Tag: books

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Human behavior

Human behavior: “The Psychopath Test”

“The Psychopath Test” is a very interesting book for those who want to demystify what lies behind the term “psychopath” or “sociopath”. The author also writes about what leads to a medical misdiagnosis of a mental illness in a person. Despite the fact that writing on psychopaths is a serious task, the text is written with a bit of humor and derision, the author often putting forward his own insecurities and neurosis.

Although the book’s main theme is about psychopathy, the spectrum of subjects is quite large and all the stories are interesting, if not surprising. Numerous cases that have made the news throughout the years are brought back to memory, but with new details that allow a deeper understanding.

Jon Ronson's "The Psychopath Test" Book Cover
Jon Ronson’s “The Psychopath Test” Book Cover

Misdiagnosis

It is quite surprising to realize how easy it is to make mistakes in the diagnosis of mental illnesses. There are also several mental illnesses that can be attributed to individuals who do not have a behavior that is considered as strictly “normal” in our society. But since what is standard and acceptable vary throughout the years and societies, it seems obvious that a mental illness can be attributed to a person who is not really sick.

It is quite troubling to realize that mental illnesses will be attributed to children while the particular symptoms of those illnesses are known to become apparent only when a person becomes an adolescent or adult.

Faking madness to avoid prison time is not particularly wise…

The author shows how different personal interpretations by all kinds of “specialists” on the multiple criteria used to diagnose several mental illnesses sometimes result in a person being sent wrongly to a mental institution where she will be heavily medicated for a very long period.

A particularly interesting story is that of a man who faked madness after having committed a violent crime in order to avoid being sent to jail, thinking that he would instead be sent to a psychiatric institution where life is relatively comfortable. He was sent, like he wanted, to a psychiatric institution, but not the one he expected. He spent more than twelve years at Broadmoor, in England, an institution where serial killers and pedophiles are imprisoned.

In his case, the Robert Hare’s list was used. This is a list which is used to determine if a person is a psychopath. His luck turned when the “specialists” considered that he met most of the criteria on the list. He then had to fight for years to prove that he was victim of a wrong interpretation…

Some particularly weird psychotherapy sessions

The author mentions some of the weird experiments that went on to heal patients, experiments that were destined to fail before they even started. For example, the reader learns of psychotherapies where the patients were nude and under LSD influence. Another experiment involved criminals who had to heal each other: they could not stay away and distant from each other as they were taped together, like this serial killer of three children in Toronto who was taped to a car thief…

The negative effects of psychopaths that are highly placed in society

The author tries to verify, using the Robert Hare’s list, if it is true that psychopaths are ruling the world. He admits he partially failed. This seems reasonable since there is about 1% of the population that is composed of psychopaths, and that percentage grows to 3% with politicians and corporate leaders. So, from 3% to 100%, it seems obvious that this was a tall order to start with.

The author quotes one of his sources, Essi Viding, who studies psychopaths: “Psychopaths don’t change. The best you can hope for is that they’ll eventually get too old and lazy to be bothered to offend. And they can seem impressive. Charismatic. People are dazzled. So, yeah, the real trouble starts when one makes it big in mainstream society” (p.60)

Active psychopaths on the stock market can be as dangerous as psychopaths that are serial killers. As Robert Hare writes it: “Serial killers ruin families. Corporate and political and religious psychopaths ruin economies. They ruin societies” (p.112)

"The Psychopath Test" book back cover by author Jon Ronson
“The Psychopath Test” book back cover by author Jon Ronson

The twenty-point Hare PCL-R Checklist to establish if somebody is a psychopath

Here is a summary of the twenty points included in the Robert Hare’s Checklist. If a person scores 30 or more out of 40, she is considered as a psychopath:

1. Glibness/superficial charm
2. Grandiose sense of self-worth
3. Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom
4. Pathological lying
5. Conning/manipulative
6. Lack of remorse or guilt
7. Shallow affect
8. Callous/lack of empathy
9. Parasitic lifestyle
10. Poor behavioral controls
11. Promiscuous sexual behavior
12. Early behavior problems
13. Lack of realistic long-term goals
14. Impulsivity
15. Irresponsibility
16. Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
17. Many short-term marital relationships
18. Juvenile delinquency
19. Revocation of conditional release
20. Criminal versatility

The twenty-point Hare PCL-R Checklist applied to a candidate of the Republican Party, Donald Trump, during the 2016 American Presidential elections

At the time I am reading “The Psychopath Test”, American television is reporting on a daily basis the whereabouts of the American candidates competing to lead the Republican Party for the 2016 American Presidential elections. Every day, I am hearing reporters and political analysts complain about the behavior (point 10) and irresponsible speeches (point 15) of one of the candidate, Donald Trump.

On several occasions, what that candidate has said has been found to be inexact when verified (point 4). I regularly notice his impulsivity when faced with unforeseen events or contradictions (point 14).

Moreover, he refuses to accept responsibility for his actions or words (point 16), does not seem to regret anything which makes any excuses pretty hard to formulate clearly (point 6). According to several well-known and respected political analysts, his long-term goals as to what he would realize if he was elected President of the United States are not realistic (point 13).

Similarly, his lack of empathy towards millions of American citizens is regularly making the news (point 8). He sometimes refers to himself at the third person, continually putting forward his own self-worth (point 2). I did not spend more time researching other connections with the remaining points in the checklist; I leave it to you. CNN nonetheless took the time, in September 2016, to mention some details on the personal life of Mr Trump and if I believe what is said, then points 11 and 17 would also apply here. Having no experience in psychoanalysis, I used the Robert Hare checklist for fun only and no serious conclusion should be drawn here.

The psychopath Emmanuel (Toto) Constant and Haiti

Talking of American politics, the reader discovers Emmanuel (Toto) Constant and the consequences of his actions for Haiti. He is a mass murderer, psychopath, who was working for the CIA in Haiti. He was released from jail when he implied that he would reveal secrets on the American foreign policy in Haiti. Emmanuel Constant “profoundly altered Haitian society for three years, set it spiraling frantically in the wrong direction, destroying the lives of thousands, tainting hundreds of thousands more.” (p.129)

Reality TV and selected mental illnesses

The author also develops the reality TV theme, where guests face each other and fight aggressively, verbally or even physically. He interviewed a person who was in charge of finding the appropriate guests for each program. He learned that the candidates were chosen according to the type of drugs they were taking to stabilize their mental illness. This is not done without making some mistakes and he learned that a member of a family killed herself because she felt guilty about the way she behaved in preparation for the TV program.

Are you a psychopath?

Are you a psychopath? “If you’re beginning to feel worried that you may be a psychopath, if you recognize some of those traits in yourself, if you’re feeling a creeping anxiety about it, that means you are not one” (p.114). The psychopath has no emotions about his own situation: he is not sad about it, does not question himself as to his situation no more than is he happy to be classified as a psychopath.

The financial interests of huge pharmaceutical companies

Obviously, huge financial interests are at play when it comes to prescribing medication to millions of patients susceptible to be diagnosed with a specific mental illness: the role and pressure exerted by pharmaceutical companies are rightly raised in the book:” There are obviously a lot of very ill people out there. But there are also people in the middle, getting overlabeled, becoming more than a big splurge of madness in the minds of the people who benefit from it” (p.267)

Some personal comments

On few occasions, the author’s reasoning surprised me. For example, he founds abnormal to take the time to write articles on a blog since there is no pay to be expected. Should I assume that every act of creativity in society has to be done in exchange for money, otherwise it makes no sense? In another chapter where there is a mention of the 9/11 attacks, he writes: “9/11 obviously wasn’t an inside job”. The word “obviously” replaces what should be an appropriate research on the subject since half of the American population still has unanswered questions about those attacks.

Conclusion

As a conclusion, here is quote that, I think, best resumes the author’s thoughts: “There is no evidence that we’ve been placed on this planet to be especially happy or especially normal. And in fact our unhappiness and our strangeness, our anxieties and compulsions, those least fashionable aspects of our personalities, are quite often what lead us to do rather interesting things” (p.271).

Title: The Psychopath Test
Author: Jon Ronson
Edition : First Riverhead
©2012
ISBN : 978-1-59448-575-6

Categories
Terrorism

The Rise of Islamic State ISIS and the new Sunni revolution

“Patrick Cockburn spotted the emergence of ISIS much earlier than anybody else and wrote about it with a depth of understanding that was in a league of its own.” – Press Gazette Journalist of the Year Judges

The book presents a bigger picture of what is happening in the Middle East than what we are normally allowed to watch in the news. The reader is presented with both sides of several stories and this really helps to get a better understanding of the different conflicts.

Cover of Patrick Cockburn's book "The Rise of Islamic State"
Cover of Patrick Cockburn’s book “The Rise of Islamic State”

Of lies and limited accuracy of the news

The author shows how lies are easily fabricated on a battlefield. He also explains the limited accuracy of news reports, such as when a “chosen” reporter is travelling, protected by an army or when reporters use second-hand information (often not verified) to prepare their news reports. It also seems pretty hard for a news channel to refuse to air a story when there are doubts about it, especially when all the competitors are reporting the same news.

I am including quotes (in italic) from the book as they provide excellent summaries. Some are from the author himself, others are from the sources he found to write his book. The author addresses so many subjects that it impossible to cover everything in a small review like the present one. So I’ll be as succinct as possible to present the reader with a broad idea of the book’s content.

Fear

Fear is the main factor behind many irrational political decisions. Fear leads to radical policies, religions and propaganda. It is often related to the fact that a very small group of people leading a country, a state or a region think that they can lose the political power that gives them undue privileges over the rest of their population. The greater the advantages, the greater the fear.

The political “solutions”, most of the time irrational, create tensions or aggravate the existing problems and only help to increase instability.

Saudi Arabia was initially helping ISIS because of fear of Jihadists operating within Saudi Arabia and fear of Shia powers abroad. As for Turkey, it is more afraid of the Kurds than it is of ISIS. So for a long period of time, it kept its border with Syria open: it helped ISIS to maintain a rear base.

The author says: “There is something hysterical and exaggerated about Saudi fear of Shia expansionism, since the Shia are powerful only in the handful of countries where they are in the majority or are a strong minority. Of fifty-seven Muslim countries, just four have a Shia majority” (p.102)

The demonization of religions other than Wahhabism

In the case of Saudi Arabia, the demonization of religions other than Wahhabism and the spreading of hate through social media have created a fertile ground for ISIS to grow.

The author says: “[…] The Saudis need a serious attempt to reform their educational system which currently demonizes Shias, Sufis, Christians, Jews and other sects and religions. They need to stop the preaching of hate from so many satellite stations, and not allow a free ride for their preachers of hate on the social media”.(p.107)

“The “Wahhabization” of mainstream Sunni Islam is one of the most dangerous development of our era” (p.108)

Money helps increase the polarization between Sunni and Shia

ISIS could not have risen without the financial help from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Turkey. Since ISIS thrives on tensions between Sunni and Shia, anything that increase that tension will benefit this terrorist group: “There is no doubt that well-financed Wahhabi propaganda has contributed to the deepening and increasingly violent struggle between Sunni and Shia” (p.99)

“A crucial feature in the rise of Wahhabism is the financial and political might of Saudi Arabia. Dr Allawi says that if, for example, a pious Muslim wants to found a seminary in Bangladesh, there are not many places he can obtain £20,000 other than from Saudi Arabia. But if the same person wants to oppose Wahhabism, then he will have “to fight with limited resources”” (p. 108)

“This polarization between the two religious groups was only intensified by the hot and cold war between the US and Russia. Proxies were at play here with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchies, backed by the US, facing off against Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, supported by Russia”(p.71)

Back cover of Patrick Cockburn's book: "The Rise of Islamic State"
Back cover of Patrick Cockburn’s book: “The Rise of Islamic State”

Propaganda that made al-Qaeda look stronger and more effective than it actually was, with reference to the 9/11 attacks

There are multiple sections in the book which relate to the September 11th 2001 attacks. Here are some of the author’s observations (in italic). I have also added some personal comments which are clearly identified as such:

The Pearl Harbour moment of the 9/11 attacks

The author says: “The shock of 9/11 provided a Pearl Harbor moment in the US when public revulsion and fear could be manipulated to implement a pre-existing neo-conservative agenda by targeting Saddam Hussein and invading Iraq”(p.100).

Note: the following four paragraphs are my personal comments on the “Pearl Harbor moment”:

A “Pearl Harbor” moment means that in order for the American public to approve an attack in a foreign country, it needed to see something terrible happening in the United States. For example, before the very obvious destruction of war ships at Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, the American population refused to be engaged in World War 2.

During the 9/11 attacks and later on, the Pentagon’s eighty cameras have not captured anything close to a Boeing hitting the building. You had to believe that it happened the way the news told you since there were no pictures and no videos of a Boeing close to or in pieces on the Pentagon property.

The Medias showed instead, over and over, the World Trade Center Twin Towers crashing to the ground after being hit by one aircraft, even though the buildings were built to resist multiple impacts, through a “mesh” design, a lesson learned after what happened on the Empire State Building years ago. Some people believed that the buildings crumbled due to the high temperature, but most neglected the FEMA’s report that got out later on stating that the temperature never rose above 300 or 400 degrees in the buildings, hundreds of degrees short from what was needed to melt steel.

The free-falling towers of the World Trade Center were the Pearl Harbor moment needed to instill fear and facilitate the implementation of a pre-existing neo-conservative agenda. The American voters would not have approved a war abroad if the buildings had been standing after a single impact. It’s almost like the world should believe that the World Trade Center was built using the poorest American engineering possible, while not learning from lessons of the past. For more info on this specific subject:

Controversial issues

In 2001, al-Qaeda was an “ineffectual” organization

Mr Cockburn is one of very few reporters who is not afraid to present al-Qaeda as it really was in 2001, an emerging organization that was far from being able to mastermind and execute complex attacks such as the 9/11 attacks. (This also explains why, soon after the attacks, international news reports presented a video of Ben Laden denying responsibility for the attacks. A video that was not shown ever again. But millions of people saw it before it was censored by the main news channels).

“At the time of 9/11, al-Qaeda was a small, generally ineffectual organization” (p.59). The term “ineffectual” refers to the inability to produce a desired effect.

The implementation of the neo-conservative agenda

This really means that the pre-existing American neo-conservative agenda could not rely on Al-Qaeda’s experience. Instead, one or more experienced organizations were needed for the financing, planning and execution of the 9/11 attacks. Only after the facts could the blame be put on Al Qaeda since it was, after all the media propaganda, very well-known to the American public. An artificial link was then made with Iraq, allowing for an invasion that sixty percent of the American voters approved.

Sixty percent of the US voters were misled

“The name al-Qaeda has always been applied flexibly when identifying an enemy. In 2003 and 2004 in Iraq, as armed Iraqi opposition to the American and British-led occupation mounted, US officials attributed most attacks to Al-Qaeda, though many were carried out by nationalist and Baathist groups. Propaganda like this helped to persuade nearly 60 percent of US voters prior to the Iraq invasion that there was a connection between Saddam Hussein and those responsible for 9/11, despite the absence of any evidence for this. In Iraq itself, indeed throughout the entire Muslim world, these accusations have benefited al-Qaeda by exaggerating its role in the resistance to the US and British occupation” (p. 53).

The fall of Mosul

ISIS needed only 6000 fighters to win the Battle of Mosul. Yet, they were facing one million Iraqi soldiers. How was that possible? The author sees three reasons:

  1. The cooperation from the Iraqi Sunnis, who were sensing that they would be better off with ISIS than the Shias.
  2. Corruption at all levels in the Iraqi army. “As one former minister put it “the Iraqi government is an institutionalized kleptocracy”. Another politician who does not want to be named says “[…] People pay money to get into the army [so they can get a salary] – but they are investors not soldiers” (p.77)
  3. The fact that the Iraqi army was no longer a national army since the well-trained Iraqi Sunni soldiers were sidelined.

Syria: President Bachar Assad was not as weak as expected

Both the outside world and opposition viewed President Assad as far weaker than he actually was. They both thought that he would be defeated without an organized air campaign.

A major oversight on the war in Syria

“A blind spot for the US and other Western powers has been their failure to see that by supporting the armed uprising in Syria, they would inevitably destabilize Iraq and provoke another round of its sectarian civil war” (p.73)

Five different conflicts within Syria

The Syrian conflict is extremely complicated since there are many different political and religious interests at stake: “The Syrian crisis comprises five different conflicts that cross-infect and exacerbate each other. The war commenced with a genuine popular revolt against a brutal and corrupt dictatorship, but it soon became intertwined between the Sunni against the Alawites, and that fed into the Shia-Sunni conflict in the region as a whole, with a standoff between the US, Saudi Arabia and the Sunni states on the one side, and Iran, Iraq and the Lebanese Shia on the other. In addition to this, there is a revived cold war between Moscow and the West, exacerbated by the conflict in Libya and more recently made even worse by the crisis in the Ukraine” (p.94)

In Syria, it is either Assad or ISIS

ISIS is the strongest opposition force in Syria. If Assad falls, ISIS takes his place:  “Syrians have to choose between a violent dictatorship, in which the power is monopolized by the presidency and brutish security services, or an opposition that shoots children in the face for minor blasphemy and sends pictures of decapitated soldiers to the parents of their victims.” (p.81)

The God-given victories

“The appeal of the Islamic State to Sunni Muslims in Syria, Iraq, and across the world comes in part from a sense that its victories are God-given and inevitable, so any failure damages its claim to divine support” (p.159)

The solution to the Syrian conflict will come from outside the country

“Many Syrians now see the outcome of their civil war resting largely with the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. In this, they are probably right”.

Side notes

War is never about “combat” only. There is always an underlying political process going on. So, even if a country seems defeated militarily, enormous political efforts will have to be made in order to create a new stable order.

“Conviction that a toxic government is the root of all evil is the public position of most oppositions, but it is dangerous to trust one’s own propaganda”.

“A government or an army can try to maintain secrecy by banning reporters but they will pay the price as the vacuum of news is filled with information supplied by their enemies”.

Title: The Rise of Islamic State (First published under the title The Jihadis return: ISIS and the failure of the global war on terror by OR Books ©2014)

Author: Patrick Cockburn

Editor: Verso

©2015

ISBN-13: 978-1-78478-040-1

Categories
Photography Books

Photography book: Matthieu Ricard’s “An Ode to Beauty”

« A hymn to beauty, this is what photography is for me »

Cover of Matthieu Ricard's book "An Ode to Beauty"
Cover of Matthieu Ricard’s book “An Ode to Beauty”

Matthieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk who spent over forty-five years in the Himalayas. Throughout the years, he has produced many photography books. He is a man of immense talent and what he produces is of a very high quality. His new book “An ode to beauty” is no exception.

For thirty years, he photographed with two Nikon FM2 cameras and then switched to a Canon EOS-1Ds and a Canon EOS-5D. The Canon lenses used for his pictures range from a 12-24mm zoom to 100-400 mm. Landscape photography requires that he adds graduated neutral density filters to his lenses in order to reduce the contrasts between sky and earth.

When Matthieu Ricard comes back from a trip, he says: “I work on the images so that I can recapture the feeling, the emotion, the colors and the light that I saw with my own eyes”.

Like many experienced photographers, the author studies the work of other photographers in order to always learn something new. About Matthieu Ricard’s images, Henri Cartier-Bresson wrote: “Matthieu’s camera and his spiritual life are one, and from this spring these images, fleeting and eternal”.

“An ode to beauty” is made of human situations, facial expressions and the changing lights of landscapes. The composition is well thought through.

Matthieu Ricard is clearly an expert: technically demanding photos are very well executed. There are, on his images, numerous magical moments, where the photographer had only a very short time to react. It is the case, for example, of a photo where the sun rays hit an ideal part of a mountain chain at the same time as a rainbow colors the dark clouds in the background.

It is a unique book, made of exceptional images reproduced with great care. Most images demand a lengthy contemplation. There is no “Photoshop” effect and saturated colors here: everything is perfectly balanced.

Thanks to this book, the reader can look at the planet Earth in a very different way.

For more photography books, click on the following link: Other photography books

Title: An ode to beauty
Author: Matthieu Ricard
Editions : YellowKorner
©2015
ISBN : 978-2-919469-86-4
All of Matthieu Ricard’s photography rights are given back in totality to his association Karuna Shechen.

Categories
Novels

Novels: Il était une ville (Once Upon a Town), by Thomas B. Reverdy

Il était une ville (Once Upon a Town)

Thomas B Reverdy's book cover: Il était une ville (Once Upon a Town)
Thomas B Reverdy’s book cover: Il était une ville (Once Upon a Town)

« Il était une ville » is Thomas B. Reverdy’s new novel. His precedent work, « Les évaporés », published in 2013 by Flammarion, won him the Grand Prix de la SGDL and the prix Joseph Kessel.

« Il était une ville » allows the reader to approach in a different and very interesting way the brutal collapse of Detroit in the United States. The consequences of the 2008 financial crisis on people of all ages and status is very well demonstrated.

Through multiple stories unfolding at the same time, the reader is able to live how it felt to be in Detroit during that critical period, for citizens of all social classes who stayed either by choice or because they had no other option.

Thomas B. Reverdy’s high-quality writing style is particularly refreshing and full of surprises. The reader is immersed deep in a Detroit which, instead of being the dynamic city around which the suburbs conglomerated, became a black hole from which escaped the citizens that could afford it.

Without being a historical novel, it is nonetheless a work that aims to do something more than to simply entertain the reader. I completed the reading of this book with new knowledge on the multiple life aspects of people living in a suddenly deserted megacity.

A rare book, surprisingly mature for such a young writer.

Title: Il était une ville
Author: Thomas B. Reverdy
Edition : Flammarion
ISBN : 978-2-0813-4281-9
©2015

Categories
Political economy

Political economy: supercapitalism

Supercapitalism

The transformation of Business, Democracy and Everyday Life

Robert B. Reich "Supercapitalism"
Robert B. Reich “Supercapitalism”

Robert B. Reich is a professor at the Berkeley University in California. He also worked for the American government under President Bill Clinton as secretary of labour.

Here is a quote from the New York Times on their review of “Supercapitalism”: “Reich documents in lurid detail the explosive growth of corporate lobbying expenditures and campaign contributions since the 1970s. . . . Supercapitalism is a grand debunking of the conventional wisdom in the style of John Kenneth Galbraith”.

Ferocious competition on an international scale

During the first few decades that followed the Second World War, before the globalization of the economy, the author shows that in United States, profits derived from mass production were based on rules that insured stability. There was a better redistribution of a company’s profits between workers, shareholders and managers. The CEO even had the possibility to take decisions that would benefit to both the society and his company. The middle class was in better shape.

At the same time as capitalism progressively gained terrain around the planet, increasing inequalities of incomes and wealth followed.
The rise of supercapitalism, around the 70s, is due to the globalization of the economy and, consequently, to an increase of the international competition. Consumers and investors have been benefiting a lot from supercapitalism, but the citizen who feels a social responsibility and looks for the common good gradually lost ground.

The “consumer/investor” versus the “citizen”

The author writes that each person is of two minds: a “consumer and investor” but also a “citizen”. The consumer wants to acquire quality goods at low price and the investor wishes that the money invested towards his retirement provides a great rate of return. If the consumer finds a better price somewhere else, and if the investor considers that the return on investment (ROI) is not adequate, both will look towards the competition.

Meanwhile, the “citizen” in us wishes only good things for the society and the planet: companies must respect the environment; workers must have decent working conditions, etc. The paradox is that while we want the best, we encourage the worst.

Wishing the best while encouraging the worst

The fact that a superstore does not offer good working conditions to his employees irritates the “citizen” in us. However, the superstore’s lower operating costs allow us to save money. If prices go up, we will buy somewhere else.

As investors, we possess, through our mutual funds, numerous financially performing companies. In many countries around the world, profits redistributed to shareholders are the result of minimal working conditions given to employees and abuse on the environment. The investor regularly compares the rate of return of several mutual funds and other investments and he will not hesitate to sell his shares if profits are insufficient.

Increased pressure on the company’s CEO

Globalization and increased competition are forcing managers to think only in terms of return on investment. The CEO is accountable to his dissatisfied shareholders and mutual fund managers who both can sell their shares of an underperforming company.

Consequently, the role of a CEO is not to spend for reasons that would please the “citizen”, but instead to maximize profits using all the legal means at his disposal. This way, he satisfies the consumer and investor. He knows that all his competitors do the same.

As citizens, our role is to forbid companies to establish the rules of the game. Those rules must be set by the government in order to preserve democracy and encourage social responsibility.

Companies are not against new rules that would apply globally to all competitors. What they want to avoid is that a specific company benefits more than another one in the new deal.

Winning or preserving a competitive advantage because of lobbyists

Considering the strong international competition between companies, it is easy to understand that massive amounts of money and other efforts deployed to gain a competitive advantage are in constant growth.

After having worked in Washington, the experienced politician is hired by big corporations as a lobbyist (3% in 1970, 30% in 2005). While the politician’s attention is focused on consumers and investors, the citizen’s voice wishing a greater social equality is not heard.

Supercapitalism thus modifies the way the democratic system operates.

Mutual benefits between politicians and lobbyists

Politicians use that competition to demand important amounts of money to finance their political campaign. In exchange, they support and help push the agenda of a specific company: “That’s how politicians keep their hold on power, and lobbyists keep their hold on money”.

Democracy is perverted by the actions of lobbyists and the attraction that money and other advantages has on politician’s decisions. The government is not managed from the inside but by external powerful economic interests.

Better regulations can improve democracy

The author writes that companies cannot take personal initiatives to correct the situation since it will undermine their position towards other competitors in a global market. “Supercapitalism does not permit acts of corporate virtue that erode the bottom line. No company can “voluntarily” take on extra cost that its competitors don’t also take on, which is why, under supercapitalism, regulations are the only means of getting companies to do things that hurt their bottom lines”. Regulations can only be imposed by political actions.

Learn to recognize the actions used to distract the population

It is necessary for citizens and Medias to recognize the half-truths and distortions that “confound efforts to prevent supercapitalism from overrunning democracy”. The author names a few:

The public blame that changes nothing: beware of politicians who publicly blame corporations for actions that respect the law but that the public despise. The corporation works for the consumer and investor, not for the citizen. A public blame is easy and makes the politician look good. The latter must instead work at improving the law and corporations will then be forced to respect the new parameters.

The corporation that pretends to act on behalf of the public interest: do not believe a corporation that says it works for the public good. It is not its role. It is possible that, in order to improve its image or to satisfy the consumer (and ultimately its shareholders), it does something that looks like it is good for the public. But, basically, there is no acknowledgment of the public good, only a desire to preserve or improve its competitive position.

Lobbyists who pretend to look for the public good: lobbyists and experts who pretend that their initiatives are in the public interest only detract attention from their real objectives that are to protect or advantage a specific corporation.

The private sector and the “voluntary” cooperation: beware of politicians who claim that the public can count on the voluntary cooperation of the private sector in order to protect the public good. It is not the private sector’s role and it will not spend any money unless all of its competitors do the same. Those are only words aimed at buying time and confuse the public. If the public good is so important, then a law must be voted.

Public relation campaigns aimed at one specific corporation: beware of public relation campaigns and pressure groups working to force a specific company to be more socially virtuous. Try to discover the real goals behind those efforts. If all this seems reasonable to you, then ask yourself if a new law or new regulations forcing all the competing corporations to modify their behaviour would better serve the public.

Conclusion

A final quote summarizes very well the author’s thoughts: “In general, corporate responsibilities to the public are better addressed in the democratic process than inside corporate boardrooms. Reformers should focus on laws or regulations they seek to change, and mobilize the public around changing them”.

Title: Supercapitalism
Author: Robert B. Reich
Edition : Vintage Books
ISBN : 978-0-307-27999-2
©2007

Categories
Anthologies

Anthologies: le diable à 37,0000 pieds

Le diable à 37,000 pieds
Le diable à 37,000 pieds

There are seven very interesting articles, in the non-fiction category, in this anthology. Published between 2009 and 2013 in publications like The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Esquire, Men’s Journal or Q2U.S, they allow the reader to catch-up on events that happened around the planet.

Those stories received a lot of attention from the medias since they covered popular topics like a mid-air collision between two jets, a jewel heist by the Pink Panthers, a botched covered operation by Mossad, wild animals freed by their owner near a small American city, the son of a wealthy American who suddenly leaves United States for Lybia to fight against Khadafi. The reader can also learn more about Apollo Robbins, the king of pickpockets and, finally, comes the weird story of a film making that started in 2006 in Ukraine and is still not ready today.

Le diable à 37,000 pieds (The Devil at 37,000 feet)

This story presents all the elements that contributed to create a mid-air collision: a new crew recently trained on an aircraft loaded with a modern technology that makes flight management more complicated than anything else; air traffic controllers letting their expectations impear their judgment; tired and under pressure careless pilots; passengers disturbing the flying crew by visiting the cockpit on multiple occasions.

It is paradoxal to realize that the extreme precision offered by modern flight navigation equipment also increases the possibility that two aircrafts hit each other in flight.

Pink Panthers

A popular name that sends the reader back to the movies where Peter Sellers played a distracted police inspector. But the article is about the real thing: What circumstances favored the creation and international development of the multiple groups of thiefs that came to be known as the Pink Panthers.

The different Pink Panthers groups have robbed more than 152 jewelry stores since 2002 and pocketed around 250 million dollars. The reader learns that most Pink Panthers members come from the Balkan region and that they operate from Italy, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Switzerland.

The author uses the opportunity to explain how the Milosevic’s gangster regime was put in place in Serbia, a State transformed into a criminal business: “In March 2001, soon after the fall of Milosevic, we discovered, in a safe rented by municipal civil servants from a Belgrade bank, more than 660 kilos of a 93% pure heroin, valued at approximately 100 million dollars on the street”.

Montenegro is also associated with significant banditry and the author tells us about a meeting he had in that region with a former Pink Panthers. In order for criminal groups to survive and develop, there is an essential collaboration with politicians and the border services staff.

Opération Dubaï (Dubaï Operation)

In January 2010, a Mossad team lands in Dubaï with the intention of killing Mahmoud al-mabhouh. The agents are part of an ultra-secret section called “Césarée”. Although they reached their goal, the mission was somewhat a failure since it was possible to determine very rapidly who were the killers, which embarrassed Israël.

The article recounts the general progress of the operation in Dubaï and enhances the important mistakes that eventually damaged the Mossad’s reputation for efficiency.

Here are some of those mistakes:

1. Agents are sitting for hours in a hotel lobby, thus attracting the staff’s attention.

2. Two members of the team head towards the hotel washrooms, where they change their appearance by using a wig and sunglasses, all this while their physical transformation is filmed by an hotel camera positioned near the toilet’s door.

3. The man in charge of planning the covert operation has a huge ego and does not tolerate criticism or a difference of opinion.

4. Carelessness is shown when the team members are equipped with Payoneer prepaid calling cards. Those cards are mostly used in United States and the Payoneer’s director, Yuval Tal, is a veteran of the Israel’s Defence Force elite commando. While they were at it, why not give a Mossad colored business card directly?

5. The person in charge of the operation greatly underestimates the capacity and will of Dubaï’s police force to find the culprits behind Mahmoud al-mabhouh’s death.

6. Every phone call made by the team transit through the same system located in Austria.

An increase in the number of operations lead by Mossad certainly contributed to the non-compliance with respect to the security protocol. Meir Dagan eventually had to step down and the relations between the Mossad and other occidental intelligence services were impacted.

La désertion des animaux du zoo (Animals)

This is a very interesting account of an incident that made the news around the world. At the end of 2011, in Zanesville, Ohio, the owner of about fifty wild animals killed himself, not without having precedently opened the cages of all the wild animals he was keeping on his private property.

The story allows us to share a bit of the emotions lived by the inhabitants living close to the private zoo. We witness the quick reaction and organization needed to face the lions, tigers and bears that are now free to go where they want in the fields near Zanesville. It’s a very well written story.

Vacances de printemps arabe (Arab Spring Break)

This is the story of a rich American who abandons his wealthy neighborhood to go fight against Khadafi in Lybia. This type of story, told with a humoristic approach, was possibly quite amusing in 2012. But with the departure of numerous young kids gone to join ISIS during the past few years, the tone used in the article is now kind of awkward.

Le roi des pickpockets (A Pickpocket’s Tale)

The article is about the life of Apollo Robbins, a now internationally famous pickpocket that has appeared on multiple TV programs around the world, among them National Geographic’s “Brain Games”.

Un tournage pris dans l’engrenage (The Movie Set That Ate Itself)

Through the account of a movie director’s eccentric behaviour in Kharkov, Ukraine, the reader is made aware of the exaggerated control that a human can impose on other persons. It also shows the easiness with which people are ready to accept a totalitarian control in their life. All this while the movie itself is about the dictatorship lived in Russia, more precisely in Moscow, during the fifties and sixties.

Title : Le diable à 37000 pieds
Éditions du sous-sol, Paris ©2011, 2012,2013 for the French translation
Feuilleton magazine pocket anthology (Non-Fiction)
ISBN : 978-2-36468-036-4

Original English version:

The Devil at 37,000 Feet: in Vanity Fair, ©2009, William Langewiesche
The Pink Panthers: in The New Yorker, ©2010, David Samuels
The Dubaï Job: in Q2U.S, ©2011, Ronen Bergman
Animals: in Esquire, ©2012, Chris Jones
Arab Spring Break: in Men’s Journal, ©2012, Joshua Davis
A Pickpocket’s Tale: in The New Yorker, ©2013, Adam Green
The Movie Set That Ate Itself: in Q2U.S, ©2011, Michael Idov

Categories
Real life stories as a flight service specialist (FSS): Iqaluit FSS

Iqaluit FSS and the Christmas of a Saab-Scania pilot

(Precedent story: Iqaluit FSS and the Persian Gulf War)

Book and message sent by a Saab-Scania pilot to the Iqaluit flight service specialists
Book and message sent by a Saab-Scania pilot to the Iqaluit flight service specialists

I still have fond memories of a pilot who came up to visit the flight service specialists (FSS) at the Transport Canada flight service station in Iqaluit, in1990, during an icy Christmas evening. This Saab-Scania pilot had arrived from United States and he intended to cross the Atlantic toward Europe.

But the extreme cold prevailing in Iqaluit, on Baffin Island,  had complicated the ground operations. The pilot’s tight schedule as well as the reduced services in effect for the Christmas holidays had given him all sorts of problems. Through his entire ordeal, he kept a professional attitude and we did everything possible to get him out of trouble.

Just before he left the flight service station, he asked us our name and mailing address in Iqaluit. Finally, once all his problems had been taken care of, he took-off from Canada towards his next stopover. Weeks went by and one day, my colleague and I each received a package from Sweden. It was a book about the Saab-Scania story and, inside, there was this little note: “With thanks for the help at Christmas”!

(Next story: A freelance demolition worker in Iqaluit)

For more real life stories as a FSS in Iqaluit, click on the following link: Flight service specialist (FSS) in Iqaluit

Categories
Aviation art

Aviation art: Keith Ferris

As a boy, Keith Ferris lived at Kelly Field, Texas, where his father was a Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. He started drawing airplanes from life at age four or five. He used to carve wooden models, initially in balsa then in pine. This proved useful to visualize aircrafts three dimensionally in drawing.

The aviation art of Keith Ferris
The aviation art of Keith Ferris

Very young, he knew that he would have a military flying career and soon realized that all his flight training manuals were illustrated byJo Kotula, an artist who was self-employed and could make his living out of his art.

Keith tried to learn aeronautical engineering but eventually abandoned it to concentrate on what he liked the most, drawing and painting. He went on to study at the George Washington University and attended the Corcoran School of Art in New York. He became a member of the Society of Illustrators of New York in 1960.

“The Aviation Art of Keith Ferris” is a superb book filled with sketches, amazing drawings and paintings, aviation facts, real aviation stories, advices on how best to represent a scene, quotes from pilots who were actually involved in dogfights. He explains that some of the most demanding challenges for the aviation artist are painting through glass and simulating rotating propellers.

The aviation art of Keith Ferris
The aviation art of Keith Ferris

Keith Ferris‘s artwork has appeared in the Aviation Week and Space Technology calendar and the Airman Magazine cover, to name a few. Many international companies have used his work for their publicity. Among them, Mitsubishi Aircraft International, General Dynamics and Fairchild Republic Company. His paintings are part of many collections, among which the U.S. Air Force art collection and the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.

The book presents paintings of the following type of aircrafts: Lockheed T-33, Boeing P-12, Wright Type A Biplane, Loening OA-1B (amphibian), Spirit of St-Louis, Grumman F-14 Tomcat about to land on an aircraft carrier, B-52 and KC-135 in a refueling operation, the Thunderbirds (F-100), Harvest Reaper F-111, Supermarine Spitfire and German Messerschmitt 109E in a dogfight, Atlas Centaur Space Launch Vehicle cutaway, China Air Force Mig-15 and a F-86 Sabre (the dogfight is over), Fiat C.R.42, F-15 and a Soviet SU-15 in a dogfight, Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress in action, Republic P-47D Thunderbolt, F-4C and F4E Phantoms in action, F-105D and F-105E Thunderchiefs in action, Mitsubishi’s A6M2 Zero-Sen and MU2, Bell 47G, PBY Catalina, Handley Page 0/400, Skylab.

There is also a very interesting story about the steps involved in creating a gigantic B-17 mural (25 feet high by 75 feet wide) for the Smithsonian Institution.

Title: The aviation art of Keith Ferris
Author: Keith Ferris
©1978
Edition: Peacock Press/Bantam Book and edited by Ian Ballantine
ISBN: 0-553-01196-0

Categories
Law

Grand angle sur la photographie et la loi

(Un précis sur le droit de la photographie au Québec et au Canada)

Grand angle sur la photographie et la loi
Grand angle sur la photographie et la loi

For those of you who can read French, here is a very interesting handbook. The author, Jean Goulet, is a lawyer by profession and was a full time teacher at the University Laval Faculty of Law in Québec. Himself an amateur photographer, he decided to develop on the many legal questions pertinent to amateur and professional photography.

The author skims through national and international legislation and takes a moment to discuss the Berne Convention. He uses real life examples in order to help the photographer understand the legal consequences of his actions when taking a picture.

Mr Goulet uses Canadian, Québec, French, American and English jurisprudence to highlight the legal aspects in the Aubry, Théberge, Snow, Roby, Ateliers Tango argentin, Xprima affairs, etc.

The reader is informed as to copyright, counterfeiting, reproduction of photos legal limitations, as well as monetary compensation granted regarding defamation. The amateur or professional photographer can learn about the legal obligations pertaining to filming of taking pictures during a show or a theater piece. Details are also provided for anyone interested into photographing animals, expensive private properties, people on a private or public lot, political figures, etc.

Many other aspects are brought forward in this really well done handbook but I cannot present them all in a short article. All you should know is that it is easy to find the information you need and that reading this handbook will help you to take informed decisions before taking pictures.

Here are few points, among many more present in the book that a photographer should know:

[My translation] “The right to take pictures in a private property exists as long as the property owner gives you his authorisation, or is non-existent when the law strictly forbids it”.

[My translation] “ Everybody possessing a personal and exclusive right on his image, nobody can photograph a person and transfer the photo in the public domain without the person’s personal consent, if the photographed person can be recognized and if that person does not hold in the scene a role that is only an accessory role ”.

As well, [My translation] “ If the photographed person is a minor, the photographer will have to obtain the full consent from the child’s parents in order to publish the photo; if the parents cannot come to an agreement, the case will have to be brought to Court (a.604 C.c.Q) ”.

When it comes to copyright: [My translation] “ Photographers hold a copyright as soon as they have used the camera shutter, this copyright protecting their economic rights and including a moral right that they keep even if they have sold copies of their original work, unless they have explicitly gave up that privilege ”.

[My translation]: “Owner or holder of rights, the independent photographer still remains the only master of the photography he created. It is the basic rule when it comes to ownership or rights linked to photography”.

Title : Grand angle sur la photographie et la loi
Author : Jean Goulet
©Wilson&Lafleur Ltée, Montréal, 2010
ISBN : 978-2-89127-972-7

Categories
Terrorism

Le Califat du sang

Le Califat du sang, de Alexandre Adler
Le Califat du sang, de Alexandre Adler

Le Califat du sang

Islamic State, Daesh and ISIS: three names that represent the same terrorist group

In order to avoid any confusion, the author, Alexandre Adler, immediately makes clear that three names represent the same group: Islamic State, Daesh and ISIS. He explains what the ultimate goal of ISIS is: to establish a Caliphate on the Levant, a territory that spreads from Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf and that includes Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Palestine.

The concept of “caliphate” and the reasons behind the desire to re-establish it are explained clearly.

Changes in the balance of power between Sunnis and Shiites

ISIS uses decomposing zones to settle. The group feeds on very high tensions created by increased inequality between two groups: Sunnis and Shiites. The Sunnis, a more conservative religious group, has lost a lot of influence following Saddam Hussein’s death. Today, there is an effort to ensure that the leaders in charge of Iraq take into consideration the interests of both groups.

Radical movements look for dissatisfied people

Sunnis are aware of the increasing strength of the Shiite axis: Beirut, Damascus, under Bachar Assad, Bagdad under Maniki, and Iran, who is inhabited by a vast majority of Shiites. Acting on the new imbalance of powers, ISIS has managed to recruit military officers as well as dissatisfied Sunnis and Arab tribe’s chiefs.

The author insists on the fact that radical movements basically dig in the dissatisfied crowd, the left aside individuals. He gives another example of a situation that is almost certain to create dissatisfaction: colonization.

Dividing a territory without taking into account the human factor

Colonization modifies the balance of power within a population. The author being French, he writes about the way France intervened in Sahara, dividing the territory without taking into account the human factor. As new boundaries were being drawn, the Touareg tribe was suddenly divided in three. This tribe refusing to obey to a new authority, in this case the Malian government, tensions built up and increased with time, since no acceptable compromise could be found.

From Libya,  dictator Gaddafi understood that he could take advantage of the situation. He started supporting the Touareg resistance movement. After Gaddafi was killed, the Touareg looked for support by getting closer to jihadists. Progressively, a historically autonomous tribe became a friendly land for jihadists.

Between Al Qaeda and ISIS, Boko Haram chooses ISIS

The author explains that in Nigeria, Boko Haram was born of internal tensions between the north side of the country, which holds the political power, and the south where the population benefits from revenues generated by vast petroleum resources. In 2014, Boko Haram chose to fight along ISIS. Why? ISIS, contrary to Al Qaeda, wants a total war against the Shiites. Boko Haram picked the most radical movement.

Appearance and disappearance of the caliphal power

The caliphal power establishes a theological and political continuity of the State created in 622 by the Prophet in Medina. The author explains the reasons for the multiple appearances and disappearances of that caliphal power since the year 622. The last change was brought in 1923, when Mustapha Kemal abolished the caliphate.

Which religious group represents the real Islam?

Tensions exist between Sunnis and Shiites about the caliphate and the group which really represents the real Islam. This division dates from centuries ago. Shiites consider that Ali, the fourth successor of the Prophet, was victim of a plot at a time when he was attempting to achieve a moral and state straightening of Islam. Shiites consider that they are the real Islam beholders. They have been defending that point of view for centuries, even through Sunnis persecutions against them.

Shiites are against an early reestablishment of the caliphate

The author explains the profound differences of opinion as for the philosophic, theological and political views between both groups. Because of those reasons, Shiites are against an early reestablishment of the caliphate, which leads the most radical Sunnis, and through them ISIS, to lead a total war against them.

The Sunni axis is represented by Saudi Arabia and Egypt, although there is a degree of rivalry between those two countries.

Saudi Arabia’s fear

Saudis fear the birth of a powerful Shiite political movement on their territory. They estimate that there would be a risk to lose the control on oil installations, which constitute the base of Saudi Arabia’s economic wealth. The author writes that Saudis are financing “[my translation] all the anti-Shiites movement in the Arab world, including the Sunni jihad in Iraq”.

The return of Iran

The return of Iran, a Shiite power, on the world stage, adds to an already complex equation. The reader is told that there are natural tensions between Persian Iran and the Arab world. But there is something else: Iran, as well as few other countries in the region, is now supporting more moderate policies: “[my translation] Iran is radically changing its orientation and now prepares his return on the world stage as a more open country, pluralist, supporting a Shiite democracy. Although this is not a perfect democracy, the country is now living its perestroika”.

A fight between extremism and moderation

The adoption of more moderate positions is far from pleasing an extremist political group like ISIS. The 2013 americano-iranian agreement on nuclear talks, and the continued progress made in 2015, corresponds to a net increase in terrorist acts committed by ISIS.

Atrocities against humanity set in an historical context

The Medias constantly report on the atrocities perpetrated by ISIS. According to the author, all that media attention gives a false impression on the real strength of Islamic State: ISIS would now be down to committing those terrible acts against humanity due to its relative weakness.

The author links ISIS actions with war crimes and atrocities perpetrated by other regimes throughout decades. He situates those actions at a time that always corresponds to a last attempt to survive before being completely defeated and replaced by modern and moderate political parties.

A little reserve

The only reserve I have on the book concerns the passage where the author repeats, without nuances and like other well-known Medias, that Ben Laden is responsible for the New York 9/11 attacks. This version of facts has always been strongly debated, the disagreements starting within hours after the attack. And, contrary to popular belief, it was not brought forward only by what we call the “conspirationists”. But everyone knows that the more you repeat something, the more it becomes a reality, an undisputable truth. Noam Chomsky and other renowned authors have covered this aspect at length.

Title: Le Califat du sang
Author: Alexandre Adler
Edition: Grasset&Fasquelle, 2014.
ISBN : 978-2-246-85457-9