Partach

Kishon was buried in Tel-Aviv recently.

So Olmert and Peretz did not invent Partachia!

Kishon 1924-2005

Ephraim Kishon, one of Israel's greatest writers and satirists died in 2005 at the age of 80. In the course of his career, Kishon was a successful playwright, the author of several novels and a highly popular weekly newspaper column, and the writer-director of a number of classic Israeli films like Salah Shabati, Ta'alat Blaumilch ("The Blaumilch Canal" also known as "The Big Dig"), and HaShoter Azulay ("The Policeman"), which won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Picture in 1971.

About Partachia:

With his early satirical essays, Kishon became a master at lampooning the foibles of Israeli society: the high taxes and overarching government bureaucracy, the rudeness of the inhabitants, and especially the rampant Israeli tendency to do everything half-assed, a trait he called partatch. In one of his most famous books, Kishon elaborated on the theme of partach by describing the inhabitants of a country called Upper Partatchia, located "on the eastern end of the Mediterranean Basin, in the vicinity of Dizengoff Street." It is a wonderful land with high levels of humidity and taxation, which have combined to form the unique character of the partachi, the natives of this land:

One common characteristic of the average partatchi is his hostility to instructions. If he sees a box labeled "This way up", he turns it upside down. If the box has a big red warning "Fragile!", he tosses it up to the top shelves, puts his fingers in his ears, and steps aside. If the label says "Store in a cool, dry place", he places the thingie on top of the boiler. Nothing will happen, since the boiler doesn't work anyway. He rang up Stokes two months ago, but the plumber never came. So he gave the boiler a new coat of paint.

The purebreed partachi loves fresh paint. If something is dirty, he paints it. If it is rusted, another coat. For repairs that call for welding, he prefers white glue and uses scotch tape instead of bolts. If he does decide to use bolts then only one, two maximum. It will hold.

The partachi eats noisily, walks noisily, talks noisily. Complains about the noise. If his television set squeaks, he calls the technician. The technician tells him to try and raise one side up. He raises the side and the noise stops. He places a matchbox underneath the left side. If the noise starts up again, he replaces the matchbox. Or hits the television. On the side and on top, a couple of smacks with the palm of the hand. In general, if something breaks, the partatchi hits it. If it doesn't work, he waits a couple of days and hits it again.