ByRobert Reich / RobertReich.org-March 14, 2018, 11:01 AM GMT Baby Boomers—my generation, born between 1946 and 1964—dominated politics and the economy for years. There were just more boomers than people of any other generation. But that’s no longer the case. Now, the biggest generation is the millennials, born between 1983 and 2000.
Millennials are different from boomers in 6 important ways that will shape the future.
1. Millennials are more diverse than boomers—so as millennials gain clout, expect America to become more open. More than 44 percent of millennials identify as a race other than white. And they’re more accepting of immigrants: 69 percent of millennials think that newcomers strengthen American society, compared to 44 percent of boomers.
2. Millennials are more distrustful of the political system than boomers—so as millennials gain power, expect more anti-establishment politics. A strong majority of millennials think the country is on the wrong track. Most disapprove of both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. Virtually no millennials—only 6 percent—strongly approve of Donald Trump, compared to 63 percent who disapprove. A strong majority—71 percent—want a third major party to compete with Democrats and Republicans.
3. Most millennials have a tougher financial road than boomers—so expect them to demand changes in how we finance higher education. According to Pew Research, millennials are the first generation in the modern era, “to have higher levels of student loan debt, poverty, and unemployment, and lower levels of wealth and personal income than any other generation at the same stage of life.” No surprise, then, that millennials are living at home much longer than previous generations, and getting married later.
4. Millennials view the social safety net differently than boomers—so expect them to demand that Medicare and Social Security are strengthened. As boomers move into older age, more and more of the federal budget is going into Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Many millennials even doubt Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will be there for them when they retire.
5. Millennials care more about the environment—so expect them to demand stronger environmental protection. Over 90 percent of them believe climate change is occurring, compared with 74 percent of boomers. Over 60 percent of millennials want to reduce the use of coal as an energy source, compared with 28 percent of boomers. And over half of millennials support a carbon tax, compared with 23 percent of boomers.
6. Finally, as wealthy boomers transfer $30 trillion to their lucky millennial heirs, expect millennials to demand a fairer inter-generational tax system. America is now on the cusp of the largest inter-generational transfer of wealth in history. As very wealthy boomers expire, an estimated $30 trillion will go to their children and grandchildren over the next three decades. The tax code allows these lucky millennials to inherit rich boomer assets without paying capital gains on them, and paying far lower estate taxes than previous generations. Expect this to change.
As I said, I’m a boomer—born the same year as Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Dolly Parton, among others. It’s up to you—the millennials—to fix a system we boomers broke.
Robert Reich is the nation's 22nd Secretary of Labor and a professor at the University of California at Berkeley. Reich's documentary, "Saving Capitalism," is streaming on Netflix. His latest book, "The Common Good," is available in bookstores now.
Correct politics is the life of a political party. It expresses itself through political strategy and tactics. Strategy and tactics are raised to people through slogans and on that basis; people are united and directed to struggle. So, it is long-term. Bangabandhu’s politics was correct and long-term.
by Anwar A. Khan-
( March 13, 2018, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) Remarkable political movements always employ slogans that encapsulate in a few powerful words the aspirations of those fighting for a new world. French revolutionaries fought under the banner, “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,” words that still resonate with radicals. The first words of the U.S. Constitution—“We the People”—have quickened the hearts of generations of populist activists. Emiliano Zapata’s soldiers longed for “Tierra y Libertad,” and the peasant armies of Mao Tse Tung went to war for “Land to the Tiller.” Similarly, “Joi Bangla” is such a powerful and most patriotic slogan for the people of Bangladesh to create their own homeland.
Every slogan has a context, circumstances that give rise to the words and make them effective. For example, when the Chinese communists were waging their long struggle against the army of Chiang Kai-shek, they relied upon mass support from peasants, who formed the base of the Red Army. By pronouncing the slogan of “Joi Bangla”, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman echoed and reverberated millions of voices at the speed of light from one end of the country to another to liberate Bangladesh from the brutal hands of Pakistan military junta and its local accomplices. The imprecise nature of political slogans is a virtue. Actual political programmes do not derive from words alone but from the balance of class forces that exist at a particular point in time. What slogans do is clarify the most basic political cleavages; they help people develop the mindset most suited to active participation in whatever struggles are at hand. “Joi Bangla” slogan has its glorified context. Bangladesh’s War of Independence in 1971 was valiantly fought against the blood thirsty Pakistan’s Army and their mango-twigs in the name of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and “Joi Bangla” slogan.
Words change meanings. In our daily life, we listen and say many things to justify our conversation – some words stay out in our mind, many go away with time. With human psychology, nobody can remember everything but when we say “Joi Bangla”, our mind may immediately pick up that we are talking about Bangladesh. Although slogans work slowly, but this slogan is electrifying and its mighty power are long lasting. The political slogan gives a good feeling to the people. Creating a prominent identity is what every political party desires and so getting an extra identity is surely a bonus. Slogan is sewed with our political name and is used everywhere along with it … so it technically works as a shadow for a political party’s name. “Joi Bangla” slogan, undoubtedly is the most powerful slogan which united the whole nation of Bangladesh into a solitary political platform to fight and achieve our own country, Bangladesh.
A political party name cannot stand alone as compressed communication to speak for its people. Thus political slogans have a key role in communicating the essence of a political party. Slogan is appealing as well as elaborate as compared to the one word noun. A phrase with a meaning is apparently easier for people to relate to and remember; thus the impact of this noun is accentuated with its shadow i.e. slogan. And “Joi Bangla” slogan is standing on this glorious spirit. A slogan actually works as a DNA for any political party. A truly successful slogan, if it is to continue to stay successful, is not just a benefit but a commitment – it is what the political party stands for! This DNA for the political party does not only attract the people but also helps in garnering the necessary support from the people. “Joi Bangla” slogan is much more than that.
Many times a slogan is actually a précis of a political organisation and is designed to mirror the commitment and loyalty of its people. Moreover, slogans can also work as bridge between the political party and the people to build and strengthen the relationship. Since it gives meaning to the name, it can create feelings and attract people towards it. Thus, a person can relate and eventually be inclined towards the slogan resulting in increase of supporters. “Joi Bangla” slogan’s support base was huge and it will remain huge in future. Slogans are usually based on a short sentence easy to remember words, long lines are hard to memorise, so the shorter the better! The message they leave and what picture they sketch in our minds when someone reads, hears or simply sees a slogan is crucial. Since the political name can not specify the essence of its goal, it has to make something memorable that represents the party and the country itself. We should keep an eye on the sound it produces and the nerves it touches when it strikes the people’s mind. “Joi Bangla” slogan truly touches our nerves to fight the evil forces.
Slogan also works best to display the real perspective for any political party, this way it can attract the larger audience easily and can also connect with them emotionally. “Joi Bangla” slogan has by right connected us emotionally with Bangladesh and its founding Father Bangabandhu. For more than 100 years, political parties have used slogans in their political movements. All political parties have used catchy phrases to tell their people what makes their political philosophy or service special or different. When done well, a slogan can become the centre-piece of a political party’s identity. “Joi Bangla” slogan is not only the centre-piece of Bangladesh Awami League but also the centre-piece of the country, Bangladesh as well as its entire people.
Political parties use slogans because it is an easy and quick way to grab the attention of the public by using simple and catchy phrases and “Joi Bangla” slogan is such a simple and catchy phrase but its power is strong-boned and strong-willed for emancipation of the people of Bangladesh. A very productive route for a political party to go down is a reliable slogan and “Joi Bangla” is such a reliable political slogan. The very slogan is believed to have that a phrase with meaning strikes more of a chord with the people and the country than just the political party name alone because the slogan is a deserving of esteem and respect; not only it gives the people a commitment but tells them what the party stands for deserving of esteem and respect of the same breath. “Joi Bangla” slogan has been exerting great power over the people of Bangladesh since long because it can give meaning to the name so it needs to apply to their everyday lives and should connect emotionally with them.
Political parties use slogans because it is an easy and quick way to grab the attention of the public by using simple and catchy phrases and “Joi Bangla” slogan is such a simple and catchy phrase but its power is strong-boned and strong-willed for emancipation of the people of Bangladesh.
The Sheikh’s electrifying voice on Mar 7, 1971 will remain alive all the time in our life, When he roared, “My brothers, today I appear before you with a heavy heart…The audience at the-then Race Course Ground (now Suhrawardy Uddan) hung on to every word of his 19-minute-long speech amid pin-drop silence 47 years ago. The crowd repeated after him when he was seen saying, “He didn’t agree with me, rather he (President Yahya Khan) yielded to Mr Bhutto’s demand.” And people assembled there erupted in an echo when he was heard uttering those immortal lines: “…The struggle this time is our struggle for emancipation, the struggle this time is the struggle for our independence.” The crowd endorsed in unison as the deep resolute voice of Bangabandhu was heard saying, “You can’t keep seven crore Bengalis subjugated. Now that we have learnt to court death, no one can dominate us.” People there present resonated with the cry of “Joy Bangla” as the speech concluded with that immortal slogan.
According to Valerie Ann Taylor, “Joi Bangla’ slogan worked miracle.” It is not only the slogan of the Awami League, it is the slogan of our Liberation War, it is the slogan of Bangladesh, and it is the slogan of our people. A slogan is a tag-line or phrase that creates to visually express the importance and benefits of a great speech. By and large, it is a theme to a struggle that usually have a genuine role in people’s lives. It has the ability to loan people’s time and attention by putting people at the heart of the solution. Fact is, it is so crucial for a great armed uprising to fight and defeat the Pakistani occupation forces.
Every day we see millions of messages and catchphrase everywhere from print media to online advertisements. True, there are some slogans that we know by heart but a millions of them have come and gone that we hardly ever noticed. What is it about a political slogan that catapults it into fame? Here is a solitary one: “Joi Bangla”. It is simple, catchy, short and easy to remember and it perfectly defines Bangladesh, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his political party. It makes the persons feel the taste and remind them of the slogan “Joi Bangla.” It also highlights our pre-independence exploitation, oppression and persecution by the Pakistani rulers and various facets of the Bengali struggle.
Aside from having outstanding political recall, the slogan of “Joi Bangla” – “V” factor that makes us look twice, think thrice and delight the imagination of success. According to Charles Whittier, “A political slogan should be a statement of such merit about a political service that is worthy of continuous repetitive pronouncement; it is worthwhile for the general public to remember; and is phrased in such a way that the general public is likely to remember it.” “Joy Bangla” is an all-time memorable political slogan. A goodeniaceae slogan must stay consistent and reveal the real purposes and benefits of the common benefits. Using proven words and short keywords Bangabandhu pronounced, “Joi Bangla” and the whole country became tumultuous and Bangabandhu received a tumultuous welcome from the people of all walks of life.
It is very indignant that after 1975 to till 1990, people, especially the young, used to feel shy in voicing the “Joi Bangla” slogan because they were taught that they shouldn’t utter it by the shenanigan politicians like Gen. Zia, Gen Ershad and a politician like Begum Zia. What is the meaning of the two words of that distinguished slogan? …. The meaning is victory of Bangladesh and its people. “Joi Bangla”— the slogan of the 1971 Liberation War— is raised by Awami League and its affiliate organisations and all people of Bangladesh during our glorious Liberation War in 1971. But it is not only the slogan of Awami League…it is the slogan of our independence…it is the slogan of Bangladesh…The future generation must utter the slogan louder shedding the shame.
Because the most popular and memorable Bengali slogan is “Joi Bangla” or “Hail Bangladesh.” Now the slogan is on everybody’s lips. Joi means victory. So, “Joi Bangla” means victory for Bangladesh. This was the war cry used by the Freedom Fighters during our glorious Liberation War in 1971. The country is moving forward and the youth will make the country forward further through their hard-work and merit. And this will be the future Joi Bangla. We must work hard for full revival of the spirit of Liberation War; and we all need to work together so that the future generation chants the “Joi Bangla” slogan in a louder voice.
For the reasons that the underlying spirit of Bangabandhu’s unique political activities was embodied in the slogan of “Joi Bangla.” The basic spirit has not changed since the country’s founding and will never be changed. The large crowd gathered to hear the historic speech of Bangabandhu was at its enthusiastic best, shouting “Joi Bangla” slogan and beating drums by dozens. People there then were moved. Since the advent of “Joi Bangla” Slogan, it fought the front-line battle to penetrate our minds, and win our hearts. Does this Slogan-bite exercise a profound influence on our language, people, and culture? In a word, yes! It moves the country-Bangladesh and the world as well.
Correct politics is the life of a political party. It expresses itself through political strategy and tactics. Strategy and tactics are raised to people through slogans and on that basis; people are united and directed to struggle. So, it is long-term. Bangabandhu’s politics was correct and long-term.
First, by putting forward basic political slogans that accord with the course of historic development and by putting forward slogans of action for each stage of development and each major turn of events in order to translate these political slogans into reality. So, in order to lead the whole masses of Bangladesh society, politics led by Bangabandhu had to make political strategy and tactics corresponding to the historic development of Bangladesh on the one hand, and strategic and tactical slogans as reflection of respective strategy and tactics on the other.
This slogan is correct with Bangabandhu’s stance for creating Bangladesh. Among the two aspect of people’s democratic revolution – national revolution and democratic revolution – the principal aspect is national one because Bangladesh is a colony, the whole nation was oppressed under colonial exploitation and rule and people want its end. The solution of this national revolution is to establish independent and sovereign Bangladesh and this was possible through national Liberation War in 1971 at the clarion call of Bangabandhu and his thunderous voiced “Joi Bangla” slogan. Bangabandhu’s strategy was to resolve national contradiction, to establish independent and sovereign Bangladesh by overthrowing Pakistan’s colonial ruling regime. While chanting this slogan, general people of Bangladesh sought oppressed and suppressed people’s victory over exploiters and dream of freedom and democracy in 1971.
So, raising the slogan “Joi Bangla” is truly patriotic; it means Bangladesh. This matches with the social development of Bangladesh. Clearly it expresses Bangladesh people’s national spirit, patriotism and victory. This is why this slogan ends any type of hesitation. This is the solution of the question of national liberation of Bangladesh and solution of any national contradiction. It matches with our politics. So, this is correct. It is definitely Sheikh Mujib, the most prominent figure in Bangladesh’s history, if you talk about Bangladesh and the “Joi Bangla” slogan. “This slogan epitomises the aspirations of Bengali people over a thousand years. Right after Bangabandhu’s six point demands, another slogan became popular: “Tomar amar thikana, Padma, Meghna, Jamuna” (The land that is criss-crossed by these rivers is ours.) This is also the reflection of the communal harmony that has always been the cardinal principle of Bengali culture.” “For the first time in 1971, the aspirations of people of all religions and social classes found a common platform,” Shamsuzzaman Khan clearly points out.
Two simple words can inspire a generation, unite a community, and change a nation. Two simple words can conjure up images of a multitude of movements. Two simple words can transcend cultural differences. These two simple words provided inspiration for the Bangladesh liberation movement, helped establish Bangladesh. These two simple words are: “JOI BANGLA!” This great slogan was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation. Yes, we have set up our own country. This slogan resonates positively within our community. A slogan is a memorable motto or phrase used in a political, commercial, religious, and other context as a repetitive expression of an idea or purpose. “Joi Bangla” is such a memorable and adorable political slogan.
A slogan can be used for a powerful cause where the impact of the message is essential to the cause. The slogan can be used to raise awareness about a current cause; one way is to do so is by showing the truth that the cause is supporting. A slogan should be clear with a supporting message. Slogans, when combined with action, can provide an influential foundation for a cause to be seen by its intended audience. Slogans, whether used for advertising purpose or social causes, deliver a message to the public that shapes the audiences’ opinion towards the subject of the slogan. The most memorable slogans are concise and to the point. Impossible is nothing. Possible is success. William Safire once wrote, “Good slogans have rhyme, rhythm or alliteration to make them memorable.” This gold standard of slogan has all four.
Our tactical line should be to destroy the anti-national, anti-independence and anti-liberation forces from this sacred soil of Bangladesh as the end result.
It was a quick and monumental about-face. The Sheikh’s slogan emphasised his reasoned demeanor and deliberate decision-making process. There are three simple communications devices that every campaign needs: a message, issues that support the message, and an effective political campaign slogan. Memorable slogans often use short “phrase bursts,” a staccato style that breaks up a longer sentence into easily-recalled phrases. “Joi Bangla” sounds with resonance of the same category.
Our tactical line should be to destroy the anti-national, anti-independence and anti-liberation forces from this sacred soil of Bangladesh as the end result. Long live “Joi Bangla” slogan. A diamond is forever. The power of dreams is for a limitless time. The taste of a new generation will grow up for “Joi Bangla” slogan. His master’s voice will remain eternal. We should say to rebel is justified. Smash the obnoxious nexus of anti-liberation forces from this country once and for all crying out in a very louder tone of “Joi Bangla” slogan. The spirit of “Joi Bangla” will remain immortal in the history of Bangladesh.
Tributes poured in on Wednesday to Stephen Hawking, the brightest star in the firmament of science, whose insights shaped modern cosmology and inspired global audiences in the millions. He died at the age of 76 in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
In a statement that confirmed his death at home in Cambridge, Hawking’s children said: “We are deeply saddened that our beloved father passed away today. He was a great scientist and an extraordinary man whose work and legacy will live on for many years. His courage and persistence with his brilliance and humour inspired people across the world.
“He once said: ‘It would not be much of a universe if it wasn’t home to the people you love.’ We will miss him for ever.”
For fellow scientists and loved ones, it was Hawking’s intuition and wicked sense of humour that marked him out as much as the fierce intellect that, coupled with his illness, came to symbolise the unbounded possibilities of the human mind.
“Stephen was far from being the archetypal unworldy or nerdish scientist. His personality remained amazingly unwarped by his frustrations,” said Lord Rees, the astronomer royal, who praised Hawking’s half century of work as an “inspiring crescendo of achievement.” He added: “Few, if any, of Einstein’s successors have done more to deepen our insights into gravity, space and time.”
The Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield lamented on Twitter that “Genius is so fine and rare”,
while Theresa May noted Hawking’s “courage, humour and determination to get the most from life was an inspiration.” The US rock band Foo Fighters was more succinct, calling Hawking a “fucking legend.”
Hawking was driven to Wagner, but not the bottle, when he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in 1963 at the age of 21. Doctors expected him to live for only two more years. But Hawking had a form of the disease that progressed more slowly than usual. He survived for more than half a century.
Hawking once estimated he worked only 1,000 hours during his three undergraduate years at Oxford. In his finals, he came borderline between a first- and second-class degree. Convinced that he was seen as a difficult student, he told his viva examiners that if they gave him a first he would move to Cambridge to pursue his PhD. Award a second and he threatened to stay. They opted for a first.
Those who live in the shadow of death are often those who live most. For Hawking, the early diagnosis of his terminal disease, and witnessing the death from leukaemia of a boy he knew in hospital, ignited a fresh sense of purpose. “Although there was a cloud hanging over my future, I found, to my surprise, that I was enjoying life in the present more than before. I began to make progress with my research,” he once said. Embarking on his career in earnest, he declared: “My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is and why it exists at all.”
He began to use crutches in the 1960s, but long fought the use of a wheelchair. When he finally relented, he became notorious for his wild driving along the streets of Cambridge, not to mention the intentional running over of students’ toes and the occasional spin on the dance floor at college parties.
Hawking’s first major breakthrough came in 1970, when he and Roger Penroseapplied the mathematics of black holes to the universe and showed that a singularity, a region of infinite curvature in spacetime, lay in our distant past: the point from which came the big bang.
Penrose found he was able to talk with Hawking even as the latter’s speech failed. Hawking, he said, had an absolute determination not to let anything get in his way. “He thought he didn’t have long to live, and he really wanted to get as much as he could done at that time.”
In 1974 Hawking drew on quantum theory to declare that black holes should emit heat and eventually pop out of existence. For normal-sized black holes, the process is extremely slow, but miniature black holes would release heat at a spectacular rate, eventually exploding with the energy of a million one-megaton hydrogen bombs.
His proposal that black holes radiate heat stirred up one of the most passionate debates in modern cosmology. Hawking argued that if a black hole could evaporate, all the information that fell inside over its lifetime would be lost forever. It contradicted one of the most basic laws of quantum mechanics, and plenty of physicists disagreed. Hawking came round to believing the more common, if no less baffling, explanation that information is stored at a black hole’s event horizon, and encoded back into radiation as the black hole radiates.
Marika Taylor, a former student of Hawking’s and now professor of theoretical physics at Southampton University, remembers how Hawking announced his U-turn on the information paradox to his students. He was discussing their work with them in the pub when Taylor noticed he was turning his speech synthesiser up to the max. “I’m coming out!” he bellowed. The whole pub turned around and looked at the group before Hawking turned the volume down and clarified the statement: “I’m coming out and admitting that maybe information loss doesn’t occur.” He had, Taylor said, “a wicked sense of humour.”
Hawking’s run of radical discoveries led to his election in 1974 to the Royal Society at the young age of 32. Five years later, he became the Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge, arguably Britain’s most distinguished chair, and a post formerly held by Isaac Newton, Charles Babbage and Paul Dirac, one of the founding fathers of quantum mechanics.
Hawking’s seminal contributions continued through the 1980s. The theory of cosmic inflation holds that the fledgling universe went through a period of terrific expansion. In 1982, Hawking was among the first to show how quantum fluctuations – tiny variations in the distribution of matter – might give rise through inflation to the spread of galaxies in the universe. In these tiny ripples lay the seeds of stars, planets and life as we know it. “It is one of the most beautiful ideas in the history of science,” said Max Tegmark, a physics professor at MIT.
But it was A Brief History of Time that rocketed Hawking to stardom. Published for the first time in 1988, the title made the Guinness Book of Records after it stayed on the Sunday Times bestsellers list for an unprecedented 237 weeks. It sold 10m copies and was translated into 40 different languages. Some credit must go to Hawking’s editor at Bantam, Peter Guzzardi, who took the original title: “From the Big Bang to Black Holes: A Short History of Time”, turned it around, and changed the “Short” to “Brief”. Nevertheless, wags called it the greatest unread book in history.
Hawking married his college sweetheart, Jane Wilde, in 1965, two years after his diagnosis. She first set eyes on him in 1962, lolloping down the street in St Albans, his face down, covered by an unruly mass of brown hair. A friend warned her she was marrying into “a mad, mad family”. With all the innocence of her 21 years, she trusted that Stephen would cherish her, she wrote in her 2013 book, Travelling to Infinity: My Life With Stephen.
In 1985, during a trip to Cern, Hawking was taken to hospital with an infection. He was so ill that doctors asked Jane if they should withdraw life support. She refused, and Hawking was flown back to Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge for a lifesaving tracheotomy. The operation saved his life but destroyed his voice. The couple had three children, but the marriage broke down in 1991. Hawking’s progressive condition, his demands on Jane, and his refusal to discuss his illness, were destructive forces the relationship could not endure, she said. Jane wrote of him being “a child possessed of a massive and fractious ego,” and how husband and wife became “master” and “slave”.
Four years later, Hawking married Elaine Mason, one of the nurses employed to give him round-the-clock care. The marriage lasted 11 years, during which Cambridgeshire police investigated a series of alleged assaults on Hawking. The physicist denied that Elaine was involved, and refused to cooperate with police, who dropped the investigation.
Hawking was not, perhaps, the greatest physicist of his time, but in cosmology he was a towering figure. There is no perfect proxy for scientific worth, but Hawking won the Albert Einstein award, the Wolf prize, the Copley medal, and the Fundamental Physics prize. The Nobel prize, however, eluded him.
He lectured at the White House during the Clinton administration – his oblique references to the Monica Lewinsky episode were evidently lost on those who screened his speech – and returned in 2009 to receive the presidential medal of freedom from Barack Obama. His life was played out in biographies and documentaries, most recently The Theory of Everything, in which Eddie Redmayne played him. He appeared on The Simpsons and played poker with Einstein and Newton on Star Trek: The Next Generation. He delivered gorgeous put-downs on The Big Bang Theory. “What do Sheldon Cooper and a black hole have in common?” Hawking asked the fictional Caltech physicist whose IQ comfortably outstrips his social skills. After a pause, the answer came: “They both suck.”
Hawking has argued that for humanity to survive it must spread out into space, and has warned against the worst applications of artificial intelligence, including autonomous weapons.
Hawking was happy to court controversy and was accused of being sexist and misogynist. He turned up at Stringfellows lap dancing club in 2003, and years later declared women “a complete mystery”.
In 2013, he boycotted a major conference in Israel on the advice of Palestinian academics.
Some of his most outspoken comments offended the religious. In his 2010 book, Grand Design, he declared that God was not needed to set the universe going, and in an interview with the Guardian a year later, dismissed the comforts of religious belief.
“I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail,” he said. “There is no heaven or afterlife for broken-down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”
He spoke also of death, an eventuality that sat on a more distant horizon than doctors thought. “I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die,” he said. “I have so much I want to do first.”
What astounded those around him was how much he did achieve. He leaves his three children, from his first marriage to Jane Wilde, and three grandchildren.
The 84-year-old man arrived in the emergency room with complaints that weren't uncommon for a patient his age.
He had reported feeling unsteady over the past several months, culminating in repeated falls in recent weeks. In the three days leading up to his hospital visit, his left arm and leg had noticeably weakened.
Still, there were no red flags in the man's medical history. He didn't smoke. He rarely drank. A blood test detected nothing abnormal.
“There was no confusion, facial weakness, visual or speech disturbance,” doctors stated in a summary of the man's case published Feb. 27 in the medical journal BMJ Case Reports. “He was otherwise fit and well, independent with physical activities of daily living ... and lived at home with his wife and two sons.”
In other words, doctors thought, there was nothing apparent that would have suggested a clear reason for his symptoms. In a way, they wouldn't be wrong.
It was only after CT and MRI scans that the patient's medical team made an alarming discovery: Where much of the man's right frontal lobe of his brain should have been, there was simply a large blank space.
Finlay Brown, a physician who was working in the emergency department at Causeway Hospital in Coleraine, Northern Ireland, at the time, remembers reviewing the brain-imaging scans with the rest of the staff.
"(We) were all very perplexed by the images we saw!” Brown told The Washington Post in an email.
(BMJ Case Reports)
The scans were so extreme, doctors wondered if the man had forgotten to disclose previous brain surgery or birth defects. He said he had not.
It turned out the man had pneumocephalus, or the presence of air in his cranium, a condition that is found in “nearly 100 percent of cases after brain surgery,” Brown said. It can also occur after sinus infections and head or facial injuries — but with pockets of air or gas that are far smaller.
In this case, the patient's pneumatocele — or pressurized air cavity — measured about 3½ inches at its longest, according to the BMJ Case Reports article.
“In my research for writing the case report I wasn't able to find very many documented cases of a similar nature to this one,” Brown told The Post.
The pneumatocele's likely cause, an MRI would show, was an osteoma, or benign bone tumor, that had formed in the man's sinus and was eroding through the base of the skull, Brown said.
The tumor's formation and location had allowed for something of a “one-way valve effect” that had gradually contributed to the cranial air cavity, he added.
“From speaking to the specialists, it seems it has been progressing insidiously over months to years,” Brown said. “When the patient sniffed/sneezed/coughed he would most likely be pushing small amounts of air into his head.”
The air cavity was also reported as a “rare cause” of a small stroke the man had suffered, which had likely led to the left-side weakness and other symptoms that prompted the man's hospital visit, according to the BMJ Case Reports study.
Brown said the patient could have undergone surgeries: One that would decompress the air pocket in his head and another that would eliminate the tumor that had created the “one-way valve” and allowed air to move into the cavity in the first place.
However, the man declined both, because of his age and other health factors. He was given medication to prevent a secondary stroke and sent home with orders to monitor whether his left-side weakness worsened.
His nonsurgical approach is not without risk: It's likely the patient will be at a greater risk for infection, since there remains a passageway for air — and therefore bacteria and viruses — into his brain cavity, Brown said.
“Unfortunately, as there are not many cases published, it is hard to know the exact prognosis,” Brown said.
So far, though, the man appears to be doing well, despite the cranial air pocket. During a follow-up appointment 12 weeks after his hospital visit, the patient reportedly no longer felt weakness on his left side and “remained well,” according to his case study.
Brown told LiveScience he wanted to publish this case study to stress “the importance of thorough investigation of even the most common of symptoms,” as an octogenarian's frequent falls and imbalance could have easily been written off.
\
“Because every now and then, there will be a rare [or] unknown causation of these that could be overlooked,” he told the science news site.
Sri Lanka faces twin pressure at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) currently meeting in Geneva as a result of the violence in Kandy.
The Council commented on the situation in Kandy last week and is expected to raise the matter further this week and next week.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, delivering his annual report and oral update in Geneva last week at the 37th session of the UNHRC, said that he was alarmed by the mob violence in Sri Lanka targeting ethnic and religious minorities, particularly Muslims.
“In Sri Lanka, I am very alarmed by recurring and continuing episodes of mob violence targeting ethnic and religious minorities, particularly Muslims, including most recently in Ampara and in several locations in the Kandy district, leading to the declaration of a nationwide state of emergency for 10 days. There should be no impunity, either for the incitement that led to the attacks, or the attacks themselves. I have repeatedly urged the Government to advance its implementation of the transitional justice agenda. I regret the absence of meaningful progress. It is urgent for the sake of the victims that progress be made on accountability and transitional justice. In the absence of such progress I would encourage Member States to explore the use of universal jurisdiction,” he said.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is to discuss Sri Lanka in full on 21 March when Sri Lanka will make a statement.
Speaking after the High Commissioner delivered his annual report, the British delegation in Geneva said it shares the concerns about recent inter-communal violence in Sri Lanka.
“We support the Government’s determination to end it swiftly, using measures that are proportionate and respect human rights, and urge it to hold the perpetrators to account,” Britain said.
Sri Lanka is already under pressure to deliver on its promises to ensure justice for the victims of the war, including those missing.
Several informal meetings and briefings were held on Sri Lanka in Geneva last week where the issue on the disappearances reported during and after the war were discussed.
This week, the report on Sri Lanka by the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review will be discussed.
The review of Sri Lanka was held at the 16th meeting in November last year. The delegation of Sri Lanka was headed by Minister Harsha de Silva.
In its report the Working Group had concluded that Sri Lanka must end impunity and ensure that perpetrators of incitement to hatred and violence are brought to justice in compliance with international law.
Sri Lanka was also urged to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act and enforce an immediate moratorium on its use and ensure that the draft Counter-Terrorism Act is compliant with international human rights standards.
Sri Lanka had also been urged to take comprehensive measures to ensure that the alleged war crimes and other human rights violations committed during the internal conflict are investigated and prosecuted, with the aim of ending impunity, expedite the ongoing process and establish a clear timeline to establish a truth-seeking commission and an Office on Reparations as well as a special court to investigate allegations of serious human rights violations.
The Government was also urged to develop a clear timeline and benchmarks for the full implementation of Sri Lanka’s commitments under Human Rights Council resolution 30/1, fully implement the recommendations of the Consultative Task Force on Reconciliation, adopt a national policy on the protection of journalists and human rights defenders to combat intimidation and violence, and to ensure effective investigation of such acts and prosecution of perpetrators, consider a large-scale transfer of land for civilian use in the northern and eastern provinces of the country and strengthen measures to eliminate all forms of violence against women, inter alia by criminalizing marital rape.
It was noted in the report that all conclusions and/or recommendations reflect the position of the submitting state(s) and/or the state under review and should not be construed as endorsed by the Working Group as a whole.
Sri Lanka, on its part gave an assurance to fulfil commitments contained in Human Rights Council resolution 30/1 towards the operationalization of the Office on Missing Persons, and the establishment of a truthseeking commission, an office for reparations, and a judicial mechanism with a special counsel.
As mentioned in the report, Sri Lanka had also given an undertaking to ensure, and strengthen, respect for the fundamental rights of all persons, including those from the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer community, and address concerns raised in that regard.
Sri Lanka said that it will also review and repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act, and replace it with new counterterrorism legislation compliant with international human rights standards.
His Excellency the High Commissioner of Human Rights and to the participants of the 37th Sessions of the UN Human Rights Council!
UN’s Participation is Necessary in the Implementation of Transitional Justice Mechanisms of Sri-Lanka.
The Government of Sri Lanka cosponsored the Resolution 30/1 which was adopted in the United Nations Human Rights Council on 1 of October 2015[1]. As the Government of Sri Lanka has not duly fulfilled its commitments which are enshrined in the resolution 30/1, the council has given an extension for a period of two years to Sri Lankan government in March 2017 by adopting the resolution 34/1 [2] to fulfill its obligations. But there are no signs from the side of the government to fulfill these commitments. The proposed transitional justice institutions such as Office of the Missing Persons, justice mechanism, office for reparation and mechanisms that guarantees of non-recurrence have not yet come into effect. Basically, there is no evidence that the government has policy plans to implement these mechanisms comprehensively. The government is engaging in ad-hoc activities to satisfy the international community. Until to date the fundamental rights are challenged by the militarization and ethno-political institutions that continue to be exist in North and East of the country. This is basically paralyzing the social life of the communities of these areas.
Featured image courtesy Pradeep Pathiran/AP This story is based on visits to both sites and testimonies of at least 10 survivors and about 5 eyewitnesses present RUKI FERNANDO-03/13/2018
As Sinhalese – Buddhist mobs were escalating violence against Muslims around Digana on March 5, the Hijrapura mosque in Digana had just finished afternoon prayers around 4 pm that day.
As usual, devotees were talking to each other outside the mosque, after the prayers. A few had continued to pray inside the mosque. Suddenly, a jeep full of uniformed, heavily armed men had arrived in a jeep and a couple of motorbikes and surrounded the mosque. Thanks to the camouflage uniform, the devotees had identified them as being from the Special Task Force (STF) of the Police. The STF had brutally beaten up the devotees and chased them as they started to run away. Numerous eyewitnesses and survivors described the brutalities unleashed by the STF in vivid detail.
When I met them on March 9, one man couldn’t walk at all, and several others were limping. At least one was reported to have been in hospital. Many showed me scars and wounds, on their back, arms and legs. Some had been injured through falls, as they were running to escape the assault and were also being chased by STF men.
Victim of #STF (Police commando unit) brutalties in #Digana#lka. AFM Fazli, Local Council member. He was discussing with Bud Monks, Police, Ministers to prevent violence from 24 Feb. Stil in pain after 6 days. Many others includung two Maulavis inside a Mosque also beaten by STF
The devout Muslims were horrified that the STF had rampaged through the mosque with their weapons and boots. “We can’t describe the filthy and abusive language the STF used,” said one eyewitness.
Two Moulavis were beaten up, even as they shouted identifying themselves as Moulavis. They were forced to hold a knife and iron pole (They later said they believed it was to implicate them in false charges). They were beaten when they refused. The Buddhist Monk in the nearby Temple had seen the incident on the roadside and had intervened to save the two Moulavis from the STF’s grip.
In a separate incident around 5pm also on March 5 in nearby Ambagahalanda, A. F. M. Fazil, a member of the Meda Dumbara Pradeshiya Sabawa (Local Council) was at a friend’s house. Suddenly the STF had entered the house and beaten up Fazil and his friend, and also an 18 year old boy who was there. Children, including two who were 2 and 9 years old, had witnessed the assault and had been terrified. Neighbors who had gathered and saw the incident, heard STF men saying “let’s say he tried throw a petrol bomb at us”. The politician’s friend’s hands had been tied behind his back. His feet and that of the 18-year-old boy had been tied together. They were then taken to a Police station, and the 18 year old boy was released, but the politician and his friend were detained overnight. A Deputy Inspector General (DIG) who had been at the Police station had suggested them to be taken to the hospital, but despite head wounds, the Sinhalese doctor on duty at the Teldeniya hospital that night had refused treatment, saying those who are responsible for killing “our people” should be in prison and not hospital[1]. Both men had been produced before a Magistrate on the morning of March 6 and released on bail. Four days after the assault, on March 9, scars on their body were clearly visible. Fazil’s head was till in bandages as of March 11 and he complained of headaches and body pains. He said he had 5 cuts on his head and had suffered injuries to one leg, an arm and his back.
Since the death of a Sinhalese person on March 3, after being severely beaten by some Muslim men on February 22, Fazil was part of a team of Muslim leaders who had been discussing with senior police officers and Buddhist monks about ensuring justice for the Sinhalese man and his family, and defusing potential tensions. Government Ministers also had been updated. According to Fazil, such discussions were held from February 24, long before the death of the Sinhalese man, and had continued until March 3, the day he had died. Discussions had been held in Digana as well as in the deceased man’s village. Fazil suspects STF may have targeted him for his role in trying (and failing) to prevent violence against Muslims by the Sinhalese – Buddhist mobs.
In both incidents, based on actions and words of the STF, the survivors believe the STF was attempting to frame them on false charges about possession of weapons, and by extension, shift the blame towards Muslims for some of the violence that happened around Digana last week. The words of the STF had also indicated a deeply anti-Muslim, racist mindset. The attack on the Moulavis and desecration of the Mosque by entering with boots and weapons, reminded me of attacks on churches, mosques and Buddhist temples during the war by Sri Lankan military and the LTTE.
It was not clear whether the STF personnel allegedly responsible for both incidents were the same. But some of the survivors claimed they were from Kegalle.
Some of the survivors I spoke to were scared to disclose their identities, have their injuries photographed, make a formal complaint or even seek medical treatment at government hospitals, fearing reprisals. However, many were keen to have the truth exposed and justice for perpetrators in order to prevent such incidents in the future. This note is written at their request, with the hope relevant authorities will take speedy action.
Editor’s Note: A report from Verite Research on restriction to religious freedom of Christians found police were often inactive even when physically present in incidents of violence against Christians, from 1994 to 2014. Groundviews repeatedly tried to contact the police spokesman for an official comment on this story, but did not receive a response. [1] This appears to be implying the injured to be responsible for beating and subsequent death of a Sinhalese man by some other Muslim men, who had already been arrested
Baby Boomers—my generation, born between 1946 and 1964—dominated politics and the economy for years. There were just more boomers than people of any other generation. But that’s no longer the case. Now, the biggest generation is the millennials, born between 1983 and 2000.
