General articles written by David, either on this site or other sites
I’ve written previously about how language shapes the way we think because it frames the way ideas are expressed. This goes a lot further than “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” – what I’m talking about is social marketing – marketing campaigns to change public awareness and therefore behaviour on particular issues. These are typically used by governments to, for example, reduce drunk driving. What I’ve noticed recently is the use of language…
It all started at a very merry Simchat Torah in 2008. Each year, a small group of friends had developed a custom of “making deals” – as I like to characterize them. As an example, the previous year we pledged a donation if my long-haired nephew would get a crew-cut. In amongst the alcohol-infused joy and benevolent mood that followed, these things made plenty of sense at the time, and reasonable sense the next day….
Many posts and comments on these pages have had a go at some of the Orthodox Jewish institutions in Melbourne, such as those associated with kashrut certification and the Beth Din, for a variety of reasons. There is a recurring theme of people complaining that these organisations are maintaining standards that are unnecessarily stringent, and not consistent with those the people want (well, at least those people who choose to engage in the discussion). Whether…
About a year ago, I wrote an article in an online magazine considering the differences between the way Chanukah is celebrated in the northern and southern hemispheres. This past summer (northern winter), we were fortunate to have spent Chanukah in Israel, and what an experience that was! For the first few days of Chanukah, we were in Eilat. Coming from the start of an Australian summer, that was itself a bit odd. During the day,…
The two championship games played on Super Sunday were hard fought, close matches, and there were truly four possible outcomes for the Superbowl match-ups. The Patriots will line up again against the New York Giants in what should be an intriguing game. We all thought the Patriots were done this year. Tom Brady kept doing his thing, and was a big part of the “year of the tight end” with Gronkowski and Fernandez as imposing…
On these pages, Rachel Sacks-Davis accused the Orthodox Rabbinate of acting more like evangelical Christians when it came to responding to the gay marriage debate. The so-called “separation between church and state” is enshrined in section 116 of our constitution, which states: The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a…
The term ‘sectarian violence’ has been used extensively to describe the conflicts that have been occurring within various Arab countries, in Iraq and Afghanistan during the wars there, and more recently with the instability that has come as a result of the ‘Arab Spring’ movement. Unfortunately, this is the term that can now be used to describe what is going on in pockets within Israel. Most recently, things have flared up in the town of…
“I think there is an Arab nation. I do not think there is a Palestinian nation. I think it’s a colonialist invention … When were there any Palestinians? … until the 19th century Palestine was the south of greater Syria.” – Azmi Bishara, 1994 “The appearance of the Palestinian national personality comes as an answer to Israel’s claim that Palestine is Jewish.” – King Hussein of Jordan, 1987 “Yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian…
Back in the days when boys were boys and girls were girls, nouns were nouns and verbs were verbs (aside from the few exceptions that were both), and they would be brought together in time-honoured fashion through well constructed sentences. But in these days of Internet-speak, contractions and weird re-appropriation of numbers and symbols abound, and a word can mean just about anything. One of the early examples of a proper noun becoming a verb was Hoover,…
Q. Why do the Irish have the potatoes and the Arabs have the oil?A. Because the Irish had first choice. Natural resources are both a blessing and a curse. While they can be a source of wealth and prosperity for a country, they are something that is obtained with relatively little effort. As such, they can invariably lead to laziness and complacency. Just have a look at rates of literacy and innovation in so-called “rich”…
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