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Irish Times
2 days ago
- General
- Irish Times
In a Word...Ancestry
Sometimes I wonder if we Irish have finally lost it. Pope Leo, or Bob the Pope as some prefer to call him, was elected on May 8th and still there is not a hint of an Irish link. How can it be possible that a man who was born, grew up and was educated in Chicago has no Irish connection? If links with Ireland could be found in the ancestry of Muhammad Ali and Barack Obama , how is it not possible where Robert Prevost is concerned? Has no one checked his Norman ancestry, for instance? Some of his people came from Normandy in the north-west of France . Surely some of that Norman band who invaded Ireland with Strongbow in 1169 had to have a connection. READ MORE You know, like the Fitzgeralds – all the Fitzes – the Burkes , D'Altons, D'Arcys, Prendergasts, Powers, Butlers, Joyces, Barretts, Dillons, etc. All those sons and daughters of our invaders who went on to become more Irish than ourselves. Let's face it, whatever about Ali and Obama, if they could find Irish ancestry in the background of Richard Nixon they surely should be able to find it in the DNA of Robert Prevost. What? You never knew Nixon had Irish ancestry? No one talks about that anymore. Nixon celebrated his Irish ancestry too. That, of course, was before the unfortunate business which led to his resignation as US president in 1974. In disgrace. He visited Ireland in 1970 and had eggs thrown at him in Dublin. Trust the Dubs, disrespecting him before it was either popular or profitable. [ What next for top Irish Vatican clerics under Pope Leo XIV? Opens in new window ] [ In a Word... Language Opens in new window ] They weren't like that at the Quaker burial ground in Hodgestown, near Timahoe, Co Kildare, where he went to pay his respects to the ancestors of his mother, Hannah Milhous. While there, he spoke of the Quaker passion for peace and how his greatest purpose as US president was 'to bring peace not only to America, but to all the world'. Some things never change. And peace was the first thing Pope Leo XIV spoke of on making his debut on May 8th. And still not a hint of Irish blood in him. Not good enough! Ancestry , from Old French ancesserie, Latin antecessor , for `predecessor.' inaword@
Mint
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Mint
The mastery and music of movement
Muhammad Ali never did just one thing. If he's skipping, then he's also talking, offering defiance, poetry, prediction. The video is from October 1974, days before he fights George Foreman in Zaire. Rope taps ground, sweat drips, words rain. 'I'll be dancing all night.' Of course once the fight starts, he decides instinctively not to dance and leans against the ropes and fools everyone and exhausts Foreman but that's another story. But in his prime, he was shuffling, circling, leaning, darting, swaying, dodging, ducking, as if he was moving to music. We're always watching hands (and faces) in sport, the swishing bat, the dexterous racket, the feinting fist, but the legs are the soldiers. You see it in the sumo pushers and the quarterback shufflers. In swimmer Katie Ledecky subtly altering the beat of her kicks, and Al Oerter, four-time Olympic discus champion, working in the 1970s with an instructor in movement studies. Sometimes it's obvious as in fencing, other times invisible, like water polo players— large people in dainty caps—doing an egg-beater kick to stay afloat. 'Flighty steps, unsteady steps, and stomping steps are to be avoided,' wrote the ancient Japanese swordsman Miyamoto Musashi. He would have approved of D'Artagnan in the movies, or Michael Jordan and Lionel Messi in real life, all of them studies in body control and deceit. Ten years ago the Argentine felled Jérôme Boateng without even touching him. A dart, a dribble, and the defender, confused, unbalanced, fell over. Later, Boateng shrugged: to be embarrassed by Messi was a strange sort of honour. This week the French Open is in full, dusty flow, the clay streaked with effort, slashed by the feet of the ambitious, and you can almost read movement in the markings, in the long slides, the braking, the semi-circular tap-dance to get around a backhand. Tennis players on the move are now physically comparable to any athlete, though Mahesh Bhupathi will tell you they're incomparable. 'Five hours, dude,' he sighs impatiently. As in who else runs so bloody fast for so bloody long. 'The javelin takes seconds,' he says. 'Football, 90 minutes. And when you're tired in tennis, you can't high-five someone and sit on a bench. You have to finish the match.' He has a point, though marathoner Eliud Kipchoge might want to argue, and so might boxers. After Ali and Joe Frazier's brutal bout in Manila, 1975, Mark Kram's story in Sports Illustrated quoted Ali the next morning: 'I heard somethin' once. When somebody asked a marathon runner what goes through his mind in the last mile or two, he said that you ask yourself why am I doin' this. You get so tired. It takes so much out of you mentally. It changes you. It makes you go a little insane. I was thinkin' that at the end. Why am I doin' this? What am I doin' here in against this beast of a man? It's so painful. I must be crazy.' In Paris, there's pain, too. There's long days and points that refuse to finish and ice baths and mutinous shoulders. Then, says Somdev Devvarman, some days it's cold and it rains and the ball turns heavier and the rallies slow further. Bhupathi, four times doubles champion in Paris, talks about clay-court art—'slide, stop at the right time to hit a shot, then recover'—and Gaël Monfil's raw speed and The Big Three who'd 'defend, defend, defend, then take two steps in, cut a corner and turn defence to offence'. Ask Devvarman, an analyst and a coach, if he watches feet, and he says, '100 per cent. I coach feet'. He played the Big Three in singles and remembers Federer's gliding fluency, Djokovic's flexibility ('creating power from parts of courts no one else could') and Rafa's doggedness. Every point played like a sacred pledge taken. Once, Devvarman and his pal, the Taiwanese Lu Yen-hsun, sit down and analyse video of Federer's footwork on the backhand. 'It's so smooth, so efficient, you sort of didn't pay attention to it,' he says. 'His genius was to hit a backhand near the alley and in a blink of an eye get back to where he needed to be, ready to attack the next ball. Most people take an extra step and are out of position.' Devvarman understood the degree of difficulty because he and Lu, top 100 guys then and no slouches, tried to imitate this on the practice court. 'Close to impossible,' he laughs now. Everyone has favourite movers, for me in the old days Miloslav Mečíř, a sleepy fisherman come to graceful life on court who was known as Gattone. The Big Cat. Bhupathi, who reduces tennis to 'head, heart, legs', ruminates about Boris Becker, a truck of a man with a sportscar engine, lunging, diving, at the net 'impossible to get through him'. Now, says Bhupathi, Aryna Sabalenka is a 'formidable athlete', while Devvarman is impressed by Coco Gauff. In the men's field, the choir boy-faced Jannik Sinner has legs like stilts but accelerates as if on skates, but it's Carlos Alcaraz, moving faster than a lit trail of gunpowder, whose flamboyant style, sideways and forward, catches attention. Recently, in a Tennis Channel discussion, Andre Agassi, a part-time Yoda, said of Alcaraz on clay and grass, 'You get to anything slippery, and it seems like Alcaraz's movement doesn't diminish nearly as much as anybody else. It's almost like he's a spaceship playing against normal airplanes or something.' These athletes are rugged, explosive products of practice sessions involving bungee cords, stretch bands, agility ladders, cones. Except just when they think they're running hard, they might slide into a plaque that's recently been embedded into Court Philippe-Chatrier. It's got Rafael Nadal's footprint on it and it rests there not just as a tribute but as a reminder, a provocation, an inspiration and a command. Rohit Brijnath is an assistant sports editor at The Straits Times, Singapore, and a co-author of Abhinav Bindra's book A Shot At History: My Obsessive Journey To Olympic Gold. He posts @rohitdbrijnath.
Zawya
5 days ago
- Business
- Zawya
South Africa's infrastructure crippled: Can ISO 37001 fight back against the construction mafia?
Criminal syndicates known as the construction mafia have crippled South Africa's infrastructure sector, hijacking more than 180 projects and inflicting an estimated R63bn in economic losses, according to the National Treasury. Operating under the guise of community forums, these groups use intimidation, extortion, and violence to secure a foothold in government tenders and construction contracts. While law enforcement has begun to respond, 745 extortion cases have been reported, and 240 arrests have been made since November 2024. Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Dean Macpherson admits that this is only the beginning. "We are turning the tide," he said recently, but warned that corruption remains deeply entrenched in procurement systems and local government supply chains. Against this backdrop, experts at WWISE (Worldwide Industrial and Systems Engineers) are calling for the widespread adoption of ISO 37001, a tool they believe could play a critical role in fortifying the sector from within. 'This may be South Africa's last line of defence if we want to build infrastructure without bribery or intimidation,' says Muhammad Ali, managing director at WWISE. 'ISO 37001 helps organisations embed ethical conduct into every stage of a project, from procurement to execution, making it harder for criminal networks to manipulate the system.' Global anti-bribery benchmark ISO 37001 is not just a policy; it's a globally recognised standard, or in other words, a formalised, best-practice framework developed by international experts to help organisations detect and prevent bribery. As a standard, ISO 37001 establishes a uniform, auditable benchmark for anti-bribery management across industries, enabling companies and governments to foster transparency, demonstrate accountability, and safeguard their reputations. 'The standard requires top-level leadership commitment, risk assessments, strict financial controls, and confidential reporting systems,' explains Ali. 'It doesn't just help companies avoid corruption, it actively reshapes their culture.' Corruption in the construction industry not only inflates costs but also endangers lives. Ali notes that criminal infiltration has led to shutdowns, missed milestones, and Service Level Agreement (SLA) penalties. 'We've seen cases where construction mafia threats delayed entire projects, with local authorities often turning a blind eye, or worse, getting a cut,' he says. Unchecked hiring hazards Van Zyl Krause, technical specialist at WWISE, warns that companies often feel forced to hire unqualified labour to avoid conflict. 'These so-called 'community contractors' are often unregistered, uninsured, and unsafe,' Krause says. 'That puts the principal contractor and everyone on site at risk, while forcing them to spend even more on private security.' ISO 37001 offers practical safeguards. It ensures that tender documents are traceable and auditable. It enforces ethical vetting of suppliers and enshrines whistleblower protection through encrypted systems. 'You can't bribe your way into a tender process governed by ISO 37001,' says Ali. Yet adoption of the standard remains frustratingly limited. 'Most construction companies in South Africa haven't implemented it,' Krause says. 'The only time we see ISO 37001 considered is when international investors require it.' Ali adds that public-sector resistance is particularly troubling. 'The fear is that ISO 37001 will expose misconduct,' he says. 'But that's the point. The excuses, 'too complex', 'too bureaucratic', don't hold water. This standard can be adapted to any organisation.' He points to a compelling case in Iraq, where a security company under attack from corrupt government officials used ISO 37001 to clear its name. 'The audits exposed the wrongdoing, and the officials were jailed. That's the power of a strong, standardised anti-bribery framework.' For smaller contractors, who are often the most vulnerable to extortion, ISO 37001 can provide an essential shield if supported by law enforcement. 'The problem may not be with the company,' Ali warns, 'but when it needs support, the authorities often fall short.' Standards drive reform WWISE urges companies to begin their journey with a Gap Assessment to identify risk areas, followed by a structured implementation process that includes internal training, documentation development, internal audits, and certification. 'This isn't a checkbox exercise,' says Ali. 'It's a roadmap to ethical business.' With billions at stake and a growing list of sabotaged projects, it's clear that arrests alone won't be enough. As Minister Macpherson rallies law enforcement, experts say South Africa must also rebuild its infrastructure sector from the inside out, with internationally recognised standards, such as ISO 37001, leading the way. 'If we don't change how we build,' says Ali, 'we'll keep rebuilding what criminals destroy.'
Irish Times
6 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
More than an average billionaire, Jim Irsay presided over Indianapolis Colts' golden era and helped fight stigma
The range of exhibits that caught Jim Irsay's roving eye at auctions through the decades offer clues to his enduring curiosity about the world. One day, he could be purchasing Abraham Lincoln's pocketknife to place among the rest of his presidential memorabilia. The next, he might splurge $6.18 million for the championship belt worn by Muhammad Ali after winning the Rumble in the Jungle against George Foreman . He was determined to own the left-handed 1969 Fender Competition Mustang wielded by Kurt Cobain in the Smells like Teen Spirit video. Equally so, he became sacred keeper of the 120-foot-long original scroll manuscript of Jack Kerouac's On the Road. Irsay once turned down an offer of $1 billion for his eclectic collection of sporting, musical and historical artefacts. He didn't need the money. As owner of the Indianapolis Colts, the 65-year-old's personal wealth was at least four times that. More importantly, he couldn't countenance so much stuff of cultural significance being cossetted away in a private home in the Middle East. One of the joys of his life was sharing his largesse with the public, regularly dispatching a travelling exhibition featuring Elvis Presley's Martin acoustic guitar, David Gilmour's 'Black Strat' and the bass drum Ringo Starr thumped on the Ed Sullivan Show on nationwide tours. READ MORE Far removed from the typical plutocrat owner of an NFL outfit, by the time Irsay inherited the Colts from his late father at 37, he'd already been knocking around the team for more than two decades. On the way to the top job, he put in a stint in just about every department, including a spell laundering kit. As boss, he gifted each employee a card with $100 in it on their birthdays and often walked around pre-season training doling out wads of cash to stunned supporters. Adored by fans, players, and coaches alike, his former quarterback Peyton Manning reacted to his sudden death last week by calling him the man who turned Indianapolis into a football town. Quarterback Peyton Manning and team owner Jim Irsay were influential figures during the Indianapolis Colts' most successful era that culminated in a Super Bowl triumph in 2006. Photograph:'Playing for a team that Mr Irsay ran was an honour,' said Pat McAfee, another Colts alumnus turned ESPN host. 'He was funny, brilliant, unique, and somehow still wildly relatable.' A sometimes bizarre, often tumultuous life, his personal highlight reel is a suitably eccentric affair. There's a well-worn video of him, a patrician in a business suit, wigging out to Meek Mill's Dreams and Nightmares with his players in a demented locker-room celebration. It was a transformative innovation that made the league more competitive and compelling Lesser-spotted footage exists of his eponymous rock band, a group whose ranks were often bolstered by guest appearances from the likes of Mike Mills (REM) and Billy Gibbons (ZZ Top). Then there's jerky home movies of his post-collegiate career as a competitive powerlifter, a sport he turned to in his youth because 'I was a little fat, shy kid with glasses'. Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top performs during the Jim Irsay Collection exhibit and concert in California last year. Photograph:That pastime certainly impressed players who would often gather in the weights room to see if the owner's son could really break the 700lb barrier. His achievements in the gym caused him residual hip and back problems and ultimately led to him becoming addicted to painkillers. Between issues with opioids and alcohol, there was a DUI arrest that earned a suspension from the league, at least 15 trips to rehab and an incident in 2023 when first responders found him unresponsive in his bedroom following a suspected overdose. If his struggles were constant, embarrassing and inevitably made news, his candour about them won plaudits. 'Any way I can take away from the stigma is good,' said Irsay. 'A lot of people don't understand the disease. They think you choose an addiction. What's really important is that you can be honest and talk about an illness. There are millions of death certificates that don't read 'alcoholism', but that's what it is. Instead, they say, 'heart attack', 'stroke', 'liver disease' or something else. I know it's not perceived as a disease, as something like cancer. Hopefully that will change.' In between amassing one of the world's great collections of musical instruments, from Elton John's Steinway Model D grand piano to The Edge's Gibson Explorer, he spent $2.2 million on the original manuscript of the Alcoholics Anonymous Big Book, a tome freighted with personal meaning given his battle with the bottle and his father's before him. Jim Irsay developed hip and back problems that led to an addiction to painkillers. Photograph:After forking over $4.5 million for Cobain's guitar, the singer's family immediately donated a portion of that money back to Kicking the Stigma, the non-profit Irsay established to try to improve the conversation around mental illness and addiction. Even as he failed to slay his own demons and he faded from public view over the last year of his life, his philanthropy helped many of those suffering just like him. The youngest general manager in NFL history at 24, he made a genuine impact on America's national game. Aside from presiding over the Colts' greatest era, when they won one Super Bowl and were serial contenders, he was part of a four-man committee that devised the salary cap in the 1980s. It was a transformative innovation that made the league more competitive and compelling, driving the box office. Under his canny stewardship, the club his father paid $19 million for in 1972 – which will now be run by his three beloved daughters – is worth $5 billion. 'Irsay's personality, oftentimes,' wrote Nate Atkins in The Indianapolis Star, 'was like a middle finger to the character map in Succession.' As fitting an epitaph as any.
Daily News Egypt
6 days ago
- Politics
- Daily News Egypt
Is Egypt Truly Arab?
Is Egypt truly Arab? At first glance, the question seems simple. Yet at its core, it is complex and profound, reflecting a long legacy of cultural, political, and social intersections. Identity is not a national ID card or a slogan raised above institutions; it is an accumulated outcome of successive cultural and societal layers. Just as a person cannot be reduced to their name, Egypt cannot be reduced to a mere geographical or linguistic label. Throughout its history, Egypt has undergone multiple identity transformations. What makes it unique, however, is that it has never been fully absorbed into any foreign identity. Take Pharaonic civilization, for example. Despite its grandeur, it revolved around the concept of the 'return of the soul,' where science and technology served a deeply spiritual doctrine. Then came the Greek civilization. The Greeks introduced the notion of 'reasoning' into Egyptian thought, enhancing its geometry, logic, and philosophy. This marked a major shift from revering myth to revering intellect. Under successive occupations, Roman, Arab, Ottoman, and British, Egypt was, more often than not, a province within a larger empire. During these times, identity was rarely a pressing issue, as Egyptians were part of a broader imperial whole, blurring the sense of national identity. The contours of Egyptian identity began to crystallize with the birth of the modern state under Muhammad Ali. For the first time, Egypt shifted from a subordinate province to a relatively autonomous entity. Egyptians were called upon to participate in building a nation, through education, labor, and agriculture, and this gave rise to a sense of national identity. The Egyptian Revolution of 1919 marked a turning point. For the first time, a clear national discourse emerged, built around the idea of 'pure Egyptian-ness.' This deeply rooted the concept of the 'Egyptian nation' in popular consciousness. Later, during the 1950s and 1960s, Arab nationalism flourished. But at its core, it was more of a political project than a cultural identity. It originated in the Levant, particularly among secular Christian thinkers, who sought to construct an alternative identity to counter Ottoman dominance and neutralize religion in politics. In Egypt, Arab nationalism was less a natural expression of identity and more a political tool used by President Gamal Abdel Nasser in his confrontations with the West. It was a strategic umbrella aimed at countering initiatives like the Baghdad Pact, a dream of Egyptian imperial leadership over Arabic-speaking countries. Arab nationalism was not rooted in Egyptian soil. Rather, it was a political mask the state wore for a time to serve geopolitical interests. If it had been a genuine cultural project, why did it stop at language? Why didn't it encompass the distinct social and economic characteristics that define each Arab country? The truth is that Egypt cannot be confined to a single identity. Defining Egypt solely as Arab is a gross oversimplification of its rich and multilayered essence. Egypt is not only an Arab country; it is also African, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, Islamic, Christian, Pharaonic, and modern. It is all of these things at once, yet none alone defines it completely. What best reflects the genius of the Egyptian character is its ability to absorb all incoming cultures and produce its own unique version of each. Just as Egypt introduced a moderate model of Islam, it also crafted a colloquial dialect that blends classical Arabic with local vernacular. Egypt is the only country in the world that overlooks Africa through Nubia, Asia through the Sinai Peninsula, Europe through Alexandria, and the Arab Desert through its oases. It is a rare intersection point of cultures, geography, and history. The great Egyptian thinker Gamal Hamdan once wrote: 'Egypt, in its net composition, is half European, one-third Asian, and one-sixth African.' This statement encapsulates the complex reality of Egypt's hybrid identity. I believe Egypt needs no qualifying descriptors that diminish its stature. It does not require labels that confine it to being 'Arab' or 'Islamic' or any such limited classification. Egypt is simply Egypt. Just as we do not refer to France as the 'European Secular Catholic French Republic,' or to the United States as the 'English Protestant Capitalist Western American Republic,' we need not call Egypt the 'Arab African Middle Eastern Mediterranean Islamic Christian Egyptian Republic.' Egypt is Egypt, no more, no less. It is a central pivot in the heart of the world, transcending narrow definitions and proving that its true identity lies in its ability to encompass diversity without losing itself. Dr Ramy Galal is an Egyptian senator, writer, and academic specializing in public management and cultural policies. He has authored studies on cultural diplomacy, the orange economy, and restructuring Egypt's cultural institutions. Galal holds a PHD degree from Alexandria University, a master's degree from the University of London, and Diploma From the University of Chile. A former adviser and spokesperson for Egypt's Ministry of Planning. He was also the spokesperson for the Egyptian Opposition Coalition.
