Compliments of Anglo Saxon Ra’anana Real Estate
Quote for the Week
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“Within three years, Israel won´t be dependent on nature for its water needs”
Eugene Kandel chief economic adviser to Israel´s PM. (Saying the unthinkable? Obviously not [see item 4 below])
We’ll start this week with a few brief items which illustrate what Israel is all about – amongst other things of course –:
Israel was amongst the first of the world’s countries to recognize South Sudan as an independent State.
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Not only that, The Israel Forum for International Humanitarian Aid, will be sending vital foods and medicines to assist the people of South Sudan who have undergone decades of indescribable suffering.
And there’s more; the IsraAID teams, confronted by an illiteracy rate of nearly 90%, hardly anything that resembles infrastructure and a majority that has no access to potable water have already begun assessing longer term needs on the ground for more extensive aid packages in all these areas .
We could say that we weren’t surprised that Israel is in the forefront with a helping hand but we won’t.
Cyprus experienced a massive explosion at a naval base near Nicosia on Monday causing fatalities and many injured. Israel immediately responded through the PM himself offering all the aid that the Island might need. More than a gesture, an opportunity to repay the help given to Israel by Cyprus to fight the forest fire last year and unquestionably an indication of the warming of relations between the two countries.
We’re in midsummer here but there is a great deal of talk amongst our neighbors about Spring and the rebirth and blossoming that comes with that season and we sincerely hope that all will turn out well for them. Only time will tell. But back to the here and now and there is one man who definitely has a spring in his step and that is our Minister of Tourism, Stas Misezhnikov who has overseen the breaking of record after record by his ministry and 2011 has been no exception. The number of tourists who stayed for more than one night reached an all-time high of 228,300 in June, 7% more than in June 2010 and 4% more than in June 2009.
GN for our Christian friends. After a NIS10m refurbishing making the site known as Qasr al-Yahud where Jesus’ baptism took place, more accessible, it was opened to the public in a festive ceremony on Tuesday following a closure lasting for 44 years for security reasons. From now, the site will be open all the year round with freedom of entry on a daily basis and will add a significant and exciting venue to those already available here to folk of the Christian faith.
Thomas Malthus who lived from 1766 to 1834 predicted that the world’s population would grow so fast that it would outstrip the food supply and everybody would starve. Not GN at all and it took Israel to prove him wrong. Well almost. At a UN Economics Commission in Tel Aviv this week scientists and economists raved about Israel’s ability to innovate especially in the fields of agriculture, water and renewable energy. “Doing more with less” to quote one of them. Jan Kubis the UN under secretary general had this to say and we quote: “Israel is a laboratory of innovative policies and practices… perhaps such a laboratory could serve as a training center that could share its experiences gained here and help other countries.” Well, well. Nice to know.
Hard on the heels of Israel’s astounding success at the special Olympics with a crop of 51 medals [see GN Israel 08 07 11] comes the news of another win this time at the International Federation of Disabled Sailors where our three-person Sonar class crew of Cohen, Vexler and Efrati took gold in a grueling competition that went eleven rounds The threesome, all IDF veterans, are no strangers to victory having won Gold in the 2004 Paralympics but as Cohen put it,’ to take Gold at the World Championships, after two silvers is really something special’. These men are serial winners. Amazing.
Back to Africa and Israeli construction giant Solel Boneh International Ltd. is expanding the Eket-Port Harcourt expressway project in eastern Nigeria. The additional work, upgrading the road into an expressway and building a bridge over the Imo River adds $190 million to the original cost, making a grand total of $420 million. The company has a number of ongoing road contracts with the Nigerian government, including a $290 million scheme to widen and upgrade the 52-kilometer road between Ibadan and Ilorin in southwest Nigeria.
In 2003 there were two million by 2009 this had grown to eight million and 2010 saw an increase of two million to reach a grand total of ten million. But what, we hear you ask? We’ll tell you; visitors to the Kotel, the Western Wall of the Temple in Jerusalem, an average of 27,400, 24/7 and that impressive figure includes 18, 000 young men who celebrated their Bar Mitzvah, their passage into adulthood, at the site last year. Why the overwhelming increase? Well it depends on who you ask but one thing they’re all agreed upon and that is that it reflects a growing desire to link with our past in time and place.
Why should we be surprised, Jerusalem after all encompasses 3,000 years of Jewish history? But now there’s an added dimension that brings it right into the 21st Century, the city is home to dozens of large, and hundreds of smaller tech companies including a hundred life-science companies, employing 32,000 people and specializing in a wide range of activities including cutting edge science like brain and stem cell research. It would seem that the potential is limitless and the factor that fuels the progress is the supply of people qualified to do the highly specialized jobs on offer. So if you’re equipped to work in this developing world, think Jerusalem.
What does Pointer Telocation actually supply? Well, they’ve created software that keeps tabs on cars and trucks in large fleets so that management knows exactly where they are and what they’re up to and last week they announced that they’ve supplied and installed the system in a Brazilian corporate fleet in a deal worth more than $2 million. This is the Company’s biggest deal in the country to date since starting operations there a year ago. It didn’t say who the client is, just that it’s a “big company” with a fleet of more than 2,000 vehicles. Looks to us like the shape of things to come in a burgeoning market.
And we’ll end like we started with a few brief items:
Traffic congestion alerts from Google Traffic are now available in Israel, along with 12 other countries. The service is available on both computers and smartphones.
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. Today [Thursday] completed its acquisition of Taiyo Pharmaceutical Industry Co. Ltd. for $934 million in cash. Taiyo is Japan’s third largest generics manufacturer with $530 million in sales in 2010 and a portfolio of over 550 products.
Guinness judges arrived in Israel today [Thursday] to crown the online translation company Babylon Ltd which has broken the record for downloads for language solutions. The company has marked two other achievements: 100 million users of its products, and joining the Alexa list of the top 100 websites.
And perhaps best of all; an Israeli hi Tech Company can connect you to your baby wherever you are. The sensor recognizes the baby’s cry and if it goes on for too long it will send you an SMS alert. What willt
