Kibbutz and MicroSoft

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Kibbutz and MicroSoft

• Prof. Gad Barzilai

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What is a Kibbutz?

• A relatively gated community, historically based
  on agriculture, which is sharing property and
  responsibility. The idea is social- one gets not
  want he/she wants but what he/she needs.

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Kibbutz
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The Importance

• Venues of social Zionist mobilization 8
• Venues of Political Mobilization for Labor
  Parties
• Venues of developing the Pioneering spirit
• Venues of egalitarianism
• Venues of militarism

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However

• The Kibbutz has declined from 8-- 2
• No new Kibbutz from 1998
• Many were privatized

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Why the Kibbutz Declined?

• The Impossibility of gated communities
• The internal political strife among and between
  various political aspects of Kibbutzim.
• The unbearable lightness of personal
  entrepreneurship.
• The fragmentation of Labor Party and the economic
  crisis.

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Why the Kibbutz Declined?

• Capitalization after the 1970s, liberalism and
  neo-liberalism, and massive urbanization.
• Globalization
• The decline of the Kibbutz as an Elite.
• The Settler, Halutz/ Pioneer myth has changed-
  from Labor to Occupation.
• From Agriculture to Hi-technology.

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Social Stratification

• Israel is becoming after 1998 one of the most
  economically stratified democracies with Gini
  indicatorgt.39
• 34 of the families are poor
• Economic export- about 34 Billion. Industry-
  about 67 Agriculture- about 3.

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The Hi-Tech
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Hi-technology

• Two sources military academia/universities
• More than 100 companies in NASDAQ
• More than 7 Billion in exports of hi-tech
  Israeli products.
• International companies IBM Google Intel

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From the periphery to CITY
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Increasing Tensions

• Globalization Localities
• Ethnodemocracy- Global Issues
• The Global Mind- The Ethnic Mind
• Pioneer-Fighter or Inventor

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Where is political power?

• Military?
• Business Elite?
• Media?
• Government?
• Parliament?
• Supreme Court?