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Daphne Caruana Galizia is among my personal heroes -- an extraordinary professional who worked tirelessly to publish the truth about power, corruption, and lies

by jph 7y ago

Daphne Caruana Galizia is among my personal heroes -- an extraordinary professional who worked tirelessly to publish the truth about power, corruption, and lies. Her work on the Panama Papers directly affected one of my consulting projects, and inspired my whole team to work better together.

squarefoot 7y ago
Another one that should never be forgotten along with Daphne Caruana Galizia is Anna Politkovskaya. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Politkovskaya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Politkovskaya Sadly the list of journalists killed because they didn't want to sell out is long and growing steadily.
- hutzlibu 7y ago
  Those who tell the truth shall die, those who tell the truth shall live forever. (name of an album by postrock band Explosions in the Sky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3H8y4ohO-s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3H8y4ohO-s)
- lkrubner 7y ago
  I just got done reading "Is Journalism Worth Dying For?" https://www.amazon.com/Journalism-Worth-Dying-Final-Dispatches-ebook/dp/B004C43G9C/ https://www.amazon.com/Journalism-Worth-Dying-Final-Dispatch... One thing that struck me about the book was how everyone in the Russian system felt like they had to lie, because no one knew who was in charge. Members of the Russian government beat, tortured and occasionally killed other members of the Russian government. Prosecutors eventually became terrified that if they went after anyone who was well connected, they could end up dead. Yet it was impossible to know who was well connected. Putin benefitted from the chaos, he was able to make it work for him. We see this a lot with the current wave of authoritarianism; leaders are rarely setting themselves up as absolute rulers like Stalin or Hitler, instead, they are making themselves invisible, and relying on chaos so they can maintain power. Right now Putin is fighting for a new Constitution which will make the formal leader of Russia extremely weak -- but he's planning on handing that role to someone else. Putin will continue to control things from the background. Kaczynski, in Poland, is not a rational individual, but he has very much fine tuned what seems to be the modern model for authoritarian rule. I suspect 25 years from now we will look back and see that Kaczynski's style of rule has become more frequent than Orban's style of rule. Orban is setting himself up to be shot down. Kaczynski hides in the background.
  - pestaa 7y ago
    I live under the Orban-regime, but not sure I agree with your analysis. His style of government does not exactly provokes violence -- it incites apathy. The absolute lack of sophistication in their messaging[0] is turning large demographics away from politics, and in many cases, the country. [0]: They explain COVID-19 as an evil plan by George Soros, of course. The opportunity didn't occur to them for a long time, but the brilliance prevailed.
  - gorgoiler 7y ago
    Very interesting. Invisible control in Russia from the background... this 2019 BBC radio documentary on Vladislav Surkov is extremely good: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0005h7c https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0005h7c
  - mcprwklzpq 7y ago
    Idea that Putin is going into background popped up when he decided to rewrite the constitution but not the part that forbid him to go on to his third term (he is in his second term now, again). Since then it was rulled by the constitutional court that any change to the constitution would turn the counter of his terms to zero. Now Putin plan is clear - he is not going anywhere. Edit: Found link to report on it in english. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-politics-idUSKBN20X1FD https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-politics-idUSKBN20...

by jph 7y ago

squarefoot 7y ago

Another one that should never be forgotten along with Daphne Caruana Galizia is Anna Politkovskaya. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Politkovskaya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Politkovskaya Sadly the list of journalists killed because they didn't want to sell out is long and growing steadily.

hutzlibu 7y ago
Those who tell the truth shall die, those who tell the truth shall live forever. (name of an album by postrock band Explosions in the Sky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3H8y4ohO-s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3H8y4ohO-s)
lkrubner 7y ago
I just got done reading "Is Journalism Worth Dying For?" https://www.amazon.com/Journalism-Worth-Dying-Final-Dispatches-ebook/dp/B004C43G9C/ https://www.amazon.com/Journalism-Worth-Dying-Final-Dispatch... One thing that struck me about the book was how everyone in the Russian system felt like they had to lie, because no one knew who was in charge. Members of the Russian government beat, tortured and occasionally killed other members of the Russian government. Prosecutors eventually became terrified that if they went after anyone who was well connected, they could end up dead. Yet it was impossible to know who was well connected. Putin benefitted from the chaos, he was able to make it work for him. We see this a lot with the current wave of authoritarianism; leaders are rarely setting themselves up as absolute rulers like Stalin or Hitler, instead, they are making themselves invisible, and relying on chaos so they can maintain power. Right now Putin is fighting for a new Constitution which will make the formal leader of Russia extremely weak -- but he's planning on handing that role to someone else. Putin will continue to control things from the background. Kaczynski, in Poland, is not a rational individual, but he has very much fine tuned what seems to be the modern model for authoritarian rule. I suspect 25 years from now we will look back and see that Kaczynski's style of rule has become more frequent than Orban's style of rule. Orban is setting himself up to be shot down. Kaczynski hides in the background.
- pestaa 7y ago
  I live under the Orban-regime, but not sure I agree with your analysis. His style of government does not exactly provokes violence -- it incites apathy. The absolute lack of sophistication in their messaging[0] is turning large demographics away from politics, and in many cases, the country. [0]: They explain COVID-19 as an evil plan by George Soros, of course. The opportunity didn't occur to them for a long time, but the brilliance prevailed.
- gorgoiler 7y ago
  Very interesting. Invisible control in Russia from the background... this 2019 BBC radio documentary on Vladislav Surkov is extremely good: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0005h7c https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0005h7c
- mcprwklzpq 7y ago
  Idea that Putin is going into background popped up when he decided to rewrite the constitution but not the part that forbid him to go on to his third term (he is in his second term now, again). Since then it was rulled by the constitutional court that any change to the constitution would turn the counter of his terms to zero. Now Putin plan is clear - he is not going anywhere. Edit: Found link to report on it in english. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-politics-idUSKBN20X1FD https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-politics-idUSKBN20...