Tarek Fahmy: Cultural Critic

There was once a dream. I hope ‘we’ don’t let ‘them’ kill it; if it’s not already dead!

I never understood why ‘ma and pa’ cafes had free Wi-Fi and Starbucks never did. They forced their customers to pay for this service. Starbucks is a huge, powerful, and ubiquitous corporation (especially in the U.S.) and making ‘us’ pay for Wi-Fi surely had no effect on their profit margin.

So why did Starbucks wait this long to change their policy regarding the Internet??

Prior to their July 1st, 2010 free Wi-Fi policy change they forced their customers to go through this complicated procces to get “FREE” Internet:

• Purchase a starbucks card
• Fill it up with at least $5.00
• Scratch off a card specific number on the back
• Sign up on the AT & T (Wi-Fi) website using that
  number and input personal information
• Select a Username & Password
• Sign up on Starbucks website with that Username & Password
• Fre Wi-Fi is attained

This complicated and time consuming process seemed to disourage some non-techie folks from even trying to figure out this convoluted roadmap. As a UX Designer I was always asking the question why? Why a multi-billion dollar corporation did not hire a UX designer to make this Internet signing up process simpler? Maybe they hired a UX Designer to make this process purposefully complicated?!?

The question always led me to the same answer: that Starbucks (previously) did not want to make this process easy. For whatever reason[s] (people camping in their stores solely for Internet use and not for buying their products) getting Internet at Starbucks was harder then rocket science.

As of today (07.01.10) the Internet at Starbucks is FREE. This time it’s really free with no * next to the word FREE leading to a fine print explanation. Off-course there is the ‘I agree to the Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy‘ which if checked obviously means that the customer is selling their soul to Starbucks; but that’s OK as long as the Internet is free.

EVENT HELD @: Congregation Ansche Chesed
Co-sponsored by Congregation Ansche Chesed and J Street NYC

I found out about the New Israel Fund (NIF) via an old college friend,
(Hillit Zwick, Associate Director - NIF).

I am on their mailing list and I have been getting invitations to interesting events that promote communication and understanding. I like their overall peaceful message that stresses coexistence with the ‘Other‘. Off-course, the ‘Other‘ is the archetypal other tribe, other ethnicity, other color, other religion, the other person that is not like me.

On their website’s About Page, the first paragraph reads:

The New Israel Fund (NIF) is the leading organization committed to democratic change within Israel. Since 1979, NIF has fought for social justice and equality for all Israelis.  We believe that Israel can live up to its founders’ vision of a state that ensures complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants, without regard to religion, race or gender.

I like that message a lot and I truly hope that it’s for real and not just empty rhetoric. Whether the above applies to non-Israelis & non-Jews as well is an entirely different issue that I will not address here. I still love the fact that this organization is progressive and supports a two state solution.

I also understand that inside Israel there is a class system and a social hierarchy amongst Jews that needs to be addressed as much as the Palestinian question.  You see, there are a number of ethnic divisions amongst Israeli Jews. Some of these ethnicities are:

• Ashkenazi Jews: Eastern Europe, Hungary, Russia, Lithuania, Belarus (European Jews)
• Sephardi Jews: The Iberian peninsula Jews (Spaniards, Moroccans, Portuguese, Turks)
• Romaniotes Jews: Greeks
• Yemenite Jews: Separate from Ashkenazi & Sephardi
• African Jews: Amongst the African Jews there are many subsets and divisions.
• Chinese Jews: Kaifeng Jews is a prime example and an old example as well.
• Mizrahi Jews: Middle Eastern Jews. Similar to Sephardic but not exactly.
• Bene Ephraim & Cochin Jews & Bnei Menashe
  & Bene Israel & Baghdadi Jews & : Indian Jews
  (The above is taken from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_ethnic_divisions)

There are many sects, subsets, and permutations of the jewish peoples living today in Israel. Within these ethnic divisions there exists this tribal mentality of Us Vs. Them and a social class hierarchy that cannot be ignored. I believe that the NIF’s main message is to work on these seeming inequalities, within the Israeli society, and not only the Palestinian issue.

Next time you hear the words Israeli Jew ask yourself which ethnicity are they referring to. Israel is such a complicated country occupied by a melting pot of different ethnicities situated in an even more complicated area of competing religions. No wonder, I feel, that we will probably never see peace in Palestine any time soon.

This Thursday July 1st at Congregation Ansche Chesed Mr. Avraham Burg will hold a talk about Israeli politics and a potential two state solution.

If you are in the New York area RSVP here. I will be there!!

Below are screen shots of the event’s invitation page taken from the NIF website.

These are my favorite books:

Here we go again. On the day marking the death of Husayn Ibn Ali (Ashura) the Iranian opposition is protesting in the streets and paying with their lives as a result!

Very disturbing footage @ 4:10