The President Is the Nation: The Central Metaphor Trump Lives By

By George Lakoff -August 6, 2017

Metaphors in the Brain

We know from neuroscience that most thought is unconscious, carried out by neural circuitry. In Metaphors We Live By, Mark Johnson and I showed that much of that unconscious thought is metaphorical, and further, that we often live our lives according to those metaphors. A simple example, we understand time as a money-like resource, seen in expressions like saving time, wasting time, budgeting our time, and putting some time aside to see friends. Many of us budget our time, worry about wasting time, and try to save time. We not only take the metaphors as real but we act according to the metaphors — and in fact much our social and business reality is structured by those metaphors, which reinforces their effect. Given human brains, living by metaphor is normal and probably unavoidable.

The Central Trump Metaphor

Louis XIV, King of France, was famous for saying, L’état, c’est moi — I am the state — a metaphor that a king could live by, or at least try to. Roger Cohen, on May 19, 2017, in a NY Times op-ed titled L’état, c’est Trump, pointed out ways in which Trump has acted as if he had absolute power, like a despot. True. But there is a lot more to say. When John Lengacher and I closely analyzed language coming out of the White House, it became clear that Trump has internalized and has been living by a central metaphor: THE PRESIDENT IS THE NATION.
What Ideas and Actions Follow

1. The job of senior government officials is to serve the nation. Under this metaphor, their job is to “serve the President.”
2. The American people swear allegiance, that is, support to their nation. Under the metaphor, the phrase “the American people” comes to mean the supporters of the President. Thus, “The American people want …” means Trump supporters want…” “The American People love the President” means the President’s supporters love the President.
3. National security becomes the security of the President. The security of the President can be threatened in many ways.

• He could be shown by the Mueller investigation to be a criminal, doing money-laundering and associated racketeering with the Russian mafia and American mafia figures.
• He or his closest associates and family members could be shown by the Mueller investigation to have colluded with the Russians in their attack on the 2016 election. The Mueller investigation thus becomes a threat to the President’s security, and an enemy attack to be countered and ended. That his why he has attacked Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself, which led to the appointment of Mueller. The President sees the Attorney General as having the job of protecting his security.
• Since revelations by the press also endanger the President’s security, the President sees the press as his enemy and, via this metaphor, calls the press the enemy of the American people.

• The President’s tax returns could show Russian involvement or money laundering in his business, and so the revealing of his tax returns would be a threat to his security.

• The legitimacy of his election could be questioned, for example, by the 3.5 million vote majority of Hillary showing that he is a minority president. The facts of Hillary’s majority must therefore be shown to false, say, by show that the votes were fraudulent.
• Trust in the President could be undermined by revelations of underhanded immoral or illegal things he is doing.

• The Emoluments Clause of the Constitution makes it crime to profit from the Presidency. Therefore, showing that the President purposely acts so as to profit from the Presidency is unconstitutional and a possible basis for impeachment.

4. “Leaks.” The “leak” frame is about national security leaks: truths that could harm national security is revealed to the public or enemies of the nation. Under the metaphor, “leaks” become truths that could harm the security of the President. Since national security leaks are crimes against the nation — unpatriotic and un-American, so under the metaphor, “leaks” threatening Presidential security become crimes against the nation that are unpatriotic and un-American, matters for the Justice Department and the FBI to look into and for the Justice Department to prosecute.

5. This explains the much-publicized call that then-communications director Anthony Scaramucci placed to Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker, which Lizza recorded and later published. Scaramucci had gone on a rampage to stop leaks. Lizza had tweeted that “ a senior White House official” informed him of an important meeting at the White House with Scaramucci, the President, Sean Hannity, and others. Scaramucci called Lizza and demanded that Lizza name his source. Lizza refused. Scaramucci then said, “You’re an American citizen, this is a major catastrophe for the American country. So I’m asking you as an American patriot to give me a sense of who leaked it.” This makes sense only if you assume that the “leak” was a breach of national security. That follows from the metaphor.

6. The President and the conservative members of the Republican Party share what I have called Strict Father Morality and all the policy positions that follow from that view of what is right and wrong. But the Republican Party does not believe in the President-as-the-Nation metaphor, since it elects legislators and the Legislative branch is a check within the nation on the authority of the President. This created a potential threat to the security of the President and a tension between Reince Preibus and both the President and Anthony Scaramucci. The President depends on the Republican Party both to carry out the policies he shares with conservative Republicans. But, since they failed on health care, his rationale for keeping Preibus was no longer operative and Preibus had to go. He also depends on the Republican Party to help maintain his security. But in the case of Jeff Sessions’ recusal, Republicans support Sessions, who is a former Republican senator and one of their own.

What the Metaphor Explains

From all of these considerations, it seems clear that the President is living by the metaphor, with enormous repercussions for our nation and the world. We see this in his speeches, his tweets, and his official actions. It also explains the tension with Reince Preibus and why Preibus had to be replaced.
How Can Progressives Counter The Metaphor and Its Effect.

As one of the discoverers and principal analysts of conceptual metaphors and their power, I have an obligation to report how this metaphor works and the effects it has. As an American citizen, I have the obligation to make these findings public so that it can be countered.
How?

• We need to reveal the existence of the metaphor. That is why I have written this paper, and why the paper has to be sent out far and wide and its contents spread both by the mainstream media and social media. Pass this paper on to both the mainstream media outlets and to your friends on social media.
• We need to shift the frame to undermine the metaphor. We and the media have messages to be communicated. Each message must point out to the White House staff and members of the administration that they serve the nation, not the president, in a myriad of ways. Go through the list of nation’s needs:
• On health care, the duty to the 22 million people whose needed care would be eliminated under republican plans
• On the environment, global warming, weather disaster, and sea level rise. Cite examples.
• On the rights of transgender people, 15,000 of whom are serving in the military.
• On gun violence and the need to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill and criminals.
• on Russia’s threat to democracy both at home and in many other countries, from Ukraine and Georgia to the Baltic states;
• and on and on, go down the list.

In example after example, the job of those in the administration is to serve the nation first in all cases, rather than serving the president. The message must be constant in mainstream and social media every day, in every part of the country. And it has to become part of electoral campaigns in red districts. Patriotism is about the nation.

(3) Since the metaphor is inconsistent with the Republican role in Congress, press Republicans to choose to serve the nation over the President.

This piece first appeared on George Lakoff's Blog [3].

George Lakoff is Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley.

Grisly killing stemmed from a dispute involving Chicago professor and hairdresser, police say

Authorities arrested Wyndham Lathem, a Northwestern University professor and Andrew Warren, an Oxford University payroll clerk, on Aug. 4 in California. (Reuters)

By Cleve R. Wootson Jr. and Andrew deGrandpre August 5

Police officers responding to a maintenance man’s 911 call on Thursday found blood on the bedroom door and Trenton Cornell-Duranleau’s body on the bed.

The 26-year-old hairdresser had been stabbed in the back several times, according to the Chicago Tribune. Blood was everywhere, including on two knives police believe were used in the killing. The blade on one had apparently been shattered by the force of the attack.

What was missing was the man who rented the apartment, Wyndham Lathem, 42, a bubonic plague specialist who worked as a professor at Northwestern University.

Police began a manhunt for Lathem. They were also seeking Andrew Warren, 56, a British payroll clerk who worked for Oxford University and had traveled to Chicago days before the killing.

On Friday, Warren surrendered to police in San Francisco and Lathem turned himself in at the Oakland federal building, according to the Associated Press. Their surrender was “negotiated,” Michael McCloud, fugitive task force commander with the U.S. Marshals Service, told the Associated Press, without providing details.

Both men are charged with murder.

A police spokesman said Lathem and Cornell-Duranleau were involved in some sort of relationship and had “some type of falling-out.” They’ve called the killing a domestic incident and are still investigating other motives.

Because of the circumstances of the killing and the manhunt, the case has attracted international attention.

Lathem was an associate professor at Northwestern University and a sought-after speaker for his research on bubonic plague. He has taught microbiology and immunology since 2007 at Northwestern’s Feinburg School of Medicine. A former colleague described him as competitive in seeking funding for his work from the National Institutes of Health and respected for the quality of his research.

Alan K. Cubbage, a Northwestern spokesman, said Monday Lathem was fired effective Aug. 4 for the act of fleeing the police. He is banned from the campus, Cubbage said in a statement.

On Friday, Chicago police disclosed that a video has surfaced in which Lathem apparently apologized to friends and family for his alleged involvement in Cornell-Duranleau’s death. Officials declined to release the footage, saying it’s “integral to any future interrogation efforts.”

Reports suggest that Warren may have been staying with Lathem in the Grand Plaza Apartments, a luxury building with plum amenities and stunning views of Chicago’s skyline. Monthly rents for some units there exceed $3,300.

Warren, whose family in England reported him missing just days before the killing, works for the University of Oxford processing paychecks and pensions.

Citing friends in Britain, the Telegraph reported Thursday that Warren traveled to the United States without telling his boyfriend or any of his family, who have since appealed for him to surrender. They described Warren as reclusive, shy and consumed by grief since his father’s sudden death last winter.
“We have always known him as straight up and squeaky clean as regards the law,” one acquaintance told the Telegraph.

Cornell-Duranleau, who went by Trent, moved to Chicago only recently and lived in the city’s Pilsen neighborhood, about a 30-minute drive from Lathem’s apartment in River North. He was from Corunna, Mich., according to his Facebook profile. The city of 3,400 is just west of Flint. He later moved to the Detroit area.

[Chicago’s death toll is so high it’s driving up the murder rate for the country’s biggest cities]

“We were just shocked when we found this out. Even the clients,” said a former colleague at Timber’s Salon in Trenton, Mich., where Cornell-Duranleau worked as a stylist for several months.

Trenton Cornell-Duranleau was found stabbed to death in a Chicago apartment on July 27. (Facebook)

The former colleague, who did not wish to be identified, told The Washington Post that Cornell-Duranleau loved his career in cosmetology. She described him as affable and generous, “always willing to help anybody.”

His mother, Charlotte Cornell, issued a statement Thursday asking for privacy as the investigation continues. She told the AP that the family does not know the suspects, although she declined to say whether her son had ever talked about either them.

Chicago police say the two men will appear before a court in Oakland before being returned to Chicago, where they will be interrogated by homicide detectives.

“Both individuals will be held accountable for their actions and we hope today’s arrest brings some comfort for the victim’s family. We are also thankful that this did not end in further tragedy,” Chicago police said in a statement.

Philippines: Marawi post-conflict appraisal begins

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte surrounded by soldiers pose to souvenir pictures during his visit to the military camp in Marawi City, Philippines August 4, 2017. Source: Malacanang Presidential Palace via Reuters-Displaced children stay at an evacuation centre outside the city, as army troops continue their assault against insurgents from the Maute group, in Marawi, Philippines, on July 4, 2017. Source: Reuters/Jorge Silva

Combat seized weapons are displayed by Philippines army during a news conference, as government troops continue their assault against insurgents from the Maute group in Marawi city, Philippines, on July 4, 2017. Source: Reuters-(File) A view of an empty street is seen as government forces continue their assault against insurgents from the Maute group, in Marawi City, Philippines June 25, 2017. Source: Reuters/Jorge Silva

By Bong S. Sarmiento | 8th August 2017

WITH the fighting in Marawi City in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao already “confined” to just less than 1sq km spanning two villages, the national government-led post-conflict needs assessment (PCNA) for the embattled Islamic city is finally gaining ground.

OCD Assistant Secretary Kristoffer James Purisima, spokesman of Task Force Bangon (Rise) Marawi, said those who will carry out the PCNA have undergone a four-day training early this month.

The team will consist of some 200 people from different national government agencies, affected local government units and community stakeholders.

SEE ALSO: Evacuees want a voice in rebuilding of embattled Marawi City 

“For the ways forward of the PCNA, a deployment plan is being prepared for the human recovery needs assessment and the deployment shall begin (today) Aug 8,” Purisima said at the Mindanao Hour briefing.

The human recovery needs assessment will include not only those in the 75 evacuation centres, but also the internally displaced individuals (IDPs), locally called “bakwits,” who have sought refuge with their relatives, the official said.

Over 400,000 civilians have been displaced by the conflict in Marawi, which erupted on May 23 between government forces and the Islamic State-inspired Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups.

President Rodrigo Duterte placed Mindanao under martial law for 60 days hours after the clashes erupted. The Philippine Congress later extended it until Dec 31, 2017.

Purisima suggested it would be easier for the PCNA team to conduct the human recovery assessment as they have already the initial list of IDP data surveyed by the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council.

“We know where the IDPs are, most are home-based (staying with their relatives),” he said, adding the bakwits have been given Disaster Assistance Family Access Cards by the Social Welfare Department so they can access government aid.

The official did not give a timeline as to when the consolidated PCNA report, which includes the reconstruction and rehabilitation aspects, would be completed.

“It really depends on the situation on the ground. We are beginning with what we can — with what we can assess, which is the human side. We’re going into the evacuation centres. We’ll go to areas on the ground we can go to already,” he said.

“We’re hoping we could go into the area, ground zero, so to say, in the soonest possible time,” Purisima said, noting this would depend on the clearance from the military.

Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman Brigadier General Restituto Padilla said government troops were doing their best to expedite the liberation of Marawi from the remaining 30 to 40 terrorist gunmen.

“In the current situation in Marawi, we still continue to concentrate on the remaining problematic area, which is less than one square kilometre within the heart of the commercial business district,” Padilla said

“Our forces are all in place and are doing their best to fulfill their mandate of liberating Marawi at the soonest time possible,” he added.

The official noted that military efforts to reclaim Marawi from the Maute Group are also hampered by the consideration on the safety of the hostages and the sniper fires from the enemies.

The terrorist gunmen are reportedly still holding some 100 civilians, including a Catholic priest, inside a mosque.

Padilla appealed to the displaced civilians to be patient because “as soon as the coast is clear, we shall declare it safe” for them to go back.

SEE ALSO: Philippine military gets significant boost with new surveillance planes, rockets from US

While many would apparently no homes to go back to based on pictures coming out of the war zone, the government has assured them of help. To those with unhabitable homes, the government vowed to provide them with socialised housing or extend financial assistance to those whose houses need minor repairs.

The government also abandoned plans to build a tent city in Marawi and neighbouring areas for the civilians displaced by the war. Instead, they will be housed in at least 1,000 temporary shelters to reduce crowding in evacuation centres as part of the initial phase of rehabilitation efforts for the war-ravaged city.

Marawi resident Samira Gutoc-Tomawis, co-convener of Ranao Rescue Team, lamented the uncertainty of going back home as the Marawi crisis entered Day 78 today, Tuesday.

“On our incoming 80th day of the Marawi crisis, the lingering question on when to return to Marawi remains unanswered. Another mortar incident in the outskirts of Marawi in the border with Marantaw town doused our hopes as bakwits to set foot back to our beloved cool sanctuary,” she said in a social media post.

Gutoc-Tomawis confirmed that civil society organisations have been tapped to participate in charting the recovery and rehabilitation of Marawi.

“Today, we gather as civil society in Iligan City to firm up participation in Task Force Bangon (Marawi),” she said.

Gutoc-Tomawis hailed the volunteers and non-government workers who worked without remuneration to help those affected by the Marawi crisis.

On August 4, Duterte visited the troops in Marawi for the second time to boost their morale and encouraged them to defeat the enemies to allow the return of displaced civilians to the city.

“I have to be here because I want all of you to know that… Mahal ko kayo (I love you). I hope you will be able to clean up Marawi City and get rid of the terrorists,” the President said in his speech.

Duterte said he is hopeful that the government will not lose more troops because of the ongoing battle in the locality.

SEE ALSO: Philippine Congress extends martial law to end-2017

The commander-in-chief’s second visit to the besieged city, just like the first, was unannounced. Officials only confirmed the visit when the President already left the area.

Duterte also reiterated his pledge of putting up a PHP50 billion (US$993 million) trust fund for the children of soldiers and police personnel.

Wearing on now for the third month, the war in Marawi has killed 122 military and police personnel and 45 civilians as of Monday’s data from the government.

Five more terrorist gunmen were killed, bringing their fatalities to 528, the data showed, adding that 603 firearms were recovered from them.

Diplomacy to defuse India, China border crisis slams into a wall - sources

Sanjeev Miglani-AUGUST 8, 2017

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's diplomatic efforts to end a seven-week military standoff with China have hit a roadblock, people briefed on the talks said, prompting Chinese state-run media to trumpet rhetoric of "unavoidable countermeasures" on the unmarked border.

China has insisted that India unilaterally withdraw its troops from the remote Doklam plateau claimed by both Beijing and Indian ally Bhutan.

But China did not respond to India's suggestion in the talks that it move its troops back 250 metres (820 ft) in return, said one source with close ties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.

In the low-key diplomatic manoeuvres that took place outside the public eye, the Chinese countered with an offer to move back 100 metres (328 ft), so long as they received clearance from top government officials.

But there has been no comeback since, except for China's mounting warnings of an escalation in the region, which it calls Donglang.

"It is a logjam, there is no movement at all now," said a second source with knowledge of the talks.

In Beijing, China's Foreign Ministry, which has repeatedly urged India to withdraw, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the state of talks.

Indian troops went into Doklam in mid-June to stop a Chinese construction crew from extending a road India's military says will bring China's army too close for comfort in the northeast.

Their faceoff since, military experts say, is the most serious since going toe-to-toe in the 1980s, with thousands of soldiers each, elsewhere along the 3,500-km (2,175-mile) border.

China has held off going to war in the hope New Delhi would see reason, the state-run Global Times, which has kept up a barrage of hostile commentary, said on Tuesday.

"If the Narendra Modi government continues ignoring the warning coming from a situation spiralling out of control, countermeasures from China will be unavoidable," it said.

The border crisis caps a year of souring diplomatic ties between the Asian giants, even though trade between the fast growing economies is rising rapidly.

India has grown concerned at China's ties to its arch rival Pakistan, viewing their trade corridor across Kashmir as an infringement of its claim to the whole of the region.

Modi refused to join President Xi Jinping's signature Belt and Road initiative to knit together Asia and beyond, making India the lone country to boycott a summit in May.

China has warned New Delhi not to be drawn into a Western military alliance led by the United States and including Japan. Modi has sought closer ties with both.

"There will be no happy ending for this confrontation," Indian foreign policy expert C. Raja Mohan wrote in the Indian Express newspaper, adding that India was unlikely to give in.

The second source said the worry was the standoff could drag on into a summit of BRICs nations China is hosting next month.

LIVE MANOEUVRES

Indian military officials say there is no troop buildup on either side, nearly two months into a standoff that involved about 300 soldiers just 100 metres (328 ft) apart on a plateau 3,000 m (10,000 ft) above sea level.

China has accused India of massing troops, however, and state media have warned against a fate worse than its defeat in a brief border war in 1962.

"We will keep engaging with China to resolve the dispute. War cannot solve problems," Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj told parliament, sticking to a conciliatory stance.

Still, both have flexed their muscles.

Last month, China held live-fire drills on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau near the site of the standoff, state media said.

India's army ran low-key exercises in the Ladakh sector of the western Himalayas, where previous disputes have flared, though it is thousands of miles distant from Doklam.

"The chance of a conflict is low, nobody is expecting Xi Jinping to go to war before the Communist Party's congress," said Srikanth Kondapalli, a China specialist at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, referring to an Oct-Nov meeting expected to confirm a second five-year term as party general secretary for the Chinese leader.

Additional reporting by Ben; Blanchard in BEIJING and Fayaz Bukhari in SRINAGAR; Editing by Clarence Fernandez

No ‘first lady’ title for Brigitte Macron after petition over her status

Aides to Emmanuel Macron, the French president, insist his wife’s role will be strictly public and not political

 Brigitte Macron’s role will be made clear when a ‘transparency charter’ is published in the coming days. Photograph: Reuters

Kim Willsher-Tuesday 8 August 2017

The French president’s wife, Brigitte Macron, will not be given an official “first lady” title or her own budget, the French government has said following a petition against a proposed change to her status.

A “transparency charter” will be published in the next few days to clarify the position of Emmanuel Macron’s wife, but presidential aides insist her role will be strictly public and not political.

The Élysée has made no official announcement, but officials were forced to react after the petition opposed to the president’s spouse having an official title, status and budget was signed by more than 275,000 people in two weeks.

During his election campaign, Macron promised to “clarify” his wife’s role to “end the hypocrisy” over the situation. One of Macron’s first actions after taking power was to set up a working party to examine the “first lady” position.

A YouGov poll for the French edition of the Huffington Post in May suggested 68% of the French public was opposed to the head of state’s spouse being given an official role.

The issue has sparked particular controversy at a time when French parliamentarians are facing a new “morality law” banning them from employing their spouses or family members.

The proposed charter to clarify Brigitte Macron’s status will define a clear role for the president’s spouse and make public for the first time the precise number of staff working for her and the total cost to the French taxpayer.

At present, neither the French constitution nor protocol establishes any rules and previous presidents’ spouses made it up as they went along. Their public and charity work is financed out of the Elysée’s annual budget of €5m-€7m (£4.5m-£6.3m).

Presidential staff insisted the apparent change of heart was not prompted by the petition but by the reflections of the working group.

Christophe Castaner, the government spokesman, tweeted: “Brigitte Macron has a role and responsibilities. We are looking to be transparent and to outline the means she has at her disposal.”
“No modification of the constitution, no new funding, no salary for Brigitte Macron. Stop the hypocrisy!” Castaner wrote in a series of tweets.

“She receives more than 200 letters a day … and keeps a link with the French public with the greatest discretion.”

In an interview with France2 television, Castaner said: “We are not talking about a job; we’re just talking about her status. A job is remunerated. The wife of the president of the republic receives no remuneration and will receive no remuneration for her action, even though she is continually present at her husband’s side.

“This is just a question of transparency.”

Macron, whose popularity has plunged after only three months in office, is also facing a challenge from defiant politicians who threaten to scupper a vote on his “morality law” curtailing certain privileges, including the right to employ relatives.

The new legislation, aimed at cleaning up French public life after a series of scandals, was a pillar of Macron’s presidential campaign, but needs an absolute majority of 289 out of 577 MPs in the Assemblée Nationale. Since the vote was postponed last Thursday, the original date for the end of the parliamentary session, many MPs have gone on holiday.

Members of the governing La République en Marche are under orders to be present for the vote on Wednesday before the Assemblée Nationale goes into the summer recess, but not all will comply.
One LREM rebel Jean-Michel Clément is refusing to return to Paris to vote. He dismissed the morality law as “not a priority … useless and intellectually poor”.

“In any case, there’s not much point sitting with a fat majority when we’ve been ordered to keep quiet. Spending time sitting on the benches saying nothing is not my idea of parliamentary life,” Clément told France Info radio.

Jean-Christophe Lagarde, an MP for Les Centristes party, told Le Parisien the vote could wait until la rentrée – the mass return to work in September after the summer holidays.


“If the vote has been delayed it’s because of a mess-up by La République en Marche! We could have waited until la rentrée to vote, but the government wants to grab headlines with a stupid bill right in the middle of August.”

Will the Party of Nelson Mandela Die So That Jacob Zuma Can Live?

South Africa’s Teflon president has survived six attempts on his political life. Even if he survives a seventh, the damage to Africa’s most storied liberation movement is done.

BY KRISTA MAHR-AUGUST 7, 2017

JOHANNESBURG — President Jacob Zuma sat with crossed arms under a tent in Bloemfontein, one of South Africa’s three national capitals, waiting for the crowd to settle down and let him speak.

The crowd never did.

For more than an hour, a jeering throng of trade unionists refused to let the president get on stage to make his annual May Day speech on May 1, instead raising their fists and shouting, “Zuma must go!” Leaders of the country’s largest federation of trade unions, COSATU, which has been allied with Zuma’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) since 1990, pleaded with their rank and file to let the rally continue. Eventually, Zuma stood up, smiled and shook a few hands, and then left the grounds in his shiny motorcade.
So it goes these days in South Africa, where the scandal-plagued Zuma is dragging Africa’s most storied liberation movement to historic depths. The Teflon president has survived six attempts by the opposition to oust him from office, even as fresh allegations of corruption and cronyism pile up against him. But the ANC has not been so lucky, having sustained what may be lasting damage every time it is forced to stand behind its increasingly unpopular leader.

Now, with 2019 elections looming large, the party must grapple with a previously inconceivable notion: being voted out of power by the country’s black majority.
On Aug. 8, Zuma, who is 75, will run the gantlet again, when lawmakers vote on yet another motion of no confidence that could cost him his job. As he has done time and again, most analysts expect Zuma to survive on the back of the ANC’s parliamentary majority. (The ANC holds nearly 250 of the National Assembly’s 400 seats while the Democratic Alliance, the next largest party and the one that tabled the motion, has only 89.)
But there is at least a small chance that this time could be different. The ANC’s famously united front has begun to fracture in recent months. Infighting between the party’s pro- and anti-Zuma factions erupted publicly in March, after Zuma sacked his respected finance minister, a move that caused the country’s credit rating to be downgraded to junk.
More recently, as emails leaked to the local press have implicated Zuma and his allies in an influence-peddling scandal involving the wealthy Gupta family, more ANC members have publicly distanced themselves from the president, the latest being Mondli Gungubele, who in late July said he planned to vote against Zuma on Aug. 8. The party slammed him for being out of order, calling his decision to speak to the press “the most extreme form of ill-discipline.”

Perhaps most importantly, the vote will be conducted by secret ballot, instead of the usual open electronic voting system, which will shield ANC parliamentarians from party retribution if they turn on their leader. The opposition had been campaigning hard for a secret ballot, and in a surprise decision Monday, National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete announced the procedural change.
But even with the cloak of anonymity, there is no guarantee that a critical mass of ANC parliamentarians will break rank. ANC members who vote against Zuma face losing their jobs no matter what, according to Aubrey Matshiqi, an independent political analyst in Johannesburg. “They are defending their own personal interests” by supporting Zuma, he said, since a leadership shake-up could end up costing members of the rank and file their seats when the party’s list of candidates — the order of which determines seat allocations in South Africa’s list system of proportional representation — is compiled afresh by the new leaders. “If leaders are replaced, they are replaced by party processes,” said Steven Friedman, a professor of politics at the University of Johannesburg.
Even if Zuma survives yet again, the damage to the ANC may already be done. No-confidence motions are terrific political theater, and they force the ruling party to defend the wildly unpopular Zuma on center stage. (Sixty-five percent of respondents in a May poll by eNCA/Ipsos said he should resign.)

“The disrespect for the current ANC as it has become is really pretty widespread,” said Susan Booysen, a politics professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. “The ANC is really in an existential crisis.”

Electoral numbers tell a similar story. The ANC’s support has dropped from nearly 70 percent in 2004 national polls to just over 62 percent in 2014. In the last local elections, in August 2016, the party had its worst-ever showing, losing control of the key cities of Johannesburg and Tshwane and the longtime ANC stronghold of Nelson Mandela Bay. The rejoinder to the party’s dwindling popularity in cities has been that its rural support base is stronger, but when two-thirds of South Africans live in cities, the overall trend lines don’t bode well for the party.

Much of the electoral damage has been done by Zuma himself. “His image crisis has caused collateral damage to the image of the party,” Matshiqi said. “The factions that support him have become a metaphor for everything venal and corrupt in the state.”

Zuma is due to step down as party leader in December, although he could stay on as head of state until 2019. But the ANC is likely to feel the effects of his embattled tenure for many years after that. In the last few months, there have been rumblings of a potential political earthquake: COSATU and the South African Communist Party (SACP), both of which have backed the ANC for the last 27 years, have signaled that their allegiance to the party of Nelson Mandela is not unconditional. Both have called on Zuma to step down, and the SACP recently said it will contest future elections on its own, instead of running candidates under the ANC banner as it has done since 1994. COSATU plans to formally consult its members in order to decide whether or not the alliance should continue.

“Do we keep the alliance, or do we accept that it has failed?” said Sizwe Pamla, COSATU’s national spokesman. “That will be up to the workers.”

With 1.7 million members, most of whom support the ANC, the loss of COSATU’s support is no small matter in a country where 26.3 million people were registered to vote in 2016. Zuma has been “reckless,” Pamla said. “His family has been looting, his friends have been looting, and in the process he has weakened the state, divided the ANC, divided the alliance. We continue to deal with the mess, and it will take a long time to clean up.”

The ANC’s official reaction to dissension within its ranks has only left it looking more divided. In recent weeks, party leaders have been slugging it out in the local press with ANC parliamentarians who are speaking out against Zuma. On Mandela’s birthday on July 18, ANC parliamentarian Makhosi Khoza from KwaZulu-Natal, Zuma’s home area, lashed out at Zuma and the party, calling on the president to step aside and saying she was trying to “rescue the little that is left, if any, in my organization’s moral conscience.” The KwaZulu-Natal chapter of the ANC’s women’s league noted with “disgust” Khoza’s “unscrupulous behavior.”

But the ANC’s declining fortunes are not the doing of one man. Zuma may have become a symbol of all that’s wrong with South Africa, but he is not the cause of all that is wrong with it. Twenty-three years after the country’s first free elections, the majority of South Africans are still effectively excluded from the economy. Official unemployment hovers just below 30 percent, and the nation is ranked among the most unequal societies in the world. The failure of the ANC to address these problems in more than two decades in power has inflicted longer-lasting damage on the party than any one president could inflict. “Zuma is simply a symptom of that” broader failure, Friedman said. “It’s not him. It’s them.”

Photo credit: ODD ANDERSEN/AFP/Getty Images

Divorce and separation is increasing in Bangladesh

The statistics bureau of Bangladesh recently published a report about the percentage of divorce and separation in Bangladesh. According to their statistics, the percentage has been increased double in five years.

by Swadesh Roy-Aug 8, 2017

( August 8, 2017, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) A female executives of a private bank, is not only a good banker but also a good writer. She is about forty years old and achieved a prestigious position in the society. Her husband is a construction engineer of a government office but comparing with her wife, he gets a poor salary. Besides, apart from his work he has no other qualities. For this reason, only few numbers of government officers and his relatives know him. His life is not that much busy as his wife. Being a senior most executive, she has to conduct many trainings and meetings in the bank. Sometimes she has to leave her station; even her bank organizes their annual general meeting in Bangkok. So as a good banker her lifestyle is gorgeous. On the other hand, as a writer, she has a lot of fans and writer- friends who are also renowned persons in the society.

Primarily, her husband was happy with her lifestyle, but at this midlife stage he is getting envious. They have two children, all grown-up. They were leading a happy life and their mother was giving them all the facilities. Even on the weekend, when they dine in any posh restaurant, their mother always tries to meet their choice. It becomes a happy and exclusive day for them. But now-a-days their father unnecessarily creates such an awful situation in the restaurant which does not go with them. Even, sometimes he pressurizes his wife to give up her writing, because their girl is growing up and she needs more company of her mother. It is another way of showing envious with his wife. Gradually it has become a regular event of their family.

The lady who is a good banker and a good writer can understand these all. She thinks that she has two ways: firstly, she can give up her writing and stay with her husband. Secondly, she has to go for separation. She thinks that, if she gives up her writing and stay with his husband, she may not love him. Rather, she has to live with a man who is not her love. On the other hands, she has to give up one of her loves which has given vast inspiration to her life every moment. Thinking for couple of days, she sends a divorce letter to the city corporation notifying that she will not continue her life with her husband. She has no demand to her husband except let her children stay with her until they become university graduate. She is now a single mother writing more than before and recently she has been promoted in her bank as well. It is one of the case studies of the upper middle class family of Dhaka city.

On the other case, is only seventeen. Her father was bound to give her marriage when she was only fourteen and a half years old. She lives in a remote village at the northern district Rajshahi in Bangladesh. After one and half years of her marriage, she gave birth to a dead child and was attacked by some diseases like shortage of iron in the blood etc. But her mother in law took her to a Fakir (one kind of spiritual man but basically they are cunning people and it is their earning way). The Fakir gave her some holy water and she was suggested to use on her head every morning. Within six months she got sicker. In the meantime, her husband declared that, he would marry again because this wife was unable to give birth. Even she is not compatible enough for his sexual pleasure because of her poor health condition. Her husband married again and within a month he started to torture his first wife brutally like an animal. Within two months, she was forced to leave her husband’s house and return to her widow mother.

The statistics bureau of Bangladesh recently published a report about the percentage of divorce and separation in Bangladesh. According to their statistics, the percentage has been increased double in five years. But, it is very sad that the cause of divorce and separation for personality clash and other factors which occur in the upper middle class or upper class families are less than that of in the poor class families. Even in the poor class families, a huge number of separations are not counted. It has no record. It happens in the poor class families due to ignorance and the marriage of underage girl.

The government of Bangladesh had to compromise with the fundamentalist regarding the age of marriage of the girls. The government firstly wanted to enforce a law that girl will not be eligible for marriage until they are eighteen but ultimately they have to surrender to the fundamentalist. So they have added a clause with the marriage rules that if two parties agree, sixteen years can be the girl’s age of marriage. Unfortunately, in the remote villages sometimes a girl gets married at thirteen to fourteen.

Swadesh Roy, Executive Editor. The Daily Janakantha, Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is a highest state award winning journalist; and can be reached at swadeshroy@gmail.com

Are Britain’s prisons a ‘disaster waiting to happen’?

By Martin Williams-8 AUG 2017

Last month saw a spate of prison riots, with violence breaking out at jails in Hertfordshire and Worcestershire.

Some commentators claimed the unrest was “a disaster waiting to happen,” because of the growing pressure on prisons.

But what’s really going on in Briton’s prisons? And are prison officers facing an uphill battle to stay in control?

Are Britain’s prisons a ‘disaster waiting to happen’.docx by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

Are YOU stressed? It can cause people to sense danger in harmless situations

Stress makes people sense danger in harmless situations, new research reveals (stock)

• Stress can cause people to misidentify cues as dangerous for self-defense
• This may explain why PTSD symptoms are worse during periods of stress
• As well as why repeated stress and trauma during war increases the risk of PTSD
• Experts believe these findings could help to treat PTSD symptoms via prevention

By ALEXANDRA THOMPSON HEALTH REPORTER FOR MAILONLINE-8 August 2017

Stress makes people sense danger in harmless situations, new research reveals. 

Humans are thought to have learned to identify dangerous scenarios for self-defense, however, certain circumstances can cause people to misidentify such cues. 

Researchers found people respond with fear when their stress levels are high. 

Suzannah Creech, associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas, who was not involved in the study, said: 'These findings provide important laboratory data that helps explain why PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] symptoms are often exacerbated during times of stress, and how repeated stress and trauma in the battlefield may lead to increased risk for PTSD.'

Experts believe the findings could aid PTSD treatment.--

How the study was carried out  

Researchers from the universities of Texas, New York and McGill played healthy participants two notes, with one being followed by a shock. The shock was described as irritating but not painful.

The participants were asked about their experience of the shock.

Half of the participants then had their arm placed in an ice bath to raise their levels of the stress hormone cortisol. The remaining participants' arms were put in room temperature water.

All of the participants were then replayed the same two notes as before.

This was carried out immediately after receiving the shock and 24 hours later. 

Stress heightens fear 

Results reveal stress heightens people's fear response.

It also hindered the participant's ability to identify the note associated with the earlier shock.

Professor Lead author Professor Joseph Dunsmoor from the University of Texas, said: 'The human mind uses cues to danger learned over time for self-defense, but certain circumstances can cause people to misidentify those cues.

'Our research reveals that stress levels and the amount of time since an adverse event promote this type of overgeneralization.'

The non-stressed participants had only slightly raised fear responses and were able to correctly identify the note-associated shock.

These results only occurred in the experiment taking place 24 hours after the initial shock. It is unclear why stress is associated with a false sense of danger or why the findings did not occur immediately after the shock. 

The outcomes were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Professor Creech said: 'These findings provide important laboratory data that helps explain why PTSD symptoms are often exacerbated during times of stress, and how repeated stress and trauma in the battlefield may lead to increased risk for PTSD.

'The research may help improve PTSD treatment outcomes for veterans in part by helping us understand how we may be able to prevent it in the first place.'

NO EXTRADITIONS: PUNISHMENTS LOCAL!

 


 with Ravi Ladduwahetty-2017-08-07

"Terrorism will never cease in a country where the so-called leaders are criminals and terrorists in disguise."

The tragedies of enforced disappearances have impacted Sri Lankans across the ethnic landscape for decades. The use of enforced disappearances during the "youth insurrections" of the 1970s and '80s and during the protracted armed conflict by both, State and non-state actors is well documented. Despite several Commissions of inquiry, appointed by successive governments to investigate these incidents, the fate of thousands remains unknown.

Several such Commissions of inquiry have recommended legal reforms to address the issue of enforced or involuntary disappearances and to eliminate this phenomenon in the future. An overwhelming majority of these detailed recommendations remained unimplemented for decades. "....In order to address this issue comprehensively and to eliminate this phenomenon in the future as well as to fill an existing lacuna, the Lesson Learnt and Reconciliation Commission ( LLRC) strongly recommended that domestic legislation be framed to specifically criminalize enforced or involuntary disappearances."

LLRC REPORT SAYS

Report of the Commission of Inquiry on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation, 2011, 5.46 said that Sri Lanka signed the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED) in December 2015 and ratified it in May 2016.

In order to give legal validity to the ICPPED in Sri Lanka, the Government introduced the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance Bill, which was gazetted on 9 February, 2017 and subsequently tabled in Parliament.

There have been various opinions expressed in the media by politicians of the ilk of Ministers Prof. G.L. Peiris and Mangala Samaraweera in this context.

However, what needs to be stressed is that neither of them, is a Drafter of the Laws.

This Bill, International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, was gazetted and tabled in Parliament and did not proceed from there.

The Bill was not passed in Parliament as there was opposition to it. It was not even debated and died a natural death. This was under consideration and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has initiated the Bill, has withdrawn it from the Order Paper as well.

It is still a Draft Bill and could be rectified of any anomalies. The Bill, according to the introduction, is to punish any perpetrators who have been involved in disappearances of persons. It is a punitive act. The phase of it is, retrospective. If one analyzes it according to Case Law, it could be construed as retrospective from the date that the international convention had come into force. For instance, in the case against Sepala Ekanayake, who hijacked the Alitalia aircraft in 1976, it would go back to the date that the law was created internationally as an international crime and that it could date back to the date on which the international convention had come into force.

Although the law was enacted in Sri Lanka in 2004/2005,the law had been there from the date on which it (the Act) had come into force. This is because Sri Lanka's laws provide for retrospective application in relation to international crimes.

GENEVA CONDITIONS STAY

So, when Sri Lanka creates offences and when it comes to breaches, the Geneva Conventions will apply. Then retrospective effects are given to international crimes.

There will be a large number of countries where the breaches will be given retrospective effects.

Therefore, it will have a wider net than expected and therefore, it will be difficult to agree to former Foreign Minister-turned Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera that the laws should be prospective.

It will be also being difficult to agree with Prof. G.L. Peiris that there should be a net which is wider than necessary. It will go back to the time of the Convention.

OFFENSIVE PART OF THE BILL

However, the most offensive part of this Bill, is that anyone who is found to have committed this offence, could be tried either in Sri Lanka, if it is a crime committed here, or could be handed over to another country, to be tried in the Courts of that country!

So, to quote as an example, in the case of Sepala Ekanayake, he could have been tried in Colombo by virtue of the fact that he is a Sri Lankan or in Italy from where the Alitalia aircraft operated which is the country in which the airline operates, or in Thailand, as Bangkok was the International Airport where he forced the pilots and the Captain of that aircraft was to land.

However, the danger of the process lies in that if there is some person who has been found guilty of violating the Missing Persons Act, here in Sri Lanka, then the information which is available in Sri Lanka, could be transferred or transmitted overseas and he/ she could be tried by an international court of law.

The other danger is that the Government of Sri Lanka could also and always turn round and say: "Alright, if you found him guilty, you can try him in your country and we have nothing to do with it."

The Government also has the option of telling the Government of the other country that they have the option of visiting the International Criminal Court as Sri Lanka is a signatory to all those laws. So, this act could be so damaging to the Sri Lankan politician.

This is not the way forward. There is also the option of bringing amendments to the Act so that extradition of a Sri Lankan, who has committed this offence in Sri Lanka, should not be allowed.
Then let the person who is guilty of the offence of enforced disappearance, face the music in Sri Lanka! That should be the way forward.

This columnist could be contacted at raviladu@gmail.com