The Dictatorship Syndrome

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Author :
Publisher : Haus Publishing
ISBN 13 : 1912208601
Total Pages : 153 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (122 download)

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Book Synopsis The Dictatorship Syndrome by : Alaa Al Aswany

Download or read book The Dictatorship Syndrome written by Alaa Al Aswany and published by Haus Publishing. This book was released on 2019-12-29 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The study of dictatorship in the West has acquired an almost exotic dimension. But authoritarian regimes remain a painful reality for billions of people worldwide who still live under them, their freedoms violated and their rights abused. They are subject to arbitrary arrest, torture, corruption, ignorance, and injustice. What is the nature of dictatorship? How does it take hold? In what conditions and circumstances is it permitted to thrive? And how do dictators retain power, even when reviled and mocked by those they govern? In this deeply considered and at times provocative short work, Alaa Al Aswany tells us that, as with any disease, to understand the syndrome of dictatorship we must first consider the circumstances of its emergence, along with the symptoms and complications it causes in both the people and the dictator.

A Brotherhood of Tyrants

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Publisher : Prometheus Books
ISBN 13 : 1615927832
Total Pages : 220 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (159 download)

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Book Synopsis A Brotherhood of Tyrants by : D. Jablow Hershman

Download or read book A Brotherhood of Tyrants written by D. Jablow Hershman and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2010-10-29 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler, and Joseph Stalin were three tyrants, and the effects of their brutal regimes are still with us. Each attained absolute power, and misused it in a gargantuan fashion, leaving in his wake a trail of hatred, devastation, and death.In A Brotherhood of Tyrants, D. Jablow Hershman and Julian Lieb uncover manic depression as a hidden cause of dictatorship, war, and mass killing. In comparing these three tyrants, they describe a number of behavioral similarities supporting the contention that a specific psychiatric disorder - manic depression - can be one of the key factors in such political pathologies as tyranny and terrorism.Manic depressive disorder has also produced the great destroyers in history - when in addition to ambition and egotism have been added large measures of ruthlessness, willfulness, utter intolerance of criticism, a consuming need to dominate others, paranoia, and megalomania.Focusing on these three dictators, A Brotherhood of Tyrants argues that manic depression has always been, and continues to be, a critical factor in compelling some individuals to seek political power and to become tyrants. It powerfully demonstrates how this disorder is the source of many of the typical characteristics - including grandiosity and megalomania - of a tyrannical personality and provides a manual for the identification of the psychotic tyrant.In their epilogue, the authors outline the clinical signs of manic depression as described in the classic studies of the German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926). They apply these clinical signs and symptoms to the pathologies of four notorious mass killers of recent times: David Koresh, Jeffrey Dahmer, Jim Jones, and Colin Ferguson. They argue that if these individuals had been identified in time as manic depressives, they could have been successfully treated, and hundreds of innocent lives could have been saved.

The Tyranny of Experts

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Publisher : Basic Books
ISBN 13 : 0465080901
Total Pages : 479 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (65 download)

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Book Synopsis The Tyranny of Experts by : William Easterly

Download or read book The Tyranny of Experts written by William Easterly and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2014-03-04 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this "bracingly iconoclastic” book (New York Times Book Review), a renowned economics scholar breaks down the fight to end global poverty and the rights that poor individuals have had taken away for generations. In The Tyranny of Experts, renowned economist William Easterly examines our failing efforts to fight global poverty, and argues that the "expert approved" top-down approach to development has not only made little lasting progress, but has proven a convenient rationale for decades of human rights violations perpetrated by colonialists, postcolonial dictators, and US and UK foreign policymakers seeking autocratic allies. Demonstrating how our traditional antipoverty tactics have both trampled the freedom of the world's poor and suppressed a vital debate about alternative approaches to solving poverty, Easterly presents a devastating critique of the blighted record of authoritarian development. In this masterful work, Easterly reveals the fundamental errors inherent in our traditional approach and offers new principles for Western agencies and developing countries alike: principles that, because they are predicated on respect for the rights of poor people, have the power to end global poverty once and for all.

An Uncertain Ally

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Publisher : Taylor & Francis
ISBN 13 : 135162394X
Total Pages : 219 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (516 download)

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Book Synopsis An Uncertain Ally by : David L. Phillips

Download or read book An Uncertain Ally written by David L. Phillips and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-05-23 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Under the rule of Recep Tayyip Erdogan Turkey has descended into a dictatorship, promotes the Islamist agenda, abuses human rights, limits freedom of expression in the press, and wages war against the Kurds. While Turkey has historically been important geopolitically, it has become an outlier in Europe and an uncertain ally of the United States. An Uncertain Ally is a straightforward indictment of Erdogan. Drawing on inside sources in his Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the police, the book reveals corruption and money laundering schemes that benefitted Erdogan, his cronies, and family members. Erdogan has polarized Turkish society and created conditions that led to the coup attempt of July 2016. He has also deepened divisions by accusing Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic teacher in Pennsylvania, of establishing a parallel state and masterminding the coup attempt. Erdogan has seized on the failed coup to justify a witch hunt, arresting thousands and ordering the wholesale dismissal of alleged coup sympathizers. Rather than foster reconciliation, he pursued vendettas and turned Turkey into a gulag. An Uncertain Ally exposes Turkey’s ties to jihadists in Syria and the Islamic State, questioning its suitability as a NATO member. Under Erdogan, Turkey faces a dark future that poses a danger to the region and internationally.

Children of Monsters

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781594038990
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (389 download)

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Book Synopsis Children of Monsters by : Jay Nordlinger

Download or read book Children of Monsters written by Jay Nordlinger and published by . This book was released on 2017-01-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Some years ago, the author, Jay Nordlinger, was in Albania. He was there to give a talk under State Department auspices. Albania was about ten years beyond the collapse of Communism. For almost 40 years, the country had been ruled by one of the most brutal dictators in history: Enver Hoxha. Nordlinger wondered whether this dictator had had children. He had indeed: three of them. And they were still in Albania, with their 3 million fellow citizens. Nordlinger wondered, "What are the lives of the Hoxha kids like? What must it be like to be the son or daughter of a monstrous dictator? What must it be like to bear a name synonymous with oppression, terror, and evil?" In this book, Nordlinger surveys 20 dictators in all. They are the worst of the worst: Stalin, Mao, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein, and so on. The book is not about them, really, though of course they figure in it. It's about their children. Some of them are absolute loyalists. They admire, revere, or worship their father. Some of them actually succeed their father as dictator-as in North Korea, Syria, and Haiti. Some of them have doubts. A couple of them become full-blown dissenters, even defectors. A few of the daughters have the experience of having their husband killed by their father. Most of these children are rocked by exile, prison, and the like. Obviously, the children have some things in common. But they are also individuals, making of life what they can. The main thing they have in common is this: They have been dealt a very, very unusual hand. What would you do, if you were the offspring of an infamous dictator, who lords it over your country? Chances are, you'll never have to find out! But some people have-and this book investigates those lucky, or unlucky, few"--

The Pariah Syndrome

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Author :
Publisher : Karoma Publishers, Incorporated
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 202 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (9 download)

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Book Synopsis The Pariah Syndrome by : Ian F. Hancock

Download or read book The Pariah Syndrome written by Ian F. Hancock and published by Karoma Publishers, Incorporated. This book was released on 1987 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Confronting Fascism in Egypt

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Publisher : Stanford University Press
ISBN 13 : 080477255X
Total Pages : 360 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (47 download)

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Book Synopsis Confronting Fascism in Egypt by : Israel Gershoni

Download or read book Confronting Fascism in Egypt written by Israel Gershoni and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2009-10-21 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Confronting Fascism in Egypt offers a new reading of the political and intellectual culture of Egypt during the interwar era. Though scholarship has commonly emphasized Arab political and military support of Axis powers, this work reveals that the shapers of Egyptian public opinion were largely unreceptive to fascism, openly rejecting totalitarian ideas and practices, Nazi racism, and Italy's and Germany's expansionist and imperialist agendas. The majority (although not all) of Egyptian voices supported liberal democracy against the fascist challenge, and most Egyptians sought to improve and reform, rather than to replace and destroy, the existing constitutional and parliamentary system. The authors place Egyptian public discourse in the broader context of the complex public sphere within which debate unfolded—in Egypt's large and vibrant network of daily newspapers, as well as the weekly or monthly opinion journals—emphasizing the open, diverse, and pluralistic nature of the interwar political and cultural arena. In examining Muslim views of fascism at the moment when classical fascism was at its peak, this enlightening book seriously challenges the recent assumption of an inherent Muslim predisposition toward authoritarianism, totalitarianism, and "Islamo-Fascism."

The Automobile Club of Egypt

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Author :
Publisher : Random House India
ISBN 13 : 8184007310
Total Pages : 486 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis The Automobile Club of Egypt by : Alaa Al Aswany

Download or read book The Automobile Club of Egypt written by Alaa Al Aswany and published by Random House India. This book was released on 2015-08-22 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A rollicking, exuberant and powerfully moving story of a family swept up by social unrest in post–World War II Cairo Abd el-Aziz Gaafar, formerly a well-respected landowner now in the grip of penury, moves his family to Cairo and takes on menial work at the Automobile Club—a place of refuge and luxury for its European members, but one where Egyptians may appear only as servants. Alku, the lifelong Nubian servant of Egypt’s corrupt king, runs the show in all but name. The servants, a squabbling, humorous, and deeply human group, live in a perpetual state of fear: beaten for their mistakes, their wages dependent on Alku’s whims. When Abd el-Aziz’s pride gets the better of him and he stands up for himself, his death—as much from shame as from his injuries after Alku has him beaten—leaves his widow further impoverished and two of his sons obliged to work in the Club. As the family is drawn into the turbulent politics of Egypt—public and private—both servants and masters are subsumed by the country’s social upheaval. Soon, the Egyptians of the Automobile Club face a stark choice: to live safely but without dignity as servants, or to fight for their rights and risk everything.

Uprising in Pakistan

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Publisher : Verso Books
ISBN 13 : 1786635380
Total Pages : 188 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (866 download)

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Book Synopsis Uprising in Pakistan by : Tariq Ali

Download or read book Uprising in Pakistan written by Tariq Ali and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2018-05-22 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of what happened in 1968 in Pakistan is often forgotten, but is yet another proof that the revolutionary moment was global. In that year, following a long period of tumult, a radical coalition - led by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto - brought down the military presidency of Ayub Khan. Students took on the state apparatus of a corrupt and decaying military dictatorship backed by the US. They were joined by workers, lawyers, white-collar employees, and despite the severe repression, they took hold of power. Through a series of strikes, demonstrations and political organising a popular uprising was born. In his riveting account of these events, first written in 1970, Tariq Ali offers an eyewitness perspective on history, showing that this powerful popular movement was the only successful moment of the 1960s revolutionary wave. The victory led to the very first democratic election in the country and the unexpected birth of a new state, Bangladesh.

Dictators and Democrats

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691172153
Total Pages : 418 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis Dictators and Democrats by : Stephan Haggard

Download or read book Dictators and Democrats written by Stephan Haggard and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2016-09-06 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A rigorous and comprehensive account of recent democratic transitions around the world From the 1980s through the first decade of the twenty-first century, the spread of democracy across the developing and post-Communist worlds transformed the global political landscape. What drove these changes and what determined whether the emerging democracies would stabilize or revert to authoritarian rule? Dictators and Democrats takes a comprehensive look at the transitions to and from democracy in recent decades. Deploying both statistical and qualitative analysis, Stephen Haggard and Robert Kaufman engage with theories of democratic change and advocate approaches that emphasize political and institutional factors. While inequality has been a prominent explanation for democratic transitions, the authors argue that its role has been limited, and elites as well as masses can drive regime change. Examining seventy-eight cases of democratic transition and twenty-five reversions since 1980, Haggard and Kaufman show how differences in authoritarian regimes and organizational capabilities shape popular protest and elite initiatives in transitions to democracy, and how institutional weaknesses cause some democracies to fail. The determinants of democracy lie in the strength of existing institutions and the public's capacity to engage in collective action. There are multiple routes to democracy, but those growing out of mass mobilization may provide more checks on incumbents than those emerging from intra-elite bargains. Moving beyond well-known beliefs regarding regime changes, Dictators and Democrats explores the conditions under which transitions to democracy are likely to arise.

The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump

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Publisher : Thomas Dunne Books
ISBN 13 : 1250212863
Total Pages : 544 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (52 download)

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Book Synopsis The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump by : Bandy X. Lee

Download or read book The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump written by Bandy X. Lee and published by Thomas Dunne Books. This book was released on 2019-03-19 with total page 544 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As this bestseller predicted, Trump has only grown more erratic and dangerous as the pressures on him mount. This new edition includes new essays bringing the book up to date—because this is still not normal. Originally released in fall 2017, The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump was a runaway bestseller. Alarmed Americans and international onlookers wanted to know: What is wrong with him? That question still plagues us. The Trump administration has proven as chaotic and destructive as its opponents feared, and the man at the center of it all remains a cipher. Constrained by the APA’s “Goldwater rule,” which inhibits mental health professionals from diagnosing public figures they have not personally examined, many of those qualified to weigh in on the issue have shied away from discussing it at all. The public has thus been left to wonder whether he is mad, bad, or both. The prestigious mental health experts who have contributed to the revised and updated version of The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump argue that their moral and civic "duty to warn" supersedes professional neutrality. Whatever affects him, affects the nation: From the trauma people have experienced under the Trump administration to the cult-like characteristics of his followers, he has created unprecedented mental health consequences across our nation and beyond. With eight new essays (about one hundred pages of new material), this edition will cover the dangerous ramifications of Trump's unnatural state. It’s not all in our heads. It’s in his.

Kingdom Come: A Novel

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Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0871404745
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (714 download)

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Book Synopsis Kingdom Come: A Novel by : J. G. Ballard

Download or read book Kingdom Come: A Novel written by J. G. Ballard and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2012-03-05 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “J.G. Ballard is the undisputed laureate of suburban psychosis. . . . A brilliant novel.”—Literary Review A violent novel filled with insidious twists, Kingdom Come follows the exploits of Richard Pearson, a rebellious, unemployed advertising executive, whose father is gunned down by a deranged mental patient in a vast shopping mall outside Heathrow Airport. When the prime suspect is released without charge, Richard’s suspicions are aroused. Investigating the mystery, Richard uncovers at the Metro-Centre mall a neo-fascist world whose charismatic spokesperson is whipping up the masses into a state of unsustainable frenzy. Riots frequently terrorize the complex, immigrant communities are attacked by hooligans, and sports events mushroom into jingoistic political rallies. In this gripping, dystopian tour de force, J.G. Ballard holds up a mirror to suburban mind rot, revealing the darker forces at work beneath the gloss of consumerism and flag-waving patriotism.

The Caesar Syndrome

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781505334494
Total Pages : 458 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (344 download)

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Book Synopsis The Caesar Syndrome by : Frank Augustus

Download or read book The Caesar Syndrome written by Frank Augustus and published by . This book was released on 2014-12-01 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Italian General Gaius Rosinni's coup has seized control of the European Union, and he is intent on expanding his resurrected Roman Empire to a global empire that worships him as its god. As world powers crumble in the face of Rosinni's advancing war machine, the White House and U.S. military brace themselves for the inevitable conflict. In the run-up to war, CIA. Chief of Security Nate Stewart becomes convinced that Rosinni is no ordinary dictator, but none other than the reincarnation of Julius Caesar himself.

Syndromes of Corruption

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Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 9781139448451
Total Pages : 298 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (484 download)

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Book Synopsis Syndromes of Corruption by : Michael Johnston

Download or read book Syndromes of Corruption written by Michael Johnston and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-12-01 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Corruption is a threat to democracy and economic development in many societies. It arises in the ways people pursue, use and exchange wealth and power, and in the strength or weakness of the state, political and social institutions that sustain and restrain those processes. Differences in these factors, Michael Johnston argues, give rise to four major syndromes of corruption: Influence Markets, Elite Cartels, Oligarchs and Clans, and Official Moguls. In this 2005 book, Johnston uses statistical measures to identify societies in each group, and case studies to show that the expected syndromes do arise. Countries studied include the United States, Japan and Germany (Influence Markets); Italy, Korea and Botswana (Elite Cartels); Russia, the Philippines and Mexico (Oligarchs and Clans); and China, Kenya, and Indonesia (Offical Moguls). A concluding chapter explores reform, emphasising the ways familiar measures should be applied - or withheld, lest they do harm - with an emphasis upon the value of 'deep democratisation'.

The Bribery Syndrome: How Multinational Corporations Collude with Dictators to Raid Africa's Natural Resources

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9789966192165
Total Pages : 410 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (921 download)

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Book Synopsis The Bribery Syndrome: How Multinational Corporations Collude with Dictators to Raid Africa's Natural Resources by : Joe Khamisi

Download or read book The Bribery Syndrome: How Multinational Corporations Collude with Dictators to Raid Africa's Natural Resources written by Joe Khamisi and published by . This book was released on 2019-12-12 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A shocking narration of how global multinationals make billions of dollars in profits by bribing corrupt African dictators and public officials to secure lucrative contracts in some of the most critical economic sectors in Africa. Dozens of foreign company executives have been jailed and/or fined heavily for violating the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the UK Bribery Act. The book focuses on 28 corrupt leaders in sub-Saharan Africa who cozy up with company executives of some of the largest corporations in the world. Both the officials and the global conglomerates make huge amounts of money using kickbacks, bribery, and corruption while millions of Africans languish in poverty. The Bribery Syndrome is a compelling read.

Against Elections

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Publisher : Seven Stories Press
ISBN 13 : 1609808118
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (98 download)

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Book Synopsis Against Elections by : David Van Reybrouck

Download or read book Against Elections written by David Van Reybrouck and published by Seven Stories Press. This book was released on 2018-04-17 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A small book with great weight and urgency to it, this is both a history of democracy and a clarion call for change. "Without drastic adjustment, this system cannot last much longer," writes Van Reybrouck, regarded today as one of Europe's most astute thinkers. "If you look at the decline in voter turnout and party membership, and at the way politicians are held in contempt, if you look at how difficult it is to form governments, how little they can do and how harshly they are punished for it, if you look at how quickly populism, technocracy and anti-parliamentarianism are rising, if you look at how more and more citizens are longing for participation and how quickly that desire can tip over into frustration, then you realize we are up to our necks." Not so very long ago, the great battles of democracy were fought for the right to vote. Now, Van Reybrouck writes, "it's all about the right to speak, but in essence it's the same battle, the battle for political emancipation and for democratic participation. We must decolonize democracy. We must democratize democracy." As history, Van Reybrouck makes the compelling argument that modern democracy was designed as much to preserve the rights of the powerful and keep the masses in line, as to give the populace a voice. As change-agent, Against Elections makes the argument that there are forms of government, what he terms sortitive or deliberative democracy, that are beginning to be practiced around the world, and can be the remedy we seek. In Iceland, for example, deliberative democracy was used to write the new constitution. A group of people were chosen by lot, educated in the subject at hand, and then were able to decide what was best, arguably, far better than politicians would have. A fascinating, and workable idea has led to a timely book to remind us that our system of government is a flexible instrument, one that the people have the power to change.

The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781523292196
Total Pages : 430 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (921 download)

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Book Synopsis The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos by : Primitivo Mijares

Download or read book The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos written by Primitivo Mijares and published by . This book was released on 2016-01-17 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Author's Foreword This book is unfinished. The Filipino people shall finish it for me. I wrote this volume very, very slowly. 1 could have done with it In three months after my defection from the conjugal dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos on February 20.1975. Instead, I found myself availing of every excuse to slow it down. A close associate, Marcelino P. Sarmiento, even warned me, "Baka mapanis 'yan." (Your book could become stale.)While I availed of almost any excuse not to finish the manuscript of this volume, I felt the tangible voices of a muted people back home in the Philippines beckoning to me from across the vast Pacific Ocean. In whichever way I turned, I was confronted by the distraught images of the Filipino multitudes cryingout to me to finish this work, lest the frailty of human memory -- or any incident a la Nalundasan - consign to oblivion the matters I had in mind to form the vital parts of this book. It was as if the Filipino multitudes and history itself were surging in an endless wave presenting a compelling demand on me toSan Francisco, California perpetuate the personal knowledge I have gained on the infamous machinations of Ferdinand E. Marcos and his overly ambitious wife, Imelda, that led to a day of infamy in my country, that Black Friday on September 22, 1972, when martial law was declared as a means to establish history's first conjugal dictatorship. The sense of urgency in finishing this work was also goaded by the thought that Marcos does not have eternal life and that the Filipino people are of unimaginable forgiving posture. I thought that, if I did not perpetuate this work for posterity, Marcos might unduly benefit from a Laurelian statement that, when a man dies, the virtues of his past are magnified and his faults are reduced to molehills. This is a book for which so much has been offered and done by Marcos and his minions so that it would never see the light of print. Now that it is off the press. I entertain greater fear that so much more will be done to prevent its circulation, not only in the Philippines but also in the United States.But this work now belongs to history. Let it speak for itself in the context of developments within the coming months or years. Although it finds great relevance in the present life of the present life of the Filipinos and of Americans interested in the study of subversion of democratic governments by apparently legal means, this work seeks to find its proper niche in history which mustinevitably render its judgment on the seizure of government power from the people by a lame duck Philippine President.If I had finished this work immediately after my defection from the totalitarian regime of Ferdinand and Imelda, or after the vicious campaign of the dictatorship to vilify me in July-August. 1975, then I could have done so only in anger. Anger did influence my production of certain portions of the manu-script. However, as I put the finishing touches to my work, I found myself expurgating it of the personal venom, the virulence and intemperate language of my original draft.Some of the materials that went into this work had been of public knowledge in the Philippines. If I had used them, it was with the intention of utilizing them as links to heretofore unrevealed facets of the various ruses that Marcos employed to establish his dictatorship.Now, I have kept faith with the Filipino people. I have kept my rendezvous with history. I have, with this work, discharged my obligation to myself, my profession of journalism, my family and my country.I had one other compelling reason for coming out with this work at the great risks of being uprooted from my beloved country, of forced separation from my wife and children and losing their affection, and of losing everything I have in my name in the Philippines - or losing life itself. It is that I wanted to makea public expiation for the little influence that I had . . . .(more inside)