Last week I finally received a letter from the Prime Minister. Well, not from Bibi himself, but from his office. Actually - not his office but from the Head of the Authority for the Advancement of the Status of Women at the Prime Minister’s Office. The quite threatening letter said I should take notice that Amendment 109 of the Penal Law prohibits advertisement of prostitution services. And so that I should not play smart (as if I’d intended to) - it includes euphemisms such as “escort”, “hosting” or “massage”. “That’s it, Ami,” I said to myself, “We have to close down the magazine, since where do they do all those horrible things if not in architecture? And what about the families - parents, brothers, and sons of the bastards? Don’t they live in buildings and actually every fine piece of this country?”
I know the important law passed by the majority of MKs is nothing to joke about, as its intention is noble - to prevent exploitation of helpless women. But assuming that my reference here might also contribute to the extinction of prostitution, I allow myself to ask: What about the other topics of interest to all of us? Don’t they also deserve an advancement authority at the Prime Minister’s office? Haven’t we said that the people demand social justice? Hold on, I’m getting to the point.
The social events that have moved our hearts over the last few months teach that I-am-the-sole-decider does not exist. The fact is that only the recent protest events brought Gilad Shalit back home, since it was the government’s default for survival. True, the Olympia-dwellers were the ones to take the final decision, but they were also the ones to postpone it for 5 years, and not because they suffer from too much wisdom. A second…
The idea is that although the protest in Israel is similar to the one we have witnessed in Egypt, there’s no chance we’ll see here anything reminiscent of Kaddafi’s last minutes in Lybia. We still live in something resembling a democracy, and the only way to survive in this biblical zoo is to maintain a reasonable amount of culture (no such word - I know).
And in the name of woman exploitation, I want to contribute some advice to two women I’ve learned to admire - Dafni Leef and Stav Shafir - two women small in size, but Joan of Arc in courage, who have led the struggle and brilliantly shown all the Olympian Almighties from whence pees the fish.
stav shafir, one of the social protest leaders
The happy smiles on the faces of the million protesters would guarantee that if the two women ran for Knesset, they’d receive a mandate to change the political map of Israel. Just see what happened to the Labor Party when a novice pitted herself against the well-oiled machine of dull and boring “men”.
Go for it, and then we’ll find together the relevancy for architecture, whose achievements
may be viewed in this issue, dedicated entirely to the projects that reached the final stage of the Project of the Year Competition.
On this occasion, many thanks to all the judges who had volunteered to peruse about 300 entries, with wisdom and total integrity:
Prof. Siamak G. Shahneshin, (Chair), Architect & Co-founder of Shagal iodaa, Switzerland
Lui Levi Galati, Architect & Co-founder of Shagal iodaa, Switzerland
Esa Laaksonen, Architect & Director of the Alvar Aalto Academy, Finland
Adachiara Zevi, Architect and President of the Bruno Zevi Foundation, Italy
Architect Osvaldo Stav, chairman of the Competition Committee, UIA
Architect Nir Ben-Natan
Architect Naama Baram
Architect Arad Sharon, representative of the Aryeh and Eldar Sharon Foundation
for Creative Students
and your humble servant, architect Dr.
Ami Ran
And of course - great thanks to competition director Rachel Ben Aharon, who with her just hand prevented any injustice.
