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This refers to the Chinese Whispers item Ripe for the picking (May 6). In politics, leaders can leave any party and join any other. The BJP claims to be the biggest party in the world. Then why does it want leaders from other parties? Surprisingly in most cases, the leaders happen to shift loyalty to the very party, which they have been hitting out at all along.

It needs to be noted that turncoats would have been appreciated had they first resigned from the party to register their differences with the leadership. If the party leadership had not lent an ear to them, then they would have had the right or option to do what is best for them politically. For them, the party ideology or heritage does not count much. That is why they have no qualms about jumping ship and looking for greener pastures if the situation demands. The Ayarams and Gayarams will, therefore, remain permanent feature of our democracy.

Tarsem Singh Hoshiarpuri

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The Editor, Business Standard

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Letter to BS: Turncoats will remain a permanent feature of our democracy - Business Standard

THE ABS-CBN media behemoth is an anomaly that has made a mockery of our democracy. This started in the late 1950s, when the landlord oligarch clan, the Lopezes, added to their empire what was then a new medium, television, which proved to be more powerful in reaching the masses than their Manila Chronicle newspaper.

We are the only country in Asia to have such a powerful oligarch as the dominant player in broadcast media, the most effective venue in the modern era for molding the masses political consciousness and choices.

Japan has the mammoth NHK, South Koreas three major network are either government-run or funded, and Singapores broadcast and print media are subsidiaries of the government investment fund Temasek Holdings.

Here we have an oligarch clan (in ABS-CBN Corp.), a triumvirate of magnates in another (GMA7) and a foreign tycoon (Indonesian Salim in TV5).

Worse for our democracy, the Lopezes werent just ordinary oligarchs. They owned for many decades the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the monopoly electricity distributor in Metro Manila, whose fortunes were 100 percent dependent on government regulations.

When they were friends: Lopez patriarchs Eugenio and Fernando at the formers 68th birthday party in 1969.

The Lopezes ABS-CBN made presidential elections a farce.

While the outcome of presidential elections are determined by a complex of factors, ABS-CBN has been a dominant factor, a big kingmaker, as the masses are hypnotized by ABS-CBN as they watch the 6 p.m. news while waiting for their teleserye or comedy programs.

SantiagoMiriam Defensor-Santiago in 1992 had tapped the idealism not only of the youth, but of the masses on a scale rivaling that of Rodrigo Duterte more than two decades later. The Lopezes, though, backed Fidel Ramos, their patron Corazon Cory Aquinos anointed. It was enough for a dozen or so coverage by ABS-CBN showing Santiago in a tantrum, and spreading the meme (before that word was invented) of Miriam as Brenda for brain-damaged to get the dull general win the elections.

Despite medias portrayal of him as a dum-dum, Joseph Erap Estrada was politically astute and sent all his celebrity eraps like Fernando Poe Jr. and allegedly his studios starlets to the Lopezes to get ABS-CBN behind his presidential bid. The Lopezes also hated candidate Jose de Venecia for his alleged support of the Marcos regime.

Or, perhaps, Erap did what medieval kings did, which was to establish an alliance through their childrens marriage. We learned about that only a year after the elections, when Manuel Beaver Lopez Jr. married Eraps unica hija (at least with Loi) Jackie.

The Lopezes, however, didnt hesitate to abandon Erap loyalty hasnt been that clans strength when the going got tough, as the jueteng and other scandals gave the Yellows and Ramos who feared Estrada would prosecute him for the so-called Centennial funds corruption, more than enough issues to stage a second People Power uprising.

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo tried very hard to get the Lopezes to her side, when she assumed power by accident in 2001. As Arroyos chief of staff, I attended a few dinners with Oscar and Manolo at her familys Forbes Park home to shoot the breeze as they say, although after the main meal the two Lopezes would meet with Arroyo at her living room, with no other people there.

ArroyoThe Lopezes needed Arroyo badly at that time. While Cory was in power, they racked up hundreds of millions of loans from the Development Bank of the Philippines in the hope of quickly building up the empire they lost during martial law. However, they couldnt seem to put their finances and even their house in order, especially after their primus inter pares Eugenio Lopez Jr. died in 1999.

That was the worst time for the patriarch to pass away as the 1998 to 1999 global financial crisis hit, and the Lopez empire had accumulated substantial foreign debt, the peso equivalent of which more than doubled as the exchange rate zoomed form P26 in 1996 to P54 by 2003.

The biggest problem though of the Lopezes involved their family jewel, Meralco, since the so-called Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) was passed in June 2001, but was implemented only starting 2007 due to delays because of the suits against it that dragged on up to the Supreme Court.

I was assigned both before the law was passed and after to help Meralco with a small group of Arroyos closest Cabinet members in getting their side into the Act and then having their side taken into account by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) that decides on how much Meralco could charge its customers.

With then Trade and Industry Secretary Manuel Roxas 2nd (who was believed to be very close to the Lopezes, his fellow Ilonggo), Energy Secretary Vicente Perez Jr. and presidential legal counsel Avelino Cruz Jr., we met several times in secret with Meralco Chairman Manuel Pangilinan and his vice president, a lady in charge of electricity economics.

UnbundledWe spent so many hours poring over the details of how the firms prices were to be unbundled (i.e., its costs made transparent), how the performance-based rating system which replaced the return on rate base method that had been in effect since 1986, would work in practice.

While purportedly aimed at encouraging private sector investment in the power industry, the new pricing system made electricity costs in the country one of the highest in the world, while turning Meralco into a cash cow for its owners.

For some reason I dont know though I left Malacaang in 2005 to become the ambassador to Greece Arroyo, or the Energy Regulatory Commission delayed the implementation of the new price system. With Meralcos costs zooming up because of the pesos devaluation, it was racking up so much losses to nearly keel over.

Coincidentally or not, the so-called Hello Garci scandal broke out in 2005 when Arroyo was recorded talking over the phone with a Comelec commissioner before the 2004 elections. The group of inane Cabinet members called the Hyatt 10 resigned and called for her resignation, Cory and Cardinal Jaime Sin demanded that the president step down. ABS-CBN became vicious in its attacks against Arroyo.

With their finances getting worse, the Lopezes sold Meralco to their ally, the Indonesian Anthoni Salim, in March 2009. A few months later, the ERC implemented the Epiras pricing system. Meralcos profits starting that year zoomed, with its dividends expanding from P1 billion in 2007 to P2.8 billion the year Salim took over and to at least P12 billion every year since 2013.

Aquino 3rdIn the 2010 elections, ABS-CBN went all-out for Benigno Aquino 3rds presidential bid, its huge corps of journalists throwing dirt on the main rival then, the magnate Manuel Villar, tagging him as Villarroyo and running investigative reports alleging how he got highways in Las Pias built near the vast subdivisions he was developing. Villar ended up third, with Manuel Lopezs in-law Estrada the runner up.

The Lopezes kingmaker role in the post-war era isnt really new, as a University of California doctoral dissertation narrated:

The Lopezes are the only family that has consistently stayed on the fringes of power since 1945, when they came to power with [Manuel] Roxas. Consistently they have been the manipulators of political balances in this country. When they abandoned Quirino and the Liberal Party in the 1950s, there was a stampede out. When they joined the Magsaysay bandwagon in the 1960s, they forced Garcia down.

Then Macapagal came; but in two years the Lopezes were able to bring about a crisis of major proportions against him, and so bring on his downfall. And it was the Lopezes who engineered the coup of Ferdinand Marcos against Senate President Rodriguez that started his bid for the presidency. They rode with Marcos (and supported his bid for the presidency in 1965, and then abandoned him in 1969). What makes them so deadly? One: their control of media. They have one of the best radio and TV networks in the country.

Now do you think that Sen. Miguel Zubiris complaint that with ABS-CBN closed he wont be able to watch ANC in the morning anymore, the sympathy that 2,500 of its employees (per BIR figures) will lose their jobs, or the fear we wont be informed about the pandemic anymore make any sense?

This Congress, the 18th, and this President, Duterte, the only president who won without ABS-CBNs backing, will go down in history as oligarch-killers, as builders of Philippine democracy.

Email: tiglao.manilatimes@gmail.comFacebook: Rigoberto TiglaoTwitter: @bobitiglaoBook orders: http://www.rigobertotiglao.com/debunked

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ABS-CBN closure will strengthen our democracy The Manila Times - The Manila Times

Three NYU professors were elected as American Academy of Arts and Sciences fellows one of the most prestigious scholarly honors on Thursday, April 23.

The new fellows are English Professor Emerita Mary Carruthers, Psychology Professor Gregory Murphy, Psychology Professor emeritus and Anthropology Professor Susan Antn. They are three of 276 members elected in 2020.

Its more like the Nobel Prize than anything else in Humanities, Carruthers told WSN in an email. I just got an email out of the blue one morning last week saying that Id been elected to the Fellowship.

In addition to the professors, the AAAS also inducted Vice-Chairman of NYUs Board of Trustees Chandrika Tandon, although this was not stated in NYUs initial press release. Following a 2015 donation of $100 million to the Tandon School of Engineering, the school was renamed after her and her husband. Tandon is the founder and chair of Tandon Capital Associates and chair of the NYU Tandon School of Engineerings Board of Overseers.

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The award is multidisciplinary, encompassing fields such as education, democracy and justice, energy and environment, the arts and science and technology, the AAAS website states. Former recipients include Martin Luther King Jr., Georgia OKeeffe, Toni Morrison, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein.

The academy has elected more than 13,500 members since its conception in 1780. The election process begins with a nomination from two already-existing members each from a different institution and then prospective inductees are placed on a ballot.

Members vote on these ballots in sections and then place 12 members from each section to advance to a further round. In the next round, six out of the 12 members are chosen and forwarded to The Academys Council and Board of Directors, who then officially elect the members, according to the AAAS website.

The primary criteria for election are excellence in the field and a record of continued accomplishment, the website reads.

While inductees are generally chosen because they excel in their fields, the exact selection criteria remain unclear. Inductees are generally not told why they are selected, Carruthers said.

Since the whole process is secret, I dont know why I was selected, Carruthers said. I would guess it has to do with the range of other peoples research which my work has influenced over thirty years, in ways great and small.

Though Carruthers is categorized as an English language professor, she believes that the category doesnt reflect the interdisciplinary nature of her work, which includes research on art history and aesthetics. When her book The Book of Memory was published in 1990, she received correspondence from scholars in fields ranging from anthropology and sociology to computer science.

I still regularly get questions from doctors who treat geriatric patients, and from people who work in secondary education, Carruthers said. I like having such a multidisciplinary audience.

Susan Antn who was recognized for her work in the study of early human evolution also shared her surprise at being elected.

The AAAS Presidents office emailed me about noon on the day the awards were announced to welcome me as a newly elected member, Antn told WSN in an email. I already knew about the organization, of course, but I almost missed the email because I wasnt expecting it and it looked like something I didnt need to read right away!

Antn also shared what the recognition meant to her personally.

Im pretty excited about having been elected, and quite humbled to have been included, she said. At the same time, there are so many deserving folks who could be in my position, that I am simply feeling very lucky to be recognized. Im also a little sad, because my mom died this Fall and I would have loved to have been able to share this with her.

Gregory Murphy who is now retired declined to comment. His research focuses primarily on the psychology of language acquisition.

Other 2020 AAAS fellows include former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, singer-songwriter Joan Baez and filmmaker Richard Linklater. It is currently unknown whether there will be the usual in-person induction ceremony for new fellows this October.

Antn hopes to meet the other inductees if it is deemed safe to hold the event.

I am betting there will be some exciting conversations around new ideas and perspectives, she said. I have no idea what those will be. But even more than that, I hope that my recognition provides a little bit of possibility to some aspiring kid somewhere that anything is possible.

A version of this article appeared in the Monday, May 4th, 2020 e-print edition. Email Nick Mead at [emailprotected]

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Three NYU Professors Inducted into American Academy of Arts and Sciences - NYU Washington Square News

Attempts to call Jose Calida 'Joe' and 'Demonyo' on Wikipedia do not pass muster against established Wikipedia editors

Published 3:05 PM, May 08, 2020

Updated 3:40 PM, May 08, 2020

Attempts to make alterations to the Wikipedia page of Solicitor General Jose Calida appeared to fail this week, following his successful push to have the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) order media giant ABS-CBN to cease operations. Lawmakers, media, and ordinary citizens alike have called the network's closure unconstitutional and an attack on press freedom.

The Wikipedia edit history for Jose Calida's page points to attempts to add a nickname to his profile there.

At least 3 different IP addresses were used to try to make anonymous mobile edits pertaining to Calida's nickname.

On May 5, attempts were made to add "Joe" to his name, but these were reverted, also by what appears to be a separate anonymous mobile edit

On May 6 and 7, attempts were then made to call him Jose "Demonyo" (Demon) Calida instead.

DEFACEMENT ATTEMPT. Wikipedia defacers try to nickname Jose Calida as 'Demonyo.' Screenshot from Wikipedia edit history.

However, these attempts were also quickly reverted by editors named Jollibinay and PlumeKnight. Plumeknight wrote down with the most recent edit on the history that "a derogatory word is added to the name of this government official."

Jose Calida's Wikipedia page is currently nickname-free as of May 8 Rappler.com.

Inside Track is Rappler's intelligencer on people, events, places and everything of public interest. It's a take-off from Newsbreak's Inside Track section. Contributions are most welcome. Just send bits of information to investigative@rappler.com.

Read more:
Jose Calida given 'demonic' nickname on Wikipedia, but it doesn't stick - Rappler

Screenshot: Catch Me If You Can, based on the life of Frank Abagnale (YouTube)Wiki WormholeWe explore some of Wikipedias oddities in our 5,664,405-week series, Wiki Wormhole.

We explore some of Wikipedias oddities in our 6,070,641-week series, Wiki Wormhole.

This weeks entry: List of Impostors

What its about: From Mrs. Doubtfire to Don Draper to Nicolas Cage in Face/Off, pop culture is full of people who are not what they seem. Disconcertingly, there are also a lot of real-life Armin Tamzarians out there, pretending to be someone theyre not.

Biggest controversy: At least in the 21st century, the most controversial impostors are ones who lie about their ethnicity. From Rachel Dolezal, the misguided white lady who ran a branch of the NAACP while claiming to be black, to Iron Eyes Cody, the crying Native American in the famous anti-littering ads of the 1970s, who turned out to be Italian-American. Other fake Native Americans include Grey Owl (Englishman Archibald Belaney); The Education Of Little Tree author Asa Earl Carter; Cherokee writer Jamake Highwater (actually Jewish journalist Jackie Marks); and Red Thunder Cloud (born Cromwell West, a black man who falsely claimed to be Catawba, but genuinely learned the Catawba language and was its last fluent speaker). There was also Helen Darville, who drew on nonexistent Ukrainian heritage for her novel The Hand That Signed The Paper, about a Ukrainian family that collaborates with the Nazis. (She was in fact Australian.)

Strangest fact: Theres a whole separate category on papal impostors. Antipopes were rival claimants to the Holy See, usually with the support of some faction within the Church, or of either the Roman or Byzantine Emperor. One of the earliest antipopes, Hippolytus, held that distinction for nearly 18 years in the early 200s, opposing the reign of three separate legitimate popes, and was later canonized. Clement III had the support of Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, and as such was antipope for over 20 years, concurrent with four different popes in Rome. However, some antipopes reigns were as short as one day. In 1124, Celestine II won a contested papal election, but violence broke out during his investment ceremony, and he resigned before officially being enthroned to avoid further violence, thus setting a record for shortest papacy at negative several hours.

Thing we were happiest to learn: If youre a fan of royal impostors, Russias got you covered. Nicholas II Romanov, the last Tsar, abdicated during the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, and was killed the following year, along with his wife and five children, Olga, Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei. But some Russians refused to believe the children were dead, and a wave of impostors cropped up to confirm those beliefs. Marga Boodts claimed to be Olga; Maddess Aiort and Michelle Anches both claimed to be Tatiana; Granny Alina claimed to be Maria; Heino Tammet and CIA agent Michael Goleniewski both claimed to be Alexei; and Anna Anderson not only claimed to be Anastasia, she tried to prove it in court, in a legal battle that ran all the way until 1970, when a judge finally decided she hadnt presented enough evidence. (Long after her death in 1984, DNA evidence proved she wasnt related to the Romanovs.) Anatoly Ionov claimed to be Anastasias son (conceived after she escaped execution and went into hiding, naturally). And Larissa Tudor made no claims whatsoever, but looked so much like Tatiana that rumors dogged her throughout her whole life that she was in fact the Tsarina under an assumed name.

Another fake Anastasia surfaced as recently as 1990. Then-90-year-old Natalya Bilikhodze claimed to be the Grand Duchess, in hiding for 70 years, and at age 100, traveled to Russia to lay claim to the Romanov fortune, which almost certainly no longer existed.

There was also epan Mali (Stephen The Little), who pretended to be Peter III, who was Tsar for six months in 1762 before his untimely death. Mali turned up five years later in Montenegro, claiming to be Peter, and his claim was so good he ended up ruling Montenegro until his death in 1773.

Weve also previously covered not one, but three False Dmitrys, who each pretended to be the son of Ivan The Terrible over the span of a dozen years, each with some amount of short-term success.

Thing we were unhappiest to learn: People are apparently pretty easily fooled. Moviegoers know of scam artists like Frank Abagnale and David Hampton, whose stories were told in Catch Me If You Can and Six Degrees Of Separation, respectively. But theyre just part of a larger tradition of con men (and women) pretending to be someone else for personal gain. Michael The Great Impostor Sabo had over 100 known aliases in the FBI database. Cassie Chadwick passed herself off as the daughter of Andrew Carnegie. Gerald Barnbaum stole a doctors identity and used it for 20 years. And James Reavis used his real name, but created a complex, fictitious history, to back up his claim as the rightful owner of Arizona.

Also noteworthy: Theres also an unfortunate category of military impostors, who lied about their service. Former Fox News analyst Joseph A. Cafasso dined out on his experiences with Special Forces during the Vietnam War, which turned out to be entirely fabricatedhe served in the Army for just 44 days in 1976. Likewise, historian Joseph Ellis claimed to have served in Vietnam; he in fact taught at West Point during the war. British historian Jack Livesey claimed 20 years of service with the Parachute Regiment; he had at least served in the army, but only for three years, as a cook. And Erich von Stroheim, whose Hollywood career stretched from D.W. Griffiths 1912 film An Unseen Enemy, to directing a string of films in the 20s including Foolish Wives, Greed, The Merry Widow, to a supporting role in 1950s Sunset Boulevard, claimed to be an Austrian aristocrat who had served as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In fact, he was the lower-middle-class son of a hatmaker and a lifelong civilian.

Best link to elsewhere on Wikipedia: Related to the impostor is the charlatan, who claims not to be someone else, but to have some area of expertise (usually medical) that they do not in fact possess. Notable charlatans Wikipedia mentions include Bernie Madoff, who ran an $18 billion Ponzi scheme; Charles Ponzi, inventor of said scheme; anti-vaxxer Joseph Mercola; and Grigori Rasputin, because this list just cant stay away from the Romanovs.

Further Down the Wormhole: That Fox News analyst may not have been in the Special Forces, but if he had, he may have been involved in an invasion of Americas most recurring enemy: The Peoples Republic of Pineland. Well look at repeated invasions of this fictional country in central North Carolina next week. Stay safe, everybody!

Original post:
These Wikipedia subjects are not who they claim to be - The A.V. Club