It looks obvious

The Cato Institute published a short article about economical freedom in the Arab world. As a side note it is interesting to compare with the Numbers for Israel, which without oil or any other natural resources present better income per capita ($ 20,800).

Link:  Economic Freedom in the Arab World

 “Some observers may not be surprised that the economically freer countries, dominated by the oil states, tend to have higher incomes. Oman and Kuwait have per capita incomes of $13,032 and $17,073 respectively, while Syria’s per capita income is only $3,651, for example.”

One of the things that bother me with the hype of web 2.0 is the lack of real innovation. Following the first wave, of companies that create new product or successful business, the next waves are rarely developing anything new.  As I wrote in the past I like competition and I like to have choices. However, many companies, that offer different flavor of exactly the same thing, are not a real competition.

This type of criticism was usually limited to people that were skeptical about the web 2.0 phenomena. However, it seems that when one can point to 13 different companies that offer calendar applications or 20 different companies that offer on-line bookmarking the uncomfortable feeling start to spread.

It is spread enough that even Michael Arrington, one of the prominent member of the Web 2.0 workgroup, wrote today :

“But at the end of the day I’m not sure how many social bookmarking sites can make the cut.”

I’ll be much more thrilled when I’ll see so called web 2.0 applications in more than 11 different categories…

Eric Schmidt and Hal Varian wrote for Newsweek an article about how to get the most out of knowledge workers, Issue many companies struggle with.

I liked the most rule number eight:

“Don’t be evil. Much has been written about Google’s slogan, but we really try to live by it, particularly in the ranks of management. As in every organization, people are passionate about their views. But nobody throws chairs at Google, unlike management practices used at some other well-known technology companies. We foster to create an atmosphere of tolerance and respect, not a company full of yes men.”

Do you know who do they refer to? (Via this Israeli Blog )

Due to public demand here are two new picture. Some more can be found here .

My Father in-law is past the official retired age; he is still working and will do so for at two more years. He is not working for the government he is working for successful company that build electrical switches. When asked his main concern about retirement is the cost of his and his wife health expenses.

My father in-law is a productive worker of a company that increases the wealth of this country. His salary is one of the managers of the company isn’t low but yet he needed to work many years to save for his retirement and, in his advance age, cannot do this yet.

My retirement is not at the horizon, and will not be for many years. I used to be proud being part of the private sector, working long hours, competing and straggling. It seems to me then that being a governmental worker is a compromise, admitting in a way being less cable for the safety of the government bureaucracy.

Somewhere along the way we start to accept the fact that our tax money pays for services we cannot afford by ourselves. It started with retirement benefits for low income and continues with the governmental employees. During times that companies cannot afford the cost of health and retirement plans and being force to move production offshore we are going to pay for incredible benefits for other people.

The NY Times reports today on the cost we, the tax payer, going to incur in the coming years:

“When the numbers are added up under new accounting rules scheduled to go into effect at the end of 2006, New York City’s annual expense for retiree health care is expected to at least quintuple, experts say, approaching and maybe surpassing $5 billion, for exactly the same benefits the retirees get today. The number will grow because the city must start including the value of all the benefits earned in a given year, even those that will not be paid until future years.”

But this is necessary, one might argue, to maintain the level of service that only the government can provide. Well, not exactly – ultimately even our government have to face reality.

 “To find the money, the authority will have to turn to "higher fares, less service, or more pressure on the city government to fork over subsidies," said Robert A. Kurtter, an analyst with Moody’s Investors Service who monitors New York’s finances. The city’s retirement system, meanwhile, will be struggling with the same problem on a much larger scale.”

Something is profoundly wrong with the fact that we are paying taxes so governmental workers will be able to get for free what most of us cannot even think about. it use to be known that it is better to work in the private sector, not anymore. We should change the balance back.

Latest news from the Palestinian Authority indicating that the relatively quiet period is near its end. The political weakens of Mahmoud Abbas and the internal political straggle inside the Palestinian Authority will probably lead for more terror attempts against Israeli population.

It is not only the lack of political structure to establish stable democracy that worries me; it is the lack of understanding the basic responsibilities that embedded in sovereignty that indicating that we are facing another round of violence.

Link:  Military sources: Abbas at political low point

 "Abbas even said that the Qassam rockets being fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel are "Israel’s problem" and that he does not intend to interfere. "Let the Israelis deal with it," he said."

Things start getting into blessed routine. The much anticipated problems with the big sister jealousy didn’t realize, to the contrary it seems that Tseela is very happy with having little sister.   

Much of the anxiety taking care of Tseela in the beginning is, obviously, out of the way which make things much easier. I was wondering if the magic itself is going to go together with the anxiety but as always life is more complicated. In the one hand we are not as excited for every move (and to be honest - in the first week I didn’t see many of them yet). However, it is amazing to me how fast we forget what we did, and how was Tseela at this age (which wasn’t so long ago). I was sure at the time that everything that she does is so amazing and unique that I’ll remember it forever. But, and that is the most important, as early stage as it is we are already recognizing differences between the two girls and the Journey to know them just begin.

I love the City in December.

Whenever you think that you nothing in the net can surprise you, you run into story like this:

"We have a right to our own name and Google has allowed the use of our name on Blogspot without our permission," said Susan Perlman, associate executive director with Jews for Jesus. "

 via Israeli Blog

Today Tseela had Chanukah party in the kindergarten. This was her first performance, and knowing how shy she gets we were worried a little bit. However the teachers made wonderful preparation with the kids and we, the proud parents, enjoyed the show.

I Posted here one picture, more pictures can be found here. I also included here five short video clips from the party.

Technorati Tags: Tseela, Chanukah, Chanukah Party, Day Care, Video Clips