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.