Month: July 2017

The charade only ended in the final years of Chuck Blazer’s life.

 

Stripped of his extravagances, soccer’s gregarious and greedy dealmaker was forced to admit to his years of corruption and confined to a New Jersey hospital.

The eccentric bon vivant who once strode across the global stage being flattered by sport and political leaders eager to capture his World Cup hosting vote died in disgrace on Wednesday at age 72.

However much Blazer elevated the status and wealth of soccer in North America over several decades, any achievements were polluted by the ravenous appetite of “Mr. 10 Percent” to seek bribes and siphon cash from deals into his personal account.

Blazer did go on to play a central role exposing soccer’s fraudulent culture, which led to FIFA President Sepp Blatter being toppled. But he turned only when presented with little option but to become a cooperating witness.

The impact of Blazer’s death on the FIFA prosecution in the United States —  where three South American soccer officials are set to go on trial in November — is unclear. Many of the more prominent figures who might have faced him as a star government witness have already pleaded guilty.

Any recordings Blazer made after agreeing to become an FBI informant and wear a wire could still come into evidence without his testimony, said Timothy Heaphy, a former U.S. attorney now in private practice.

Even if Blazer didn’t record the defendants, prosecutors could have tried to “call him to testify generally about the ways and means of the corrupt practices, as pseudo-corruption expert,” Heaphy said. But Blazer’s absence, he said, “is like one brick removed from the wall. It won’t make the edifice come crumbling down.”

Blazer was driving his mobility scooter on a Manhattan street in 2011 when he was stopped by U.S. government agents and threatened with arrest.

It was the failure to fill in tax returns for years that put Blazer on the radar of the Internal Revenue Service. He became a government informant in 2011, using his role on FIFA’s already-tainted executive committee to secretly record conversations with associates in soccer’s governing body.

Blazer swept up evidence that formed the foundations of a Department of Justice case against world soccer executives who embezzled cash from commercial contracts and sought payments in return for backing countries as World Cup hosts.

At a November 2013 court hearing where his treatment for rectal cancer, diabetes and coronary artery disease was disclosed, Blazer entered 10 guilty pleas. He admitted to sharing in a $10 million bribe scheme with others to support South Africa’s bid for the 2010 World Cup, and facilitating a kickback linked to Morocco’s failed bid for the 1998 World Cup.

Blazer’s guilty pleas were only unsealed by a New York court in July 2015 after the American investigation into FIFA exploded into public view with a raid on a Zurich hotel ahead of the annual gathering of soccer nations.

Since then, U.S. prosecutors have brought charges against more than 40 soccer officials, marketing executives, associates and entities, while the Swiss attorney general has been conducting parallel investigations.

“Chuck hoped to help bring transparency, accountability and fair play to CONCACAF, FIFA and soccer as a whole,” Blazer’s lawyers said in a statement late Wednesday. “Chuck also accepted responsibility for his own conduct by pleading guilty and owning up to his mistakes. Chuck felt profound sorrow and regret for his actions.”

While some sports executives try to shirk the limelight, Blazer relished the status gained through his 16 years on FIFA’s executive committee until 2013.

For a suburban soccer dad, Blazer gained unimaginable influence and access. Journeys into the heart of power across the world were cataloged on a personal website inspired by Vladimir Putin during a 2011 meeting with the Russian leader.

When he wasn’t traveling the world, Blazer was cutting deals from an office and apartment in Trump Tower where he lived a chaotic life surrounded by cats and a pet parrot.

Blazer started in soccer by coaching his son’s club in New Rochelle, New York, and joined boards of local and regional soccer organizations. He was the U.S. Soccer Federation’s executive vice president from 1984-86. He helped to form the American Soccer League, a precursor to Major League Soccer in 1998 before entering regional soccer politics.

 Blazer urged Jack Warner to run for president of CONCACAF in 1990. When the Trinidadian won, he made Blazer the general secretary — a position he held until 2011.

In 1991, Blazer created the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the organization’s national team championship that is played every two years, and he rose within FIFA to become chairman of its marketing and television advisory board.

Blazer turned on his boss, Warner, who also served with him on FIFA’s executive committee.

Corruption had been rumored for years within world soccer before Blazer provided evidence, accusing Warner and Mohamed bin Hammam of offering $40,000 bribes to voters in the 2011 FIFA presidential election.Bin Hammam, a Qatari who headed the Asian Football Confederation, had been the lone challenger to Blatter, who was elected unopposed to a fourth term after Warner and bin Hammam were suspended. Blatter was elected to a fifth term in 2015 before resigning after the raids in Zurich.

Blazer’s conduct was as corrupt as the actions of the people he accused.

Blazer pleaded guilty in November 2013 to one count each of racketeering conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy and willful failure to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts, and to six counts of tax evasion.

A separate CONCACAF investigation report released in 2013 said Blazer “misappropriated CONCACAF funds to finance his personal lifestyle,” causing the organization to “subsidize rent on his residence in the Trump Tower in New York; purchase apartments at the Mondrian, a luxury hotel and residence in Miami; sign purchase agreements and pay down payments on apartments at the Atlantis resort in the Bahamas.”

“His misconduct, for which he accepted full responsibility, should not obscure Chuck’s positive impact on international soccer,” his lawyers said. “With Chuck’s guidance and leadership, CONCACAF transformed itself from impoverished to profitable.”

While Blazer was banned for life from soccer by FIFA in 2015, he was awaiting sentencing when he died.

There were almost no public tributes from FIFA or CONCACAF after his passing; CONCACAF merely said it extended “sympathies and condolences” to Blazer’s family and loved ones. The only acknowledgement of Blazer’s death by U.S. Soccer was a comment in a news conference by national team coach Bruce Arena.

“I’ve known Chuck for a lot of years. He did a lot for the sport. Sorry about all the issues regarding FIFA,” Arena said. “But he was a good man.”
…

China is trying to contain the awesome influence of social media celebrities, some of whom have tens of millions of followers that dwarf more Western media icons like Oprah Winfrey. For example, the top 10 Chinese celebrities on Internet have between 67 million and 90 million online followers.

Recent weeks have seen the closure of social media accounts of several celebrities while the Beijing Cyber Administration (BCA) shut down the accounts of 60 celebrity gossip magazines. It also asked Internet portals hosting these accounts to “adopt effective measures to keep in check the problems of the embellishment of private sex scandals of celebrities, the hyping of ostentatious celebrity spending and entertainment, and catering to the poor taste of the public.”

Analysts said the Chinese Communist Party (CPP) has reason to worry about the massive influence of celebrities, according to Bill Bishop, who runs the widely read The Sinocism China Newsletter.

Money and values

“The Party is really pushing hard on Socialist Core Values and very few of the popular Internet celebrities are paragons of those values,” he said. “Individual media creators are much harder to control, and one of the core pillars of the CCP is propaganda and ideological control,” he said.

Celebrities are an important tool for marketing and advertising, and thousands of companies depend on them to disseminate product messages. The size of Internet marketing by Chinese celebrities was estimated at $58 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach $100 billion in 2018, according to Beijing-based research agency Analysus.

Many of the social media celebrities come from the world of cinema, television, and sports. But there have been a large number of upstarts who have emerged from nowhere.

Their claim to fame is their ability to raise sensitive social issues, such as the neglect suffered by some so-called “leftover women” who have not found husbands. One such celebrity is Teacher Xu, a popular internet celebrity, who runs a hugely popular account on the WeChat platform.

Almost all celebrities make sure they do not cross the government’s policy line in their posts in texts and videos, said Mark Tanner, Managing Director of China Skinny, an internet based marketing company.

“Everyone in China knows that if you want to be a successful and effective voice in China, you need to toe the party line. So right to Pappi Chang to the little guys on the road, they know what to say and what not to say,” he said.

Analysts say the immense popularity of these high profile individuals is itself seen as a challenge to the authorities even if they do not take up political issues. A lot of what they talk about is indirectly connected to governance issues like the environment, and this is what bothers top officials.

Censor troubles

“Celebrities happen to hold a powerful microphone to speak to society, and in CCP leaders’ eyes, that alone is threatening no matter how non-political most of them may be,” said Christopher Cairns, a Cornell scholar.

The government also has things to worry at the technological level, where the popularity and content production of celebrities seem to be running far ahead of the government’s technical ability to control them.

“A lot of it has to do with lack of control. It is really hard for them to censure real time video. the software hardware for voice and video is just not there yet,” said Jacob Cooke, CEO of Web Presence in China. “And still, a lot of the system depends upon real-time monitoring. So, there are a lot of vague rules in terms of censorship including harming feelings of the Chinese people.”

The censors are using other reasons to crack down on celebrities they don’t like.The BCA reportedly told executives of Internet companies the new cybersecurity law required websites “to not harm the reputation or privacy of individuals.”

The government has said the new law is necessary for security reasons, but many analysts fear it can be used to surpress freedom of speech on the Internet.

 
…

A new exhibition in southern Poland shows the brutality of the Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz through the artistic work of its inmates. Some of the artworks are being shown publicly for the first time.

The “Face to Face: Art in Auschwitz” exhibition opened last week at the Kamienica Szolayskich (Szolayski Tenement House) of the National Museum in Krakow to mark 70 years of the Auschwitz Museum. The museum’s task is to preserve the site in the southern town of Oswiecim and to educate visitors about it. More than 2 million people visited the museum last year.

The curator of the Krakow exhibit, Agnieszka Sieradzka, said Wednesday it includes clandestine as well as commissioned drawings and paintings by Jews, Poles and other citizens held at Auschwitz during World War II.

“These works help us see Auschwitz as the inmates saw it and experienced it,” Sieradzka told The Associated Press. “We stand face to face with the inmates.”       

The Nazis sometimes ordered talented inmates to make paintings for various purposes. One such painting is a portrait of a Roma woman that pseudo-scientist Josef Mengele experimented on. Mengele ordered portraits like this from inmate painter Dina Gottliebova, a Jewish woman from Czechoslovakia.

The task helped Gottliebova survive. After the war, she traveled to the U.S. and started a family. She died in 2009 in California under the name Dina Babbitt.

Among the clandestine art is the so-called Auschwitz Sketchbook by an unknown author. It has 22 drawings of scenes of beatings, starvation and death. It was found in 1947, hidden in a bottle in the foundation of a barrack at Birkenau, a part of the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex. It is the first time it is being shown to the general public. It is housed at the museum and only shown on request. 

Also being displayed is the original “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Sets You Free) gate top that was stolen and retrieved in 2009 and is now kept under guard at the museum. 

From 1940 to 1945, some 1.1 million people, mostly European Jews but also Poles, Roma and Russians, were killed in the gas chambers or died from starvation, excessive forced labor and disease at Auschwitz, which Nazi Germany operated in occupied Poland.
…

Introducing a brand-new, multimillion-dollar intergalactic adventure film based on a French comic book strip during a summer box office dominated by superheroes and sequels may be considered a big risk to take by an independent filmmaker.

But French director Luc Besson was so confident in his vision for adapting the Valerian and Laureline sci-fi comics into a film, he took his script and sketches to buyers at the Cannes Film Festival three years ago with the hopes of securing funding for the $150 million project.

“They all raised their hands because they loved the script, so we had almost 90 percent of the funding in one day,” Besson told Reuters.

Set in the 28th century where humans and aliens have found a home on the space station Alpha, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets follows two space agents, the cocky Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and the spirited Laureline (Cara Delevingne), trying to uncover the origins of a mysterious force.

They journey through the different environments and diverse population of Alpha, known as the city of a thousand planets where species include sea monsters, organic robots, winged reptilians and thuggish, bug-eyed ogres.

The film comes out in theaters on July 21 and is the fruition of Besson’s nearly 50-year obsession with the comic strip he discovered at age 10, setting him on a path to make films such as The Fifth Element and Lucy.

Lots of competition

The stakes are high for Besson’s EuropaCorp film studio as Valerian enters a box office saturated with superhero films such as Wonder Woman and Spider-Man: Homecoming and sequels such as War for the Planet of the Apes and Despicable Me 3.

Still, the director didn’t consider it a gamble.

“You take risks when you do a first-time director movie at $8 million and no cast. That’s a gamble,” Besson said, adding that Valerian’s theatrical rights had already been bought across nearly 120 countries.

Early reviews for the film have been mixed, with critics praising the vibrant visuals but criticizing the plot and performances.

Variety’s Peter Debruge said the film’s “creativity outweighs its more uneven elements.” Hollywood Reporter’s Todd McCarthy dubbed it a front-runner for the Razzies, Hollywood’s annual tongue-in-cheek “worst film” awards.

But Besson believes the audience will determine the success of the film and future installments.

“I wish they love the film because I’m dying to make another one because I love Cara and Dane,” he said.
…

Recording star Kid Rock, an outspoken supporter of Republican President Donald Trump, hinted in website and social media messages on Wednesday that he intends to run for the U.S. Senate in 2018.

The 46-year-old Michigan native drew attention on Twitter and his Facebook page to a “Kid Rock ’18 for U.S. Senate” website, featuring a photo of the goateed singer-songwriter seated in a star-spangled chair in dark glasses and white fedora, above the tagline: “Are you scared?”

The site also displays images of a T-shirt, baseball cap and bumper sticker emblazoned with the campaign logo, “Kid Rock for US Senate” and a box of alternating slogans, including, “In Rock We Trust,” “Party to the People” and “You Never Met a Politician Quite Like Me.”

“I have a ton of emails and texts asking me if this website is real. … The answer is an absolute YES,” he said on his verified Twitter account. “Stay tuned, I will have a major announcement in the near future.”

Reached by email, the musician’s spokesman, Kirt Webster, referred only to Rock’s Facebook page, which bore the same message. His music label, Warner Bros Records, also posted a website offering sales of Kid Rock for U.S. Senate merchandise.

Born Robert James Richie in the Detroit suburb of Romeo, Michigan, he rose to fame in 1998 as his debut album “Devil Without a Cause” sold some 14 million copies, and he gained additional celebrity through his courtship of actress Pamela Anderson and their brief marriage in the 2000s.

While no mention was made in Wednesday’s online postings about Rock’s political affiliation or even in what state he would run for office, he presumably would seek to challenge Michigan’s Democratic incumbent senator, Debbie Stabenow, who is up for re-election in 2018.

The Capitol Hill-based newspaper Roll Call reported earlier this month that Rock’s name surfaced as a possible candidate at a Michigan Republican Party convention, though no official decisions were announced.

According to Roll Call, Rock endorsed Republican Mitt Romney for president in 2012 and initially supported Ben Carson for the Republican nomination in the 2016 but switched to Trump when the former reality-TV star became the party’s nominee.

Afterward, Rock released a line of pro-Trump merchandise, including a T-shirt that read “God Guns & Trump.”

In April, Kid Rock joined fellow rocker and conservative activist Ted Nugent and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for a White House visit and dinner with Trump.
…

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. The rest are observing the 200th birthday of Henry David Thoreau, the author who penned that line.

The U.S. Postal Service marked the occasion Wednesday with a new postage stamp honoring the Walden and Civil Disobedience writer, philosopher and naturalist.

Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts, on July 12, 1817.

Concord Postmaster Ray White and officials from the Thoreau Farm and Birthplace were on hand to dedicate the stamp. They say it’s in tribute to Thoreau’s “personal example of simple living, his criticism of materialism and the timeless questions he raises about the place of the individual in society.”

Fans gathered at Walden Pond, where Thoreau lived and worked, to read aloud from Walden and other classics.
…

From a girl who builds a flying bike to save her village to a female cicada defying the odds to join a flying contest, a new children’s book project in Cambodia is seeking to inspire girls to fight stereotypes and male dominance.

The vividly illustrated e-books in the local Khmer language tell the stories of eight different female characters who overcome challenges through courage and ingenuity under the tagline “Girls Can Do Anything.”

One story features a girl who invents a flying contraption that looks like a bike with bat-like wings to save her village while another girl fights aliens seeking to destroy her city.

“The availability of original storybooks for children in Khmer is limited. Content related to the empowerment of women is even more scarce,” said Edward Anderson from The Asia Foundation, which is running the project.

“The books … can serve as role models for young girls, helping them to break away from traditional subservient expectations and empower them to become leaders,” added Anderson, the acting Cambodia chief for the U.S.-based charity.

Cambodia was ranked 112 out of 144 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap 2016, after scoring poorly in political empowerment and education attainment for women.

Campaigners say a gap in education persists in the impoverished Southeast Asian nation, with fewer girls attending and completing school, while sexual and labor exploitation remain a serious problem for women.

The book series, under a wider initiative known as “Let’s Read!” which aims to encourage reading among children, was created by Cambodian writers and illustrators during a “hackathon” event.

Prum Kunthearo, one of the eight writers, said it was the first time she had used a female protagonist in a story since she began writing books in 2013.

She said her story “Green Star,” about a girl who uses her knowledge of science to help a boy find his way home, was inspired by a lack of women in the science and technology sectors in the nation of 16 million people.

“Children should understand the importance of gender equality from an early age,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Phnom Penh.

Illustrator Pors Socheata hoped Cambodian girls would be empowered through the stories.

“Most of the characters in our storybooks are males, especially when they are superheroes or have achieved something good,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Although the books are only available in digital format for now, The Asia Foundation said it is working with the Cambodian government and companies to promote them, while it explores the possibility of publishing the books in hard copies to distribute to remote parts of the country.
…

Organizers of the International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe say shifting U.S. policies on security and immigration have not hampered participation by artists from 53 countries, from Cuba to Jordan.

 

In its 14th year, the annual bazaar is expanding its mission to highlight innovation and high-fashion within folk art traditions, from flower-petal dyed scarves from India to Amazonian basketry with mesmerizing patterns and symmetry.

 

A crowd of 20,000 is expected at the three-day sale that starts Friday. They will shop among wares from nearly 200 artists and artisans, many from remote areas in developing countries.

Here is a look at this year’s event:

 

Trading Places

 

Market organizers say that more than nine out of 10 invited artists have been able to secure temporary business visas and attend.

 

That access is on a par with previous years, despite a partial reinstatement of President Donald Trump’s executive order banning citizens of six mainly Muslim countries and refugees from coming into the U.S.

 

Work from one of those six banned countries will be on display: blown glass in a century-old style created by Syrian artists who decided last fall to sell goods at the market without attending because of their country’s civil war.

 

Female artists from a cooperative in South Sudan known for its beaded jewelry and clothing also chose to stay home amid unrest and famine there. The Roots Project, founded by South Sudanese human rights activist Anyieth D’Awol, is sending artwork with an outside representative to Santa Fe.

 

Four other countries are making their market debut with an Argentine leatherworker, a Bedouin-style rug weaver from Jordan, a jeweler from Tajikistan and beadwork by women from northern Tanzania.

 

Organizers of the market say it has evolved into a tool for visiting artists to better their lives and their communities, and for Americans to learn more about diverse artistic traditions.

 

Cuba Connections

 

The Trump administration’s partial reversal of the Obama-era detente with Havana has had little bearing on the market’s strong ties to Cuba.

 

Among five visiting Cuba artists is Leandro Gomez Quintero — who creates out of painted cardboard startlingly realistic miniatures of vintage American-made Jeeps and safari-style vehicles that roam the eastern end of the island nation. The 40-year-old history teacher hopes to earn enough on his first trip abroad to repair his hurricane-ravaged home and studio in the town of Baracoa.

 

The house band from the famed Havana restaurant La Bodeguita del Medio will play in an artist procession through downtown Santa Fe on Wednesday evening.

 

Peggy Gaustad, a board member of International Folk Art Alliance that produces the market, says the Cuban exchanges during the market began in 2010 under exceptions to the U.S. trade embargo and have endured partly because every visiting Cuban artist has returned home afterward.

 

She notes the U.S. Embassy in Havana is publicizing the visits by Cuban artists on its Facebook page.

 

Innovation and Tradition

 

A new exhibit area at the market this year is devoted to innovation, with a juried selection of 30 contemporary artists whose work brings a fresh perspective to time-honored folk art traditions.

 

Those booths will be selling high-end fashion accessories dyed with flower offerings recycled from Hindu temples in Mumbai, India; hand-beaded jewelry from a women’s cooperative in Tanzania; rugs in Guatemala made out of cast off T-shirts from the United States; and indigo- and mud-dyed textiles from Mali in Africa.

 

Returning artist Manisha Mishra of India says the new category freed her to transfer ornate paintings of mythological scenes to much larger canvases and three-dimensional busts of humans and animals.

 

Keith Recker led a selection committee for the “Innovation Inspiration” exhibit area and says it combines cultural preservation “with an expanded conversation about personal expression, about art that acknowledges 21st century life.”

 

Jeff Snell, CEO of the International Folk Art Alliance, became an advocate for the new approach after noticing artists in Uzbekistan were hiding their more adventuresome work from view for fear it would disqualify them from the International Folk Art Market.
…

In a sprawling military base on the outskirts of the Afghan capital Kabul, Mohammad Esa, who lost both legs to a roadside bomb, is getting ready to compete in the Invictus Games in Canada later this year.

Seven Afghan soldiers have been selected to compete against peers from 17 different countries in the Games, an international paralympic-style event for military personnel wounded in action.

Thirteen nations taking part were in the NATO-led coalition that has supported the Kabul government since the U.S.-led campaign to oust the Taliban in 2001.

Locked in an intractable battle with Taliban and Islamic State insurgents, Afghan security forces have struggled to handle high casualties, including at least 13,000 soldiers and police wounded last year.

Esa, 24, said that despite his disability, he had never lost hope and was very excited to represent his country on the world stage.

“I was so shattered when I lost my legs but now I am happy that I am back to life and want to achieve something through sport,” Esa said from an army gym in Kabul where he was going through exercises for wheelchair volleyball and powerlifting, the two events he will be competing in.

“I am training for Canada and want to make my country proud and come back with an achievement,” said Esa.

The Invictus Games were created three years ago by Britain’s Prince Harry, who served two deployments in Afghanistan as an officer in the British army.

The name — “Invictus” means unconquered in Latin — symbolizes the way that sport can help wounded soldiers overcome trauma suffered in combat.

Esa lost his legs to a roadside bomb during a security patrol in northern Baghlan province two years ago, one of tens of thousands of Afghan soldiers and police to have been wounded since the U.S.-led campaign to oust the Taliban in 2001. Many thousands of others have been killed.

The Games have been held twice before, in London in 2014 and in Orlando, Florida, in 2016. More than 550 competitors will take part in the competition in Toronto, from Sept 23-30.

Sports, with specially adapted rules, include archery, athletics, indoor rowing, wheelchair basketball, tennis and rugby, and powerlifting.

The seven-member team is the largest Afghanistan has sent to the Invictus Games.

All of Esa’s teammates have suffered severe injuries that have changed their lives, but they say the focus needed to compete in the Games has provided a goal to channel their energies.

“I haven’t lost hope, despite losing a leg and this sport gives me a lot of motivation,” said Salahuddin Zahiri, another Afghan army soldier who will be competing in Canada.
…

Idaho is known for potatoes, but at City of Rocks and Craters of the Moon national park sites, it’s rocks that take center stage – for rock climbers, astronauts and lovers of the rugged outdoors. Julie Taboh reports.
…

The International Olympic Committee Tuesday struck a deal to award the 2024 and 2028 Summer Olympic Games in the same session, in a move that would effectively guarantee that Paris and Los Angeles will be the winners.

The two cities have been lobbying heavily to host the international sporting event.

The French capital last hosted the games in 1924. Los Angeles did so back in 1984.

In a tweet Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said, “Working hard to get the Olympics for the United States (L.A.). Stay tuned!”

The winning bids will be announced on September 13 in Lima, Peru.

The Olympic movement has had trouble attracting prospective hosts because of the amount of money involved.

 
…