Roman Itskovich

A recent ruling by an Israeli court has set a profound public debate in motion. Should sexual relations in a work environment between a manager and a female subordinate be considered an offense? The court seems to think it should. I believe that such a ruling is a direct assault on basic democratic principles such as personal liberty and the freedom of choice.

The court ruling was made as an addition to the already existing Israeli law for protection against sexual harassment. According to the law, various behaviors to women are prohibited, behaviors such as continual sexual suggestion, touching and the like. In order to protect women further,it deems all relationships in a working environment as harassment. Even if the female has initiated the sexual contact in the first place, and even if she is doing it out of love to her manager.

This ruling seems to be a little presumptuous. The court has decided that it can read, or understand every situation in a work environment and restrict it. The court has also decided that women should not have the option of choosing who they want to have sex with. As I see it, this ruling undermines basic democratic rights: it deprives a person’s right to choose his sex partners freely, and deprives a woman from the right to use her body as she wills. In this piece I will deal only with the latter.

The question of a person’s right to his body is a fundamental democratic question. The most radical example of the sanctity of this principle is prostitution. In Israel, being a prostitute is not considered a felony, Because the law recognizes the basic right of a person to his body, even if used in a cynical way to earn money in a shamed profession. A prostitute can choose her partners freely, although at times they have much more control over her than a manager has on his subordinates. For example: at times when the prostitute needs the money for food. Up to this day, the Israeli legal system has found this principle to be cardinal.

Choice is the name of the game here. Choice is what this debate is all about. Should the right to choose one’s sex partners be restricted by the legal system to eliminate potential damage to the chooser? Much like relationships, driving a car is an everyday activity that can result in damage to the driver and his surroundings. Analogically, Should it also be forbidden?

Roman Itskovich

A couple of hours of hard work is all it took to upgrade this blog to the new WordPress 2.5

Hurray me - The mighty Roman

Roman Itskovich

I’ve decided I’m going to input some reflections I have from time to time about life. Some of the are based on an ancient Japanese  (?) board game called Go. It is an amazing strategy game played in ancient times by the Shoguns when they weren’t killing people or writing poetry. It is said that Go is a game for Leaders and Warriors where Chess is a game for Mathematicians.

I find that many strategies and ideas that are incorporated in Go reflect beautifully on real life. Sometimes I actually feel how understanding Go concepts gives a mental framework to deal with complex real life problems. Furthermore, I believe that Go gives important frameworks for coping with difficult business related issues.

For the time being - just know what is Go. I’ll elaborate more later.

R

Recently I’ve found that I’m pretty fascinated with interpersonal communication. I’m not talking about your regular computer communication and the blogging, forums and other web 2.0 things that are so hype nowadays. I’m talking about old-school interpersonal communication where two or more people talk face to face about various topics. I’m talking about interviewing and negotiations and just random encounters.

So, I’ve picked up a book about interviews. Because one doesn’t encounter many interviews in his everyday life I haven’t found any books talking about it. I’ve ended up with  a book about the REID technique - a technique used for criminal interrogation and interviews.

I must say - this book is fascinating. It a whole other thing from what I’ve imagined before starting to read it. It almost doesn’t talk about reading body language at all - but rather, about how to formulate questions, and what to understand from the answers to those questions. Truly fascinating.

This week I had an Interview with a SEO expert who was looking for a position in the company I work at. As with each interview I’m conducting lately, I’ve tried to be as alert and attentive as possible in order to see what topics he avoids and where he is covering up for something. I’ve tried to gather as much information as possible in order to try to understand what kind of a person he is. I thought I’ve succeeded, so I’ve recommended our CFO to interview him.

She, on the other hand, had a different impression of him. We’ve sat and talked and it turned out that I’ve read him good. I just didn’t ask the right questions, and because of that didn’t come to the right topics where his personality would shine through. And no book will help you with that - You just have to practice.

Well, I’ve setup the site, and even got it to feedburner. The only thing left now is to find a good theme for it - and I’m ready to go.