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hatari-translations · 3 years ago

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can you maybe tell us a bit more about the parties in icelandic politics? that is super interesting for me after reading your last post

Well, sure! Please bear in mind that as you may have gathered I am not unbiased, and I'm by no means the most knowledgeable person about this.

Sjálfstæðisflokkurinn (The Independence Party)

Originally founded in 1929, this party's name originally referred to independence from Denmark (achieved in 1944), but today it's just Iceland's dominant right-wing party. On other countries' scales they're fairly center-right in terms of policies; they want a strong welfare system, they're pro-immigration, they're not against LGBT rights, etc. However, they are very much the party of Iceland's rich elite establishment, and in particular have close ties to Iceland's largest corporations, and every other political scandal involves them being varying degrees of terrible, from "Independence Party minister breaking COVID restrictions" to "Independence Party minister in the Panama Papers" to "Independence Party minister's father signs a letter to 'restore the honor' of a convicted pedophile" (these three were all the same minister, who by the way still leads the party and is still finance minister) to "terrible corrupt fishing company Samherji introduced the Independence Party's health minister as 'our guy in the government' at meetings with the Namibian officials they were bribing".

The Independence Party opposes the new constitution, ostensibly because blah blah stability distractions about how changes to the constitution need to be approved through the appropriate process (yes, we know, we want that process to happen), but we all know it's really because the new constitution would have the fishing companies pay a fair price for their access to Iceland's natural resources, and that would be bad for their bottom line. They are also opposed to joining the EU.

The Independence Party has been the largest party in every single Icelandic election since it was founded except the 2009 one (which was right on the heels of another scandal - believe me, I barely scratched the surface above - as well as the 2008 financial crisis), where they managed to dip below the Social-Democratic Alliance with 23.7% of the vote, their lowest parliamentary election result ever. Historically they'd get upwards of 40% or even more of the vote; these days it's more like 25%, and this election's result of 24.4% is their second lowest ever. Even in polls days right after a huge scandal, the lowest I've ever seen the Independence Party poll at was something like 19%; that's why I've said here that 20% of the country will just vote for them no matter what. This means the Independence Party is always the most powerful party, and them not being in the government coalition is very much the exception.

Framsóknarflokkurinn (The Progressive Party)

Iceland's oldest political party, founded in 1916. Originally it was the farmers' party, and they've historically been most popular in rural areas, where they have longstanding loyalty. They're more or less center to center-right. Historically, they've formed coalitions with both the right and the left, but particularly in the past few decades they have been glued to the Independence Party in particular. They have occasional particular pet issues that they latch onto, but overall it doesn't really feel like they stand for much of anything in particular, other than wanting to maintain the status quo and be in government with (preferably) the Independence Party. They are also against the new constitution and the EU.

Vinstrihreyfingin - grænt framboð (The Left-Green Movement)

Founded in a 1999 split on the left, the Left-Greens are a left-wing party with a focus on equality and the environment, but with enough of a semi-conservative bent to have some common ground with Independence and Progressives on matters like opposing EU membership and being hesitant about the Constitutional Committee's draft constitution. A lot of their voters were very unhappy with them entering into the current coalition with the Independence Party and the Progressive Party (the former in particular); two of their MPs actually left the party after that decision, reducing but not destroying the government's majority.

Samfylkingin (The Social-Democratic Alliance)

Founded in 2000 as a fusion of two parties (hence the 'alliance'), the Social-Democratic Alliance is a center-left social democratic party. They were very popular in the early 2000s, almost rivaling the Independence Party for votes, and formed a coalition government with Independence in 2007, which oversaw the 2008 financial crisis; initially people mostly blamed the Independence Party, allowing the Alliance to become the biggest party in the 2009 election with 29.8% of the vote, but as the following coalition with the Left-Greens had to deal with the fallout of the recession, a lot of anger was directed at the Alliance too, and the party has never managed to recover since, instead hovering between 5-15% of the vote (but still stands strong in some municipal elections and currently leads the Reykjavík city council). They want to join the EU and ratify the new constitution.

Píratar (The Pirate Party of Iceland)

You may have heard of Pirate Parties before, originating with the Pirate Party of Sweden. Iceland is the only country where the Pirate Party has actually managed to get elected to the national parliament, and is an entirely serious political movement. At one point after the revelation of the Panama Papers, the Pirate Party was miraculously polling at 43%; sadly, by the time there was an actual election they'd gone down to 15%. Their primary concerns are transparency, democracy, privacy, human rights and freedoms, and "no bullshit", and among other things they want to establish a universal basic income. A lot of its founders were computer scientists and geeks of various stripes.

They refuse to be classified on the left-right scale, but in practice, their policies are strongly aligned with the leftier parties (one popular website comparing the parties on concrete policy questions for this election classed them as having 90% agreement with the Social-Democratic Alliance, 87% with the Socialists, and 83% with the Left-Greens). They are strongly in favor of ratifying the new constitution.

Miðflokkurinn (The Center Party)

After the 2008 financial crisis, the Progressive Party gained a more populist bent, led by Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson, who was prime minister from 2013 until 2016 when he was implicated in the Panama Papers. He was reluctant to resign as prime minister and fully intended to stay as the leader of the party, until the party chose to boot him and replace him with current Progressive leader Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson; Sigmundur Davíð went off to form his own party instead, the Center Party, and took the populist arm of the Progressive Party with him. They're where most of the anti-immigration and anti-LGBTQ vote goes, and along with the People's Party, some of their MPs were implicated in "Klausturgate", a scandal where a disabled woman at a bar overheard and discreetly recorded several MPs (including Sigmundur Davíð) who were drinking together while making a variety of sexist, homophobic and ableist comments about named people including members of their own parties. The Center Party was perfectly happy to keep them on board, which really says all you need to know.

I am unendingly disappointed that the Center Party managed to scrape past the 5% threshold to get parliamentary seats this election; for a glorious moment the early numbers looked like they wouldn't. Last election they managed to get seven MPs, and then the two guys from the People's Party involved in Klausturgate joined up with the Center Party too, giving them nine, so seeing them reduced to almost nothing was still deeply pleasing.

Viðreisn (The Reform Party)

A center-right party that split off from the Independence Party in 2016, largely over the latter's opposition to the EU, while the Reform Party supports EU membership, but also because of the endless scandals, cronyism, etc. The Reform Party instead claim to be proponents of "ethical capitalism" and have so far avoided the major scandals and general douchebaggery of their parent party.

Flokkur fólksins (The People's Party)

A populist party with a primary emphasis on eradicating poverty, especially for the elderly and disabled, letting the nation reap the benefits of our fish instead of the few large fishing companies, funding health care to reduce wait times, and so on. All this is lovely in theory, but unfortunately their rhetoric then goes off into pitting the poor/elderly/disabled against immigrants, Muslims, etc. Chairperson Inga Sæland seems totally well-meaning to me off what I've seen of her (disclaimer: have not actually seen that much), but it also contains less savoury people and sentiments, as seen by two of their MPs being part of the aforementioned Klausturgate. To the party's credit, they did expel those guys, but it's not the only example of the party attracting questionable people.

Sósíalistaflokkur Íslands (The Icelandic Socialist Party)

A hardline democratic socialist party founded in 2017, with this as their first parliamentary election. It looked like they would get MPs in polls, but in the end they didn't. They're led by Gunnar Smári Egilsson, one of the original founders of free newspaper Fréttablaðið, and have a much more radical left rhetoric going on than the other lefty parties, focusing on economic equality, housing, free health care, and a shorter work week. They made some pretty controversial remarks campaigning for this election, such as suggesting replacing all the judges of the Supreme Court if they won't agree to changing the fishing quota system (the argument being that the Independence Party appointed all the judges in an organized bid to maintain the current system), but who knows if that dampened their following or something else. They also want to ratify the new constitution.

#iceland #politics #asks #asks: iceland

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mostlysignssomeportents · 5 years ago

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Neoliberals won't waste this crisis

"Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste: How Neoliberalism Survived the Financial Meltdown" is Philip Mirowski's 2013 book on how neoliberalism's true nature and virulence were exposed by the 2008 crisis.

https://www.versobooks.com/books/1613-never-let-a-serious-crisis-go-to-waste

Now, in a new interview with Jacobin's Alex Doherty, Mirowski lays out a sharp-eyed and alarming analysis of how neoliberalism is capitalising on the pandemic crisis and making ready to finalize its dominance over the human race and our planet.

https://jacobinmag.com/2020/05/neoliberals-response-pandemic-crisis

Mirowski says that the one ideology that binds together all strains of neoliberalism is the belief that "people are inherently bad cognizers — they can’t work their way out of their problems just by thinking."

And the corrolary to that is that markets' function as a corrective for our irrationality. Markets aren't an allocator of resources, they're "the greatest information processor known to mankind" - that's the Hayek conception and it runs through every strain of neoliberalism.

The implication of these two facts is that people don't know what's good for them, so they have to be led into a system of governance-by-market, by trickery, force, honeyed words, whatever it takes.

Hence the circular neoliberal debate:

"Why can't democracies tell companies to stop polluting?"

"Because companies' success is will of the people."

"I thought democracies were the will of the people?"

"No, that's what people say. Markets are what they DO."

The conviction that people don't really know what explains the neoliberal project and its vast array of rigidly disciplined thinktanks and pundits - the so-called "Neoliberal Thought Collective...a deep bench of ideas and people able to move very quickly when crises arise."

For Mirowski, "the Koch group are unapologetic Leninists - their line is 'we have to take over.'" When your group takes Koch money, it also has to take Koch perspectives.

By contrast, lefty funders like The Democracy Alliance (ironically) operate a "marketplace of ideas" where groups are free to disagree with one another. The left's allergy to top-down governance is why "the Left is set up to lose, if it keeps operating in that way."

It's why there's no leftist Mount Pelerin Society, and why left populism is genuinely populist, rather than astroturf ops like the Tea Party and its weird offspring, the anti-quarantine Flu Klux Klan.

The left's disarray allows the right to own this moment. exploiting the crisis to gut FDA controls over drugs, to institutionalize telemedicine (whose long-run outcome will be to deny poor people the right to ever see a doctor), and to remake pharma as a "heroic" industry.

And, of course, it's the perfect opportunity to kill off the US Postal Service.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/13/control-c/#art-1-sec-8

Mirowski is pessimistic about the left's chances to seize the crisis to advance its program: after all, House Dems haven't been able to get ANYTHING in the bailouts, not even a budget for comprehensive covid testing and treatment.

But he's just as pessimistic about the right's ability to retain control. Neoliberalism is going to destroy the economy and leave 30+% of workers in permanent unemployment. The paranoid militancy they fostered with the Tea Party will mutate into outright fascism.

Just as the Weimar establishment thought that Nazis were useful idiots who'd only terrorize their political enemies, only to lose control over these "fringe elements" that became "more fascistic, more racist, and more nihilist."

It's not the only parallel to the Holocaust to be drawn here. As Hamid Dabashi writes in Al Jazeera, the first move in Nazi esterminationism was the "involuntary euthanasia" of "life unworthy of life": people with mental and physical disabilities.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/coronavirus-prospect-mass-involuntary-euthanasia-200515122939558.html

This normalized the idea of worthiness of life, paving the way for mass extermination campaigns targeting Jews, Roma and others.

Today, we're being told that chronically ill and elderly people are unavoidable "collateral damage" in the "war" on pandemic.

The right's become a full-on death cult, willing to sacrifice unlimited numbers of expendable and dispensable human lives for "the economy." Even their own stalwarts - the elderly voters who are the GOP's most loyal base - are slated for liquidation.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/24/grandparents-optional-party/#turkey-shoot

Right on cue, the US government is procuring vast stockpiles of antipersonnel equipment: "disposable cuffs, gas masks, ballistic helmets, and riot gloves, along with law enforcement protective equipment."

https://theintercept.com/2020/05/17/veterans-affairs-coronavirus-security-police/

As Lee Fang writes in The Intercept, the newly armed Veterans Administration police are a microcosm of US elites' instinctual view of how the rest of us will act as things get hard.

It's a phenomenon familiar to readers of Rebecca Solnit's must-read 2012 book "A Paradise Built in Hell": the "elite panic" response that pre-emptively treats ordinary people as looters and rioters until proven otherwise.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/301070/a-paradise-built-in-hell-by-rebecca-solnit/

A final word to Solnit, who updates "Paradise" with a crucial Guardian essay:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/07/what-coronavirus-can-teach-us-about-hope-rebecca-solnit

"When a storm subsides, the air is washed clean and you can see farther and more sharply than at any other time. When this storm clears, we may, as do people who have survived a serious illness or accident, see where we were and where we should go in a new light. We may feel free to pursue change in ways that seemed impossible while the ice of the status quo was locked up. We may have a profoundly different sense of ourselves, our communities, our systems of production and our future."

#pluralistic

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biogenericpublishers · 4 years ago

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Meta-Cognition as a Predictor of Productive Learning Among Out-of-School Emerging Adults (15-25) Engaged in Mechanic Work in Buea Municipality, South West Region of Cameroon by Busi Ernest Neba in Open Access Journal of Biogeneric Science and Research

Abstract

The study investigated “Meta-cognition as a determinant of productive learning among out-of-school emerging adults engaged in mechanic work in Buea Municipality”. The specific objective is; To ascertain the extent to which executive functioning impacts productive learning among out-of-school emerging adults engaged in mechanic work in Buea municipality. Methodologically, the research design used was experimental design and the type of design quasi-experimental research design and exploratory research design with the aid of a pretest and posttest. The population of the study was made up of all apprentices between the ages 15 to 25 in mechanic garages, and trainers. The target population were 26 apprentices and 4 trainers and the accessible population was 12 apprentices and 4 trainers. The study took place in Buea in Cameroon in two mechanic garages. The instruments used for data collection were questionnaire, observational checklist and interview guide. The procedure for data collection was through observing and training the expert on psycho-pedagogy skills who later trained the apprentice and they were later tested. Pretest and posttest were carried out. The study was carried out in two mechanic workshops. Each of the garages had experimental and control groups. The sampling technique was purposive sampling technique. Quantitative data were entered using EpiData Version 3.1 (EpiData Association, Odense Denmark, 2008) and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Standard version, Release 21.0 (IBM Inc. 2012). Data collected from the field were subjected to both descriptive and inferential statistics. For the descriptive data, frequency distribution tables and charts were used to present and describe the data obtained. Cohen’s d was used to compare assert significant difference of the inferential statistics. The findings were as follows; executive function should constantly be applied in mechanic garages by the trainers so that apprentice can gain knowledge, aptitude, competencies and become productive.

Keywords: Metacognition; executive functioning; productive learning; out of school emerging adults; mechanic work.

Introduction

Metacognition entails that learners reflect with accuracy on their cognition [1]. Metacognition also requires planning, self-regulation of both cognition and affective or motivational states and allocation and other intellectual resources, executive functioning forms part of the construct. Carlson & Moses (2001) argue that executive functioning may be a prerequisite skill for the development of metacognition. Schraw & Moshman [1] posit that metacognitive development proceeds as follows; cognitive knowledge appears first with learners reflecting on their accuracy of the cognition an consolidation of this skills, ability to regulate next with dramatic improvement in monitoring regulation and evaluation in the form of planning and finally, construction of metacognitive theories, these theories allow for the integration of cognitive knowledge and cognitive regulation, as learners construct their own theories, come to reflect on their own thinking and learning. Productive learning involves bringing in skills, strategies that makes learning fruitful among out of school emerging adults from the ages 15 to 25.

Objective of the Study

1.1. General Objective

1. To determine the extent to which meta-cognition predicts productive learning among out-of-school emerging adults engaged in mechanic work in Buea Municipality

1.2. Specific Objectives of the Study

Specifically, this study is intended:

1. To investigate the extent to which executive functioning impacts productive learning among out-of-school emerging adults engaged in mechanic work in Buea municipality

Background to the Study

Metacognition is being aware of one’s own cognitive structure and learning characteristics. According Flavell [2] metacognition is a system which organizes information, experiences, objectives and strategies. Metacognition refers also to thinking about thinking, generally covers various skills that are inter-related to thinking and learning which are critical thinking, reflective thinking, problem solving, executive functioning, and making of decisions in the process of problem solving. Furthermore, the main indicator of this study is executive functioning as an indicator of metacognition which consist of those capacities that enable a person to engage successfully in independent, purposive self-serving behaviour. The Executive functioning asks questions how and whether a person goes about doing something. The executive function is thus conceptualized as having four components; violation, planning, purposive action and effective performance which each involves a distinctive set of activity related behaviour. According to Tchombe [3], cognitive learning takes place through mutual reciprocity. This is determined via participation which is oriented by cultural belief about knowledge, parent-child expectations and aspirations.

Therefore, the skills and competencies learners employ for meaning making through shared activities have enormous impact on how learners make decisions which is held by understanding of the dynamics of their cognitive developmental sequence. Productive learning here is skill learning, learning through experience that solve real life problems. Emerging adults are young people between the ages 15 to 25 who are out of school and engaged in mechanic work as apprentices with their experts. According to Lo-oh (2009) the implication in the lifecourse is evidenced in how young people conceive and define adult status today. According to him, in the African sub region in general and Cameroon in particular, the transition to adulthood is an arduous task characterized by several challenges.

Statement of the Problem

The problematic in this study is productive learning. The researcher observed that most apprentices in the mechanic workshop turn out to be less skilful in solving problems in cars when cars have breakdowns especially when the expert is not around, especially thinking out of the box to resolve problems in breakdowns like removing the engine, and other complicated mechanic repairs. Literature Review

Metacognition

Research activity in metacognition began with John Flavell who is considered to be the father of the field. Metacognition is a concept that has been refer to a variety of epistemological processes. Metacognition essentially means cognition about cognition; that is thoughts about thoughts, knowledge about knowledge. So, if metacognition involves perceiving remembering and so forth, then metacognition involves thinking about one’s own perception, understanding, remembrance.

Executive Functioning

Executive functioning includes responsible processes, for directing focus, managing and integrating cognitive functions related to everyday life tasks as well as new and complex problems. Executive functioning as used in this study describes a set of mental processes that helps connect past experience with present action through critical thinking. It involves thinking out of the box in order to solve a problem. Executive function is used in when the following activities are being performed that is planning, organizing, strategizing and paying attention to and remembering details.

Productive Learning

sees productive learning as learning through human development.

Productive learning is learning on the basis of productive activity in social serious situation, learning on the basis of experience by being able to achieve something important in one’s environment. Productive learning involves active and inquiry learning or integrating creativity, competencies, fostering learners’ ability to think critically and learn autonomously based on constructivism in order that learners produce creative things based on problem solving method.

The Concept of Mechanic Work

Mechanic work is a trade craftsmanship. Mechanic work involves application of specific knowledge in the design, selection, construction, operation and maintenance of automobiles. Mechanic work is geared to test, diagnose, service and completely maintain faults relating to the conventional automobile assembly like vehicles of different brands. Theoretical review

Vygotsky Socio-Cultural Theory (1896-1934)

Vygotsky believed that individual development could not be understood without reference to the social and cultural context within which such development is embedded. He states that using activity mediators, the human being is able to modify the environment and this is her way of interacting with nature. Hence, Zone of Proximal Development is actually the gap between actual competence level (what problem level a learner is able to independently solve), and the potential development level (what problem level could she solve with guidance from a tutor). It supports a representation of intellectual development based on continuity.

Transformative Learning Theory by Mezirow (1978)

According to Mezirow [4] transformative learning is the process of making meaning from our experiences through reflection, critical reflection and critical self-reflection. Meaning according to Mezirow means making sense of the day to dayness of our experiences. He eventually names this process perspective transformation to reflect change within the core and central meaning structures. Perspectives are made up of sets of beliefs, values and assumptions that we have acquired through our life’s experiences.

Method

1.1. Research Design

The researcher used a triangulation approach, where the researcher used both qualitative and quantitative research methods to collect data. An experimental design was used in this study supported with an exploratory sequential design. The type of experimental design was a quasi-experimental design which was chosen to identify an intervention effect using an experimental group and control group to ascertain treatment effects on experimental group, through pre-test and post-test. The procedures employed tests causal effect (XY) and test causal hypothesis. Starting by ensuring through a pre-test that the two groups are comparable and with a post-test repeating the pre-test including researcher constructed test to ensure change in design.

1.2. Instrument for Data Collection

The following methods were used to gather information from the correspondence. A questionnaire of 5 items per objective were conducted, an observational checklist and an interview guide was also designed that had statements from the following measures, coaching, scaffolding, executive functioning and productive learning measured the following; aptitude, mastery experience, attitude, discipline, knowledge, skills and competency development as seen in the appendices. A lesson note was prepared for mechanic work for the intervention with the used of the experiential learning as a teaching method.

1.3. Findings

Research hypothesis three: There is no significant relationship between executive functioning and productive learning among out-of-school emerging adults engaged in mechanic work in Buea Municipality. (Cohen’s d ): If the theoretical effect size is smaller than the calculated one, we then reject the hypothesis that the means are not significantly different at 90% power and at 95% CL with cohort sample 3 and a total sample size 6 as it is the case in our study context. As for the total score in executive functioning for mechanic in the experimental group, the mean at pretest was 9.5 and rose to 11.5 at posttest and this increase was significant (negative Cohen’s d). In fact, the theoretical effect size is smaller than the calculated one, we then reject the hypothesis that the means are not different. This therefore implies that there was a significant progression from pre-test to post-test.The significant improvement in productive learning score was as the result of improvement in executive functioning because such improvement was not obtained in the control group where no significant improvement was realized in coaching from pretest to posttest.

The hypothesis here stated is then accepted.

Executive Functioning and Productive Learning among Out-Of-School Emerging Adults Engaged In Mechanic Work

There was no significant difference between the two workshops for both masters and mechanics. As for the total score in executive functioning for mechanic in the experimental group, the mean at pretest was average and rose to at posttest and this increase was significant. This therefore implies that there was a significant progression from pre-test to post-test. This matches with Flavell [5] metacognitive theory who referred to metacognition theory as thinking about your own thinking. The root “meta” means “beyond”, so the term refers to “beyond thinking” [6-15].

Conclusion

To conclude, thinking out of the box enable out of school emerging adults to reflect, think critically and work positively towards a positive growth mind, that makes them gain skills, aptitude, knowledge, competencies, and are able to repair cars and engaged in car maintenance to solve car breakdowns [15-23].

More information regarding this Article visit: OAJBGSR

https://biogenericpublishers.com/pdf/JBGSR.MS.ID.00152.pdf

https://biogenericpublishers.com/jbgsr.ms.id.00152.text/ For more open access journals click on https://biogenericpublishers.com/

#Busi Ernest Neba Cameron JBGSR Mechanic wors Meta-Congnition OAJBGSR Predictor School westregion #Busi Ernest Neba #JBGSR #OAJBGSR #Meta-Cognition #South West Region of Cameroon #Mechanic Work

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jacobsillcommunication · 5 years ago

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Use of Typography in Films

Typography is an integral part of graphic design, and plays a role in many of the most iconic and memorable pieces of marketing. All ads (aside from perhaps hyper minimalist ones) use typography, but meaningful or creative use of text design can elevate a promotional poster to the status of art and pop culture. For our purposes today, I am going to be examining instances from film in specific, but it should be noted that examples of this kind of artistic typography can be seen in any kind of media. The specific examples I have chosen for this exercise are movie posters or title cards that I think help communicate the tone and style of the movie they’re promoting through creative uses of typography.

The first piece of media I will be looking at is this promotional poster for the 2008 film The Dark Knight. This movie is known for its grim and comparatively mature tone compared to other superhero films. It is also known for the historic inclusion of the insane and unhinged portrayal of the villain The Joker, played with perfect intensity by Heath Ledger. This poster draws attention to both of these important aspects of the film through typography alone. The movie title is in a bold, dramatic impact font, symbolizing the seriousness of the tone and subject matter. The stark white text casts a shadow and it is laid over a shattered version of the iconic bat symbol. The audience can expect darkness and some kind of fracturing as Batman as a person or as a figure. The more interesting use of typography is in the “Why So Serious?” written across the top of the poster. The phrase itself is one of the standout lines from the film, which is said by the Joker in a pivotal scene. What makes the type interesting though, is that it appears to be written in fresh blood. Not only that, but the Joker’s foggy figure can be seen through what seems to be some kind of murky glass. The red of the blood clues us into the violence, passion and rage of the film, and the fact that it is in fact blood does that as well. What is really excellent about this poster is that it is almost interactive. The tagline for the movie isn’t being printed on the poster by the studio, the character from the film is painting the words in blood himself, giving us a foreboding preview of the deranged clown that would stick in America’s minds for decades.

Next, and on a less intense note, I would like to examine the title card for Wes Anderson’s 2014 film The Grand Budapest Hotel. The text floats above the titular hotel, it’s golden yellow hues paired beautifully with the pink of the building, the blue of the snowy mountains, and the dark browns of the snowless cliffs. What I find marvelous about the use of typography in this frame is the handcrafted appearance of the letters. They appear to be cut pieces of paper, or wood carved, and the uneven coloring throughout emphasizes this aesthetic decision. Wes Anderson is known for his lovingly handcrafted and composed sets and shots in his films, he is also known for his indie ethos. The Grand Budapest Hotel is almost an encapsulation of all of his endeavors up to the point it was made and features stunningly handcrafted miniature sets for establishing shots. The text design reflects this crafted approach, and the regal font paired with the decorative arch for the word Budapest reflect the film’s high society, elegant setting. It also clues viewers into the frilly and whimsy filled world that Anderson’s films inhabit.

Last I would like to take a look at the promotional poster for the 2008 rom com 27 Dresses starring Katherine Heigl. The typography in this film poster is very clever, as it manages to take all of the required text for the poster and cram it into a shape to complete the image of the poster. This makes it unique, but it also adds into the theme of the film. The main character has been a bridesmaid 27 times, hence the title, so the text forms a dress for the character in the image, with the title standing out in pink as if it is a bow or embellishment, which helps emphasize the title while adding some style to the “dress”. The words are typed in a playful, hand-written sort of font, which clues you into the lighthearted nature of the film. The combination of white and pink also adds to the sugary sort of appeal of a film of this nature, and the dated use of pink to implicate a female audience is also employed here.

All in all, you need to have text to promote a movie or even to display the credits. Most movies do a fine job at matching the type face to the tone of the film. What really sticks in people’s memories are images in which the text says something about what we’re about to watch, or plays with our idea of how type even works. When you break the mold, and have the text of your movie poster be mysteriously written by the film’s central villain, or creatively use a shape to make boring text integral to the image of the poster, you have a potential to create an image that stands the test of time, and maybe outlasts the relevance of the film itself.

#film #movie posters #visual communication #class #assignment #essay #typography #citas textuales #type #text #fonts #colour

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dmitcounseling · 5 years ago

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DMIT vs.Conventional Career Counselling

About DMIT:

Dermatoglyphics refers to the branch of science which constitutes the study of the patterns i.e. prints of skin (dermal ridges) on the fingers, toes and the soles of human beings. Dermatoglyphics Multiple Intelligence test is a biometric assessment of the individual’s finger prints to map his/her brain functioning.

Conventional Career Counselling, on the other hand takes aid of standardised Psychometric Tests in order to identify an individual’s intelligence, interests, aptitude and personality. These factors are then carefully analysed and a summary of most suitable careers is drawn for the individual, keeping in mind his/her identified attributes.

To briefly discuss the history of DMIT: in 1926, Harold Cummins proposed the term “Dermatoglyphics” for the study of fingerprints at the American Morphological Society. After this, Noel Jaquin researched and proposed that each fingerprint pattern corresponds to a specific type of personality, in the year 1958. Subsequently, in the year 1981, Professor Roger W. Sperry and his co-researchers were awarded the Nobel Prize in Biomedicine for their research work on the left and right brain functions as well as the dual-brain theory. Finally, in 2008 Prof. Lin Ruei procured U.S. Patent for Dermatoglyphics.

DermatoglyphicMultiple Intelligence Test [DMIT] came into being when the idea of Dermatoglyphics was combined with the theory of Multiple Intelligence. Multiple Intelligences was theorised by developmental psychologist Howard Gardner in the year 1983 in his book 'Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences'.

Gardner’s theory opposes the idea of one dominant factor of intelligence. He states that there can be several different types of intelligences, i.e. linguistic, musical, kinaesthetic etc. The idea is to not generalise intelligence as one factor and put a numerical value to it, but to identify the areas towards which the individual has inclination in terms of potential and interest. For example, a child with low IQ score as determined by convention methods could have an exceptional musical ability, a feature often observed in William’s syndrome, that would be his specific intelligence.

Career Counselling process, as mentioned earlier, tests an individual on three different parameters. Intelligence: which informs about the overall cognitive capacity of an individual to understand instructions and adapt to the environment. Aptitude: this helps identify the specific area in which an individual has potential. Interest: this is an objective and systematic method of concluding which field will be most suitable for the individual, given the activities that interest him. Personality: different jobs require a different personality type. For example, it would be very difficult for a shy and introvert person to be a party conductor. Thus knowing one’s personality traits and determining the career path ensures that one enjoys their work in a stress free manner.DMIT is, hence, a so called ‘psychometric’ tool to assess the specific intelligence and innate aptitude of an individual. Proponents of DMIT advocate it to be a better alternative to Conventional Career Counselling.

By the time a foetus is six months old and approximately 12 inches in size, his/her fingerprints and footprints are fully developed. Once formed fingerprints are static and do not change with age—so an individual will have the same fingerprints throughout life. This is pointed out as an advantage of the DMIT technique, as the results are a pure measure of innate abilities, not tampered by environmental conditions. However, Environmental factors definitely play a role in finger print formation, such as the foetus's exact location in the womb as well as the density of the mother's amniotic fluid.

Conventional Career Counselling, on the contrary, does not claim to measure innate factors exclusively, rather it takes into account both genetic and environmental factors.One of the main pros of DMIT that is often emphasised is that the test cannot be forged or get confounded by social desirability as it is not possible for the client to influence the input. This is the primary advantage that DMIT claims to have over Conventional Career Counselling.

However, most of the psychometric tests used in the process of Conventional Career Counselling have an in-built lie scale or some sort of correction for social desirability. Therefore, this argument is not entirely one-sided.

Criticism of DMIT:

To begin with, DMIT is adherent to the premise that intelligence, interests and behaviour patterns are innate i.e. physiological/genetic and have no influence from environmental factors, whatsoever. In the nature v nurture conflict it lies entirely on nature end of the continuum. This could potentially be the biggest drawback of the concept, since cumulative research has notably suggested that it is a confluence of the two. Genes make a substantial difference in intelligence, but they are not the sole determining factor. They account for about half of all differences in intelligence among people; the other half comes from environmental factors.

Genetic determination of intelligence also implies that one’s aptitude, interest and behaviour patterns are fixed and have no scope of change through lifetime; this again could not be further from the observed truth. An individual could be weak in, let’s say numerical ability, in their school years but develop impressive numerical ability in adulthood. One’s aptitude increases and enhances with experience and practice.

The psychometric measures used in the process of conventional career counselling identify the individual’s aptitude at that given point of time. Thus the results that are obtained reflect a constellation of all the factors that have played a role in the individual’s life and hence the individual’s present potential. The traits that are measured via this process are a confluence of both, one’s innate abilities and one’s learning.

Thus the results might not be identical at all points of time, which is a good thing. Since Convention Career Counselling can capture the enhancements that an individual has gone through and accordingly suggest what’s best for him/her from here onwards.Secondly, DMIT attempts to measure factors likeIQ, AQ, and EQ etc. IQ means "Intelligence Quotient" which is a numerical representation of one's intelligence. Scientific research has, till date, shown no specific correlation between IQ and fingerprints. Same applies for the other ‘Quotients’ as well. Conventional Career Counselling on the other hand, uses thoroughly researched, standardised tests that have been validated and proven reliable, where each item is carefully selected, to measure one’s IQ.

Thirdly, DMIT is entirely based on the concept of Multiple Intelligences by Dr. Howard Gardner, with many arguments suggest that Gardner's theory is not built on empirical evidence and is actually recognized as an example of pseudoscience. It is more of a concept rather than an empirically proven framework or model of intelligence.

Fourth, another concept that DMIT heavily relies on is that of the 'left-brain vs. right brain lateralization' which became popular after the findings of neuropsychologist Roger W. Sperry's 'split-brain experiments' in1970's. These findings are now outdated and recent researches point towards the contrary. There is a growing body of evidence suggesting ‘brain plasticity’ as opposed to brain localisation, meaning that the brain works like a whole network rather than different areas specialising in different functions. Thus this theory lacks support from modern brain research.

The origins or a start of the 'finger-brain lobe connection' can be traced to Taiwan, and in specific the works of education Professor Lin & kindergarten Principal Mary Lai. They proposed the 'finger-brain lobe connection' hypothesis - which suggests that each finger represents a brain lobe on the opposite side of the body. This too is contradictory to brain research findings, that conclude that all five fingers have the strongest connection with only a small parts of the brain that is known to represent the 'primary motor cortex' and the 'primary sensory cortex’.

For example, according to DMIT 'Musical Intelligence' manifests in the hand through the left ring finger and is assumed to correlate with especially the right temporal brain lobe. Actually, according the cognitive neuroscience research today, musical skills actually require the involvement of both hemispheres and various brain lobes from both hemispheres are involved in the processing of music.Some serious concernsSince DMIT claims to report a child’s aptitude and interests from toddler years onwards, and also suggests that education and parenting should be tailored accordingly, this can have devastating implications in events when the analysis is inaccurate.

This will lead to the child being put in a box and forced towards only one kind of activities that he/she might not be suited for.Such a pattern of upbringing is detrimental to exploration and to the freedom of choice, at the core. It is a natural part of development to try out new activities and consequently infer what one’s best fit is. Since DMIT claims to pre analyse what one’s best fit is, this process is thwarted, and so is a major area of personality development.

The errors in Conventional Career Counselling are less likely, since they are self-report tests, and also heavily based on scientific research. Also it suggests the best career path for an individual while giving a summary of their interests, aptitude and personality. It does not concretise an individual to a particular field. Additionally, it recognises that one’s interests, personality and aptitude change throughout life, and thus conventional career counselling is a lifelong process and takes into account these changes.

Conclusion:

To conclude, while DMITCounseling comes with a new and innovative method of career Counseling, it might not be the most trustworthy. Conventional Careercounselling might come with its own set of drawbacks, but it is a well-tested and scientific method. This model has been functioning well for years, and if it must get replaced, it should be with something that stands even more firmly on scientific grounds. Since, what career path to choose is one of the most important decisions in an individual’s life, it can, therefore, certainly not be taken a chance with.

#career counseling for students in Pune #career counselling center in pune #career counseling for children in pune #best career counseling center in pune

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timahina · 6 years ago

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🔥 one (1) unpopular opinion on uh shipping because that always rustles some jimmies >:3c

Oh my god, I have so many opinions uuuuuugh how do I word this fuuuck...

I don’t give a flying fuck about shipping something for the most woke points. In fact, when people keep pushing the wokeness factor, the less likely I am to ship it cuz that’s not what i’m here for. This is kinda multi-facet thing since it also ties into misogyny and just... a lot.

I’m here for characterization and dynamic and that’s what I’m basing my likes and interest off of.

For example, using ygo as I always do...

There was this one person on twitter, I’m not gonna name names or nothing but they were complaining about how the top three ships in the arcv section were het ships and “IS THIS STILL YGO!?!?!” implying that the only way it can be ygo is for only the slash ships to get attention.

This is funny as all hell to me since a lot of the reason the slash ships get really popular is because they have the most well-written bonds and strongest characterization while the girls get the short end of the stick thus making their ships a bit more stale. Traditionally, that’s how most of the ygo series go and I ain’t gonna sit here and pretend not to understand that or even really accept them. But in arcv, we did get competent girls as well as them having legitimate, well-written bonds and dynamics with dudes (hell, even with the other girl characters hence why there are some popular femslash ships too which the other ygos - aside from dm - don’t really have).

Of course people gonna be shipping Yuya and Yuzu and making it really popular because of the bond they shared in the show whereas the ship of Yuya and Yuto is popular but not... AS POPULAR because you’d have to ignore a lot of the characterization to get to them being together. Usually, that was a problem of the het ships of the previous series - ignore a lot of canon and characterization to get them together. Not advocating that you have to ship what’s the most canon but to understand how something can be popular based on what the canon provides.

I know they were trying to make a joke but the implication is pretty rancid since the popularity stems from actually decent writing and bonds. And the implication is that these other ships should be popular instead cuz it gay and more specifically, cuz it between two dudes. I know that’s the case cuz I never see advocating for these femslash ships to be popular as well - only the dude ships which leads to the conclusion that the fans just... don’t want the girls to get notoriety or attention or dare I say it, any love.

Obv you can’t say girls are nasty or whatever anymore cuz it ain’t 2008 anymore so you have to adjust your language and disguise it saying that it’s more progressive or favorable to ship this other thing even if the dynamic and chemistry is uhhhhhh lacking.

I can apply to this other fandoms too and in race as well - for example, f/nnrey is has a black guy in there and therefore i should be shipping that instead of rey/o but uhhhhh rey/o is the more interesting dynamic out of the two of them as well as having more of the canon backing it up. I get why ppl be shipping rey/o or even f/nnrey, regardless of canon I’m not gonna ship the fucking more “progressive” ship just cuz it has what is deemed more WOKE points. I don’t care, I really don’t - I’m here for what I like and ship and not whatever people need to shove down my throat.

I derailed a lot on this, I admit but like... ugh. I’ve been here too long to really give a shit.

#ask #ygo damn it #ikinkuriboh

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legalupanishad · 2 years ago

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Discover if Google AdWords infringe Trademarks

This article on 'Does Google AdWords infringe Trademarks?' was written by Samar Jain an intern at Legal Upanishad.

Introduction

A trademark is a type of Intellectual Property Right(IPR), Intellectual Property is a form of property that cannot be touched or seen but has the characteristic of being felt and hence intangible. On the other hand, a tangible form of property is that property that can be felt, seen, and touched. The Rights which are connected with Intellectual Property are known as Intellectual Property Rights(IPR). Google AdWords also known as Google Advertisements is a form of advertisement wherein keywords are utilized. Once the keyword has been entered, it lands the user on a page where the related products and services are offered.

Google AdWords and Trademark

Google Ads/AdWords is a platform in an online format which is developed by google where promoters offer to exhibit concise ads, services offered, and listing of various products or videos to the users of the web. The ads usually are placed on the results obtained via the Search Engines and also via non-search methods like videos, mobile applications, and websites. These services are offered using the Pay Per Click Pricing model. It is through the medium of Google Ads that Alphabet Incorporation (The Parent Company of Google) earns its major revenue. The system of Google Ads is based upon two things: It is partly dependent upon the usage of Cookies and partly dependent upon the advertisers. These things are used by google to place ads on those pages it might think are appropriate and pertinent. The Advertisers pay when the user gets diverted to the advertising and clicks on it. The Advertisements can be implemented either at the Local/National/ International Level. The status of an advertisement as regards its Family Status is determined by an assessor and is indicative of who is the appropriate target audience. The implication of this is that it affects the appearance of an advertisement about when, where, and in which country. Over time, restrictions on the advertisements for the sale of hard alcohol and liquor have decreased. There are some absolute restrictions on the advertisement of some keywords such as Hacking. In June 2007, there came a landmark decision where Google AdWords concerning student essay writing services was banned. Google has keywords that are prohibited and differ from the type of prohibition and country. A trademark is a visual symbol in the form of a word, device, or label applied to articles of commerce to indicate to the purchasing public that they are goods manufactured or otherwise dealt by a particular person as distinguished from similar goods manufactured or dealt by other persons. The unique feature of the term of protection of trademark is that the protection is granted for perpetuity. It is initially granted for a term of 10 years and then it is renewed after a fixed period and thus used for an indefinite period unless there is a court order prohibiting the same or it has been removed from the register of trademarks.

Google AdWords and Trademark Infringement

Google has time and again been criticised for allowing advertisers using AdWords to offer services on the trademarked words. It all began in 2004 when google allowed in the United States and Canada advertisers to offer a wide variety of search terms which also includes using trademarks of their competitors. Later on, in 2008 this service was expanded to include the United Kingdom and Ireland. Advertisers are ideally restricted from the usage of trademarks of other companies when they are advertising if the trademark has been registered with Google’s Advertising Legal Support Team. In 2010, Google was again in the news of a suit of trademark infringement that involved 3 companies of French Origin that owned the Trademarks of Louis Vuitton. The main question was whether google was to be held responsible for the trademark infringement that the advertisers had purchased keywords or not. It was finally ruled that the European Trademarks Laws were not breached and the breach will depend upon a case-to-case basis. In 2013, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals held Lens.com to be not violative of trademark infringement when it had purchased the AdWords and other search advertisements of its competitors 1-800 Contacts registered trademark at the federal level when it purchased the keyword in the case of 1-800 Contacts Inc vs Lens.com Inc. Over the years Google by letting advertisers buy keywords that are registered trademarks has indeed committed trademark infringement. However, it is done in such a manner that when a court case is filed against google, google is acquitted of any wrongdoings. However, the methodology it uses is a bad practice as it directly reduces the business of the competitors as the normal public is not expected to know what words are trademarked and by whom. So quite naturally, if an advertisement is put in front of the public when it streams on the internet, it will naturally be attracted to that advertisement. The usage of Cookies is also integral to the same and thus Google does infringe on Trademarks. Keyword advertising using search engines through keyword research is the most common method employed by businesses to increase their internet existence. The issue arises when a trademark that is registered is used as a keyword by an intermediary to provide linkage to its website to promote its goods and services. What happens is that it confuses the minds of the consumers as to who is the genuine manufacturer of the goods and services offered and who is not. This defeats the whole purpose of obtaining a trademark for goods and services. It is often said by the holders of the trademark that letting a competitor use their trademark as a keyword lets the competitor obtain an unfair, unjustified advantage over the actual trademark holder. As per the European Union(EU) Court of Justice, there exists a difference between providing a keyword that is closely related to the trademark which is already registered for advertisement, and usage of a trademark when doing business. The Court had also ruled that this methodology is not violative of The TM Directive 1989. This statute was later replaced by The TM Directive 2008. However, Google has updated its policy on AdWords based on the rulings of the European Court of Justice. It now provides a form through which the owner of a trademark who is dissatisfied with the protected keywords can submit the same to google. Google through this mechanism helps to restrict the use of a trademark for advertising. However, there are certain exceptions for the same, and are as follows: - New Zealand - Australia - Canada - United Kingdom - United States. The exception lets the trademark be used for advertisements in an official, sanctioned, lawful manner on the reseller and informational websites. The trademark for advertising will be allowed to be used if the products listed in the ad are the same products that are available on the same landing page. If the trademark owner has authorized the usage of his trademark through the submission of Google’s form of authorization, it can be used in other advertisements as well.

Discover if Google AdWords infringe Trademarks With the rise in the volume of business and transactions which happen on Google, it has developed stringent policies for advertising, which if not followed face legal action. The policies are as follows: - Content that is Prohibited. - Practices that are Prohibited. - Content and Features which are Restricted. - Content of Editorial and Technical Standards. The most up-to-date example of trademark infringement for advertisement is the case of the MakeMyTrip vs Booking.com trademark. In this case, it was contented by MakeMyTrip that whenever someone searched for its company on Google, the first link which was shown was Booking.com. Upon revision, it was found that Booking.com was using the trademark of MakeMyTrip for the promotion of its brand. Booking.com used this technique to quickly establish itself and gain a reputation at the expense of MakeMyTrip as the latter is already a well-established name in the travel booking space in India. The result of the lawsuit was that Booking.com is now forbidden from the usage of the trademark of MakeMyTrip as a keyword in Google Advertisements. This has not only affected Booking.com financially but has also affected its reputation and image. This decision has set a strong precedent and will help to discourage other businesses to use brand names or trademarks to gain popularity among consumers.

Conclusion

Finally, it can be said that there are no two opinions on the fact that the usage of keywords for advertising is an effective mechanism and tool for e-advertising as it helps target consumers and customers in real time. However, it is also worth knowing that advertising through keywords and infringement of a trademark is a concept that is still in its nascent stage. Hence there are no specific rules and regulations which govern advertising through keywords. Some measures are available to the party who has infringed the trademark using keywords such as proving that sufficient measures have been taken to avoid confusion. There is a famous saying that with great power comes much greater responsibility. Today google is the guardian and has the responsibility of safeguarding the millions of people who transact through google. Google today has realized after its multiple lawsuits that even it can be held accountable although it is just an intermediary. It is important for the advertisers that use google that while Google Advertisements are helpful for the growth and promotion of their brand, they must also keep in mind that failure to abide by google policies will lead to court cases that go on and on for months. Thus while using Google Ads for brand promotion be sure to pay attention to its policies and how will they affect you.

List of References

- Google AdWords, India, available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Ads#cite_note-6 (Last Modified October 30, 2022) - Use of a Trademark as a Keyword on Google Ad Infringement or Not, India, available at: https://www.mondaq.com/india/trademark/1192864/use-of-a-trademark-as-a-keyword-on-google-ad-program-infringement-or-not (Last Visited on October 30, 2022) - Google AdWords and Trademark Infringement, India, available at: https://www.upcounsel.com/google-adwords-trademark-infringement (Last Visited on October 30, 2022) - Google AdWords and Trademark Infringement, India, available at: https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/business-laws/google-ads-and-trademark-infringement/article65488108.ece (Last Visited on October 30, 2022) Read the full article

#infringementoftrademarks #trademarkinfringement #TRADEMARKS #TRADEMARKSININDIA

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articlesofnote · 4 years ago

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A pretty friggin dense lecture on the concept of "primitive accumulation" (as Marx named it) or "accumulation through dispossession" (as the lecturer, David Harvey, describes it). In essence, Marx saw this process as the way in which capitalism went from not existing to existing: by stripping wealth from the masses via state-sanctioned and/or state-sponsored force to use as the seed capital for development of industrial production. Marx apparently didn't discuss how this could in fact be an ongoing process, hence why Harvey prefers "accumulation by dispossession," which doesn't have the same implication of "this only happened once ever and then normal capitalist production took over" that "primitive accumulation" does. I'm still processing the concepts from the lecture, to be honest, but I wanted to write about it sooner rather than later because this concept seems like a crucial one to remember for understanding both the operation of capital right now, and also its 'weak spot,' as it were. What I'm thinking is basically that "accumulation by dispossession" is a kind of safety valve/backup plan for keeping capitalism going when it runs into the consequences of its actions. The "normal" mode of investment -> return -> increased investment -> increased return, etc. fails all the time, both in the small (eg. starting a restaurant) and the large (eg. Great Depression). Presumably the capitalist system is capable of fucking up so badly that it cannot re-initiate the investment cycle because it lost all its capital (subprime mortgage crisis?) - so what happens then? Well, you dispossess somebody - or lots of somebodies. Through force (or threat of force, which is still force), take the wealth of others. The subprime mortgage crisis shows two big ways this can happen - taxpayer funded bailouts and mortgage foreclosures - but there are as many ways of dispossession as there are ways to possess, I suspect. In addition to this concept of "dispossession as safety valve" I am highly compelled by this concept of "accumulation by dispossession" because of how universally it applies once you start thinking about it. To give another example from the lecture itself, Harvey refers to United Airlines getting court permission to renounce its pension obligations during bankruptcy. In his words, "... people [who had pensions] suddenly find themselves without assets they thought they had. It is... legalized robbery, sanctioned by the courts." Dispossession can also occur with rights and privileges, not just wealth; one need only consider the long history of exclusionary lawmaking in the United States to see how that this is so. Paying attention to this concept has some strong predictive power as well. How can you try and identify where the capitalist system will try to extend its influence? You have to identify non-monetary/non-market activities - or outright self-sufficiencies - and then figure out how they can be blown up or broken into exchanges between multiple parties. Consider Facebook: if what they claim to be doing is "bringing people together," what they've actually done is figure out how to crack open the (non-market, non-financial) process of having a relationship with another person to the point where they can insert ads and make a shit-ton of money doing so. Or consider how Uber "disrupted" the taxi industry by ignoring the legal and licensing requirements for taxi drivers. What is that if not dispossession of a previously-protected class? Or consider the looming specter of workforce automation - this is dispossession by another name, as I see it. I suspect that someone might make the argument that "nobody has a right to a job, so automation isn't dispossession" which is true as far as it goes, but we've also never lived in a world where there's even been the possibility that automation could displace large swathes of the population from paid employment, and a situation where millions of people go from being able to support themselves to not being able to support themselves seems like the very definition of

dispossession. But after all that, this is why I think that dispossession is the weak spot of capital. It is, perhaps uniquely among the phenomena that make up capitalism, universal AND deeply antagonizing. Once you start to think about it, you can find examples in almost everyone's life of this process fucking their shit up. People laid off. People losing pensions. People losing homes. Towns disappearing when factories closed. People being deprived of their health due to industrial pollution. Environmental degradation, including the biggest theft of all - a future where climate change and its attendant destabilization doesn't kill billions. I suspect most evils of capital can be traced to this process, if one cared to try. Anyway, this is just one conceptual arrow in the quiver and of course there's always more to understand. I certainly have a habit of trying to reduce all the complexities of the world into a handful of processes that I can actually get my head around, so I'm wary of anything that seems truly universally applicable. Gotta keep chewing on this one and see how often it really helps me understand the world and how we might improve it.

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tlatollotl · 7 years ago

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Answer by /u/400-rabbits,

The only people who seriously subscribe to the idea of Chachapoyas as blonde and blue-eyed are racists and conspiracy theorists (with no small overlap between the two). It is not a serious idea and is not to be taken seriously. The very quote you cite from Cienza de Leon does not even describe them this way, instead noting them to simple be paler than other native groups he had encountered. He also affirms them to be indigenous, as the original text from his La crónica del Perú calls them "indios naturales," a term early/colonial Spaniards explicitly used for Native Americans:

Son estos indios naturales de Chachapoyas los más blancos y agraciados de todos cuantos yo he visto en las Indias que he andado...

Note that calling them "más blancos" (more white) does not imply that they were "white" with the connotations it has today (i.e., ethnically European), but simply acts as a descriptor of skin tone. Note also that Cienza de Leon also not calling them European, but merely that they are of a lighter skin tone then the other indigenous groups he has encountered. There is nothing here to suggest they were of European ancestry and certainly nothing about blonde hair and blue-eyes. The use of blanco/negro for skin tone, without implications about ancestry, is not uncommon in early Spanish texts, and should not be used in the same way "white" or "black" are used today. The terms can just as easily by translated as "fair/pale" or "dark/swarthy," without the burden of terms currently used to ascribe race. (Weirdly, I just had to tackle this regarding Afrocentric theories in another question.)

I also see nothing about the Chachapoyas' height in La crónica del Perú. One radiological study (Friedrich 2010) of Chachapoya area mummies estimated stature in what they determined to be adults to range from 123cm to 160cm, which is... not tall. Admittedly, estimating stature from CT scans of long bones is not ideal, but clearly these people were no giants. There were, in fact, in line with stature estimates from the region. Ubelaker and Newsom (2002) in The Backbone of History: Health and Nutrition in the Western Hemisphere measured skeletal remains from various periods in nearby Ecuador, finding a range between 148-170cm.

Well what about mummies in the region with "red" hair? Surely such a hair color could only occur if some fair-haired Northern European had spread their genes around, right? No.

Lightening/Reddening of hair in preserved remains is a well-known post-mortem change. As my Tibbet and Carter (2008) Soil Analysis in Forensic Taphonomy note:

All hair color contains a mixture of both black-brown eumelanin and red-yellow phaeomelanin pigments, which are suspectible to differential chemical change under certain conditions. Importantly, phaeomelanin is much more stable to enviromnetal conditions than eumelanin; hence, the reactions occurring in the burial environment favor the preservation of phaeomelanin, revealing and enhancing the red-yellow color of hairs containing this pigment. (p. 129)

What about other biological evidence? Surely some evidence of errant Vikings would show up in the bones and genes, right? No.

Nystrom (2006), examining craniofacial landmarks, found that while sites associated with the Chachapoyas culture showed differences from each other, this was was best explained by the geographical distance, admixture with surrounding groups, and a general erasure of internal ethnic division among the Chachapoyas by both the Inca and later Spanish. In other words, the people of Kuelap may have seen themselves as distinct from those people up the Utcubamba river at Hueyabamba or Condores, but to outside invaders they were all Chachapoyas. On the genetic side of things, Sandoval et al. (2016) looked at other extant groups in the region, and found them to be a complex and diverse group of peoples "suggesting a high interpopulation migration between the Andes and Amazonia." Likewise, Guevara et al. (2016) using samples from extant communities in the area found historical evidence for a Chachapoyas population that was connected to, but still distinct from their neighbors, which is explained by the general population diversity of the region, it being an area where both Andean and Amazonian groups mingled, and influence from the Inca system of resettling conquered peoples. They concluded:

The genetic proﬁle of the Chachapoya indicates that populations that developed in “intermediate ecological regions” have a complex genetic composition which has been inﬂuenced by their position with regard to other civilizations in the northeast Andes.

None of these investigations came back and said, "well, turns out they're Vikings." So were does that idea come from?

Well, the idea of the Chachapoyas being non-indigenous got a boost recently with PBS's Secrets of the Dead devoting an episode to the hypothesis of a German academic (with no expertise in archaeology, let alone Andean specific training), Hans Griffhorn. He proposes that, following the 3rd Punic War, the Carthaginians were not all enslaved by the Romans, but that many of them joined Iberian Celts to flee to secret Brazilian colonies. From there they apparently decided to travel from the Brazilian coast through the Amazon to settle in the Andes, for some reason.

The documentary is terrible and uses the same toolkit that Pre-Columbian conspiracy theorists always rely upon: taking the most extreme interpretation of ambiguous ancient texts; drawing specious connections between convergent similarities in the art and architecture of American groups and the chosen Afro-Eurasian group; an insistence that the American group in question was somehow unique, distinct, or "advanced" as compared to their neighbors; a blithe disregard for the mountains of archaeological, anthropological, and historical evidence; and an underlying assumption that the peoples of the Americas somehow required an outside force to push them towards civilization. The only thing missing is some dubious linguistic analysis, but that is probably only because the Chachapoyas language is extinct. Jason Colavito has a review on his site worth reading.

Ancient Celts and Carthaginians are not Vikings though, and the idea of Andean Norsemen goes back all the way to... the mid-late 20th Century. That's when Jacques de Mahieu, a french Nazi collaborator and general proponent of Nazi racial theories, began publishing books arguing that Vikings had extensively colonized and conquered huge swathes of the Americas. Nigel Davies in his 1979 book on pre-Columbian hypotheses, Voyagers to the New World, summarizes de Mahieu's idea and their reception:

seven Viking boats, each with eighty people on board, reach Mexico in A.D. 967. Twenty-two years later these adventurers undertook a new migration and eventually reach Paraguay, after passing through Venezuela and Chile. In Paraguay, the Norsemen became the progenitors of a tribe whose sturdy womenfolk created the legend of the Amazons, and their last descendants still survive as the Guayaqui Indians. Mahieu admits that these Guayaquis are a sadly decadent breed of Vikings, since they measure only four feet, eleven inches in stature and some are cannibals. Such theories are treated as pure science fiction by leading Argentinean anthropologists, and though he has written no less than fifteen books on the subject, Mahieu has hardly proved his point.

Nicholas Goodrick-Clark, author of the 2003 Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism, and the Politics of Identity, has further summary of the ideas contained in those 15 books published by Mahieu, which posit a pan-American Viking empire. Apparently the original flotilla of Vikings conquered the Toltecs, then moved on to Venezuela and Colombia. One specific Viking leader split off to colonize Peru and found an Incan Empire whose elites were Norse. Goodrick-Clark notes Mahieu's books were published by Wildred van Oven, Goebbel's deputy who fled to Argentina and remained a committed Nazi until his death, and that Mahieu's ideas influenced Miguel Serrano, a Chilean neo-Nazi who believed a race of Aryan-Hyperboreans originally colonized the Americas and that Columbus' voyage was a ploy by the Jews to cover this up.

The idea of the Chachapoya culture and people being lost Vikings is, in short, born from Nazi racism. It is an idea that found fertile ground among the myriad pre-Columbian contact myths, legends, and conspiracy theories which have abounded ever since Europeans stumbled upon the Americas, and which are often rooted in racist ideas about the inferiority of Americans. Pop-culture has kept alive these ideas through irresponsible and pseudo-scientific works like the PBS show. These hypotheses, however, always end up breaking down under the slightest bit of scrutiny, with the actual anthropological, archaeological, and historical evidence actively arguing against such beliefs. The notion of Norse Chachapoyans has even less going for it than most of these fantastical ideas -- being essentially Nazi fanfiction -- and does not deserve a moment of your, or anyone else's, time.

#archaeology #arqueologia #Chachapoya #amazon #native american #first nations #amazon rainforest #askhistorians #reddit #history #historia

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jennielim · 4 years ago

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loyallogic · 4 years ago

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Giving rivers a legal status

This article is written by Pavan Kumar. R, pursuing PGDHLR from NLSIU Bangalore.

Introduction

Humans are dependent on rivers for several purposes, starting from basic usage to hydropower, irrigation, etc. As days pass, there is an increase in the demand for water. To meet the same, the water resources should be replenished. Along with that, there is also an immediate requisite for innovations in institutional arrangements, which can address the issue. One such approach is the process of giving legal rights to water bodies. These developments have led to the process of creating legal precedents in the field of environmental law and also towards the management of water resources. Alongside, there are also a series of challenges that crop up. For example, a legal right is worth only when that can be enforced. There itself a big question arises, who will enforce the legal rights on behalf of the rivers?

Christopher Stone, in his article, highlights how affording legal rights to women, African American (individuals with skin pigmentation) and slaves was considered as unthinkable. Further, he identifies how even entities like corporations, firms, trusts, joint ventures and municipalities, initially, were also not afforded legal entity status. Accordingly, he identified that a stream is also being considered right less that has its implications, as stream has no standing in court and streams are never regarded as beneficiary in cases of pollution.

Recently, the rivers Wanganui in New Zealand, the Ganges and Yamuna in India and Rio Atrato in Colombia have been given the status of legal persons. This has certainly changed the legal status of the rivers in law. On the other hand, there is also another question that arises whether the same can also be applied in the case of other rivers across the globe generally and also the challenges and opportunities that come along with the same. Even though the concept of legal rights for nature is not a new one, the implementation of the same is not so successful.

Click Above

Legal rights in simple words mean the ability to sue or to be sued in the court of law. It is to be observed that the legal right does not necessarily mean to be the same as human rights and also, the term legal person does not always mean to be a human being. Hence, when nature is given legal rights, nature can be seen as a legal person and as such, the right can be enforced. Legal rights to rivers are being given in several ways for different purposes. The Whanganui River got its rights through the Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017, wherein there was a necessity to recognise the relationship that the Whanganui Iwi (tribe) had with the river. On the other hand, in the case of the Rio Atrato in Colombia, it was an ‘accion de tutela’ (action for protection of constitutional rights), as the miners in the region had caused degradation of water affecting the fundamental human rights of the people living near the river which also had further resulted in change of the natural course of the river. Similarly, the Indian rivers Ganga and Yamuna were declared as legal persons in the year 2017.

A legal right consists of the three elements, which are: legal standing, which is the right to sue and be sued; the right to entering or enforcing contracts and as well as the right to acquire property.

Ecuador granted legal rights to nature in the year 2008 (Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador 2008, articles 71–74). Similarly in the year 2011, Australia formed a hybrid form of legal rights for the concept of nature and the same was used for the protection of rivers in the state of Victoria.

In the south east of Australia lies the state of Victoria. Even though it is a federated nation, the responsibility of the management of the water resources are still kept with the state each the states have their own water laws. The allocation framework for water was established under the Victorian Water Act 1989 and was designed around the water market, which gives rights to trade water. The water assigned for the environmental use is held under the Victorian Environmental Water Reserve (EWR; Department of Sustainability and Environment 2004, Foerster 2007) whose main purpose is to provide and maintain necessary river flow to support the wetlands and also to maintain the health of the rivers. Later in 2010, the powers were delegated to the Victorian Environmental Water Holder (VEWH), which was newly established as a public entity under the Victoria’s Public Administration Act 2004, and it was considered as a legal person with the capacity to hold water rights, to decide its usage as per the availability and also the power to trade water in the market (Victorian Environmental Water Holder 2013). It also had the powers to sue and to be sued, enter contracts, acquire and dispose properties just like a real person. The VEWH is funded from the taxes collected from the water users and also has dedicated staff to handle its functions. It is a living example of how an organisation can be established to hold and manage water rights.

In the case of the Whanganui River in New Zealand which runs about 290 kms and is also used for navigation, the Government owns the riverbed and the local authorities have the management. In the year 2017, to settle the long time disputes of the local Wanganui Māori, the Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act 2017 (the Act), as per which the Whanganui River attained the legal status of a person. The riverbed ownership rights vested in the Te Awa Tupua and could be represented by a guardian i.e. Te Pou Tupua, consisting of two persons, to act and speak with respect to the benefit of the river’s health and well-being. The Te Awa Tupua is funded by the government and also there was a strategy group that was formed with up to 17 representatives for planning the statutory process to manage the Whanganui River catchment.

Just after a few days the Whanganui River was conferred as a legal person, the Hon’ble High Court of Uttarakhand declared that: “the Rivers Ganga and Yamuna, all their tributaries, streams, every natural water flowing with flow continuously or intermittently of these rivers, are declared as juristic/legal persons/living entities having the status of a legal person with all corresponding rights, duties and liabilities of a living person”. Whereas in this case, there was a slight difference in the reasons assigned which was because the said rivers were considered to be as sacred by the people of the country. It was also observed that extraordinary measures were needed to preserve them. The rivers were arranged as minors as they could not speak for themselves. Whereas, the Apex court halted the effect of the original case as the State Government of Uttarakhand argued that their responsibilities as Guardians of the rivers were not clear as they also extended well beyond their borders too.

The case of Victoria and New Zealand are strongly in contrast with the case of the legal rights for rivers created in India. The Indian rivers stretch across several states of the country and also into the neighbouring country Bangladesh as well which makes them trans boundary in nature. As such mere recognition of the status of the river as a legal person just in the state of Uttarakhand will not be enforceable across the borders of the states and countries.

As we see, creating legal personhood and rights to nature involves distinct approaches; the same should be adaptable and flexible using different combinations of legal forms and legal rights with distinctive aims and arrangements to achieve a broader outcome in the aspect of giving legal rights and its enforcement. Legal rights of nature link to rights of specific objects in nature such as the environment, water sources, etc. It is a mechanism to address several complex sets of questions and require an innovative method of approach as there will be a lot of differentiation between two different cases. Even though the legal rights are created, future enforceability should always be kept in mind, which include but not limited to the provision of funding, organisation, independence from the government etc.

Even though the approach of giving legal rights through judicial and legislative process for rivers can be used to address the current problems, it can also be used to complement the framework of the legislature, which would make legal rights a tool with its own set of opportunities and as well as limitations. The achievement though may be slow, but is effective. These cases show the fresh developments in which nature can be given a legal standing.

In the case of the Rio Atrato in Colombia, it was an ‘accion de tutela’ (action for protection of constitutional rights), as the miners in the region had caused degradation of water affecting the fundamental human rights of the people living near the river which also had further resulted in change of the natural course of the river.

In the case, wherein nature has been given legal rights previously such as in the case of Ecuador and Bolivia, there was a distinct limitation which resulted in giving the rights the needed force and effect. Whereas the approaches made in the case of Australia and New Zealand may overcome the challenges previously put up in the earlier cases and benefit the nature and as well as the society. The legal rights conferred to rivers can address several issues that are seen in water resources management as the need for freshwater is increasing day by day. Understanding of the limitations in law put forth by this legal approach will allow the decision makers to make a more calculated and informed choice while addressing the context-specific socio-environmental and economic pressures.

Hence, there is a need for consensus between developed, emerging and developing economies on balancing of corporate interests and ecological interests, which can only be met by framing legal framework to compensate natural objects for damage occurring because of economic activities and consider such damages as social cost in calculation of Gross Domestic Product for national and global economy.

Reference

Should Trees Have Standings? – Toward Legal Rights for Natural Objects

Defending Rivers: Vilcabamba in the South of Ecuador by María Valeria Berros.

Workshop on New developments in the legal status of rivers: 11 August 2017, Melbourne Erin O’Donnell, Michelle Maloney & Christine Parker

Rights of Nature: Rivers That Can Stand in Court: Lidia Cano Pecharroman

LalitMiglani v State of Uttarakhand Writ Petition (PIL) No.140 of 2015 Uttarakhand High Court

LawSikho has created a telegram group for exchanging legal knowledge, referrals and various opportunities. You can click on this link and join:

https://t.me/joinchat/J_0YrBa4IBSHdpuTfQO_sA

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sol1056 · 7 years ago

Link

I can’t seem to reblog the response directly, so I’m just linking to it. All of @aquaburst07′s comment is worth reading, but I’m replying to this part in particular:

I still think [GoLion] was an attempt to cash in on what Gundam [did] a million times better, along with another attempt to shock the audience into thinking it is mature and edgy, but it still does show how the people behind that series see war. In addition to that, it’s less about defeating the Galra, but more about Altea defending themselves from the Galra.

Thanks to its numerous reboots and long history, Gundam is a really interesting comparison-point. So with all apologies to @nelsonbrandela‘s attempt to watch all the series, here’s a severely truncated summary of how empire is presented across a sampling of Gundam series over the past 30+ years.

First generation gundam (UC), broadcast from 1979 with continuations and sequels through the late 80s. The UC continuum has a strong anti-war sentiment, thanks to Tomino’s childhood during the war. It establishes the basic components: earth, space colonies, and revolution. Its protagonist is both Earth-born and implied Japanese ethnicity, standing in as the Everyman character, fighting the rebels. As I recall, pacifism doesn’t loom quite as large over this story, and the focus is more on the cost of war. (Also, the death rate is brutal.)

In the 90s, we got the AC timeline (Wing). Again, earth, space colonies, revolution. But in reflection of changing political sentiment, Wing flips a few things. Now the ethnically-Japanese everyman protagonist is one of the rebels, from a space colony, and earth is the antagonist. The politics also gets muddier, with a debate about the role of pacifism.

Just to compare the first two major timelines and the political and economic atmosphere at the time of their airings: the first timeline ran during a period of massive economic and cultural productivity for Japan. There was a sense of ‘we produce, others consume, and what do we get for that’, coupled with tensions among the five tigers in terms of economic power, bolstered by US nuclear support. Ergo, the theme of a once-great power now getting trampled by the political/military might of what had once been a subjugated colony.

In contrast, Wing was broadcast after the bubble popped, and Japan hit hard times. Now the everyman protagonist could be an outright aggressor, fighting back against crushing (economic) defeat. Keep in mind, too, that as Japan’s economy plummeted, the American economy was experiencing growth like it hadn’t seen since the end of WWII. The tables had effectively turned, from ‘we can outdo our previous overlords’ to ‘we are losing the (economic) war and being ground under someone’s heel’.

And then onto the CE timeline and SEED, broadcast in 2002-3, The (again, ethnically Japanese) protagonist doesn’t just live on a space colony. His colony is both explicitly identified as Japanese, and pacifist, and neutral. Remember, it had only been a year since 9/11, and the US was chest-thumping for war. Japan’s position was basically, hey, Article 9, people (look it up). Where the UC and AC timelines center their POV on one side or the other of rebellion/war, the CE timeline places the POV as a pacifist outsider.

By 2008, we get Gundam 00, which iirc was also the first major Gundam series whose core protagonist (Setsuna) was not ethnically Japanese. (He’s not even much of an everyman; that POV is provided by another character.) 00 was directly influenced by the personal experiences of animators who’d provided JSDF support to the war in Afghanistan, and their fingerprints are all over the first season of 00. No space colonies here; the factions are both muddier and more pointed in reference to the political climate of the late aughts; the US is canonically one among several superpowers looking to colonize, meddle, extract resources, and then destroy in their wake. It’s possibly among the most immediately-relevant of any of the Gundam series. (It’s also the first time I could ever recall seeing a Gundam character showing explicit, consistent indications of PTSD.)

And most recent is the PD timeline, with Iron-Blooded Orphans. We’re back to space colonies, this time on Mars, but instead of the colonies producing resources that Earth consumes, the colonies are dependent on Earth to provide. (A flip of the colonial position in AC/Wing, where the colonies argued Earth was sucking them dry.) Our protagonist is implied Japanese, and a rebel, fighting to gain resources denied by superpowers. It’s a curious parallel to the rising debates about Article 9 and a growing undercurrent of dissatisfaction with pacifism as a viable political position. In a way, one of the arguments is that this imposed pacifist neutrality is blocking Japan from achieving equal standing among the world’s powers. Gundam just takes that current political atmosphere, maps colony and overlord to it, and crafts a story from the backdrop.

It’s important to remember that colonialism has variations; the economic version most common today is neo-colonialism, which uses capitalism and globalization (cultural imperialism) to hold power over developing countries. Think World Bank or the IMF: if you want loans for development, you must enact the following policies in your own autonomous state. Classic imperialism is the use of direct military control (ie Japan’s occupation of its neighbors or the American occupation of Japan), while hegemonic colonialism uses indirect political control (ie US control of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, etc).

Coming back around to VLD, it’s effectively skipped a whole lot of development in (and representations of) empire. That’s a big part of why it feels so naive and shallow to me. VLD reboots a story whose core understanding of empire was rooted in pure defense against an aggressive upstart; the implication was that if Voltron were unleashed, there would be no contest. Hence, it had to be held in check by a morality that defined it as ‘for defense only’ (much like the perception of the JSDF, and Japan itself).

But changing the Paladins’ efforts to offensive maneuvers hollows out that original paradigm. In the absence of that morality of pacifism and self-defense, there are no brakes on Voltron, so the Galran empire must be made supremely overwhelming, or else the story would be over as soon as Voltron formed. And that means the dynamic -- the discussion -- of ‘empire’ has changed, yet none of this is reflected in the VLD reboot.

The most we’ve gotten is a classic imperialism: military occupation, designed to drain resources in a strictly-controlled one-way consumption from colonized to colonizer. Yet military occupations are massive efforts. There’s a reason they’ve been mostly tossed aside in favor of neo-colonialism, where control of resources keeps the colonized in check, rather than actual boots on the ground. Frankly, given the model VLD has presented, the Galran empire would have to have a gajillion bots to control every outpost and far-flung galaxy in such a micromanaging imperial style. (Which makes it even more stupid that you can overthrow a single base just by shutting down power. Why is it Voltron’s the first one to think of doing this? I strongly dislike stories that only know how to make the heroes seem smart by making everyone else be stupid.)

Related to that, it’s possible Lotor’s idea of colonial agency isn’t meant as a federation of planets/systems, but as a hegemonic colonialism akin to the current American empire. Puerto Rico has self-rule, after all, excepting that (like Washington DC) it is still ultimately voiceless when it comes to its own fate, against decisions by the US Congress. I just don’t know if the EPs/writers have enough savvy to catch onto the fact that ‘self-rule’ doesn’t automatically mean true agency, or even having a voice.

Furthermore, when you scale up empire to the level of planetary control (much like the US/EU/UK western juggernaut) -- let alone galactic control -- there’s a huge cultural impact. We should see regular civilians (including prisoners) dressed in Galran styles and colors; their food, architecture, fashion, historical records, whatever -- everything should be Galran or Galran-influenced. That cultural power should be everywhere, undeniable, unavoidable. That’s the core of neo-colonialism. You no longer expend your own resources controlling every last bit of the colonized. Instead, you hold out your (superior) culture and make the colonized jump to gain capital, whether material, economic, or cultural.

And the most important aspect of that is that empire doesn’t end just because the occupation has -- this is possibly Japan’s greatest lesson (and biggest struggle) after what really just amounted to only about five years of occupation. It’s that having been colonized, the effects last for decades. Centuries, even. The oppressor is no longer omnipresent, but the oppressed continue in the same patterns, chasing after the oppressor.

Americans don’t just lack an understanding of direct warfare, we’ve also conveniently blocked out, dismissed, or outright silenced any of our marginal communities who could show us the impact of our imperial control. And not just on external lands/people, but on our own peoples. Throughout our history, we have effectively treated our Black, LGBT, Hispanic, and Indigenous communities as subaltern colonized classes, if we didn’t just try to exterminate them utterly. Whether classic imperialism, hegemonic control, or capitalist neo-colonialism, we’ve done them all, and we’ve done them all to our own citizens. That’s an uncomfortable truth for a lot of people, especially those who continue to benefit from those systems.

So it doesn’t surprise me that American writers be clueless, at first. It just pisses me off that they don’t even seem to be interested in understanding the cultural and moral arguments in the source material or its source culture.

Tangentially, I saw a response elsewhere on the various downstream threads about how the US can’t (or shouldn’t, it wasn’t clear) be compared to the Galra, who had eradicated an entire people, leaving only two overlooked survivors. I direct you to the histories of indigenous peoples in America. If you think the US Govt wouldn’t have cheered at the thought of complete and total genocide of every single indigenous person in US territory (and we did put a damn lot of effort and time into trying to achieve it), I suggest you are long overdue for learning about America’s blood-soaked history.

What indigenous cultures remain in the US are absolutely in spite of the US Govt, and not because of it.

#voltron legendary defender #voltron meta #gundam #went long again #sol thinks about stuff

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europeaneconomicsluiss · 7 years ago

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All’Europa piace il contante, cash l’80% dei pagamenti” Alessandro Merli, Sole 24 Ore

By Martina Lillo

“European likes cash”, writes Alessandro Merli (Sole 24 Ore).

He refers to the ECB first comprehensive report on the use of cash by households in the euro area (2016). The survey focus on households preferences between cash or electronic payments mainly at POS (pay at post of sale): in fact, POS payments represent the 96% of the payments, while the remaining 4% refers to “payment between individuals, such as in-home services and giving money to relatives, friends, churches or other charity”.

The aim is to have a first general picture of consumer payments behaviours in the euro-zone. The only two countries who already had some surveys on this subject are Germany and the Netherlands, hence this report is really important, not only because of the information that it contains, but also as creating a precedent to take attention on this issue for a large majority of the euro countries.

The result is that the share of cash usage is relatively high in the whole euro-zone: in 2016, around 79% of households payments were made with cash, 19 % with cards and 2 % with “other payments instruments”, defined as “the use of cheques, direct debit, credit transfers and mobile payments, among others”.

Germany, Italy, Greece, Spain have the highest cash usage share (around 80%), while Netherlands, Belgium, France and Finland have the lowest (from 45 up to 65%). The country with the most “weak” cash usage is Netherlands, with 45% of transactions. (à see table)

Cash is really the predominant payment method in the euro area. However, the cash/electronic share is weighted by the value of each payment, the ratio is redefined in a less dramatic configuration : we have 59% cash, 39% cards, and 7% for other instruments. (à see table)

Plus, there seems to be a link between the amount and the modality of the payment: the smaller a payment is, the more likely is to be transferred on cash.

The sample of the population has been weighted around gender, age and region of residence for each State considered. However, we can evaluate if the number of the sample as a whole can be enough representative of the largely wider reality which is the euro zone.

In fact, the sample is composed by a total of 92,080 participants to the survey, which is nothing if compared to the number of citizens (and hence consumers) of the 19 euro zone member states (341,008,867 source: Eurostat, 2017).

The report suggests that maybe the predominance of cash is not only because of consumers preferences, but there can be also technological availability as variable, cash usage being possibly linked with card acceptance. In fact, countries with more technologically equipped POS seems to have a lower global share of cash payments.

This view is confirmed by a Banca d’Italia Report (2013), which sees in structures and technological innovation one of the best reasons why Italy has this so high rate of cash usage (à see Table).

The report also address its focus also on the newest modes of payments, the so-called “contactless” payments, mobilized trough smartphones and other electronic devices, which do not even require the insertion of a PIN for up to 25 euro spending. The author says that despite the forecasts of a boom of these types of payments, the still very small rate of their utilisation counter this possible future scenario.

But, firstly, the study did not consider any online shopping mode of payment, arguing that the aim of the study was understanding the preferences of the consumers, while electronic payment is for online shopping generally the only option.

However, online shopping rates is incredibly growing in the euro-area, and it has become an important part of the everyday life of a considerable portion of European consumers: in 2008, already 52% of the euro-area population bought online, and in 2016 the rate goes up to 79% (source: Eurostat).

Secondly, smartphone spread is still a relatively new phenomenon, and maybe the societal and lifestyle changes are still not wholly manifested; so, rather than seeing the number in itself, we need to wait and see if there is a positive progression of these data.

As Merli says in his article, the debate about cash payment, and whether to establish some common European policy and soils to it, has been until now contradictory, and no common position has been reached by the 19 euro countries. Germany is maybe the most visible example, being overtly against any cash-restricting policy, mainly due to historical reasons. It is not coincidence that Germany is one of the most cash-users in the euro zone.

For Italy, at national level, the Monti government did a policy of cash usage cutting, reducing the soil of liquidity of payments from 2000 to 1000 euros. This policy has been adopted after the publication of a Mef report (2011) on shadow economy, cured by the ISTAT president Enrico Giovannini, linking cash usage and difficulty of control on monetary fluctuations.

At the same time, this ECB report could represents the occasion to change things at the European level and could have some salient political implications, representing the point of start for a common rules setting.

The correlation between cash usage and fiscal evasion has been often enlightened over time, especially in Southern European countries with weaknesses in public deficits, such as Greece, Italy, Spain, and others. As also this ECB report stated, Greece, Italy and Spain are big “cash lovers”, and they all have in common public balance sheet troubles and a high rate of fiscal evasion.

A Banca d’Italia Report (2013) finds two main reasons for cash predominance: one is structural obstacles to electronic payments, and the other is the level of development of the country. In the same report, the link shadow economy, hence fiscal evasion, and cash usage is considered, even if it is not “determinant to explain the differences between Italy and other countries”.

--- NDE: THIS SECTION EXCEEDS THE CHARACTERS LIMITS SO IT WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED FOR EVALUATION -

So, it is not clear whether or not this still so spread usage of cash is something negative for our economic transactions. However, the ECB report gives an assessment on consumer payment behaviours, but the mode of payment of employers, for example, on their employees, is not in this category, even if it covers a big part of money transactions, especially in Italy, with the so-called “lavoro a nero”. It is really difficult to assess the amount of this type of payments for the evident reasons that it is difficult to seize them and categorize in a coherent way. An idea can be indirectly given by another graph from the ECB report, again. Countries with higher score of people receiving money on cash are more likely to pay at POS in cash, while Netherlands and Finland, who have a very relative poor score on cash usage also have a very low percentage of people receiving salary on cash.

To conclude, the emission of the ECB report on households behaviours of payment in the euro area reveals an ambitious grounding of a field that needs to be further investigated, especially in what concerns the consequences of each type of payments in traceability of monetary fluctuations. It will probably rise the issue on the political debate, highlighting sometimes the historic and cultural different backgrounds of 19 member states on the topic.

Table: households paying cash (ECB, 2016)

ECB Report

(Banca d’Italia, 2013)

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kerahlekung · 5 years ago

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Najib’s worst nightmare has begun...

Najib’s worst nightmare has begun....

Killer Exposed The PM’s Executive Order

To Kill Mongolian Beauty Altantuya...

There are many ways to skin a cat, especially a fat cat like former Prime Minister Najib Razak. Already hit with 42 charges of criminal breach of trust (CBT), money laundering and abuse of power – a world record for a former prime minister – he was also slapped with a tax bill for an extra RM1.5 billion of undeclared taxable income of close to RM4 billion between 2011 and 2017. While the trial of his 1MDB scandal is ongoing, the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) is still trying to recover the RM1.5 billion in unpaid taxes, including the RM2.6 billion (US$681 million) “donation” that the former premier has claimed was a donation received from Saudi Arabia royal family, a claim that could not be fully and officially substantiated. But stealing money and tax evasion was considered child’s play in a country like Malaysia, where corruption and money laundering were common practices of the day. Mr. Najib went beyond just plundering national coffers. The despicable man, who lost his power in the May 2018 General Election, was also involved in the gruesome murder of Mongolian beauty Altantuya Shaariibuu. In what appears to be another feather in Najib’s cap, one of two ex-police commandos convicted of Altantuya’s murder, has issued a shocking “Statutory Declaration (SD)” dated October 17, 2019 – admitting that it was Najib Razak, who gave him the “shoot to kill” order verbally to terminate the Mongolian mother of two during a meeting on October 17, 2006. According to Malaysiakini portal, the SD made by the convicted killer Azilah Hadri says he was merely following an explicit “shoot to kill” order as a member of the elite special action force (UTK) of the police. The ex-commando also exposed that Najib told him to destroy the Altantuya’s body and dispose of the evidence as she was a “foreign spy” and posed a threat to Malaysia’s security. Azilah said in his SD – “I asked the DPM (Deputy Prime Minister Najib) what was meant by arrest and destroy the foreign spy and DPM responded ‘shoot to kill’ while showing the sign of slitting the throat. When asked what was meant by destroying the foreign spy’s body, DPM replied ’Destroy the foreign spy’s body to get rid of traces.’”

Altantuya-Shaariibuu - Murder Site - Military Grade Explosive

“After discussing methods to destroy the body, DPM ordered me to blow up the foreign spy’s body using explosives,” – said Azilah. When the police commando told Najib, who was then the Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister, that a police report had to be made on the matter, Najib disagreed and argued that the matter could not be made public as it involved a threat to the national security. Najib apparently told Azilah that the foreign spy was a very dangerous woman due to many national secrets she knew. Najib had also lied to the elite police commando that Altantuya was so cunning that she would claim to be pregnant, hence she cannot be trusted. The deputy premier gave the instruction to destroy of the spy’s body with explosives, presumably military-grade C4. Azilah was briefed by Najib – “The foreign spy could not approach the DPM (Najib) due to the tight security and therefore the spy threatened the DPM’s special officer instead.” That special officer referred to was Abdul Razak Baginda, a former political analyst and close associate of Najib Razak. Baginda, Altantuya’s former lover, was charged in 2006 but unexpectedly acquitted in 2008 of the murder. The murder scandal started in June 2002 when the Malaysian government signed a €1 billion (US$961 million; RM3.4 billion) contract with Armaris (now DCNS) and Spanish naval shipbuilder Izar (now Navantia) for 2 SSK Scorpenes submarines. Soon after the delivery, embarrassingly, one of the French submarines could not dive. However, the real scandal had just begun. The dramatic kidnap and murder of Altantuya soon revealed how the model and translator was linked to €114 million (RM500 million) in “commission” for the purchase of the Scorpenes sub. The motive for Altantuya’s death – she wished to claim US$500,000 being her share of the kickbacks for the submarines deal. Razak Baginda, however, had refused to be blackmailed – leading to the murder. As expected, Najib today rubbished the claims by Azilah, describing him as a desperate man trying to escape the gallows. He argued – “Why did this information not come out earlier, and only now, more than a decade after her death?” Seriously, if that’s the best Najib could do, he’s screwed. The simple answer – Najib can only be exposed now because he’s powerless after losing the 2018 general election.

Azilah and Najib Razak

In the same breath, the defeat of Najib regime last year also opened the possibility of the return of another ex-police commando – Sirul Azhar Umar – who is currently being held in the Villawood detention centre in Sydney ever since the convicted killer was arrested in Queensland for overstaying his tourist visa. His ability to escape to Australia is still a mystery until today. Australia had refused to send Sirul (a former bodyguard of Najib) back to Malaysia because the country’s extradition legislation does not allow a person to be surrendered to another country for an offence punishable by death, unless the country (in this case Malaysia) has given Australia an undertaking that the death penalty will not be carried out. Back in 2015, when Al-Jazeera unleashed a damaging documentary – “Murder in Malaysia” – the journalist, Mary Ann Jolley, was deported by 5 Malaysian immigration officers and a man in military outfit, clearly under the instruction of Najib administration. Amazingly, the same journalist would personally grill Najib in Oct 2018 until the crook ran away from an interview arranged by himself. The Australian-based journalist revealed on the Al-Jazeera weekly that besides two convicted killers from the elite protection squad, namely Chief Inspector Azilah Hadri and Corporal Sirul Azhar Umar, there was a third person at the murder scene. That man was none other than Altantuya’s ex-lover Razak Baginda, a close aid or rather a proxy of ex-PM Najib Razak. According to court testimony, Ms. Shaariibuu begged for her life and that of her unborn child, but she was shot twice in the head anyway, wrapped in C4 military-grade plastic explosives and blown up in Kuala Lumpur’s suburbs on October 19, 2006. And according to Sirul, it was the scumbag Razak Baginda who pulled the trigger and shot the Mongolian. The question which still begs an answer is – why would Azilah Hadri and Sirul Azhar (both formerly with the police’s Special Action Unit, UTK) abducted the pregnant Altantuya in front of Baginda’s Kuala Lumpur home and taken to a forest in Subang, Shah Alam, where she was shot twice and her body was blown up, despite the fact that both commandos never knew the Mongolian woman?

Altantuya Murder Scandal

Al-Jazeera also revealed how ex-PM Najib informed his buddy Baginda that he had a sexual relationship with Altantuya (also known as Aminah). And it was Najib Razak, who had introduced Altantuya to Razak Baginda at a diamond exhibition in Singapore. Hence, it is fair to assume that after Najib got tired of Altantuya, he passed her to Baginda like a sex toy, after which both became lovers. In fact, private investigator and witness Balasubramaniam’s Statutory Declaration did mention about Najib informing Baginda that Altantuya was susceptible to anal intercourse, suggesting that the prime minister had lied when he said he didn’t know her. And how did Najib know about the anal sex thingy, unless he had experienced it with Altantuya prior, right? Al-Jazeera also exposed how Balasubramaniam was threatened by military intelligence into retracting his first statutory declaration which implicated Najib Razak, in exchange for RM5 million and temporarily “disappear” out of the country, until the then-Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak officially becomes the 6th Prime Minister of Malaysia on 3 April 2009. Sirul and Azilah were charged with the murder and sentenced to death in 2009 but Sirul has denied carrying out the killing, saying that he was acting on orders from his superiors and was only involved in driving Altantuya to the scene. Now, it’s Azilah turn – exposing that he received the “kill and destroy” order from Najib Razak. No motive for the killing was ever established and key witnesses were never called during the trial. The prosecution during Najib regime deliberately failed to call a material witness – DSP Musa Safri – a former aide de camp of Najib. Interestingly, in the latest statutory declaration, Azilah acknowledges the roles played by Abdul Razak Baginda and Musa Safri in the gruesome murder of Altantuya.

Najib Razak, Razak Baginda and Musa Safri

Musa Safri, a military officer acting as a confidential assistant to then Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, would only carry instruction on behalf of his boss. Not even Razak Baginda could instruct Mr. Musa to do a task. Therefore, Azilah’s revelation provides the missing piece – who was the ultimate person who issued the order to kill Altantuya and destroy her body beyond recognition. That explains why Musa Safri was never called in the trial as a material witness. To do so would mean Musa would reveal that the instructions came from none other than Najib Razak himself. It would be absolutely interesting to see if Musa Safri would be the next person to testify against Najib Razak. Unlike money laundering, being accused of murder is a different ball game altogether. More importantly, will the Mahathir administration continue to grant Najib the special privilege of walking a free man, despite the latest statutory declaration that the former crook was also a murderer? Sure, pro-Najib cybertroopers, propagandists and bloggers will definitely scream their lungs out that Azilah and the government are fabricating things to nail Najib. Still, the fact remains that both the ex-police commandos had absolutely zero motive to kill and explode the body of a pregnant woman they didn’t know, but both Najib Razak and Razak Baginda have every reason to exterminate the Mongolian beauty. But Najib had sworn in a mosque that he did not know Altantuya and has nothing to do with her murder. Interestingly, 10 years after Najib sworn in the mosque, his Barisan Nasional ruling government lost power for the first time in 61 years since the country’s independence in 1957. Perhaps his penchant for telling lies, even in the holy mosque, was the reason he lost power last year, which in turn allows Azilah the opportunity to expose him as the despicable murderer. Mr. Najib and his supporters have nothing to worry if Azilah’s SD was nothing but lies and fabrications. He can always hire his hotshot lawyer Shafee Abdullah to quash the allegations and charges. Mr. Azilah is only seeking a retrial in an open court to provide full evidence of the 2006 murder. But it appears more skeletons in the closet are about to be revealed. Najib’s worst nightmare has just begun. - FT

"Najib’s two bodyguards, who had admitted killing Altantuya and blowing her to bits, were originally released by the Appeal Court because of the appalling mishandling of their original trial (throughout they had been kept hooded to keep their anonymity). Specifically, the Appeal Court noted, there had been zero attempt to identify a motive as to why these two employees of the defence minister would shoot dead a stranger to themselves. The person who actually had a glaring big motive was their boss, then Deputy PM and Defence Minister, Najib Razak. Najib and his ‘procurements advisor’ Razak Baginda had been publicly berated daily in the street by a woman who was complaining they had made her pregnant and who claimed to have evidence of their damning involvement in stealing hundreds of millions of ringgit out of a French submarine contract (subsequently proven to be true). Now that’s a motive. If Altantuya and her friends had not got evidence on Najib and Baginda, the irate minister and his side-kick could easily have called the police and immigration services to have her sorted out for all this hoo hah shouting outside Baginda’s house. This is what Najib’s bodyguard Azilah originally advised Najib that he should do, according to today’s eplosive statutory declaration (below in full). However, Altantuya and her friends had made clear they were not going quietly. They had already blurted the whole story out to one PI Bala, hired by Baginda to try and deal with the tiresome group of chanting women, so little doubt what they would have said down at the station when their interviews were recorded on arrest. What Altantuya had told Bala was that she was pregnant with Najib’s child and had helped him negotiate a massive theft of public funds through the bent Scorpene deal. So, instead of Baginda calling the police Najib called in his own bodyguards, confirms Azliah Hadri, currently on death row. It was they who were sent to Baginda’s house to ‘get rid of’ Altantuya via the bodyguard method of disposal (having picked up guns and weapons grade explosive available only to Najib’s own ministry of defence).

The lady was supposed to simply vanish, of course. However, the entire operation was bungled and had all the hallmarks of a panic response that was ill thought through. The police found the body; traced Azilah’s colleague Sirul’s calls from the scene; spoke to Bala and a cab driver at the scene; broke down Baginda who dissolved into tears and soon got a pretty good picture of what had happened. At which point lawyer Shafee Abdullah leapt into action for his boss and a trial was put into play in which half the relevant witnesses were not called and the prosecution and the defence were singing from the same tune. Najib was not even called as a witness, let alone a suspect and Baginda was acquitted – but not before his wife revealingly blurted out hysterically in court that it was not her husband who needed to be protected because he wanted to be prime minister. Everyone in Malaysia could see what was going on and why the two convicted, motiveless bodyguards (forced to wear hoods in court) who did not even know their victim cried out they were “scapegoats” at the end of the trial. Suspicions were confirmed when PI Bala went public complaining he had not been given a chance in court to give his evidence and provided a detailed statutory declaration spelling out all he had learned from Altantuya and Baginda about her affairs with the two men and her demands for money to keep quiet about the submarines. Naturally, Bala he was then whisked away having been forced to retract within hours. After he returned a few years later to confirm his story in KL he mysteriously soon died following a hospital checkup on his heart condition. The world thought all this was fishy, more importantly the Appeal Court had also thought it was fishy. So fishy that the court released the two men shortly after hearing the case following the 2013 election. Cynics might have suspected this was the plan all along – to let these carefully unidentified chaps free once Najib securely in office as an elected PM. If so, the Federal Court was unamused. The men killed the woman after all – whether or not their motive was merely an inducement of a bit of cash and whether or not someone who ordered it was equally if not more guilty of the crime. In a move that could only happen in Malaysia the acquitted men were de-acquitted and hauled back behind bars to face a death sentence.

That certainly suited Najib were he, as Azilah has now testified, the man who ordered the hit. Behind bars and totally dependent on his threats and blandishments was where he held most control over these potentially loose cannons. After all, remeber Sirul’s early attempts to blackmail him after escaping to Australia and his statements to the media that he could ‘bring down a prime minister’ if he decided to tell all he knew? The Federal Court ruling made sure these dangerous witnesses were locked up with a death sentence hanging over them. Was future wealth and freedom held out as the distant and tantalising reward for continuing silence as certain evidence suggests? Till now such conclusions have been speculative, failing proper investigations and a proper trial. Now, however the country’s inevitable suspicions about the Altanuya case have been backed up however by compelling testimony from the man who pulled the trigger confirming that it was his powerful boss, the man with the motive, who told him to do it. Azilah will place a motion to the Federal Court asking for a review of his case and a re-trial. The Attorney General who will repond is no longer an appointee of Najib Razak. If that trial is granted in the light of the new evidence there will be a new suspect in this murder case, the former prime minister. Meanwhile, the two bodyguards will have a new defence they did not put forward earlier (owing to the power of their boss who had allegedly told them to keep quiet and wait for him to save them) which is that they were ordered by the Defence Minister to shoot a spy who was a danger to their country. Baginda would be arraigned as an accomplice to the crime and key witness and a whole raft of new witnesses would be called or be recalled to receive a proper grilling. These would include the chief bodyguard Musa Safri; the friends of Altantuya who reported her missing; Azilah’s girlfriend who assisted in the arrest (also Rosmah’s bodyguard); several police officers; lawyers and judges who were removed and replaced in the course of the case; Rosmah; several staff and acquiantances of Rosmah and Najib who observed evidence of a row at the house over what to do with Altantuya and then evidence of what had happened following her disappearance and also Deepak Jaikashan, a close confidant of the couple at the time who has admitted his involvement in the cover-up on behalf of Najib and Rosmah by getting PI Bala out of the country using threats and bribes.

Jail Not Bail If there is a trial in prospect to match the stunning impact of 1MDB in Malaysia this would be it. Except, with a crucial difference. As a supect for murder Najib Razak will not be bailed for just a few million ringgit. He will not be allowed to retain his political seat and swan into parliament with outrider escorts wearing fine suits nor tour by-elections calling himself ‘Bossku’. Najib will be placed behind bars and will travel to court each day in a prison van. Meanwhile, the Altantuya case is not the only murder event in Malaysia where victims have complained that a similar botched investigation and ensuing trial also combined with the element of a motive on the part of Malaysia’s past power couple. Altantuya’s may just be the first skeleton to tumble out of a crowded closet. Pascal Najadi, son of the former AmBank founder Hussein Najadi, has powerfully argued that one unexplored possible motive behind own his father’s murder (shot dead in the street) was the fact that his father had started taking his concerns to the very top in Malaysia about the use of the bank he had founded to launder billions through Najib’s accounts. Once again, there is a paid shooter sitting on death row in Malaysia, but the person identified as hiring him by police was let scott free without any further exploration of the motive for this murder back in 2015. Likewise, there are seven accused ‘gang members’ and an army doctor still locked up in jail over the separate murder of prosecutor Kevin Morais, who drew up the original SRC charges against Najib currently being tried in court. Their trial was abruptly suspended over a year ago after the suspects started to give evidence that the alleged motive, which was to avenge the doctor whom Morais was tasked to prosecute over receiving bribes, was not correct. Shortly before the trial was suspended one of the accused claimed they were offered RM3.5 by Najib himself to commit the murder. Why the prosecution has now suspended the trial and accused men have been allowed to languish now for years in jail without a trial is cause for concern. Either they can be proven guilty and motive established or they cannot. It makes for quite a list of grisly deaths where Najib’s name has popped up in the proceedings only to be followed by interferences in the normal processes of a trial.- SR

Saksi hidup istidraj dan kotak Pandora...

Hari ni sebenarnya genap 10 tahun Najib bersumpah dengan nama Allah di dalam masjid yang di tidak kenal Altantuya (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctKoc6RwqXU). Sudah tentu sumpah Najib di luar mahkamah tiada pemberat macam mana sumpah najib under-oath. Dahulu dia juga yang menafikan sekeras-kerasnya yang dia kenal Jho Low; bila masuk mahkamah, tiba2 dia mengaku kenal Jho Low dan kata semua skandal 1MBD yang terjadi adalah akibat dari perbuatan Jho Low. Sebab itu kita jangan sesekali mudah percaya dengan siapa2 yang bersenang lenang bersumpah dengan nama Allah, Allah tidak pernah tidur dan 10 tahun Allah bagi kuasa, harta dan masa untuk Najib bertaubat tapi dia masih lagi sombong. Teringat pula saya dengan cerita kesombongan Firaun yang Allah kurniakan Istidraj. Firaun ingat dengan kuasa yang Allah pinjam kan pada dia, dia adalah makhluk yang paling berkuasa. Dia membunuh sesuka hati termasuk lah anak-anak kecil dalam kandungan. Ini tiada beza nya dengan Najib Razak. Dia ingat dia paling berkuasa dan sesuka hati menyuruh orang membunuh ibu dan bayi dalam kandungan persis Firaun

Bila BN kalah, Najib sepatutnya bermuhasabah diri, tapi dia masih lagi berjalan dengan sombong di muka bumi Allah dan berbangga dengan pengikut ruwaibidhah nya. Tapi sebagaimana Firaun, pengikut yang ramai tidak mampu menyelamatkan dia dari di telan laut merah. Najib merancang dan Allah merancang, tapi perancangan Allah adalah yang terbaik.

Bila Najib cabar AG buka balik kes Altantuya, dia ingat dia sudah play all his card well. Azilah adalah wild card yang sebenarnya telah membuka kotak pandora. Ingat yang Sirul dan Azilah sudah di sabit hukuman mati oleh mahkamah sebab membunuh Altantuya ( kira sudah lebih dari keraguan munasabah) tapi benda yang jangal ialah mahkamah tak pernah persoal pun motif pembunuhan tersebut. Macam kalau ada orang mengamuk bunuh 5 orang di tempat awam, mahkamah boleh jatuh hukuman bunuh contoh ada video CCTV dan kesan cap jari tapi mahkamah tak tau sebab apa dia bunuh. Tak ke pelik? sakit jiwa ke atau memang ada malice intent?

Kalau polis decide nak buka semula kes ini, tolong lah reman dia bergari; penjenayah macam dia tak layak dapat layanan khas. Game plan Najib dari dulu ialah cuba delay seboleh2nya kes2 terbuka dia macam 1MBD, SRC, Audit 1MBD, Lari cukai sebab dia harap yang UMPAS akan menang PRU15 dan dia ada peluang untuk bebas. Bila dia kena tuduh atas kesalahan membunuh, sudah pasti dia akan di reman sampai tarikh perbicaraan kes bunuh dia. Dia mungkin boleh keluar untuk hadiri kes mahkamah yang lain and that is it. Itu belum masuk part kenapa DSP Musa tak di panggil langsung dan semua nya bakal terlondeh di kandang tertuduh seperti kes 1MBD. Dan mungkin mengaku gila (plead insanity) mungkin bukan satu idea yang buruk berbanding dengan tak tahu 46 kali. Kira reman ini macam persediaan alam barzakh sebelum ke alam akhirat. Dulu bolehlah dia bayar peguam mahal untuk cuba delay perbicaraan, bila dah start bermalam dalam penjara baru dia kan sedar yang reality is hitting the fan. Lepas ini mungkin Najib sendiri akan merayu pada hakim supaya mempercepat kes2 di mahkamah sebab tak tahan duduk dalam penjara.

Dan kepada penyokong UMNOPAS yang masih di buai mimpi dan rasa Najib masih tak bersalah, cuba jawap soalan ini, kalau Najib tak bersalah kenapa anak Altantuya di bunuh dan sebab apa anak altantuya di bunuh? Menurut Deepak, dia yang kata Altantuya di bunuh sebab mengandungkan anak Najib (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIM8i5fJ_ho) Seperti biasa kamu anjurkan solat hajat beramai2, ajak Deris Dhuha dan Dasuki Ahzab jadi imam. Minta lah pada Allah supaya kamu dan ulama kamu dibangkitkan bersama-sama Najib di akhirat jika kamu orang-orang yang benar dan Najib betul2 di zalimi. - Mohd Mukhlis Mohd Mahkamah Persekutuan menetapkan tarikh 20 April tahun depan bagi mendengar permohonan Azilah Hadri menyemak semula keputusan hukuman mati kerana membunuh Altantuya Shaariibuu. Federal Court set April 20 next year to hear Azilah Hadri’s application to review his conviction and death sentence for murdering Altantuya Shaariibuu.

Nak bayar gaji kakitangan kerajaan, kantung kering. Bila dah paw dekat Lim Guan Eng

dan bajet lulus, maka panjanglah kaki para pembesar negeri puas main salji gi jalan² tengok gunung berapi yg meletus baru ni...

Upah untuk membunuh...

cheers.

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