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Difference between revisions of "Combina (Israel)"
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The word combina is sometimes translated as a deal ‘under the table’ or ‘off the record’ (Big Idea 2020). However, such deals are not necessarily perceived as illegal. They imply a roundabout way of problem-solving through connections and/or creativity. They provide ‘an unofficial creative solution’ to a problem (Urban Dictionary 2020). As almost every informal practice, combina is perceived as useful for reducing red tape in bureaucratic processes to gain documents, to circumvent bureaucracy or bypass the system as a whole by the participants (like [[blat]] in Russia | The word combina is sometimes translated as a deal ‘under the table’ or ‘off the record’ (Big Idea 2020). However, such deals are not necessarily perceived as illegal. They imply a roundabout way of problem-solving through connections and/or creativity. They provide ‘an unofficial creative solution’ to a problem (Urban Dictionary 2020). As almost every informal practice, combina is perceived as useful for reducing red tape in bureaucratic processes to gain documents, to circumvent bureaucracy or bypass the system as a whole by the participants (like [[blat]] in Russia), [[guanxi]] in China, [[wasta]] in the Middle East and North Africa or [[Vitamin B]] in Germany). | ||
A foxy character of trickster in the literature is often as morally reprehensible as is attractive to readers from the medieval times to the present day (see [[gorroneo]]. One of the most loved Soviet novels in this genre, The Twelve Chairs by Ilf and Petrov (1928, 2014) features a charming kombinator, a trickster who outsmarts the Soviet regulations by using combinatoric methods (Petrov 2013; Lipovetsky 2010). In such contexts, combina can mean an ability to improvise in uncertain situations, overcome obstacles, leverage your skills and contacts, as well as ‘cheat the system’ in order to achieve the outcome you want. In the great effort not to be a friar, or a ‘sucker’, who allows to be cheated or accept a bad deal, many Israelis succumb to the temptation to take part in combinot or under-handed deals or ways of cheating the system. They see the ‘system’ as working against them and believe that their actions are necessary to counterbalance their disadvantaged position. | A foxy character of trickster in the literature is often as morally reprehensible as is attractive to readers from the medieval times to the present day (see [[gorroneo]]. One of the most loved Soviet novels in this genre, The Twelve Chairs by Ilf and Petrov (1928, 2014) features a charming kombinator, a trickster who outsmarts the Soviet regulations by using combinatoric methods (Petrov 2013; Lipovetsky 2010). In such contexts, combina can mean an ability to improvise in uncertain situations, overcome obstacles, leverage your skills and contacts, as well as ‘cheat the system’ in order to achieve the outcome you want. In the great effort not to be a friar, or a ‘sucker’, who allows to be cheated or accept a bad deal, many Israelis succumb to the temptation to take part in combinot or under-handed deals or ways of cheating the system. They see the ‘system’ as working against them and believe that their actions are necessary to counterbalance their disadvantaged position. | ||