiful experience to behold. All of the problems our country faces every day, the terrorism, the middle east peace process and the mundane setbacks of normal life are all put on hold for one wonderful night where the entire country comes together to celebrate the fact that, through all the wars and adversity, all the anti-semitism and every other obstacle that is determined to destroy us, WE ARE STILL HERE! And boy do we celebrate in style.

However, even though we dedicate the entire 5th of Iyar to celebrating our independence, the 4th of Iyar is dedicated to the remembrance of our brave soldiers who fell in battle and cowardly attacks. On Yom HaZikaron, we light a memorial candle and the central town air raid sirens cry out across the whole country as we all remember our beloved people who fell in the name of our beautiful country. Every year when that horn cries out, I find myself imagining the scenes of war and those final moments of those men's young lives. I see guns firing, mortars dropping and the men who we honour, fall.

I am always left with a feeling of terrible sorrow, followed by a feeling of terrible anger. Why did these men have to die? And the answer always comes the following night. These men did not die in vain, they died to give us the freedom to go out and celebrate our country. They died so that our children could grow up as Jews, safe and away from harm. They died so that never again would we ever let the world bring upon us another holocaust. The heroes of our nation are honoured on Yom HaZikaron, and celebrated on Yom HaAtzmaut.

We drink, we have concerts, we laugh, we sing and we show everybody that we are alive and that we are not going anywhere! Last night, a group of about 10 of us all went off to the central park in Raanana. We drank... Lots! And then off we went to the amphitheatre where established musicians played a concert for free in honour of this glorious day. It is an experience you can never have enough of, its something that no matter how many times you see it, its always amazing. Fireworks lighting up the sky, everybody putting their political and religious opinions aside just to be one great nation for one night.

And when we are all together, across the whole of Israel, celebrating our independence and honouring the brave soldiers and innocent civilians who died for us to have this freedom, there is no mightier nation in the world!

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