Atlantic Monthly Contributors's Blog, page 1073

China May Be Following Thomas Friedman's Advice

It looks like the new leader of China may have borrowed a propaganda slogan from mustachioed New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. Communist Party leader Xi Jinping, who repeats "Chinese dream" like a mantra, ushered in a wave of "Chinese dream" contests, projects and hit pop songs in the country this year. The slogan bears a striking resemblance to an edition of Friedman's ongoing advice column to the world, titled "China Needs Its Own Dream,"  which ran in the Times on October 2 and was subsequently translated for Reference News, the Xinhua News Agency's translation of articles collected from global news outlets.

The Economist spotted the similarity, and it could very well be the first time an entire country has listened to Thomas Friedman. Here's a snippet of Friedman's advice to Xi: 

Does Xi have a “Chinese Dream” that is different from the “American Dream?” Because if Xi’s dream for China’s emerging middle class — 300 million people expected to grow to 800 million by 2025  — is just like the American Dream (a big car, a big house and Big Macs for all) then we need another planet.

Shortly after Friedman's column appeared, the phrase began to show up in Xi's rhetoric, with some directly crediting it to Friedman's column. In December 2012, "dream" was dubbed the Chinese character of the year. While the government has not acknowledged Friedman as an inspiration, The Economist notes that the phrase is kind of all over everything in China right now: 

Schools have been organising Chinese-dream speaking competitions. Some have put up “dream walls” on which students can stick notes describing their visions of the future. Party officials have selected model dreamers to tour workplaces and inspire others with their achievements. Academics are being encouraged to offer “Chinese dream” research proposals. Newspapers refer to it more and more...the party’s propaganda chief, Liu Yunshan, ordered that the concept of the Chinese dream be written into school textbooks to make sure that it “enters students’ brains”.

Given the bland slogans adopted by previous Chinese leaders, Xi gets credit for at least choosing something catchier than Hu Jintao's rousing “scientific-development outlook.” 

       

Pakistan's High-Profile Prosecutor Was Assassinated for His High-Profile Cases

Chaudhry Zulfikar Ali, the prosecutor in a number of cases surrounding power and the reputation of the government in Pakistan, was shot 13 times Friday on his way to the bail hearing for former president Pervez Musharraf, and his death moments later raises questions about just who can challenge the status quo by law in the country.

Musharraf, as you might already know, is in deep trouble in the country he once ruled. He's facing murder conspiracy charges in the assassination of former Prime Minister (and widower of current president Asif Ali Zardari) Benazir Bhutto in 2007. Zulfikar was representing the Federal Investigation Agency against Musharraf in that case. And it sounds like he thought he'd win against the former leader when he appeared in court this week. According to the New York Times, Zulfikar said he had "solid evidence" against Musharraf that would "directly connect the accused" with the assassination.

Here's the Associated Press, describing the scene of his murder on his way to court: 

The gunmen fired at Chaudhry Zulfikar from a taxi and hit him in the head, shoulder and chest, said police officer Mohammed Ishaq. Zulfikar then lost control of his car, which hit a woman passer-by and killed her, said another police officer, Mohammed Rafiq. Zulfikar's guard Farman Ali returned fire in the attack and believes he wounded at least one of the attackers, Rafiq said.

There's still no word on who was behind the attacks, but there are a few obvious possibilities. Musharraf's case was just one of a handful of cases Zulfikar took on that would lend itself to enemy-making. For instance, he was also the lead prosecutor in the trial of seven Lashkar-e-Taiba militants accused of orchestrating the 2008 Mumbai attacks, also set to go to court this week.

Musharraf, who also faces charges related to the deaths of protesters at the hands of security forces, was in power when Bhutto was killed (which he blames on the Taliban). He's accused of not providing Bhutto with enough security, allowing the murder to take place. After stepping down in 2008, the former leader spent four years in exile before returning to Pakistan in what has so far turned out to be a terrible attempt to redeem himself in the public eye: he's already barred for running in the parliamentary elections in mid-May, and is under house arrest. And someone threw a shoe at his head. 

Zulfikar, a longtime state attorney, wasn't the only government up-ender who died on Friday in apparent militant related violence in Pakistan. Next week's historic election, marking the transition from one civilian government to another, featured a leading businessman candidate, Saddiq Zaman Khattak, in the parliamentary race. He and his 3-year-old son were shot and killed after morning prayer.

       

Factories Are Now Getting Away with the Murder of Over 500 in Bangladesh

The official death toll following the April 24 collapse of a garment factory in Bangladesh passed 500 this morning, just a day after the official count of the dead passed 400. A week ago, that number was 200. It's a mounting figure that's becoming harder and harder to ignore. But that's exactly what the country's garment industry might do in the long term, thanks in part to its extensive ties to figures in political power in Bangladesh, one of whom is now saying this sort of thing "happens everywhere." 

The ignorance as retail bliss is just one takeaway from a Reuters report on the garment industry in the world's second-largest clothing exporter. Of the 160 million residents of Bangladesh, 4.5 million work in the industry. And according to 2010 World Bank data, those workers had the lowest minimum wage of anywhere in the world. That is, if they're even being paid the country's minimum wage, which some factories just straight up ignore. Meanwhile, about 10 percent of the country's parliament is comprised of garment industry bosses, with many more involved in the $20 billion-a-year industry holding other politically powerful positions: 

Other owners, like Mohammed Sohel Rana, the owner of the building that collapsed, have strong political ties: He was a local leader of the youth wing of the ruling party, the Awami League. Rana was arrested trying to escape across the border to India and faces charges of unlawful construction causing deaths. Bangladesh officials say his eight-storey complex was built on swampy ground without the correct permits.

Pardon the cliché, but that link between the country's biggest industry and the government that regulates it has made it easier for factory owners to (literally) get away with murder: the April factory collapse is the third deadly accident for the country's industry in six months (including a factory fire that killed over 100 in November). Yet, as Reuters notes, human rights groups say that the country has never prosecuted a factory owner for the death of a worker.  

We'll have to wait and see if the country's industry — or the Western brands who buy in to what the Pope called "slave labor" and "against God" — end up changing in the wake of this disaster. But even before the dead are recovered, counted, and identified, that possibility seems a bit far-fetched. On Friday the Bangladeshi finance minister didn't offer much big-picture remorse on behalf of the government: "The present difficulties ... well, I don't think it is really serious — it's an accident," Abul Maal Abdul Muhith said. "These are individual cases of ... accidents. It happens everywhere." At least there is something of a culpability crackdown for this increasingly deadly incident: The Associated Press reports that Bangladeshi officials have arrested the engineer who said the building was unsafe the day before it collapsed. He's facing a negligence charge. The building's owner, Mohammed Sohel Rana, was arrested earlier. The expected charges against him include negligence, illegal construction and forcing workers to join work, which would give Rana a maximum sentence of seven years. The mayor of the factory town, Savar, has been suspended — but the death toll may not suspend itself anytime soon.

       

Here's What Else Reese Witherspoon Said During Her 'Anti-American' Arrest

"I said all kinds of crazy things," Reese Witherspoon told America Thursday morning during her second apology for a recent drunken confrontation with a cop during a traffic stop, "I had no idea what I was saying." Well, TMZ has helpfully offered to jog Reese Witherspoon's memory: they released "dash cam" videos of the arrest late Thursday night. 

Witherspoon's rant, complete with the fatal "do you know who I am?" card of celebrity PR free-falls, has been a source of shadenfreude for those who like to see famous people (even the reportedly nice ones) taken down a notch or two, or a million. But Witherspoon's apology Thursday on Good Morning America was pretty classy and direct, which should take some of the sting out of the dirty details of her terrible night. 

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We'll let you judge how bad her confrontation with the cop was, which began with Witherspoon lying about being pregnant: 

Trooper (looking toward a car): Ma'am, get back in that car.

Witherspoon (out of view): You know I'm so sorry.

Trooper: Ma'am, get back in that car.

Witherspoon: Can I say something?

Trooper: No ma'am, get back in that car. I'm not going to repeat myself again.

Witherspoon: I'm pregnant and I need to use the restroom.

And it goes from there: 

Trooper (as Witherspoon approaches him administering test to Toth): Ma'am, what'd I just tell you to do?

Witherspoon: I'd like to know what's going on.

Trooper: He's under arrest. If you don't get back in the car...

Witherspoon: I'm a U.S. citizen and I'm allowed to stand on American ground...

Trooper: Actually, you're not allowed to do anything...

Witherspoon: ...to ask any question I want to ask.

Trooper: Go ahead. Come on (moves to handcuff her).

Witherspoon: You better not arrest me.

At this point,     

The Senate and America Are Ready for a Do-Over on Background Checks

There are more indicators that last month's Senate vote on expanding background checks was something of a dress rehearsal. Another vote appears to be brewing. Americans support the idea — as, apparently, do some Senators who opposed it last time.

As you may recall, the Senate failed to break a Republican-led filibuster of a key compromise on a 54-46 vote, coming six votes short. Four Democrats broke rank in that vote — Senators Baucus (MT), Begich (AK), Heitkamp (ND), and Pryor (AR). Since the vote, though, it's mostly been Republicans who have felt the heat. Polls from Public Policy Polling showed Senators Flake (AZ), Murkowski (AK), Heller (NV), and Ayotte (NH) facing harsh criticism for their votes. (Earlier this week, Ayotte was confronted by a furious parent from Newtown in a scene that received a lot of attention.)

Those Senators will likely get a do-over before too long. Joe Biden is continuing to press on gun safety. One of the sponsors of the background check compromise, Democract Joe Manchin of West Virginia, has said repeatedly he wants to give it another go. His co-sponsor, Pennsylvania's Republican Senator Pat Toomey, had expressed apathy about another vote. But yesterday he became more forceful, blaming the failure on a "politicized" Republican bloc.

The Daily Beast's Michael Tomasky thinks there's lot of space to pick up those six votes if there's another vote.

I talked with a couple of knowledgeable sources about what’s going on now. Five Republicans, I’m told, have expressed some degree of interest in the bill: Ayotte, who would appear be a near-certainty to switch her vote; Flake, also a likely; Murkowski; Dean Heller of Nevada; and Bob Corker of Tennessee. Tennessee seems like a tough state to be from when casting such a vote as a Republican, but Corker is someone who at least tries once in a while to have conversations with Democrats.

On the Democratic side, as you’ll recall, four Democrats voted against Manchin-Toomey: Begich, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, and Max Baucus of Montana. I’m told that Begich would like to switch, just needs to figure out how he can get there. Heitkamp is a bigger question mark. Pryor is probably lost.

Heitkamp, of North Dakota, took office in January with the help of national Democrats — many of whom are furious at her gun control vote. Former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley excoriated her in a piece in the Washington Post, demanding that Democrats withhold campaign financing from her future campaigns. (During her campaign, the top three regions making contributions were Washington, New York, and Los Angeles.)

Writing at The New York Times' Opinionator blog, Tom Edsall details the various political pressures Heitkamp — and other red-state Democrats — face on the issue. The superficial reasoning is based on political party: Democrats need to toe a middle-line in order to hold enough Republican votes. This point is made at the National Review: Why would national Democrats expect otherwise? The answer on background checks is that those voters supported the bill. The bigger factors at play last month were volume and distance. Constituents broadly support increases on background checks — but those who oppose new restrictions are voluble and, in the form of NRA lobbyists, knock on office doors in Washington.

There are signs — like the scene Ayotte faced this week — that constituents and proponents are getting louder. A new poll released by Quinnipiac University outlines the breadth and forcefulness of support for background checks — the latter of which appears to have broadened since last month's vote.

As always, support for expansions of background checks is broad. Even among Republicans, more than half of respondents in the Quinnipiac poll strongly support expanding checks. In every region of the country, in every type of community, more than three-quarters of respondents support the idea — the majority of them, adamantly.

And people are mad about the last vote. Only among Republicans is the split between those happy with the vote and those unhappy even close. Seventy-one percent of Americans didn't like the outcome — a full third indicated they were "angry" about how it turned out. Even people from homes where someone owns a gun overwhelmingly expressed a desire that the vote had turned out differently.

Nor would voters mind seeing the background check issue come up again. Those saying they either want Obama to maintain his focus on the issue or to include it as he pushes for other measures comprise more than two-thirds of the electorate. Only among Republicans is there a majority desire to set the bill aside entirely.

In short, then: The American people support the Senate addressing the issue again, and support increasing restrictions. There are signs that some Senators who wavered last time would be willing to go along — provided, one assumes, they're given a face-saving way of doing so. It's possible that the Senate could soon pass the measure after all.

And then there's the House.

       

Iraq Just Had Its Deadliest Month in 5 Years

American troops may have finally left Iraq, but for that nation's citizens the war is only getting worse. More than 700 people, mostly civilians, were killed in violent attacks last month, making it the deadliest calendar month since June 2008. Nearly all of those killed were attacked in the capital of Baghdad.

The sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia Muslims has escalated in recent months, and the minority Sunnis have turned up the protests of the Shia-led government—leading to violent confrontations with police. Local elections in the middle of April contributed to the violence, as deadly car bombings became almost routine in Iraq's major cities, and the government has been powerless to to stop the resurgence of al-Qaeda in Iraq, which is believed to be behind the majority of attacks.

The sudden spike in attacks has also raised fears of a new civil war, as sectarian groups lacking the buffer (and useful targets) of American forces turn their anger and frustration against each other. The Sunnis, who dominated government positions for so many years, have been marganalzied on the government of Shia prime minister Nuri al-Maliki.

May has not gotten off to a great start either. Twenty-two people were killed in mulitple attacks on Wednesday, including a gun assault on a police station that killed five officers.

       

Jon Stewart Calls Ted Cruz a Dirty Canadian Syrup Guzzler

Jon Stewart laid into everyone's not-so-favorite Senator on The Daily Show last night. After exploring the various insults lobbed by Ted Cruz toward his fellow Senators, and then the insults thrown by everyone else toward the junior Senator from Texas ("wacko bird"), Stewart explained that Cruz has been called "the most hated man in the Senate." To which Stewart responded: "That's no easy feat. That's like being the lowest rated show on NBC: So You Think You Can Belch." But then wait, Cruz wants to run for president? There's one problem: he was born in Canada. "Our beloved Texas freedom fighter's nothing but a dirty syrup guzzler," Stewart said. 

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Meet Penny Pritzker, a Billionaire and the New Commerce Secretary Nominee

President Obama is considering Chicago mogul and longtime friend Penny Pritzker as his nominee for Commerce secretary. Here's what you need to know about her:

1) She’s a longtime supporter of the president. Pritzker, 53, first met President Obama and his wife, Michelle, at a Chicago YMCA in the early 1990s while her children were playing basketball and Michelle Obama’s brother, Craig Robinson, was coaching. Since then, she has been an important supporter and has helped raise millions of dollars for his political campaigns since he ran for the Senate in 2004. During Obama's 2008 White House run, Pritzker served as the national chairwoman of his campaign finance team, which shattered fundraising records. Although she wasn’t as active in the 2012 reelection effort, she was a top bundler, bringing in more than $500,000. She also served on the two White House economic advisory panels during Obama's first term.

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2) She was a contender for Commerce secretary before. After Obama won the presidential election in 2008, Pritzker was looked at as a possible nominee for Commerce secretary. She took her name out of consideration because of financial obligations to her family. In recent years, the Pritzker family has made headlines for internal disputes over the $19 billion fortune split among 11 cousins, which was just resolved in 2011. Pritzker was still involved in this dispute in 2008, which prevented her for taking a Cabinet position in the Obama administration. When she announced that she was taking her name out of consideration, she said she could “best serve our nation in my current capacity: building businesses, creating jobs, and working to strengthen our economy.”

Even if she got the nod for the position, she might have had a difficult confirmation process. She helped oversee and run a bank in Illinois that was involved in the controversial practice of turning subprime mortgage loans into securities. After the bank collapsed in 2001, the Pritzker family agreed to pay the federal government $460 million over 15 years in fines. Obama ultimately picked Gary Locke as his first Commerce secretary but Locke left the job after two years to become the U.S. ambassador to China. His replacement, John Bryson, was involved in a hit-and-run accident in June 2012 that was linked to a seizure. He later resigned, citing health concerns.

3) Pritzker would serve as an important tie to the business community. Pritzker might be able to help Obama improve his strained ties with the business community. A graduate of the Stanford University law and business schools, Pritzker sits on the board of Hyatt Hotels which was founded by her family and has built several businesses, including Vi, an upscale retirement community, and the Parking Spot, an airport-parking company. “If she is the nominee, I think it’s good for the administration and I think it’s particularly good for the Commerce Department,” said David Sampson, who served as the deputy secretary of Commerce during President George W. Bush's administration. “It bodes well for stability—someone of stature in that role in the second term.”

4) She’s Chicago royalty, but not without family drama. With a net worth of an estimated $1.8 billion, this heir to the Hyatt Hotel fortune, which her family founded, has become one of the leading philanthropists in the Windy City. The Pritzker family name is one of the most prominent in Chicago. From Millennium Park's Pritzker Pavilion to galleries at the Art Institute of Chicago, the family’s philanthropic efforts and wealth are widely known in the city. After former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel became Chicago's mayor, Pritzker joined the Chicago Board of Education and has started fundraising initiatives to help improve Chicago schools.

In addition to the family drama surrounding its fortune, the Pritzker family has also had multiple disputes with the IRS over offshore tax havens. Additionally, some labor groups have accused Hyatt Hotels of worker-safety violations. Since then, labor leaders, including AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, have called for a boycott of the hotel chain. If she is nominated for the post this time around, labor leaders could raise these concerns.

       

What We Don't Know About the Deadly New SARS Virus

Saudi Arabia announced late Wednesday that five more people have died and two others are undergoing intensive treatment as a result of the new novel coronavirus (NCoV), a cousin of SARS that causes kidney failure and pneumonia. The latest in a slow trickle of information brings the mortality rate to 16 deaths among 24 known infections — and not unlike China with its bird flu outbreak, the Saudi government isn't exactly being straightforward about how many people are sick. If humans are dying, why don't we know more about how and why?

The Saudi Health Ministry, according to the BBC, said in a statement that it is taking "all precautionary measures for persons who have been in contact with the infected people... and has taken samples from them to examine if they are infected." And while the Saudi news agency SPA is reporting by way of the ministry that these seven latest cases come from the eastern province, there's one important public-safety caveat: The chief Saudi health officials aren't making public exactly how many people are sick with NCoV. That could be to prevent fears of a massive outbreak, but this is certainly looking like a very lethal outbreak. And we appear to be receiving word slowly: The first of the infected cases was reported not by the Saudi health ministers but by the World Health Organization, which last said in March that it had been informed of 17 cases and 11 deaths. All of a sudden, the number of known human infections grew by 40 percent, to 24. 

The BBC insists that "the ministry gave no details on how many people had been tested for the disease" — but as we've seen in other countries with other viruses, transparency can be key to find out how a virus spreads. "The strain is shrouded in mystery," reports Agence France Presse of the new NCoV strain, "and the WHO does not yet know how it is transmitted or how widespread it is."

Back in 2002-2003 some 800 people died of SARS, which comes from the same family as novel coronavirus. "Chinese officials covered up SARS for months, suppressing data, the location of outbreaks and access to patients by the World Health Organization, all in the hope of preventing public panic," writes Bloomberg's Adam Minter, who lived in China at the time. "The result was a widespread epidemic (both domestically and internationally), international embarrassment and substantial economic damages."

Those words of warning refer to the current outbreak of H7N9 bird flu in China, which just claimed its 27th death. (If you're doing the math, 27 of the 127 people confirmed to have contracted H7N9 have died, so the mortality rate for NCoV is higher among known cases.) But that warning could just as well apply to Saudi Arabia and its new SARSian strain. The WHO told the BBC it would offer more details about the infections on Thursday.

       

American Citizen Sentenced to 15 Years in a North Korean Labor Camp

Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American who lives in Washington state, was condemned to 15 years of hard labor by a North Korean court this week, prompting rumors of a possible diplomatic rescue mission. Bae, who is a frequent visitor to North Korea, was arrested last November and accused of "hostile acts" against the state, though no one is actually sure what he's specifically accused of or how he might have done it. Friends say Bae runs tours for foreign visitors to the DPRK but often uses the trips an opportunity to help the nation's orphans.

Don't worry too much about Bae's fate, however. Of the last six Americans to be arrested in North Korea, all were deported or released without serving their sentence. (Although we're sure any amount of time spent in a North Korean jail cell can't be very pleasant.) One expert on the region calls his conviction "bait" to lure a high-profile ambassador to Pyongyang for negotiations, as Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter have done in the past. South Korean media has already been speculating about Carter possibly returning to secure Bae's release.

Officially, the American government frowns upon such visits, believing them to be propaganda tools for Korean leaders—but they also don't want to see one of their own rot in the notoriously cruel North Korean gulags. The State Department says they have been trying to secure Bae's release, using the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang as a diplomatic proxy, but have had no luck so far. Tensions had been rising pretty high between the North and the U.S.-South Korean alliance this year, but seems to have cooled off in recent weeks, particularly after the Boston Marathon bombing commanded all of America's attention.