Politics – June-July 2020
2020 will go down in the history books as a traumatic year the world would have liked to forget.
We are looking for 2021 to open new pages, not only in the health front, but also in world leadership, relationships between majorities and minorities, human rights, civil liberties, police enforcement, tolerance and the economy.
In Israel, protests and demonstrations against the government are taking place on a regular basis. Many of Netanyahu’s supporters are disappointed with the way he has been addressing the COVID-19 crisis and the economic hardship. They expected the government to provide them with some ways and means to sustain themselves as they found themselves without income. However, their hopes were soon quashed.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu needs to defend himself in court. It is going to be long and ugly. Netanyahu, through his loyal supporters, is spreading conspiracy theories and is defaming the judiciary and the office of the Legal Advisor of the Government.
Q&A
Benny Gantz and COVID-19
Norway to Withhold Funding to the PA
The Economist Intelligence Unit Global Outlook: Biden set to win 2020 presidential election
Slowing Down the Aging Process
Psychologists in Service of Nazism
SOAS, University of London, UK is threatening to abolish its single professorship in Jewish Studies
2,500-year-old seals may show Jews rebuilding Jerusalem after 1st Temple exile
Did You Know?
My new article: “Moral Responsibility and Social Networking: Cyberbullying and Lessons from the Megan Meier Tragedy”, European Journal of Analytic Philosophy, Vol. 16(1) (2020): 75-97, https://www.ffri.hr/phil/casopis/content/volume_16/16_1_4.pdf
New Book: Armies of Enablers: Survivor Stories of Complicity and Betrayal in Sexual Assaults, by Amos N. Guiora
Book Review: Christians, C. (2019). Media ethics and global justice in the digital age
Art Hobson, Book Review of Kim Ghattas, Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the forty-year rivalry that unraveled culture, religion, and collective memory in the Middle East (New York, NY: Henry Holt & Co.: 2020).
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: Global Bioethics Summer School Online Program, August 3 - 8, 2020
Premier League Team
Spurs
TV Series – Das Boot
Monthly Poem
Light Side
Q&A
I was asked about the riots in America. Here is, in a nutshell, what I said:
No to violence.
No to looting.
No to racism and hate speech. Hate and bigotry are most difficult sentiments. They consume the hater, suppress all other feelings, and disintegrate society. Say NO to racism!
Those who hate require no special reason to hate. Just about any reason would do. Therefore, no need to provide them with reasons.
Great leaders have the wisdom to act kindly and boldly for the benefit of others, and never put themselves at the centre of attention to impress. Greatness is measured by what one does for others, not by what one does for oneself.
All freedoms need to be constricted; otherwise the result would be infinite conflict and the triumph of the fittest.
Freedom of expression must be within boundaries. Incitement is not included in the scope of free expression.
We need to balance between two important values, freedom of expression, and social responsibility.
Government should not take advantage of circumstances to abuse power and undermine civic rights.
I was also asked about annexation. As I voiced my opinion on this matter many times, let me say succinctly: I think the annexation negative consequences far outweigh any positive consequences. As a long-time supporter of two-state solution, I oppose unilateral steps that might hinder the prospects for peace.
Netanyahu’s zeal for annexation was relaxed during the past few weeks. Most Israelis do not care about this at present as they are preoccupied with existential issues. Importantly, Trump is not interested in this as well as he is preoccupied with COVID-19 and with his presidential campaign. The issue is now pushed down the agenda.
Benny Gantz and COVID-19
Gantz justified entering the coalition by saying that this is crisis time, and during crisis Israel needs stable government and unity. The stark reality is that the government handled COVID-19 when Netanyahu was acting on his own than now. Currently the government is speaking in different voices, often contradictory; there is no clear policy and the consequences are dire. While Israel was able to contain the first wave of the deadly virus, now it is failing to do so. Numbers of infections and deaths are rising and the public frustration and anger with its so-called “united leadership” is growing. Israel now reminds me the UK a few months ago. It almost seems that Israel learned the wrong lessons from the UK, and the UK learned the right lessons from Israel and some sensible countries, like New Zealand.
The Economist Intelligence Unit Global Outlook: Biden set to win 2020 presidential election
Economic conditions surrounding presidential elections are a key determinant of voter behaviour. Global economist Cailin Birch discusses why the coronavirus-induced recession is just one of a number of factors currently against Donald Trump.
https://www.eiu.com/n/global-outlook-biden-set-to-win-2020-presidential-election/
Slowing Down the Aging Process
Researchers at Ben-Gurion University have discovered, for the first time in mammals, that by slightly lowering body temperatures in mice, the animals lived 20 percent longer, Also, by reducing their oxygen level and increasing their CO2 level, their wounds healed faster.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MycF-7T1zqY
https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/pages/news/mice_lifespan.aspx
https://www.israel21c.org/researchers-can-extend-the-lifespan-of-mice-are-we-next/
Psychologists in Service of Nazism
I am looking for information about official connections between the German Psychological Association and the Nazi Party. I wonder whether Association officials served in the SS, the propaganda office, and other positions of influence in which they were asked to utilize their expertise for Nazi purposes.
I also wonder whether the German Psychological Association has archives that cover 1933-1945.
If not, what might be other pertinent archives that might shed light?
Consider this: Brutal knocks on the door at 2am. Armed men come and give the family 10 minutes to get organised and move to the “East”. Long train ride in impossible conditions. Some people die. Smell of urine and feces. After many hours, sometime days, the train stops, door opens, only to be greeted by armed men and barking dogs. Selection. Short march to have a shower. That is the yearning of people after been locked in a train for some time, with all the smells, no food and no water. Victims cannot see anything as they are blinded by projectors. Awful noise of people shouting and dogs barking accompany them. After this brief march, they go down the stairs to the showers. Get undressed and gassed.
I find it hard to believe that psychologists were not consulted in the design of this murderous plan.
Other murderous plans involved deception. Train stations that looked like normal train stations, and behind them a death camp.
Dr Goebbels´ mass propaganda. As he was meticulous, I thought he consulted experts in the psychology of the masses.
Preparing the SS, especially the Einsatzgruppen, for their roles and supporting them in the extermination process.
I welcome all relevant information.
SOAS, University of London, UK is threatening to abolish its single professorship in Jewish Studies
The Committee of the British Association for Jewish Studies (BAJS) have written to senior management at SOAS in protest, highlighting that Jewish Studies is absolutely critical for programmes on the Near and Middle East, and emphasising that modern Israel can only be understood in light of the long, diverse and rich history of Jewish Studies from antiquity to the present. The BAJS Committee also raised the importance of Jewish Studies for understanding global challenges, including antisemitism, and the implications of the loss of an important post in Jewish Studies for the future development of our field in the UK.
A petition was circulated, which I signed. It said:
“It is with consternation that we the undersigned have learned that SOAS, University of London, threatens to abolish its single professorship in Jewish Studies. We are all aware of the financial difficulties faced by the Higher Education sector, which have been exacerbated by the Covid-19 crisis. However, world-leading institutions such as SOAS have a responsibility to protect vulnerable subject areas, and SOAS must recognise that the breadth of Jewish history, religion and culture is critical for a full understanding of perspectives on the Near and Middle East. We are extremely concerned about the impact of this decision on UK provision of Jewish Studies, and also on the reputation of SOAS as a widely recognised provider of this discipline. We call upon SOAS, University of London, to reconsider this decision and secure Jewish Studies as a vital part of its internationally renowned provision in the Near and Middle East.”
2,500-year-old seals may show Jews rebuilding Jerusalem after 1st Temple exile
Rare evidence of when and how Jerusalem was resettled after the Babylonian exile of 586 BCE has been discovered in an excavation in the City of David, just outside the Old City walls.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/2500-year-old-seals-may-show-jews-rebuilding-jerusalem-after-1st-temple-exile/
Did You Know?
The USA is the only country in the world that did not ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child
Why?
https://www.congress.gov/bill/112th-congress/senate-resolution/99
My new article: “Moral Responsibility and Social Networking: Cyberbullying and Lessons from the Megan Meier Tragedy”, European Journal of Analytic Philosophy, Vol. 16(1) (2020): 75-97, https://www.ffri.hr/phil/casopis/content/volume_16/16_1_4.pdf
This paper addresses the concepts of moral and social responsibility on the Internet in considering the most troubling phenomenon of cyberbullying that results in loss of life. Specifically, I probe the moral and social responsibilities of Internet users (agents), of the education system in fighting cyberbullying, and of Internet intermediaries. Balance needs to be struck between freedom of expression and social responsibility. The tragic story of Megan Meier serves as an illustrative example and some further incidents in which this ugly phenomenon of cyberbullying had cost young life are mentioned. It is argued that all relevant stakeholders need to think of the consequences of their conduct, that Internet abusers should be accountable for their wrongdoing, and that people who have the ability to stop or at least reduce the risk of cyberbullying should take proactive steps, exhibiting zero tolerance to cyberbullying.
New Book: Armies of Enablers: Survivor Stories of Complicity and Betrayal in Sexual Assaults, by Amos N. Guiora
What do sexual assault survivors expect of the enabler-bystander?
From USA Gymnastics, Penn State, Michigan State, the Ohio State University, and the Catholic Church, stories of sexual assault abound. In this book, based on thousands of pages of Grand Jury indictments, civil lawsuits, criminal prosecutions, special reports, media accounts, and personal interaction with numerous victims/survivors and their attorneys, Amos N. Guiora poses this critical question.
Interview after interview sheds compelling light on two powerful responses: that this question had not been previously asked and that the expectation of protection and support, in the overwhelming majority of instances, never came. In the words of one survivor, “I wanted the enabler to fucking do something.”
Clearly the perpetrator benefitted from the complicity of the enabler. The book emphasizes individual and institutional enablers alike; in fact, armies of enablers. From the survivor's perspective, both bear responsibility for their plight and must be held accountable.
From USA Gymnastics, Penn State, Michigan State, the Ohio State University, and the Catholic Church, stories of sexual assault abound. In this book, based on thousands of pages of Grand Jury indictments, civil lawsuits, criminal prosecutions, special reports, media accounts, and personal interaction with numerous victims/survivors and their attorneys, Amos N. Guiora poses this critical question.
Interview after interview sheds compelling light on two powerful responses: that this question had not been previously asked and that the expectation of protection and support, in the overwhelming majority of instances, never came. In the words of one survivor, “I wanted the enabler to fucking do something.”
Clearly the perpetrator benefitted from the complicity of the enabler. The book emphasizes individual and institutional enablers alike; in fact, armies of enablers. From the survivor's perspective, both bear responsibility for their plight and must be held accountable.
Book Review: Christians, C. (2019). Media ethics and global justice in the digital age. NY: Cambridge University Press. 428 pp.
Raphael Cohen-Almagor
DOI:
|
Published online:
06 Jun 2020
A new book by Clifford Christians is always a celebration. Christians has contributed to the field of media ethics more than any other scholar I know. In this book, Christians explores the fundamentals of ethics and justice in moral theory. In addition to ‘the usual suspects’, that is, Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, Rene Descartes, John Stuart Mill, Auguste Comte, and Max Weber, Christians explores modern liberal philosophy, feminist philosophy, African philosophy, Latin American liberation theology, Confucianism, and Islam. He does this in his usual dazzling and most comprehensive style, exhibiting wide knowledge of the literature and brilliant analysis that adds layers upon layers of sharp insights. As in his previous books, Christians invokes an ethics of care and humanity in order to alleviate poverty, homelessness, and unemployment, issues that trouble Western and non-Western societies albeit to different degrees. The media have an important role to play in setting the agenda, in bringing these concerns to public awareness, and in helping to redress historical and societal injustices.
Christians first sheds light on media technology. Artificial intelligence, cyborgs, avatars, and robotics represent a new generation of communication technologies and processes. He then explains why the sacredness of life is a supreme universal. His third step is to establish principles for building media practice that are grounded in our common humanity – truth, human dignity, and nonviolence. Together these three universal principles yield an ethics of global justice. Fourthly, Christians explains why social responsibility and duty ethics are rooted in universal human solidarity rather than in utilitarian morality. Finally, Christians argues that the mission of journalism is centered around a social justice of the three ground principles of truth, human dignity, and nonviolence.
Christians presents the ethics of truth in the comparative terms of three paradigms: rationalism, discourse, and aletheia. In Greek philosophy, aletheia is the personified spirit (daimona) of truth and sincerity. Her opposite number were Dolos (Trickery), Apate (Deception) and Pseudologoi (Lies). Christians notes that the ancient Greek idea on truth as correspondence has dominated Western intellectual history. With the aid of technology, presently we find ourselves in the post-truth era in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief (p. 183). As truth and falsehood are mixed together, trust in people and institutions is being eroded. The media, and particularly social media, have a great role to play in the process of undermining truth and also in re-establishing a realm of truth and trust.
Christians argues that human dignity is prominent not only in Western philosophy but also in Islam. It is both spiritual and relational in Islamic ethics (p. 191). In Confucianism, a life without benevolence is a life without dignity (p. 194). Similar ideas are pronounced in the African ubuntu philosophy (pp. 189–191) and in the Brazilian Paulo Freire’s ontological vocation (pp. 192–193). All five theories consider human dignity as an inalienable property. The media have a facilitative responsibility to society in safeguarding and promoting human dignity.
The ethics of nonviolence can be promoted by peace journalism. Unfortunately, this field is understudied. In chapter 5, Christians discusses theories of nonviolence that identify peaceful strategies as means to protest and fight oppressive phenomena. Exemplary theorists include Lao Tzu, Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. Of course, popular action against injustice requires the facilitation of mass media. They all argued that protesting against violence and promoting a culture of peace, dignity, and compassion would help to eradicate violence, oppression, and injustice.
Christians raises alarm regarding Internet hate speech, violent cinema, and violent video games. Hate and bigotry are the most difficult sentiments. They consume the hater, suppress all other feelings, and disintegrate society. Hatred is self- and other-destructive. Christians is right to highlight that hate speech is a significant problem worldwide, especially on the Internet (pp. 267–277). Hate speech refers to bias-motivated, hostile, malicious speech aimed at a person or a group of people because of some of their actual or perceived innate characteristics. Hate speech expresses discriminatory, intimidating, disapproving, antagonistic, and/or prejudicial attitudes toward those characteristics which include sex, race, religion, ethnicity, color, national origin, disability, or sexual orientation. Hate speech is intended to injure, dehumanize, harass, debase, degrade, and/or victimize the targeted groups, and to foment insensitivity and brutality towards them.
In turn, video games have a direct, objective, and measurable effect on players. Exposure to violent video games is significantly linked to an increase in aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, and cardiovascular arousal, and a decrease in helping others (Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Smith, and Tosca, 2019).
The ethics of being is developed in this book in universal terms. The ethical principles are given international orientation, an equivalent in human solidarity. Social justice is presented as first and foremost a matter of loving one another. Christians goes to great lengths to develop an international, cross-cultural, gender-inclusive. and ethnically diverse media ethics of justice.
For the next edition, I recommend including the teachings of Mubarak Awad to acquaint readers with the present practice of nonviolence teaching. Awad is the Palestinian professor who followed the footsteps of Gandhi and Luther King by preaching nonviolent struggle against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories (Stein, 2014). The book would also benefit from integrating the principles of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which are very relevant to making the Internet, and the media at large, a just and ethical business (Cohen-Almagor, 2015; Crane, 2009).
Christians is a magnificently erudite and brilliant author. He is a compassionate scholar, who wishes to make the world a better place. His caring sense of justice is manifested throughout this well-written, literally sophisticated, socially relevant, and morally compelling book. I highly recommend this book to those who are interested in the complexities of media ethics and global justice. It is most relevant to those who study and teach applied ethics, media ethics, journalism, and Internet studies.
References
- Cohen-Almagor, R. (2015). Confronting the Internet’s dark side. NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
- Crane, A. (Ed.) (2009). The Oxford handbook of corporate social responsibility. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
- Egenfeldt-Nielsen, S., Smith, J. H., & Tosca, S. P. (2019). Understanding video games. NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
- Stein, J. (2014). The ‘Palestinian Gandhi’ who still believes non-violence is the answer. Newsweek. Retrieved March 17, 2020 from https://www.newsweek.com/2014/08/22/palestinian-gandhi-who-still-believes-non-violence-answer-264041.htmlGoogle Scholar
ARTICLE INFORMATION
Published Online:
2020-06-06
Citation Information:
Communications, 000010151520190175, eISSN 1613-4087, ISSN 0341-2059,DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/commun-2019-0175.
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.
FULL ACCESS
JOURNAL + ISSUES
Ahead of Print
DETAILS
The European Journal of Communication Research is an established forum for scholarship and academic debate in the field of communication science and research from a European perspective. Communications highlights the concerns of communication science through the publication of articles, research reports, review essays and book reviews on theoretical and methodological developments considered from a European perspective.
Online ISSN:
1613-4087
First published:
01 Jan 1976
Language:
English
Publisher:
De Gruyter Mouton
Art Hobson, Book Review of Kim Ghattas, Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the forty-year rivalry that unraveled culture, religion, and collective memory in the Middle East (New York, NY: Henry Holt & Co.: 2020).
The first sentence of Kim Ghattas' book Black Wave, a tragically beautiful post-1979 history of the Middle East, asks "What happened to us?" This haunting question, and the book's sub-title "Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the forty-year rivalry that unraveled culture, religion, and collective memory in the Middle East," summarize the book's essence. The title refers to the dark age that now engulfs the region.
This is not a "top-down" history of international affairs, foreign policy, or terrorist organizations. It's a "bottom-up" chronicle of populist religious/cultural forces driving four decades of Middle East atrocities. It's a grim but fascinating read.
Ghattas, an award-winning journalist, covered the Middle East for the BBC and London's Financial Times. Born and raised in Lebanon, she knows and loves the region, is fluent in its languages and cultures, and has wide knowledge of its people. She's a scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and lives between Beirut and Washington, DC.
The book captures the sweep of history by knitting together, within each chapter, defining events in one or more nations over a limited time. For example, Chapter 2 studies Iran 1979-80; Chapter 19 studies Turkey and Saudi Arabia 2015-19. The recurrent theme is the Iran/Saudi rivalry that began with Iran's 1979 "fundamentalist" (referring to people who accept their religion's documents as literal truth) revolution and was fueled by the 14-centuries-old Sunni versus Shia religious squabble about Mohammad's proper successor. The book touches on events familiar to Americans, such as 9-1-1 and our Middle East wars, but its focus is on cultural dynamics within the Middle Eastern nations themselves.
The spectacle opens with three pivotal events in 1979: The revolution that overthrew the shah of Iran and brought the Ayatollah Khomeini to power; the short-lived takeover by Islamic Sunni fundamentalists of Saudi Arabia's Holy Mosque in Mecca; and the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. The Iranian revolution, initially supported by leftists, was soon co-opted by autocratic fundamentalist Shias. The Mecca attack shook the Al Saud dynasty and revealed the deadly power of ultra-orthodox Sunni Wahhabism. The Soviet invasion incited Islamic "soldiers of God" to their first modern international jihad. This conjunction had dire consequences.
Nations of the Middle East will never govern themselves democratically so long as they are submerged under this black wave of religious fundamentalism.
The full book review was originally published in The Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: Global Bioethics Summer School Online Program, August 3 - 8, 2020
Global Bioethics Initiative's summer program provides a multidisciplinary approach across various disciplines including law, medicine, biology, political science, anthropology, sociology, and psychology. The program covers many themes including ethics of research, ethics of reproductive technologies, genetics, health care decision making, universal healthcare, End-of-Life care, bioethics, Covid-19 and social policy, among them. The program offers practical models of cooperative work where the strengths of medicine, humanities, social sciences are brought together to advance a better understanding of various issues and to show the way toward just and effective social policy especially nowadays.
The summer training program consists of lectures and seminars by notable faculty, film screenings, Webinars, guest speakers and a mini-conference prior to graduation. The program is conducted by a team of international and local experts in global health and medical sciences with extensive experience in ethics, bioethics and health education. It provides a unique opportunity for participants to dialogue/debate with leading international professionals about key global health issues.
Cordially and many thanks in advance,
Ana Lita PhD, Executive DirectorGlobal Bioethics Initiativewww.globalbioethics.org
www.summerschool.globalbioethics.org
Cell: 646 269 0773
Global Bioethics Initiative's summer program provides a multidisciplinary approach across various disciplines including law, medicine, biology, political science, anthropology, sociology, and psychology. The program covers many themes including ethics of research, ethics of reproductive technologies, genetics, health care decision making, universal healthcare, End-of-Life care, bioethics, Covid-19 and social policy, among them. The program offers practical models of cooperative work where the strengths of medicine, humanities, social sciences are brought together to advance a better understanding of various issues and to show the way toward just and effective social policy especially nowadays.
The summer training program consists of lectures and seminars by notable faculty, film screenings, Webinars, guest speakers and a mini-conference prior to graduation. The program is conducted by a team of international and local experts in global health and medical sciences with extensive experience in ethics, bioethics and health education. It provides a unique opportunity for participants to dialogue/debate with leading international professionals about key global health issues.
Cordially and many thanks in advance,
Ana Lita PhD, Executive DirectorGlobal Bioethics Initiativewww.globalbioethics.org
www.summerschool.globalbioethics.org
Cell: 646 269 0773
Premier League Team
This was Liverpool’s year. Klopp built a remarkable team that overpowered all other teams and made almost half of the season boring, what commentators call in one-sided basketball games “garbage time”. Liverpool’s dominance is reflected in the premier league team. Many Liverpool players were the best in different positions.
Spurs, sadly, is not represented. Not a year to remember. The team does not play happy football and is too dependent on Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min.
Goalkeeper:
Allison (Liverpool, Brazil)
Defence:
Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool, England)
Virgil Van Dijk (Liverpool, The Netherlands)
Aymeric Laporte (Manchester City, France)
Andy Robertson (Liverpool, England)
Midfield:
Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City, Belgium)
Sadio Mane ((Liverpool, Senegal)
Adama Traore (Wolves, Spain)
Attack:
Jamie Vardy (Leicester, England)
Mohammad Salah (Liverpool, Egypt)
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal, Gabon)
Ricardo Pereira (Leicester, Portugal) in right back, David Silva (Manchester City, Spain) and Nathan Redmond (Southampton, England) in central mid were left out of the team but deserve mention. They are excellent.
I should also mention Sergio Agüero ((Manchester City, Argentina) who missed much of the season due to injuries. Still he manged to score 16 goals, with the best goal ratio for goal per minutes played. This incredible talent scores every 91 minutes.
Spurs
In order to compete in the highest levels, Spurs needs two young world-class central defenders, a right back, a left back, two creative midfield players (one might be resurrected from the bench) and one or two attackers. At present, the team has too many average or older players in key positions.
TV Series – Das Boot
I recommend this 2-part series that takes place in submarines, France and the USA. It tells the stories of people on German U-Boats and of the French underground fighting against France Vichi and the German occupiers. The two stories are not REALLY connected. There is a Jewish angle as some people in the French resistance and two Germans are trying to help Jews escape their lot, most of the time unsuccessfully, a fair representation of the then reality. And then there is something about American culture, especially Jazz, and a love story – believe it or not, between a German U-Boat captain and an American Jazz singer in Harlem. If you want to know how this is possible, watch the series.
The plot is not always believable but some of it are quite realistic. Some unexpected things happen, including the death of one of the main characters, something that rarely happens in films. The acting is very good. It is a highly captivating series. I recommend watching.
**** on Rafi’s scale.
Monthly Poem
Light Side
Old Jews telling Jews
Peace and Love. Yours as ever,
Rafi
My last communications are available on Israel: Democracy, Human Rights, Politics and Society, http://almagor.blogspot.com
People wishing to subscribe to this Monthly Newsletter are welcome to e-mail me at r.cohen-almagor@hull.ac.uk
Twitter at @almagor35
