generalspeaking

Saturday, October 05, 2019

The Byzantine World of the Middle East

"[Recruited at age 19 to travel to an exclusive resort in the Seycheles Islands called The Plantation Club], frequented by some of the richest private individuals in the world for whom money is no object."
"[At this] playground of the super-wealthy, it is the norm for lavish parties and events to be held [where models were flown in] to lend a sense of glamour and exclusivity."
"I have also been told that I have a very engaging personality."
Affidavit, Candice van der Merwe, South African model

How an SA bikini model got $16m from Lebanon’s prime minister

Candice van der Merwe. Picture: Twitter

Oh well, a politician. A Middle East politician. A Middle East politician in Lebanon. Comfortable to act as the troubled, sectarian-cleft prime minister of a government in which the terrorist group Hezbollah, the militia-proxy tool of the Islamic Republic of Iran, forms part of the government while at the same time governing independently within the Shiite enclaves of the country, and in the process operating a military, separate from that of the government itself.

No problem. Lebanon is accustomed to strife and disagreements and the machinations of its Sunni, Druze, Christian, Shiite blocs, all maneuvering, contending for leadership, power and control. The presence of Palestinian 'refugees' whom Lebanon will not deign to absorb as citizens somewhat complicating the situation. The domination of Syria and the emergence of 'The Party of God', martyr-loving and murder-proficient making for a rather complex society.

That Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, loved his father Rafik Hariri is perhaps not under debate. That he honours him is up to his own conscience. He may console himself with the assurance that he does, but it is a strange way to do so; to harmonize the country's affairs and its future with the very armed, dangerous, terrorist force that murdered Rafik Hariri is indisputably peculiar. What is also indisputable is that no one seems to notice, much less care (other than the Saudis).

Since 1977, at least 12 prominent political leaders were assassinated

This is the Middle East, however, and a giant shrug of dismissal is always in order; one commits to actions that happen to be convenient or self-serving at any given time. And what is most inconvenient is to have other issues revealed that portray oneself in a morally compromising position in such a blatant manner as to be somewhat embarrassing in a geography, cult, and heritage where honour or the perception of honour is of primary importance.

What is even more disconcerting for Lebanon's prime minister is the state of affairs of his family's (collapsed) construction conglomerate, Saudi Oger, its media outlets and other business empires where employees impatiently await their promised backpay of salaries. As with private business, so to the country faces a financial crisis resulting in public anti-government protests when their prime minister warned the public in a declaration of "economic state of emergency" that austerity measures are in their future.

In 2013, this father of three had a Forbes-estimated net worth of $1.9 billion accruing from business interests inherited from Rafik Hariri, prime minister at one time like this son, until his assassination in 2005 Beirut. Recent revelations of an affair with a 20-year-old model when he was 43, and her annual income from energy-drink promotions and swimwear calendars averaged $5,400 have now complicated this poor man's life even further.

In May of 2013 the young woman's aspirations and financial assets underwent an amazingly swift transition, when a Lebanese bank transferred $15,299,965 to her personal account. A tender secret between two private individuals, although the startling amount involved caught the attention of South African financial and tax authorities. Who had the unmitigated gall to investigate and feel confident in deeming the transaction taxable income.

The young woman stood her ground with confidence, insisting this represented a gift, and as such according to South African law, not taxable. This transaction took place without conditions, she recounted in subsequent court cases where her benefactor was revealed to be Lebanon's prime minister. She had spent all of four days in 2012 at the Seychelles resort, connecting with attendees attracted to her qualities, including her "healthy lifestyle".

Prime Minister Saad Hariri of Lebanon in Beirut in August. He gave more than $16 million to a South African model who said they had a relationship.

NewYorkTimes.com The payments were not made during the time Mr. Hariri was prime minister

After making such a favourable impression it was reasonable that other such trips followed. As to the $15 million transfer, described through a bank official as "the sender and beneficiary are boyfrield/girlfriend and are currently together in the Seychelles" -- well simply proof of a gift with which she bought a house in Cape Town's prestigious Fresnaye neighbourhood, and loaned out $2.7 million to her father's real estate company. Which left the poor woman with a mere $537,000.

When tax authorities in South Africa persisted, Candice van der MErwe's assets were frozen. Which was when her benefactor once more stepped in to send her another $1 million to ensure she had sufficient funds to assist in covering legal and living expenses. Finally, when in January she sued government officials for $65-million in damages, the documents she filed revealed the Lebanese prime minister's role in her unfortunate misery of tax harassment.
View image on Twitter

Labels: Hezbollah, Honour, Lebanon, Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, Saad Hariri, Scandal

Saturday, September 29, 2018

Basic Flaws

"[Its] basic flaw ... has always exempted the bishops [from independent oversight. The fundamental need is to answer the question as to how Archbishop McCarrick and others rose in their ecclesiastical careers when troubling facts regarding sexual abuse were known by the hierarchy which promoted them."
"We asked how many trials have you done on the accused priests. Scicluna said he was getting empty files from bishops. They didn't want to release information to the Holy See because they feared subpoena power [from lawyers representing victims]. Bob [Bennett] told Scichluna to tell them to send the files, they'll get a subpoena anyway."
"Where are we today? At the same place. We know what we suspected then, but it's now affirmed: we cannot trust the hierarchy of the Catholic Church."
Judge Anne Burke, Chicago, Illinois Supreme Court Justice

"What he's [Pope Francis] got to be seen to be doing is pushing for a very rigorous policy. Can he do that if he himself has not been as diligent, to say the least, as he should be?"
"It's too early to say, but just looking at the case, it looks very bad. It seems like a violation -- is he the guy [Cardinal Daniel DiNardo] who should be leading at this point?"
David Gibson, director, Center on Religion and Culture, Catholic university Fordham

"We shared with Pope Francis our situation in the United States -- how the Body of Christ is lacerated by the evil of sexual abuse. He listened very deeply from the heart."
". . . It was a lengthy, fruitful, and good exchange."
Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, Galveston-Houston, president, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops

Pope Francis meets with officials representing the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at the Vatican Sept. 13. Pictured from left are Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles, vice president of the conference, Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, president of conference, Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston, president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, and Msgr. J. Brian Bransfield, general secretary of the conference. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

Cardinal DiNaro stands accused of mishandling the case of the Reverend Manuel La Rosa-Lopez, arrested in Conroe, Texas earlier in September on four counts of indecency with a child. According to police, La Rosa-Lopez fondled two teens while a priest at a Conroe church. He was engaged at another church in Richmond Texas, as their priest, at the time of his arrest. So much for the church cleansing itself of its habit of overlooking the priestly-celibate-behaviour of its clerics in their abuse of parishioners.

The meeting with Pope Francis to discuss the crisis of sexual abuse with the leaders of American Catholics was a friendly affair, smiles and graciousness all around. That Cardinal DiNardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was accused of yet again covering up actions of an abusing priest in his archdiocese was simply business as usual. Yet there were some among the lower-echelon clerics who impudently asked whether, under those circumstances, DiNardo was the right man to head such reforms.

The summer of 2018 saw one cardinal resign and another stating he might just do the same. Yet another bishop was removed by Pope Francis from ministry; Michael J. Bransfield of West Virginia now faces a church investigation on charges of sexual harassment. While the meeting between Pope Francis and the bishops who met with him was cordiality personified, the business of actually discussing plans of reform appear to have been overlooked.

Even as Cardinal DiNardo was preparing for that meeting, a woman came forward to claim she informed him of an abusive priest in his Texas archdiocese. All well and good, but nothing was done, DiNardo took no action to remove that priest from ministry. Until finally it was taken out of his hands when the offending priest was arrested on charges of child abuse some time later. All this, following on the Pennsylvania grand jury report of the month before detailing allegations of abuse by over 300 priests in that state alone.

A shocking set of revelations that set off similar investigations to take place in Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, and New York. Of course there were credible and verifiable reports that Pope Francis himself had indulged in protecting and covering up for those of his esteemed colleagues who had themselves done the same for their underlings, loathe to submit the venerable church to public scrutiny and the offensive effect of legal authorities taking priests into custody. So who will be investigating the Pope?

Labels: Catholic Church, Investigaton, Pope Fancis, Scandal, Sexual Predation

Friday, January 26, 2018

The Entitlements of the Estimable Elite

Marriage describes the evening in a video recorded immediately after the event. Financial Times

"[The job requirements as hostesses required] tall, thin and pretty [young women]."
"[Hiring indoctrination included the advice to wear] BLACK sexy shoes, black underwear, short tight black dresses [and a] thick black belt resembling a corset."
"[The women were informed the men might be] annoying. You just have to put up with the annoying men and if you can do that it's fine."
"According to the accounts of multiple women working that night, groping and similar abuse was seen across many of the tables in the room."
"Outside the women's toilets a monitoring system was in place; women who spent too long were called out and led back to the ballroom."
"[One unnamed ] society figure [grabbed a hostess] by the waist, pulled her in against his stomach and declared 'I want you to down that glass, rip off your knickers and dance on that table'."
Expose, Financial Times

"With the dinner properly underway, the hostess brief was simple: keep this mix of British and foreign businessmen, the odd lord, politicians, oligarchs, property tycoons, film producers, financiers and chief executives happy -- and fetch drinks when required."
"A number of men stood with the hostesses while waiting for smoked salmon starters to arrive. Others remained seated and yet insisted on holding the hands of their hostesses . . . a prelude to pulling the women into their laps."
"I was propositioned and groped and received some very lewd comments."
"I genuinely felt incredibly sad and upset by what I had seen, the fact that the upper echelons of our society are operating this way in 2018."
Madison Marriage, reporter, Financial Times

Financial Times

Burlesque dancers were on the stage wearing "star-shaped stickers" over their nipples. A 70-year-old guest asked a 19-year-old hostess if "she was a prostitute". A scene of "braying men" fondling one hostesses' bottom, stomach and legs was described, while another guest "lunged at her to kiss her". This was The Presidents Club Charitable Trust, a yearly event ostensibly to raise funds for "worthy children's causes", that took place a week ago at the exclusive Dorchester Hotel in London.

Those in attendance represented the British elite from business, finance, fashion, entertainment and political establishments in the British capital, a "men only" event of 360 notables in attendance catered to by 130 hostesses hired for that purpose. Madison Marriage, a journalist with the Financial Times and another women who worked with her at the event applied for places as hostesses and were hired. It was their experience, what they saw and heard and took part in that formed the basis for an expose published in the Times.

That publication resulted in quite an upheaval with the charity announcing it was dissolving, and planning to distribute the funds raised to needy causes; which is to say any causes that would be willing to overlook the foul odour associated with those funds. The event's chairman himself stepped down from his post as nonexecutive director of Britain's Department for Education. Strangely, the male attendees were anxious to distance themselves from the event and the outrage that followed those revelations.

A photograph showing the outside of The Dorchester hotel in London, where the event took place. This photograph was taken on a different night. Flickr/Spanish Coches

The evening began with the Master of Ceremonies welcoming the male attendees "to the most un-PC event of the year". And so it was, indeed. Men, according to the hostesses recounting their experience, repeatedly placed hands up the women's skirts, one even exposing himself to a hostess. Those hostesses who had the fortitude to carry on without enthusiasm were pushed to interact more robustly with the guests by "an enforcement team".

For their tolerant work ethic the hostesses, many students, actresses among them, dancers and models hoping to earn a little additional cash were paid about $211 for the evening's work under intolerable circumstances. An evening of fun and games with patrician elite members of polite society among whom mingled the 19 to 23-year-olds whose presence was hired to amuse these upstanding, prominent, wealthy leaders of British arts and letters, industry, salons, aristocrats and politicians.

The undersecretary of state for children and families, Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi, claimed he had departed from the event at an early evening hour, so of course he was witness to nothing awry, much less lending himself to the general ribald proceedings. According to the Presidents Club statement, organizers were "appalled for the allegations of bad behaviour asserted by the Financial Times reporters". So the reports of misbehaviour were merely 'asserted', but if they had taken place, the club's members were 'appalled'.

Needless to say none of the honourable gentlemen had any idea of what was transpiring, much less had a hand in the disgrace.

Still frame from video inside Presidents Club Dinner: Business Insider

Labels: Britain, Female Exploitation, Misogoyny, Scandal