Ourboox and Corona

Friday midday up on the roof. I’ve referred to the Gulf states as ‘Cuckooland’, not quite embracing reality. Well, up here on our roof, I feel the same.

Here and there, I shall introduce you to images that regularly interrupt my thoughts while up here…

The first one is of some basil leaves. I know it’s basil, ‘cos we have basil-flavoured everything nowadays. But I don’t know the names of most of the other plants. So apologies for that. I could download the app that identifies every plant etc., but I won’t.

You should all now be aware of Ourboox.com., the free online publishing site. Every one of my ca. 400 ‘Letters’ are to be found there, plus the other 50 or so books I have written. No big deal, you may mutter. But note that interest in Ourboox has surged during the Corona crisis. And this may help you in one of many ways.

Ourboox is a means for anyone to write anything (subject to the usual censorship) easily, quickly, and without cost:

• Book-like books, although there are many sites that handle that subject.

• Short stories

• Children’s books

• Travel books

• Family albums, personal memories

• Promotional material

• Birthday wishes

• ANYTHING!!!

There are so many important features:

• You can publish the book for online viewing, or not. You can write something only for your your own viewing, or perhaps, limited viewing.

• You can edit, alter or expand any book – immediately, every week or 5 years later. If appropriate, the book can be ever-expanding, as in the case of a diary.

• Ourboox caters for most popular/important languages.

• It can be an important educational aid, hand in hand with such systems as Zoom and/or Powerpoint. We’ve seen educators in several countries either teaching a subject via Ourboox, or actually teaching kids how to write a book.

• Having just introduced a sponsorship programme, a writer can actually earn some income.

I can tell you that Ourboox is great for one’s ego. I enjoy ‘letting it drop’ that I have written many books, and that they can easily be found online. While waiting to play tennis (when allowed), it’s great to press a couple of buttons and produce a self-written book on the phone to my friends.

During Corona times, Ourboox is a great help. We see it in the statistics:

144,039 books listed, written by 88,303 authors.

On the other side, 4,261,699 books have been read, with 10,905,199 page views. (Those figures will have changed by the time you read this). OK, Kindle and ibooks are still larger, but they won’t have the percentage increases of Ourboox.

Corona is reminding us of the diversity in this World. Looking at the statistics, very few countries are showing similar data to others, even close neighbours. And within countries, regions, even neighbourhoods, are showing great variances. That’s not only the nature of the bug, but also the nature of society. We pride ourselves on the differences, but right now, we wish that all parts of society would act as one.

And of course, the way the statistics are gathered and defined means that we shall have mixed results. Plus the fact that every country has varying degrees and means of testing.

Suffice to say that here is Israel, we are seeing a big drop in active cases during this horrible ‘2nd wave’, with deaths unfortunately remaining relatively high. The battle continues with the ultra-religious communities, and some of the Arab towns and villages, who have difficulty responding to Corona the way ‘others’ do.

We do expect a third wave during the winter months.

(This IS a passion fruit blossom. One I do recognise. For some reason, I first noticed these incredible things while walking along Pembridge Villas in Notting Hill Gate, London. I was so fascinated by them, I had to look them up. Now I’m tickled pink that we have them on our roof).

The New Middle East – Israel is often seen as an intruder in this region. Throughout history, the ‘Middle East ’has conjured up an image of desert tribes, sheikhdoms, galloping camels and horses and covered women in the background. ‘Modern civilisation’ hardly affected this. The colonials only got interested when the black gold appeared. And even then, they appeared to have had little effect on the minds of the people.

The power of the tribal leaders was enhanced when they became rich. Their kids were sent mostly to British schools. But, and I am trying not to be in any way offensive or condescending, although their English improved, and perhaps some of the superficial behaviour, the tribal mentality seems to have been sustained to this day. (I know I’ve left myself open to criticism, but this is MY letter…).

And then along comes Israel. Well, as we all know, Jews have been in the area a rather long time. But only in one tiny, specific region. Until modern communication was introduced, most of the Middle East was totally oblivious to the existence of the Jews. It was only when European pogroms pushed the Zionist idea to the fore that the Jewish population in the Middle East started rising. Israel introduced a totally new culture in the Middle East. Call it what you will. Initially, the Arab neighbours resisted it. But after over 100 years of dramatic expansion, and so many failed attempts to rid the area of this new phenomena, some of the neighbours have come to realise that ’there might be another way’.

[Noa (Achinoam Nini) and Mira Awad, Israeli Jewish and Muslim singers, put together a song – “There Must be Another Way”. Eurovision didn’t think much of it – Eurovision is not necessarily an expert on quality nor political messages – but it’s become a message that now really has meaning.]

Of course, ‘your enemy is my enemy’ is perhaps the straw that’s breaking this ridiculous back in the Middle East. But when I have the opportunity to read an article in my Jerusalem Post by an Emirati journalist, then we have come a long, long way.

My prediction is that we shall have agreements with several other Arab nations by the end of this year. There already is a domino effect in the happening. Saudi, Oman, Sudan, Morocco, Lebanon are among those being name-dropped. But silly over-blown Qatar is also in the mix! I won’t repeat all the reasons why we should not touch Al-Jazeera and many of the World’s weather stations’ sponsor. But I shall remind you that I suggested Gaza as an exceptional location for one of the 2022 World Cup stadiums. It’s so easy to imagine what this could do for those poor souls in the Gazan enclave. Israel would open up Ben Gurion airport for overseas fans. The Gaza’s would have jobs – and a stadium of which to be proud for years to come.

All these potential new allies already have enormous influence on the Palestinians. Since early days I have oft repeated that the solution of the Israel-Palestinian problem would only prove that that is not the problem; it’s far greater than that.

The earth-shattering news that the Palestinian are being abandoned by their sponsors will reach the ears of every Palestinian. They will know that their train is leaving. And in today’s changing World, they will have the opportunity of choosing leaders who will get them the train tickets.

The Corona subject is blinding us. In USA, Trump’s ‘catching the virus’ for a few days could win him the election. In the UK, it looks like Brexit will go through under a much-changed banner, only because the people can’t focus anymore on such subjects. In New Zealand, Jacinta Ardern’s landslide victory will surely have been secured by their country’s success in battling the virus.

And China goes on exterminating the minds of the Uyghurs while the rest of the World prepares for the vaccine war, while having had almost zero cases and deaths since the middle of April – and while the rest of the World prepares for the vaccine war.

Here, we’re becoming the nation of protest. Well, what else is there to do?

There, you’ve been updated on our roof garden.

Stephen

Please contact me and say ‘Hi!’ if you see this page….

[I’m serious…Nobody EVER gets to the end-of-the-book-page-plus-one – and if they do, they never tell me.

Make life interesting.

Communicate.]