The Purpose of College, A Serious Poem, Back Channels and This & That, including Iraq

Back Channel Communications in Israel

I have always believed that otherwise unfriendly parties can always find a way to communicate with one another.  The following June 15 article from the i24News web site well illustrates this.

"Amina Abbas underwent surgery in a private hospital in Tel Aviv; she is set to be released later today

As tensions between Israel and the Palestinian Authority escalated over the weekend after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Mahmoud Abbas is accountable for the fate of three Israeli teens kidnapped in the West Bank, Amina Abbas, the wife of the Palestinian President, underwent surgery in Israel last Friday, Israeli website Ynet revealed Sunday. Amina was treated in the private hospital Asuta, in Tel Aviv.

According to Ynet, Amina was hospitalized Thursday in a private room at the neuro-surgical / orthopedic department. Her room was guarded around the clocks, and her identity was kept secret elsewhere in the hospital.

Amina is expected to be released from the hospital later on Sunday.

The family members of senior Palestinian officials often receive medical treatment in Israel. For instance, last November, a granddaughter of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was hospitalized in the Schneider hospital in Petah Tikva. Amal Haniya, aged one, suffered from a serious infection of the digestive tract which has affected her nervous system, media sources reported late last year."

Schneider Children's Hospital in Petah Tikva, Israel, about eight miles east of Tel Aviv

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ wife receiving care in a Tel Aviv hospital is readily understandable.  But in regard to the article’s last paragraph, can you imagine what was necessary to open up the border last November for the Hamas political leader’s granddaughter, move her to a hospital in Petah Tikva, which is nowhere near the border with Gaza, provide security and return her to Gaza?   I wonder at what level the phone calls took place, who did the talking and what was said.  

If Israel can so readily be in touch with Gaza's top political leader (who happens to be an advocate of attacking civilians in Israel to achieve Hamas' goals and has been the target of Israeli assassination attempts in the past), I suppose there is no limit to how extensive such back channels are.  Can we assume they reach Tehran and Riyadh? Certainly. Accept the fact that there are "back channel" communication avenues available to every single government or political group in the world.  They should be used in the cause of peace.
Jack Lippman


                                                

A Poetic Interlude


Till Only Fishes

Shiite and Sunni killing each other                                          

In the East.                                                                          

Nothing new.                                                                      

Protestants and Catholics battling through              

European history.                                                             

Nothing new.                                                                                              

                                                                                               

The Holocaust. The Inquisition.                                               

The Crusades.                                                                   

Nothing new.                                                                                  

Rwanda where Hutu slaughtered Tutsi.                                 

Ethnic Cleansing. Northern Ireland.                            

Nothing new.                                                                                  

  

Those often-bloodied Balkan borders where            

Two Faiths meet.                                                               

Nothing new.                                                                      

Fields for killing in Cambodia.                                       

Armenian massacre.                                                                       

Nothing new.                                                                      

Other hate-filled places like Babi Yar                           

Crammed with death.                                                       

Nothing new.                                                                                  

Convert the heathens to what you believe                

Or slay them.                                                                      

Nothing new.                                                                                  

Could it be that God 
Angered by deeds done in His name 

By those some say in His image

He created, as once before,
Will send the Flood

To cleanse the world?

But this time, in His mercy,

Do so ever slowly,

In increments
In kindness,

Giving us a final chance

To mend our ways, to mend our ways.

Raising the ocean level each year

By inches till only fishes

And other dwellers of the depths

Survive, and this time

There will not be a Noah,

An ark nor Mount Ararat.

JL

                                              
                                                

Thoughts on a College Education

At this time of the year, when college graduates are seeking to enter the job market, many of them are having difficulty finding positions.  With that in mind, the following ‘opinion’ article by Peter Morici, an economist and professor at the University of Maryland, might be good reading for those about to enter college, high school juniors and seniors as well as their parents and grandparents.  This article appeared in The Palm Beach Post last week.

JL

A Lot of Blame to Go Around for Grads’ Woes 

Peter Morici

Despite five years of economic recovery, college graduates continue to face a tough job market. Certainly, young people should take responsibility for their lives, but parents, educators and politicians all share some blame for their troubles.    College graduates earn much higher wages and are less likely to be unemployed than high school graduates — and those gaps are increasing. Still many recent graduates cannot earn enough to live independently, and often end up in jobs that don’t require college.

Those with training in specialized fields generally find a good-paying position quickly. For example , 75 percent of engineering and education majors find employment that requires a degree, but among those in liberal arts or communication, the figure is only 40 percent.

Essentially, many students paid and borrowed upwards of $100,000 or more to major in French or anthropology and end up working at Starbucks or a Verizon outlet.   The most fundamental problem is that high school students too often see four years at college as “an experience” and not “an investment.” And they get a lot of bad advice from adults who should know better.  Since I first entered the classroom in 1970, hundreds of neighbors and friends have asked me about colleges and told me of their children’s plans.

So often mothers tell me they want their son or daughter to study what they love, pursue their passion, and everything will work out. The world may be glutted with international relations majors who also minored in history, but “Jimmy is bright and will find a good job.”  Fathers are worse. “Lacrosse is a big success factor for Sally, and her college really supports female athletes.”

As for politicians, I can’t remember a president or governor telling ordinary high school students “the country needs engineers and entrepreneurs.” Instead, they wax eloquently about public service, when government agencies are overwhelmed with applicants.

Legally, 18-year-olds may be adults, but they are hardly qualified to borrow and invest $50,000 or $100,000 wisely, but that is exactly what we require them to do — burdened with too much bad advice.   President Obama courted the youth vote by making inexpensive loans for college more accessible and that makes matters worse.   Easy access credit has pushed up college tuition far faster than inflation generally and even health care costs. University presidents are happy to pad bureaucracies, and indulge faculty who would rather undertake research than teach.

Teenagers need to be told a college education is mostly about preparing to earn a living. You don’t need to read Socrates or solve differential equations to be a good citizen. Until the mid-20th century, the vast majority of Americans led responsible and satisfying lives without a sheepskin. In a technologically advanced economy, where even sophisticated white-collar workers are replaced by machines and software, college is about acquiring skills that have value in the marketplace. That means picking a course of study that makes tuition and all that time in the library a good investment.

Before that can happen, parents, educators and politicians have to stop indulging adolescent inclinations, and start talking sense to youngsters — when they start looking for colleges at ages 15 or 16, and not when they leave at 22.  Until that happens, we will continue to have too many frustrated and overly indebted young adults.

                                                            

This and That

"Live at the Met" Opera Update:  On June 17, the Metropolitan Opera announced that “The Death of Klinghoffer” would not be among those operas available throughout the world in theatres showing “Live at the Met” performances for the coming season.  This change in their programming was obviously the result of strenuous objections from those who felt that it was an inappropriate choice for the reasons stated in this blog that very day.

 

"Hey, Guys": And regarding the blog’s comments on the use of the word “guys” to refer to both males and females, we heard from one reader who didn’t object to that practice since he has always considered “gals” to be “soft guys.”


Iraq:  According to the President, we are going to send about 300 troops to Iraq, but not to fight.  They will be there to help the Iraqi military figure out how to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or as some are calling it, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).  The latter designation better describes this terrorist group's broader ambitions which include more than just Syria and Iraq.   

For those who wonder why we didn't leave some troops there when we pulled out of Iraq, the Administration has indicated that we would have gladly done so if the Iraqi government had wanted us to.  Sadly, they did not agree to waiving prosecution under Iraqi law rather than leave the prosecution of crimes committed by American troops there to U.S. military law, a provision we insist on in any country where we send troops to help out.  Their refusal to do so was tantamount to their showing us the door.   

And even if we had left troops in Iraq despite this, it is questionable as to whether the American public, already disenchanted by the numbers of our dead and wounded there, and remembering our Vietnam experience, would have long tolerated their presence in a country with a less than friendly government.  Iraq was not Korea, Japan nor Germany.

The increasing political closeness of the Shi'a dominated Iraqi government to Shi'a Iran may have had something to do with this.  Of course, now, it is in the interest of both the United States and Iran to see that ISIL (or ISIS) is defeated, but for different reasons.  (See the June 18 posting.)
JL 
             
 
                                                     
                                                                                                          

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