From the Hebrew print edition of Haaretz:
The cellphone company Partner-Orange donated approximately one million shekels to the Rogozin school, which serves an underprivileged population in south Tel Aviv including the children of foreign workers. The money was used to paint the schoolyard orange, along with marketing slogans that regularly appear in Partner’s advertising including “smile” and “explore.” The name of the company does not appear. The school failed to seek the necessary approval of the special committee of the education ministry, as Israeli law forbids commercial advertising in schools without such approval. The city of Tel Aviv did approve the donation.
Here’s the unbelievable response from Roni Rahav, the public relations company representing Partner/Orange:
The management of Partner identified the serious lack of equipment in Rogozin and contributed about a million shekels to refurbish the schoolyard and build new equipment. Partner vehemently rejects the small-minded approach of interested parties whose only goal to to find the bad in every good deed that comes from a true desire to help underprivileged sectors. [!!!!!] This approach has caused potential donors to walk away from public works and from donating without ulterior motives (terumah sheba’ah mitoch tom lev).
According to Partner, “This donation was intended to be anonymous.”
How dumb do they think we are? And more importantly, will the education ministry buy it? According to the article another school had to paint over similar advertising.
In this piece, Maariv economic reporters try to help a family who is in serious “minus” or overdraft. The husband brings home about NIS 8000 per month and the wife gets unemployment of about NIS 2300. She is hoping that her next job will pay NIS 4000. They also get a child allowance from the government of about NIS 300 (these details were in the print edition which I thought I brought home from my trip, but can’t locate, so they may not be exact). The wife is expecting to get a one-time reparations payment from her former employer (NIS 12,000). Their monthly expenses (including annual payments spread out over the 12 months) totalled NIS 14,154 and with the help of the experts at Maariv they will try to cut it to 12,353.
Their monthly expenses include NIS 4470 for their mortgage payment, or 40% of their monthly income. Maariv gave them very sensible advice: Sell the apartment, invest the capital, and rent until they are in a position to make monthly payments on a new apartment, or alternatively, rent out their apartment and move to a rental in a cheaper area (perhaps they could make do with a smaller apartment since their children are small, aged 2 and 4). But the wife tearfully refused because she moved twenty times before she was eighteen years old (although that’s a far cry from moving twice as a small child)..
Some of the expenses are quite interesting:
NIS 550 for cellphones (Maariv suggested trying to cut it to 300)
NIS 218 for cable (Maariv suggested doing without for a while, paying NIS 15/month to keep the account active)
NIS1800 for food (They already shop in a cheap supermarket; Maariv said to try to keep it to NIS1650)
NIS 198 for a mineral water bar (Maariv suggested bottles for NIS 60/month)
NIS 120 for a belly dancing class
NIS 500 toward the annual vacation to Turkey–they were told to cut it out for a year or two
NIS 3,160 for day care
NIS 260 for hairdressing and beauty treatments (the wife agreed to give up on her fingernail care for a while, in order to save NIS 100)
NIS 300 for cafes (advised to cut to 150 but one night recently they spent NIS 400 on alcohol without blinking)
This couple was also advised to use the unemployment reparations to cover the overdraft and avoid paying interest, and to stop contributing to their savings account. They could then take out a loan to tide them over, the idea being that their daycare expenses will go down when their daughter starts going to the public kindergarten in another year. This plan doesn’t take into account the fact that they will have other expenses as their children get older, including schoolbooks, increased food expenses, and extracurricular activities. Maariv also suggested that they use the car from the husband’s company, all expenses paid, to transport them to free family entertainment like a trip to the beach.
There was no mention of trying to cut their utility or food bills except by “trying to buy products from smaller companies.” What about the soft drinks and processed foods that are a staple of Israeli diets? What about reducing waste or buying in the shuk? Utilities and food comprise a huge chunk of a family’s budgets. Even cutting an electric bill by NIS 10 a month adds up after a while. And NIS 160 for haircare seems pretty luxurious to me.
Need I point out that pulling the children from daycare will save NIS 3160, while the wife’s new job will earn only NIS 4000. She will only make NIS 1700 more than her unemployment payment! Of course she won’t get unemployment forever. I wonder if her job will be full-time–I doubt it with that salary, yet she seems to be paying for full-time daycare. Actually part-time daycare is difficult to find her and not always priced proportionately.
From what I see, I would say that this family’s situation seems quite typical. Unfortunately Maariv’s advisors do not ask the family to make significant lifestyle changes that might bring them true financial security.
I took this video at a lookout in the Golan. In the background you can hear my kids shouting that the bus is leaving–they were climbing on my back so I didn’t get to see what the ant managed to do with that sunflower seed in the end. . . .
See if you can guess the source for this comment:
“Ima, you know, you don’t need money.” (Reconsidering.) “Well, you do need money to buy things. You don’t need zahav. The Torah is better.”
??? ?? ???? ??? ????? ??? ????
Tov li torat picha me-alfei zahav vachesef.
Psalms 119:72 The law of Thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold (zahav) and silver (money).
He: Do you want to make etrog jelly?
She: No, I read that because they are not sold as food they do not meet standards for pesticide use.
He: How about spiking them with cloves for besamim?
She: No.
He: Well, they smell really good and I don’t want to throw them away.
She: Well, I don’t want them to stay on my counter until Pesach.
He: I’ll take them to work.
Younger he: I’ll keep one in my room.
Glad we worked that one out.
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