Stephenson:Neal:Cryptonomicon:Avi Halaby

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Stephensonia

To Randy Waterhouse - Avi is a man with an Elvish glow. He has his wife Devorah, the kids (one with normal kid-related asthma Schlomo) and Krav Maga trained nubile nannies.

Authored entries

The Art of the Con

That Avi is a consumate master of finesse is demonstrated in this conversation:

"OCWs?"

"Overseas Contract Workers. Filipinos working abroad--because the economy of the Philippines is so lame. As maids and nannies in Saudi. Nurses and anesthesiologists in the States. Singers in Hong Kong, whores in Bangkok."

"Whores in Bangkok?" Randy had been there, at least, and his mind reeled at the concept of exporting prostitutes to Thailand.

"The Filipino women are more beautiful," Avi said quietly, "and have a ferocity that makes them more interesting, to the innately masochistic business traveler, than all those grinning Thai bimbos." Both of them knew that this was complete bullshit; Avi was a family man and had no firsthand experience whereof he spoke. Randy didn't call him on it, though. As long as Avi retained this extemporaneous bullshitting ability there was a better than even chance of all of them making fuck-you money.

Randy does seem illsuited to be the shill, regardless of Avi's mastery of group dynamics. Few younger readers know the phrase "… coals to Newcastle …" proverbially describes a self-evidently pointless task as Newcastle's development as a major city owed much to its central role in the export of coal from the Northumberland coalfield.

Charlene would have been disposed of long ago if Randy had practical experience of prostitutes nor does the text indicate either Randy or Avi would have visited the ranches during Comdex or CES. And Pinay OCWs know the entertainment money is best in Japan.

Re-Rooted

Devorah Halaby taking the family on Aliyah is very forthcoming. Aliyah, (pl. aliyot) "ascension" or "going up" is the arrival of Jews as individuals or groups, from exile or Diaspora to live in Eretz Yisrael - the Land of Israel. Those who "go up" for this purpose are known as olim - a term used in the Bible when the Children of Israel went up from Egypt (Gen. 50:14 and Num. 32:11) and - at a later period - for the exiles who returned from captivity in Babylon (Ezra 2:1,59 and Neh. 5-6). The call of Cyrus, King of Persia, in 538 BCE, - "Whosoever there is among you of all His people, his God be with him, - let him go up." (Ezra 1:3, IIChron. 36:23) - has been used as a watchword for aliyah.

It was aliyah that re-created the Jewish Commonwealth in the Land after the Babylonian Exile, provided the community with some of its prominent spiritual leaders during the Second Temple and subsequent periods, preserved and repeatedly renewed the Jewish presence in Eretz Yisrael during the periods of Byzantine, Arab, Mameluke, and Ottoman rule, and reestablished the State of Israel in modern times.

Aliyah is a Hebrew term, literally meaning "ascent", widely used to mean Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel (and since its establishment in 1948, the State of Israel). The opposite action, Jewish emigration away from Israel, is called yerida. Aliyah is an important Jewish cultural concept and is enshrined in Israeli laws that theoretically permit the immigration of any Jew to Israel.

In Zionist history, different waves aliyah, beginning with the arrival of the Biluim from Russia in 1882, are known at aliyot (the plural of aliyah). These aliyot are often categorized by date and the country of origin of the immigrants.

Aliyot

First Aliyah (1882-1903) from Russia, Yemen. Total: 15,000. Founded first agricultural settlements.
Second Aliyah (1904-1914) from Russia. Total 40,000 (about half left). Founded Tel Aviv and first kibbutz.
Third Aliyah (1919-1923) from Russia, Poland (Total: 40,000). Founded Histradrut Labor Union and Haganah.
Fourth Aliyah (1923-1929) from Poland, Hungary. Total: 80,000 (over one-quarter left). Emergence of an urban middle class.
Fifth Aliyah (1929-1939) from German, Central and Eastern Europe. Total: 250,000 (10 percent left). Intellectual middle class. Refugee artists introduced Bauhaus (Tel Aviv has the highest concentration of Bauhaus architecture in the world) and founded the Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra.

HEAP:Hidden Jews & Crypto-Jews

HEAP to be developed on. Moving some of this to Moseh de la Cruz.