Piano finals in Brussels and Tel Aviv. Which one rocks?
NewsThe Queen Elisabeth Competition will be held in Brussels from May 3 to June 9.
There will be no audience and at least 10 of the selected contestants have withdrawn.
The last round of 12 will be reduced to six.
In Tel Aviv, the final rounds of the Rubinstein Competition will start later this week in front of a live audience and with all contestants and judges fully vaccinated. The last judges are flying in as you read this.
Spot the difference?
Israel was quick off the mark to get vaccines. The Brussels-based EU was last in line.
The EU did not interfere with national vaccine programmes. The problem was was the shortage of vaccines.
Each country was responsible for its own roll out when they finally received the vaccines.
Belgium (capital Brussels) is now vaccinating at a very fast rate and because it is a country of only 11,6 million, is likely to achieve herd immunity sooner than expected.
Israel had no problem with getting vaccines and has a population of 9 million.
They also gave an enormous amount of patient data gratis to Pfizer to be first in the queue
Israel doesn’t pay for its vaccines. The EU does. Spot the difference ?
Actually Israel is believed to have paid considerably above the going rate and on top of that is sharing huge amounts of medical data with Pfizer to get its vaccines. In any case, the Rubinstein finals should be wonderful and are also being streamed.
Norman, please stop. Israel has closed its borders to non-citizens and vaccinated a population the same size as Toronto. Full marks to Israel for doing so – and we are reaping the rewards (greetings from Tel Aviv!). But you don’t need to slag the EU by contrast. If the question is which cultural sector will prove more robust, creative and sustainable in years to come – the EU, the UK, or Israel’s – your petty gloating will soon be sounding awfully hollow.
Who cares? I mean, seriously, who cares?