November 17, 2014


News Clips For the Day


Ebola patient Dr. Martin Salia dies in Omaha
CBS/AP November 17, 2014, 8:35 AM

A surgeon who contracted Ebola while treating patients in Sierra Leone has passed away in a hospital in Nebraska, where he had been flown for treatment, officials announced Monday.

Dr. Martin Salia, 44, had been described repeatedly by health workers as being much sicker than the Ebola patients previously brought to the U.S. for treatment.

"Dr. Salia was suffering from advanced symptoms of Ebola when he arrived at the hospital Saturday, which included kidney and respiratory failure," the Nebraska Medical Center said in a statement. "He was placed on dialysis, a ventilator and multiple medications to support his organ systems in an effort to help his body fight the disease. He also received a dose of convalescent plasma and ZMapp therapy was initiated on Saturday."

The hospital had been treating Salia in its biocontainment unit that has successfully treated two other Ebola patients this fall.

Ebola has killed more than 5,000 people in West Africa, mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leona. Of the 10 people treated for the virus in the U.S., all but one has recovered.

After Salia arrived in Omaha, his ambulance to the hospital was accompanied by a single Nebraska State Patrol cruiser and a fire department vehicle - a subdued arrival in contrast to the August delivery of Dr. Rick Sacra, whose ambulance was flanked by numerous police cars, motorcycles and fire vehicles.

Salia had been working as a general surgeon at Kissy United Methodist Hospital in the Sierra Leone capital of Freetown. It's not clear whether he was involved in the care of Ebola patients. Kissy is not an Ebola treatment unit, but Salia worked in at least three other facilities, United Methodist News said, citing health ministry sources.

Salia, a Sierra Leone citizen who lives in Maryland, first showed Ebola symptoms on Nov. 6 but tested negative for the virus. He eventually tested positive on Monday.

The U.S. State Department said it helped facilitate the transfer of Salia; the U.S. Embassy in Freetown said he paid for the expensive evacuation. The travel costs and care of other Ebola patients flown to the U.S. have been covered by the groups they worked for in West Africa.

Salia's wife, Isatu Salia, said in a telephone interview that when she spoke to her husband early Friday his voice sounded weak and shaky. But he told her "I love you" in a steady voice, she said.

The two prayed together, and their children, ages 12 and 20, are coping, Isatu Salia said, calling her husband "my everything."

Nebraska Medical Center spokesman Taylor Wilson said members of Salia's family were not at the hospital Saturday, but were expected to arrive "in the near future."

Sierra Leone is one of the three West Africa nations hit hard by an Ebola epidemic this year. Five other doctors in Sierra Leone have contracted Ebola, and all have died.




"Dr. Martin Salia, 44, had been described repeatedly by health workers as being much sicker than the Ebola patients previously brought to the U.S. for treatment. 'Dr. Salia was suffering from advanced symptoms of Ebola when he arrived at the hospital Saturday, which included kidney and respiratory failure," the Nebraska Medical Center said in a statement. "He was placed on dialysis, a ventilator and multiple medications to support his organ systems in an effort to help his body fight the disease. He also received a dose of convalescent plasma and ZMapp therapy was initiated on Saturday.'... Salia, a Sierra Leone citizen who lives in Maryland, first showed Ebola symptoms on Nov. 6 but tested negative for the virus. He eventually tested positive on Monday. The U.S. State Department said it helped facilitate the transfer of Salia; the U.S. Embassy in Freetown said he paid for the expensive evacuation. The travel costs and care of other Ebola patients flown to the U.S. have been covered by the groups they worked for in West Africa.”

Duncan, who also was said to be in an advanced stage of the disease when he arrived, died within a few days after reaching the hospital in Texas. In the case of Salia, he showed Ebola symptoms but didn't test positive for the virus. Again, he died soon after getting to this country. I think Ebola is not always reliable in its progress. A number of people in Africa didn't go for treatment because they thought they had some other condition. This epidemic, in the 5,000 death range now, is not only the worst Ebola outbreak we've had, it's probably the worse epidemic of any kind within my memory except for the very frightening polio epidemic when I was in grade school. Polio doesn't kill as many people as Ebola, but it crippled thousands. I remember they closed the swimming pool in our town and everybody was afraid to go out. See the PBS article below about polio. Maybe we will have a miraculous new vaccine for Ebola within the next year. A test is expected in January.


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/dm52sa.html

A Science Odyssey – People and Discoveries
Salk Produces Polio Vaccine 1952

In 1953 Salk reported his findings in The Journal of the American Medical Association. A nationwide testing of the vaccine was launched in April 1954 with the mass inoculation of school children. The results were amazing -- 60-70 percent prevention -- and Salk was praised to the skies. But suddenly, some 200 cases of the disease were caused by the vaccine and 11 people died. All testing was halted. It seemed that people's hopes were dashed until investigators found that the disease-causing vaccine all came from one poorly made batch at one drug company. Higher production standards were adopted and vaccinations resumed, with over 4 million given by August 1955. The impact was dramatic: In 1955 there were 28,985 cases of polio; in 1956, 14,647; in 1957, 5,894. By 1959, 90 other countries used Salk's vaccine.

Another researcher, Albert Sabin, didn't think Salk's killed-virus vaccine was strong enough. He wanted to mimic the real-life infection as much as possible; that meant using a weakened form of the live virus. He experimented with more than 9,000 monkeys and 100 chimpanzees before isolating a rare form of poliovirus that would reproduce in the intestinal tract but not in the central nervous system. In 1957 he was ready for human trials of an vaccine people could swallow, not get in a shot. It was tested in other countries, including the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. In 1958 other researchers tested a strain in the U.S. and they tried to cast doubts on Sabin's "communist vaccine." In spite of this, his vaccine was licensed in 1962 and quickly became the vaccine of choice. It was cheaper to make and easier to take than Salk's injectable vaccine.

In the U.S., cases of polio are now extremely rare, and ironically, are almost always caused by the Sabin vaccine itself -- being live, the virus can mutate to a stronger form. Elsewhere there are still about 250,000 cases per year, mostly in developing nations where vaccination has not become widespread. The World Health Organization has goals to eradicate polio completely in the first decade of the twenty-first century.





Feds make surprise drug inspection of NFL teams
CBS/AP November 16, 2014, 6:43 PM

Federal drug enforcement agents showed up unannounced Sunday to check at least two visiting NFL teams' medical staffs as part of an investigation into former players' claims that teams mishandled prescription drugs.

There were no arrests, Drug Enforcement Agency spokesman Rusty Payne said Sunday. The San Francisco 49ers' staff was checked at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, after they played the New York Giants. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers' staff was checked at a Baltimore-Washington International airport after playing the Redskins. The Seattle Seahawks, who played at Kansas City, confirmed via the team's Twitter account that they were spot-checked ,as well.

The operation was still ongoing, and other teams may be checked later Sunday, Payne said.

"DEA agents are currently interviewing NFL team doctors in several locations as part of an ongoing investigation into potential violations of the (Controlled Substances Act)," Payne said.

The spot checks were done by investigators from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency. They did not target specific teams, but were done to measure whether visiting NFL clubs were generally in compliance with federal law. Agents requested documentation from visiting teams' medical staffs for any controlled substances in their possession, and for proof that doctors could practice medicine in the home team's state.

The nationwide probe is being directed by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York - where the NFL is headquartered - but involves several U.S. attorney's offices.

The investigation was sparked by a lawsuit filed in May on behalf of former NFL players going back to 1968. The number of plaintiffs has grown to more than 1,200, including dozens who played as recently as 2012. Any violations of federal drug laws from 2009 forward could also become the subject of a criminal investigation because they would not be subject to the five-year statute of limitations.

"[The] DEA has a responsibility under the Controlled Substances Act to ensure that registrants who possess, prescribe and dispense controlled substances are following the law," the agency said in a statement.

Federal prosecutors have conducted interviews in at least three cities over the past three weeks, spending two days in Los Angeles in late October meeting with a half-dozen former players - including at least two who were named plaintiffs in the painkillers' lawsuit, according to multiple people with direct knowledge of the meetings who spoke on the condition of anonymity because prosecutors told them not to comment on the meetings.

The lawsuit alleges the NFL and its teams, physicians and trainers acted without regard for players' health, withholding information about injuries while at the same time handing out prescription painkillers such as Vicodin and Percocet, and anti-inflammatories such as Toradol, to mask pain and minimize lost playing time. The players contend some teams filled out prescriptions in players' names without their knowledge or consent, then dispensed those drugs - according to one plaintiffs' lawyer - "like candy at Halloween" as well as combining them in "cocktails."

Several former players interviewed by The Associated Press described the line of teammates waiting to get injections on game day often spilling out from the training room. Others recounted flights home from games where trainers walked down the aisle and players held up a number of fingers to indicate how many pills they wanted.

The former players have reported a range of debilitating effects, from chronic muscle and bone ailments to permanent nerve and organ damage to addiction. They contend those health problems came from drug use, but many of the conditions haven't been definitively linked to painkillers.

The lawsuit is currently being heard in the northern district of California, where presiding judge William Alsup said he wants to hear the NFL Players Association's position on the case before deciding on the league's motion to dismiss. The NFL maintained in court that it's not responsible for the medical decisions of its 32 teams. League attorneys also argued the issue should be addressed by the players union, which negotiated a collective bargaining agreement that covers player health.

The DEA investigation comes during a turbulent time for the NFL.

The league is still weathering criticism over its treatment of several players accused of domestic violence, and just wrapped up an arbitration hearing involving Ravens' running back Ray Rice, who is contesting the length of his suspension. The league has hired former FBI director Robert Mueller III to investigate its handling of the Rice case.

The NFL is also trying to finalize a $765 million class-action settlement reached in August 2013 over complaints by thousands of former players that the NFL concealed the risk of concussions.




Football has a bad reputation for exploiting kids who haven't done well in high school and then again in college – passing their courses by shady means so they can stay on the football team. The UNC-CH story of a month or so ago was a scandal that I hated to see because that is where I attended college, and I had always respected them highly. Football has too much big money behind it in college alumni donations and also, I have heard in the past, illegal gambling as well. There have been scandals about point shaving. The average John Doe American cares a great deal more about winning in football than he does about academic qualifications of the players. You've heard the scandalous quotation: “Winning isn't the most important thing, it's the only thing.” Football is not unlike the Roman gladiatorial matches. To me it's not a sport at all, but a war. Basketball and tennis are sports.

Then when the young men get into the professional levels the competition just gets worse. One or two coaches were in the news for instructing their players to hit someone on the opposite team very hard to knock him out of the game. Now they are all talking about their numerous concussions, with both mental and physical damage resulting. Coaches, shamefully, are said to have gotten many of them addicted to pain killers to keep them on the playing field when they should have been on medical leave. Players get paid great salaries, but if they don't win, they will be bounced off the team, and their medical expenses after a career of football are often catastrophic, ranging from broken bones to Alzheimer-like brain damage.

Then they get out of the game around 40 years old, and try to get a regular job. Then the issue of their school grades comes up, plus too many of them can barely read, which causes some of them to end up on welfare. You can dig a ditch or work construction without good grades, but you can't work in today's modern offices.

I hate to see young people looking starry eyed at sports heroes as role models, because it's a dead end job. Their situation at retirement will be better, of course, if they have saved a considerable amount of money while they could still play. Some of them go into the entertainment world, which is another field that doesn't require a college degree to make sizable amounts of money.

If the DEA will make a habit of spot checking teams for pushing drugs on their players, and if some agency would regulate the business of multiple concussions and other physical disabilities that are occurring, maybe the incidence of these abuses will begin to diminish considerably. Personally I will not be happy until football players can go into the professional leagues, play as a gentleman rather than a hired goon, and leave the game without ending up in a wheelchair after a few years of it. It will then be a logical path for a talented athlete to pursue.





Texas hunting club may cancel endangered rhino hunt – CBS
AP November 16, 2014, 4:14 PM

DALLAS - A Texas hunting club that auctioned off a permit to shoot an endangered black rhinoceros in Africa said it will cancel the hunt if a federal agency denies the winning bidder's request to bring the dead animal back to the U.S. as a trophy.

Corey Knowlton bid $350,000 at a January auction that the Dallas Safari Club billed as a fundraising effort to save the endangered species. Last spring, he applied for a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that would enable him to import the rhino's body following the hunt in Namibia. But he's still waiting to hear back.

The agency is applying extra scrutiny to Knowlton's request because of the rise in poaching, said spokesman Gavin Shire.

If the permit is denied, the safari club plans to refund Knowlton's money that was pledged to a rhino conservation fund in the southwestern African country.

"Most people that have an animal mounted, it's their memory of their experience," said Ben Carter, the safari club's executive director. "It's not always, 'Look at what I've shot.' When they look at it, they remember everything. That's what he bid the money on, that opportunity."

The wildlife agency began taking public comment on the permit application this month and has already heard from many of the groups that fervently opposed the auction.

The safari club has defended the planned hunt, noting that auction proceeds would go to a trust fund administered by the Namibian government to help boost the black rhino population.

The wildlife service expects to make a decision after the public comment period ends Dec. 8, taking into account the state of the herd in Namibia, where 1,800 of the world's 4,880 black rhinos live. The agency also is examining exactly how the auction funds would be administered.

Last year, the service granted a permit to import a sport-hunted black rhino taken in Namibia in 2009, but increased poaching since then may impact whether any more are approved, said Shire.

Each year, the Namibian government issues five black rhino hunting permits that fund efforts to protect the species. The program includes habitat improvement, hiring game scouts to monitor the rhinos, and removing the animals' horns to reduce their appeal to poachers.

"The aim is to re-invest these financial resources back to conservation, protected area management and rural community development," said Kenneth Uiseb, Namibia's director of wildlife monitoring and research.

But opponents of the auction say the programs are not worthwhile if they entail the killing of any endangered animal.

"Kill it to save it is not only cruel, it's not conservation," said Jeff Flocken, the North American regional director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare. "If black rhinos and other dwindling species are to have a future, people must be encouraged to value animals for their inherent worth alive, not their price tag when they are dead."

The safari club has said the hunt will involve one of five black rhinos selected by a committee and approved by the Namibian government. The five are to be older males that can't reproduce.

Namibia sold another hunting permit for $200,000 directly to Michael Luzich, a Las Vegas investment manager who is also seeking a permit to bring the trophy into the U.S., according to Shire.

But Luzich has received far less scrutiny than Knowlton, who said in January he hired full-time security because he received death threats after his name was leaked on the Internet.

Knowlton lives in Royse City, about 30 miles from Dallas, and leads international hunting trips for a Virginia-based company, The Hunting Consortium. He has killed more than 120 species, including the so-called big five in Africa - a lion, a leopard, an elephant, a Cape buffalo and a rhinoceros, according to the company's website.

He did not return messages left by The Associated Press for this story, but told Dallas television station WFAA in January that he believed the hunt would be managed well.

"I'm a hunter," Knowlton told WFAA. "I want to experience a black rhino. I want to be intimately involved with a black rhino."



“A Texas hunting club that auctioned off a permit to shoot an endangered black rhinoceros in Africa said it will cancel the hunt if a federal agency denies the winning bidder's request to bring the dead animal back to the U.S. as a trophy.... Corey Knowlton bid $350,000 at a January auction that the Dallas Safari Club billed as a fundraising effort to save the endangered species. Last spring, he applied for a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that would enable him to import the rhino's body following the hunt in Namibia. But he's still waiting to hear back. The agency is applying extra scrutiny to Knowlton's request because of the rise in poaching, said spokesman Gavin Shire.... Each year, the Namibian government issues five black rhino hunting permits that fund efforts to protect the species. The program includes habitat improvement, hiring game scouts to monitor the rhinos, and removing the animals' horns to reduce their appeal to poachers.

“But Luzich has received far less scrutiny than Knowlton, who said in January he hired full-time security because he received death threats after his name was leaked on the Internet.... 'I'm a hunter,' Knowlton told WFAA. 'I want to experience a black rhino. I want to be intimately involved with a black rhino.'” I wonder if this is how men who rape and murder people feel about it. Not “I want to make love” with the woman, but “I want to be intimately involved” with her pain, her terror, her sorrow and shame, and her final death. Some people lack a basic part of what makes us human and a part of nature. I understand killing to eat, especially if you don't have enough money for groceries, or to provide skins for your clothing and tents, but I have no sympathy with that coldly curious turn of mind that some people have. I think people like that should go to a psychiatrist and take group therapy to increase their ability to have empathy and love for other life forms. In one way they are truly nut cases, but in another way they are coldly logical. I think that is why we still need the death penalty, or at least life in a high security prison with no parole.




AROUND THE WORLD – THREE ARTICLES


North Korean official travels to Russia – CBS
AP November 16, 2014, 11:01 PM

PYONGYANG, North Korea - A special envoy of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has left Pyongyang for Russia to discuss ways to improve trade and political ties.

Choe Ryong Hae, a senior official in the ruling Workers' Party and one of Kim's close associates, left Pyongyang on Monday. He is scheduled to stay in Russia until Nov. 24.

Russia's foreign ministry has said Moscow hopes to discuss trade and economic ties, the situation on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia, and other international issues. Choe will visit Moscow as well as Khabarovsk and Vladivostok in Russia's Far East.

Choe visited Beijing last year as a special envoy and was a member of a high-profile North Korean delegation that visited South Korea in early October during the Asian Games.




The world is changing. There is not only a rise in nationalism among formerly subdued groups, a rise in racism, religious fundamentalism and antisemitism, but also a tendency among some of the dominant nations to flex their muscles and, yes, get together to explore their similarities. I wonder how ISIS will fit into this pattern. I have some fear that we may be looking at another world war in the next decade or so. I certainly hope not.




In A Dutch Town, A Glowing Bike Path Inspired By Van Gogh – NPR
NPR Staff
November 17, 2014

In the Dutch town of Eindhoven, artist Daan Roosegaarde has paid homage to its most famous resident, Vincent Van Gogh, by creating a glowing bike path that relies on solar-powered LED lights and interprets his classic painting Starry Night.

Roosegaarde says he wants his work, illuminated by thousands of twinkling blue and green lights, to speak to everyone.

"You have people who are interested in technology to make landscapes which are energy neutral," he tells NPR. "You have people interested in cultural history and experiencing it in a contemporary way. You have boys and girls who have a first date and want to take their date to a special place."

And, he adds, "You have an artist like me who wants to create something just incredibly poetic; and all that comes together. A good project generates new stories."

The path, which covers about a half-mile, opened last Wednesday as part of celebrations marking the 125th anniversary of the death of Van Gogh, who lived from 1853 to 1890. He lived in Eindhoven for a few years and used the town as a backdrop for his paintings.

As we reported last week, another Dutch town, Krommenie, has installed solar panels on a bike commuter path outside Amsterdam. The power generated by the panels will be funneled into the national energy grid.

The bike path opened on Nov. 12.
Courtesy of Studio Roosegaarde




On the other hand, in the Netherlands, someone has done something inspirational and highly creative. It's beyond painting pictures, instead creating a rising feeling in the viewer that is akin to worship or magic. Go to the website http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/11/17/364136732/in-a-dutch-town-a-glowing-bike-path-inspired-by-van-gogh in order to experience this artwork for yourself.




In Oman, The Man Who Has Defined The Country Is Now Rarely Seen – NPR
Peter Kenyon
November 16, 2014

Photograph – Sultan Qaboos bin Said, 73, salutes during a military parade in the capital Muscat on Oman's national day in November 2013. Qaboos, who has ruled for 44 years, has maintained friendly relations with everyone from the U.S. to Iran. However, he has been abroad for months receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness.

It's a festive time in Oman, the sleepy sultanate on the edge of the Persian Gulf. The national day is Nov. 18, marking Oman's liberation from Portugese colonization, and the capital Muscat is bedecked with banners, scarves and flags. The spicy-sweet smell of frankincense is everywhere, as are images of Oman's absolute monarch for the past 44 years, Sultan Qaboos bin Said.

Sultan Qaboos, as he's universally known here, is still dominating the national conversation several days after his first public appearance in months. He addressed the nation via television from Germany where he's undergoing treatment for an undisclosed medical condition.

Appearing frail, the slender, bearded ruler said he would have to miss the national celebration – which falls on his 74th birthday – to continue his treatment.

Sultan Ahmed al-Ruhmi, a 32-year-old Omani from a village some 90 miles outside of the capital, says the sultan's message was reassuring, but his long illness has forced people to consider the prospects for an Oman without Qaboos.

Many, like Ruhmi, have never known any other ruler, and with the Middle East in turmoil people want Qaboos back in Muscat, steering a peaceful, neutral course through choppy waters.

"Omanis, they are very much aware of what is happening in the region, an ideological war," Ruhmi says. "Omanis are very eager to welcome the Sultan again and get the benefits of his wisdom."

Embracing The Wider World

Qaboos came to power in 1970, overthrowing his father in a palace coup. Where his father was inward-looking and reclusive, the young sultan opened up the economy and improved living standards.

Business Today magazine says Qaboos has increased Oman's gross domestic product from $256 million in 1970 to around $80 billion last year.

Personally, he remains something of an enigma, even to Omanis. A brief marriage left no children, and while he hasn't always been shy about spending his nation's relatively modest oil and gas wealth – his yacht is ranked as one of the world's biggest — many Omanis see him as a devoted, paternal figure.

He holds virtually all the important titles in the Omani government – foreign minister, defense minister, finance minister, governor of the central bank.
While expanding the economy, he has also managed to keep the peace, ending a rebellion in the 1970s and resolving a brief period of unrest during the Arab Spring movements in 2011.

In keeping with Oman's original take on politics and governing, Sultan Qaboos has devised a distinctive succession process: in the event of his demise, a council made up of his family members will have three days to decide on the next sultan.

If the council can't agree, Qaboos has reportedly left two copies of a letter naming his preferred successor. For years, what little speculation there is has focused on three of Qaboos's cousins: Assad, Shihab and Haitham bin Tarek bin Taimur al Said.

Bridging The Gulf's Sectarian Divide

No other Persian Gulf state manages to cross the Sunni-Shiite sectarian frontiers the way Oman does, and there are a number of reasons for that.

Oman has a long and rich history of maritime trade, and like many historic ports of call, has attracted a diverse population. In addition, most Omanis are neither Sunnis nor Shiites, but Ibadis – an ancient branch of Islam that technically predates either of the two better-known sects.

Qaboos has managed to keep good relations with both his powerful Sunni neighbor Saudi Arabia and Shiite powerhouse Iran, just up the Strait of Hormuz.

Unlike the Saudis, Oman does not fund Sunni opposition fighters in Syria or other hotspots. And unlike Iran's leaders, Qaboos does not back proxy Shiite militias such as Hezbollah in Lebanon. As it has down the centuries, Oman has sought smooth relations and commercial trade both in the Gulf and beyond.

"Qaboos' great strength has been to play the outlier," says Simon Henderson of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. "He's been friendly to the United States and indeed to Britain, and he's also been friendly to Iran. And he's played this to his advantage in terms of diplomatic contacts."

The most recent example was on display last week as Oman hosted negotiations between Iran and several world powers over Iran's nuclear program. Oman hosted secret talks between U.S. and Iranian officials in 2012, which launched the current process.

Ken Pollack, a former CIA Persian Gulf analyst and National Security Council staffer now at the Brookings Institution, says those back-channel talks laid the foundation for the landmark interim nuclear accord that was announced in Geneva in November 2013.

"Obviously it's too soon to say whether those negotiations are going to turn out to be a success," says Pollack. "But that was nevertheless a very important starting point for making the progress even that we've made so far."

Oman also has a financial stake in Iran getting out from under international sanctions and rejoining the global economy – it shares a gas field with the Islamic Republic. But Pollack doesn't think economics is Oman's primary motivation.

"This has been going on for decades, where the Omanis have been trying to patch up the relationship between the Iranians and the West," he says, "mostly because of their political and security fears that if there were a war of some kind that they would literally be caught in the middle of the shooting."

Bloodshed is on the rise in Yeman, another of Oman's neighbors, and with daily reports of chaos emanating from Iraq and Syria, the potential consequences of the collapse of the Iran nuclear talks are casting a troubling shadow on this peaceful corner of the Gulf.



Ibadi
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Ibāḍī movement, Ibadism or Ibāḍiyya (Arabic: الاباضية‎ al-Ibāḍiyyah) is a denomination of Islam dominant in Oman andZanzibar;[1] Ibāḍī are also found in Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and East Africa. The Ibāḍī movement is said to have been founded 20 years after the death of the Muslim prophet Muhammad, predating both the Sunniand Shia denominations. Historians and a majority of Muslims believe that the denomination is a reformed sect of the Khawārij or Khārijite movement;[2] Ibāḍīs, however, deny anything more than a passing relation to the Khawārij and point out that they merely developed out of the same precursor group.[2]

Though the Ibadis' strict adherence to the sharia in public and private matters has been described as puritanical, the character of their denomination is considered to be moderation and tolerance of other views and religions.[3]

The school derives its name from ʿAbdu l-Lāh ibn Ibāḍ of the Banu Tamim.[4] Ibn Ibad was responsible for breaking off from the wider Kharijite movement roughly around the time that Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, the fifth Umayyad ruler, took power.[5] However, the true founder was Jābir ibn Zayd of Nizwa, Oman.[6][7] Initially, Ibadi theology developed in Basra,Iraq.[8] The Ibadis opposed the rule of the third caliph in Islam, Uthman ibn Affan, but unlike the more extreme Kharijites the Ibadis rejected the murder of Uthman as well as the Kharijite belief that all Muslims holding differing viewpoints were infidels.[9] The Ibadis were among the more moderate groups opposed to the fourth caliph, Ali, and wanted to return Islam to its form prior to the conflict between Ali and Muawiyah I.[10][11]

It was during the 8th century that the Ibadis established an imamate in the inner region of Oman. The position was an elected one, as opposed to Sunni and Shi'a dynasties where rule was inherited.[3][12] These imams exerted political, spiritual and military functions.[13]

By the year 900, Ibadism had spread to Sind, Khorosan, Hadhramaut, Dhofar, Oman proper, Muscat, the Nafusa Mountains and Qeshm; by 1200, the sect was present in Al-Andalus, Sicily, M'zab and the western part of the Sahelregion as well.[7] The last Ibadis of Shibam were expelled by the Sulayhid dynasty in the 12th century. In the 14th century, historian Ibn Khaldun made reference to vestiges of Ibadi influence in Hadhramaut though the sect no longer exists in the region today.[14]

Despite having predated all Sunni and Shi'ite schools by several decades, the Ibadis and their beliefs remain largely a mystery to outsiders - both non-Muslims and even other Muslims.[2] Ibadis have claimed, with justification, that while they read the works of both Sunnis and Shi'ites, even the learned scholars of those two sects never read Ibadi works and often repeat myths and false information when addressing the topic of Ibadism without performing proper research.[15] The isolated nature of Oman granted the Ibadi denomination, secretive by nature, the perfect environment to develop in isolation from the Islamic mainstream.[4] Ibadhis were even cut off from the Kharijite sect due to Ibn Ibaḍ's criticism of their excess and rejection of their more extreme beliefs.[4] The spread of Ibadism in Oman essentially represents the triumph of theology over tribal feudalism and conflict.[8]

Ibadis have been referred to[by whom?] as tolerant puritans or as political quietists due to their preference to solve differences through dignity and reason rather than with confrontation,[3][10] as well as their tolerance for practicing Christians and Jews sharing their communities.[10] Due to Ibadism's movement from Hijaz to Iraq and then further out, Ibadi historian al-Salimi once wrote that Ibadism is a bird whose egg was laid in Medina, then hatched in Basra and flew to Oman.[7]

Ibadis state, with justice, that their school predates that of mainstream Islamic schools, and Ibadism is thus considered to be an early and highly orthodox interpretation of Islam.[3] Ibāḍī communities are generally regarded as conservative. For example, Ibādīya rejects the practice of qunūt (supplications) while standing in prayer.[citation needed]

Their views assimilate those of the Khārijites, in that the attitude of a true believer to others is expressed in three religious obligations:[citation needed]

walāyah: friendship and unity with the practicing true believers.
barā'ah: dissociation (but not hostility) towards unbelievers, sinners, and those destined for Hell.
wuqūf: reservation towards those whose status is unclear.

Demographics[edit]

Ibāḍī Muslims make up a majority (roughly 75%) of the population in Oman.[27] The early medieval Rustamid dynasty in Algeria was Ibāḍī,[28] and refugees from its capital Tiaret founded the North African Ibāḍīs communities which exist today inM'zab.[29] The Mozabites, a Berber ethnic group in M'zab, are Ibadis.[30][31][32]Ibadis are also found in East Africa (particularly Zanzibar), the Nafūsah Mountainsof Libya, and Djerba Island in Tunisia.




“Sultan Qaboos bin Said, 73, salutes during a military parade in the capital Muscat on Oman's national day in November 2013. Qaboos, who has ruled for 44 years, has maintained friendly relations with everyone from the U.S. to Iran.... The national day is Nov. 18, marking Oman's liberation from Portugese colonization, and the capital Muscat is bedecked with banners, scarves and flags. The spicy-sweet smell of frankincense is everywhere, as are images of Oman's absolute monarch for the past 44 years, Sultan Qaboos bin Said.... Appearing frail, the slender, bearded ruler said he would have to miss the national celebration – which falls on his 74th birthday – to continue his treatment. Sultan Ahmed al-Ruhmi, a 32-year-old Omani from a village some 90 miles outside of the capital, says the sultan's message was reassuring, but his long illness has forced people to consider the prospects for an Oman without Qaboos.... … with the Middle East in turmoil people want Qaboos back in Muscat, steering a peaceful, neutral course through choppy waters. 'Omanis, they are very much aware of what is happening in the region, an ideological war,' Ruhmi says. 'Omanis are very eager to welcome the Sultan again and get the benefits of his wisdom.'... Oman has a long and rich history of maritime trade, and like many historic ports of call, has attracted a diverse population. In addition, most Omanis are neither Sunnis nor Shiites, but Ibadis – an ancient branch of Islam that technically predates either of the two better-known sects.... 'This has been going on for decades, where the Omanis have been trying to patch up the relationship between the Iranians and the West,' he says, 'mostly because of their political and security fears that if there were a war of some kind that they would literally be caught in the middle of the shooting.' Bloodshed is on the rise in Yeman, another of Oman's neighbors, and with daily reports of chaos emanating from Iraq and Syria, the potential consequences of the collapse of the Iran nuclear talks are casting a troubling shadow on this peaceful corner of the Gulf.”

“Qaboos has managed to keep good relations with both his powerful Sunni neighbor Saudi Arabia and Shiite powerhouse Iran, just up the Strait of Hormuz. Unlike the Saudis, Oman does not fund Sunni opposition fighters in Syria or other hotspots. And unlike Iran's leaders, Qaboos does not back proxy Shiite militias such as Hezbollah in Lebanon. As it has down the centuries, Oman has sought smooth relations and commercial trade both in the Gulf and beyond. 'Qaboos' great strength has been to play the outlier,' says Simon Henderson of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. 'He's been friendly to the United States and indeed to Britain, and he's also been friendly to Iran. And he's played this to his advantage in terms of diplomatic contacts.'”

It appears to me that the world can hardly afford to lose Qaboos, as he is like the cement between bricks in a structure. He has been wise and virtuous, and I hope Oman will find another similar leader if he does die, who will follow the same paths philosophically. The Ibadis, as described in the above Wikipedia article, are conservative about their own beliefs, but don't attack others for not believing in the same ways. In addition to that, they elect their ruler rather than following the Shia and Sunni traditions of inherited government. They get along with both Shia and Sunni, and with Jews and Christians. I hope Qaboos will get well and come back to his position at the head of Oman. We need him.





Top Spenders On Capitol Hill Pay Billions, Receive Trillions – NPR
Peter Overby
November 17, 2014

How much power should corporations wield in Washington? It's an enduring question — and now the Sunlight Foundation has devised a new way to gauge that power

The foundation took the 200 corporations most active in Washington, analyzed the years 2007-2012 and applied several metrics: what the companies got in federal contracts and other federal support, what they spent on lobbying, how much their executives and political action committees gave in campaign contributions.

Bill Allison, the Sunlight Foundation's editorial director, says that there aren't permanent majorities governing in Congress and the executive branch — "but there really are permanent interests in Washington," he says.

With some companies, a policy of giving big to political campaigns might seem pretty obvious; at other companies, it's less obvious. "But federal spending is a big part of their business model," Allison says.

He says the top 200 corporations accounted for nearly $6 billion in lobbying and campaign contributions. Those same corporations benefited from more than $4 trillion in federal contracts and assistance.

Take defense contracts. This year alone, the Pentagon is budgeted to spend $163 billion on procurement and research and development. Military contractors lead the list of contract recipients, and they hover in the upper ranks of companies with the biggest campaign contributions.

Finance is the other dominant corporate sector. Some of the country's biggest financial institutions — Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and others — are the top recipients of federal aid, largely because it cost so much to rescue the financial sector after the 2008 market crash.

Last week Congress came back for its lame duck session, and the fundraising business resumed — after a short hiatus.

"We're just through an election season and everybody is probably sick to death of thinking about elections," Allison says. Still, he says, some corporate PACs are gearing up for prime time:

"A lot of times with these interests, they are less interested in an election than they are in governance, and what's happening on Capitol Hill."

And that's another metric in the analysis: How much campaign money went to incumbents?

Some corporate strategists are risk-averse. Honeywell International, for example, gave 88 percent of their contributions to incumbents.

A statement from Honeywell says that its PAC " supports those who support the policies that are most important to our business."

All of this might imply that donors are the driving force on Capitol Hill, but David Primo, a professor of political science and business administration at the University of Rochester, doubts that.

"The conventional wisdom out there is that businesses are going to Washington, writing checks and expecting big returns," he says. "But the other side of the story is that members of Congress may implicitly threaten businesses, that if they don't change their policy or if they're not heavily involved in the political process, that bad things might happen to them."

That doesn't make the process any more sparkling clean — but it does point the accusing finger in a different direction.

"By and large the political science research hasn't found that money in politics drives policy outcomes," Primo adds. "The research is more mixed on exactly what it is that money's doing."

It's a situation about as murky as Washington itself.



http://sunlightfoundation.com/

Sunlight Foundation is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization. We depend on the generosity of our supporters to continue our work. With your help, Sunlight can continue to provide you with the most comprehensive, up-to-the-minute tools and resources for tracking political influence.

Technology can create more open, accountable governments. Stay up to date on how we are changing the culture in Washington. Read about the latest in political influence, campaign finance and lobbying news from the Sunlight Reporting Group.

Our projects bring important, government data to you. Start your search with Influence Explorer, Scout or Capitol Words. Keep tabs on Congress and state officials on your smartphone. Check out innovative tech fromSunlight Labs and our APIs.

Across the U.S. and around the globe, people are joining the open government movement. Get involved with local open government or attend TransparencyCamp. See who is making an impact in your community. Sign up to receive the latest news and events from Sunlight.

OUR MISSION

The Sunlight Foundation is a nonpartisan nonprofit that advocates for open government globally and uses technology to make government more accountable to all. We do so by creating tools, open data, policy recommendations,journalism and grant opportunities to dramatically expand access to vital government information to create accountability of our public officials. Our vision is to use technology to enable more complete, equitable and effective democratic participation. Our overarching goal is to achieve changes in the law to require real-time, online transparency for all government information, with a special focus on the political money flow and who tries to influence government and how government responds. And, while our scope began with only a focus on the U.S. Congress, we now are defining open government on the local, state, federal and international level.

We believe that information is power, or, to put it more finely, disproportionate access to information is power. Indeed, we are committed to improving access to government information by making it available online, indeed redefining "public" information as meaning "online."

We approach our work in a number of ways. We work with thousands of software developers, localtransparency activists, bloggers, on and off-line active citizens and journalists, involving them in distributed research projects, hackathons, targeted lobbying and training. Sunlight's Policy team pushes for improved transparency policy through NGO efforts like OpeningParliament.org, and through traditional lobbying of government. Our reporters cover political influence stories both through reporting and through close collaboration with technical staff, leveraging computer-assisted reporting and data visualization techniques. And in Sunlight Labs, our team of technologists and designers create apps and websites to bring information directly to citizens, as well as building and maintaining APIs that power the applications of others.

These efforts have produced real results. To date, we have served more than 2 billion API calls (and counting), indicating how much the data we liberate is needed. Our reporting is frequently cited by the world's preeminent journalists. Our research has led to congressional hearings, and our tools have stripped problematic measures from bills. But we know that as government grows ever-more complex, we will all need better tools to navigate it to ensure democracy thrives.

Get involved in helping us open up government, one data set at a time.

Contact Us
1818 N Street NW Suite 300Washington, DC 20036
202-742-1520
Call with Skype




“The foundation took the 200 corporations most active in Washington, analyzed the years 2007-2012 and applied several metrics: what the companies got in federal contracts and other federal support, what they spent on lobbying, how much their executives and political action committees gave in campaign contributions.... With some companies, a policy of giving big to political campaigns might seem pretty obvious; at other companies, it's less obvious. 'But federal spending is a big part of their business model,' Allison says. He says the top 200 corporations accounted for nearly $6 billion in lobbying and campaign contributions. Those same corporations benefited from more than $4 trillion in federal contracts and assistance.”

Military contractors and financial institutions dominate in the amount of government payments received, and they also give the most in contributions. The largest banks received the greatest amount in federal aid, due to the 2008 crash and their need to recuperate from their loses. Their contributions are considerably less than their government income, however. PACs often follow the ongoing activity on Capitol Hill in their giving, rather than just electing their favorite candidates. That money often goes to incumbents, as corporations are often “risk averse.” The power is not always on the Corporate side, however. “Members of Congress may implicitly threaten businesses; that if they dont' change their poic8 or if they're not heavily involved in the political process, that bad things might happen to them.”