# 118 – Rubbish – In One Ear

July 22, 2009

First, a little story about rubbish. The names have been changed to protect the guilty.

I have started playing tennis again – against the advice of the orthopaedic surgeon, but I have lost so much weight, that I feel I can risk it – and happiness is a greater part of health, is it not?

At my old club, where many where positively happy to see me again, there were a few frowns at the condition of my shoes. Well, they’re Court Classic from Costco (great US/Canadian wholesale store). At $15.99, such good value. But apparently not what I should be wearing on the court.

Gili, a long-playing member, imports sports goods from Foot. He can get me a big discount off their shoes. Others at the club are wearing the shoes, including Adi, my playing partner. Adi had size 42. I ordered 43. Gili brought them to the club yesterday. Preferred that the transaction did not take place in view of the club, which has its own shop. We ‘did the deal’ in the car park. For some reason, I presumed all would be OK – including the size. Right? (Wrong).

I took the shoes out of their box and chucked it, together with the plastic bag, into the rubbish container in the same car park. Had to do this, as I was there by bike, and the box was difficult to carry.

Tried the shoes this morning. Too small of course. Started thinking – he is not going to like changing them anyway – but will refuse to do so without the box. I jumped into the car and drove there. There are 2 entrances at the club. The first was blocked by…the garbage truck. I used the 2^nd entrance and found the plastic bag with the box. As I got back in my car, the garbage men grabbed that container and emptied it into the truck.

THAT is timing….

And the strange PS to this is that, on the radio as I drove away, BBC were presenting a report from the sad Cambodian people who survive by scavenging on a rubbish tip in a suburb of Phnom Penh.

In one ear and out the other – is there a word for such information? Or the status of a person who experiences this every day of his or her life? When I use the word ‘ignorant’, I feel bad. I change it into ‘positive ignorance’, the ignorance that we all have – naturally – but that does not help much. The target person feels insulted.

It is not uninformed, for we do receive the information. It is the action of not retaining most of what comes in. We have no time for it, little interest, a limited capability of filing it somewhere so that it is easily retrievable.

Let me be the guinea pig. The Jerusalem Post leader comment was entitled ‘Dump the CEIRPP’. (We’re back to garbage again). Who on Earth knows what that stands for? It’s the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. It was set up in 1975 by the UN, and has been meeting every year since then (in Geneva, why not?), ‘sponsoring an array of meetings, seminars and conferences, targeting Israel’.

The CEIRPP does not criticise the Palestinians – ever. It does not advise them to listen to the many offers of peace from Israel – from right-wing to left-wing leaders. Its function does appear only to be to vilify Israel. And if you do a little investigation via a search-engine, it does appear that the Jerusalem Post does have a point.

I knew nothing about the CEIRPP, although I KNOW I have had the subject before me several times. Who’s interested? What difference will it make? Why bother?

Now, is there a word for that?

Stephen