Those implicated in state capture should be nervous
LAST week, something extraordinary happened: the US Department of the Treasury stepped into the state capture fray, blacklisting three Gupta brothers and one of their associates, Salim Essa, for their involvement in corruption in South Africa.
A press statement on the US Treasury’s website stated: “The Gupta family leveraged its political connections to engage in widespread corruption and bribery, capture government contracts and misappropriate state assets. Treasury’s designation targets the Guptas’ pay-to-play political patronage, which was orchestrated at the expense of the South African people,” said Sigal Mandelker, Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.
Essentially this means that the Guptas and Essa can’t do business with American entities outside or inside the US. For the Guptas, who are believed to be currently resident in India, the blacklisting must have come like a bolt out of the blue.
The Guptas and their associates have not been convicted of any crime despite a mountain of evidence against them from the Gupta leaks and subsequent inquiries at Parliament and the one chaired by Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo.
After almost a decade of being hollowed out, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and SA Revenue Service (Sars) are under new leadership, and like National Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi told Parliament yesterday, the organisation still faced major internal and external obstacles in operating optimally and prosecuting those implicated in corruption.
What the US Treasury has shown is that it will not wait for the NPA to take action against those accused.
In the wake of those sanctions imposed against the Guptas and Essa, former British MP and anti-apartheid campaigner Lord Peter Hain has called on the British government to take similar action, and don’t be surprised if this is replicated in Brussels.
While some might criticise the “unilateral actions” of the US, these are the same people who use their stolen loot acquiring assets and engaging in commerce in places like the US.
Those who are implicated in state capture should be nervous; they can no longer use a dysfunctional South African justice system (hollowed out for almost a decade) as proof of their innocence.
The world is watching. THE WORD “narcissism” is derived from the Greek mythological figure Narcissus, who fell in love with his own reflection and, unable to move away from it, ultimately died as a result. Digital narcissism takes this notion online.
This piece will describe how the evolution of the Internet took narcissism online and even spawned and nurtured digital narcissism.
The internet has 6.2 billion users, covering about 60% of the world’s population. The net has provided business opportunities, facilitated self and group learning, reduced the distance between migrant labour and families, helped lonely, confined people, and created new seemingly implausible friendships.
In fact, Mark Zuckerberg confidently observes that our traditional six degrees of separation from others have transformed to 3.17.
This means that one may now know anyone else in the world through just three circles of friends. This growing increase of virtual friends compels one to constantly engage.
Some people have adopted an alternate virtual image which sometimes is a complete alter ego of themselves.
Hiding behind virtual anonymity, the introverted becomes extroverted, the quiet and complacent become loud and challenging, and vice verse. As people become increasingly popular on the internet, they get seduced by fame and begin to seek constant validation of their being. Some users have become so popular that they’ve earned the title of “influencers”, vloggers or “Youtubers”, which, despite the size of the internet, is quite an achievement.
A micro-influencer needs to have 10 000 followers, a macro influencer has 100 000 followers, while a nanoinfluencer has over 3 million followers.
Yet, internet popularity and striving for it have created an alternative narrative that some popular net users, who may even be influencers, are noting.
By way of a definition, this digital narcissism is characterised by extreme selfishness, with a grandiose view of one’s own extraordinary skills together with an addictive need for admiration.
One view is that social media have orchestrated, rightly or wrongly, a growing culture of narcissism. This is evidenced by selfie-obsessions, with self-appearance on Facebook and other social networking media. Whereas self-actualisation may be viewed as the summit of a healthy personality, narcissism is a personality disorder.
A self-actualised person is selfconfident and embarks on a path of inner growth, which under ideal conditions can blossom and grow. On the other hand, a narcissist is an injured soul that is self-centred and manipulative.
Narcissists have a grandiose and unrealistic view of their talents, as well as a craving for admiration that is often spuriously earned.
It would, therefore, appear that the net provides a perfect medium for both sets of personalities to thrive.
The numbers demonstrate selfobsessions.