From www.plaintalking.ie:
Another week, another quick round-up of some interesting international stories that might have gone under the radar. Grab a cup of tea and read about why:
- Indian officials are covering up every elephant they can find in Uttar Pradesh
- there were shots fired at a Polish news conference
- there are red faces in America regarding the new Martin Luther King memorial in Washington
- it’s one hell of a busy day in Pakistan (why have one crisis when you can have three)
- Syria’s Assad has given another amnesty as the crisis continues to rise
India covers their elephants in advance of election
India’s Uttar Pradesh state struggled to cover statues of elephants in cloth or plastic sheeting before last Wednesday – the deadline set by the election chiefs. Why? Inadvertent advertising, of course.
Basically, there are going to be state assembly elections at the end of March and these monuments of elephants are a party symbol of Chief Minister Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party, who since taking office has become associated with building these statues – along with statues of herself. And there are a lot of them. According to the BBC, in two parks (one in the capital Lucknow and the other in the suburb of Noida), there are nearly 12 statues of Ms Mayawati and more than 75 elephants.
This is turning out to be a rather major job – so much so that one of the suburbs (that Noida one again) ran out of plastic sheeting and had to over 1,500m more in order to get the job done. And with some of the statues nearly 5 metres tall, somehow I think they’ve used all of that extra order.
Ms Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party has termed the order as “one-sided and against natural justice”. Interestingly, several other opposition parties also criticised it, saying the order was “impractical”.
Ms Mayawati is an interesting character. Ms Mayawati rules over Uttar Pradesh, one of India’s most deprived states and is heralded as one of the first from a low-caste to succeed in Indian politics. The BBC has done quite a good profile of her, here are the cog notes:
- She was born into a low-caste Hindu Jatav, or Chamar, community.
- She studied law and worked as a teacher before getting involved in politics.
- Her mentor was Kanshai Raim, president of the party she now runs (BSP) who saw in her a future leader.
- in 1995, she became the first low-caste person to take on the job of Chief Minister in an Indian State. Not only that but at 39 she was also the youngest chief minister in Uttar Pradesh.
- She is known as Mayawati or “Behenji” which means sister.
- She has had a fraught time in office, with her first government lasting 4 months.
- She also has courted controversy with her alleged wealth that she has amassed over the years with her assets now running into millions of dollars along with a solid property portfolio. Her mega birthday bashes are meant to be events not to be missed with a strong media presence with Mayawati appearing “laden with diamonds.”
Her party has started to try and appeal to higher-caste voters and candidates and their slogan has now become “Come ride the elephant’. Hence the statue wrapping.
Ms Mayawati is now famous for building statues of herself and other icons of her low-caste Dalit community, such as the elephant. Her spending on statues and memorials has been described as “shameful” by critics. Statues of political leaders are generally put up posthumously, but Ms Mayawati says that belief is outdated. Critics accuse her of self-glorification and wasting public money. She accuses them of conspiring against her.
In September, leaked US diplomatic cables said Ms Mayawati had sent an empty private jet to fetch a pair of sandals from Mumbai – a charge she strongly denied.
Poland: army person shoots himself after news conference into the Polish President’s plane crash
It must have been a shocking break to the Polish news conference when the sound of a gun being shot was heard.
Colonel Mikolaj Przybyl, who was briefing the press regarding the Polish president plane crash back in 2010, had asked the reporters present to leave the room so that he could take a break. He had been defending the military investigation into some media leaks relating to the crash. From the TV pictures of the conference, Col Przybyl said: “During my entire service as a civilian and later military prosecutor, I have never brought shame to the Republic of Poland and I will protect the honour of an officer of the Polish armed forces and prosecution. Thank you, please give me a five-minute break, I need to rest.”
The reporters left the room, and returned when they heard a loud thud, which one of them had thought was one of the cameras falling over. They found the Colonel on the ground, with his military gun beside him, and a pool of blood around his head. He is now in hospital in a stable condition and will recover.
The media leaks that were being tackled by this news conference was surrounding recent reports by the AFP news agency that prosecutors for the investigation had eavesdropped on journalists that were investigating the crash. This was the crash that killed then President Lech Lech Kaczynski, his wife and 94 others on their trip to a memorial service for the victims of the 1940 Katyn massacre of Polish officers by Soviet secret police crashed in thick fog in Smolensk, western Russia, on 10 April 2010. The plane crashed upon landing. Subsequent reports largely blamed poorly trained pilots as the main cause of the crash which led to 13 top military officials and a government minister resigning. They also said that Russia was partially responsible as airport lighting was poor.
Lech Kaczynski was an identical twin, one of the few in politics. His brother Jaroslaw and him shared a very memorable role in Poland’s Law and Justice Party – Jaroslaw is the leader of the Opposition. The only other twins in politics (that I could find anyway) are Angela and Maria Eagle who are members of Labour’s shadow cabinet in the UK.
US: They got the quote on the Martin Luther King Washington memorial wrong…
Last August, the Martin Luther King monument was revealed. And everyone gasped. Not only out of the vision of the civil rights leader finally taking his place on the National Mall so close to where his ‘I Have A Dream’ speech was delivered or the breathtaking sculpture that it is. No, it is about the phrase that is written along the side, which is a quote from MLK himself. While it is true that he said it. It’s not exactly what he said. In fact, it’s a shortened version of what he said. And it’s not really him to say such a thing. In fact Martin Luther King III told CNN: “That was not what Dad said.”
What the sculpture says is: “I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.” What MLK in fact said, two months before he was shot, was: “Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter.” Bit of a difference. Rachel Manteuffel noted in the Washington Post that so badly excerpted that a modest statement of King’s was turned into a boast. Poet Maya Angelou, 83, put it best when she said the truncated, paraphrased version made King sound like ‘an arrogant twit.’ Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert noted that it was “to the point. Not Dr. King’s point, but still. Brevity is the soul of saving money on chiseling fees.”
The memorial was designed by Master Lei Yixin, a Chinese sculptor, and overseen by an American architect, Ed Jackson. He told the Washington Post in September 2011 that the decision to paraphrase the full quotation had been made by the design team in the interest of brevity.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has told the National Park Service they have 30 days — because “things only happen when you put a deadline on it” — to consult with the King Memorial Foundation and his family to come up with a better phrase.
Pakistan: hearing into a controversial anonymous memo which asked for US help to avert an army coup
Lots going on in Pakistan at the moment, as you’ll read from this BBC report. Here is it, distilled a bit for you:
- The Supreme Court is ruling on a case regarding why Pakistan’s government refuses to re-open charges of corruption against the President
- And another court is hearing a case regarding a controversial anonymous memo which asked for US help to avert an army coup in Pakistan, in the wake of the killing of Osama Bin Laden in May 2011, has also resumed.
- A key vote on Pakistan’s political leadership is also expected to be held later in parliament.
Jaysus, it’s all go. Here’s a bit on each of these elements – one of which would be front page news, let alone all three of them!
1. Supreme Court & a fight against political corruption
The hearing by the Supreme Court is considering the implementation of its recent order quashing a controversial amnesty, which had protected the country’s senior politicians from corruption prosecutions. There’s a major deadline today when the Government can re-open any potential political corruption cases. Of note, is one major one against President Asif Ali Zardari, made by the Swiss authorities. The Government don’t seem to be opening any cases, so the Supreme Court is going to have a bit of a chat about this.
2. Memogate
This concerns a memo that was allegedly sent to the US from someone pretty high up in the Pakistan ruling gang asking for help in ‘calming’ the military after Osama Bin Laden was assassinated. Everyone is denying that they sent it, though the Pakistani envoy to the US has already resigned, though protests his innocence. You can read more about this here. Thing to always remember about Pakistan is that the military play a seriously important role – in fact, Pakistan has endured three military coups since independence in 1947
3. A vote of confidence
Pakistani Prime Minister Yuusuf Raza Gilani’s government faces a crucial vote of confidence in parliament in the country’s political leadership. He’s likely to win but jaysus what a day. Happy Monday to you, Prime Minister.
Syria: leader vows to rule “iron fist” – while giving another amnesty
The Syrian President Assad gave a rare public address during the week, his first since last June. He noted that he would continue to crush ‘terrorists’ with an iron fist, while accusing international forces of trying to destabilise his country.
It is now almost a year of anti-Assad protests in Syria where more than 5,000 civilians have been killed, according to NGOs and Syrian sources (the UN has been denied access to the country, so they are cross-referencing lists they are receiving of this news).
While re-stating his iron fist policy, he has also granted a general amnesty for all crimes committed during the 10-month uprising, that applied to army deserters who turn themselves in before the end of January, peaceful protesters and those who hand in unlicensed weapons. The BBC was also invited to witness a number of prisoners being released though as they note in their report, the situation seems to be worsening in the country, rather than improving.
Ban-Ki Moon pleaded with Assad to end this. At a conference on Arab democracy in Beirut he was quoted saying, “Stop the violence. Stop killing your people. The path of repression is a dead end.” There is also a delegation from the Arab League in the country at the moment to review the deal they struck with Syria to halt the crisis.
