This is a paper I wrote for an assignment in the first semester (before I set up the blog). The assignment was to define life in about 10 years from now, at first I thought it was a little childish and geeky but then I started, and quite enjoyed it, hope you do too.
Dad: Downhill! Downhill!
Mushon: Where? I can’t see her?
D: Further Down, in the dark red suite, can’t you track her?
M: I see something, but she’s moving way too fast for me to point and track, and these real-time satellite images, as high-resolutioned as they might get, are not yet refreshing in more than a frame per second.
D: Wait, I’m sending you a globotracker.
M: Oh… nice, I can see now. Boy.. heh-heh, she picked it up quite well.
D: Yeap, she started young you know…
M: I must say, dad, your little granddaughter sure looks impressive on that snowboard of hers. Say, where are Galia and Itamar, I can’t see them…
D: Itamar is in the snow-kindergarten team, you know, these groups of little ‘snow-midgets’, I don’t know where they are right now, Galia went to check on him.
M: I’m zooming out maybe I’ll be able to track them… wait… hmmm…
The site sure looks nice, a lot bigger than the one on the Israeli side of the mountain, very impressive. Makes me wish I was there with you guys…
D: Yes, it’s a shame you had to cancel, how is the trip going?
M: Uh, It’s ok, not that interesting I guess, nothing I wouldn’t gladly switch for a day with you guys in the snow… I’m zooming out and seeing these snowy Syrian mountain tops, say dad, don’t you get flashbacks from your days in the army as a commander of this mountain.
D: It sure is an interesting experience, but you know, we have peace now, there are no Syrian soldiers out to get me here, it’s over, you know. Peace…
M: Peace, huh? Who knows, maybe you’ve fought your ski instructor’s grandfather in the Yom-Kipur war.
D: Mushon, as far as I see it, that was almost 45 years ago, you weren’t that history-sensitive when we went skiing in Austria three years ago, they weren’t very nice to us 75 years ago either.
M: That’s something else..
D: Exactly, it’s behind us, it’s history, there is no war between Israel and Syria today, and there’s no war between Israel and Lebanon either, just as much as World War Two is over. We are really enjoying this place, it’s not a huge site, but it’s closer and much cheaper, and I do find this ‘New Middle-East’ issue quite fascinating. This site has become a symbol of peace, you know we can practically ski past the border into the Israeli site. I bet it’s the only ski site in the world where you can get a cup of hot Sakhleb on a pub on the side of the mountain, I am enjoying my third one today right now actually, it’s only half a Globodime.
M: Huh, nice one! I bet you do find it a bit strange though to hear Arabic around you when you ski.
D: Honestly, you can hear every language here, there are so many tourists, you hear a lot of German, and English, and actually most of the Arabic you hear is from non-Syrian Arab tourists – Kuwaitis, Jordanians, Moroccans. It’s a very special atmosphere, I can promise you, quite exciting.
M: So it’s a real tourist gem huh?
D: Sure is. And you know what? if it comforts you, I can promise you I would never have found my war-victim’s grandchild as my ski instructor here, maybe his grand daughter, as a chambermaid. The ski instructors are all Americans, all from Aspen, most of them are x-marines that stayed here after their service.
M: Oh, I didn’t know that…
D: Yes, I’m not really in risk of catching a cold from the winds of change around here. Actually there’s more chance that the Aspen-boy ski instructor already killed my war-victim’s grandchild while invading Damascus six years ago.
M: Ok, dad, I got the idea. If you mentioned it, don’t you feel a bit scared, you know, being an Israeli tourist in occupied Syria?
D: The Americans are very strict about terminology here, since they set up a government here, you wouldn’t find the term occupation here, they insist it’s a free democracy. I guess the people are either too afraid to say anything else or too tired of fighting. Apart from that I don’t think we do see a lot of Syrians here, I think most of the employees are not Syrian at all. You know the Americans see this place as a proof of how right they were starting this war, and that the ‘New Middle East’ is something that the first world and especially Europe should relate to. Actually it is probably the safest place in the world right now, even though it’s been nine years since June 8th,\and how much… more than sixteen since September 11th, they are not taking any more chances. They’re simply preventing any possible civilian resistance in advance.
M: Speaking of which, have you heard about the huge anti-wall demonstration in Jerusalem yesterday?
D: Yes, I followed the reports, have you seen their signs?
M: Yes, have you seen they quoted the Palestinian signs: First of all, the wall must fall.
D: Actually, my favorite was: We have solved the Palestinian problem.
M: Exactly, just like China solved the Tibetan problem. It would have been funny if it wasn’t so sad. And as far as I see it, this is only a decoy you know, they are trying to make you think they’re acting in democratic ways, while behind our backs, their activities are far more extreme.
D: These are only a few, it’s not the majority. And you have to agree it’s quite ironic that after all these years you’ve become such a great supporter of the wall.
M: Don’t tease me, dad. You know I hate the idea of the wall but in this situation we have no choice, wait a minute let me send you a globolink of what I saw this morning.
D: What is this, what are you sending me?
M: It’s pictures from this morning in Hebron. Our dear brothers, the settlers, have ruined another abandoned Palestinian house.
D: It’s awful, I’m in a vacation, why do I have to see this stuff? At least it was abandoned, huh?
M: That’s exactly the thing, it’s an abandoned house but there were Palestinian kids playing in the back yard and two of them were wounded. You can see it in the globolink.
D: Yes I see it now, how come I haven’t heard of it? Or even more, how come you’ve heard about it from where you’re at before I did?
M: There’s a lot you don’t hear about, I wouldn’t hold my breath until you catch these shots in the official satellite-media.
D: So where did you get these images from?
M: You know where I got it from. It’s from the Indimedia satellite stream.
D: Mushon, this is an illegal satellite, how dare you send me this stuff?
M: If you want to keep browsing news through main stream casts and keep building your image of the world from that, thats fine. I prefer the distributed media.
D: You can’t even know if these images are real, how can you trust a satellite run by a bunch of activists?
M: To tell you the truth dad, I find it hard to believe Indimedia really have a satellite. They would like you to think they do but what most of the Indimedia audience and actually most of the satellite media providers know is that Indimedia satellite is just a bunch of unfiltered streams, hacked from major official satellite channels.
D: I don’t care. I don’t want to get into trouble and I don’t want you to get in to trouble. You’re a grown man now, you’ve got two kids. You know very well that every bit of information on your communicator is tracked and archived, no matter where you are! you are endangering both of us!
M: Relax dad, I am not putting anyone at risk by browsing independent media, I sometime even think it’s a kind of sublimation. The authorities make you fear their data-surveillance so you don’t question what they’re really after. Do you really think they care about the globolink I send and receive? They know so much more about me from just watching me from their satellite 24/7.
D: Either way I don’t want you sending me any more illegal information, and if you accidentally let some ‘main stream media’ into your globrowser today you would have heard that law for bringing down the separation wall have passed the first vote today. So like it or not, the demonstration’s goal was achieved.
M: For the record, I would have gladly broke down the separation wall myself fourteen years ago, when it was just built. But now, after the wall have dried the cities in the west-bank, causing the quiet transfer of so many Palestinians from their lands, after the fall of Syria and Iran and practically the evaporation of the dream for a free Palestine, I do think that if the reason for breaking down the wall is to allow the ‘natural’ growth of Jerusalem I just might rather leave it there.
I need oe diccionary for me