the secret of the treasured Turkey's army tunic button

The secret of the treasured Turkey's army tunic button

By David Verveer

After I published my short story on finding a treasure box plastered into the wall, containing only a Turkey's army tunic button, I kept on thinking why and who would hide such a thing in a treasure box, but life goes on, and treasure haunting is certainly not my daily activity. Surprisingly, a few days after publishing this story in a blog, I received a call on my mobile. On the other side of the line, somebody said something like barhaba (I think it is a general greeting in Arab), and suspected that the person by mistake dialed me, I told him in Hebrew that he had the wrong number, but he continued in English by asking, are you Mr. Verveer, who wrote the treasure blog? I thought somebody was playing a trick on me, but decided to play along. But soon after I heard what this person had to say, I realized that nobody was fooling around and from a partly fabled story, a serious historical drama came to light, but in order to tell the story correctly, I will try to relate the story of this gentleman. His name is Hassan, and he is a Canadian born into a Palestinian family, who left Palestine before the Second World War. His grandfather, Musa, around 90 years old, requested him to accompany him in visiting Israel, to see those places where he had spent in his youth. They were staying with their relatives still living in this region (Jaljulia, a tiny Arab village in the Sharon area, which according some archeologists is the biblical Gilgal). This village is situated East of my town Kfar Saba, a 5 minute drive from my house.

Apparently, by accident they read my blog which excited Mr. Musa very much, as it reminded him from a happening in his youth. He asked me, if I would be so kind and come to visit him. Curiously what he could tell me, I agreed immediately.

Their family (it seems that the entire village belongs to the same clan) lived in a large house, occupied with numerous children and people coming in or going out. Mr. Musa and his grandson Hassan waited for me in the sitting room, and with the traditional cup of coffee he told me the following story.

He went back to the Ottoman Empire, when the Turks occupied the entire Middle East including Palestine, an era that ended in a defeat of the Turkey's army by the British General Allenby in 1917 / 1918. At the time their family, living in Jaffa, businessmen traders in grains, etc, possessed also numerous citrus plantations.

Parts of these plantations were in the coastal dunes, north of Jaffa, in the area where today the town Raanana is situated. Musa's grandfather, one of the least successful businessmen in the family, functioned as caretaker of the citrus orchards, living in a big house in the middle.

The area belonged to the northern part of the Jaffa Sanjek (an administrative and military region of the Turkey's Empire. The deputy Governor of the Sanjek was a Turkey's nobleman from the well known Bey family, named Mustafa Bey, and his son, also Mustafa, a career officer in the Turkey's army spending most of his free time in horse riding, and flirting with girls throughout the district. One day passing by a well, he noticed Musa's aunt with some friends. As it goes in nature, her being a beautiful girl and he an handsome tall military man, a love affair was started, which even though, at that time of arranged marriages relatively un known. But the fact that he was extremely rich, and both were from the same (Muslim) faith, they managed to get the families to agree. Soon wedding preparations were in the air, but than the War caught up with them, and Mustafa was required to leave in order to defend the empire. As mentioned before, the Turks lost the battle and Mustafa never came back, we don't know if he was killed in the battle or simply did not want to go back defeated.

In the mean time, our lady, the Musa's aunt was pregnant, and to great dismay of the family, a child was born, which the mother named of course Mustafa. It has to be mentioned that in general, there was no love lost between the Palestinians and the Ottoman rulers who treated them as peasants and preferred the Zionists to deal with. Big American groups such as Ahuza Alef (an American Organization) bought real estate from the Palestinians with Turkey's approval and encouragement. Most Palestinian landowners were not living on the land and used poorer relations or peasants to do the agricultural tasks. Eventually, also the orchards of Musa's family were sold, but this was approximately 20 years later.

Musa's oldest uncle, a very religious man, angry with the world, decided on a fateful day to kill his sister the mother of Mustafa, in order to defend the honor of the family. These family honor crimes are taking still place today, but today they are considered what they really are "murder". In those days, nobody was really in charge, the British couldn't care less, and her murder remained unpunished. However, only a few months later the moody killer committed suicide.

In the mean time, Mustafa and Musa, both of nearly the same age, grew up and were like twins. Of course Mustafa was part of the clan and family, but as orphan, without a penny to his name. The only thing he inherited from his parents were the good looks and charm of his parents and when he reached the age of 15, he decided to run away from home and look for his father and family in Turkey..

One of the last things, which Musa and Mustafa did together, was burying one of the two buttons from his father's tunic, which he found between his mother's possessions, in a treasure chest, in the wall of the old farmhouse, the second one he took with him. Musa promised to retrieve the button from this hiding place, if and when he eventually would leave the farmhouse, a promise, Musa could not keep, because the sudden sale of the farmhouse, during a period Musa was studying in Jordan.

This was the last time Musa had seen and heard from his cousin, he vanished in the thin air. He tried to find him through the Red Cross, the Turkey's embassy in Canada, but all those affords without success.

Musa ended his story by asking me to publish his story, in the hope somebody would read it, who knew Mustafa in Turkey.

Musa and Hassan returned last week to Canada, continuing to wait for news about their lost cousin Mustafa.

If anybody, reading this story, has some information on the where about of Mustapha, now also in his nineties, please contact me, as soon as possible.

news from arabstan

News from Arabstan (Europe) former Ravenstein

By David Verveer

It is now 5 years since the mini-state Arabstan was created after a short war of independence. The micro state is situated between Belgium and Holland and occupies the historical region of Ravenstein and parts of the provinces North Brabant and Belgium's Limburg. The Islamite population is mainly composed out Immigrant laborers working in the German Ruhr Region, Rotterdam and Antwerp, who commute each day by train to and from their work places.

Funny enough, the only place in the European Common Market with customs and border control is on the borders between Arabstan and its neighbors, but it seems that this is a friendly border, now that the threat of Russian influence on Arabstan has subsided. As you most likely will remember, the Russian Leader Putin tried to establish a nuclear base as retaliation on Nato bases in the former Soviet states, but this threat was cancelled when suddenly the president of Arabstan declared that Arabstan will not be a tool in the new developing cold war between the West and East. A rumor says that this statement came after the European Union told Arabstan if it allows Russian bases Europe will close its borders and not allow any Arabstan workers to work.

The entire situation of an Islamic state in the middle of the Christian nations worked out much better than was expected, not only did Arabstan reject the strict Moslem laws, as they would cause conflicts with its neighbors, it also allowed full freedom of religion.

Arabstan reduced the Islamic conflicts in countries such as France, Belgium and Holland. Funny enough, the crime rate in Western Europe was considerably reduced after the creation of an Islamic free state, which accepted everybody of the Islamic faith, even if they had problems with the police in their states of origin.

This year, over 100,000 Arabstanies went on Hajj during the holidays of Idl fatha, extra flights were put in between Arabstan International Airport and Mecca, without custom services generally required for international flights from and to Arabstan.

Also the holy town Islamabad (former Oosteren) staged a secondary pilgrimage for those, who could not afford the cost of the Hajj, (4.000 Euro), with as center the Mosque and the burial site and stone memorial for their martyrs, who died in the war of independence

The only negative question remains, is the problem of the refugees (the original population, around 200,000 people living in refugee camps near the borders of Arabstan.. The plight of those refugees, forced to live in camps, is terrible, most are penniless, and fled without possessions, workless and without future. The European states refuse to deal with their problem, as it would mean an acceptance of the Arabstan, which in fact is a blessing, but can not be admitted as such, as it would mean a loss of face for the European Union.

Those refugee camps are hardly suitable to house people, the medical and social services are restricted to the minimum. People, who have the same faith as the host country, are treated as potential enemies. Those refugees are near rebellion and surely, if no solution is found soon, this situation will explode in the faces of the European Union.

The financial status of Arabstan is excellent, due to the income derived from the laborers working for the European industries, and many international banks have opened branches in Arabstan. Their shops and super markets are full with fresh imports from Holland and Belgium; of course the fact that the currency in Arabstan is the Euro simplifies the financial status of the country.

It became evident that the Islam state could survive without an army, with only a relative small police force who fully cooperates with the forces of the surrounding countries.

The only pity is that all this is based on my fertile imagination, and in fact Europe will face a major show down with its Islamic population, which will fight to the bitter end in trying to convert Europe to an Islamic region, intolerant to anybody of another faith, luckily I live in Israel, without any Islamic problems.

happy new year

Alweer eind van het jaar

Lieve allemaal, een heel wijs en oud mannetje heeft mij verteld dat de tijd steeds sneller gaat met de jaren. Toen ik nog een kleine jongen was duurde een jaar erg lang, nu dat ik een paar dagen ouder ben, is het jaar zo over, niet lang geleden heb ik jullie een prettig kerstfeest en gelukkig nieuwjaar toegewenst, en nu is het alweer zover. Maar natuurlijk betekend dit ook dat we ons amuzeren, want rot tijden gaan ook erg langzaam voorbij.

Ik werk nog steeds in Intel, het was maar voor 2.en half maanden maar ik werk er nu al 7 half maanden en het einde is nog lang niet in zicht, Ik verlang soms naar die tijd dat ik tijd had om niets tedoen, op mijn manier, maar nu ben ik blij als ik naar bed kan gaan. Het werk is op zich zelf wel interresant, want elke dag zijn er nieuwe problemen, nieuwe eisen en problemen die persoonlijk opgelost moeten worden.

Over onze gezondheid mogen we niet klagen, wehebben er niets bij gekregen, en wat we hebben, kunnen we makkelijk aan.

Onze kinderen en klein kinderen doen het ook goed, Tal heeft een nieuwe baan gekregen en begint ze een Januari. Het betaald veel meer dan ze nu krijgt maar moet ze ook veel meer uren maken. Maar dat is begrijpelijk, je krijgt niets voor niets. Dit betekend ook natuurlijk dat Oma en Opa, dat zijn wij, moeten helpen met Tom van school op tehalen, twee of drie keer per week, maar dat is prima, we hebben zo beter kontakt. Niv zit nog steeds op die gecombineerde opleiding, en studeert ook op de universiteit, niet gek voor een jongetje van 14 jaar oud. Ik zeg wel jongetje, maar hij is veel groter dan ik ben, maar goed, zijn vader was ook een reus.

Dana is weeer terug in Barbados, ze zweren dat dit hun laatste jaar is, maar ik geloof het niet, ze hebben nu een huis gehuurd aan het Caribische stand, met een private zwembad, en een grote tuin, hier in Israel kunnen ze zo een luxe niet veroorloven, maar ja, ze hebben heimwee en willen dat de kinderen hier op school zullen gaan.

Wij gaan niet zo vlug daar op bezoek daar het handen vol met geld kost, en moeten we nu beginnen tedenken over de toekomst, als we ouder worden.

Maar ja, we zien en praten met ze bijna elke dag, met de help van de computer (skype), en dat help natuurlijk.

Nurit werkt nog steeds, klaagt er over dat ze moet werken, maar ik ben zeker dat als ze er uiteindelijk mee stopt, zal ze haar vreselijk vervelen. Ze vindt het ergste haar lange bus tochten elke dag, maar ken ze iedereen van de pasagiers, en is het een morgen en avond clubje, met vaste deelnemers.

Uiteindelijk is hier de winter ook begonnen, en hebben we al een paar dagen van regen en kou achter de rug. Niet zo koud als bij jullie, maar genoeg om verkouden te worden. Maar de regen hebben we hard nodig, als onze water toestand erg kritiek begint teworden. Tussen twee haakjes, jullie merken het, mijn speller werkt niet, en zit het vol met taal en type fouten, maar ik hoop dat tussen de regels jullie me toch zullen begrijpen, ik weet het ik zal nooit een prijs voor het grote Nederlandse dictee tekrijgen.

Intussen ga ik door met opinies en korte verhalen (in het Engels). tepublizeren op het Net, en heb ik daar heel veel plezier van, mijn blog adres is dverveer.blogspot.com. en daar kunnen jullie mijn nonsens lezen. Het is merkwaardelijk dat schijnbaar veel mensen mijn nonsens lezen, als mijn blogs (essays) worden overgenomen bij meerdere mensen. Het is nu een gennesmiddel voor mij, om mijn onbegrip van deze wereld bekent temaken, vroeger kon alleen de journalist zijn opinies kwijt, vandaag met het Net, is iedereen een journalist, met het voordeel dat als ze het niet willen lezen of wel willen lezen, maakt niemand wat uit.

Politiek gezien, gaan we er niet op vooruit, het is nog steeds knudde in het zuiden, en gaan wij een nieuwe oorlog krijgen, want het kan zo niet doorgaan, dat we worden gebombadeert door de buren over de grens.

Luitjes, dit briefje is lang genoeg en moeten we maar wat overhouden voor de volgende keer,

Van harte prettige feestdagen en gelukkig nieuwjaar,

Nurit en David

my uncle sam and aunt frieda

My uncle Sam and my Aunty Frieda

By David Verveer

My Uncle Sam was the oldest brother of my mother, born in 1895, in The Hague Holland. When he was 18, my Grandmother died from cancer, and my Grandfather was forced to take a housekeeper, to take care of the younger children (my mother at the time was 7 years old). The first housekeeper was a girl from Germany, from the northern harbor town Lubeck. We are talking about the years after the First World War, which was lost by the Germans (Holland remained neutral. Great poverty caused the young people to look for jobs outside Germany, and this is the reason that Frieda Hill arrived and started working for the Jewish family Alter.

My Uncle Sam was not very intelligent, rather a likable simpleton, and soon love developed between Sam and Frieda, and even though the Jewish community did not approve of mixed couples, they married and in actual fact he was excommunicated from his Shul (synagogue), a fact he took extremely hard.

Aunty Frieda was a very short woman, very fat and of course, even though no Einstein, kilometers more intelligent than my uncle. My uncle worked for a packaging factory owned by Jews, and worked there until his retirement 1955.

During the Second World War, after the German Arm attacked and occupied Holland, and Jews were taken to the camps, my uncle was taken to a concentration camp, were he remained until the end of the war. He returned home in 1945, a broken man with a heart complaint, which would kill him a few years after retirement.

He never understood what was going on, simply lived his life from day to day. The new inventions such as an electric shaver nearly killed him as he put it before shaving in the water. His only pride was his polished shoes, and his only complaint to us was the terrible state of our shoes. He seldom left the house, nor did he read papers, but I don't think he was ever bored, as boredom requires a certain amount of intelligence.

Writing about him, is very difficult, as he never conveyed any emotions or interest in us or anybody else.

On one of his birthdays, my mother brought him pictures of the Portuguese synagogue in The Hague, where my grandfather served as caretaker (after he lost all his money and his business, in sorrow because the early demise of my grandmother), and where my uncle would pray, before the war, as he was unwelcome in the Ashkenazi synagogue, due to him marrying a non Jewish wife. He was very emotional over the gift (the first time and last time that I saw him happy and exited).

My aunty was absolute the opposite, she was inquisitive, talked non stop (she did not have a German accent, and nobody in the neighborhood knew that she was German.

After the war, my mother remained alone (my father was executed by the Germans), with 4 small children, and my aunt was our only family in the town. I had another surviving aunt, but she lived in another town with her two daughters, and 3 cousins on my father's side, who also lived outside our town.

She would come over (by tramway, a trip of over one hour) to help my mother with the laundry, mending of clothes, sometime cooking and babysit, in short, she was a blessing.

She loved us very much, but had terrible ways in showing us her love, she would kiss us, embrace us and shout (she never talked quietly), and if we had the luck (let us say misfortune) to meet her in the street, she would embarrass us terribly, but you could not complain, she loved us and would do everything for us. Her squeezes (knijpjes) were famous, enough to try to avoid her, but we were everything for her, and her devotion to us and our mother was without limit.

In 1955 our family fell apart, my oldest brother had already immigrated to Israel, my second brother went with the army to Suriname South America (at that time, a Dutch colony), I went to study in England, and my mother remained home with only my sister. The relationship between my mother and my aunt became relatively strained, as my mother did not have the patience for the lamentations of the aging women, who complained about the bad people, the neighbors, the postman, the shop owner, etc.

She loved buying hats (especially green ones), and later on changing furniture (a thing unheard of during my uncles lifetime).

In 1958 I also immigrated to Israel, and in the following years both my sister and mother came also to Israel, and my aunt remained absolutely alone in The Hague.

I feel still somehow guilty about her, but her contact with us was through long letters with my mother and birthday cards on birthdays, .and my second brother followed us to Israel several years later.

When I returned to Holland, for studies 7 years later, we my wife and I would visit her, bur as we lived far away and did not have a car yet, this would be with intervals of at least six months. Tante Frieda would not talk about her German past, her family, possible brothers and sisters, the only thing she told us that she did not want to visit there, and that she hated Germans and people speaking German to her.

After I finished my study, we moved to Brussels (for my stage) and bought a car. Occasional we would take a trip to visit her, which made her very happy. I remember, once we visited her, and when we left, she asked to accompany us to the car, where she shouted, "this in my nephew with his wife, they came from Belgium to visit me, with their own car".

After I finished my stage and we returned to Israel, (with my daughter 4 months old) she would write to my mother that she was extremely lonely. To solve it, she took in students (who studied at the postal school, near by). She got rather attached to these boys, and would mother them, and smother them with love. She died 86 years old, depraved from the family she loved so much.

Now, 30 years since she passed away, I still feel somehow guilty of leaving her alone, I don't know if there was another way, but I have the feeling we never tried to repay her for her devotion to us.

pimlico revisited

Pimlico revisited

By David Verveer

Do you remember the movie on a neighborhood of London which declared independence? It was a nice sweet and very unlikely story, about historical rights, and individuals which attacked the establishment.

Based on this idea, I continued to fantasize, and far from any reality I composed the continuation of an dependant Pimlico, or for that purpose, Vatican, San Marino, Monaco or Singapore, in short a small identity which is sovereign, living on the side of its much larger neighbors, and for the purpose of my story, the government of the mini state is officially at war with its neighboring country.

Let us create now an impossible situation, where the independent mini state is totally depending on the supply of food, energy, etc on its big neighbor, but not with standing the total dependency, the mini state's army bombards daily an neighboring area with rockets, making the local populations life a hell.

The large neighboring country responses with army actions, trying to prevent the rocket lancers to fire their weapons, but of course finding them between a population of more than a million people, is an impossible target.

Clearly, throwing bombs on innocent population, in order to stop them sending the rockets, is forbidden by humanitarian opinions of the world, thus this pestering continues uninterrupted without punishment, at danger of toppling the government, by those who insist on whipping the mini state from the earth.

You will ask yourself, what does this mini state want in order to stop the rocket firing, the answer is simple; they want to destroy the neighboring country, kill or at least banish its population. O,K, but why does the large state continue to supply food , energy and humanitarian needs to the mini state, the only answer is of course, the public pressure of the world opinion.

It is very easy to be large and humanitarian, when you live far away, and not next door to rocket lancers. You remember my example deals with for example, Monaco bombarding Nice, or the Vatican Rome, or Pimlico London town. A large military action will cost many lives, most of them innocent of any wrong doings, politically, there is no influence on the bandits, they know that when eventually will be destroyed by a large military action, the good world opinion will start to protest and blame the attacking forces for using illegal and un necessary force.

In order to make my story more comprehensible, we will call the mini state Gaza, and the city attacked by rocket, Sderot, but we could also call it Hezbollah and Kiriath Shemona. Funny don't you think, and far fetched, such things could not happen in London or Rome, but wait, impossible things happen, even in civilized Europe.

whom should I believe?

Whom should I believe?

By David Verveer

Eventually I have to admit reading newspapers, following the news on TV and reading the World press on the Internet is a waste of time and distorts the common sense of the reader and watcher. Lately we get information which contradicts each other totally, and as nobody has the tools to check and verify the real truth, we remain absolutely totally confused. Allow me some of the most current samples:

The nuclear threat from Iran, is a question of less important for our brothers in the USA, but rather important for us Israelis, who live nearby those idiots. According to the information given by the international Press, the Persians are planning to flatten the Middle East (Israel is in the middle of the Middle East, and a nuclear bomb will wipe out not only Israel but also the Palestinians living around, and the Jordanians will have to go for nuclear treatment) in about two years time, while some very high ranking spies working for the US, now tell us, the Iranians are peace lovers, and working hard on making this world an healthier place to live in. Tell me, what is the truth?

Global warming, Icebergs melt, ice bears swim, Gore gets the Noble prize, all caused because I am using my car to get to work, but now they found out that 2006 was colder in average than the years before, thus again, what is true?

The average lifespan is rising by the year, we are getting older and healthier, why do they continue to bombard us daily with information on danger for dying from the various diseases, such as over-eating, getting poisoned from using mobile phones or sitting too near the television, and endless other warnings concerning our health, whom should we believe?

Education is improving, a six grade school boy knows more than a scientist in the Middle Ages, specially, we the Israelis are extremely gifted and well educated, but than we look at the worldwide intelligence tests, and we see that Israel comes in the fortieth place of the 50 odd participant countries. Of course that is no wonder, as every time the scale flips, and the opposition comes into power, they change the entire education system with a new master plan. In the mean time our teachers, instead of apologizing for their bad performance, they strike. If I was a teacher, I would shut up and try to advance the pupils instead the material aims, but of course, who knows what the truth is?

Outer space is infinitive, and goes on and on, but who are we giddying in believing we are the only intelligent (?) creatures alive, based on what? What we see or hear? And if there are others, who will ever know, what they know about us, if we are inferior to them or even worth, an anthill to be observed for educational purposes before final destruction.

My conclusion is, that we don't know much, and there is no way we will ever know what the truth is really or what means the word truth.

the treasure

The treasure

By David Verveer

I am talking about events which occurred about 15 years ago, when the parents of our friends decided that they had outgrown the need for a large house and garden, and that they would enjoy more their children and grandchildren in a small flat in center of the town.

They had built the house about 20 years earlier, on the remains of an old building (most likely a house in the middle of an orange grove, housing the caretaker, as this area was in the center of the citrus production, which made Israel famous worldwide.)

Today, that spot is in the middle of a relative luxurious low houses neighborhood, and the only citrus trees remaining are in the gardens and as trees in the street.

The truth is, that the new house they built was in actual fact a reconstruction of the old building, this for tax reasons, as with reconstruction the building taxes were much lower. Thus the main western wall of the original house was integrated in the two floor building, a fact which was only known to the municipal tax people and the parents of our friends. In actual fact, nobody knew about this ancient, most likely more than 100 year's old exterior wall until the decision to sell the house, as explained above.

In the kitchen, a built-in cupboard was removed, and taken to one of the children's flat for reassembly, when a definite difference texture of the plaster indicated that somebody had hastily covered something without bothering in smoothing and painting the spot, it showed a clear sign that there was something behind the plastered spot. The father of our friend had never seen it, and did not know about the spot, and the sons decided to explore what was behind the plastered wall.

Of course, it is easier said than done, the house was already sold, opening and making a mess is hardly something you do when you are leaving the building, but curiosity was stronger than common sense, and with hammers, the plastered spot was opened, and showed a hole in which an iron box of 80 cm long and 40 cm wide and high, was found. According the color of the box and the rust on it, you could see that the box was rather old, around 60 or seventy years (dating from the First World War era, when the country was still run by the Ottomans).

Of course, the box was extracted from the wall and put on the kitchen table. It was of course closed but nobody left a key, and opening the box required special tools, which one of the sons brought the next day from work. I don't have to explain that the entire family was excited and like all normal humans imagining the great treasures found in this treasure box, and I don't exaggerate, the expected contents of gold and money were already divided and fought over, even though, in this family, they do not have inner fights over possessions, but the son who discovered the plaster spot, thought that he had more rights to the treasure, than the rest of the family.

There is of course also another problem, the Government owns any antiquity treasure found and if this is not enough, the house was already been sold and the treasure did not belong to the family but to the new owner. All this was excitingly discussed by the family, the night before opening the treasure box. You need a crisis to know what everybody really thinks, and this was certainly the right time to show hidden feelings, but I have to admit, the argument did not explode and damage the close family ties, which still exist today.

Thus we get with our story, to the eventful morning when the box was opened, and the contents were examined by the entire family, all present, even though it was a regular working day. The lid was opened, and a small cotton bag was found inside containing an army coat button, with inscriptions which afterwards were found to be Turkish. It was clear that the treasure had vanished in the clean air, and even trying to strike the button, did not bring the fairy, with the usual three wishes.

Nobody knows what is the story behind the placing of a button into the treasure box, why and who did it, it can be a romantic story of a Turkish soldier and his local lady friend, it can be a prank of a child, but perhaps it was the proof of a dreadful cruel murder, when the husband returned home and found his wife in the arms of a Turkish soldier, nobody will ever know the truth, and perhaps this is for the best.

the politicians and the bureaucrats

The Politicians and the Bureaucrats

By David Verveer

The fight between the political people and the bureaucrats is just as old as the term democracy, and unlike other arguments, I hope it will continue to exist, as both ways of thought have the right to exist.

A politician depends on his friends and followers to be elected, to be proposed for selection for that post, as they considered him the best candidate to give them the benefits they hoped for. After his election, whatever the politician does, it all smells of corruption and bribes, even if it is never so intended. A politician, who does not have friends and yes-men, can not survive as a democratic candidate.

On the other hand, the bureaucrat is not elected, but appointed by his professional qualifications, and his job is to execute the law and the decisions of the politician heading his office.

The politician has to be kind, friendly, politically right and popular, and the bureaucrat doesn't have to care what act is more popular by the people, his job is to look after the interest of his office.

Both types of people are necessary to keep the democratic system running and functioning, but as humans are peculiar creatures, the strife between those two types can not be prevented. Our prime minister, far from being perfect and holy, enjoyed like all politicians to benefit from his function and position, by getting a better deal on real estate, or helping a friend to succeed in a business transaction, but also will get served without queue, does not pay entrance fee for a performance, etc All those actions can be translated into calling them bribes, but where is the border, specially because he is elected to get and give benefits. On the other hand, the bureaucrat, who thinks that he is the only one who can decide what bribe and foul play is, who in his position decides on life and death situations, only because our laws are not adapted to humanity and social justice, manages with his accusations to hinder proper functioning of the government.

Who cares if the current prime minister got his house cheaper and who cares if he tried and did not succeed to sell the Leumi bank to his friend, and who cares if his former associate tried to get a loan for a factory he planned to erect in the Negev. He did not get rich from that, or made his prime ministerial functions easier, on the other hand, the holier than holier attitude of this tasteless and cruel impolite bureaucrat Selicha, with his crony the State comptroller and the Likud crooks who only two years ago corrupted and poisoned the entire political system, try to make from any molehill a mountain.

We live in a corrupted country, where only a few months ago most of the income tax management were arrested because of foul play, were the finance minister is accused of stealing money from the Holocaust victims, where only yesterday, 6 representatives of the finance ministry were arrested because they received bribes in East Jerusalem. The scandals they try to accuse the prime minister are minor and extremely doubtful, and a waste of the tax payers money, such as organizing hundred policemen, one morning attacked about ten to twenty offices in order to find evidence for the accusations on prime minister crimes (5 years later), instead of solving real crimes, or finding lost persons and making this place a little safer to live in.

Who will benefit if the prime minister is brought to court? His non existing clean fellow politicians or the Lindestraus and Selicha types?

Personally, I am certainly not an Olmert supporter, but prefer him thousand times more than the gallant opposition leader who personally was responsible for bringing prosperity to the local and Russian rich, but on the way, caused poverty and hopelessness for the less fortune Israeli middle and low classes.

Instead of daily television shows on the prime misters crimes, I would like to see real efforts in getting this country nearer to peace, by finally controlling those fanatics in the occupied territories, and providing logical and effective solutions to the not easy plight of the local Arab population. Incidentally, getting payment for lectures by ex and future politicians, like Barak and Netanyahu, smells of bribes and corruption, much more than getting a reduced price for a house in Merhaviah.

from the robot's point of view

From the Robot's point of view

By David Verveer

In the United Robot daily, a newspaper published for the robots of our time, I found this disturbing article: "Humanoids are the biggest polluters on earth".

The article is written by a chief scientific robot, built by the M.I.T. robot lab, named Robot "Ynot".

Ynot writes in his essay, published in cyberspace, that after close observation of the behavior of the human species, he came to the conclusion that men will eventually pollute the earth in such extend that they won't be able to continue to exist on this earth. He provide many samples of those polluting actions, some caused by over population, some due to extreme stupid behavior of mankind (like reduction of carbon dioxide, which is required by the fauna, in order to grow), but the main culprit is the lack of clean potable water, needed to allow life of any kind.

He explained in his article, that in the early twenty firth century, irresponsible humanoids started producing artificial energy based on turning grains into fuel, which caused overall famine and death all over the African and Asian continent, as this fuel caused steep rising of food prices, placing it outside the possibility of poor humans to survive, which on itself was of course a good cause, as humans are unnecessary since the creation of the new types of plasma fueled robots.

But Ynot continues to claim that humanoids, even after dying, manage to pollute the aquifer (groundwater) by decaying in the ground, causing seepage into the dwindling water sources. Today, any standard robot is capable to replace at least a complete family cell, which requires proper dwelling conditions, food transport and disgusting human habits such as sex, schooling and democracy, items which any low and old fashioned specie of robot does not need.

True, there are features humanoids can perform better than robots, such as living and caring, pity they can not be recycled like robots, but think on the mess they make as domestic pets.

He concludes is learned essay, by suggesting an area quota for humanoids, which should be internationally controlled through wisely distribution of drugs to those stupid humans (drugs kill humans in a friendly environment).

Of course Ynot's essay created enormous quantities of talkbacks, mostly written by robots, which through construction faults are partly humanized and claim to have feelings. Surprisingly, also some humans entered the discussion, trying to justify their existence, but these letters were rather comic, as every average robot knows that humans are hopeless and a complete creation failure.

humans are funny creatures

Humans are funny creatures

By David Verveer

Humans are funny creatures, they create celebs in order to glorify them, and peculiarly enough, hose people do not necessarily have a positive limelight, and in many cases, seeing their name and/o picture causes deep disgust and hate. I do not want to give examples, as by mentioning their name, I precisely do what those criminals with their support groups want and intent but without samples, you will not understand my point.

In the USA is a prominent sportsman, who on a nice day killed his wife and boyfriend. He got caught by the police on life TV, and than had his day in court, and even though there is no sane person in this world who does think this good sportsman is innocent, he walked out the court a free man, being an antihero, he became after some years a nobody (nobody remembered his celeb status, and what did he do, he organized a burglary, and today he is again in every body's attention.

In Israel, a bloody bastard killed our prime minister, changing effectively the history, by giving the moral strength to the right extremists. 12 years passed, a around the memory day for the slain leader, this disgusting creature manages to get the full public attention, by activating support groups, by broadcasting on the TV a video of bull shit. This year he even managed to produce an artificially created offspring (by mail order, he impregnated a religious simple minded nutcase women with his holy seeds, in order to create a new tribe of full blooded bastards. I don't mind, having another extremist, in twenty years time, but I do mind that our prison will turn into a festival hall celebrating the birth of a new antichrist. Look how we celebrate this smock (excuse my language).

But again, please see this as simple examples, in which our society finds its way to put the bad man on a statue, irrelevant if this serves mankind or not, and we, the public has to digest it without defense.

I understand when somebody goes to a horror show, as it is make believe and temporary, but in real life, why are we so stupid.

Is our purpose in life, to become unforgettable even for future generations? Like our former president, who was a sex maniac (by his own admittance, however still innocent, as he did not have his day in court). Who remembers the presidents before him, they were nobodies, they were attacked because they called girls "maidelach", or had a bank account that did not compute according the calculations of certain tax inspectors.

We have a multi millionaire, who made his money in the wake of the soviet collapse, he is un-educated, cannot speak any language faultless besides Russian, but is quoted daily in our newspapers on subjects such as the police and courts, politics and politicians, etc. He buys and sells firms, and initiates scandal rumors, plays with us like a cat with a ball of wool, and we continue to celebrate him, even allow advertisements for mobile phone companies. Who is to blame, we are, because we allow it to happen.

You remember this lady who cut her husbands male part with a knife, she was for years a celebrity, she was and not her victim, what do we learn from this? And what about Jack the Ripper, 250 years later is still a hero. We are really funny creatures.

Oh Lord I have sinned

Oh Lord I have sinned!

By David Verveer

Lately I have attacked in this blog our prophet, his holiness All Gore, and his fight for saving our globe from burning to hell, and than I realized that based on clever science, by giving value to numeric or translation from one language to another, the Lord gives us clear messages. On my long rides to work, I have much time on my hand to think about the daily happenings around me, as being alone with my self, I win every argument. Last week, I read a rather stupid article on global warming and the noble prize to our hero, and for reasons unknown to me, the Lord personally asked me to write the name All Gore in Hebrew, and than look at it carefully. "All" we write aleph lamed (which means God) and Gore gimmel, vav and resh, which means whelp or mail descendant, or in other words, All Gore is the son of God. Circumstantial, I don't think so, this is the sign we have all being waiting for, an announcement from heaven, that he is the appointed to help us getting out this mess.

How could I have been so blind, Jesus (a prophet and Messiah before All Gore) performed simple miracles, by walking on water and cooking fish for all the gang, our new guy, appeared in Moscow (in person) while his earthly body was in the US.

Jesus fought the corruption and the Jewish high priest, All fights a gas called Carbon dioxide, a tasteless, colorless and harmless gas, you must agree, that is much harder than fighting a corrupt social but human structure.

Jesus' disciples told us the world is coming to an end; the scientist disciples of All tell us the same, people living in Jesus' time were not saved from cruelty and hunger, we living in All's time will eventually starve, as the food is converted into methanol, to serve the rich, but now we know it, God wanted it by sending us his whelp.

Jesus on the other hand, tried to give a good example, but our current savior only gives advice, while he sins daily by extravagantly increasing the production of carbon dioxin Did you never wonder why he did not accept the Presidency of the USA even though, he got more votes than that Bushman, he knew already that he was meant for greater tasks, and invested in the cereal market.

There might be those pessimists in thinking that All Gore is the Antichrist, and that we are all doomed, I think they are wrong, there are still clusters of good people around, who leave the car idling on the weekend, in order not to pollute, so surely, there is still hope. I myself do something to improve the environment, I cultivate many plants on my balcony, plants that need carbon dioxide, and I use regularly the microwave oven, or cook on gas and electricity, in order not to pollute the air.

Concluding this nonsense, allow me an advise to the new son of God, please try to improve on your brother Jesus' results, the world really need some improvement and saving.

the nobel peace price to All Gore

The Nobel Peace Price

By David Verveer

I started wondering about the value of the Nobel Peace Price after the arch terrorist Nassir Arafat received the Nobel Price together with Yitzchak Rabin and Shimon Peres for agreeing to ever lasting peace in Alaska, but now, after they gave the current Peace Price to the person personally responsible for millions of future deaths and hungry masses in the poorer countries of the world, the former vice president of the United States, Mr. All Gore, who by promoting the production of Ethanol from grains, instead of feeding the world, caused rising food prices worldwide, not to mention the increase of potable water as ethanol production requires a large quantity of water during the production process.

People in Burma, Egypt, and the Lord knows which countries already rioted because the rising food prices, African disaster areas already reached the starvation point, and those stupid Nobel Peace Price committee gives an endorsement to the cleverest group of exploiters ever.

I have written and copied articles in this blog showing that Al Gore earned large sums on cereal sales, and planned the anti carbon dioxide scheme far ahead, before the so-called environmental experts backed him up with non proven conclusions on the carbon dioxide culprit. I always thought the Nobel Price commission was ignorant following like sheep the popular world opinions without checking the facts, but I never thought they would ignore the plight of innocent masses, about to suffer and die, because All Gore wants to make money.

I might be mistaken in believing that the Nobel Price was meant to support Nobel causes, just like I am disillusioned in believing in the war on injustices and support for Human rights, it seems the world is rotten and Good doers are simple suckers, which don't understand how this world is governed.

And don't say, what makes you so sure you are right and they are wrong, I don't talk about something I don't know, but about a subject I studied my whole life, and I am not alone in my beliefs, but fighting organized religion (crime) is an impossible and thankless task. Certainly now, after they secured the Nobel Peace Price, they will be unstoppable. They will not stop the warming of the globe, as this is not human made but due to causes beyond humanity, but they will have a fantastic excuse, claiming that people like me, caused them to be less effective by opposing them.

Oh boy, where is the fantastic imaginary world we believed in, where all people wanted to do serve the human race, it doesn't exist and never did.

our make believe world

Our make believe world!

By David Verveer

Do you realize that most important aspects in our modern life, is related to a vague make belief system, from belief in God (based on hear-say and tradition) to working with and for a monetary system, based on promises to pay the bearer the value of bank notes in gold and silver value, a promise which is broken long ago, and knowingly you know that money bills are in fact valueless pieces of paper.

Such things like borders between countries, difference between people, due to nationality, color, good or bad families, all these differences are not based on facts but on make believe norms, which in reality don’t hold water. A Jew is somebody who’s mother was Jewish, but that is in reality pure bull-shit, if he did not receive a Jewish education, and does not accept the rules made by a bunch of religious rabies, he or she is still Jewish and is allowed to marry with a Jew (here in Israel), and his or her children are automatic accepted Jews.

Living, fighting and dying for an ideal of a God figure, which we never saw or understood, which is presented to us by a bunch of stories and fables, throughout the history, based only on make believe, is in our modern world of proven science, a very weak argument, but not only religion, everything else is based on make believe stories, accepted by the surrounding world.

What is the power that some people have on others, why rich people with make believe money have more rights than somebody who is poor. Why do we accept the superiority of people who were lucky to get born in well-off neighborhood, even if they themselves never bothered to proof their superior brain power or goodness? In our world of “everyone is equal” equality is hard to find.

We accept the difference in people’s rights as God given, aren’t we the chosen people?

Being superior beings(a concept based on fables and believe mostly based on primitive folkloristic traditions, which connection to religion is purely based on heathen traditions), we are convinced that people, believing different, are less worthy than us, the true believers in the true God.

The point I try to make, is that everything in this world is based on “make believe”, concepts which are illogical, and in real fact, unacceptable, if we try for one moment to think logical and study human behavior like any other scientific subject, for example, mathematics and biology, we would reject religion, as an not proven theory, we would reject to be governed and manipulated by paper, which represent promise of value, which we know today, is valueless, and we would appreciate people on their behavior and contribution to mankind instead of being fascinated by their inherited richness.

Summarizing the above, I am proud to be a Jewish Dutch born Israeli, believing in peace and equality, but in order to equalize the common wealth, please don’t start taking anything from me.

the tronsil affair

The tonsil affair

By David Verveer

Today it is my turn to baby-sit on my grandson, who had his tonsils removed last week. He is 8 years old, and not the complaining type, but you can see it really hurts him when he swallows or tries to eat something.

In order to prevent his catching an unwelcome virus of his classmates, we keep him home until after the Sukkoth holydays, thus taking turns in keeping him company during these, for him, long lasting and painful days. I do remember when they did the same thing to me, recently (only 60 years ago), and seeing his face when he swallows, reminds me of the nagging pain, which goes from the ears to the throat. I really pity him, but can't help him. It seems to be the price we pay in growing up.

He is only allowed to eat un-heated food, including ice-cream, but his favorite dishes of chips (French fries) with snitzel and fresh cucumbers is much too painful. He eats this pudding and cream things which children eat nowadays, but with that he remains hungry. I took him with the car to a restaurant in the center of the neighborhood, and passed by his school, there his school mates were outside doing sport, and he was really jealous of them. On the way back, I took another route, without seeing the school. In the restaurant he ordered a croissant, from which he consumed the soft inner part, which on itself was apparently a painful affair.

Now we are back home, he lies in front of his TV and looks at a children program, and I try to fix the computers in my daughter's house, by cleaning them, scanning them and installing new preventive software, a job which takes much time and is rather boring, but is definitely my responsibility, as my daughter and kids do not have sufficient patience to perform these tasks, which one has to do every so often, or else the computers slow down to stand still, due to trash and other slowing software. The worst enemies are the games, which not only take up enormous amounts of memory, but also interfere with the basic software performance, which are essential for running the computer.

In the mean time being away from work, makes them apparently realize how important I am, as every five minutes somebody phones me with questions such as, where, why, what and when, but that seems to go with the function of project manager (or is it a sign that I don't manage very well, as with a good manager in his absence, everything should go smooth).

But now my big question, why do people have tonsils, if they have to be taken out, what is their function? Is it like the appendix, a simple construction mistake, or like the tail bone, something the human body doesn't need anymore? And if we mention unnecessary parts, why are we circumcised, doesn't this skin have a function, why do we torture the new born with a medical operation? I learned that our first trauma comes from the cruelty we encounter with the age of 8 days old, many follow after that, especially kids with Jewish mothers and grand mothers. Yes Savta (grandmother), I took the medicines, waited for a grown-up to cross the road, and did my homework. Savta, not now, I am busy!

Yom Kippur thoughts

On Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) we generally make a list of people, who have done us wrong in the past year, and whom we have to forgive. We also make a list (secretly and mentally), for ourselves, whom we perhaps have wronged, generally this last list is rather short, as the really bad things we personally did to others, somehow, we do not count and remember. I won’t bother you with my misdeeds, nor will I bother you with those stupid bastards, which made me angry the past year, people like this stupid maniacthat nearly killed my wife and me, when he drove into my car, with enormous speed, and had the bloody cheek, not to admit his fault. Of course I won’t forgive him and will meet him in court in a few months. However, I will forgive the people angry with me, because my stubbornness, my idiotism and principles. And I have to admit; I don’t care what other people think of me, and please do not hurry to inform me, as I don’t like emotional talks.

But there are people; I will never forgive, as they are in my mind, mass murderers. I refer to religious freaks that are opposing birth control, and who are responsible for the population growth, precisely in the sectors of poverty and ignorance. I add to this the green environmentalists, tools in the hand of bankers, brokers and businessmen, who as irresponsible unscrupulous criminals promote the manufacture from corn and grain derived energy fuels instead of using them to feed the world, thus driving the food prices sky high, and driving the poorer nations into famine.

I also will not forgive fanatics, terrorists and zealots, people without conscience or hearth who because belief and principles will cause suffering and sorrow to others, irrelevant if their cause and grieve has grains of justifications, and I do not accept the argument that the enemy can not be trusted, because they never have kept their promises. We are not allowed to take away their human rights, not from their leaders, but from the people living next door to us, born there, lived and toiled in poverty their entire life, in neighborhood of our riches. Who are we, to take away, what is not ours to take? Nobody chooses his own parents, religion or circumstances under which he is born. We all have an irrevocable and equal right to live and prosper.

And going back to forgiving and not forgiving, I forgive you, if you say that I wrote this time, nonsense, which was not funny at all.

Oh, and before I forget, I am not a racist, but I hate those green creatures from outer space, who, in name of science, fight the production of my favorite gas, the carbon dioxide.

Gmar Hatima Tova (I hope that God has decided to write your name in the book of the living).

this is why you are converted to be a greenist

This is why you are converted to be a Greenist

By Internet and David Verveer

It was clear from the beginning that the banning of Carbon dioxide campaign was a clever hoax, backed by corrupt bankers, businessmen and pseudo scientists. However, their campaign got out of control, when the masses started to belief (in a kind of new religion) that human intervention could stop the so called Global Warming, by reducing the use of fossil derived energies.

Personally, I couldn’t care if All Gore makes money, but I do mind that the third world are now thrown in a new crisis, due to rising food prices, which will cause eventually, millions of children dying from starvation. I know that I am too late and my writing has no influence on anybody, but somehow, we need to wake up the conscientious American and European, and remind them that they have a responsibility for the welfare of the entire world.

Large musical festivals, in order to donate to the hungry, are beautiful acts showing how kind the rich are towards the needed, but when this disaster is caused by a pure swindle, not backed up by any proven facts that human produced Carbon Dioxide causes Global Warming, nor that Global Warming is in fact taking place, and not just a warming period in the ever changing climate pattern. Besides the clear fact that in general, rising temperatures are beneficial to the existence of humans, increases the food yields, etc.

I just copied / pasted some extracts from the internet, in order to show you that I am not talking nonsense, and my argument is based on hard evidence.

The methanol production

The methanol consumption on the fuel market exhibits stagnant growth, which exerts an enormous downward pressure on prices paralleled by capacity expansion. Production of acetic acid remains a major methanol consumption sector.

This year may witness augmentation of methanol use as a fuel, since further development of direct-methanol fuel cells is expected (like in new Toshiba's methanol-driven devices demonstrated at CeBIT 2007). The worldwide market for replacement cartridges used to replenish fuel in fuel cells is likely to grow to $1b a year by 2010, according to Avicenne Developement. However, the potential use of micro fuel cells to power mobile devices will be limited for several years because of regulatory restrictions on transporting them on aircraft, according to Takeishi Ruta Takeishi, a manager in Toshiba's European electronics division.

Methanol production growth may be also spurred by the introduction of new technologies implying the use of methanol to obtain gasoline and polymers.

In general, global demand for methanol is forecast to grow by an average of 2% a year in the coming few years. Then the growth may slow down.

Developed countries are major methanol consumers.

In Russia, methanol is consumed mainly in the production of Formalin and synthetic rubbers, which account for 60-70% of total methanol use.

Methanol is a colorless, toxic, flammable liquid, used as antifreeze, a general solvent, a fuel, and a denaturant for ethyl alcohol. It is also called carbinol, methyl alcohol, wood alcohol, wood spirits.

The bulk of methanol is processed into formaldehyde in order to produce plastic masses, urotropine, and carbamide resins. Methanol can be used to make methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE), an oxygenate which is blended with gasoline to enhance octane and create cleaner burning fuel. In the future, methanol could possibly be the fuel of choice for providing the hydrogen necessary to power fuel cell vehicles.

Rising food prices

The recent rise in corn prices--almost 70 percent in the past six months--caused by the increased demand for ethanol biofuel has come much sooner than many agriculture economists had expected.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture, this year the country is going to use 18 to 20 percent of its total corn crop for the production of ethanol, and by next year that will jump to 25 percent. And that increase, says Marshall Martin, an agriculture economist at Purdue University, "is the main driver behind the price increase for corn."

The jump in corn prices is already affecting the cost of food. The most notable example: in Mexico, which gets much of its corn from the United States, the price of corn tortillas has doubled in the past year, according to press reports, setting off large protest marches in Mexico City. It's almost certain that most of the rise in corn prices is due to the U.S. ethanol policy, says David Victor, director of the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development at Stanford University.

The rising food costs fueled by ethanol demand are also affecting U.S. consumers. "All things that use corn is going to have higher prices and higher cost, to some extent, that will be passed on to consumers," says Wally Tyner, professor of agriculture economics at Purdue University. The impact of this is being felt first in animal feed, particularly poultry and pork. Poultry feed is about two-thirds corn; as a result, the cost to produce poultry--both meat and eggs--has already risen about 15 percent due to corn prices, says Tyner. Also expect corn syrup--used in soft drinks--to get more expensive, he says.

The situation will only get worse, says David Pimentel, a professor in the department of entomology at Cornell University. "We have over a hundred different ethanol plants under construction now, so the situation is going to get desperate," he says. Adding to the worries about corn-related food prices is President Bush's ambitious goal, announced in his last State of the Union address, that the United States will produce 35 billion gallons of ethanol by 2017.

Still, some suggest that the overheated ethanol market could soon cool down. "Politicians will see that, first of all, it is not helping our oil independence," says Pimentel. "It is increasing the price of food for people in the U.S., it is costing an enormous sum of money for everyone, and it is contributing to environmental problems. But I can imagine it is going to take another year or more before politicians realize they have a major disaster on their hands."

At current oil prices it is cost-effective to produce bio-fuel. Competition for land and other resources will rise between productions for food versus for fuel. Food prices: what's driving them?

So why is this happening? After all, as The Economist points out, bringing previously marginal land into productive use normally solves demand for food. This time, however, we have a heady cocktail of sharply rising demand from emerging-market consumers coupled with climatic changes, resulting in what Jim Rogers says is the lowest global inventory of food since 1972. Add to that the demands of a rapidly expanding biofuels industry and suddenly you have a serious squeeze. Investment bank Goldman Sachs says the world is entering a period of 'sustained inflation in agricultural products'.

Food prices: The growing hunger in Asia

In agriculture, the three economic giants are the US, China and India. Yet in America, despite 26 years of favourable growing conditions in the mid-west, the supply of feed grains is at near-record lows. That is in large part because consumers from a host of emerging markets are now joining Western countries at the table. BAM says: 'From 1,600 calories a day... 20 years ago, three-quarters of the world's population now has enough money to eat just like us; and they are.' It is this demand from India and China's growing middle classes in particular that is driving much higher levels of global food consumption and pushing up prices worldwide.

As people get richer, they tend to switch away from a predominantly vegetable-based diet to one that includes meat. Lots of it. JP Morgan reckons consumption per head in China could rise by more than 50% from 1997 to 2020, reinforcing warnings given a decade ago by Lester Brown in his 1995 book Who Will Feed China? The most protein-efficient meat is poultry; according to Coxe, 'a bushel of corn produces 19.6 pounds of retail chicken, but just 13 pounds of pork and a mere 5.6 pounds of beef'. The trouble is, demand for beef and pork has been strengthened by fears about poultry following avian bird flu outbreaks, which have hit Asia hardest. Today’s emerging market preference for red meat is driving up the corn price, already under pressure from biofuel demand (see below).

It’s a similar story in India. A 13.7% annual rise in white-collar salaries (the highest rate in Asia, says the International Herald Tribune), is creating huge demand for everything from houses to beer. Despite being the second largest wheat producer on the planet at around 70m tons, India is now a net importer; local prices have risen by 12% in the past year. Domestic supplies simply can't keep pace with a triple whammy of higher southern region consumption, rapid population growth and rising incomes.

Growing, urbanising populations also have another effect - reducing the amount of land available for arable use. 'Every year for the past decade, China has lost fertile land equivalent to the area of Scotland,' says BAM. To feed its population, it 'actually needs to add a land area equivalent to Scotland every year'. India and other industrialising nations are no different.

Of course, Malthusian predictions of a global food supply crunch are not new and nor is the emerging markets story. But an added development in recent years that has further upset the balance of supply and demand is what Goldman Sachs dubs 'ethanol euphoria'.

Food prices: the biofuel bubble

The surging price of oil, up from just $20 a barrel a few years ago to more than $60, has understandably created huge interest in finding alternative sources of power to cut dependence on the black stuff. The International Energy Agency estimates that demand for crops for biofuels is set to soar from 41.5m tons of oil equivalent in 2010 to 92.4m by 2030.

Thanks largely to George Bush’s cleaner energy initiative, which aims for a fivefold increase in use of renewable fuels by 2020, the biofuel of the moment is ethanol. Carmakers in Detroit have agreed that half their vehicles will be designed to run on a petrol-ethanol mix of 85:15 by 2012. Unfortunately, the preferred method of ethanol production in the US is corn-based, even though this is a costly and inefficient way to produce fuel. Brazilian sugarcane-based ethanol is far more efficient, but the political reality is that the votes of corn farmers hold more sway with US politicians than environmental concerns. A fifth of the US corn crop is already given over to ethanol production, with some analysts suggesting this will rise to 25%.

It’s not just the US. Europe wants biofuels to meet 10% of energy demand by 2020. Hans-Willem Windhorst of Germany's University of Vecta says to hit this target, 25% of all European arable land will have to be turned over to ethanol production. Unsurprisingly, this biofuel mania 'is creating unintended consequences throughout the global food chain', says Bloomberg. Land that was used for soybeans, for example, is now being diverted to corn for ethanol, sending soybean prices rocketing. Meanwhile, rapeseed crops being grown in the EU to feed biomass plants are taking up land once used for wheat and barley, resulting in rising hamburger and beer prices.

The huge diversion of corn in particular, notes The Sunday Times, is directly affecting meat prices. 'Livestock producers are having to bid against the ethanol industry to get supplies of corn,' notes the US Department for Agriculture. As a result, global output of beef, pork and chicken is expected to fall by up to $2bn a year, thanks to the rising cost of feeding livestock. But worse still, is that the drive for 'green' fuels - which are after all, meant to offset climate change - is set to make the problem worse, according to a new UN report. As Metro reports, 'soaring demand for palm oil, an ingredient in biodiesel, has already led to tropical forests being cleared in South East Asia'. In fact, Indonesia, a key palm oil producer, actually has the worst carbon emissions per head due to cutting down forests to make room for production.

Food prices: changing weather patterns

This brings us to another key reason behind rising food prices - climate change. Whatever your take on the causes of climate change, it is hard to deny that some parts of the world are experiencing freakish and troublesome weather conditions. Even Bank of England governor Mervyn King recently blamed rising UK inflation on 'a rise in food prices caused by a weather-induced global reduction in supply'.

In Australia, the Prime Minister, John Howard, last month warned that the drought facing the country, which scientists are calling a 'one-in-a-thousand-years' event, was an 'unprecedentedly dangerous situation'. In fact, if it doesn’t start raining within the next few weeks, the government will be forced to turn off water supplies to the 50,000 farmers whose livelihoods depend directly on irrigation. A ban could see food prices triple, says food growers’ group Ausveg, while Treasurer Peter Costello said the 400%-500% rise in banana prices seen after Cyclone Larry could be repeated, 'in relation to stone fruit, horticulture, all of these things', he said. Already rice production has collapsed, from 1.6m tons to 106,000 in 2006/07; cotton has tumbled to 250,000 tons, from 597,000 the year before; and wine grapes have produced their smallest harvest since 2000.

So why is this happening? Water has warmed up in the Pacific Ocean, moving moisture away from Australia and towards South America. But as Dr David Jones, head of climate analysis at Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, tells the Herald Sun, 'this isn't simply due to El Nino. We’ve never seen a drought event like the current one on our records. This is starting to go beyond anything we’ve seen in the past and there are other things going on. It clearly raises the issues of climate change.'

But at least Australia can afford to buy imports. In Guatemala, where nearly half of children are malnourished, more and more people are going hungry. Farmers lost their crops to Hurricane Stan in 2005, while drought is threatening crops this year. 'The weather affecting crops is increasingly unpredictable due to climate change,' Ian Herret, head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation in Guatemala told Reuters, adding that 'hundreds of thousands' could starve this year if rising prices combine with drought.

Al Gore's Inconvenient Loot

Former Vice President Al Gore has built a Green money-making machine capable of eventually generating billions of dollars for investors, including him, but he set it up so that the average Joe can't afford to play on Gore's terms. And the US portion is headed up by a former Gore staffer and fund raiser who previously ran afoul of both the FEC and the DOJ, before Janet Reno jumped in and shut down an investigation during the Clinton years.

As Bill Hobbs first pointed out, Gore supposedly pays for his extra-large carbon footprint through Generation Investment Management (GIM) - and if you're looking to go green, and have your wallet go along with Gore, think again - average people are too insignificant to play - verifiable from this pdf.

Generation is based in London, with its U.S. offices in Washington, DC. The firm will manage the assets of institutional investors such as pension funds, foundations and endowments, as well as those of select high net worth individuals.* Generation expects to make extensive use of long-term performance based fees. Generation will begin its investment management business in early 2005.

* like Al Gore

Gore's company, GIM was specifically established to take financial advantage of new technologies and solutions related to combating Global Warming. The Global Warming crowd has told us that just recently new science emerged confirming the alleged fact that Global Warming is man made. So, ask yourself, why is it that Gore set up his Green money machine three years ago back in 2004? Is it possible Gore knew what the science would say before it was out? And even if not, can an individual who stands to make millions from Global Warming really be trusted as an honest broker on that topic? Talk about giving the fox the keys to the penthouse.

Even if Global Warming did exist, in principle, what's the difference between war profiteering and this? One could justifiably argue that Gore is taking advantage of, in his opinion, a catastrophic situation to clean up - and I don't mean the environment.

Here's a list indicating what it takes to make money along with Al. Funds associated with these companies have placed millions of dollars under Al Gore's control. And, as you'll see below, Gore's selection for the US President of GIM might raise a few eyebrows as well.

AFLAC INC - AQUANTIVE INC - AUTODESK INC - BECTON DICKINSON & CO BLACKBAUD INC - GENERAL ELECTRIC CO - GREENHILL & CO INC - JOHNSON CTLS INC - LABORATORY CORP AMER HLDGS - METABOLIX INC - NORTHERN TR CORP - NUVEEN INVTS INC -STAPLES INC - SYSCO CORP - TECHNE CORP - UBS AG - VCA ANTECH INC - WATERS CORP - WHOLE FOODS MKT INC

According to their own documents, GIM intends to invest in, or buy companies poised to cash in on Global Warming concerns. If we borrow John Edward's so-called two Americas concept for a second, this all means higher prices and taxes with more regulation and an altered standard of living for people like you and me, while Al Gore sits ensconced in his other America reaping profits from each new government mandate for us, business and even government itself. It's win win, alright, but mostly for Al.

To add insult to injury, Gore chose Peter S. Knight, an old friend and colleague some are sure to recall, as the US President of GIM.

Peter S. Knight, formerly Managing Director Met West Financial, lawyer, Chief of Staff for Senator Al Gore (D-TN) from 1977-1989, and Campaign Manager for President Clinton's successful re-election in 1996, is President of Generation U.S.

Conclusions

The above quotes are copied without changing a word, and what I do not understand that if people understand why this hoax was started, why they do nothing in order to stop it. Please understand, the results of a famine in Africa, South America and Asia will claim more lives than any armed conflict. We are responsible for those people.

Carbon dioxide is not responsible for ruining our world, YOU ARE!