Archive | 2010 | April
FROM MEDITERRANEAN TRADITIONAL TO ISRAELI CONTEMPORARY DESIGN @ Toronto Design exchange
MARCH 5 – JUNE 20, 2010
EXHIBITION HALL: Adult $10, Student/Senior $8, DX Member free admission
“Israeli design is the world’s best-kept secret,” wrote Professor Mel Bayers in his book Improvisation. Israeli culture combines many diverse influences, which offer an often difficult, yet fruitful ground for creativity, resulting in wide ranging and high quality designs. The Israeli culture and history stimulate innovation in design while preserving traditions that embody the society. These traditions include a vivid sense of humour, a rejection of bourgeois ideas of beauty, and a cunning use of new and used materials.
This is an exhibition of current Israeli industrial design, examining what makes this country unique on the world stage. The exciting, dramatic, and colourful pieces on display include furniture, lighting, and recreation equipment.
More information @ Website
Israel’s economic success story
While world struggles, Israel’s economy reaches another milestone
Without you realizing it, Israel is approaching yet another milestone en route to turning into a highly developed economy – our per capita GDP will reach the $30,000 mark this year, likely at the beginning of the summer. The overall gross domestic product, which is the economic value of all the goods and services produced in Israel, will reach roughly $230 billion.
Israel fully reached the $20,000 per capita GDP mark only in the first half of this decade. We did it slowly and hesitatingly; the deep recession during the second Intifada curbed economic growth and pushed the economy backwards.
Reaching the $30,000 per capita GDP mark reflects to a small extent the increase in real national income in shekels, and to a large extent the shekel’s strengthening against the dollar. Yet this does not detract from the accomplishment. For many years, the shekel has been traded in foreign currency markets below its real purchasing power.
We can address the $30,000 GDP mark as yet another statistical figure; just another fleeting figure. Yet we can also look at it as a starting point for a leap in the coming decade. The Israeli economy’s state at this time is exceptionally good: Other economies whose per capita GDP is similar to ours – Spain, Greece, Portugal, and Britain just to name a few – sustained harsh blows during the financial crisis. They will dedicate the coming years to licking the wounds and attempting to extract themselves from the abyss of deficit and debt. Their recovery will be slow.
Window of opportunity
This is our window of opportunity. While in most developed and industrialized states are weakened and bleeding, while their government budgets skyrocketed, Israel is strong and in good health. In six of the seven leading industrial powers, the ratio between government debt and GDP is expected to grow by dozens of percents in the coming years. The debt will reach 90% of the GDP in Germany, 96% in France, 100% in Britain, 110% in the US, 130% in Italy, and 250% in Japan. In Spain, Greece, Portugal, and Ireland, the ratio is expected to stabilize somewhere between the 100% to 150% mark.
Yet in Israel, the opposite is expected to happen: Government debt is expected to go down to only 70% of GDP, with the decline starting as early as this year. The budgetary plan presented to the government by Foreign Minister Yuval Steinitz is a pipe dream for most finance ministers in developed countries.
Israel’s new comparative advantage is prominent in many areas. The Irish government, for example, announced last week a national rescue package for local banks, at a total cost of 80 million Euros. The British, French, and American governments are close to imposing special taxes on financial institutions, in order to fund at least some of the assistance handed over to them during the crisis. Yet in Israel there’s no need for it. Israel’s banking system overcame the past two years without taking a penny from the government.
Ambitious target
Late into his tenure as finance minister, Benjamin Netanyahupresented an ambitious target for Israel: Joining the list of top 10 or 12 richest economies in the world. Is this target realistic? Based on today’s perspective, the answer appears to be “yes.” In order to join the group of truly wealthy states, Israel needs to reach the $40,000 per capita GDP mark. To that end, our economy must grow at an annual rate of 6.5% in the next six or seven years, assuming that the shekel exchange rate won’t shift much from its current level of about NIS 3.6 per dollar, and that our population will grow by 1.8% annually.
This isn’t impossible; the target can be reached. In the years 2003-2008, Israel’s economy grew at an average annual rate of 5.5%, with a less convenient starting point and with two wars in the middle.
So what can the accelerated growth in the coming years be premised on? What are its possible engines? Here they are: Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox men joining the workforce, boosting the production of Israeli Arabs, improving the quality of education and employment in outlaying areas, massive investments in physical and educational infrastructure, expanding the export base and directing it to new markets, slowing down the defense budget growth, and removing bureaucratic obstacles. These are the main required steps. All of them, without exception, will minimize economic gaps within Israel.
We are already enjoying strong backwind. Here are four examples: The kibbutzim reinvented themselves and have again turned into an economic asset and a significant growth accelerator; the discovery of natural gas by businessman Yitzhak Tshuva frees Israel of the depdendancy on coal and dramatically brings down the cost of producing electricity; the Arab sector is seeing an unprecedented entrepreneurial business revolution; Israeli software companies are taking over Africa – and there are many more examples.
Diplomatic component
At this time, Israel is equipped with the needed means for a great leap. These means are integrated and also include a diplomatic/political component. In the past, Netanyahu claimed that Israel can grow and become wealthier even without a peace deal (but not under intifada conditions). Yet now he knows: A diplomatic agreement with the Palestinians is a vital condition for the great economic leap. First and foremost, because without such deal, the world will have trouble countering Iran and forcing it to abandon its nuclear program.
The grave economic implications that Iranian nuclear capabilities will have for Israel’s economy are horrifying. A nuclear arms race will add tens of billions of dollars to the defense budget, at the expense of developing the economy. One government body has already prepared a scenario for the day after Iran acquires a nuclear bomb: Foreign investors fleeing, Israeli investors taking their money and assets out of the homeland, and the grim and frightened national mood paralyzing production.
On the other hand, an Israel-Palestinian agreement would serve as a lever for orchestrated global activity – and possibly military action as a last resort – against the Iranian nuclear program. This will enable us to save tens of billions of dollars. Such deal will also open up the giant markets of rich Gulf states, which are desperate for the kinds of products and services Israel specializes in, ranging from right-to-left software systems to salt water purifiers for desert springs.
Incredible gift
Communism’s collapse in the late 1980s granted Israel an incredible gift in the form of the massive immigration from the former Soviet Union and the opening of export markets that were off limits for dozens of years. Israeli governments and the business sector managed to take advantage of the opportunity and completely change the face of our economy. Within about 12 years, we went up from a $10,000 per capita GDP to $20,000 per capita GDP.
Later we turned from a state that owes money to foreigners and contends with a foreign currency shortage to a country that foreigners owe money to, and that has foreign currency surpluses. Our economic, rather than military, independence is full by now.
The 2007-2008 crisis again grants Israel an incredible opportunity, this time in respect to competing against the developed world; the crisis undermined its pillars and posed deep trouble for it. Will we be foolish enough to miss out on this opportunity?
Source: Ynetnews.com
Vancouver – ISRAEL WEEK
Welcome all to Israel week!
Come by our display in the main concourse of the SUB and UBC any day this week to check out our awesome display showcasing the many many features of Israel.
Our Kickoff Event: Movie at the Gallery with PRIDE UBC!!!
–> FREE entrance FREE popcorn!!!
The Schedule for the Week:
Tuesday April 6th: Movie screening with PRIDE UBC
–> Norm Theatre at UBC
- “Yossi and Jagger” screening followed by a discussion with Dr. Tal Jarus and Avital Halak.
- FREE entrance FREE popcorn!!!
Wednesday April 7th: Israeli Hot Lunch
–> Hillel lounge room 218, VST @ UBC
PB AND J ATHON, OUTSIDE THE SUB 10-4. Do a Mitzvah, come by and help feed the poor!!!
Thursday April 8th: THE better place PROJECT @ THE GALLERY!
–> Gallery Pub, UBC @ 6:00 pm
- Find out what Israeli company, Better Place, can do for green change here in BC
- GREEN PARTY, GREEN BZZR
- FREE drinks for those who come early!
Friday April 9th: Annual Soldiers’ Panel
–> Henry Angus Building Room 098
- Come listen to the personal stories of several ex-IDF soldiers and participate in the engaging and moving Q&A
Hope to see you all there!
Montreal: I HEART FASHION… Save a Child’s Heart
On behalf of Save a Child’s Heart Foundation and Bronfman Israel Experience Centre, we would like to invite you to make a difference in the hearts and lives of many young children from under-privileged countries around the world, all while partaking in an evening filled with fashion, entertainment and the shared feelings of hope for our future.
“Save a Child’s Heart (SACH) is an Israeli-based international humanitarian project, whose mission is to improve the quality of pediatric cardiac care for children from developing countries who suffer from heart disease and to create centers of competence in these countries.”
Join us on May 9th and help be the difference that could save a child’s life. Enjoy the runway show that will save a life!
Doors open at 8:00pm
PRICE: $35.00
The tickets will be distributed by the committee members and co-chairs:
Co-Chairs: Daniel Davis & Amanda Noodelman
Committee:
Aliza Fagen
Mattan Rozenek
Steph Perlis
Karen Hoffman
Liz Gelerman Benchetrit
Alexa Azran
Jony Niederhoffer
Danielle Kasner
Michelle Dabora
Blaire Berkovits (DDO)
BIEC: Ortal Reuveni
***ANNOUNCEMENT OF DESIGNERS AND BOUTIQUES!!
Designers/Boutiques:
ALDO
3 MONKEYS
GLOW BOUTIQUES
STONE ROSE
ARTI
SILPADA DESIGNS
***ANNOUNCEMENT OF RAFFLE PRIZES!!
Raffle Prizes from:
Head 2 Toe Certificate
$250 Michael Kors Certificate
$300 Spa Certificate from St. Laurent Coiffeur
Zuo Modern Furniture
More information please visit
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=105038616196353&ref=ts
Vancouver – UBC IAC and PRIDE Present: Yossi and Jagger
Doors @ 630pm / Screening @ 7pm / Discussion @ 8pm
Free Admission + Free Popcorn
UBC’s Israel Awareness Club and PRIDE UBC team up to screen “Yossi and Jagger” as part of IAC’s annual Israel Week. Join us for an entertaining movie followed by an enlightening discussion with Dr. Tal Jarus.
Dr. Tal Jarus is the head of the Occupational Therapy Department at UBC. Together with her wife Avital, they will describe the long and intensive legal battles they endured in order to gain legal status as adoptive parents of one another’s children.
Synopsis of “Yossi and Jagger”:
Romance blooms between two soldiers (Yossi and Jagger) stationed in an Israeli outpost on the Lebanese border. The others in the unit react to their situation, suspecting, but not always understanding. One will leave the military soon, a few months away, as a snowy and desolate outpost is guarded from attack.
Vancouver – Project Better Place at the Gallery
UBC Israel Awareness Club & Israel Week 2010 present:
Project Better Place
at the Gallery
Thursday, April 8
6pm
GREEN PARTY / GREEN BZZR / FREE DRINKS for those who come early!
Celebrate Israeli contributions to environmental sustainability, and find out what Israeli company ‘Better Place’ can do for green change here in BC!
An Israel Week 2010 Event
(http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=113884441955388&ref=ts)
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Project Better Place is the world’s leading electric vehicle (EV) services provider, catalyzing the transition to sustainable transportation.
Proejct Better Place will revolutionize transportation as we know it and it is coming to ONTARIO, along with Israel, Denmark, Japan, Australia, California, and Hawaii. Why not British Columbia?
Check out more about Better Place at their website: http://www.betterplace.com/