Just before the bridge of the Yarkon river I looked up at an installation that carries advertising posters and saw this rope hanging down from it as if saying to people "help yourself" - "compliments of the Ramat-Gan municipality". (photo 1)
Didn't stop for long over the Yarkon because it saddens me to see the increasing rate of pollution. It had a thin film of some oily substance on its surface besides the water level being extremely low. Why doesn't anybody care?
After a regular stop at my fairytale tree I saw yet another 'collector's item' car. This time a green Opel. Somehow this model is familiar to me, but I cannot think of the name. Cortina perhaps? (photo 2)
The walk to the beach passed fast. I was there before I even noticed. The sea was kind. I had some smalltalk with my fisherwoman and at the wavebreaker another fisherman showed me his catch - Buri (photo 3). They looked small to me but it is a fisherman's pride to eat what he catch so I never said anything. Bon appetit.
"Remind me of your name" said the girl behind the counter at Aroma-at-the-beach as she took in my order without me saying a word. Hahahahha as if she ever got it. This time around as well she guessed wrong :D But they honestly are so terribly sweet over there. Last time one of them gave me a 'employee's discount' when I ordered an ice-shoko and moved his head towards mine to whisper "don't tell anyone, hey!" - Soooooo cute.
I had the time of my life at my mezah. The water was fairly clear and schools of Buri's swam by one after the other. Just too many. When a wave was forming they floated up on that wave and with the sun reflecting on their shoulders (so to speak) they became like long stretched beads of shiny diamonds. Just too beautiful for words. (photo 4 doesn't even come close to what they looked like with the naked eye).
While sitting there (only 2 fishermen were there when I arrived) I saw this huge Buri swam by, I mean the size you see at your plate when in a restaurant. I never saw a fish this size swimming in the sea so without even noticing it I shouted "wowwww" - and the fisherman next to me said it was a Buri. I couldn't follow it swimg back to deeper waters since he asked me to untie him. He had caught himself on his own rod. The hook was on his back so he couldn't release himself either :D
Then we saw a Tsaraf or Tsafar (darn, I forgot) - a snakelike fish - swam by. The sea is always full of surprises if you pay attention, and today I certainly had a good day in that respect.
Photo 5 is of some decent netfishers (I have decided they are not decent since they use the nets) - They are 'decent' because a bleachwater jerrycan was floating on the sea and they picked it up.
Photo 6 is of how busy my mezah was by the time I left and photo 7 is of what I feel is 'my world'.
When I sat waiting in the Sherut until it would start on its route, a man -reasonably old, like me, and ..... very drunk- came up. He wanted to enter but then noticed something. He said to one of the men sitting at the little kiosk while not driving the Sheruts "you are an Arab" - "what are you doing here" - turned to one of the other men and repeated what he said and mumbled some more. He finally took off and didn't enter the Sherut because the driver was Arab. This was my cue.
When we started driving (I was the only passenger for some time) I asked the driver, who I saw was fairly upset over the incident, if he was Arab. He said 'yes'. I asked him if he would mind if I asked him some questions and he didn't mind. So I asked if he felt any discrimination and/or racism against him because he is an Arab. His face went very sad.
him: "yes..."
me: "where, how?"
him: "at work, outside work..."
me: "how does it express itself?"
him: "at work, I experience it...."
me: "remarks? not acting nice because you are an Arab?"
him: "yes. it's everywhere. a lot of discrimination, not behaving nice when they see I am Arab"
me: "what do you do when this happens?"
him: "I either say something about it or just shut up, let is pass by"
me: " what can be done to make this disappear?"
him: "peace. only if there will be peace, this will go away"
me: "but that's hard. that's not in our hands" (meaning it depends on the politicians)
him: "that's right. we cannot do anything. khalas, that's life"
me: "why wouldn't people want peace?"
him: "all the Arabs want peace. ask around. I have my blue card, I am Israeli, and all the Arabs here want peace."
me: "but the jews don't want?"
him: "no, I wouldn't say that. part of the jews want. I lived here all my life, this is my life. there are many jews who want peace. but... "
Another passenger boarded the Sherut and I quickly thanked him for being so honest with me.
Still don't get how people can hurt other people based upon labels without looking at the individual, the person. That's sad. This man was very sweet, very friendly, why would anyone want to discriminate or scold (like the drunk old man) him is beyond my comprehension.
No comments:
Post a Comment