Skip to main content

Shh… don’t mention Israel!

YM’s doing research into alternative energy sources for a Geography project.  So he “researched” (ie what passes on Google for research) and found the following information on this site, sponsored by a variety of Canadian petroleum, government and other conventional-energy interests.

“Active solar water heating devices are increasingly used worldwide and are especially prevalent in areas where they provide a cost-effective alternative to traditional energy sources. In places such as Hawaii, where energy costs are exceptionally high, more than 15 per cent of homes use solar water heating devices.”

Two agendas working here, and it is a marvel of loveliness to see how well they’re synchronized.

Agenda #1:  “Whatever you do, don’t make solar power sound effective!”  Or like solar energy could possibly replace much demand for the conventional energy this consortium produces.  Hence the “more than 15%” statistic… not exactly a resounding success story.

Agenda #2:  And then there’s, “Whatever you do, don’t mention Israel!”  Like the fact that everyone in Israel (okay, 90% of everybody) relies on a dud shemesh [rooftop solar heater] for hot water. 

Being aligned as much with the Canadian government as with the oil interests, there’s no way they could say that.

Happy erev Yom Yerushalayim!

Comments

  1. Bah. May I also mention that in Barbados, pretty much EVERY house has a solar water tank on the roof. And we've never run out of hot water, either.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I love your comments!

Popular posts from this blog

לימודי קודש/Limudei Kodesh Copywork & Activity Printables

Welcome to my Limudei Kodesh / Jewish Studies copywork and activity printables page.  As of June 2013, I am slowly but surely moving all my printables over to 4shared because Google Docs / Drive is just too flaky for me. What you’ll find here: Weekly Parsha Copywork More Parsha Activities More Chumash / Tanach Activities Yom Tov Copywork & Activities Tefillah Copywork Pirkei Avos / Pirkei Avot Jewish Preschool Resources Other printables! For General Studies printables and activities, including Hebrew-English science resources and more, click here . For Miscellaneous homeschool helps and printables, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi!  If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you just want to say Thank You, here’s a

Hebrew/ עברית & English General Studies Printables

For Jewish Studies, including weekly parsha resources and copywork, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi!  If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you enjoy these resources, please consider buying my weekly parsha book, The Family Torah :  the story of the Torah, written to be read aloud – or any of my other wonderful Jewish books for kids and families . English Worksheets & Printables: (For Hebrew, click here ) Science :  Plants, Animals, Human Body Math   Ambleside :  Composers, Artists History Geography Language & Literature     Science General Poems for Elemental Science .  Original Poems written by ME, because the ones that came with Elemental Science were so awful.  Three pages are included:  one page with two po

What do we tell our kids about Chabad and “Yechi”?

If I start by saying I really like Chabad, and adore the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, z"l, well... maybe you already know where I'm headed. Naomi Rivka has been asking lately what I think about Chabad.  She asks, in part, because she already knows how I feel.  She already knows I’m bothered, though to her, it’s mostly about “liking” and “not liking.”  I wish things were that simple. Our little neighbourhood in Israel has a significant Chabad presence, and Chabad conducts fairly significant outreach within the community.  Which sounds nice until you realize that this is a religious neighbourhood, closed on Shabbos, where some huge percentage of people are shomer mitzvos.  Sure, it’s mostly religious Zionist, and there are a range of observances, for sure, but we’re pretty much all religious here in some way or another. So at that point, this isn’t outreach but inreach .  Convincing people who are religious to be… what? A lot of Chabad’s efforts here are focused on kids, including a