Wednesday, Nov. 9. Our first technical confab was at the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS).
I took a picture of the sign on the building since it's not often you see a government building that highlights 'statistics.' Central Bureau of Statistics has a similar ring to it as Central Intelligence Agency, and might even be more entitled to the title! Moreover, it's right there under the Prime Minister's Office. Really warms my heart.
At the CBS we met Shlomo Yitzhaki, “The Government Statistician.”
Israel, being a small country, has one statistician who oversees and coordinates the collection and dissemination of (essentially) all government statistics. If I understand correctly, releases of government data are all handled by the CBS, not the agency that collects or "owns" the data. (In the US individual agencies, such as the Census Bureau, the Food and Drug Administration, etcetera, etcetera, generally have their own chief statisticians and there is some coordination via the Chief Statistician in the White House Office of Management and Budget.) I got the feeling that if you were a government agency head, or minister, or a member of the Knessett, you wouldn’t want to challenge this fellow’s numbers. For one thing, he said he would make it known to the press if someone was playing fast and loose with government data.
One of the Central Statistics Bureau staff who came to the meeting was, interestingly, the agency’s legal counsel. He started off by asking who was the first Jewish “government statistician?” Give up? It was Moses. The book of Numbers, chapter 1, vs. 1 and 2, says, "And the Lord spake unto Moses in the wilderness of Sinai …,saying, 'Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, every male by their polls;' And, of course, some time later it was because of Roman statisticians that Joseph and Mary had to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem "to be counted" and this resulted in Jesus being born in Bethlehem. Else we'd be singing "O Little Town of Nazareth."
Several times during our week someone referred to "Israel time," meaning that things don't always start on time. A CBS example was that though policy (and maybe their constitution) calls for a census every 10 years, delays happen, so on average censuses have been done every 13 years. No use getting uptight about such things.
The CBS is in a growth period. Israel has just joined the OECD (Organization for Economic Coopertion and Development), which means more data needs. Also, they are working on linking various data bases in ways that will provide a better understanding of issues and needs. I asked, for example, if they would eventually be able to track, annually, the percentage of university graduates who have had at least one course in statistics. They said Yes. We didn't discuss this, but you could conjecture that you might even be able to track where these people went to work and how much they make. This sort of capability opens up all sorts of privacy and confidentiality issues, so you can see why the agency needs a lawyer.
On Monday there was a four-hour labor-union strike in support of "contract workers." Public transportation, including airports, but not our van, was shut down. The issue is the government's use of contract workers to do social work, rather than government employees. Contract workers are cheaper. I asked if the CBS had data pertinent to this issue, such as how many contract workers there are and how their compensation compares to government employees doing the same work. The answer was Yes and I just Googled up a newspaper article that says "roughly 80 percent of social services in Israel are today contracted out by the government to non-profit agencies or private entities." I didn't see anything on relative compensation, but the big-picture question is, Is the public better served by, say, three contract workers or one government worker in certain jobs? Need more data!
One more census note. In Canada the government recently decided they would make the long-form questionnaire, which is sent to a random sample of households, voluntary. Voluntary census returns, like voluntary internet surveys, can really distort the data, in unknown and unadjustable ways: garbage in; garbage out. The Canadian government chief statistician fought this, unsuccessfully, and resigned in protest.
Next we visited the Statistics Department in Hebrew University. Had a continuation of talks we had had elsewhere pertaining to how broadly statistics is taught, by whom, how effectively, and student perceptions of the role and value of statistics. One of the faculty members said he was writing a book, Thinking Differently: A Friendly Introduction to Statistics. Sounds like a good approach.
Interestingly, statistics were a little hard to come by here, such as how many Master's and PhD graduates are produced annually by the university. The department chairman, who couldn't be there, would know the answers, though.
Back to culture, we next visited the Israel Museum, in particular the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. Irit gave us a stirring tale about the discovery of the scrolls by Bedouin shepherds and subsequent perilous handling of them until it was realized how valuable they are. The scrolls exhibit includes some actual scrolls and some copies and is housed in what is called the Shrine of the Book. Here is an internet picture of the exhibit room.
Several times during our week someone referred to "Israel time," meaning that things don't always start on time. A CBS example was that though policy (and maybe their constitution) calls for a census every 10 years, delays happen, so on average censuses have been done every 13 years. No use getting uptight about such things.
The CBS is in a growth period. Israel has just joined the OECD (Organization for Economic Coopertion and Development), which means more data needs. Also, they are working on linking various data bases in ways that will provide a better understanding of issues and needs. I asked, for example, if they would eventually be able to track, annually, the percentage of university graduates who have had at least one course in statistics. They said Yes. We didn't discuss this, but you could conjecture that you might even be able to track where these people went to work and how much they make. This sort of capability opens up all sorts of privacy and confidentiality issues, so you can see why the agency needs a lawyer.
On Monday there was a four-hour labor-union strike in support of "contract workers." Public transportation, including airports, but not our van, was shut down. The issue is the government's use of contract workers to do social work, rather than government employees. Contract workers are cheaper. I asked if the CBS had data pertinent to this issue, such as how many contract workers there are and how their compensation compares to government employees doing the same work. The answer was Yes and I just Googled up a newspaper article that says "roughly 80 percent of social services in Israel are today contracted out by the government to non-profit agencies or private entities." I didn't see anything on relative compensation, but the big-picture question is, Is the public better served by, say, three contract workers or one government worker in certain jobs? Need more data!
One more census note. In Canada the government recently decided they would make the long-form questionnaire, which is sent to a random sample of households, voluntary. Voluntary census returns, like voluntary internet surveys, can really distort the data, in unknown and unadjustable ways: garbage in; garbage out. The Canadian government chief statistician fought this, unsuccessfully, and resigned in protest.
Next we visited the Statistics Department in Hebrew University. Had a continuation of talks we had had elsewhere pertaining to how broadly statistics is taught, by whom, how effectively, and student perceptions of the role and value of statistics. One of the faculty members said he was writing a book, Thinking Differently: A Friendly Introduction to Statistics. Sounds like a good approach.
Interestingly, statistics were a little hard to come by here, such as how many Master's and PhD graduates are produced annually by the university. The department chairman, who couldn't be there, would know the answers, though.
Back to culture, we next visited the Israel Museum, in particular the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. Irit gave us a stirring tale about the discovery of the scrolls by Bedouin shepherds and subsequent perilous handling of them until it was realized how valuable they are. The scrolls exhibit includes some actual scrolls and some copies and is housed in what is called the Shrine of the Book. Here is an internet picture of the exhibit room.
That circular display has a copy of the Isaiah scroll (the book of Isaiah), which is 24 feet long.
Nearby is a sculpture garden and we spent some time there absorbing that culture. Some examples:
I'd call this one Roots.
Also in this same area is a 1:50 scale model of Jerusalem in the first century AD or CE, choose your designation.
Here's an overview.
Some of my shots, as sunset approaches.
From the people in the background of a couple of these pictures you get some idea of the size of this model.
Lots more pictures here.
We spent the next day exploring today's version of old Jerusalem. Lots of pictures there, so I'll cover that in a separate posting.
Cheers,
Rob
Nearby is a sculpture garden and we spent some time there absorbing that culture. Some examples:
I'd call this one Roots.
Also in this same area is a 1:50 scale model of Jerusalem in the first century AD or CE, choose your designation.
Here's an overview.
Some of my shots, as sunset approaches.
Lots more pictures here.
We spent the next day exploring today's version of old Jerusalem. Lots of pictures there, so I'll cover that in a separate posting.
Cheers,
Rob
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